The Murdered Football Player

The Case of the Murdered Football Player, Ch. 06

by The WifeWatchman

The order of my stories to read is:

Todd & Melina series, Interludes 1-5, Sperm Wars series, Russian Roulette series, Case of the Murdered Lovers series, Case of the Murdered Chessplayer series, Case of the Executed Evangelist series, The Swap series, Interludes 6-10.

The Murdered Football Player series.

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, nor cults, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

Part 29 - The Answer

It was about 6:30pm, still Thursday evening, and we were still in our meeting. I was about to reveal the answer to who killed Jefferson Davis Jackson. All eyes were on me as I began my narrative.

"Teresa," I said, "take Angela Harlan and Hugh Hewitt and bring these two people into protective custody." I said. I gave Teresa a name with two slips of paper. Also on the paper, but not read out loud was a message to not let the SBI know what was happening until we had the two in custody.

"Wilco." Detective Croyle said as she and Angela Harlan got up and left before SBI Director Jack Lewis could stop them.

"First, everyone," I said. "I need to say that I have virtually no proof of any of this that will fly with a Grand Jury, much less a trial Jury. Unless someone confesses or we find some evidence that I don't suspect exists, we'll never bring the murderers to Justice."

"Murderers? Plural?" said Director Lewis.

"Yes." I said. "Here is what happened chronologically, and then I'll tell how I reached the conclusions. Jefferson Davis Jackson was one of fourteen football players to attend an unofficial, in fact secret alumni/player party at the Lake Ocheekobee Country Club last Friday night. Jackson was having sexual intercourse with a woman named Janet Riordan, wife of University alumni and booster Tom Riordan, who may have been an organizer of the party.

"During sexual intercourse, Jefferson Davis died--"

"How do you know it was during sex?" Director Lewis demanded to know. I just looked at Tanya.

"Director Lewis," Tanya said, enjoying the moment, "any good medical examiner knows that when a man dies during sex, his penis remains elongated, i.e. 'hard', and does not shrivel up as would happen after climax and the recovery period. Mr. Jackson's penis was still elongated when we found his body, meaning he was still in the act of sexual intercourse when he died. In fact, he was in the act of climaxing, which probably strained his heart to the point of the heart attack."

"Thank you, Supervisor Perlman." I said. "And we saw that before in the case of the Jack Burke/Marie Arruzio murders, which was solved without SBI assistance."

"Crowbarrrr..." I heard the Chief very quietly growl.

"Yes sir." I said, acknowledging the chastisement. "Anyway, Jefferson Davis died during intercourse. Janet Riordan went and got her husband, who did not go very quickly, and Janet had to scream and yell at her husband to get him to move. Once Jackson was found dead, the alumni were panicking."

"How... how do you

know

this?" Director Lewis sputtered, the shock evident on his face.

"Mr. Lewis," I said, wearily and a bit testy at the same time, "If you will allow me to complete my narrative, all of your questions will be answered in due time. I'll put it all together in a very nice package for you, with a bow on top, if you'll allow me to finish, please." I continued as Lewis sat back in his chair, his face changing from amazement to skepticism as I continued.

"Some of them finally took charge enough to organize the group. They got the players onto their buses and on their way home, admonishing them to say nothing about any party or any problems. They knew enough to keep quiet when the police came around."

"Meanwhile," I said, "the alumni had a 240 pound dead body to deal with. Most of these alumni are not young and strong, so it took an effort to get Jackson into a Club tablecloth, load him into the trunk of a car, and away from the Club.

"At the same time, some alumni were calling someone else to help 'clean up' in the aftermath. Mr. Cleanup advised the group to make sure to throw the body in a ditch in Coltrane County, to make sure that our County didn't get jurisdiction. And that's exactly what they did: they dumped the body in a ditch half a mile south of the County Line.

"They dumped the clothes with the body, and someone took the Club tablecloth back to the club before the next morning." I continued. "Meanwhile, someone, perhaps two in the group -OR- a second set of people, did an extraordinary thing: they secured Jeff Jackson's body, brought it up the dirt road and over the County Line, and dumped it in the culvert where we found it... and it became the jurisdiction of our County."

"Cleanup Man, whoever he is, does not know this, and calls the Sheriff of Coltrane County to go 'find' the body. He gets there as some of us are investigating, and finds the body has been moved, but the clothes had not been. He is later murdered by someone in order to get those clothes."

"He was not murdered!" Director Lewis said angrily. "My agents investigated and found that he died of natural causes."

"Director Lewis, your agents can't find water in a swimming pool!" I thundered back, whipped to anger by the arrogant and in-my-mind dirty SBI Director. "Your agents don't even run tests on samples provided to them. You have dirty agents, and you and they bend like willows before political pressure. The Coltrane County Sheriff

was

murdered, and by a lethal injection with a syringe. I have five, count them

five

witnesses besides myself that have already provided sworn written affidavits of their observations of the syringe mark, affidavits given to an SBI Reserve officer who has proven herself beyond corruption several times over. I'll be glad to put that up against your filthy agents' excuse for an investigation any day of the week, Director Lewis!"

I stood up and leaned over the table as I stared into Director Lewis's hate-filled eyes, thinking of Ferrell and Ikea. "In addition, Director Lewis, I have proof that at least one of your agents deliberately conspired to plant evidence, tamper with an investigation, and frame an innocent man."

"Bullshit, boy!" Director Lewis finally thundered back, protecting Ferrell and Ikea as if his life depended on it-- and maybe it did! I realized, but didn't release the anger from my face as Lewis shakily continued. "You better mind your fucking manners before you come around telling ME that MY agents are dirty, and accusing some damn good agents of being dirty... and you're a fucking hypocrite: you go around beating up people with that fucking crowbar. You better show me some respect, little boy, or I'll have you put in your place so fucking fast it'll make your head spin clear into the next State!"

"I've got proof of what I just said." I replied back, lowering my voice just to make it sound more menacing. "And if you think your Lab was embarrassed before by not running samples, just wait until I prove that you're trying to cover up the murder, yes

murder

of Jefferson Jackson. No, Mr. Lewis, I have absolutely NO respect for you, and if you keep your shit up I'll bury you in that shit. If you

really

want to fuck with me, Lewis...

bring it on!

All eyes were on the Director, who stared malevolently at me. Finally, the Chief broke in, pulling me back to my chair.

"Easy, Crowbar." he said. He then turned to Director Lewis. "I'll have you know right now, Director Lewis, that my Lieutenant is right about everything he has said, and I'll back him up 100%. And you may find that while you have that alcoholic rapist Nathan Allen on your side, I've got people on my side you can't even dream about. Now get the fuck out of my Headquarters. I might even suggest you begin considering what to put in your letter of resignation."

Lewis was gaping at the Chief as everyone present realized they were watching a truly epic political showdown literally for the control of Law Enforcement in the whole State.

"Nash, Ross, escort Director Lewis out of my Headquarters." Chief Griswold ordered when Lewis didn't move.

"I'll have your ass strung up with barbed wire for this, Griswold." Lewis snarled as he got up. He hurried out before Nash and Ross could get to him.

"Martin, Cindy, you can sit back down." the Chief said. Everyone started breathing again and were beginning to murmur when the Chief broke in again. "Okay guys, pipe down. Conlan, you've got a real fight on your hands with Lewis. Meanwhile, the rest of us have work to do. Crowbar, I believe you were saying something about a murder."

"Yes." I said, calming myself down and getting my train of thoughts back onto the tracks. "Now where was I? Oh yes... the Cleanup Man comes in, gets the clothes, then goes to work to get the jurisdiction of the case turned over to the SBI, where it can be dealt with in a way that does not bring harm to the football team. State Senator Nathan Allen is brought in, as are the SBI leadership and others in an effort to get that jurisdiction away from us."

"Let me say at this time that covering for the football team has been the lodestone of every action of these alumni, the cleanup man, the SBI, and a number of politicians. Sure, every school that plays major football has some dirt, but I noticed the extraordinary lengths being gone to in order to protect this University's program, and I realized that something else was not right."

"Anyway, the football team really had nothing to worry about... except that I found out that my murdering psychopath nephew Ned was blackmailing the head coach. The coaches overreacted, a couple of them consorted with two extremely dirty SBI Agents to frame an innocent man, and that led to me getting a bit angry about it all."

"But now, let's go back and discuss just how Jefferson Jackson was killed." I continued. "There are two drugs, one of which is a prescription medication Jackson is taking. This medication would not be particularly harmful to a healthy person that ingested a one-time dose. So this medication was put into the punch being served at the party, possibly by the waiter in charge of keeping the punch bowl filled, and the medication was in large enough quantity that an interaction with a second drug would kill Jackson."

"That leaves the second drug to be administered, as well as viagra. Jackson himself likely took the viagra so that he would perform well sexually with Janet Riordan and perhaps other women later that evening. The second drug had to be administered specifically to him, so that no one else is harmed by ingesting both drugs."

"So I suspect that Jackson was given a separate drink by Janet Riordan as they prepared to have sex, and that the combination of drugs as well as Jackson reaching his climax acted to induce what looked like a heart attack and a death by natural causes. Any toxicology report will suggest his own prescription medication, and perhaps the viagra and a PED he had been taking, though in large quantity. Certainly hardly enough with his history to suggest murder."

"I would also add that whoever spiked the punch with the medication might not even have realized that he had done so. He might have been given the liquid to put into the punch not knowing what it is, or someone else might have spiked it. I suspect that he did do it, and possibly unknowingly."

"Wow, so who the hell do we charge in this case?" Tanya Perlman asked, having caught on to the issues at hand.

"That's just it, Tanya: who

can

we charge? This thing was very carefully planned, and very well orchestrated. Janet Riordan

had

to have been complicit; only she could assure that only Jefferson Jackson got the second drug. But unless we can show she also spiked the punch with the first drug, what has she really done? A good defense lawyer will shred the hell out of all of this. Our only chance is for someone to confess to something."

"And that is what the SBI absolutely does

not

want." said Deputy Director Conlan. "They're going to come out with a natural causes verdict and try to bury this thing. They've already been humiliated enough, and no matter what Lewis says, he's been hurt politically by all of this in a very big way. You saw how upset he just got. I suspect that it's just as much that you, Lieutenant, know so much as it is about protecting his dirty agents. And by the way, I for one am glad you dressed him down like you did. I love the SBI, and if we're to have any hope of cleaning this shit up, we're going to need more of that. A lot more."

"Lieutenant, do you think your nephew Ned was involved in the murder?" Martin Nash asked.

"Not really, but I have to say this." I said, "There is an organization behind the people that I suspect committed the crime. This organization has possibly worked with Ned before, and obtained some of Ned's drug recipes. It possibly could be that Ned synthesized that booster that was given to Jackson in exchange for Jackson being killed so that Ned could blackmail Coach Harlan. However, I have absolutely no proof."

"Why Jefferson Jackson?" Cindy Ross asked. "Why was he specifically targeted?"

"What a great question." I said. "We have means, we have opportunity. But motive? For all of this? That's a lot harder. I can say this much... Jackson's medical condition and the medications he was taking made him ideal for the method of killing him."

"Beyond that..." I continued, shrugging my shoulders and hands, "...we have Ned's blackmail motive, but this was one big operation just to get some money off a football coach, and to be honest, it's a lot more than Ned working alone. If anyone has an idea, I'll hear it gladly."

"How about this?" said Martin Nash. "Someone wants to hurt the football program, maybe expose the PEDs, maybe someone has a grudge against a coach, and of course there are people who simply hate the athletic programs and the money they generate. So they kill one of the team's best players in a way that might expose the PED use."

"And moving the body?" Theo Washington asked. "How does that fit in?"

"That's a point." Martin said.

"Actually," I said, "it fits in pretty well, and that's a good idea you have there, Martin. Whoever moved the body did so because they wanted it to be in

our

jurisdiction. The panicking alumni were told to leave it in Coltrane County because the Law Enforcement there is under-equipped to handle that case, and it would quickly go to the SBI... where Mr. Cleanup wanted it to be. But someone, and perhaps it was the original killers, didn't want that to happen. So they play along, and then come back and move the body later."

"Wow." said the Chief. "This leaves about 20 alumni, 13 players and six or so wives that we're going to have to identify and then determine who was doing what."

"Chief, I think we can narrow it down." I said. "I don't think any of the alumni moved the body, and the players had been sent home in one group on the bus."

"Why do you say that?" asked Molly Evans.

"Because, as Tanya will tell you, it took about six of us to get that heavy body out of that culvert last Saturday morning, and some of us were fairly strong men." I replied. "Whoever came to get that body and moved it were by definition strong men, at least two and maybe three in number. Most of the alumni are fairly elderly, and I'm not trying to be sexist when I say that the only women that would be moving that body would be Cindy and some of her competition friends... in their peak of condition."

"So," I continued, "hurting the football program is a motive, blackmail is a motive. Any other ideas?"

"How about embarrassing the SBI?" Ted Crenshaw said. "If so, it certainly has worked. We are completely torn apart as an organization."

"Could be." Martin Nash said. "I'm hearing that the FBI might move in and investigate the SBI top-to-bottom. That will be one ugly mess."

"It certainly passes muster as an idea." I said. "I'll add it to the list. And I'll add this to the list, as well: Jackson was specifically chosen because of his parents being associated with a race-hatred group. Somebody might have wanted that exposed, or wanted revenge, who knows?"

"Okay guys, let's introduce our SBI Reserve friends to the Cop Bar." said the Chief. "It's suppertime, and no more about this case until we get back here, be it later tonight or in the morning."

Part 29 - Sisters

The Irish Pub, a.k.a. the Cop Bar, was packed. The Chief and DD Conlan stayed inside and talked at a table with the Fire Chief, while most of us Detectives went outside and commandeered all of the patio deck seating. I was at my usual seat at the back table on the patio, with Tanya, Paulina Patterson, Theo Washington, and his brother Franklin. Hugh Hewitt and Angela Harlan were at the next table with Molly and Teresa. Cindy Ross was choosing not to sit anywhere around Molly, and she was with Ted Crenshaw, Martin Nash, and Diana Torres.

"We've brought Tommy and Candy in, under a material witness and protective custody warrant." Paulina said. Those were the two names on the list I'd given Teresa, knowing that we had to get to them before the SBI did. "They're at the station, and no one will get past Morton and Rudistan, who are looking after them."

"Excellent." I said. "Tommy may have been the one who put the medication in the punch. If someone asked him to do it, I want to know who."

"It's been a crazy day over at the Courthouse." Paulina said. "Franklin, you never had any idea it'd be like this, did you?"

"I'm wondering what I walked into." Franklin said. He looked a lot like his brother, almost as if they were twins. Only when sitting together like they were now could one tell any difference between them.

"Me too, bro." Theo said. "I'd heard about the Iron Crowbar down in Southport, but actually watching you work? That was a thing of beauty you did to Lewis, man."

"Yeah, I'm making friends and influencing people again, eh Tanya?" I said with a grin.

"I think Cindy wants to to kill you, because she thinks someone else is going to do it and she wants to make it less painful for you." Tanya replied.

"Speaking of Cindy," I said, "I'd love to find a way to get her and her sister to reconcile. My conversation with Molly did not work, at least not to this point."

"Yeah, that's going to be a tough one." Tanya said.

--------------

"Hi Cindy." I said, pulling up to her table as Crenshaw and Tanya moved inside to the bar. Martin and Diana had been called back to Headquarters. "Talked to Molly much today?"

"Nope." Cindy said. "You've been keeping her busy."

"Well, she's not that busy now." I said. "Why don't you buy her a beer and y'all have a chat?"

"I... I wouldn't know what to say." Cindy said.

"Well, you know my problems with my sister, and they are

far

worse than yours." I said. "I suspect you and Molly were good friends growing up, and you can be again. Just go talk about it."

"I know you're right." Cindy said. "But until she can accept me for what I am, there's not a lot to discuss."

"I think she does accept you for what you are, Cindy." I said, "And what she wants to accept you for is her sister, regardless of who you're sleeping with."

"I don't think so." Cindy said.

"Well," I said, keeping my voice low enough to only be heard by her, "I'm going to be completely out of line with you again, because your my friend and partner. What I think you really want from her isn't acceptance of you as a lesbian, but acceptance of homosexuality in general. And that's asking more than you should at this point."