11:45am. Sheriff Griswold came into Headquarters with Mike G. Todd. Mike was grinning happily. Our Sheriff was much less amused. They came to my office, and sat down in the hot chairs at my invitation. The Sheriff poured himself a mug of coffee, and Mike accepted a bottled water.
"Judge Watts had us come into his Chambers." said the Sheriff. "On our side was me, Mike, and the Police Captain Union's Rep. On the other side were Silas, Finneran, and the NEA's lawyer representing those six slugs. Judge Watts threatened to put the NEA lawyer in jail for Contempt after the guy got snarky about it, and I was ready to personally effect that arrest and perp walk."
"So how did it go, sir?" I asked.
The Sheriff deferred to Mike G. Todd, who said: "Better than I hoped. I showed the video and the ad, and Watts was ready to make a ruling right there and then. But he held off, and said a full hearing would be scheduled. Until that happens, there cannot be any more Boards of Inquiry... at all. And if the hearing is strung out until past January 1st, it won't happen at all. But I think the NEA's lawyer is going to take it to the Appeals Court to demand an immediate hearing or removal of the stay."
I nodded. "Okay, then." I said. "Thanks for that good work, Mike. I need to talk to the Sheriff for a moment." Mike took the hint, said he'd be in touch, and exited the room.
"What about Silas, Sheriff?" I asked.
"That son of a bitch straight-out lied to me." growled Griswold. "We've always known Finneran was corrupt, but I had no idea Silas had turned like that." Then he peered at me and said "I also had no idea you were going to do that to bust Finneran's chops."
"No, I didn't mention it to anyone, until I worked it out with Mike." I said. "I realized at the time, during the Charter Commission hearing, that I could use that against Finneran. Mike had someone file the lawsuit as soon as the Court opened, and Watts wasted no time in issuing the stay pending the hearing. That notice to Silas was already on the way."
"Did you know Silas was going to do me dirty by not postponing the BOI?" the Sheriff asked.
"It's not paranoia if they're really out to get us." I said with a grin. "I did consider the possibility of it, and I realized it likely would happen when Bettina brought up the BOI in her newscast,
but did not say exactly when it was going to be.
So by the time my source called me, I was already texting Mike to get ready."
"Har." said the Sheriff, who was now beaming. "Outstanding job, Crowbar."
Just then there was a knock on the door. Helena said "Lunch is ready in Classroom 'E', sir." my lovely assistant said.
"Join us, Sheriff." I said. "We're having a working lunch today."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It was going to be a tidal wave of information coming at us, which is one reason I authorized a catered lunch of subs and pizza. Every bit of the food was consumed when all was said and done... and a lot was said and done. I'd emailed Savannah Fineman, and cc'd DA Walters and Paulina Patterson, that we were having the meeting. Savannah was there, and having one of the subs. Joanne Warner was also in attendance, and consuming pizza for two.
"Okay," said Captain Perlman to start the meeting. "First of all, notice the new whiteboards on the back wall." Indeed, large whiteboards had been mounted on the wall opposite the wall where the projection screen was, pretty much covering the entire long wall. There were screens that could be pulled down to cover the whiteboards.
"From now on," said Captain Perlman, "the doors to this room will be on auto-lock. You can get in by using your TCPD I.D. on the card reader. But entry will be restricted so that those whiteboards can be used." Everyone nodded, and kept eating.
"Let me discuss these autopsy and toxicology reports." I said. I discussed the neurotoxin and 'fear gas' agents that had been found, their effects, and how they may have tied into the case.
"Okay, Jerome, who is first?" Tanya asked, after I was done.
"I'll go first, so I can get back to my stuff." said Myron Milton. "I've downloaded everything from all the computers or tablets that were confiscated under the warrant. We'll have to give those back, but I have the information on them, including emails, some texts, and all the websites they've visited."
"That's great." I said. "And if you need to go, go ahead." Myron grabbed his sub and left.
Jerome Davis spoke up: "I'll give the combined report of this morning's interviews. All of the Detectives did a great job talking with the survivors, and the survivors's stories are very similar."
Davis: "First of all, all of them were still under the influence of the gas or whatever they inhaled, which Commander Troy just confirmed induces hallucinations of fear. They were all still fearful, some more than others. The 'fear gas', as he called it, also may have affected their memories, so we may not be getting a complete picture, but maybe their combined statements will be enough."
Davis: "All of them said they went there for what they called 'the Release'. When asked what that meant, they said it meant 'the release of the Demon'. All of them knew who Guru Bob Stevens was, and they called him 'Guru Stevens' or 'Spiritual Advisor Stevens'. But they also said that he was not the leader of their group. When asked who the leader was, they said only 'Dr. Westbrook'. When asked more about him, no one could tell us more, and some seemed to become frightened as if they were having a relapse into their drugged states."
I noticed that Joanne Warner's eyes had lit up at the name of Dr. Westbrook. I tuned back in to Jerome Davis's statement.
Davis: "When they were asked who was there, how many others, they all said there were more than 20, and a few said 25 definitively. One of them, Lawrence Evans, said that there were 25, in five groups of five at each point of the pentagram. We never found a pentagram on the scene, so I'm not sure if that was a literal or figurative reference."
I piped up: "The HAZMAT team trampled over the area near the Ritual Tree, and may have obliterated a drawn pentagram in that area. But keep going, for now."
Davis: "Yes sir. They all said they were doing their chants and incantations by torch light, and the torches started burning brighter... all of them independently said that... and they smelled incense and then something really bad, really foul. Some of them said they saw an image of a demon, but not all of them said that. And they said the next thing they knew, they were waking up in the hospital, feeling very scared."
Davis: "None of them remembered riding to another location nor being anywhere else. And none of them can remember any dreams they may have had. Just some fleeting nightmares of a demon coming for them."
I nodded. "Good report. Of course the next question is: did anyone say anything unique, out of the ordinary, anything that contradicted with the others?" Jerome looked around for help. Sr. Detective Theo Washington picked him up.
"Sir," said Theo, "Lawrence Evans seemed to be a lot more clear than the others on a lot of things. He remembered the pentagram and groups of five, and that there was a small fire in the dead middle of the pentagram, which sounds to me like it was really there. He says the smoke wafted over him and he began seeing demons, and feeling very deep fear. He also said he smelled a really bad stench, like a dead person and sulfur put together, but seemingly even worse."
I felt as much as saw Cindy look over at me, remembering our earlier conversation.
"Sir," said Julia Rodriguez, "Sarah Wood said one interesting thing. She said everyone met at the University Tavern, one of the bars on the west side of University Avenue. They were all transported in vans to Point Hollow. She said they were black vans, but didn't remember anything else about them, like license plates. She did say that when everyone got there, it looked like there were lights on in the Point Hollow house. They never went to the house, but were led straight into the woods."
Julia: "I called in to have patrols look for everyone's cars at the University Tavern, and they're all there... parked in the back lot pretty much out of sight of the front parking lot and front of the building where people enter. Everyone's car from Irene Ward's Beamer to Gary King's Impala was there. The vehicles were all searched, and nothing at all was found in any of them... and by that I mean nothing at all, not even a chewing gum wrapper."
"Cleaned out, eh?" I said to myself. "Did you notify the IT group to get video?"
"Yes sir." said Captain Perlman. "We have some footage of the vehicles coming in, and some of them going into the bar. But the camera seemingly just didn't record any vans coming into the parking lot nor any of those people leaving. Myron is checking to see if the video was altered in any way, but he doesn't think it was. And no black vans on the street cams."
"That's not good" I said. "Did Sarah Wood say
why
they were going to Point Hollow?"
"She said they were going there in order to witness 'the Release'." Julia replied. "Which is what all of them said. Like Lt. Davis said earlier: when we probed, and asked what the Release was, they all just said 'the release of the demon', and then seemed to go back into a trance-like state. That is what pretty much ended all of the conversations with them, when we asked them that."
