Sperm Wars 4: The Family Menace
The order of my stories to read is:
Todd & Melina series.
Interludes 1-5
Sperm Wars series.
Before voting or commenting, please remember that these stories are building up to future stories with better sex and you-solve-it police cases. The Sperm Wars series is a necessary prequel to those stories.
The story is told in disjointed and time-shifting format... on purpose.
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 16 - Darkness and Dawn
Cold. So cold.
I realized I was awake, and it was cold. I was cold. The only sensation I could feel at that moment was the cold.
I looked up at the faces hovering over me, blurred faces without form, the sounds they were making unintelligible. It took a moment for my eyes to clear and realize they were EMTs.
As my consciousness fully returned, so did the pain. The intense pain in my left side, the throbbing ache in the back of my head.
"Easy, Detective." one of the EMTs said. "Lie still. You're wounded."
"Wait..." I said as I remembered. I raised my head as much as I could, through the pain. I saw what I wanted to see. "Don't let that guy get away." I said, trying to point at the other person lying on the ground, surrounded by EMTs and two uniformed police officers.
"He's not going anywhere." Detective Cindy Ross said, coming into my view. "We've got him. Hugh and I are here and taking care of everything. You just relax, Don, okay?"
"The kids..." I asked.
"They're fine." Ross replied. "Okay guys, get him to the hospital."
As I felt myself being loaded onto the ambulance, my mind was in rewind, playing over the events that had led to this moment...
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It was nearly a week after the murder of Nurse Anna, and there had not been a single lead on Ned nor Elizabeth's whereabouts. While it was likely Elizabeth had left town, I suspected that Ned was still in the area, and had put out bulletins to the Force to be on the lookout for him.
"Teresa made a great point," Cindy Ross said to me and Lt. Britt Maxwell that evening as we wound down and chatted at the Cop Bar after work, "but she doesn't want anyone in Vice knowing she said anything to us." This bothered me, as the intra-Force divisions leading to failures to communicate were hurting the Police Department, but I said nothing as I listened to Cindy.
Cindy continued "She said that you missed one obvious thing: that if Elizabeth and Ned are part of a drug ring, they must've had contacts, and they've had those contacts for some considerable time. Maybe even before your problems with them last summer."
"That
*IS*
a good point." I acknowledged. "Britt, was there ever any information that Ned was trafficking while he was in school last year?"
"No." Lt. Maxwell replied, "but who knows what drugs he was making behind Dr. Heinz's back, and he well could have been distributing during that time."
Britt frowned as she thought about it. "But I'll tell you this, Don: when I looked further into Ned's activities with those designer drugs back then, I got warned off, fast and hard. Everyone from President Wellman to FDA Agent Fred Dixon to Professor Fredricson made sure to let me know that the case was in, and I quote, 'higher hands', and that I need not waste my valuable time looking into it."
"And then yesterday, after the revelations about Tony and the performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) that Ned was making came out, President Wellman invited me to lunch and made sure to mention that that case needed to be pursued 'in the quietest way possible.'"
"Sure," I said, "that's totally understandable: the President does not want his school's football team to come under NCAA scrutiny. That's the 'cash cow' around here. Oh well, I'm not interested in them; they'll likely have to come up with a new source for any PEDs they want to cheat with. I'm more interested in getting a murderer off the streets."
"You mean two murderers, don't you?" Cindy asked.
I looked at her. "I've been thinking about that. Elizabeth is certainly guilty of being part of all this, but I'm not sure she intended for any of these murders to happen. If we catch her, don't be surprised if she tries to cut a deal and puts it all on Ned." I got up. "And she may be telling the truth, if what I'm thinking is right."
Just then Officer Pete Feeley, a uniformed officer who strongly desired to become a Detective, came rushing in, still in his uniform. "Big one!" he said, stopping at our table. "Two children have been kidnapped. Separate incidents." We scrambled.
Part 17 - The Set-Up
7:00am the next morning, after a sleepless night, I turned on the TV to catch the morning news.
"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" the attractive redheaded reporter almost shouted into the microphone from her position in front of the Government buildings in Town Square, where the Media usually delivered their reports. They had been banished from the grounds of Police Headquarters the instant I was hired onto the Force. It is possible that THAT might have been my first and only requirement made of them when I was offered the job.
"Channel Two News has learned that there has been a third kidnapping of a child. Eight-year-old Katie Gibson was taken from her mother at gunpoint last night outside the west end Target store. Little Rachel Fourier and young Alton Taylor were taken earlier in the day in two daring kidnappings made in broad daylight."
"Channel Two News has also learned that a ransom for the three has been delivered to the Police Department for all three children." How did
THAT
leak, I wondered as I watched Bettina Wurtzburg continue her report. "The ransom is for $200,000 total, and the kidnapper has made his identity known. His name is Bobby Joe Graves, who police say has a long criminal record. Channel Two News could only confirm that Graves has demanded that the ransom be delivered by a Town Police Officer, but has not given the location to deliver the ransom as of this morning. Channel Two News will break in with any developments in this serious case just as soon as we get the information. This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News." She was almost smiling as she delivered this devastating report, and I wondered if her glee came from knowing she was leaking police information, or having a big story to report... or the kidnappings themselves. With the Press, there was no telling.
Have I mentioned that I am NOT a fan of the Press?
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"Don," Chief Griswold said solemnly, his face a mask of worry, "the kidnapper has demanded that you personally deliver the ransom."