Trilogy: The Dawn's Early Light
The chronological order of my stories is as follows:
Todd & Melina series, Interludes 1-5, Sperm Wars series, Russian Roulette series, Case of the Murdered Lovers series, Case of the Murdered Chessplayer series, The Swap series, Interludes 6-10, The Murdered Football Player Series, Case of the Black Widow series, Teresa's Christmas Story, Case of the Black Badge series, A Case of Revenge series.
The Trilogy.
Feedback and
constructive
criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.
This story contains graphic scenes, extreme 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 or racist 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 8 - Opening a Media Can of...
On July 19th, Cindy Ross and Teresa Croyle sat in Cindy's hospital room and watched the special TV broadcast. The show was called '
Channel Two Magazine with Bettina Wurtzburg
', and was a half-hour primetime show.
Cindy had been making remarkable progress in her recovery, and was starting to bitch about things. Nurse Jones, the lovely black nurse that I had enjoyed several pleasurable sexual encounters with, had adopted Cindy as her special patient, and would fuss over her when Cindy tried to do to much. Cindy was irritated until I told her to just roll with it, that it was Nurse Jones's way of showing she how much she cared.
Seeing how Cindy was doing, the doctors were discussing letting her go home in a few more days, especially as she was getting restless and ornery, but they also didn't want her moving around a lot: her lung still needed healing time.
We'd been forewarned what the last segment of Bettina's TV magazine show would be about: Teresa Croyle. Bettina went through the story of Teresa's race with her sister Alexis, then her sister's death at the hands of a drunk driver, showing images of Alexis's gravesite, which Bettina had had to travel many miles to acquire. The reporterette glossed over Teresa's father's insanity.
There were clips of the Chief, of me, and especially of Harold Malone talking about Teresa's excellent police work in the Town & County Police Vice Squad, of her being wounded in making a drug raid, of her many successful arrests. But Bettina didn't gloss over what she reported next: "Detective Croyle was accused of assaulting a man in police custody last Christmas Eve. Dean Allen was drunk and had plowed into a car, killing a mother and her two children..." The screen showed that mother and two young children, then their graves.
The TV report continued: "Dean Allen's father, State Senator Nathan Allen, not only arranged for his son to receive a sweetheart plea deal and escape jail time, he forced Detective Croyle's resignation and banishment from the Town & County Police. She now works with another police department in the State. Phil Kearns, whose family was wiped out by Dean Allen, filed suit against the younger Allen... but then found himself kidnapped and incarcerated in the State Asylum on what has been determined to be an illegal warrant. He was only freed by an FBI raid on that facility several weeks ago. Local Police and the FBI believe Senator Allen was involved in the illegal warrant that had Kearns incarcerated."
Bettina ended with an absolutely devastating editorial comment: "So while Phil Kearns recovers from undeserved torture at the State Asylum and continues to cope with the death of his entire family, and while the Town & County Police have been denied the services of Detective Teresa Croyle, Dean Allen goes free... virtually unpunished for killing three people while drunk. And Senator Nathan Allen continues spending your tax dollars as a State Senator. One truly wonders where the Justice is in that. This is Bettina Wurtzburg for Channel Two Magazine. Good night."
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I entered Cindy's room moments later. "Good evening, ladies." I said as they tried to wipe away the evidence of tears shed over the last half hour.
"Was this your doing?" asked Teresa, her eyes boring into me.
"You better believe it was." I said, having no problem taking ownership of making that happen.
"Why?" Cindy asked, challenging me even while being laid up in a hospital bed. No bullets could take out her guts, I happily thought.
"Well," I said, "it goes like this: I need a leader for the Vice Squad, and the one I want by August 1st is sitting in this room right now. But in order to get Teresa reinstated, I need the Council to back me. In order to do that, I need the good People of the Town and County to let the Council know their views. To make sure those views are positive, I asked Bettina to make a few comments about Teresa's life and career, and I might have suggested mentioning the Allens as part of it. As you can see, my reasons are totally self-serving, purely selfish." My last comment fooled no one present.
"How in the world did Bettina get that by Katherine Woodburn?" Cindy asked, even as she was beginning to fall asleep.
"Woodburn is in Washington, D.C., meeting with the Democrat National Committee and other Media editors and publishers, to map campaign strategy in several States." I said. "Bettina went by the adage 'It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.'."
One look at Cindy showed me it was time to leave and let her sleep. I left her with her bodyguard and best buddy, and went to call Bettina and congratulate her on an outstanding news show...
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Dr. Wellman and Henry Wargrave had watched the TV special from the superlative comfort of Wargrave's study in his home, sipping rare and fine whiskeys as they viewed the broadcast.
"Very nice story." said Dr. Wellman.
"They left the most important name off the closing credits." said Wargrave, almost laughing with delight as he saw through the whole plan.
"Who's that?" asked Wellman.
"That story has 'Iron Crowbar' written all over it, in everything but a glowing neon sign." said Wargrave. "I'm not sure what he thinks he's doing, but it's going to be fun to watch Senator Allen whine about it for the next few days..."
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"Katherine, what the hell is going on?" screamed Senator Nathan Allen into the phone. "You're in Washington?... Listen, did you even see it before it aired? Do you realize the damage it's doing to me?.... Good for Harold Malone? Fine, but what about what your bitch reporter said about me and my boy?... Wait, don't you dare hang up..." Allen looked at his cell phone. "Goddammit, she hung up. She hung up!" he growled.
The several members of Allen's campaign staff, who had been called into his home for an emergency meeting just one hour after Bettina's broadcast, had sat silently through the phone call.
"I'm not sure anyone even watched that show, Senator." said his curly-black-haired campaign manager, trying to be positive.
"People will see just how biased it is." said the Queen of Opposition Research. "They'll know that this is a media collaboration with the Republicans and that it's full of lies."
"We're running some polls now, Senator, and will run some tomorrow." said the curly-brown-haired campaign staffer. "We'll know if there is any damage soon." He did not mention that it would be hard to further erode the reputation of Senator Nathan Allen.
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"Allegations that I was involved in sending Phil Kearns to the Asylum are totally ridiculous." said Sen. Allen to KXTC blonde reporterette Diane Williams in a spot interview the next day. "And that policewoman did assault my son while he was handcuffed and helpless, and she should've been prosecuted for her crimes instead of being allowed to resign from the force. The name of Teresa Croyle remains a stain on the good names of those wearing the blue uniforms of those who protect and serve our County..."
Diane Williams nodded as Allen spoke, getting the footage that Katherine Woodburn had ordered her to get, but knowing that this was not going to help the Senator's cause...
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"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" said the lovely reporterette on the morning of July 22d. Channel Two News polling has shown that Senator Nathan Allen's poll numbers have dropped to a staggering low of 34% over the weekend. Our report on Detective Teresa Croyle attained the highest ratings that program has ever had, and Townspeople are responding very favorably about her... and are increasingly angry at the Allens. Town & County Councilman John Colby has told Channel Two News that he has been inundated with calls and email contacts by citizens, requesting both the reinstatement of Detective Croyle to the Police Force and investigations into Senator Allen and his son Dean."
After a few more comments, Bettina then said "In much happier news, Detective Cindy Ross was released from University Hospital last night, and is continuing her recovery at home. Her doctors are absolutely stunned at how rapidly she has been able to recover from injuries that they said very likely should have been fatal. Police spokesman Lt. Scott Peterson has stated that Detective Ross will not return to active duty until she completes further rehab. Everyone at Channel Two News joins in the good wishes for Detective Ross to continue to make a full recovery. This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!"
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