Soap Opera Ch. 03

"Damn." said Benny. "Callie said he was a serious badass. He really doesn't play around, does he?"

Todd grinned. "No, he doesn't. And he wasn't kidding about that slug needing insurance. Brafford Bacon has just fucked himself up..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"How did you know it was Benny?" Cindy asked as we talked quietly outside the TCPD tent.

"Well," I said, "it stood to reason that if someone wanted Benny to blackmail Todd after finding out a little bit too much about Todd, then that same person might have found out about Cal and Drusilla Romano and asked Benny to lean on them. But the slugs did not count on Benny being a better person than one might give him credit for. He was good about checking out Todd for himself, and so we'll give him credit for warning the Romano's instead of blackmailing them."

"I get that," said Cindy, "though I might not've given him the benefit of the doubt about it. So Dru was a willing participant in your little sting operation?"

"Oh yes." I said. "And if I don't miss my guess..."

"...and you rarely do..." Cindy replied, as if reading the script.

"... I think she very much enjoyed her sexual encounter with Benny." I finished, then said "And, of course, I know that Benny is Jack Burke's brother as well as Todd. Jack was the Dark Side, while Todd turned out to be of the Light Side. I don't know for sure which way Benny is, but now I have an insurance policy... and he knows it."

"Just don't let Teresa hear you talk about Jack Burke like that." Cindy said. I did not reply, but contemplated on some things...

Part 16 - Hatred

6:00pm, Wednesday, May 9th. Cindy came running into my office. Literally running.

"You won't believe who just showed up to be Thomas Cromwell's attorney." she half-said, half gasped.

"Nathan Masterson?" I guessed.

"How did you...?" Cindy gasped, totally shocked. Then she peered hard at me and said "You must've seen him come in."

"No, I'm on the other side of the building." I said. "I've been expecting a high-power, Government-related lawyer to come rescue Thomas, and Gresham & Mason, P.C. are their attorneys of choice. And Masterson in the young legal beagle they send out on the first scouting missions."

"Why did you expect Gresham & Mason?" asked Cindy.

I began to sing (and poorly): "Thy choicest gifts in store, on her be pleased to pour; long may she reign. May she defend our laws, and ever give us cause, to sing with heart and voice, Go-dd save the Queen."

"I'm soooo glad you're an American." Cindy said with a gleam in her eye. "That was totally unworthy of Her Majesty. Stick to the day job."

"No worries there." I replied.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Well, well, if it isn't Commander Troy." said Nathan Masterson as Cindy and I came in. "Not enough to be pissing off Washington, eh? Trying to create an international crisis now... oh yeah, that's right. Paris. You got someone killed there, too."

"Watch your mouth, punk." I warned. "Or I'll shove your face into that star carved into the wall at Langley for that death." Masterson had been trying to agitate me, but he'd crossed the line with that remark. And now he was realizing it. Perhaps Cindy's glare at him was reinforcing that realization, as well.

"On behalf of the British Consulate in the City, and the British Embassy in Washington," Masterson said, "I want Mr. Cowpens released into my custody, so that he can be deported back to England forthwith."

"No." I said. "He murdered two people, and I'm going to prove it. He's going to prison for the rest of his life... if he's not sentenced to death."

"You don't have a shred of proof." said Masterson. "And anything said in the earlier interrogation,was because of your goading my client."

"If you're so confident of that," I said, "then you should have no problem with us taking it to trial."

"And you browbeat that poor girl, coerced her into a confession, dictated the wording of it to her. That won't hold up, either." said Masterson.

"It wasn't coerced." I said. "Kayla was downright eager to throw Thomas under the bus, to save her own skin." I was staring at the lawyer, but I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Thomas's eyes had widened in shock. I didn't know if it was at the realization we had Kayla's confession... or that she'd been so willing to save her own skin by betraying Thomas.

"It's also not your choice whether or not my client is transferred to British custody." said Masterson. "You found that out the hard way. Remember May Cialis?"

Cindy was literally coming out of her chair, and I had to grab her and stop her. Masterson was grinning. "Come on, Dyke. Come at me." he goaded.

"Don't let him get to you, my friend." I said quietly. "Go out and get the ADA. And clear the anteroom." Cindy's face was beet red under that platinum blonde hair, but she left through the door to the anteroom.

"Culver," I said, "take Mr. Cromwell back to his holding cell."

"I'm not done talking to him---" started Masterson, but I interrupted him.

"Yes you are, for now." I said. "Culver, go." Culver took a shaken Thomas out of the room. At the same time, the cameras and audio for the room mysteriously went out, as if the Slender Man had come into the room.

"What's your fucking problem, Troy--- uhk!" Masterson gasped. With lightning speed that my back did not appreciate me using, I had come around the table and literally pulled the much shorter, much smaller Masterson out of his chair, and slammed him into the wall behind the table. He tried to kick at me, but I was to one side. In Darth-Vader-esque fashion, he began choking... but it was not The Force choking him, it was my hand that was grabbing his neck and squeezing, nearly crushing his windpipe.

"You fucking little shit." I snarled, my own face red with fury. "You think you can come into my Police Headquarters and goad me like that, and get away with it? You think you can dishonor a CIA Agent who gave her life for another Agent and our country, and get away with it?"

Masterson was grabbing at my hand, which was all but pushing through his neck. His eyelids were fluttering. "But worst of all... you think you can come in here and call my cousin, my blood kin, names like that, and you think I won't kill you for it? You think I won't rip your neck right out of the rest of your body, right now?" I squeezed his neck even harder. "You thought wrong, shit eater. If you ever... EVER!... say something about her and I hear it, or hear about it... you're dead. There will be no place you can hide from me."

I let go of his neck, and the idiot thought he could take a swing at me. I punched him in the midsection, a staggering blow that made him double over and then drop to his knees. Leaving him there, I walked out of the room. The anteroom was empty. There were mysteriously no witnesses to what had transpired.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"What I want to know," I said to Cindy and Tanya as we sat in my office, "is who the hell would want to help Thomas Cromwell go back to England. The guy murdered two people, including the show's director. That's going to hurt them, no matter what they've said about the show going on."

"Masterson is an attorney for that law firm that always represented White Supremacist groups." said Cindy. "Maybe Cromwell is involved in something like that."

"And maybe that's why Seiko hated him." said Tanya. "She's Asian; he might have made racist remarks to or about her."

"Doesn't fit." I said. "He was in England for the past few years, when all the Superior Bloodlines stuff was going on. And now they're crushed. No, there's something else to it."

"I might can help with that, sir." said Myron Milton, who had knocked and then come on in.

"Come on in, Myron." I said. "Whaddya got?"

"As you asked, I helped Mary dig deep into the parent company of the 'Days of Promise' franchise, under the auspices of the warrants we obtained to get electronic data from them." said Myron as he seated himself.

"Do the warrants extend to the parent company?" asked Cindy.

"I told Myron to do it, so it's on me." I said. "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission. And as I said before, I anticipated the attempt to get Cromwell out of our hands and sent back to England. So I think it's worth the risk. Okay, Myron, what did you find?"

"Most of the so-called 'Suits' are longtime C-Suite executives of the national network out there." said Myron. "They're the Media's contribution to the 'Establishment Elite', just as the GoldmanSachs executives are Banks' contributions, and BigAgraFoods execs are industry's contributions."

"A good way of putting it." I said.

"A couple of them got my attention." said Myron. "One is named Anthony Rizzolo, a.k.a. Antonio 'Tony' Rizzolo. He's connected to a Mob family that has operations in New York and Southport. The other is a name that might be familiar to you: Austin R. Murphy."

"Henry Wargrave's right hand man?" I gasped. "Gosh, we haven't heard from him in years."

"No sir, we haven't." Myron said. "He's a fairly recent addition to the parent company's Board. But what I noticed was this: last year, last November, when Commander Ross was in California, he sent an email to his lawyer, instructing his lawyer to draw up papers offering to buy Callie Carrington's company."

"I do not need to be the Iron Crowbar to see what is going on with that." said Cindy. "What other associations with Dana Fox does Murphy have?"

"Ma'am?" asked Myron.

"She's suggesting," I said, "and correctly, that disgraced and now former FBI Agent Dana Fox was in LA, harassing Callie and Cindy, and making threats against Callie's company, and now we find out about Murphy. Dots are starting to connect; puzzle pieces are starting to fall into place."

I continued: "Austin Murphy worked with Henry Wargrave on arms smuggling in the Middle East. Now we have a slight connection to a dirty FBI Agent, who was helping Government groups that had certain issues. Now these same guys had 'Days of Promise' come here, of all places, to do some filming... and at the same time a lawyer of disreputable intentions tries to get Benny Black to blackmail Todd Burke and Cal and Drusilla Romano."

"And then a Gresham & Mason attorney comes in to save Thomas Cromwell, and he makes every effort to enrage both myself and Commander Ross." I said. "As Her Majesty Queen Victoria once said: 'We are not amused.'. But I digress... Commander Ross, what are the ties that bind all of this?"

"I'd guess White Supremacy." said Cindy. "Or is this gonna be another CIA rogue cell?"

"Well, this cell has the now-Director of the CIA in it." I replied. "And no, not White Supremacy. Anti-Semitism. Jew Hatred is the key, here."

Cindy nodded in understanding. "That explains Masterson's cheap shot about 'Paris' and Kathy's death." she said.

"Half of Hollywood is controlled by interests that are either Jewish or Jew-friendly." said Myron. "Including the 'Days of Promise' parent company."

"True." I said. "This isn't them, not all of them. Just Murphy and maybe Rizzolo."

"How does this tie in to Ken Moore and Seiko?" asked Myron. "Neither of them are Jewish."

"No," I said, "but Ken Moore's politics were, shall we say, 'correct' for the industry he's in. He was a staunch supporter of Democrats and Leftist causes. According to Donna Hull, he'd wanted to take 'Days of Promise' into anti-gun-rights and pro-immigration scripts, but Kevin had prevented that, saying that it would hurt viewership. Kevin sometimes pushed things like AIDS-awareness, but for the very most part he kept things apolitical."

"Also," I continued, "Thomas said he was being blackmailed... maybe it was over white supremacist or Anti-Semitic views; maybe Ken found that out, and used it to blackmail Thomas into standing by helplessly while Ken helped himself to Kayla and had sex with her every chance he got."

"That reminds me." Cindy said with a grin. "No, you didn't browbeat Kayla nor coerce her in any way... but she wasn't eager to cooperate. Yet you told Thomas and Masterson that she did."

"They lie, I lie." I said. "I'm under no obligation to be perfectly correct in my interpretation of her admissions of guilt."

"Myron," Cindy said, her eyes twinkling, "our Eagle Scout has fallen. The very soul of the Iron Crowbar has been corrupted."

"Yes ma'am." said Myron. "That's what happens to people who soundly beat the Slender Man about the head and shoulders." I couldn't help but laugh loudly at that one...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

7:30pm, Wednesday, May 9th. After having the Duty Desk call Masterson, we had Thomas Cromwell brought back to I-1. The anteroom was empty; everyone was in the Monitor Room watching and listening.

Once Masterson was there, and he was not moving around very well, Cindy and I went in. Masterson's glares of hatred were matched with equal exactitude.

As I sat down, I said "I do need to apologize for one thing, Mr. Cromwell. We sang the wrong National Anthem. Allow me to make the correction."

I began singing: "Kol 'od balevav penimah, Nefesh Yehudi homiyah, Ulfa'ate mizrach kadimah,'Ayin leTziyon tzofiyah; ---"

"What the hell is that shit?" yelled Thomas, sheer fury on his face.

"That's harassing my client!" yelled Masterson loudly. "Subjecting him to that filth is abusing a prisoner in your custody!"

"Bull shit." I said. "Looks like you two are a couple of Jew Haters. Anti-Semites. Maybe I should have you disbarred for it, Masterson."

"Just try it, you fucking Bar Code!" yelled Masterson.

"They say we have First Amendment rights in this country." said Thomas, seemingly calmly. "Well this is my protected free speech comment." His face contorted as he yelled loudly "YOU AND YOUR FELLOW KIKES CAN BURN IN HELL!"

"Well, Commander," I said calmly to Cindy, "I think we are clear on their feelings toward Jews."

"Seig Heil." Cindy said, most very sarcastically.

"Shove it up your ass, Troy!" yelled Masterson. He turned to Thomas. "Take the Fifth. We'll let Washington handle these fucking kikes."

"I invoke my Fifth Amendment rights, and will answer no more of your questions." said Thomas.

Part 17 - Discussion of the Case

"Wow." said the Chief as we sat on the outside deck of the Cop Bar, drinking a pitcher of beer and eating plates of beef nachos. The sun was disappearing over the western horizon, but it was still pleasant outside. "I almost wonder, Don, if you're trying to get Cromwell off the hook, and sent back to England."

"No sir." I said. "I do hope we get to try him, though knowing Krasney, he'll bend over backwards to help them get Cromwell out of our grasp."

"Speaking of Krasney," said the Chief, "I got a phone call from him, and another one from the Sheriff. After you called Franklin Washington to come down and make that deal with Kayla, Krasney raised holy hell with me. He said Washington is assigned strictly to Vice cases, and this was not one. Sheriff Allgood has instructed me to not call in Franklin again unless it's Vice case."

"It's worse than that, sir." said Tanya as she drove up to us. As I poured her a beer, she said "Theo said that Krasney threatened Franklin, and told him that if he works with us again on anything but Vice cases, Krasney will fire Franklin. Krasney put it in writing as a formal reprimand, too."

"Yezzz." said the Chief. "We can contact Ted Mason, and only Ted Mason, until Paulina gets back. Of course, if she wins the race, we'll have a much better sit-u-aayyyy-shunnnnn."

"I've got a question." Cindy said. "Don, I think I understand why Cromwell murdered Ken Moore: jealousy and job insecurity. I don't understand Seiko so much."

"My first thought," I said, "was that she had witnessed something, and I really thought that was the case when she retrieved Thomas's bloody shirt, which he'd hidden in the empty trailer. But then I realized that Seiko had once been a casting agent. She knew Thomas Cromwell from his past time in America."

"That in itself isn't a big deal, that she knew Thomas's story about being a recently-arrived Britisher wasn't true." I continued. "But I'm surmising that she also knew Thomas was a Jew Hater, and possibly 'politically incorrect' in other ways. Maybe he stated outright Conservative or TEA Party views in front of her, which also would've enraged her. In any case, she hated him with a passion, as did Ken. I think Thomas knew that Seiko as Director, replacing Ken, was even worse for Thomas than Ken was."

"That could be." said Tanya. "But I like the idea that he caught her finding his blooded shirt better. That's clear motive." I nodded.

Another pitcher of beer appeared at our table. "Mind if I join the party?" Teresa Croyle said.

"Sure." I said. "It's not a great party without all my Angels."

"Awwwww..." sighed all my Angels.

"Heh heh heh heh." said the Chief. "But Lord knows the Iron Crowbar needs all the Angelic and Heavenly help he can get."

Just then, an Indian (India-Indian) man came up the outside ramp to the deck from the parking lot, holding a piece of paper in his hand. Another Indian man came in behind him, filming with an iPhone.

"Who are you, and what the hell are you doing filming us?" I pretty much yelled, about to get up and arrest them.

"Captain Teresa Croyle," he said, handing her the piece of paper. As she took it, the man said "You've been served." He and the cameraman then ran back down the deck ramp as if being attacked by a swarm of bees... which was better than being attacked by a swarm of crowbars, but I digress...

"What is that?" Cindy asked Teresa.

"I dunno." Teresa said. She opened the document, to find that it was a subpoena.

"Ah, shit." she said tiredly. "It's a subpoena from Robert Mullen."

She began reading. "The Independent State Counsel requires you to appear at the above address on... WHAT THE FUCK?..."

We were all looking at Teresa as she turned beet red.

"The son of a bitch..." she gasped, hardly able to talk. I took the subpoena and began reading it.

"Geez, what an asshole." I said, then passed the document to Cindy. The subpoena ordered Teresa to personally appear to be questioned... on May 19th.

"The bastard..." Teresa stammered, "is... is demanding I appear in his office... on my wedding day!"

To be continued.