The Knave of Jacks Ch. 04

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 12 - Flash Bang

"It's not what you think." said Brett Snow.

"I think it's you looking for Jeremy's cellphone, so you can break a huge story about the local Alternative Theater play having explicit, hardcore sex." said Phyllis.

"Okay, then it is what you think." replied Snow. "But I had nothing to do with Jeremy getting hurt."

"And why should we believe that?" asked Lt. Perlman sharply as she wheeled herself up to Phyllis and Brett. "What I see is you holding a cell phone you believe to be be his, after an unauthorized and illegal search while trespassing in this theater, and with us knowing for a fact that you, Mr. Snow, accompanied Jeremy back to this Theater Building after he came to you at the Student Newspaper offices, and very shortly before he was found fatally injured."

"First things first." said Phyllis. "Officer Tarleton, please make sure this man has no weapons or anything that can harm us or himself." Tarleton did so, thoroughly frisking Snow before forcing him to sit down.

"So, Mr. Snow," said Phyllis, "the floor is open. I would suggest you begin talking, and quickly. What happened that night?"

Snow recounted how Jeremy had come to his offices, told him about the hardcore sex at the play practice, and that he, Jeremy, had filmed some of it and then had hidden his cellphone.

"So you came in the building through the window before Jeremy did?" asked Phyllis.

"Yes." said Snow. "I was going to let him in. I'm taller than he is; it was easier for me to get through the window and to the floor without making noise. I also didn't tell him, but I didn't want him to get his cellphone without me observing it. I didn't want him changing his mind."

"So you opened the door to let him in, and *poof!* he was gone." said Phyllis. "Why didn't you look for the cellphone?... oh, you don't have to answer, I can tell you: you came on outside and the door locked behind you. You then saw Jeremy at the far end of the building, already having been attacked. You panicked and you ran back to your offices, is that not right?"

"Yes, that's right." said Snow.

"You're lying." said Tanya. "You could not have done that. Jeremy cried out when he was hit, and two Campus Police officers were already coming up to see what happened. You did go through the window back into the Theater Building, hid, and when the Campus Police came you came out behind them and said you were with the newspaper, and asked what was going on."

"You're damn lucky you weren't seen and arrested." said Phyllis. "If you had been, I doubt I could've saved you from being charged and convicted of the attack on Jeremy. But you can now redeem yourself greatly, Mr. Snow. Tell me this: you were watching the crime scene being investigated. What happened then?"

"More Campus Police came, including the 'big guy', Lt. Hanson." said Snow. "Then some SBI guys came and they started arguing about jurisdiction. All of the Campus Police left, and one of them whispered to me to come with them if I didn't want to get in trouble. So I went with them, and they later told me that the SBI guy was the head of the SBI's NTF, and was a really bad man."

"No doubt about that." said Tanya. "But you're pretty damn spineless for a wannabee-journalist. I can guarantee you that Bettina Wurtzburg would never, ever, have left that crime scene without being physically carried off."

"She has a crew protecting her." said Brett Snow. "I didn't. I also was able to get some information from the Crime Lab techs. And as this Detective just said, I was hip-deep in kim-shee if anyone realized that I had been at the Theater when Jeremy was attacked." Tanya remained unimpressed at Snow's lack of courage.

"Okay, Officer Tarleton," said Phyllis, "after taking Lt. Perlman back upstairs, you can take Mr. Snow here down to Campus Headquarters and get a statement from him. Mr. Snow, I'd suggest you not leave this County, or you could be facing some trespassing and evidence tampering charges."

After Tarleton took Snow off to the Campus Police station, Phyllis and Tanya were headed north towards the Crime Lab Building, Phyllis walking as Tanya drove her wheelchair along. Phyllis was introspective.

"So you don't think he's the killer?" asked Tanya.

"I don't know." said Phyllis. "He's going to find himself under arrest at the Campus Police Station. I didn't want to try anything in the Theater, as your mobility was limited in there, so Lt. Hanson will arrest him when he gets there. He'll have to accept ankle monitoring to go free. But as to his guilt? I might be wrong, but I'm inclined to believe his innocence."

"Because of the story he wanted to publish? That there was live sex in the play?" Tanya asked.

"That's a lot of it." said Phyllis. "He has no motive to kill Jeremy, except that Jeremy's impending death gives him an even bigger story: 'Live sex in theater play! Boy exposing it murdered!'. But it was a big enough story as it was."

"Are we overlooking the women in the play in all of this?" asked Tanya. "Stella has good reason to want to suppress the story. Pam is close to failing out of school, and this could cause her problems there."

"Do you think either girl could hit Jeremy as hard as he was hit?" asked Phyllis. "Not to mention having the capacity for evil to do it. No, my friend, it's pretty obvious who did do it. Did you not see how he gave himself away?------ Oh my, what's that?"

The soft pops of gunfire could be heard coming from Town, followed by the sharp wails of the sirens of TCPD Police cruisers...

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

**BANG!!**

The concussion of the flash grenade thrown by Callie reverberated down the hallway, and the thick tear gas of her second grenade impeded the men that had been converging on her and Eddy. Grabbing Eddy's hand, Callie pulled him down the hallway towards the metal door.

"Don't go through that one!" she yelled, pulling him to the left as he was about to attack the door. "Over here!" Just down this narrow hallway was another fire escape door. It actually opened. The other one had been rigged to remain locked, and to set off an alarm that would lock the other doors, trapping them inside.

Callie burst out of the building into the alley, followed by Eddy. She ran for what looked like some boxes about 80 feet down the alley just as Jamie Silver's Security perps came bursting out the door and began firing at them with semi-auto pistols!

"DIVE!" yelled Callie, suiting the deed to her word as she scurried behind the boxes. Eddy followed closely as bullets whizzed just inches over his head and back.

More perps poured out of the building from around the side and through other doors. They began running toward the boxes... when suddenly three dozen red dots of laser sights trained upon them glowed brightly on their white shirts.

"POLICE! DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND RAISE YOUR HANDS!" yelled a command over a megaphone. Seeing that they were being encircled and trapped, the perps complied.

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

"Shit." said Jaime Silver, who was inside the building and becoming aware of the situation. "You guys hit the tunnels. Meet at the safehouse. Go!" The security guys all moved quickly to the basement, and to a sewer drain. Going down the ladder, heedless of what the grime was doing to their suits and shirts, they dropped into the tunnels below.

As they went down a tunnel, they found that one of the crossing tunnels was blocked... and then found those bright red laser dots trained on them.

"POLICE!" yelled a voice. "Drop your weapons!"

These were not Westboro's amped-up troops that would fight to the death or die by suicide. Silver's men surrendered.

Part 13 - Wrap-Up

"The good news is: the Police did not fire a single shot." reported Lt. Teresa Croyle. "The bad news is: Jaime Silver got away. No sign of him at all."

We were at County Jail. The perps were being processed, charged with a number of felony crimes. Statements were being taken on videocamera, including Callie's and Eddy's version of what happened. I was in the adjacent 3d Precinct Conference Room with Cindy, and we were furiously typing on our laptops, gathering and collating information.

"It's really good our guys didn't shoot." I said. "Saves us from a huge indemnification issue with Callie and Eddy. How are they, by the way?"

"Callie's excited." said Teresa. "She absolutely loved it. If we gave her a bed, she'd make three porn films within the next ninety minutes." I chuckled out loud at that one, and marveled at Teresa's astuteness in her comment.

Teresa continued: "Eddy's okay, also. No injuries to anyone to report, at least none that have been relayed to me."

"Good." I said. As Teresa turned for the door, I said "Lieutenant Croyle!" She turned back and I said "You did a damn good job tonight. Really excellent. I will be telling the Chief and the Sheriff that it is not possible for me to be any more proud of you than I am right now." Cindy smiled at my words as she vigorously nodded in agreement.

"Thank you, sir." said Teresa. If she was flattered or happy with the praise, she did not show it. "I had a great team working for me."

"Yes, and extend my congratulations to them, as well." I said. "You can go." With that dismissal, Teresa exited the room.

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

Katherine Woodburn was lying on her back, naked, her shapely legs draped over her young aide Clark's legs as he lay on top of her, pumping his large cock steadily in and out of her tight, wet cunt.

It had been an exciting evening, as a small orgy had been going on. Thomas P. Cook had been fucking Gloria Cagle, his cock pumping her sodden twat as his mouth sucked her luscious breasts, the best breasts Katherine had ever seen. Katherine wondered why the girlfriend of T-Square's lieutenant, T-Mac, was spreading her legs for Cook, and wondered if Cook knew who Gloria was. She would later find out that he did not... and Katherine did not intend to tell him.

Then the gunfire had started, along with all the Police sirens. Everyone instinctively got up and started making phone calls to find out what was going on. In her position as State Senator, Katherine needed to know these things well ahead of anyone else, if possible.

Gloria had taken the opportunity to sneak out of there and go home, leaving Thomas P. Cook unsatisfied, with very blue balls. Katherine did nothing to help; instead, she had Clark bring her home and continue his excellent work of fucking her brains out as she worked to drain his balls of their potent load...

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

"That was close." Jaime Silver said, his voice quiet and even, seemingly not angry. "But I always know where the exits are, and I had an extra little bolt hole to escape to."

"Just about all of the men you had there were captured by the Police." said his assistant Tony, who had not been at the Cook property, but at the safehouse, a modest but unexceptional home in a middle-class subdivision.

"They were expendable." said Silver. "Hired to be security and muscle. Weinstein knew that when he made the contacts to hire them."

"So the Iron Crowbar can't get to you through them?" asked Tony.

"Likely not, but with that man, you never know." said Silver. "And I have to admit, I was warned about Commander Troy. He is definitely everything our contact here says he is. And our contact was also correct in saying that Thomas P. Cook is not a trustworthy person to be doing business with. Bad karma seems to follow that man."

"So we're not going to be setting up any operations here?" asked Tony.

"After tonight, you might think we wouldn't try." said Silver. "But there's plenty of bookmaking to do, sports betting and the like. And we now know for a fact that the Iron Crowbar is watching us. So we'll just have to be more careful. That resort in Nextdoor County might be a better option for us, as well."

"Yes, I agree." said a voice.

Wallace Bedford came into the room, two bodyguards attending him. "Yes, Mr. Silver," he said, "you'll need to stay out of this County and avoid the Iron Crowbar's prying eyes for a while. This little episode has taught us all a few things about our adversary. He is cunning, he is brilliant, and he is a leader of people that can get things done. God! how I'd love to have him on our side! But since that is not possible, we must watch out for him."

"I agree, sir." said Silver. "What now?"

"Just keep infiltrating Weinstein and the filthy Jews." said Bedford. "It may not be for some months, next year even, but we'll give you the signal when all is ready..."

Part 14 - Pop Quiz

Sunday morning, September 25th. I was sitting in my office, reading the reports of the arrests made and the progress made in the case of the assault on young Jeremy. My mother was sitting in the 'hot chair' in front of my desk, and Tanya Perlman was in her wheelchair next to my mom.

"Since Paulina Patterson is not here right now," I said, "I'll channel her and ask you how you expect her to get a conviction, here."

"I admit that it's circumstantial." said my mother. "But the perp gave himself away, as I outlined in my report."

"I can't wait to read it, and find out who it is." said Tanya.

"Isn't it obvious, my dear?" Phyllis asked.

"Obvious to us, Mom." I said. "Not so much to the twelve souls of a Jury, who will be making a life-or-death judgment on this guy. So, how do you plan to proceed?"

"I was hoping to get you help on this, son." said my mother. "No one can get a legal confession like you do." Tanya grinned at that one, especially the word 'legal'.

"All right." I said. "Let's work fast, before this guy gets good legal representation." Alas, I was already too late. The Duty Desk Sergeant knocked on my door.

"Sir," he said, "we have a lawyer from Chase, Lynch, & Berry in the front lobby. Says he's representation for that Ken guy that's at Precinct 2."

"Okay," I said, "tell him his client is at Precinct 2. Then call Precinct 2 and tell them that the Commander will be down to interrogate Ken, so have Ken in their Interrogation Room. The lawyer can see his client, but under no circumstances is Ken to walk out of there until I get there." The Duty Desk Sergeant stalked off to fulfill my 'requests'.

"Okay, ladies, get your derrières moving to Precinct 2." I said. As they left to load up in Tanya's van, I made some phone calls...

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

"You've got no jurisdiction here." snarled H.J. Lynch, Ken's new lawyer, to me as we stood in the front lobby of Precinct 2, in the Old Mill building. "I demand you release my client into my custody. Immediately."

"Buddy, you make no demands to me." I said, my voice ugly. "I've got your boy for 72 hours for evading Police and resisting arrest, and I'll hold him unless and until the Campus Police come and get him. You don't look like the Campus Police to me, Lynch."

"More of your bullying tactics, Troy." said Lynch, whose personal hatred of the Police was matched only by his Law Firm's fellow partners. "Again, you have no probable cause to hold my client, and you have no jurisdiction... and I contend that the traffic stop is not enough to hold him. I'm going to barbecue you in Court, Troy."

"You really need to record some new material, Lynch." I replied. "These same tired old lines of yours continue to not work. Now I'm going to go talk to your client. You gonna do your job and represent him?"

"No, and I demand you say nothing to him nor try to interrogate him until I'm back from the Courthouse... filing an injunction against you over the jurisdiction issue." snarled Lynch.

"Let me save you the trouble." said a voice behind us. Sheriff Daniel Allgood was striding up to us, wearing his Western shirt with a bolo tie, khaki pants, brown boots and White Stetson hat. "I'm claiming jurisdiction over your client in my capacity as County Sheriff. And I'm formally asking for Commander Troy's assistance with this case."

Lynch swore under his breath, then said "I want to talk to my client alone first."

"Take your time." I said. "I've got all day." That was a little message to say that I could wait out any delaying tactics by Lynch. He gave me a furiously ugly look as he strode off to talk to his client.

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

SBI Lt. Tanya Perlman wheeled into the Interrogation Room, followed by Your Iron Crowbar. I'd asked my mom to stay in the anteroom and watch with the Sheriff and Precinct Captain Thompson, so that we weren't seen together. I didn't want the perp nor Lynch to see our family resemblance.

"Okay, Ken," I said as I sat down across from Ken, with Tanya pulling up next to me, "I am going to read you your rights." I did so from the card. Ken nodded that he understood the rights.

"I'm invoking my Fifth Amendment rights." he said immediately. "I will not answer any of your questions."

"You don't have to." I said. "But you might get the death penalty off the table, after your conviction for Jeremy's murder, if you save the State the expense of a trial and just confess."

"Stop harassing my client!" yelled Lynch, whose face suddenly turned beet red. "Stop your God-damned intimidation tactics! I swear to God I'm going to have you brought up on charges!"

"Charge away." I replied with unnerving calmness. "I think your client knows that I'm not bullying him, I'm not trying to intimidate him... and I am not bluffing. Lieutenant?"

Tanya peered at Ken. "We know you killed Jeremy, Ken. And we can prove it. You may not realize it, but you messed up, and your words were all but a confession. Add to it that you are the only one involved with Jeremy that had motive, means, and opportunity, and that you have no other human eyes on you at the crucial times of the attack upon Jeremy."

"Yeah?" snarled Lynch. "Show us what you got, missy. Prove it."

"We will." I said. "And we will show it at the preliminary hearing. Oh, this is very interesting..." I picked up a copy of the script of the play 'The Knave' and held it up. "Seems a tire iron is a prop that is used near the end of the play... we're getting affidavits that there was a tire iron used during previous rehearsals... but it's nowhere to be found now. I don't suppose that tire iron is going to be found in your dorm room, Ken? Oh, speaking of jurisdiction, the Campus Police have it, and they are the ones executing a warrant to search your dorm room, Ken. Think they'll find a tire iron with Jeremy's blood and brains on it?"

"I swear to God, these intimidation tactics and lies are all you've got, Troy." huffed Lynch. "Don't let him intimidate you, Ken." Nevertheless, Ken looked worried.

Just then there was a knock on the door. In walked SBI Agents Ted Crenshaw and Carter Fischer. Crenshaw was holding a tire iron, secured in an evidence bag. "We took samples from it." he said. "Lt. Perlman's techs are processing them now. But it's enough. Commander, we need to take custody of Ken right now. For aggravated assault, which will become murder when Jeremy is taken off life support."

"Have at him." I said. "Lt. Perlman, I'm sure your lab will do their usual excellent job, and you did a great job on this case, as well. God! how I miss having you working with me!"