The Hot Date Mystery Ch. 01

This story is part of an ongoing series. The chronological order of my stories is now listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, language and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

Part 1 - Prologue

This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the lovely MILF reporterette from in front of the State Office Building on the north side of Courthouse Square, at 7:00am, Friday, January 20th. "Channel Two News has learned that the State Legislature is in chaos and unable to pass a budget nor a State Law Enforcement bill!"

"The Democrats, who narrowly hold the State Senate, are holding the overall budget hostage until Governor Val Jared brings a full plan for the SBI and State Patrol to the Legislature." explained Bettina. "The Republicans, who narrowly hold the State House as well as the Governorship, attempted to break the budget bill into two pieces, separating the law enforcement portion from the rest of the bill. Governor Jared says that the SBI Bill will be submitted later in the Legislative session, which goes through March 31st."

Bettina played a tape of State Senator Katherine Woodburn (D - 1st District), and Katherine was ranting: "The People of the State are not being protected today, drug runners are bringing drugs into our State, and predators are assaulting our children because Val Jared will not do the right thing and fully fund a powerful State Bureau of Investigation and our State Patrol! Val Jared's heartlessness is obscene and insulting to the People of this State!"

There was no Republican response shown by Bettina, who went on herself: "And in local politics, the Town & County Council will be taking up the submission from the Police Department regarding promoting Officers, and also naming Patrol Officers to the Detective Track. Captain Cindy Ross of the Detectives Division has submitted several names, which were approved by her superiors and sent to the Council."

"However," Bettina continued, "there are objections, as Councilwoman Malinda Adams has bitterly complained about the lack of women on the Promotions list as well as the Detective Track list. Councilman Reginald B.F. Lewis did express satisfaction that black Officers were being considered in reasonably appropriate numbers, but he continues to press for Detectives being dispersed to the Precincts, and called for the restoration of the three-Precinct system."

"Asked for a response," said Bettina, "Commander Donald Troy stated that Councilwoman Adams's complaints are without merit, especially considering that the Captain of the Detectives Division is herself a woman, and that the Detective Division is short of women partially because the Council forced Lt. Tanya Perlman to take a medical retirement. He also stated that he would not want any of the Precincts to not have the talents of all of his Detectives available to them. And now, let's go to Nick Eastwood for Sports. Nick!"

"Thank you, Bettina!" said Nick Eastwood, looking handsome in his well-fitting suit. "Channel Two Sports has learned that University Sophomore basketball player Jayne Hallerton was suspended from the varsity women's basketball team, and may be stripped of her scholarship after racy photos of her appeared in Maximum Coverage magazine. Ms. Hallerton did not appear nude in any of the photos, and there was no display of the University logos nor its colors in any of the photos. We will follow this story as it develops. Back to you, Bettina!..."

As we drank coffee in MCD, Cindy said "That was a great shot you put in about Lt. Perlman, Commander." There was a chorus of agreement.

"I'm shocked Bettina reported it." Detective Joanne Warner said.

"I'm not." I said. "Bettina is trying to start trouble between us and the Council. Thomas Cook and Kelly Carnes are still very bitter that Tanya was voted into the Orange Order. And remember that those same two people objected to Tanya getting a Purple Order for being wounded and paralyzed while saving her son's life."

"Sir, what's going to happen with the Detective Track?" asked Detective Teddy Parker.

"Nothing is official yet," I said, knowing this 'gossip' would be widely disseminated, "but there'll be a few people brought in. Vice is getting short of people, and Patrolman Jermaine Davis did well when he worked with us on the Holden case."

"What about the promotions to Lieutenant?" asked Joanne.

"Ah, you'll have to ask Captain Croyle about that." I said. "And you won't do it today: she has follow-up appointments at the Hospital today." It was then I saw the reaction of everyone... and I knew that they knew about Teresa's ovarian cancer scare...

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

"So, Mr. Crowbarrrr," said Chief Moynahan as he, me, Deputy Chief Harlow, and Captain Ross sat in his office at 8:30am, "What is going on in our State Legislature about the SBI bill? I thought you were helping our Governor with that."

"And that's part of the problem, Chief." I replied. "I haven't had time to get down there and work with his people on it."

"I know you were writing up a draft for them." Cindy said. "Can't they take that and run with it?"

"If it were only that easy, my friend." I said. "Okay, here's what's going on: the Democrats, led by Katherine Woodburn, are really digging in on this. They're holding the budget hostage, and what you're not seeing in Bettina's news coverage is that they have already told Republicans that they are going 'scorched earth' on the SBI issue."

"What's their issue with that?" asked Della.

"To get a bit generally political here," I said, "the Democrats prefer political power come from the top down. And that applies to law enforcement: they don't like devolution to the most local level; they want the SBI to be an authority over every county, every Sheriff, every Police Force. The Republicans, most of them, anyway, want the SBI to be an institution of assistance to local LEOs, literally the way the State Crime Labs are there to assist, not rule over; and the locals want the SBI to not be able to run roughshod over local districts and come in throwing their weight around."

"I understand that." said Della. "But don't we need a State-level LEO organization for things like drug transportation and distribution? Things that cross county lines?"

"Yes," I replied, "and that's one of the issues. And I can spot them the Narcotics Task Force, but it is a den of corruption that has to be weeded out completely... actually burned out and rebuilt from the ashes. That was going to be an even hotter issue, but Robert Gaston took a Regional SDOJ position, and he was their marked card to run the NTF. But there's still the issue of jurisdiction: if my Vice Squad finds drugs in this County, I don't want, and will not accept, the SBI coming in saying they have jurisdiction over us. And I'm not the only LEO that thinks that."

"Indeed you are not." said the Chief.

"Okay." said Della. "But what about the counties that don't have an Iron Crowbar? That need serious help?"

"That's why the SBI Reserve was created." I said. "To offer assistance, especially to those areas, but also to towns like Midtown and the City, who are understaffed and could use some help from time to time. But the Reserve Program was supposed to be a support role, and that's why the Democrats hate it. They want to do away with it completely, and have full SBI Agents go in and... once again... take over, be in charge, usurp jurisdiction."

"And like you said, Ms. Harlow," said the Chief, "we have a couple of people that can apply some serious iron to the SBI's collective asses if they bother us... but not every County is so fortunate."

"So where's the compromise?" Della asked.

"That..." I replied, "is why I need to get down to Midtown... to see if we can find a solution. But the Democrats, and especially Katherine Woodburn and Richard Langdon, want an 'our way or the highway' solution; they want no compromise at all..."

"All right." said the Chief. "Are you going down there this weekend, Mr. Crowbar?"

"That's the plan." I said. "Unless the perps up here try to start some trouble..."

Part 2 - If It Quacks...

Meanwhile, Teresa Croyle was knocking on the door of Dr. Laura Fredricson's office at University Hospital. It was a very small space, and Laura did not often use it.

"Come on in, Teresa." Laura said. After Teresa came in and was seated, Laura said "Before you meet with Dr. Tom Harbor, the senior oncologist here at University Hospital, I want to go over all of your tests to this point, so that you know what is going on."

"I appreciate it." Teresa said.

"The good news is," Laura said, "we caught it really early. Usually ovarian cancers are not caught until they are in stage III or IV, and metastasizing all over the place, but yours was still a I/II. Your platelets are up and your sodium levels are down, but the follow-up tests are not finding any spreading in abdominal fluids, lymph nodes, or your breasts." Laura then showed Teresa all the lab results.

"Just one other thing." Laura said. "This is medically unprofessional of me, but I want you to be skeptical and ask any questions you may have when you meet Dr. Harbor. Chemo is hard, very hard, on the body, so give everything full consideration. And if you have any issues, call me immediately. I'm going to stay here at the Hospital until you're done this morning."

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

Dr. Tom Harbor was considered to be a very good oncologist, but doctors like him were the reason Teresa didn't like doctors very much. He was in his 40s, and spoke as if his word was the Gospel truth... and he did not seem to like the questions Teresa was asking.

"We're going to have a full round of chemotherapy and radiation therapy." said Dr. Harbor. "Then we'll take another biopsy, draw more fluids, and run another battery of tests... then a second round if things don't look perfectly right."

"Is one round enough for me to lose my hair, get mouth sores, maybe ulcers?" Teresa asked.

"You'll probably experience some hair loss." said the Doctor. "It will grow back after the course is completed."

"Doctor," Teresa asked, "if I do nothing, what are the chances of cancer appearing somewhere else?"

"Well, that's why we're going to have a round of radiation and chemotherapy." Dr. Harbor said. "To reduce those chances to as nearly zero as possible."

"But what are the chances, percentage-wise, if I don't go through this?" Teresa asked again.

"You're really taking chances with your life." said Doctor Harbor. That got him a 'Teresa Cunt' look.

"Doctor," she said acidly, "in case you haven't heard, my ovaries were removed after I was shot and taken into surgery. I am a Police Officer. I take chances with my life every day, but that's beside the point of my questions. Why can't you just answer with a simple percentage like I asked you?"

"Young lady, I am the doctor here." said Harbor. "I know far better than you what is best for your treatment."

"My boss has a saying." said Teresa. "That some things are like 'using a triphammer to crush a nut'. And that's what I'm feeling right now... I don't know that I need this triphammer, when the percentages are less than 10% that I'll have any new cancer."

"Obviously you don't understand." said Harbor. "Medicine is an art, and I've been practicing this art for a very long time. But if you want to risk your life, and would prefer another doctor, I would suggest we end this consultation and you seek treatment from someone else, though you will find no one better than me in this field."

Teresa already had her cellphone out and was dialing a number. "Hi Dr. Fredricson.... it's not going well." she said.

"Come back to my office immediately." Laura said.

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

"I was afraid of that." Laura said when Teresa came back to her office. "Dr. Harbor is a good oncologist, but the Hospital Administration has gotten complaints that he essentially 'overprescribes'. In other words, he'll try to put you on full chemo when it's not needed."

"I was getting what Cindy would call a 'vibe'." Teresa said. "And it was that that guy was thinking about his wallet, and not my health."

"That's a good way of putting it." said Laura. "Let me tell you this story: men get prostate cancer, and the normal treatment is an expensive surgery to remove the prostate, followed by chemo and radiation that can destroy the bowels and make a man have to wear diapers for the rest of his life, and then the man is impotent on top of that."

Laura continued: "There's a treatment out there, called Theraseed. It's radioactive palladium pellets that can be injected into the prostate with a simple, minimally invasive procedure. The radioactivity kills the prostate and the cancer, then decays and is gone within half a year. The man can continue a normal sex life, and won't have to wear diapers for the rest of his life. Rudy Giuliani had the Theraseed treatment for his prostate cancer."

Laura went on: "So we had a male patient who asked Dr. Harbor about the Theraseed treatment, and Harbor went off on the man, refusing to even consider discussing the treatment, much less doing it. The man had to go elsewhere, and got the Theraseed treatment. Many other doctors won't discuss or do the Theraseed, either."

"Why is that?" Teresa asked.

"Because they make tens of thousand more dollars by doing the full surgery." Laura said. "They don't give a shit about the patients, only their wallets. And with that in mind, I'm going to call in someone to talk to you. His name is Dr. Napp..."

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

Dr. Napp was a younger man, and looked even younger than his age. Teresa did not say it out loud, but she thought he resembled Sergeant Micah Rudistan in both appearance and jovial attitude, but Dr. Napp had a full head of black hair.

"I think she's a great candidate for the experimental program, Dr. Fredricson." said Dr. Napp, after looking at Teresa's case file. He turned to Teresa and said "I work for a company called PharmaDynamics. I used to work for BigPharmaCorp, but they were not interested in my new drug for cancer in the early stages and prevention of reoccurrence. They said it would take too long to get through FDA approval, but what it would really do is make much more expensive drugs and treatments... that they sell... unnecessary."

"With my new research company," continued Dr. Napp, "I'm able to run trials on persons like you, who appear to have eradicated their cancer but we want to make sure. There is some radiation, but it's mild compared to what Dr. Harbor would put you through, and the drugs aren't nearly as toxic on the body."

"This sounds like a plan." Teresa said, looking up at Laura, who nodded vigorously.

"Not in this hospital you won't!" growled a voice behind Teresa. Dr. Tom Harbor had opened the door without knocking and had just walked in. "And you won't do this through the University Cancer Research Center, either. You're not on staff, Napp. And you, Fredricson... I'm getting really tired of you meddling in my business. I'll have you kicked off the Staff if you even try to do an end run around me."

"First of all," Laura replied, having stood up to tower over Harbor, "get out of my office if you can't learn to knock. And second, we'll see who gets kicked off Staff."

"You think you're hot shit, huh?" Harbor practically shouted. "Well you're not! You're just a whore pretending to be a sex professor, and it won't be hard to humiliate this University into getting rid of you------"

He was suddenly looking at a Police badge right in front of his face. "I don't think you heard me earlier, Doctor," Teresa said as she held the badge up, "but I am a Police Officer, and you were told to get out of here. If you don't, I'll arrest you------"

"You have no jurisdiction here!" Harbor said, his voice ugly.

"Oh yes she does." said a voice behind Harbor. He whirled to face a very tall, broad- shouldered redhead wearing a black shirt and pants and a beige trenchcoat. And holding a red crowbar. "And so do I."

"Who the fuck are you?" asked Harbor.

"I'm her boss," I said, pointing at Teresa, "and I don't like my Officers being disrespected. But more importantly," I said as I pointed at Laura, I'm her husband. And if you say so much as one more disrespectful word to my wife, I will beat the god-damn shit out of you. And then I'll charge you with assaulting a police officer, saying your face assaulted my fist. You'll go to jail, you'll be fired from the Hospital, you'll lose your medical license, and you may even do prison time."

"You're as nuts as your wife." said Harbor. Then he said "Well... if you want me to leave, get out of my way." I couldn't argue with that; I moved aside and Harbor wisely left.

"Do we really have jurisdiction here?" Teresa asked.

"Paulina and I have been discussing it." I said. "We may even try to make a test case out of it. The Sheriff and his Deputies do have jurisdiction here. Since we work for the Town & County Public Safety Department, and since the Sheriff is the head of that Department and our boss, we think we're fully deputized agents of the law under the Sheriff, and therefore have jurisdiction here."

"That will be an interesting case." Laura said.

"Okay, I'll let you get back to curing my Captain." I said.

"I'll walk you out while they talk." Laura said. She walked down the hall with me.

"So how much trouble have I gotten us into now?" I asked. I'd come when Laura had called me, having anticipated there might be a confrontation.

"I don't know." said Laura. "We still don't have a full time Hospital Administrator. Some of the Board members will be behind Harbor; they want the Cancer Center to be expanded. Of course Dr. Wellman will be behind me, as will others on the Board."

"You sound a little unsure." I said.

"Not much gets by you." Laura replied. "That part where he brought up me being the 'sex professor'... the University won't care; that's my job, that's why I get the Federal grants, and why I'm a full Professor and have tenure. But the Hospital has always been a bit shaky about it. If Harbor makes a full-blown snit out of it, it could be trouble."

Part 3 - Feds At Work

At 11:30am, still January 20th, FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone called me and asked if I could come to the Federal Building. Cindy was already there, he added. I walked over and up to the third floor.

"Thanks for coming." said Jack Muscone as I entered the conference room. Also in the room were FBI Special Agents Martin Nash, Sandra Speer, Lindy Linares and Eduardo Escobar, and TCPD Captain of Detectives Cindy Ross.

"Always a pleasure." I replied, getting a smile from Lindy... and Sandra.

"The reason I asked you and Captain Ross to come over," said Muscone, "is to hear Martin's report on what's going on at Lake Amengi-Nunagen firsthand with the rest of us. My boss, the Deputy Director, has authorized you guys Consultant pay for your time."

"Mighty... nice of him." I said. I had been about to say something else, then realized it might not go over too well.

"Okay Martin," said Muscone, "the floor is yours."

"Thank you, sir." said Nash, getting up and going to the head of the table where Jack had just stood. He used a remote to turn on the projector. A map of the Lake Amengi-Nunagen area was being displayed.