Return of the Blac Widow

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 1 - Prologue

Wednesday, August 3d. I took a step back and surveyed my work. On the wall to the right of my desk in my office, I'd just hung or re-hung four framed items.

The top two items were the framed citations for my first and second Medals of Valor. Underneath the 2nd M.O.V. citation, on the right side, was a photograph taken at the ceremonies two days before. I was in the middle. To my left was Cindy Ross, and to her left was Fire Lt. Roy Easley. To my right was Chief Griswold, and to his right was Joe Smedley. All of the living Medal of Valor recipients in one photo. I had asked the photographer for five copies; the other four were being sent to the other M.O.V. recipients in the photo.

And the fourth item, under the first M.O.V. citation, was Bowser's Commendation Medal citation. Maybe the Westminster Dog Show winners' owners were more proud of their dogs, but not by much. Not by much. I did not love Bowser more than my wife or children, but I loved my dog.

Underneath them, just above the level of the desk, hung the framed shields of Pete Feeley and Tanya Perlman. Even after defeating the Consultant of Crime, I'd decided to leave them up... as a reminder to be ever vigilant and of the cost of failure.

As I finished my work, there was a knock on the door. Deputy Chief Della Harlow came in, followed by Captain Cindy Ross and Lieutenant Teresa Croyle.

"I just wanted to give all of you these at the same time." Della said. She extended a plastic sleeve to me. Inside were three red rectangular ribbons, framed with gold metal. denoting multiple Medals of Valor.

"Wow." said Cindy, looking at the gold-bordered rectangles as I put one on my shirt. "We may never see this again."

"I sure hope not." I said. "Y'all know what I mean when I say I never want to award an M.O.V. or Purple Order again... too much pain goes into them." I said this as I sat down, and my back reminded me that it was still not recovered.

"And desk duty forever, for certain Lieutenants." said Cindy, making a point to look at Teresa. Della laughed. Teresa did not.

"Here are your blue ribbons, Captain." Della said to Cindy, giving her a sleeve of three ribbons. Cindy now had three rectangles, red, blue, and purple, all silver bordered. Della said "I'm working on getting a back bar for them, so you can slide them on and put them on as one set."

Cindy nodded. I piped up and asked for a bar that would hold two of them together. They looked sharper, as they were easier to line up together.

"And these are for you, Lt. Croyle." said Della. giving Teresa a sleeve with three ribbons. "The Fire Department's Quartermaster had some extras." The rectangles were for the Police Cross, just a shade silvery of pure white, and was bordered in silver metal. Only Joe Smedley would've had one bordered in gold. Teresa put one on her uniform shirt, next to her gold-bordered purple rectangle.

"What happens if someone like Joe Smedley gets all four?" asked Cindy. "They'd line them up white, blue, and purple, with red on top?"

"The Council actually addressed that in the laws merging the Town and County Public Safety Departments." I said. "You'd wear the red, white and blue across, and the purple one over the white one in the middle. Or you could get a special order of smaller rectangles side-by-side, four in one row, that would be red, white, blue, and purple. And once again, 'Kato'... I personally hope we never have that situation."

"Meeeeee, neither!" growled a voice at the door. Chief Emeritus Griswold had just ambled in. "I prefer my favorite Officers alive, uninjured, and kicking ass. And I agree with the Commander, Ms. Croyle... one more Purple Order, and I'll have Chief Moynahan make you the permanent Duty Desk Officer."

"That's too easy, Chief." I said. "I was going to assign her to be Captain Ross's personal assistant." That got me a glare from Teresa and a grin from Cindy.

"I take it back about not needing a crowbar." said Teresa, looking straight at me. I laughed.

The Chief was looking at the framed citations on my wall. "Nice picture there, Chief." I said. "Did you get yours?"

"Yes, I did, thank you." said the Chief. "Duty Desk is holding it for me." Then he laughed as he saw Bowser's citation. "Har! You love that dog, dontcha, Crowbar?"

"You betcha, Chief. Damn good dog, he is." I said.

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

At 9:00am that same morning, Tanya Perlman drove down the hall (literally). She said that Cindy had called her over.

"Yes, I did." said Cindy, coming up to us in the hallway. "Let's go to MCD. You too, sir."

"I'll be right behind you." I said, quickly going into my office and grabbing a package. I knew what was going on, as Cindy had told me. And I'd arranged my own surprise.

In the MCD room were Lt. Wes 'Coldiron' Masters, Detectives Diana Torres, Theo Washington, Teddy Parker, and Joanne Cummings. Vice Detectives Grubby Paul, Chris Purvis and Tim Geiger came in, as did their Lieutenant, Teresa Croyle. Chief Sean Moynahan accompanied Chief Emeritus Griswold in from the other door, as well.

"Okay, guys." said Cindy, getting their attention. "After consultation with the original and one and only Iron Crowbar, we're going to start a new tradition." She took an object out of a large sack. It was a blue crowbar, sitting in rings on a backboard where it could be mounted on a wall.

"This is the original blue crowbar that Commander Troy used to beat down Sergei Molotov." Cindy announced. "The Iron Crowbar gave it to me when I was named MCD leader. From now on, this will hang in the office of the MCD leader, to be cared for and jealously guarded by said MCD leader. So here you go, Lt. Masters." She handed it to him, and everyone clapped politely.

"Now that one will stay in the office," said Cindy, "but here are some blue crowbar replicas for our past and current MCD leaders." She handed a blue crowbar to Tanya, and another to Lt. Masters. "I guess this is the 'Coldiron Crowbar', eh, Wes?" Masters chuckled; Chief Moynahan chuckled louder. Cindy handed me one, also.

"What about you, Captain?" asked Joanne Warner. "It wouldn't be right for you not to have a crowbar."

"Well, if my Vice Lieutenant doesn't need one, I guess I can do without one, too." Cindy said.

"Maybe." I said. "But I would just not feel right if my Crowbar 2 did not have a crowbar. And I need to say something personal about this."

Having their attention, I said "All of you accomplished a great deal this past year or two, and I could not have taken down the Consultant of Crime without all of your help. Having said that, there was one person who was right there with me the whole time. She kept me level-headed and on the right path, sometimes by means of a crowbar beatdown during morning practice. And she had my back, too, and I certainly wouldn't be here without her. So Captain Ross, this is for you. And it's personal."

I handed Cindy an object wrapped in newspaper, and turned on a DVD player. As the appropriate tune played, Cindy unwrapped the package, and gasped.

It was a

green

crowbar.

The tune was the Green Hornet theme song, played by the great trumpet player Al Hirt. I said "The great Bruce Lee played Kato, martial-arts-expert and assistant to the Green Hornet. And

my

'Kato', this martial arts expert, deserves a crowbar worthy of her idol, Bruce Lee. The metal in it might have come from the remains of First Baptist Church and a certain crashed helicopter."

"Awwwww," said Cindy, admiring the green crowbar as if it were made of gold. "This is cool.

Arigato

, sir." She hugged me and I hugged her back, as everyone in the room applauded.

"You guys are turning me into an old softie." said Chief Griswold.

"The fish in the lake behind your house disagree, Chief." I said, to laughter.

"What about you, Commander?" asked Joanne. "Is the red crowbar going to become the Commander position's 'Palladium'?"

"Nooooo." I said. "For me, the red crowbar is a personal thing... it is part of my soul." I saw Teresa nod vigorously; she knew what my red 'IC2' crowbar had become.

Part 2 - The Crime Scene

At 10:30am, Friday, August 5th, I arrived at the scene of the crime. It had occurred in one of the apartment complexes that were south of the University Campus but north of Jefferson Avenue that turned into the Nextdoor County Highway going east. These apartments were large, some being four bedrooms, and were meant for college students to rent during the school year.

As I came in, I noticed that all of the Officers and even my Detectives had very worried looks on their faces. All of them were silent and somber as they stared at me; no normal chatter of a crime scene being processed.

"Good grief, what's going on?" I asked. Captain Cindy Ross blocked my path with her green crowbar for a second, to stop me from going into the back bedroom where the crime had occurred. "Brace yourself, Commander." She then nodded and let me go into the room. And once I entered, I immediately understood.

"Holy Mother of God." I said quietly as I surveyed the scene. The room was barren of any furniture; indeed, the entire apartment was not occupied. In the middle of the room was a metal frame chair with a black cushion seat. A young man, college-age as near I could guess, was tied to the chair. His wrists were secured with a plastic zip-tie, and heavy string further held him to the spines of the back of the chair.

His head had suffered a severe blow to the back of the skull, crushing in his head. He was shirtless, and was very well built and muscular, with hard six-pack abs. His pants were unfastened and pulled down to about his knees. Between his legs was a pair of big balls and a very large cock, still elongated: he had been erect when he was murdered.

A chill rushed through me as I saw what else was between his legs. Just above his cock, drawn on his groin, was a black circle in face paint. Inside it were two red triangles touching at their apexes, bordered in white, forming an hourglass.

It was the mark of the Black Widow.

I felt the eyes on me, seeing how I would react to this scene. I steeled myself, reminding myself that I needed to be professional in front of my officers if I expected them to be professional. Still, this was different. I looked around the scene, letting my eyes go in a circle over the body then gradually away from it.

The Crime Team was gathering evidence, taking samples of blood from the body as well as the soaked carpet of the floor, and also from the paint and lipstick that formed the Black Widow sign. Others were searching for any other evidence that could be found.

"Who called this in?" I said, speaking for the first time.

"The owner of these apartments." said Lt. Masters. "He said he got a phone call right at dawn, telling him that some people were in this apartment. He came to check it out, found the door open, then found this. The Mouseketeers are checking the phone numbers involved."

"Good." I said. After another moment I asked "Lieutenant Masters, who are you putting in charge of this case?"

"Detective Parker, sir, as the lead." said Masters. "With Washington assisting him, unless you're thinking I should put someone else on it."

"Hold off on that." I said. "It will depend on what the Crime Lab data shows us. I might have to plug some leaks, especially to the Media. Be ready to give all the Detectives assignments, but only after we have some more data to work with."

"Yes sir." said Masters.

Just then Cindy came up to me. "Sir, can I see you outside?"

"Sure." I said. We stepped outside, near to our vehicles. I surveyed the area; the Uniformed officers were doing a good job taping off the scene, and controlling access to it.

"Are you okay?" she asked me, peering at me.

"Yes, I'm fine." I replied, peering right back. "Are

you

?"

"Yes." Cindy said. "But everyone will understand if you just let us handle it."

"No, really, I'm fine. I said. "My worry here is leaks. We can talk about that later. Let's go back inside and figure out what's going on." Once inside, I gathered everyone into the front room and said what needed to be said:

"Folks, there is no shame or blame if any of you, especially those of you who remember the original Black Widow crimes, want to be excused from this one, or needs a break." I said loudly. "Those were hard times; these are hard memories to endure."

No one moved.

"Okay, I appreciate your professionalism. Carry on." Everyone got back to work. It was still somber, but having been given and having made the choice to stay, they all exhibited renewed energy as they continued with the work.

"Any injections?" I asked as I looked over the deceased's back and shoulders.

"Yes sir, spot on the left shoulder." said J.R. Barnes, the leader of the Crime Lab technicians. Then I saw that Chief Moynahan was there, and was watching everything from the corner of the room. He'd snuck in as I was talking to Cindy.

"No idea what he might have been injected with, though." Barnes finished. "We've taken samples for the lab."

"Excellent." I said. "Was he brought to climax?"

"Hard to tell yet, but we think so, or at least close. We'll get more from the autopsy." said Barnes.

"Any ID on the body? Anything at all?" I asked.

"No sir." said Christina Cho. "We've taken fingerprints, and we're running them with the FBI now, but so far nothing has come up."

"And may not." I replied. "This guy looks young. He may have never been fingerprinted before. He

does

look familiar to me, but I can't remember where I've seen him before."

"Maybe your nephew knows him?" Cindy said helpfully.

"Maybe." I said. I took a photo of the deceased's face with my iPhone. "I'll start inquiries in that direction. We can also check with the male strip clubs in the Tenderloin District and see if one of their... male performers... is missing."

"Commander," Christina said, getting my attention, "as you know, and as Lieutenant Perlman was fond of telling us, a hard penis at the moment of death remains a hard penis. This guy remained hard. He was nine inches long, and there aren't many of those around."

"And they all seem to live here in this County." I said, drawing some tepid laughter. "Or at least they seem to come here to die."

"Yes sir." said Christina. "He also has a small tattoo in the small of his back. It's a couple of Chinese characters, which I'll run through our databases and also send to the FBI, with your permission."

"Go for it." I said. "But do it by the expedient of calling Jack Muscone and sending it to him and his team for processing. We've got to keep this one under wraps from the Media. In fact..."

I raised my voice: "I want to make damn sure we get no press leaks of this. Do not speak of this to anyone, anyone at all, not your wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, friends, neighbors, priests... nobody at all. I will be very pissed if this gets out to the Media.

Very

pissed. Okay, carry on." To emphasize my point, I turned to leave, so that those words would have a semblance of finality with everyone present.

"Sir," said Lieutenant Masters, "can I call in Dr. Karpathian to see this? It's obviously a copycat crime, but she's studied the original Black Widow cases, and she might can give us some insight."

I thought about it, then said "Sure, bring her down if she's available, but if she can't come right away then she'll have to miss seeing it. We need to process this quickly and efficiently and be done before the Press gets wind of it. Okay, I've seen all I need to. Ross, we'll have a meeting this afternoon. The Chief is invited, but he has to bring doughnuts if he comes."

"Heh heh heh heh." chuckled Moynahan. "You have a deal, Mr. Crowbar. Captain Ross, a moment, please."

"Ross," he said, knowing I could hear him, "keep an eye on the Iron Crowbar. If he shows any signs of emotional issues, let me knooooow."

"Already on it, Chief." said Cindy, very directly and brutally, looking me squarely in the eyes. I just nodded acquiescence. Cindy and I left.

"By the way... good luck with that." Cindy said as we got into my Police SUV.

"With what?" I asked, not comprehending, thinking hard about the case.

"The Media not finding out."

"Yeah, I hear you." I said. "By the way, my instructions there apply to certain Assistant District Attorneys you might happen to know."

"Jenna's too busy running for D.A." said Cindy.

"How's that going?" I asked.

"Okay." Cindy said. The abruptness of her voice was my cluuuue that things were not all that 'okay', but I did not persist in that line of inquiry.

Part 3 - Investigational Issues

The meeting at 2:00pm in the Main Conference Room was attended by Sheriff Daniel Allgood, Police Chief Sean Moynahan, myself, Captain Ross, Lieutenant Masters, Detectives Diana Torres, Theo Washington, Joanne Cummings, David Krueger and Teddy Parker, newly-promoted Crime Lab Supervisor J.R. Barnes, and Commander Della Harlow. In addition, I had invited our friends of the FBI to the meeting, and Special Agents Jack Muscone, Sandra Speer, Eduardo Escobar and Lindy Linares were here.

There were also two other people there: SBI Lieutenant Tanya Perlman, and University Professor of Psychology Bonnie Karpathian.

The SBI had tried to muscle in on the case, stating that the crime occurred on State property. That was in question, but Sheriff Daniel Allgood had told the SBI they were not welcome... and that the Iron Crowbar was prepared to make them feel 'most unwelcome' in a crowbar-beatdown kind of way. State Regional Director Harold Bennett suggested Lt. Perlman be the liaison, which made me and Cindy blanch. But Tanya herself assured us it would be okay.

And Dr. Bonnie Karpathian was there at the invitation of Chief Moynahan and Lt. Masters. Indeed, she was writing her book about Angela Harlan, the Black Widow, and was researching our files as well as interviewing officers. The book was nearly finished and due for publication soon, so I was told by my favorite secret source within the University Psychology Department.

"No lab results yet, and the autopsy is still in progress." said Barnes. "We're comparing the face paint and lipstick to what was used by Harlan in the original crimes. We're checking the blood for poisons, we're running DNA tests, etc. etc. etc. One interesting thing about this scene that was

not

common with the Harlan crime scenes is that we believe the victim's penis was sheathed in a condom, and then the condom was taken away. So we don't even know if it was a woman that's copying Harlan, or if it's an all-male cast that killed this poor guy."

"The phone that called the apartment manager was a burner phone." said David Krueger. "Purchased at Wal-Mart one month ago. It is currently not pinging any cell tower in the Nation."

"Commander, any ideas who might be behind this?" asked the Sheriff.

"No sir." I said. "We have no data yet; we don't even have the autopsy or lab data on the blood work."

The Sheriff then surprisingly turned to the others and said "Agent Linares? Any of you FBI guys? Any ideas from any of you?"

"No, Sheriff." said FBI Agent Lindy Linares. "Like Commander Troy said, we're at the very beginning of this investigation. Besides the obvious copycatting of the Black Widow, we don't have any data yet."