Exigent Circumstances

This story is part of an ongoing series.

The chronological order of my stories is 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, racism, 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.

There may or may not be discussion of political issues in my stories. If you are a Snowflake that feels you need to be protected from any mention of politics, then click the Back button now, and never attempt to read any of my stories ever again. You've been warned.

***

Part 13 - The Crime Scene, Redux

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded MILF reporterette at 7:00am, Wednesday, July 6th, from the rooftop of the building at the corner of Riverside and College, with City Hall as her backdrop. "Another death that reflects badly upon Commander Donald Troy and the TCPD!"

After the hard-charging intro music, Bettina began: "Jesse Smallwood was found dead on the old Tau Fraternity House property just south of the University. Let's go to

trusted

reporter Amber Harris for more. Amber!"

"

That's right,

Bettina!" the blonde, athletic reporterette shouted from in front of the Tau Fraternity House property, with crime scene tape behind her She went into Smallwood's past as a turncoat, his plea deal to avoid a life sentence, and his leaving Witness Protection, and I won't bore you by repeating those details.

Then Amber said "More recently, Jesse Smallwood was named as a suspect in last week's double homicide of Mark Wayne Cooper and Nat K. Cole. But charges against him were dropped

with prejudice

by Superior Court Judge J.B. Stone after it was learned that Commander Troy and the TCPD entered Ms. Cole's apartment without a warrant. The TCPD also did not take Mr. Smallwood into protective custody, which they could've done based on violations of his probation."

Amber: "As a result of Commander Donald Troy's failures, Mr. Smallwood was free but unprotected, and Mr. Smallwood was found dead early this morning. Police would only say that foul play was involved, and Commander Troy has not responded to repeated requests by KXTC Channel Two News for comment. Back to you, Bettina!"

Bettina: "Thank you, Amber! That was

trusted

reporter Amber Harris with that important background information. And in other news, Donald Troy's specious, petty lawsuit against KXTC Channel Two News is coming up in Federal Court, and

experts

agree that it will be quickly dismissed

with prejudice

..."

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

"She all but outright accused you of committing the murder yourself, Don." said Command Deputy Sheriff Cindy Ross as she, Lieutenant Commander Teresa Croyle, Sheriff Antonio Griswold, Commander Donald Troy (me), Chief Sean Moynahan, and Deputy Chief Tanya P. Muscone sat in the Chief's Conference Room drinking coffee and watching the Bettina propaganda-cast.

"Not one word about the Order of Protection against us." Teresa said witheringly.

I replied "They couldn't mention that -and- that he was unprotected, and the insinuation that we hung him out to dry... pun not intended."

Pun not intended indeed, I thought to myself as I remembered the night before. I'd arrived at the Tau property to find the crime scene being examined by Team Teddy and by CSIs. The unfortunate Jesse Smallwood had been hanged by his neck with a hempen rope until he was dead. His hands were still tied tightly behind him.

"Actually, death was instantaneous." said M.E. Kendell Ramsey "They did a good job and fixed the noose right. No noisy strangulation."

"They hoisted him up by that block and tackle attached to that tree branch," said Detective Sergeant Julia Rodriguez, causing us all to look up. Like the rope, the block and tackle was old and on its last legs, I observed. Julia continued "There are impressions of a ladder, the narrow rectangles nearly under the body."

Detective Roark Coleman said "Looks like they hoisted his weight up with the block and tackle, then dropped him."

"I like your thinking on that." I said. "But that would be a strangulation death if they did. My guess is that they made him climb the ladder onto some platform, dropped him successfully, and

then

hoisted him back up with that piece of paper attached. What does it say, by the way?"

"Sic semper proditoribus"

Roark said. "Which is Latin for 'Thus always to traitors'."

"Oh, fluent in Latin are we now, Mr. Roark?" I asked, admittedly astonished.

"No, but Father Romano is." said Father (Captain) Romano, coming up to us. "I was here to administer Last Rites, and Mr. Roark was wise enough to consult with me on that interesting quotation."

"Well, I'm working on my Latin, sir." said a contrite Roark.

I saw Julia trying not to laugh, so I said "Have Julia here teach you Spanish instead. That'll go a lot farther--- whaddya got, Kendell?"

Kendell had walked up to us. He said "Our victim here may have been drugged, to make him more easily subdued and compliant. I'll have Toxicology look for that. Also, as you all know, when somebody dies, their bowels release. Smallwood has poop in his pants, as expected. But the unexpected thing is that it's compressed, like he was sitting on it, not just filling his underwear."

"Ah, the squeamish side of the job. Thanks, Kendell." I said. To the Detectives, including Lt. Teddy Parker, who'd just come up, I said "Well, I've seen all I need to see. This idiot was too stupid to see what was going to happen to him, and he got what was coming to him."

Me: "And it's a professional grade hit. You'll get to see my 'shocked' face if the CSIs find any fingerprints or useful DNA or anything. The perps's clothes and shoes are likely burned to ashes, and the ladder is either sawdust or burned to ashes. "

"Sir," said Roark, "what about the note? Could this be a vengeance move by the Taus?"

"Could be, or paid for by one or more of them." I said. "Or Edward Blassingame, whose son Peter will be executed in a few days. Certainly someone

wants

you to think that. But I might draw your attention to the block and tackle. That... is a cluuuuue." With that, I left the crime scene.

Now back in live time in the Chief's Conference Room, I said "To Hell with Bettina and Amber. Their day is coming when my lawsuit against them comes up. We need to finish up the Smallwood case and the Cooper-Cole cases. Teresa, would you tell Captain Michaels, Team Teddy, and Mary Milton that they are invited, in the Japanese sense, to attend a meeting in Classroom 'E' at 10:00 sharp. Tanya, would you be kind enough to invite your husband and any of his Federal friends that would care to join us?..."

Part 14 - Issues And Answers

10:00am, Wednesday, July 6th. Classroom 'E' was full of LEOs, both local to Federal. Coffee mugs were filled. Team Teddy and Team Theo were in the House, as were the full complement of friendly Federal Agents. Martha the M.E. was present... and so was a still-unhappy Paulina Patterson.

I was sitting in my usual place, in the center of the table facing the 5x4 matrix of projection screens. Teresa was to my left and Claire Michaels was to her left. Tanya was to my right. Cindy Ross was on the right side of the rectangle, and Sheriff Griswold was to her right. Chief Moynahan was seated in front of the door, on the right side of the big rectangle of 2 long tables, and Lt. Mary Milton was opposite him yo the left. Everyone else found seats to be in.

"All right, Commander Troy, let's rolllll." barked Chief Moynahan.

"Thank you, sir." I said. "First question as always: who called it in?"

"Multiple calls to 9-1-1, beginning around 11:20pm, then more around 11:30. The first call just said there were a couple of suspicious lights, like flashlights. Our patrols did not realize the import of that location, so they didn't rush over, thinking it was probably some Fraternity prank. But after other calls came in, they 
went on over, and found the body."

"Did any of the callers mention a vehicle?"

"One did, sir." said Parker. "She just said a dark colored truck."

"Okay, good report." I said. "Why don't we hear from Martha first, so she can leave if she wants to, or stay."

"Why, thank you, Commander." Martha said with what I knew was mock acerbity. "Okay. Smallwood died of a broken neck brought upon by hanging. There may be some drugs in his system, and Toxicology will tell us that in a couple of days. Overall, it was a boring autopsy that Commander Muscone wouldn't waste a popsicle on."

The room burst into laughter, and Tanya took it in stride and grinned; after all, she was known for eating popsicles during the most gruesome of autopsies. When the laughter died down, I asked "What was the time of death? And don't give me an M.E.-speak wide range."

Martha said "I never do." Seeing the look both Teresa and I gave her, she said "Just kidding. Seriously, I need to review our data. Kendell got a time of 10:45pm, which is a lot earlier than I would have expected."

"No, it may be right." I said. "Okay, let's switch gears. CSI report. Yolanda?"

"Thank you, sir." said CSI Supervisor Yolanda Grissom. "As you predicted at the crime scene, we found no fingerprints on the block and tackle, and no DNA nor other residues on the rope, except for Smallwood---"

Detective Joan Laurer had raised her hand. "Excuse my ignorance, but how do you find DNA traces on a rope?"

"No, that's a good question." Yolanda replied. "We first just do an eyeball inspection for discolorations, which might be oil spots or tissue residue. Then we can shine special lights that will cause organic matter to glow. And then we get Mr. Spock's tricorder."

Another round of laughter ensued, lightening the mood in the room. Then Yolanda continued "We found no usable fiber evidence off Smallwood. The little we did get matched his truck from our earlier examination of it. Lieutenant Milton may can say more to this, but we think it's possible that they used Smallwood's own truck to bring him to the Tau property."

Mary Milton said "I can neither confirm nor deny that. All the cameras, public and private, went out about 11:15pm. And they're damaged. You know how nuclear weapons will supposedly create an electromagnetic pulse, an EMP? Well. this was similar, but a more localized, directed set of pulses. So not only do I have nothing, we've got a bunch of expensive repairs to make."

"Which your friendly neighborhood Department of Homeland Security will foot the bill for." FBI Special Agent Tim Jenkins said helpfully.

"Your tax dollars at work." I said. "Okay, Yolanda, anything else?"

"Sir, if I may?" said Lt. Teddy Parker. I nodded and he said "The reason I didn't come up to you immediately at the scene is because I had called Deputy Strait as soon as I got word of this. He called Sheriff Sorrells, who called me right as you came up. Long story short---"

"Too late!" chimed Julia Rodriguez, Kerri Ambrose, and Chief Moynahan at the same time. at the same time. Chuckles broke out.

"Must be an Airborne thing." Parker said, as all of his hecklers were U.S. Paratroopers. I just grinned. Cindy rolled her eyes.

Parker continued: "Later on that night, Sheriff Sorrells called me back. They'd gone over to Smallwood's residence. His truck was parked in the driveway. Strait felt the hood and then the exhaust pipe of the truck. Both were cold."

"That Strait guy is getting good." I said. Cindy nodded vigorously in agreement.

Parker: "They went inside, not needing a warrant because the occupant was dead, and found the place unkempt but no signs of a struggle, forced entry, or a hasty exit. So I'd suggest the vehicle that transported him to our County was not his truck."

"I agree." I said. "And I'll go you one further:

Smallwood was not killed at the Tau property. He was hanged elsewhere, and his body brought to the Tau property.

"

"How do you know, sir?" asked Yolanda Grissom.

I said "At the crime scene, I commended everyone's attention to the block and tackle. It was used to hoist Smallwood's body up. But if he'd have been alive, he would've strangled, not have had his neck snapped. Kendell told us at the scene that Smallwood had pooped his pants, but it was smushed. That suggests he was sitting or lying on it after he'd died."

Me: "Last but not least was the time of death, which I had Martha tell me as accurately as possible. It confirmed that he likely was killed elsewhere, then brought up to where we found him. Alert people called 9-1-1, and I submit that the perps had only enough time to hoist up the dead body. An execution on the spot would've taken too long."

Me: "He lived in a subdivision near the Town & County Line, so I'd imagine they picked him up, drugged him, brought him into our County, went down one of the farm roads, stopped and set up a gallows, and hanged him. Then they put his body in back of the truck, drove him to the Tau property, hoisted him up, and left that note."

"Q.E.D." Teresa said.

Roark Coleman said "Sir do you think the second perp that helped Smallwood kill Cooper and Cole, or vice versa, was involved in Smallwood's killing?"

"Tough question." I admitted. "All I can say right now is 'no data yet'. But it's certainly a place to start looking."

"I have a question, and it's been bugging me all last night and today." said Paulina. "Who in the hell let that round turd's lawyers know about the exigent circumstances and no-warrant entry into Nat Cole's place?" There were murmurs and mumblings.

"That's an easy button answer." Claire Michaels said confidently. "

Commander Troy told them...

through intermediaries, of course."

You could've heard a pin drop.

Everyone was looking at Claire in stunned disbelief, some not believing what she had just said, and some not believing she'd aid that about her direct boss, and right in front of him.

And then all eyes turned to me, and they were equally shocked that instead of looking angry, a smile was forming on my face, turning into a huge grin and a chuckle of laughter.

"Outstanding." I said. "Simply outstanding. In fact, that is Crowbar worthy. Here, hold this." I passed the red crowbar to her.

As she took it and tapped it into the palm of her hand, the room suddenly exploded into a cacophony of noise as everyone talked at once, most hurling questions in my specific direction.

I held up my hand for silence. When I finally got it, I said along with a gesture of my hand, "Captain Crowbar, educate the people."

Claire said "Well, I don't profess to know

why

you did all that you did, but I began seeing the pattern of it. First, you told everyone to not work on the Cooper-Cole case over the Holiday weekend. That alone was not like you., especially with a double murder case just opened."

Claire: "And I also was remembering how Helena handed you your Duty Dress jacket as we were rushing out to get to Judge Stone's snap hearing. At first I didn't understand, as that was unusual in itself. I even asked you about it, sir, And then you got called up as a witness in a hearing that normally doesn't have witnesses, and you dutifully went to the stand and testified. I realized that you had

expected

to be called up."

Claire: "Then there was Mortimer D. Randolph. You didn't know him by sight, but after Sheriff Sorrells showed you Randolph's card, you knew who he was...

because you knew enough to say he wasn't related to Paramedic Kevin Randolph.

Claire: "You had Commander Ross ready, and she had me ready, to evacuate ADA Patterson out of that filthy White Supremacist judge's courtroom...

because you anticipated her outburst.

Which means, of course, that you knew or at least had a very good idea of how things were going to go down during that hearing."

Claire: "Finally, when we got back here, you were giving us a pizza party, and you didn't seem all that upset about it, especially when Paulina and Miriam said it was all over. And yes sir, I owe you a bottle of single malt Scotch... as long as you promise not to re-gift it to the Sheriff to pay off your debt to him."

Some people, including Our Sheriff, laughed at that. Others were still too stunned at what they'd seen and heard to grasp the humor. Being a better fisherman than I'm given credit for, I reeled them back in.

"Don't worry. If it's good Scotch, I won't be giving it away." I said with a smile. "And that was outstanding observation and deduction on your part."

Paulina could not contain herself this time, and she burst out "What?! You

knew

that was going to happen?"

"I had an idea that it might." I replied. "But let's take it from the beginning, that being the finding of two more bodies in the Mystery Lake area, and the attempts by Federal Swamp Frogs to wrest control of it and cover it up. That effort largely failed, and worse, overlapped what happened next. I'll

circle back

to that in a moment.

Me: "So what happened next was the Mark Wayne Cooper and Natasha K. Cole murders. We had two seemingly coincidental situations come up at the same time, and then

some

of the data showed they were related in some ways. It would have been easy to become confused and lose our way, but

this

Detective Corps did an outstanding job of getting the facts, the data we needed, without letting them get twisted by theories."

I continued: "So we had the two murders at the apartment. It looked to the world like they were coming home from a date, and at first I, too, believed that to be the case.

But it was not a date.

I surmised this when I heard that neither Nat Cole nor Mark Cooper had discussed going out with their work colleagues. That was a 'strangeness' to me, enough of one to speculate that it was

made

to look like a date as a disguise for Nat's true intentions."

Me: "Those intentions were to talk with Mark about the explosion that killed Gayle Roberts. We've learned that Nat had been sent into Energy Dynamics by the CIA to find out what happened to Gayle. Those same Swamp Frogs had covered up her death to the point that even the CIA was in the dark about her fate. So they created a backstory for Nat K. Cole, and sent her into Energy Dynamics... and I'm surmising that she found something."

Me: "So she went to Mark Cooper. Why go to Mark? I was wondering why a guy assigned to basic, legacy systems had those books on fluid dynamics, and an academic concentration that they subsequently tried to hide. He may have been willing to help her; ergo, their (air quotes) 'hot date' but with no credit card record of it. But someone found out about it, and sent a hit team to kill Cooper, and kidnap and torture Cole, which they did by raping her, then finally killing her."

Me: "Okay, let's

circle back

to the bodies found in Nextdoor County. I definitely enhanced my reputation as a miracle worker when I identified both bodies from the comfort of my office chair." There were some chuckles at that, then I continued: "But Julia and Roark read up on some of my past cases, so I'm confident they'd've made the connections." Julia and Roark had looks on their faces that suggested my confidence in them was overstated.

I went on anyway: "Yes, guys, you would have, although I had one advantage that saved us some time: both my wife and I knew Gayle Roberts very well. And after a spot check showed us that Gayle could not be contacted, I made the 'edumacated' inference that it was her."