The Murdered Football Player Ch. 04

"I'll text him now." Malone said, "I'll tell him I can get him out of the suspension but to come by here tonight.

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At 10:30pm Steven Ikea entered the front door of Police Headquarters. He attempted to walk through the front desk security, but the Duty Sergeant stopped him. The Duty Sergeant was loyal to Malone, so Ikea was surprised.

"Sir, you have to leave your service weapon and any other guns here." the Duty Sergeant said.

"What?" Ikea said, feigning anger.

"Sorry sir." the Sergeant said, then looked around to make sure they were alone. He whispered "I'll give it back to you when you leave, okay? But the Captain needs to see you and you can't take your gun inside. Strict orders."

"All right." Ikea said, relinquishing his arms, not realizing that the 'strict orders' could only mean a trap for him. He also did not notice that he had not been asked for his badge, which would've been the more correct action, and he did not observe the Sergeant press a button on the duty desk.

Captain Malone, the Chief, and I were in the Chief's conference room. At the sound of the chime on Malone's beeper, the Chief got up and went back to his office. Malone got up and went into the hallway.

"There you are, buddy." Malone said. I could hear him talking in a low voice to Ikea. "Look, I think I can get you off this suspension in the morning, but we are going to have to be careful and really play it straight, okay?" Ikea nodded.

"Let's go into the conference room-- oh, you know what?" Malone said. "I left my notebook in the men's bathroom right down the hall. Would you go get it for me while I grab some paperwork? Meet me back in my office."

Steven Ikea went the short distance down the hall. As soon as he went into the bathroom, I came flying down the hall after him. I was dressed in all black, in my "ninja suit", which allowed for comfortable freedom of movement, and heavy black boots with steel toes. Cindy Ross also came out of MCD, she had the key to lock the bathroom door.

Only one light in the bathroom was on, and Myron Milton had sabotaged the feeds from every camera and microphone in the building, making sure that any tracing of it would look like it was from Ikea's terminal in Vice.

Ikea looked around the bathroom and did not see a notebook anywhere. At the far end he was turning around when the door opened, and I entered the room. As the door closed behind me and the sound of the bolt moving to lock the door echoed, Ikea realized what was about to happen.

"What the fuck are you doing here, shithead?" Ikea said.

"I'm about to take a shit... on you, faggot." I said, using the homosexual slur to constantly remind Ikea of what Barry Bounel did to him. "We've got you on tape. You and Ferrell tried to frame a friend of mine... an innocent man, a good man who volunteers his time to work with military cadets. And you are going to pay for that, you son of a whore."

"That man was evil, he deserved to go to jail for his crimes!" Ikea said, a strange fire lighting his eyes. "And you did the bidding of Satan in helping him escape God's punishment, you bastard."

"But you are not going to escape God's punishment now, asshole." I said.

"It is you who will feel the wrath of the Fist of God. I'm out of here." Ikea said. "He tried to brush past me, but the door was locked. As he tried to open it, I grabbed his collar and violently threw him back into the bathroom.

"What the fuck are you doing, you Satanist bastard?" he said. I charged him. Ikea had had police personal combat training, but it was no match for what Cindy had been teaching me. I parried his defensive thrust and my right hand haymaker caught the side of his face. A second blow to the face stunned Ikea. I then reared back and with all the power and hatred I could muster, I hit Ikea in the nose as hard as I could.

*WHAM!*

It felt good, feeling the tissues give way before my hard, driving fist as the blow solidly landed. Ikea fell on his back to the floor, but tried to crawl away and get up. I let him, but just as he got to his feet I swung with another ferocious blast, catching him on the left side of the mouth. His whole face turned violently to the side with the force of the blow, and I saw spittle and blood fly out. No teeth came out, but by now there was blood coming from his face and nose.

Another blow to the belly doubled him over, then a punch to the kidneys as he fell. I then began kicking him in the ribs and belly. He was able to get into a fetal position to protect his underbelly, but I felt and heard the ribs crunch as one hard kick landed. I then kicked his legs apart and smashed my boot down into his groin.

"Aauuughh!" he screamed in pain. I delivered another kick to the ribs, and then went for the coup de grace to his head. I had not noticed the door being unlocked and opened. Someone in black and wearing a full black face mask grabbed me and pulled me out of the room, and as my haze of combat fury cleared I saw the person lock the door.

Cindy Ross took off the mask. "Beating his ass is one thing, but killing him is another." she whispered. She was right, and probably had just saved his life and saved me from a serious crime. I hurried back to the conference room and put my sportscoat on over the black shirt.

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Lieutenant Daniel Allgood was sitting in his dark office in Internal Affairs. Melina was visiting Laura tonight, and he had the problem that all of his cameras and microphones in the building were not working. They were motion-sensitive and started recording if someone entered an area after-hours, just to make sure there was nothing wrong happening. He was tracing the source of the problem to Vice, when he got a call.

"Sir, it's the desk sergeant." came the voice over the phone. "Someone is in Men's Bathroom 2, banging on the door. It's been locked and we don't have the key."

"Okay, I'll get it." Allgood said. Internal Affairs had a spare set of master keys. He grabbed the correct set and went upstairs. He heard a pounding on the door, and as it opened, a bloodied Steven Ikea more fell than walked out.

"What the hell happened, Ikea?" Daniel asked. Cindy Ross came up the hallway and stopped to 'help'.

"That bastard Don--" Ikea gasped. "It was him."

Daniel looked at Cindy, who said "Last I saw, the Lieutenant was in the Chief's conference room with Captain Malone and the Chief.


Ikea took off for the conference room, though it was more stumbling along with Daniel's help, followed by Cindy. When they got the conference room, there was I at the far side, Captain Malone sitting next to me and between me and the door, and the Chief on the other side... not at the head of the table where he normally would sit.

"There he is, there's the bastard that ambushed me in the bathroom." Ikea said, pointing at me. I could see by the better light that I'd fucked him up even worse than I'd thought. Both eyes were blackening, his lip and nose were bleeding and the top of his shirt was bloody.

"Chief, Ikea says Don did this to him." said Allgood.

"I don't know how, Crowbar was in here for all of the last hour with Captain Malone, doing personnel reviews. The reviews are late and I won't let either of them go home until they're done." said the Chief.

"Don was here the whole time?" Allgood asked.

"I was in and out of here, but Captain Malone: weren't you both in here the whole time?" the Chief asked.

"Yes, Chief." Malone said. "Don has been in here with me for at least an hour."

It was one of the most beautiful sights of my entire life, and I wish I could have taken a picture of it. As Captain Malone said the words, the look on Ikea's face was priceless. As he realized he was being betrayed and thrown to the dogs, Ikea looked at Malone with a facial expression of hatred that I have rarely observed on a human countenance.

"You...you... Captain... you sent me into the bathroom..."

"Not me." said Captain Malone. "Don, was I in here the whole time, too?"

"Yes, Captain." I said, my eyes boring into Ikea's. His face now registered simple shock.

"Allgood, Ikea was suspended by me earlier today." said the Chief. "Escort him to the front door please. Leave instructions with all entrances that Ikea is not permitted within these Headquarters again pending further review of his status, which I doubt will be that of a Town & County Police Officer for much longer. Ross, you go with them and make sure there's no trouble." Cindy was along for the ride as the bouncer, if needed.

Once they'd left, Malone turned to me. "My God, and that was without the crowbar?"

"That piece of pig shit did not deserve the honor of the crowbar." I replied.

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The very best hotel in the County was the University Hotel on the south edge of campus. After that came the brand-name, high-quality hotels near the big high-end shopping mall on the Northwest side of Town, near the main road leading to the west. But on the road leading south past the University and towards Coltrane County were the largest congregation of sleeping establishments, known as Hotel Row.

Hotel Row, always booked solid for home football games, featured hotels of good quality with decent prices on the right (east) side of the north-south road, and somewhat less quality on the left (west) side of the highway. And getting near town, towards the infamous Tenderloin District, the hotels got seedier and less well-kept.

It was at the Sunrise Hotel, an establishment that was decent for football fans to rent but a bit on the cheap side, that Steven Ikea and Dick Ferrell arrived at just before 12:00 midnight. After parking, they walked along the outside walkway to room 201 at the far end of the building, and knocked on the door.

An SBI agent opened the door and admitted them. Sitting at the table by the window was Jack Lewis, Director of the State Bureau of Investigation. Next to him was State Senator Nathan Allen. A bottle of bourbon and two half-filled glasses were on the table.

"Come in, gentlemen, come in." said Jack Lewis.

"My god, son, what happened to you?" Nathan Allen said as he saw Ikea's face and the blood-soaked shirt."

"Had to bust a perp." Ikea said. "You should see the other guy."

"Jesus." said Lewis as he turned around and saw it. "No bust could've been worth that... have a seat on the bed, guys. Detective Ikea, I had Ferrell bring you over so that we could discuss some things. I've heard that the Town Police Force has treated you badly. I'd like to reiterate an earlier job offer with the SBI, and bring you on right now. You'll be working with Ferrell in Narcotics. But more importantly, we are going to take down that bastard Griswold and that frickin' punk Lieutenant Crowbar of his. When the day comes, we'll stand aside and let you use that shit eater's own crowbar against him. Whaddya say?"

Ikea nodded, his eyes barely working. "I'd like that, sir."

"Excellent." said State Senator Allen. "You're going to rise quickly and go a long way with the SBI. Let me be the first to address you as "Special Agent Ikea."

"Thank you, Senator." Ikea said, weakly shaking the Senator's outstretched hand.

"Okay, here's a computer, you need to email your resignation in quickly, before midnight. Say that it's effective at midnight tonight." said Lewis.

Ikea did so, then signed some papers Ferrell handed him as Director Lewis talked. "Okay, just hold this Gideon's Bible from the hotel room and raise your right hand." The stroke of midnight sounded as Ikea took the oath from Director Lewis. Ferrell handed Ikea his new badge.

"Ferrell, get some towels and help clean this man up." Senator Allen said. "Then both of you come have a drink. We've got a lot of things to discuss, and it'll be morning soon."

As Ferrell was letting the water get hot to soak the towels, Steven Ikea held his Town & County badge in his hand. He swore to himself that he would pin it onto Harold Malone's dead body before things were finally settled between them.

To be continued...