Fire in the Embers

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 21 - Interdictions

It was the early morning hours of Saturday, November 14th. And I was facing the greatest crisis of my TCPD career, maybe even worse than the time my nephew Ned fired a bullet into me in the Ward Harvester warehouse. It was now time to resolve this crisis, for better or for worse...

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

The KSTD news van was parked at the Fairgrounds, and they were watching Police Headquarters like hawks. This did not suit Your Iron Crowbar very well at all, and I had Police cruisers ready.

As the 'Tunnel Rats' SWAT Team pulled out, one KSTD van tried to follow them, when one Police car cut them off and another came up behind, blue lights flashing. When the KSTD van tried to go around, they were stopped again, and the crew inside arrested for trying to evade Police.

Another van tried to follow Teresa's squad, and they were likewise stopped by Police cruisers. They did not try to flee, and so were not arrested, but held in place for the next hour.

I had Cindy in my Police SUV, and we drove out of Headquarters and went north, the opposite direction of Fillmore Pharmacy and the impending raid. This was in case anyone else was watching me. Sure enough, yet another KSTD van began following us. I radioed the Police cruiser behind them to not pull them over until we reached the Bypass Road. Once there, the van was interdicted.

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

The Tunnel Rats came out of their van in an alley behind another building, where they were completely hidden. They rushed to a manhole, opened it, and went down into a tunnel. They had night vision goggles and ultraviolet lights that couldn't be seen but gave them them the ability to see.

They arrived at the 'T'. To the right was the tunnel that led to the back of Fillmore Pharmacy's basement. They blew up what looked like a rubber raft to block the perps trying to go the other way, and they were on the near side, ready for a party. The leader had the last man run to the manhole and up, to give a radio signal that they were in place.

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

"There's the signal." Teresa whispered. They were down the road from Fillmore Pharmacy, which stood alone on what seemed to be a bit higher elevation than other buildings. The approach would be difficult, but there was an unpaved access alley that was dark, with woods on the other side. Some officers would guard the back door in case someone tried to run out that way, but it was the front door through which they would go.

Patrol cars had ridden by but did not stop there, in case anyone inside was watching. Spotters with infrared binoculars had crept up around buildings on the other side of the street, seeing if they could spot heat signatures inside. There had been one or two earlier, but now there were none.

"Ready?" Teresa whispered. Hugh gave a thumbs-up. He went forward with several men. One had a battering ram. Like lightning, the ran up the steps to the door, and battered in the door. They silently cleared the front rooms, then two men cleared the back area that had been the pharmacy part.

At the same time, Teresa led more men to the basement door. One man had a huge metal shield and led the way, Teresa right behind him, using him and his shield for cover. He couldn't really fire; if they met the Enemy, she would begin shooting.

And she did.

Ratta-tatta-tatta!

The perps had swarmed out of a room to the left just as the front man got to the bottom step, firing their military-style weapons. Teresa fired around the side of the shield, and the four perps ran pell-mell the other way down the dark hallway. As Teresa and her team edged forward, they heard yells way down that passage to halt, followed by an exchange of gunfire, then silence.

Teresa got to the room which was was a cage. Seeing through it, she saw Gor-don on the right side bed, sitting naked, his hands in the air. Then, on the left side, Jenna came into view. She was lying on the bed, naked, barely conscious.

"Oh my God." Teresa whispered, then went into the room. "Are there any booby traps in here?" she called out to Gor-don.

"No." he said. Teresa got to Jenna, looking around for something to cover her with. Someone brought her a blanket.

"Jenna, are you with me?" Teresa asked. Jenna opened her eyes, barely, then nodded.

"Stay with me, Jenna." Teresa said. "Medics are on the way."

"Where's.... Cindy...." Jenna whispered.

"She's upstairs." Teresa said. "The Iron Crowbar held her back, in case..." She did not need to say more.

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

Upon hearing the 'Go' signal on the radio, I turned on the blue lights and sirens and tore down University Avenue to Jefferson Avenue, as did a number of other Police cruisers. Hurtling through the streets, Cindy and I got there right before the EMTs did. I did not let her go inside, of course. We watched as EMTs took stretchers into the building.

By this time, KXTC vans were pulling up. Having shown restraint and decorum, they were getting exclusive footage that KSTD would not be getting. Sergeant Rudistan already had a cordon around the area and was keeping the reporters back. Bettina was there, trying to get my attention, but I waved her off.

The first stretcher that came out carried Gor-don on it. He was put in one of the two ambulances at the scene, which drove off to University Hospital. Then the second stretcher came out, and Cindy rushed to it. She held her face firm as the EMT's loaded Jenna in the vehicle, and let Cindy get in with her.

Once inside, Cindy could not hold back the tears. "Oh my God, what did they do to you?"

Jenna looked up through her swollen eyes. "I was wondering where you were." she tried to joke.

"It took the Iron Crowbar himself to keep me from rushing down there." Cindy said. She gently patted Jenna's hair back from her face. "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry..."

"It wasn't your fault..." Jenna said. She tried to reach up to touch Cindy's face. Cindy took Jenna's hand into her own.

"Just relax, baby." Cindy said. "We're taking you to the Hospital..."

Part 22 - Aftermath Of Horror

I looked at the metal shield the first SWAT man had used as they descended the stairs. The bulletproof glass square giving him vision was okay. But there were four deep pockmarks where submachine gunfire had struck the shield.

"That takes some stones, to walk into that." I said. "Great jobs, guys."

"Just doing our job, sir." said Hugh Hewitt. "We got the hostages alive. Too bad we can't say that about the perps."

Once the perps had realized they were trapped and going to be captured, they'd all taken cyanide. Two had been mortally wounded by SWAT gunfire, but had been able to bite down on their cyanide capsules, which I surmised were in their mouths when they tried to flee.

Fingerprints would later show them to be ex-cons with long rap sheets, and all of them recent parolees of the State Prison System. Jack Muscone made special note of that and sent a report to his FBI colleagues...

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

It was four o'clock in the morning. A SWAT Team had gone to the manhole at Courthouse Square, gone into the tunnel and searched around, but had found nothing. I'd told them to be watchful of booby traps and bombs, but they found none of those, either.

I told Myron to destroy the DVDs he'd made from the files on the servers, which he immediately did as Jack Muscone and I watched.

It might have been for the good that Jenna Stiles was in and out of consciousness at the hospital. Crime Lab people were taking samples, including the rape kit. The doctors had confirmed that Jenna had been raped multiple times, and that she had been severely beaten as well. There were small cracks in the bones around her eyes and her jaw, but they were hopeful her sight would not be affected. She had bruises all over her.

Gor-don had bruising on his face, especially his cheeks, but no broken bones, no hairline fractures. He had some bruising on the back of his thighs and his buttcheeks, but the doctor said he'd not been anally assaulted. He was giving statements to Detectives Nash and Cummings already, but it'd be some time before we'd get Jenna's statement.

I felt exhausted as I went into the Chief's conference room. Inside were the Chief, Sheriff Daniel Allgood, D.A. Krasney, and Jack Muscone.

"Excellent work, Commander." Moynahan said as I closed the door and sat down in the nearest chair, to the Chief's right. He was at the end of the table nearest the door, the Sheriff across from me, Krasney to my right.

"Not me." I replied. "The SWAT Team and Lieutenant Croyle and her Vice Squad got them back alive. Vice and their C.I.s got us the info on Fillmore Pharmacy, and Detective Cummings made the observations and deductions."

"Chief Griswold was right, you are too modest." said Chief Moynahan. "I saw great leadership tonight, under the most extreme durrrressss. You were the glue that put that all together, kept it together, and everyone else was feeding off of that. You planned the raid, then let the right people lead it."

"I totally agree." said Daniel Allgood. "And I'm proud of the entire Force. By the way, KSTD is screaming about their vans being pulled over, but I'll handle them myself." I nodded.

"So why was Stiles kidnapped?" asked Krasney, his voice surly and unfriendly. "Why did they kidnap her and brutalize her?"

"She's an A.D.A., she's Cindy's fiancée, she was a target of opportunity." I said. "I tried to warn everyone that there was danger, that something was up..."

"So what happened?" demanded Krasney. "How did they get her?"

"From Gor-don's statements," I said tiredly, "it would appear that they were getting into her car at the Courthouse when two men jumped into the backseat and put guns to their heads. They told Jenna to drive to the alley where we found the car. The perps then put blindfolds on them and drove them to where we now know is Fillmore Pharmacy."

"What I'm getting at, Commander," snarled Krasney, "is that they kidnapped, raped and beat her to get at

you

. To force

you

to give up those tapes. They must be really desperate for those Burke tapes."

The anger in the D.A.'s voice built as he continued: "What the hell is on them, Commander?

Why

do so many people want them, and so badly? And don't tell me about some Federal agent being on the tapes... there is something on those tapes the perps want, and my ADA was brutalized and nearly killed to get that information. What is going on, here?"

"Lighten up, Krasney." said Sheriff Allgood. "The Commander is working his ass off trying to solve this."

"Dammit, Sheriff!" Krasney shouted, his restraint breaking. "I've got a woman in the hospital here! We're supposed to be working together, as a team, to put criminals away! But I can't help you do that if you keep me in the dark!"

Sheriff Allgood and Jack Muscone were both ready to reply, and not necessarily verbally, but I held up my hand. I spun my chair around to face the District Attorney.

"All right, Mr. Krasney." I said. "If you want the tapes, I'll give them to you. Except for the Federally classified one. I'll give them to you, and you can try to find for yourself what's so fucking important that someone was ready to take it to the mattresses over. It's not like I haven't spent hours, even full nights of my life trying to figure it out, but if you want a shot at the title, by all means I'll let you go for it."

"That's not what I was trying to say----" said Krasney, but I stopped him.

"You've been here longer than me, Krasney." I said. "You've seen the corruption that was going on, firsthand. Your own ADA Sanders was a racist, and you let it slide. You know there was a lot of shit going on, including the unsolved murder of our last Sheriff, the attempt on the present one when he was a candidate, several attempts to kill me and some of my Officers----"

"The last Sheriff had a heart attack, he wasn't murdered!" gasped Krasney. I just looked at him with an 'Oh really.' look, and he began thinking about it. My eyes bore into him.

"What you are seeing, Krasney," I said, "is the last gasp of the criminals that won't let go, that are fighting for their worthless, criminal lives. And they are going to be exterminated, no matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes. My only question is: are you with me? Or not?"

The room was deafeningly silent.

"It's very late, gentlemen." said Moynahan. "We've had a long, long night. Fortunately, Ms. Stiles and Mr. Gor-don have survived, and it's time to get some rest. I'm going home, and I fully expect you, Commander Troy, to do the same. Go home, pet your dog, hug your kids, kiss your wife, and then get some sleep." Everyone but Krasney got up and left the room. He was only now realizing how deep and muddy the waters were.

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

I went home. Laura was already asleep, having put the children to bed. Bowser bounded downstairs, very happy to see me. I sat down on the sofa in the den with him, and gave him a good skritchin' for a few minutes. Then I took him out to the backyard to do his business, while the cold helped me to think.

As I sat on the patio chair, I realized that the Consultant of Crime had gone over the line in his desperation to find the Burke tapes. I could understand; the information I now had was the starting point that would put him in prison for the rest of his life, if he avoided the death penalty. But more than that, I wanted him to know the public shame and humiliation of being exposed for what he was: consummate Evil.

He was a cool and desperate man, but he would pay for what he'd done to Jenna. And I hoped that his most recent, failed salvo would be his last, that more innocents would not have to suffer as we conducted our desperate battle.

My hopes would be in vain...

Part 23 - Saturday Sparks

Saturday, November 14th, started off with me not waking up until 11:00am. Exhausted after two long days of police work and two long nights of raids, I slept in. Lt. Masters had a good system in place for the football game traffic to come, and Chief Moynahan was using the opportunity to learn our systems and our Officers. I also knew that Jenna Stiles would need more time to recover, and Cindy was still at the hospital with her.

I was awakened by something crawling on me. Opening my eyes, I saw a toddler that was my daughter right in my face. "Wake up, dad-dy." she said, grinning. I smiled back, then looked up. Laura was standing by the bed, having put Carole on top of me.

"Hey, Carole!" I said, wrapping my arms around her in a big hug. "Give me a biiiiig bear hug!" Carole spread her arms and tried to hug me as I squeezed her gently in a big bear hug. Carole began laughing, as she always did.

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

It was nearly noon, and I was in my office at Headquarters. I had the ballgame on the television in my office, and the University was beating a Conference opponent. After this would be an open date, and then the big one... State Tech. After what had happened to Nick Eastwood the year before, I knew that one was going to get ugly. Alas, I had no time to think about it. Sheriff Allgood was at my door.

"Come on in, Sheriff." I said. He came in and closed the door, and sat down at my hand-gesture invitation.

"Really good work last night." Daniel said. "All of your people were magnificent."

"Thanks." I said. "I totally agree. So what brings you here?"

"How's Cindy doing?" Daniel asked.

"I think she's holding up okay." I said. "Her father, Dr. Eckhart, came to the Hospital last night and stayed with her for a long time. Nothing I can think of could've been better for her..."

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

Indeed...

While I'd been at Headquarters the night before, supervising the aftermath of the raid, Cindy was in a waiting room at the hospital, with only Molly with her at the moment.

Molly told me later that Cindy was barely responsive, just staring forward, not saying anything... and then Molly looked up to see the shock of white hair and the elderly man beneath it. Dr. P. Harvey Eckhart, founder and great leader of 'The Vision' self-help group, had come. Molly excused herself, saying she was going to go get Ross and go to The Cabin.

"Father," Cindy said as Eckhart had sat down beside her, "it's late, and it's cold outside. You shouldn't be here."

"My dear," Eckhart said, "for years I had to watch from afar as you struggled with your problems and your life. I had to see you lying in a hospital bed yourself, nearly dead, and I could not help you like I wanted to. I could not be there as the father I wanted to be to you. Now I can come and hug you and help you, so would you please be kind enough to indulge an old man and let me be a father to you?"

"Of course." Cindy said, leaning into his arms. "I'm sorry. I'm grateful you're here."

"So am I." said Eckhart. "And I'm ready to help young Jenna recover from her ordeal, to the best of my meager abilities. But I'll not get in the way of Dr. Fredricson and her fellow psychiatrists. They are wonderful people, and Dr. Yates is one of the best in the entire Nation. Jenna will get through this. We all will get through this."

"Thank you, Father." Cindy whispered. Eckhart would end up getting Cindy to go home. While she cleaned up and took a shower, he exhibited his cooking skills and prepared a fulfilling breakfast for them. Cindy didn't want to eat, but her father cajoled her into it, and she finally realized she was starving and cleaned her plate. Then she headed back to the hospital.

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

Back in the present, in my office in Headquarters, I stared right through Daniel as I said "Okay, so why are you

really

here?"

Daniel gave me a brief smile in acknowledgement, then said "Just want you to know that KSTD filed a legal complaint against the TCPD for interdicting their news vans." Seeing my face, he quickly said "Now before you get upset, let me just say that D.A. Krasney issued a press statement promising a vigorous defense of the TCPD, and actually said that if KSTD had their way, the hostages would be dead and the criminals free due to KSTD's attempt to interfere, and that the Police actions to interdict the KSTD trucks saved innocent lives."

"Wow." I said. "Considering how fired up he was last night, at us, for this happening to one of his A.D.A.s, I'm surprised his defense is so vigorous."

"He knows that you and your people saved his ADA's life." Daniel said. "But what you need to know is that Robert Brownlee issued a public statement that you, and he named you personally, should be fired for interdicting KSTD and violating their Constitutional First Amendment rights."

"Their rights end where Jenna Stiles's nose and life begins." I said. "So what the fuck is Brownlee up to now? Just what is his game plan in doing that?" I was about to go into a reverie, when Daniel's voice cut through the haze of my mind.

"What I also came to tell you," said Daniel, "was that my wife and I were talking last night. She wonders how Jenna and Gor-don could have been ambushed so quickly and effectively. She wonders how the perps knew where they were, which car was hers, what time they were leaving..."