The Hot Wife Photos

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 14 - A Successful Arrest

I said "J.R., did you get that on videotape?"

"Yes sir." said Crime Lab Technician J.R. Barnes, who was recording with a videocamera.

"Christina?"

"Yes sir." said Christina Cho, also recording.

"Captain Ross, did you observe that?"

"Yes, Commander." said my partner.

"Detective Cummings? Washington?"

"Yes sir." both said.

"Sergeant Rudistan, did you observe that?"

"Oh yes sir, I did." Rudistan said jovially.

"Morton?"

"Yes sir."

"Pastor Westboro, did you observe that?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid that I did." said Pastor Westboro, his voice sad and his face downcast.

"What? What is it?" asked Cassie Sanderson. I took the cellphone from her hands.

"Cassie Sanderson," I said, "you are under arrest for the murder of Emma Washburn, a human being. Lt. Perlman, take her away."

"Yes sir." said Tanya. She affixed handcuffs to a totally stunned Cassie, reciting to Cassie her considerable legal rights.

"Okay guys, get affidavits from everyone else here, including each other." I said. I walked up to Pastor Westboro. "Pastor, I don't want to inconvenience you by having you come to the Station. So if you will just give Detective Cummings your statement here, you can go home when you're done."

"Yes, er... thank you, Commander." said Westboro, who was also stunned by the turn of events. "I've heard about your abilities, Commander, but this is the first time I've had the chance to observe them so closely. I must admit that I am stunned, truly stunned."

"Thank you, Pastor." I said. "Now if you all will excuse me, I must go to Headquarters."

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

Cassie Sanderson was in Interrogation-1, her lawyer Fowler in attendance. I went in with Paulina Patterson and Detective Joanne Cummings, with Rudistan guarding the prisoner.

"That was entrapment, Commander!" Fowler snarled. "This will not hold up! I will have your badge for this!"

"I've heard that before." I said. I took a document from Paulina and handed it to Fowler. "This is a warrant for the sting operation you witnessed today. It's not entrapment. It's a sting. And Cassie fell right into it."

"What the hell did I do?" Cassie asked, a mixture of disbelief and anger in her voice. "I showed you the right picture."

"How did you know it was on

that

phone?" I asked. "And how did you know

that

was the phone from which the photo was auto-uploaded to Facebook? And how did you know the code?"

"Obviously, it's my phone." said Cassie.

"Except that we found it at the Washburn home, where you planted it." I said. "You were hoping we'd think it was Chris Washburn's phone, and that we would blame him for his wife's murder. And you might well have succeeded if you had not been stupid in other areas."

I continued. "Also, that phone is a burner phone. Last, but not least, if it's your phone, who was using it to take that photo of Emma? You told me earlier that you didn't take that picture. So if you did take it, you were lying to Police, which is a felony crime in this State. Also, if it was you that took it, you're guilty of the murder. But if it wasn't you... well, obviously it was, and you knew too much about it."

I met Cassie's stare of disbelief now mixed with hatred as I said "You gave yourself away when you saw that mirror-image photograph, then went for the phone to make your alibi hold up. You should never have known that the uploaded picture was on

that

phone.. but you did, and you demonstrated that by actually unlocking the phone to show me the picture."

Cassie's face was turning to shock as she began to fully realize what she had done. "Ohhhhh, shiiittttt." she moaned.

Her lawyer Fowler had seen enough, and admitted defeat: "What kind of deal can we make?" he asked.

Paulina said "If you save the County the expense of a trial and don't waste our time, confess and give a full statement, answer all the questions to the Commander's satisfaction, then I'll offer twenty-five to life with possibility of parole."

Cassie took the deal, and began talking. When she finished, I only had one question.

"Cassie, are you

sure

you don't know who else besides your son that was having a sexual affair with Emma? Are you sure she told you nothing?"

"I was telling the truth, Commander." she said. "Emma did not confide things like that to me. I didn't even know she was going to Culinary School at the Town Technical Institute for months, until she suggested we start a catering and photography service. She never mentioned the men in her life, besides her husband."

Part 15 - The Emma Washburn Solution

Friday evening, September 25th. The party at The Cabin was attended by me, Laura, my mother Phyllis, Jenna, Cindy, Cindy's sister Molly, Teresa, Joanne, Joanne's fiancé Seth Warner, Theo Washington, Tanya Perlman, Jack Muscone (as Tanya's date), Sheriff Daniel Allgood, and his lovely wife Melina. The kids (Laura's, Molly's, Melina's, and Tanya's) were also there, being watched over by the redoubtable Bowser.

Daniel and I cooked hamburgers and hotdogs while Laura and Melina had prepared all the trimmings. Cindy and Teresa brought beer and colas, and Joanne brought several cakes she and Melina had baked... with Joanne teaching my ex-wife how to properly bake a cake, I might add.

"So," said Cindy to Daniel within my hearing, "it was Chief Bennett that got the Council started on this rank structure thing?"

"Yes, it was." said Daniel. "I don't think he ever liked the current structure. He found some ears on the Council that were willing to listen, and poured some ideas into them. I don't think he liked it when the other Study Group members insisted on getting Don's input, but I don't think it's going to be any big deal. It's the Fire Department and EMTs that might erupt. That's been brewing for some time."

"Yeah, I know." Cindy said. "And I think I know why Chief Bennett did what he did..."

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

Meanwhile...

Melina and Joanne were telling Laura that they were planning a deer hunting trip to Lake Amengi-Nunagen. Jack Muscone overheard and said "Laura, that reminds me... some properties up there came up for sale, if you want to check them out."

"Way ahead of you, Jack." said Laura. "I've already put down an option for a place on Lake Watchacoochie, which is east of Lake Amengi-Nunagen and over the ridgeline. It's going to be a surprise for Don on his birthday, October 26th... well, if I can keep it secret from him until then."

"Good luck with that, sis." said Melina. "Nothing gets by that man. Nothing." Joanne giggled.

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

"Are you ready for your Academy class Monday?" Teresa asked Cindy as they munched on snacks.

"Yeah, I guess so." said Cindy. "I'll be bored as hell for two days, but I'll do it."

"I have a surprise for you." Teresa replied. "I'm going to be there with you."

"What?!" Cindy asked, stunned. "What did

you

do?"

"Nothing." Teresa said. "But you won't have to sit in the class alone. We'll tell everyone we're monitoring what's being taught, and we'll get our refreshers so we can make sure our Detectives are doing it right."

"What did the Commander say when you asked him to go with me?"

"I didn't ask." Teresa replied. "I

told

him that I was going with you. He just asked who I was going to leave in charge of Vice, I told him Purvis needed a shakeup and some testing, and he told me to have a nice day and to get out of his office."

"Well, I'll appreciate you being there with me." Cindy replied.

"What are friends for?" Teresa asked. "I've got your back, sister." Cindy just hugged Teresa in response.

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

"How is the Nextdoor County Police,

Lieutenant

Evans?" Teresa asked Molly, who smiled.

"It's going very well." Molly said. "I'm getting up to speed, mostly doing desk work, which I'll be pretty much restricted to until the baby is born in November. To be honest, though, Janet Riordan had a pretty good Vice operation going, and with you kicking ass in this County, the pipeline to the City through our jurisdictions is considered to be the 'Road of Death' for drug smugglers."

"The City gets supplied along the Southport-Midtown-City route." Teresa said. "Our problem is the lucrative market of University students. But I've been picking up on some increased traffic in things besides drugs... contraband, stolen goods, weapons and explosives."

"Yes," said Molly, "Janet showed me some things, too. We'll have to have an official cooperative pow-wow about it soon."

"How's Captain Moynahan and Frank Soltis in Midtown?" Teresa asked. "I haven't talked to either of them in a while."

"Frank is doing okay. He might be transferring to the Mob Squad... which actually investigates corrupt politicians more than Organized Crime, as you well know from your time down there." Molly replied. "Captain Moynahan is being boxed out and shut off, and with his team disbanded he's pretty much twiddling his thumbs awaiting retirement."

"That's too bad." said Teresa. "With the possible exceptions of Chief Griswold and Commander Troy, Captain Moynahan is the best cop I've ever known."

"That he is." said Molly. "Just keep your eyes peeled and your ears open. If what I'm hearing is true, he'll be landing on his feet..."

*ding* *ding* *ding* *ding*

The musical quality sound of a spoon tapping a glass echoed through the air, rung by Cindy Ross.

"Okay, everyone," Cindy said, "it is that time again. I saw it all, and I am still not understanding, so would the Iron Crowbar

please

tell us how he solved this case?" A loud acclaim of cheering and applause started up, aided by Bowser barking in displeasure at the noise. I gave my dog (okay, Carole's dog) a comforting skritching before moving over to the group.

"All right." I said as we all sat down in chairs and on the sofa in the main room of The Cabin, the view outside fading as it began getting dark and the lights of the room reflected off the bulletproof glass of the windows.

"This was one of the most interesting cases I've had since coming to the TCPD. It looks simple, but as I think about it, it was pretty complex." I thought about it, then said "So... in order to help everyone can understand this, I'll reverse my usual pattern. I'll talk first about my own observations, then about what led up to the murder and the burglary."

I began. "We had a body of a Jane Doe, a married woman who had no fingerprints on file with the FBI. The body was dumped in a 'dead/live' zone behind the Ladies Auxiliary Clubhouse, which is interesting in and of itself. She had bruising on her face, which would suggest that the beating was a cause-and-effect relationship to her death. That turned out to not be the case.

"I'd expected to hear from family of this woman's disappearance, but we never did. Considering that even prostitutes have had family contact us in the past when their loved ones went missing, this was really strange. And it got more strange when we responded to a burglary call, and lo! and behold! there is a photo of our victim on the wall. This could not possibly be a coincidence with two crimes surrounding this woman, could it?

"But before I ever saw that photo, I already had an idea that something was wrong with this picture, pun fully intended." I said, to tepid laughter. "As I looked around, something was odd. A mantle clock had been moved from the mantle, where it had sat for a very long time, to the long side table. But when I looked under the clock, there was plaster dust scattered evenly on the table from where the TV had been ripped off the wall. I realized that the most likely explanation of that was that the burglars had moved the clock from the side table, maybe to the floor or a nearby chair, to get to the TV on the wall...

and then someone put the clock back on the side table!

"

"Now why would someone do that? I thought to myself. Why not either leave the clock where the burglars put it, or put the clock back where it came from on the mantle... where I could see it had been, and where Cassie confirmed it had formerly resided upon my asking her about it. I asked Captain Ross to make sure that the Crime Lab documented that strangeness, though I did not know yet what it meant."

"I found that out soon enough," I said, "when I went into the office room. I saw the picture of Emma on the wall... our unreported, unclaimed, dead victim. And

that

is the moment I suspected Cassie of being the murderer. It could have been Sean, but I suspected Cassie, especially over time, because she had the explanation of the clock being moved, she had moved it herself by her own admission. And I was already discounting Emma's husband, who we had not yet met. The reason for that is the photo I found on the office desk, of Emma posing in front of the clock on the side table."

Seeing the looks of utter fascination, but also of non-understanding, I said "I realized immediately that the clock had to be put on the side table so that it would appear behind Emma, and that the clock had to be returned to the side table because it was meant to be an alibi for someone. The clock was not operating when the photo of Emma was taken, and Cassie had set it to 8:00pm when she took the photo of Emma.. yes, Cassie was the one who took the photo. She knew the Police had to see that clock on that side table so it would appear natural that it was in the photo. She lied and said she didn't take the photo, but that was easy enough to see through over time."

"I'm already lost." said Seth Warner. Joanne patted his thigh.

"It's harder to explain it than to have realized it." I said. "The photo being found on the desk was necessary for the alibi, as well. Cassie had that photo with her at Marlena's home, so it wasn't stolen. This was actually a bit of coincidence and luck that she did have it, as she could not print another one... the printers were stolen... and it was an important piece of her alibi. So, who knows why she had the pic with her at Marlena's?"

"Oh, isn't that obvious?" said my mother Phyllis, her eyes twinkling, already seeing it fully. "That one is easy, son."

"Easy?!" Cindy exclaimed. "Maybe to you, Mycroft, but not to me!" Everyone laughed and agreed.

"And Mom, why is that?" I asked.

"Why, the Facebook upload, of course." said Phyllis with a knowing smile. Everyone else was still stymied.

"Okay, let me show you this." I said, taking out my Police cellphone and bringing up the photo. "This is what I made the mirror-image out of. It is the picture I took of the photo on the desk... let me say that again: I took a photo of a photo. And I realized that

that

is what Cassie had done... she used the burner phone to photograph the photo, and it auto-uploaded. She did this at Marlena's house. She excused herself to go to the bathroom at just the right time, clicked the pic, and it uploaded. The Facebook photo is

a snapshot of another photograph, not the original photograph!

"

"Ohhhh, I get it!" Joanne said, as if she'd found a new toy to play with. "The original photo of Emma was taken earlier, this photo of that photo was uploaded at 8:00pm, though Emma must've been killed earlier! It was an illusion, to create an alibi."

"Yes, exactly!" I said. "The auto-upload was crucial to the alibi. Without it occurring at the right time, Cassie is left hanging in the wind. So is Chris Washburn, for that matter, but I'll get to that later."

"So I already knew two things..." I continued, "that either Cassie or Sean was the culprit in the murder, and also that

the burglary was a separate, coincidental event.

"

"Okay, I've followed you to this point," said Tanya Perlman, "but now you've got me."

"The reasoning goes like this." I said. "The clock was put on the side table, removed, then put back, and I know this because of the way the dust settled on the table in such an even manner, and only then was the clock put back on the side table. If Cassie or Sean was staging the burglary, either would have likely left the clock where it was, knowing its importance to the murder alibi. I might add that Cassie and Sean were not at home during the burglary, and we have witnesses to that."

"So the burglars moved the clock, Cassie put it back. Ergo, the two crimes are very likely

not

as directly related as it would appear. This became very important later on, too."

"We move to the Washburn home." I said. "When we arrived, Chris was drunk as a skunk, like some of you are about to be if you keep drinking that beer." Tepid laughter. Your Iron Crowbar is just not a comedian.

"Even in his presence, I had already all but exonerated Chris as the murderer of his wife. Co-conspirator? Maybe, but I was skeptical, which would be borne out later. At any rate, we found several cellphones and the pictures in the house. I thought of the possibility that those phones were planted to incriminate Chris, though I did not follow that route very hard. But it

would

come in handy for the sting."

"So," I said, "returning to Chris: he's drunk, he'd been drunk for a while. He took the Fifth, which in a rare occurrence actually showed me he was innocent! Why? He knew that his wife was in danger, he knew that he himself was in danger. By taking the Fifth, he keeps from slipping up. And only afterwards does he find out that his worst fears are confirmed and his wife is dead, when I told him we'd found her body."

I added "He also knows that he'll be the primary suspect, and he thinks his explanations won't hold water with the Police--"

"And with any Police Department that does not have the Iron Crowbar, that would probably be true." said Cindy Ross. "I need not add that I'm still not following this very well."

"Yes, this is where I went outside the box and used some imagination." I replied. "I realized it almost unconsciously, and it was because of the bruising on Emma's face from days earlier. The beating was systematic, as revealed by M.E. Martha's astute observations that were in her autopsy report. The beating was not the wild randomness of a drunk man beating up his wife, so it likely was not Chris in a drunken state."

I went on: "Someone had beaten Emma to get information out of her, I realized. What information? Photographs and/or videos. Which ones? The only anomaly in those photos... was the hairy-legged man fucking Emma that was on Chris's computer. Not Sean... but another man. Emma sent Chris that pic, risking trouble in her marriage, as a way of preserving a record of his existence. She may have sent others to her husband, or to somewhere else, but so far the FBI has found nothing in Alaska. She may have done it so that if something happened to her, Chris might ask the Police who the Hairy-Legged Man was in that photo. Alas, her 'protection' did not work.

"Anyway, this other man obviously thought she had more photos of him, that gave more of his features, even his face. And that is why he beat the hell out of her, to get the photos that would identify him--"

"Ah, and this confirms that the burglary was separate from the murder." said my mother. "This man was behind the burglary, after Emma told him that the other pics were in Cassie's house."