Shipping and Handling

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, 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 6 - Shipping Shanghaied (continued)

10:50am, Thursday, March 28th. Near the County border with Nextdoor County was McGill Farm Road, the gravel road that led to where Tammy Cochran's body had been found. (

Author's note: The Saga Continues, Ch. 02.

) North of where she was found, not far at all from the turnoff from the main road, was parked the large box truck.

Detectives Timothy Geiger and Teddy Parker were looking at the scene and talking with CSIs. I tried to be unobtrusive as I peeked into the driver's seat, seeing a white man in his 30s with curly but greasy brown-black hair, a chubby face, and a body not far behind 'chubby'. He was wearing a striped shirt and blue work pants and heavy black work shoes. A crimson stain on his chest and blood running down his neck from the

coup de grâce

shot to the back of the head showed us that he'd had a very bad day.

"I put Parker and Geiger on the case together." said Tanya Perlman to me after I peeked in at the body. "I told them that this might be connected to the SMS truck thefts, so I wanted Geiger involved, and Parker is here as the primary on the murder. Parker's not very happy about it, though."

"This will be a test of his professionalism, then." I said. "But don't tell him that; let's watch and make observations."

*BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!*

It was my Police iPhone, and I answered it. "This is Chief Soltis in Midtown." said Chief Soltis of the Midtown PD. "You called about finding an SMS truck?"

"A fake one, maybe." I said. "I called to see if Nell Bell and Eric Hannum want to come up and look at it. But give them fair warning that this one came with a dead body."

"They're already on their way." said Soltis.

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

12:05pm. A civilian car with a blue flashing light on top screeched to a stop on the main road, then turned and came down the gravel road. As everyone gawked at them, MPD Detectives Nell Bell and Eric Hannum got out of the car.

"Hell, people!" I said loudly as I came up to them, looking at my watch. "I don't make that trip

that

fast in a helicopter!"

"We got here as fast as we could, sir." said Nell Bell. "Eric's car couldn't get over 120 mph, though."

"Whew!" I breathed to myself. "Thank God for small favors, Speed Racers. Come on over, and I'll introduce you." We went over, and I said "Everyone, this is Detective Nell Bell and Detective Eric Hannum from Midtown P.D. They've been working on moving vans disappearing with people's stuff, so I invited them up here in a spirit of harmonious cooperation and educational opportunities."

"And being forced to listen to dramatic speeches on harmonious cooperation and educational opportunities." said Cindy Ross, making everyone laugh. A red crowbar was waved in her general direction.

I introduced everyone, then said "The body has been removed, but we took good photographs. Geiger, show them around and let them make observations."

"Oh. It's not empty." said Nell Bell. "All the furniture is still here."

"Our camera at the County line caught the truck coming west on the Nextdoor County Highway." said Geiger. "They're analyzing the video, and they think there may have been two people in the cab of the truck."

"So they were coming here, to this County." said Nell Bell. "Just like a couple of previous trucks were brought here, then abandoned. But those were empty. No furniture, no... blood..." She looked a little squeamish as she examined the bloodstained seats of the cab.

"It's a fake SMS truck." said Hannum, looking at the logo on the side. "You can see where it's crudely painted over."

"The VIN should tell us who the car belongs to," said Nell Bell, "especially if the car tag was stolen."

"Apparently it was." said Geiger. "The tag comes up as belonging to an SPS truck... SPS, not SMS."

"No, it's not stolen." I said as I was examining the furniture in the opened rear of the vehicle."

"Okay." said Geiger. Then he said more loudly: "We sent in the VIN to see if there was a match, but we haven't heard back yet."

"I wonder why not." I said as I walked up to them.

"Residual problem from that hack attack on us the other day." Cindy said. "Plan B worked and is still working for drivers licenses, local registrations, and car tags, but apparently VIN numbers are on another State server and we're having trouble accessing them by computer or by phone."

"Hmmmm, interesting." I mused. "But I can confirm that this is an SPS Delivery Truck. See that number on the bumper?"

"164." said Hannum, reading the number on the left side of the back bumper.

I said "I happen to know that this is an SPS truck because we had a case in the City of a couple of murders on SPS trucks. And Truck 164's driver was lucky, because he was the actual target of the murder. Point being, I remember this specific SPS truck. It's an SPS truck." (

Author's note: 'Delivery In The Rear'.

)

"I remember that case." said Cindy. "The 164 truck's normal route at that time was from the City to our Town & County here."

"So it

is

an SPS truck." said Nell Bell, halfway to herself. "Eric, we need to check and see if SPS reported this truck stolen. If it's not reported, give them a call----"

"Hold on." I said. "Slow your roll for a second. Commander Ross, what is this?"

"Teachable moment?" Cindy asked with a gleam in her eye.

"Yes. Yes it is." I said. To Nell I said: "Check with the Police databases. But don't just call SPS and let them know one of their trucks is sitting in my County and had a dead body in it. We might go visit them and ask if they have had any trucks stolen or missing, and see what they tell us."

"And we're not at that point yet." said Teddy Parker. "We need to get the CSI report, identify the victim, check the contents and find out who they belong to, and all that."

"Very true." I said. "So... this truck will be towed to our local crime lab's parking lot, a tent will be erected, and the contents removed... slowly and carefully, Mr. Geiger. I don't want to give the family their belongings back in badly damaged condition. Oversee that yourself, Mr. Geiger."

"Yes sir." said Geiger.

"And everyone!" I said loudly. "Pick up some lunch on your way back to Headquarters!"

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

1:30pm. Sitting in Classroom 'E' were Chief Moynahan, myself, Commander Ross, Captain Croyle, Captain Perlman, Vice Lieutenant Mary Mahoney Milton, Detectives Teddy Parker and Timothy Geiger, Bobby Patrick and Mark Walker from the CSI/Crime Lab team, and Midtown Police Detectives Bell and Hannum.

When I'd introduced Nell and Eric to Chief Moynahan, Nell acted stunned. "Oh wow,

the

Captain Moynahan, er, I mean Chief Moynahan... oh wow, it's so great meeting you, I've read all your case files when you were with the Midtown PD..."

"Heh heh heh heh." chuckled Chief Moynahan, though I could tell he was secretly pleased. "Lot of dry reading in those case files."

"Oh no sir!" said Nell. "You're a legend down there."

"He's a legend up here, too." I said.

"I see you two have learned about kissing ass." said Moynahan affably.

Once we were seated, the Chief said "It's your meeting, Commander Troy."

"Thank you, sir." I said. "Someone please tell me about today's victim."

Tanya Perlman started us off: "His driver's license identified him as 'Roman Brady', but his fingerprints came back as Rupert Saidy, 34 years old, single. He has a number of convictions for petty theft, shoplifting, small-time fencing, but none for the last two years. Rupert Saidy was also an employee of State Parcel Service, working on the distribution line and sometimes running short local routes in the City... for the last two years."

"If memory serves me correctly from the previous case we had there," I said, "Edward Blassingame had a program to hire ex-cons, to help them get back on their feet and into the mainstream of Society. Saidy was probably one of those hires."

"Sir, when was that previous case?" asked Nell Bell.

"Just before Christmas, a little over two years ago." I said. "Some of it is classified by the Federal Government, so I'll fill in the gaps you can't get from the official reports later."

"Just another exciting Christmas in our Town & County." Tanya said with a gleam in her eye.

"Why is that?" asked Nell. "Oh... didn't someone save a child's life up here one Christmas?" Everyone pointed with outstretched arms and fingers at Teresa Croyle, who was sitting next to Nell, like we were tattle-telling on her. Nell's eyes grew wide.

"Oh my gosh!" Nell exclaimed. "Really?" Teresa shrugged her acknowledgement, and Nell said "Oh wow... you're a hero!" We all smiled and chuckled at that, then Nell looked around and said "I'm sitting in the middle of all of you heroes that I've been reading about!"

"And the child she saved," said Cindy Ross, "is the child who discovered the code that led to busting the Marcie Harper drug operation, to the tune of four hundred million dollars." Nell gulped, speechless.

"Breathe, Miss Bell." admonished the Chief. "We're all human beings, here. Captain Perlman, you were saying?"

Tanya continued: "The driver's license he's carrying under the name Brady is valid and in the system, with an address in the City that is actually a mail pickup center. There's another one with a very similar picture under the name Saidy, with a real apartment address a lot closer to the SPS main distribution center."

Timothy Geiger asked: "Why does this guy Saidy have a fake driver's license?"

Nell Bell said "If I may, sir?" I nodded and Nell said "If he's a driver of an SPS truck going any distance, he'd have to have a CDL (commercial driver's license) and would definitely have to have a clean record. So if he's driving this truck outside of the City for SPS and the Police pulled him over, he'd want to have this license so their checks didn't show him to be an ex-con."

"Very astute obser-vayyyy-shun, Detective Bell." Chief Moynahan said. Teresa fist-bumped Nell, making the young Detective blush.

"What bothers me," I said, "is that this license under the name Brady is in the system as valid. Someone had to have embedded it into the system. So this thing just got a whole lot bigger."

"Yes it did, but let's move on for now." said the Chief. "Captain Perlman?"

"Yes sir." said Tanya Perlman. "Let's get our Crime Lab report, if we may?"

"Yes, ma'am." said Bobby Patrick. "The blood at the scene types to Rupert Saidy's. We'll have DNA data tomorrow or the next day, but we found no blood splotches that were inconsistent with the victim's location in the driver's seat. We did fingernail scrapings and swabs on his neck and arms to see if any other DNA comes up. We also swabbed the passenger side to see if there was a passenger, and if so, who it might be. It'll be a couple of days, though."

I nodded. "So it looks like the truck was stopped, Saidy was shot, and the perpetrator ran off."

"Yes sir." said Patrick. "There were no footprints at the scene, and no discernible tire tracks other than the SPS truck's. The TCPD cruiser stopped well back of the truck and their tracks where they cleared the truck were visible to us, and they did what they could to not mess up the scene."

"Good." I said. "And good job to you and Captain Perlman and Sheriff Griswold for teaching everyone good and proper conduct at scenes like this."

"Any more?" asked Tanya.

"Just this, ma'am." said Mark Walker. "Saidy's cellphone was found in the truck, on the floor. A lot of blood was on it, but only his fingerprints were found. The Data Gurus were checking to see where that cellphone had been, and it apparently went from the SPS distribution center to where we found the truck, though there are some dead spots along the way. No calls in or out, and no other cellphone signals that stopped at that location for any length of time; just through traffic."

"Wow, y'all can get all that?" asked Eric Hannum, amazed.

"And that's the sanitized version." I said, realizing that I probably should not have said it. The Chief's look at me showed me that he, too, thought I should not have said it.

Mark Walker said "We also checked for prints on the furniture in the back of the truck. So far, only the Farris family's prints. We did not find anyone else's prints, so the movers must've worn gloves when loading the truck."

"Highly likely." said the Chief. "Makes them look professional, if for no real health and welfare reason. Anything else?" The CSI guys were done. "Captain Perlman?"

"Yes sir." said Tanya. "Changing tack for a moment: Detective Bell was kind enough to call SMS for us, since she's previously called them. We recorded the call, and I'll play it back now."

Tape rolled, so to speak. Nell said "

This is Detective Bell of the Midtown Police. Have you had any more reports of a moving van not showing up?

"

"

Aw man, you've already heard?

" said the man on the other end of the line.

"

Heard what?

" asked Nell.

"

Yeah, we've had a call just this morning.

" the man said. "

The Farris family had their things picked up yesterday afternoon from the City suburbs. The truck was supposed to get to Rocktown this morning, but it hasn't shown up yet.

"

"

We may have recovered it, with the furniture in the truck.

" said Nell. "

If you can send me copies of the work orders, we'll contact the family about getting their furniture to them.

"

"

Oh, that would be a huge relief.

" said the man. "

We're all about to get fired over this...

"

Back to Tanya live: "We checked on the Farris family. Two parents, three kids. He's a doctor, and just took a job at the Reagan Medical Clinic in Rocktown. She's an office manager for State Parcel Service here in the City, and just took a job with the BigAgraFoods office in Rocktown. Completely clean records, not even any parking or speeding tickets. I checked, and he has no medical complaints against him."

"And three kids?" I asked. Tanya confirmed it. I asked: "Anyone see the strangeness in that?"

"That they have three kids?" asked Cindy.

"Not in and of itself." I said with a little smile. "But think of it in the context of what we found this morning."

"Oh." said Teresa. "The truck. It wasn't that big. Todd and I needed a bigger truck than that just to move our three kids across Town."

"That's right." I said. "So that's a question to ask the family about: if they had more than one truck delivering their stuff. Someone can ask that when they call the family and have them come up here... to identify their belongings, of course."

"Sounds like you're having 'thoughts'." Cindy said. She wanted to know what those 'thoughts' were, of course.

"Just a few questions that need asking and answering." I said. "Okay, Loo-tenant Milton, what did you find out about the truck and fencing furniture in general?"

"Detective Hannum here was very helpful," said Mary Milton, "as he's been working on this already. We had our dogs sniff for drugs and explosives, and they found nothing. Then we unloaded the truck under that big tent you can see in the parking lot behind the Crime Lab Building, and the dogs found nothing in any of the furniture."

Mary continued: "It's all basic furniture. Master bedroom suite, dining suite, living room suite of sofas and chairs, a couple of desks. There was a television, a bulky box television that has to be 20 years old at least. Several boxes with wrapped up kitchen plates and utensils, a couple of boxes with things like towels and some clothes, mostly the wife's dresses that are now way out of fashion. However, Detective Hannum noticed something. Eric?"

I made a mental note to compliment Mary on the way she had built up the young Detective in front of everyone, and let him tell his own story to everyone. Outstanding leadership, I was thinking.

"Thank you, ma'am." said Eric Hannum. "And I think it's really great working with all of you, too. What I noticed that seemed odd was what was

not

in the truck. No washer and dryer set. No refrigerator, microwave oven, or any other major appliances. There were some clothes, but there were no personal effects, like framed photos or paintings. This is a very odd manifest."

"I could not agree more." I said. "That is an outstanding observation, Detective Hannum." Mary fist-bumped Eric.

"Maybe they were sending those in a second truck." said Teddy Parker.

"Or they sold the appliances, intending to buy newer ones for their new home." said Timothy Geiger.

Nell Bell said "The work order only listed one truck being assigned to the move. And there is no itemized list in the papers they scanned and emailed to me."

"If this was a fake truck picking up the stuff at the house," said Tanya, "then SMS wouldn't have a list of what was loaded."

"Wait a minute!" I said, coming out of a seeming reverie. "That phone call you played... Before I ask that, let me ask Detective Bell this question: for previous cases you looked at, where the fake truck picked up the stuff, did the real truck come later only to find everything taken already?"

"Oh!" said Nell Bell as the thought hit her. "Let me look..." She consulted her tablet, then said "Yes sir, that's right. The Police reports of several jurisdictions say the Police were called when the real truck arrived at the house, only to find everything that was already loaded and gone. And some of those fake trucks were later found, empty and abandoned, and other trucks weren't found at all."

"Hard to make a big truck like that just disappear." said Cindy.

"But in that phone call you made, Detective Bell," I said, "the man on the other end of the line said that the Farris family things had been picked up but had not arrived in Rocktown. That means that

a second, real truck did not come later!

And that means one of two things: the truck that arrived was a real SMS truck, but it was somehow diverted and a fake truck substituted; or that..." I faded off; I was gone into Reverie-Land.

"Or that..." Cindy Ross asked helpfully, and curiously?

"Uh... let's just keep going, for now." I said. "Any other delivery trucks reported stolen, or moving vans missing?"

"There have been no other reports of missing moving vans or delivery failures in the State in the last 24 hours." said Mary Mahoney.

"I must sincerely apologize to you, Detectives Bell and Hannum." I said. "I should've given your cases a lot more thought when I was down there discussing them with you the other day. It turns out that they have become very interesting... very interesting, indeed..."

"So, Mr. Crowbar, tell me what we have learned, herrrrrre, all wrapped up with a pretty Christmas bowwwww." said the Chief. "Or perhaps Detective Bell would like to do that?"

"Uh, I'm just the student here." said Nell, with a worried look on her face. She then nodded vigorously as she said. "In the spirit of harmonious cooperation and educational opportunities, of course." That got her an acclaim from everyone, and Teresa high-fived her.

I was chuckling also, then got serious. "Okay, so what we need to do are these things." I said, unconsciously taking charge and taking control. "Captain Perlman, we need to get the Farris family up here as fast as we can. Call them and ask them to come up. If they balk at all, insist. If they still are reluctant, I'll have Sergeant Prince fly the TCPD chopper down there to pick them up and bring them up."