1 comments/ 8074 views/ 9 favorites The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 01 By: WifeWatchman 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, The Case of the Black Badge series, A Case of Revenge series, Teresa's Summer Race, The Trilogy series, Dark Side Of The Force series, Caught In The Act series, Case of the Murdered Bride series, The Credit Card Caper series, The Hot Wives Investment Club series, Seriously Inconvenienced series, Case of the Paper Trail series, Christmas Mystery Theater, The Porno Set Mystery series. The Medical Murder Mystery, Ch. 1. 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: Auld Lang Syne It was New Year's Eve, and my wife Laura and I were attending the party at the home of the University President, Dr. Sidney P. Wellman and his lovely wife Sally. Laura liked coming to the Wellman's party on New Year's Eve because it was semi-formal and 'dressy', and my wife does like to dress up. Not that that's a complaint... Laura was looking gorgeous in her almost shimmery silver-gray dress and light silver-gray high heel pumps. I was wearing a suit, and a tie that almost matched Laura's silver-gray dress. 'Wildcat Red' was not in vogue in these parts. Despite the dressiness and formality, the Wellmans had invited personal friends to this party as opposed to a University Department or the Town & County officials, so it was a varied mix of people. Laura and I talked with Town & County Councilman John 'Jack' Colby and his wife, then Chief Griswold and his wife. At the stroke of midnight, Griswold would be retired, but he was feeling no pain and his cheeks were rosy as he was kept supplied with some high-quality bourbon. Some minutes later, Laura and I were talking to my nephew Todd and his gorgeous wife Jeanine, who was looking absolutely stunning in a clingy red dress and matching red pumps. Her cheeks were also seemingly flushed and rosy, giving rise to an observation and deduction. It was confirmed when, as Todd was telling me how well their business was getting off the ground, I heard my wife whisper to Jeanine "Have you told him yet?" and Jeanine replied "No, I'm waiting until we get home." The new Captain of Precinct Two, the large black athlete Damien Thompson, was at the party, and he introduced his wife, a lovely black woman named LaTasha. They were hot looking couple, I thought to myself as I talked to them. A moment later, ADA Franklin Washington, who was black, came up to our group and introduced his wife Susie... she was a white woman, older than him, at least in her 40s while he looked to be in his young 30s at the oldest. Susie was pretty, tall and lanky, nice legs, and her full head of brown hair was in gentle curls that reached down to her shoulders and back. Some moments later, as Laura and I talked with the Wellmans, Dr. Wellman noted that Daniel and Melina Allgood had sent regrets, citing Melina's advanced pregnancy. Sally asked "When is your sister's baby due?" "Officially, January 16th." Laura replied. "But to be honest with you, Melina looks like she's ready to have it any day now. Either I mis-timed the date, or he's going to be one very large baby. I've told her to rest and relax as much as she can." At one point in time Laura and I were standing together alone, both observing the other people, and probably making some disparate observations and deductions for later gossip. Then Laura asked me "So, darling, what is your New Year's resolution going to be?" "To make love with you more often." I replied, making my wife's eyes sparkle. "Well, I'll certainly do all I can to help you keep that one." said Laura. Then we both saw them. Dr. Richard Searles was the highly esteemed cardiologist at University Hospital. He was tall and distinguished, his hair just graying a bit... though I had a sense that he did that on purpose to give himself an even more distinguished look. He was in his upper-40s, and was ten years older than the woman with whom he'd entered the room: his lovely wife, Dr. Gloria Searles. A little jolt of electricity went through me at the sight of her. In her mid-thirties, Gloria was a gorgeous woman. Gloria was also relatively short, lithe, large-breasted, thin waist and flaring hips... and with one of the hottest pairs of legs on the planet. She was wearing a brownish-tan dress, almost 'nude' color, that clung to her dynamite body, and light nude-colored high-heel sandals with a closed toe, virtually out of fashion today but I wasn't complaining. Her black hair was worn short, and her makeup was designed to make her face seem slightly more pale and white than her natural skin color, a practice used in Japan in the past. Her lipstick was a luscious, almost bright red, and perfectly showed off her luscious but small mouth, a mouth I very much wanted to kiss and also slide my cock into... "I think I know what my next resolution is." I whispered to Laura. "I don't blame you a bit." Laura said. "But she's a cold fish, personality-wise. If you can melt that block of ice and get nuts-deep inside her, you'll have earned your 'miracle man' reputation in this County." Laura and I had had this conversation before about the Searles couple, and I had no problem with having it again... "I'll take that challenge." I said. "If you can distract him long enough with your lusciously feminine charms." I knew Laura would not object at all to swinging and swapping with this couple, as she found Richard Searles handsome and 'hot' to her. But they were also rather prudish, and Gloria was practically a Puritan. Laura didn't waste time, and practically drug me over to talk with them. "Richard, you remember my husband Don?" my wife said. "Ah yes, I remember our consultation during your investigation of that poor football player that died." said Richard Searles as he shook my hand. "This is my wife, Dr. Gloria Searles. Gloria, you remember Police... it's Commander now, isn't it?... Don Troy and his wife, Dr. Laura Fredricson from our Psychology Department?" "Yes, it's nice to see you again." Gloria said, offering her hand to me. I took it almost more in a manner to kiss it, though I didn't, and very slightly pulled it towards me. Many women like this very subtle flirtation, but it seemed to have no effect on the ice-cold Gloria Searles. Sheesh, Teresa 'Cunt' Croyle was warm in comparison. Gloria's handshake with Laura was even icier, barely a recognition. "That's a very lovely dress, Mrs.- er, I guess I should say 'Doctor Mrs.' Searles." I said, continuing the game. "And yes, 'Doctor Mister' Searles, I do remember our consultation, and appreciate your help on that case." "Yes, and you've done an extraordinary job, from what I'm hearing." said Richard Searles. "Gloria, Commander Troy is the man Chief Griswold was telling us about... he has solved some incredible cases." Just as I was about to respond, Laura jumped in, subtly continuing the game: "I would say my husband is to Detection as you are to cardiology, Dr. Searles... the very best. Our Hospital is lucky to have you." "Ah, you're much too kind..." said Richard, and as they began talking cardiology, Laura imperceptibly led him slightly away, putting a bit of distance between us so that I could talk with the gorgeous Gloria Searles alone. "I've never had much contact with the police." said Gloria. "And I'm sure you'll understand when I say I hope to keep it that way. But standing here, you're not what I'd imagine is a stereotypical policeman. And that is a compliment, Commander." "My wife did insist I not wear my uniform. And please, call me Don... so that I feel even less like a policeman in your presence." I said, then changed the focus by asking "So I understand you are in private practice?" "Oh yes," said Gloria. "I'm in general practice, but the regulations are getting so bad that I grouped together with a few specialists to whom I refer patients. Your wife's gynecologist is in our group, Dr. Caroline Muncey. Our group is Searles, Hartwell, Dembo & Muncey, P.C." "Ah, yes." I said. "She's excellent. She really has taken care of my wife's health." "I'm glad to hear that." Gloria said flatly. "How are your children? Dr. Yelena is a pediatrician, if they ever need medical services." "I'm happy to say they're doing very well, and I'm very blessed to have them." I said. "Do you have any children?" "No." said Gloria, again rather impassively. "My husband and I have led such busy lives that we've delayed having children for now." Just then Dr. Richard Searles returned, my wife no longer able to distract him. As they excused themselves, Laura and I saw Audrey Nethers and her husband. Audrey Nethers was a drop-dead gorgeous redhead in her late 20s. Her hair was slightly darker red than my 'strawberry blonde', a full rich orange-red that was perfect with her beautiful face. She was wearing a long, gold dress and very high heel gold lamé sandals that I knew she would always wear with a toga during sexual parties she and her husband attended. She had the reputation of giving the hottest blowjob of any woman just about anywhere, and I looked forward to finding that out... she and her handsome, fit young husband were part of the Libertines swingers group that my wife and I had recently had the good fortune to be invited to join. Audrey and her husband Andrew were a 'Ken and Barbie' cute couple. He was reputed to have a ten inch cock and had been part of the Sigma Epsilon Chi (SEX) unofficial fraternity that my nephew Todd was a part of. Indeed, Todd had sampled Audrey's sexual charms, and thought very highly of them. I also knew one other thing... that before she had married, Audrey had been one of the women I'd seen on Jack Burke's sex tape recordings. She had fucked my nemesis, the hung stud Jack Burke, and I still had that coupling on a DVD for watching in bed with Laura. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * At about 11:30pm, I noticed Gloria Searles making her way upstairs. Some of us knew that there were bathrooms upstairs and would go up there instead of having to wait for a downstairs 'opportunity'. Speaking of opportunities, I decided to take one here. Gloria had gone into a bathroom that served one of the guest bedrooms. As I came into the bedroom and to the door, I quickly fastened a sprig of mistletoe on the top frame of the door. When Gloria came out, she almost ran headlong into me. "Oh!- I'm sorry, Don, I didn't know you were there." she said breathlessly as I stood in her way. "I should get back to my husband." "Before you go, Gloria," I said huskily, using her first name, "we should honor the tradition of the mistletoe, don't you think?" Gloria looked up, seeing the mistletoe just above her. Not giving her a chance to move, I moved quickly up to her and, bending my head down, pressed my lips right onto hers in a firm but gentle kiss! "Mmmf!" Gloria gasped... but she did not pull away! I let my hands slide onto her waist as I probed her lips with my tongue, sliding past them with an effort and contacting her tongue with mine. Almost imperceptibly, I took her small purse and placed it on the dresser just behind me. Oh wow! It was one of the hottest sensations of my life... just this bit of a kiss, just tasting her tongue a bit, was intensely hot and pleasurable. The feeling of Gloria's lipsticked lips on mine were as good as any woman I'd ever kissed... my wife Laura was 'as good' but certainly not better! Gloria was in shock as I probed her mouth with my tongue. She was letting it happen, not fighting it but not really responding to it, either. As I pulled her body into mine slightly, her lips parted enough for me to slide my tongue over hers and deeper into her mouth. Alas, it did not last much longer. Gloria gently pushed me back, breaking the kiss. I did not know if she was going to storm out screaming, if she'd try to slap or hit me, or if she'd stay for another kiss. "I... I need to go." she said, maneuvering past me and walking quickly towards the door, her legs moving smoothly and elegantly on her high heels. As she got to the door, she said "Have a good night, Don." I took that as a positive sign. Just then Audrey Nethers came into the room and up to me. "That looked good." she said. "You're going after her? Trying to get into her... very... tight pants?" "I might give it a shot." I replied, my eyes boring into the beautiful redhead's. "What do you think? Should I?" "Sure, and I'll do whatever I can to help you." Audrey said. "She is a real bitch, really ice cold. I'd love to see you melt her down and fuck her brains out." I felt Audrey's hand on the front of my pants, gently feeling up my cock... which was throbbing with iron hardness. "And I see she made you very, very hot, Mr. Iron Crowbar." "Yes... yes she did." I replied as Audrey undid my pants, fished out my thickening, lengthening meat. She knelt down as she gently jacked my shaft, and I could feel her warm breath on my manhood. "Mmmm, should I give you some relief now?" she asked in her sultry voice. "You wouldn't tease me, would you?" I hoarsely asked. "Mmmm, no, baby." Audrey said. With that, she slid my cock into her mouth, and oh my fucking god! was it ever hot... Audrey's mouth was every bit as good as it was reputed to be. She sucked in as she slid her lips up my shaft to the tip, then slid her tongue against the base of my meat as her mouth sank back down to envelop my length fully. She began giving me head in earnest, sucking deeply and wetly, the room filling with the soft smacks of an incredibly good blowjob being delivered. I knew I wouldn't last three minutes, the time that studs reputedly had to withstand of Audrey's oral talents, but I didn't have to... I noticed that a dark shadow was peeking into the door from the hallway, watching Audrey fellate me. I realized it was Gloria... she'd forgotten to get her handbag. "Okay, beautiful," I said. "I hate to stop this, but we need to go back downstairs. As Audrey stood up and put my cock back in my pants and zipped me up, I whispered to her that Gloria was watching and wanting to get her handbag. Audrey smiled and we made our way together out of the bedroom and back downstairs to the party. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Should old acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind Should all acquaintance be forgot And auld lang syne For auld lang syne, my dear, For auld lang syne, We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, For auld lang syne" As the ball dropped on the television screen and the grandfather clock in the large room struck midnight, I kissed my beautiful wife's luscious mouth deep and hard, and she returned it with her usual fire and passion. We were not the only couples in the room kissing, and even Dr. Wellman and his wife Sally were locked in a passionate embrace for a moment. Fireworks were going off in the backyard of the University President's mansion as well as all over the Town. Laura and I went outside for a few moments, braving the cold to watch the display. I noticed some fireworks going off over Promontory Point on the mountain ridge line, and instinctively looked over to where the remains of The Cabin were... and I made another resolution that at this time next year, fireworks would be sparkling from over the top of a new dwelling there... After about fifteen minutes, guests started to leave. I'd noticed that the Searles were not there at midnight. That mystery was solved by Audrey Nethers, who along with her husband followed Laura and myself out. "Gloria apparently got her handbag and quickly found her husband and dragged him out of here." Audrey quietly told me as my wife gave her husband a warm goodnight kiss next to their car. "I might have embarrassed you a bit... I whispered to her that I saw her watching me suck your cock, and that she could have your cock for herself if she wanted it." "Oh wow." I said. "What did she say to that?" "She turned beet red, then said 'Excuse me.' and practically ran to find her husband."Audrey said, smiling. "Then they left. I'll bet she's already fucking him at home." "We'll never know." I said. "You have a great night." I kissed Audrey's mouth, our tongues locking in a hot, wet kiss for a moment. Then I let her go as Laura finished making out with Audrey's husband. As my wife and I headed home, Laura handed me a 'gray viagra'. "Honey," I said, "I don't need that. Let me tell you what happened tonight." I told Laura all about the kiss with Gloria, the memory of it still keeping my cock throbbing with a dull ache. "Take that pill anyway." my wife ordered. "You have a lot of work to do tonight to cool my fires, too. And I want you to think of that kiss while you're fucking my brains out; I suspect you're going to be a stallion in bed for the next several hours, and I'm going to take advantage of it..." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Richard Searles rolled off of his wife Gloria, still trying to catch his breath, a joyous lassitude of post-coital bliss spreading through his sweat-covered body. He had just come inside his beautiful wife after a deep, intense coupling in which Gloria had cried out in climax at least twice. "Oh darling, that was so good." he gasped. He rolled over towards her and put his arm over her, cradling her in a 'spoons' position. "I love you, honey. We need to do that more often." "We will." Gloria murmured. "We should think of starting a family, too." Her husband's heart surged at those words. He'd longed to have children with his wife for the longest time. "You were really on fire tonight." Richard said, gently kissing his wife's neck. "That's not a complaint, though. I just wonder what got you going... I want to make sure it happens again." "I'm sure it will, dear." Gloria said sleepily. "I just wanted to start the new year off making love with you." She did not tell her husband the real reasons, nor what she had been thinking while having intercourse with her husband. She was thinking about the kiss Don had given her, and she was remembering the vision of Don's long, thick cock, bigger than her husband's slender six inches, as that redheaded slut Audrey Nethers had fellated Don. The fantasy thoughts of the tall, broad-shouldered redheaded cop on top of her, Gloria, fucking her soaking wet cunt had made Gloria's cunt soaking wet and burning hot with sexual need, a need that her husband had not satisfied... Part 2 - Parades and New Additions January 1st, New Years Day, was bright and sunny, and also very cold with a little bit of wind. A perfect winter day. At 11:00am on January 1st, the parade started at the Depot at Junction Station. A procession of several New Years Day floats came up the highway and then along College Street, the east-west road that led from University Avenue to Courthouse Square and was the south road of the box of the Square. Following the floats were two Fire Engines, preceded and followed by police cruisers, all the Public Service vehicles flashing their red and blue and white lights. Upon the first Engine road Police Chief Emeritus Griswold, and on the second was Fire Chief Emeritus Gillem, both now officially retired after years of dedicated active service to the Town and County. This parade was partly for them. The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 01 Captain Charles and I had expected a few hundred people might show up, and we had some police presence and crowd control. We found out that we had underestimated our Town and County in their love for the retiring public service officers: thousands of people lined the route of the parade, cheering and clapping. They were an orderly bunch, so we had no problems. Chief Gillem and Chief Griswold both would remark later that they were very touched by the sheer numbers of people that came out for their farewell parade. The parade was the kick-off to the inauguration and installation of the Town & County Council and the new Sheriff, Daniel Allgood, which would happen at noon. The Mayor would be sworn in by Pastor Raymond Westboro of the First Baptist Church (who was also a Town & County Councilman), then the Mayor would swear in the rest of the Council and the other elected personnel, each of whom would make speeches, which would mean at least an hour before Daniel was sworn in. Laura and I were expected to be on the stage in front of City Hall for the proceedings. Laura's sister Melina, who was also the lovely Mrs. Daniel Allgood, was sitting with Laura. As I helped the Mayor get ready to begin the proceedings and people began taking their seats on the benches in the Square, facing City Hall, I made a couple of observations, one being that Melina looked very uncomfortable, to the point of medical distress. "Mr. Mayor," I quietly said, "I need to suggest that we swear in the Sheriff before the Council today." "But why?" asked Mayor Lawrence P. Vaughan, the People's Choice, a veteran mayor and politician. "Because if I'm right, sir," I said, "the Sheriff is going to have a much bigger event to deal with, and soon." I explained my observations to the Mayor. "Now I can see why Griswold believes in you so much." said the Mayor, grinning. "I'll go tell the Council of the change. You get to tell Allgood." Just as the ceremony was about to begin, I found Daniel, who was just coming up on stage. He was wearing a formal Sheriff uniform of dark brown jacket with a single gold star on the epaulette of each shoulder, light brown pants and shirt and tie (with a gold star on the shirt's epaulettes, not visible while wearing the jacket), and a uniform Sheriff Department hat... and this would be the last time I saw him in that hat, but I digress... His badge was over the left pocket of the jacket. As an elected official, the wreath around his badge's gold star was silver instead of gold (as mine and other Public Service officials were all gold), making his badge two-tone. He also wore his police medal ribbons over his right jacket pocket, as he was entitled to do. I told Daniel that he would be sworn in first, after the Mayor, and to get ready for an even bigger event. He looked at me funny as he went to sit by Melina. As Pastor Westboro swore in the Mayor, I noted that Melina suddenly looked between her legs with a shocked look on her face. She looked at Laura, who just nodded, then turned to Daniel and whispered "My water just broke." Daniel's countenance also became one of shock, and I managed not to laugh as he was called to the podium to take the oath of office. Once his oath was administered, he was invited to make his speech. It might have been the most stunning speech ever delivered for the occasion... and 'delivered' was the operative term. No one really noticed Melina and Laura get up and head off the podium behind the group sitting on stage, which included a very confused Council. "Ladies and gentlemen," Daniel said, "it is an honor to be entrusted by the voters with this position, and I will serve in it to the best of my ability. This is a wonderful event, but I must now tell you that I am about to an experience an even greater event. I must now leave you to take my wife to the hospital for the delivery of our baby. Thank you very much." Daniel quickly shook the Mayor's hand, then darted off the stage, with me escorting him, and into the waiting police car which already contained Laura and Melina. They sped off to University Hospital. People in the audience began chattering, and some clapped, but most were confused. "Well," said the Mayor, "this is wonderful news for the Allgood family, and we'll just have to carry on here without him. But let's give our new Sheriff a big hand." Everyone clapped loudly now that someone had taken leadership and begun giving them a script to follow again. Sheeple, I thought to myself, none to kindly. I took the opportunity to slip away myself. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * At 2:30pm Melina delivered a New Years Day baby, a boy. He was named Daniel Preston Allgood, and he looked just like his daddy... a 'Clark Kent' ready to change into 'Superman'... and his little lungs had a 'Superman' quality as his first cry was long and loud... music to a new parent's ears. Daniel was almost overcome as he held his son for the first time, and then Melina was crying tears of happiness as she cradled her new baby. "She certainly seems happy with the new baby." I said quietly to Laura. "Think she'll react as she did when Todd's baby was born?" "I'm a lot more optimistic about this one." Laura said. "Melina has been happy, her breasts are producing milk, and she shows every sign of being a healthy, happy mother. Little Doug came at a rather, shall we say, 'crossroads' time for her, and I'm happy for everyone that Todd and Jeanine are keeping him and raising him. And I think Melina won't reject baby Danny, and they will be a very happy family." Chief Griswold and his wife came by a couple of hours later, followed closely by my mother Phyllis. Griswold remarked that Melina seemed happier than he'd ever seen her before, and my mom agreed. When I looked in on them before leaving the hospital, I also observed Melina's happiness, and I was glad to see it. "Don, I just have one question." Daniel said. "Melina said she never mentioned to you that she thought she was about to go into labor, and she said you and Laura never had a chance to talk after she told her. Yet you knew enough to have the mayor change our schedules..." Chief Griswold overheard that. "Daniel, now that you're this man's boss, get used to that. And learn to keep your mouth shut and trust the man, no matter what wild-ass shit comes out of his mouth. If you think seeing your wife going into labor is something, as the saying goes: you ain't seen nuthin' yet..." I just smiled and Daniel laughed. "I just think you have a smart kid, Sheriff." I said. "He didn't want to listen to all those Council speeches, and he found a way to get out of having to sit there for them." We all laughed at that one. Part 3 - Political Scene "This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" yelled the lovely redhead, older than Audrey Nethers but still very attractive as she stood in front of City Hall at 7:00am on January 2nd. "The inauguration of our new Sheriff, Daniel Allgood, took an unexpected turn as his wife Melina went into labor as the swearing-in was taking place! Channel Two News has learned and is pleased to report that Mrs. Allgood gave birth to a healthy baby boy later that afternoon!" "I'm happy that Melina and the baby are healthy and all went well," said Tanya Perlman as we watched, "but that was funny as hell that the Sheriff had to leave immediately like that, and just announced it for his speech. So starts the new era of Town & County Law Enforcement, yes?" "Yep." I said. "But enjoy today. There's a new Sheriff in town, starting Monday, and I'm expecting some volatility to come in with him." "As long as he doesn't fire you and try to send me back to the Crime Lab." said Tanya. "But what do you know that we don't know?" "I said 'volatility', not 'crash and burn'." I said. "And I don't know anything, but I have my suspicions that Sheriff Allgood wants to get the leadership structure of this Police Force settled as soon as possible." Tanya did not look rosy and happy at that... and I did not tell her that she had every right to be nervous. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * At the State Capitol building in Midtown, Katherine Woodburn went into the State Senate chamber with the other Senators for her swearing-in. She was wearing a gray and greenish plaid jacket and skirt, a black mock-T sweater, black stocking and high heel matte black pumps. She was an attractive woman with dirty blonde hair, large breasts and shapely legs. She exercised regularly and she was fit; she had not lost her physical fitness from her days as a media mogul. She was definitely a hot MILF and would've been a lusciously hot trophy wife. But she had chosen another path. She took her oath of office along with the other Senators. After that there was congratulations, then perfunctory votes of attendance and clerical matters. Then everyone headed to the House Chamber to hear the Governor's State of the State speech, which was basically a traditional first-day welcoming speech without much substance. That would come later. Pictures, pictures, and more pictures... God damn! how many photographs could possibly be taken? she thought. Then she was given the keys to her new office in the Senate Office Building across the street from the Capitol Building, and was given three hours to settle her staff into it. She had a woman as her personal administrative assistant, her secretary, and as her staff personal assistant she had a young man. He was 23, extremely fit, broad shouldered, tall and muscular. He had thick black hair and wore black-framed glasses, and all the women gave him a second look as he passed by. He also had another attribute that made him very valuable to Katherine Woodburn: he had a thick, eight inch long cock, and he used it expertly to bring Katherine tremendous pleasure and intense orgasms. State Senators were assigned little apartments. They were more like efficiency hotel rooms, but they were serviceable for staying in when a Senator had to stay in Midtown. Katherine and her assistant Clark had broken in the apartment's bedroom for hours the night before, and she was still pleasantly remembering the hours they had spent copulating and sharing hot sexual pleasures. "Okay, Clark." she said to him as she sat behind her new office's solid mahogany desk for the first time. "We're in. Wanna break in this desk?" Clark came around as Katherine got up and sat down on the edge of the desk. The young stud stepped between her legs as she fished his hardening cock out of his pants. He eased her panties aside and fit the head of his meat into her labes, then pushed forward. Katherine moaned as she was impaled on his member, then groaned as he began harshly pumping in and out of her. As the couple rutted lustily, the phone buzzed. "What is it?" Katherine asked into it as Clark continued to plow her wet furrow. "Senator, I have Senator Cerone and Senator Langdon here to see you." "Okay, just a second." Katherine said as Clark slid his cock out of her pussy. "Sorry, stud, I'll make it up to you and drain your blue balls later." she said as her young paramour put his weapon of sexual destruction back in his pants. Katherine straightened up and then sprayed Febreeze everywhere to take out the smell of the raunchy sex that had been taking place. She then had the Senators admitted. Senator Jimmy 'Coffin' Cerone strode in, followed by Senator Richard Langdon. "We just wanted to congratulate you, Senator Woodburn." said Senator Cerone in his pleasant voice that belied his rough-and-tough exterior look. "Indeed." said Senator Langdon, whose harsh voice also belied his professorial look. "We think you're going to make a fine successor to Senator Allen." "Gentlemen," Katherine said, "I appreciate you coming her and your congratulations, but I have to say that I am not here to succeed Nathan Allen in any way.. nor do I think you really want me to." "Har har." Senator Cerone laughed, sitting down in a chair at Katherine's bidding as she seated herself behind her desk. "You're right about that. Nobody was mourning the loss of Allen. But we do think... and hope... that you're going to be a team player like Allen was for most of his career." "Of course." said Katherine. "And I'm ready to support the Party, as well. Of course I'll give you the boilerplate about supporting my constituent groups, and all that. But just remember this, gentlemen: I was playing this game as part of the Media for a long time, and I am not a 'virginal' freshman Senator like some of those others. I know how to play the game, and I am ready to play it with you... but on my terms, of course, just as you'll play on your terms." Langdon seemed to frown at that, but 'Coffin' Cerone gave a surprisingly pleasant smile as he said "I think things are going to work out very very well for us with you as part of our team, Senator. Our first fight is going to be the SBI battle. We are really going to be counting on your support for this." "Yes, I am definitely on your side on that one." said Woodburn. "Especially if I get what I want: the destruction of the Iron Crowbar up in my home County." "Oh that's coming, that's coming." said Langdon. "But everything in due course, and in it's due time." "What that means, Senator," said Cerone, taking a more conciliatory approach, "is that we have to be patient, to pick and choose our spots and our battles. Right now, the SBI battle is on front burner. But if things go as we expect, things will not be going well at all for your Iron Crowbar in the next few months." "Look," said Langdon, "I'm going to cut to the chase here. As you know, we have a friend, a good friend, up in your County. If we need a mountain moved, our friend can do it. Our friend expects that things might come to a head between the Iron Crowbar and our friend's top associate, Henry Wargrave, by the end of the summer. If we're patient and don't step on the wrong toes, things will go exceedingly well for us." "I agree, Senator." said Woodburn. Just then the office intercom buzzed. "Senator," said the assistant, "US Congressman Condor is here." "He's here to take us all to a late lunch or early dinner and discuss things." said Cerone... Part 4 - Making A Scene "This is just awesome." said Jenna Stiles, looking around the new restaurant. It was Opening Night, Friday January 2nd. "How did you get a reservation? Perks of being a police officer?" "Yes and no." said Cindy Ross, her eyes glowing as she looked at her lover. "What happened was that Santo Veccio lost his restaurant to that arson fire some months ago, and the Insurance Company was trying not to pay him. Commander Troy had a few words with the Insurance Company... I understand it was a one-way conversation, and the kind that none of us want to have with the Iron Crowbar... and the Insurance Company coughed up the money. Santo wanted to do a high-end restaurant instead of what he had before, so he opened this place." It was a new Italian restaurant just south of the Courthouse Square, and the buzz about it created by socialite columnist Elsie Gringer had people begging to get reservations before the restaurant even opened. Santo had then declared that a raffle would be used to gain opening night reservations, with the money collected going to charity. It had been enormously successful. But Santo had shown gratitude to the Police Commander, and some reservations had gone to some of the Commander's Detectives, as well as some Fire Department people. And Cindy had brought Jenna as her date. The auburn-haired ADA was looking hot in a red dress with black outlines and accessories, including her black sheer stockings with a flower pattern on them, and black high heel pumps. For herself, Cindy was wearing a dark gold dress that, when contrasted with Cindy's platinum blonde hair, looked almost greenish in hue. And Cindy was wearing high heel sandals that really made her shapely legs, feet and ass look especially hot. "You keep looking at me that way," Jenna said, "and people are going to begin thinking that we are dating." "Let them." Cindy replied, her eyes twinkling. As they ate, they talked of various things, including family. "This really is delicious food." Cindy noted as she consumed her pasta dish. She then said "Don is going to have to go to Midtown fairly often while this SBI legislation battle is going on. He's been asked to work with the Governor's staff to craft the Governor's input into it. The good part of that is that Don will get to see Molly and Ross a lot more, and maybe my sister will be pregnant again by the time this is all over." "Are you good with that?" Jenna asked, her voice sounding skeptical. "Sure." said Cindy. "It would be great to have another nephew. Molly wants another child, Don wants to impregnate her more than he'll admit- so says his mother, who I think secretly wants even more grandchildren- and so we'll see what happens." The waiter brought their after-dinner desserts and an Amaretto-based drink to go with it, causing their conversation to pause. "I see." said Jenna, once they were alone again. "I... I guess my question is how they're accepting a married man impregnating a woman who is not his wife. They're good with it, his wife apparently is okay with it, you seem to be okay with it..." "Well, it's none of my business." Cindy replied. "Except I like having a nephew, and a second nephew or niece would be great. And I know what you mean about the inter-relationships, but Don and Laura are becoming serious players in the Swinging scene in this County. And he'll be a great daddy for my sister's children, so I'm good with all of it." "So, what are you and I going to do about children?" Jenna asked, then stopped, as if realizing she'd stepped much farther than she intended. Cindy had a look of surprise on her face. "I... I haven't really thought about that." the ruggedly lovely platinum blonde said. "I... didn't realize we were that far along yet." She did not observe Jenna reaching into her coat pocket. "Well," Jenna said, "I think we are and we should talk about it- what the heck?" Shouting was coming from the back area leading to the restrooms. "Trouble." Cindy said, hearing the commotion. "Back me up." Propelled by the leadership and action-taking that was ingrained in her being, Cindy quickly walked to the back, near the restroom doors. A redheaded man in his late 30s or early 40s was holding an older man by the collars of his shirt, almost choking him. The man being held was taller, had thin hair on top, gray hair on the sides that was mussed up, thin wire glasses and a long nose. He looked like a professor. "I said 'What the hell are you doing grabbing my wife, asshole?' Answer the question, God damn you!" yelled the red haired man, his face beet red with furious anger. The other man was trying to get out of the red-haired man's grip, saying "Let me go!" "All right, let him go." Cindy said, walking up to them. "Stay out of this, lady." snarled the red-haired man. "This is none of your business." Suddenly, he was looking at the Town & County Police badge that was within inches of his eyes, between the men's faces. "Oh, it is my business, especially the parts called 'disturbing the peace' and 'assault and battery'." Cindy cooly replied. The red haired man let go. Jenna also had her ADA badge out, which looked like a police badge except it had a Department of Justice seal in the middle and 'Asst. District Attorney' on the top part of the wreath. The men looked confused, but Cindy rapidly took charge. "I am Lieutenant Ross of the Town & County Police Department. Let me see your licenses, please." Cindy said. The men began to say it was nothing, but Cindy stopped them. "Lice-en-sessss, gentlemen. Now. Or we can do this at the Station with you both under arrest." IDs were produced. The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 01 Cindy asked the red-haired man to tell his side of the story. He said "My wife went to the bathroom, and I saw this guy start trying to talk to her when she went in. He stood there waiting for her the whole time she was in there, and when she came out he began accosting her and bothering her. She tried to get away from him but he grabbed her arm and persisted. That's when I came in, and you can arrest me if you want, Officer, but I'm going to beat the shit out of anyone who grabs my wife like he did." "Calm down." Cindy said as she took photos of their licenses with her TCPD app. "Sir," she said, speaking to the older man, "what's your side of this." "It's just a case of mistaken identity, officer." said the man. "I thought she was someone I knew, and she looked so much like that person that I wanted to see for sure." "So you grabbed her?" asked Cindy. "If you'd done that to me, you might be lying here dead." "I didn't mean to grab her in that way." said the man, his voice sounding nearly desperate. "I... I just thought she was someone else. Really, I must have just made a mistake." "What are you doing taking pictures of our licenses, Lieutenant?" asked the red haired man, challenging Cindy. He also had a beard, and Cindy recognized the name: he was John D. Clifford, a professor of Law at the University, and who had represented the occasional client in Police Headquarters. Before joining the University as a professor, he'd been part of the law firm of Chase, Lynch & Berry, P.C. He was more well known as an 'ambulance chaser', and his name terrorized members of the medical profession, as he seemed to take special interest in taking them to Court whenever he could. "Making sure you have no outstanding warrants, just like police do if they stop you on the highway for speeding. And this altercation has given me probable cause to do so." said Cindy. "Now I don't want to mention your name in front of this guy, since he obviously has some interest in your wife..." Her cellphone beeped; the app said that neither man had outstanding warrants. "Okay, sir." Cindy said to the red haired man. "Get yourself and your wife out of here, now. Jenna, would you escort them out, please?" Jenna had been watching, and she now led John D. Clifford out to join his wife, then escorted them out the front door to the street. The other man was looking out, trying to see the couple. Cindy stopped him. "Stay where you are, sir, or I'll be forced to arrest you. Why are you so interested in her, especially if it's a case of mistaken identity, Mr. Lockhart?" That seemed to strike the man. "I'm sorry." he said, stammering. "I... I'm just so sure that she was the woman I know..." "Well, you're not going to find out." Cindy said. "What do you do for a living, Mr. Lockhart?" "I'm a pharmacist, Smith-Morra Pharmacy, south of the Courthouse Square." "Near the tailor shop?" Cindy asked, remembering the tailor shop where Don had nearly been assassinated but had gotten the drop on the perp. "Yeah, it's across the street, down a few buildings. Same area." Lockhart said. Just then Jenna reappeared. "They're gone, drove off. I got the tag number of their car." "Good." Cindy said. "Okay Mr. Lockhart, get out of here, but if your name comes to my professional attention again, it will not be a good thing for you, understand?" "Yes, yes, I'm sorry for the trouble." Lockhart said, then swiftly moved away and out the door. "Santo comped the bill." Jenna said. "He said it's a 'thank you' for handling the commotion." "Nice of him." Cindy said. "By the way, let me have that car tag number. I've still got to make out a police report. Don says to make a police report any time we have to flash a badge..." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "So what was that all about?" John D. Clifford asked his wife, Darla. "I have...no idea." Darla replied, her hand being held horizontal as she waved it back and forth in a gesticulation, followed by other gestures as she talked. "I've never seen that bastard before, I have no idea who he is." Darla Clifford was a very attractive woman in her 30s, with a slender, fit body, decent legs, fairly large breasts but not overly so, and long brown hair that resisted being styled in any particular way. She was a lawyer like her husband, but did not actively practice and only occasionally helped her husband with any cases he might have. She played a lot of golf and tennis with other 'trophy wives', and she was the Champion of the Town & County Tennis League Association. "I heard the guy call you 'Natasha'." said Clifford. "And the guy told the policewoman back there that he thought you were someone else." said John. "Any Natashas or anyone else you know of that looks that much like you here in Town?" "No." said Darla. "I have no idea what was going on with that bastard. Let's... let's just forget about it, and him. We were having such a good time before that happened. And the food was good, wasn't it?" "The food was really great." John Clifford said. "I... I guess I'm just wired up about it... for him to grab you the way he did... I was about to beat him down before that cop showed up..." Darla changed her voice to be more seductive. "I'm glad you came to my rescue, as my knight in shining armor. But let's just forget about it and move on." "Okay, dear." said John Clifford, not at all mollified, but pretending to acquiesce for his wife's sake. "Okay..." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Cindy and Jenna sat down on the sofa in the main room of their condo. "Well, it was a nice evening, even if it was interrupted with business." "Yeah," said Jenna, "and it messed up what I was about to say and do. I was about to give you this." She took a small box out of her pocket and opened it. A diamond engagement ring was inside. "When I mentioned that about children, and how far we're along, I... I think we're that far along. Cindy, will you marry me?" "Oh!" Cindy said, her hand covering her mouth. "Oh my God, I had no idea..." She began nodding her head. "Yes... yes I will marry you!" The women fell into each other's arms and embraced for a long moment, then Jenna put the ring on Cindy's finger. It fit perfectly. "Let me go get some champagne." said Cindy, getting up. "Stay here just a second." Instead of going into the kitchen, Cindy instead went into her room, then a moment later zoomed across the room and into the kitchen. She returned with a magnum of champagne and four glasses. "First," Cindy said, holding up a small jewelry box of her own, "I was going to do this on Valentine's Day, but since you beat me to the punch..." She opened the case to reveal a diamond engagement ring. "So, will you marry me, Jenna?" "Yes, oh yes!" Jenna exclaimed. Her ring fit perfectly, as well. "Oh my god, it's so beautiful..." The women hugged again, which turned into a long, deep kiss. Minutes later, they popped the champagne, drank and toasted to each other, then hurled those glasses into the fireplace, shattering them. Then the next pair of glasses were used to drink the rest of the bottle over the next few hours... Part 5 - "If at first you don't succeed..." Monday, January 5th. Tanya and I were in MCD at 6:45am, drinking coffee and talking about issues within MCD when Cindy walked into the room... with Jenna Stiles. "Congratulations, ladies!" I said, mostly to beat Tanya to it. She observed the rings only a split-second after I did. "You beat me to it!" the perky Lt. Perlman said, punching my thigh. "Oh my God ladies, let me see!" A showing-off of the rings followed. The women were still talking when the TV report came on at 7:00am, featuring the lovely Bettina! "This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" she blared from in front of the County Courthouse. "The State Legislature is underway, with State Senator Katherine Woodburn taking her oath of office..." the TV showed Katherine Woodburn on the screen, her breasts jutting out proudly underneath her tight-fitting blouse and jacket. "... and State Representative William C. "Billy" Williams taking the oath as the County representative in the State House." Williams was shown; he was an older man, friend of Jack Colby, had a beard-and-mustache ring around his mouth like Bartholomew Scott had sported. Bettina then added, her face morphing into a malicious smile, "Williams replaces TEA Party Extremist John Cummings in the State House. Cummings was defeated by Katherine Woodburn for the State Senate, a race he has yet to concede even with every Court ruling solidly against him. Cummings has also sold out his business to the Cosby Brothers, and is reported to have moved completely out of the County. This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" Now why keep piling on John Cummings when he has left completely? I wondered to myself. Why the hatred? And speaking of 'hatred', have I mentioned that I have a gut-level hatred of the Press? * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Congratulations again." I said to Cindy as she came into my office at 8:00am. "I just have one question: do you want to tell Molly yourself and have me keep my mouth shut, or can I tell her?" "You can tell her, if you talk to her before I do, which is likely." Cindy said, understanding me. "And you can tell her I suggested that you go ahead and tell her so that you won't slip up trying to keep it a secret." "Okay, I'll do that." I said. "Now, about this police report you filed..." "Yeah, Friday night." Cindy said. "Guy was bothering a man named John D. Clifford's wife. Her name is Darla. John Clifford is a Law Professor at the University, and has done some representation of clients here at HQ. Darla was accosted by this guy, named Lockhart, who said he thought Darla was someone that he knew. Jenna and I were there having dinner... thank you for the reservation, by the way... and I broke it up. Cindy continued: "I looked up all their names over the weekend, but couldn't find any connection between Lockhart and the Cliffords. Lockhart runs a pharmacy, kind of a cheap place with a lower-end clientele, but nothing illegal that we know of. I'm thinking it really was a case of mistaken identity..." "Except..." I said, peering at Cindy, "... something in your gut tells you otherwise." "Yeah." Cindy said. "Even after I broke them up and got the Cliffords out of there, Lockhart was trying to get another glimpse of her. He ran out after them when I let him go. He's kind of sleazy as it is, and he did grab her arm when she came out of the restroom. Do you know what I'd do if someone grabbed me or Jenna by the arm like that?" "Probably what I'd do if someone grabbed Laura or Molly that way." I said. "Exactly." Cindy said, "Anyway, the whole thing just seemed weird. Lockhart's actions are not what I would consider to be congruent with 'mistaken identity'. He really thought he knew her, and it was eating him alive inside." "Hmm." I said. "So why did you put this police report under seal, with me having to release it?" "It occurred to me that Lockhart might try to get a copy of the report, and it would give him information about the Cliffords, including names, address, etc." Cindy replied. "I thought he might become obsessed, based upon what I saw of him, and that he might try to get the police report." "Outstanding!" I said, exulting inside. Cindy's thinking on those points was indeed excellent, and I was elated for reasons she would not yet understand. "Very good thinking, my friend. Okay, we'll keep it under seal as a stalker case..." I said, putting the info into the computer, "...and it can only be released to the Press or Public with your permission or mine." "And by the way, Cindy," I continued, "it was the right thing to do to make this report in the first place. At the worst, if someone tries to make a claim of police brutality or something, we've got our report in... and it indemnifies you, as if you need it. But it's better to make sure and be sure." Just then I got a phone call. It was from Laura. We'd been invited to the Wellman's social for University doctors and lawyers for the new semester. "Tonight?" I said. "We were just there Thursday." "Yes," said Laura, "and we get to socialize again..." Then my wife's voice got husky and sexy as she said "...not to mention that Dr. Gloria Searles will be there..." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Still Monday evening, January 5th. The party was not formal, and I was wearing a gray suit with a blue mock-T pullover shirt. Laura was wearing her dress that was white in front with blue panels on the sides, a popular fashion these days, and her navy blue round-toed pumps. Doctor Mister and Doctor Mrs. Searles indeed did come in. To my delight, Gloria was much warmer with me, though still cold as ice to my wife. Apparently she did not think much of Laura being professor of sexual studies. Still, I poured on the charm with Gloria as much as I could. Dr. Bonnie Karpathian, who worked with Laura in the Psychology Department, was there, and she was working with Laura to get and keep Dr. Richard Searles's attention. I was admiring Gloria. She was wearing a very clingy white blouse and a gold, almost tan jacket, and I could tell she had worn a bra that really uplifted her big tits. Her gold-tan skirt was very tight and showed off her luscious, firm asscheeks, and her legs, ass and elegant feet were made even more shapely by the very high heel tan sandals she was wearing, with thin stripes designed to show off her feet. If she was dressing to draw my attention to how hot and beautiful she was, she had succeeded. I was doing all I could not to get a huge erection in my pants... and was failing. "Why don't you give me a tour of the place." Gloria said, an open invitation. "I'm sure Sally Wellman would, but she's busy hostessing, of course." "Sure, I'd love to." I said and escorted the lovely woman to the stairs, walking behind her to admire that luscious ass. A few moments later, I guided Gloria into Dr. Wellman's study. I saw the desk there, where I had raped Vicki Oldeeds; now I was hoping to have some hot consentual sex with the beautiful Gloria Searles. I closed and locked the door as Gloria looked around the room, moving towards the desk as if knowing my purpose, and knowing it matched hers. "Very nice room." Gloria said as I came up to her. "Nice desk." she said, sitting her ass on the edge of it and looking up at me expectantly. "I didn't notice." I said. "I'm looking at something far more beautiful." With that, I stepped up to Gloria and kissed her again. Her taste was wonderful, and I savored it. Even better, this time she was less passive. As my tongue probed her mouth, exploring and tasting every part of it, her tongue lashed at mine. Then she sucked hard on my tongue as our kiss deepened. I slid my arms around her waist again and she wrapped her arms around my shoulders(!). I began feeling Gloria's large breasts through her blouse as she let her hands slide down my chest to my crotch. I slid my hands along her thighs, then my right hand slid between her legs, which she spread willingly. I found her pussy lips, then eased my bird finger into her cunt. She was sopping wet, and she moaned into my mouth as I slid that finger to the knuckle inside her. She was tight, I realized as I maneuvered my finger in and out of her vagina. Breaking the kiss, I pulled my finger out and slid it into my mouth, tasting her sweet cuntal juices. Mmmm, it was tasty! I thought to myself. I felt her hands open my zipper and reach inside to fish out my cock. Her right hand grabbed my throbbing, iron hard meat and gently jacked it. "Oh geez, you're so much bigger than my husband." Gloria whispered. "Oh God, I don't know if it'll fit inside me." I didn't know if she was saying that to egg me on, or if she meant it, and I didn't care. We were going to find out exactly how well my cock fit into her tight cunt. It felt great as her hand jacked on my cock, and I bent over and kissed her hard and deep again. Our chests were pressing together and I was feeling up the sides of her breasts. I slid my hands down to Gloria's hips and felt her pulling on my turgid meat. It was nearly time- "I think she came up this way." I heard a voice say in the hallway. Shit. Someone was looking for Gloria. Then I heard her husband's voice. "I'm sorry." Gloria whispered. I gave her a gentle peck on the mouth, then backed off, putting up my aching cock. I then hurried into the bathroom and Gloria went to the door and opened it just as someone knocked. "Gloria, there you are." I heard her husband say. "The Cliffords just arrived, and I know you said you really needed to talk to her." "Oh! Yes... yes, I most certainly do. It's very important." Gloria said. She hurried out of the room. A moment later I emerged, then peeked into the hallway. The coast was clear. I headed back downstairs. It was not Mrs. Clifford that Gloria was trying to talk to, it was John D. Clifford, J.D., that was the object of her attention. I saw them at the door to the back patio just as I came to the base of the stairs. Mrs. Clifford was at the front door, as if ready to leave. "Please, Dr. Clifford, this could be serious," I heard Gloria say. "I really need for you to get your wife to pay attention to this-" "Look, if she doesn't want to talk to you, then leave her alone about it." said John Clifford. "Now I need to go. Excuse me!" He practically tore himself out of Gloria's grip. He went across the room to where his wife was waiting, and they left the house. Gloria Searles came up to me, Laura and her husband, her face red with what appeared to be frustration and embarrassment. "Honey, are you all right?" Richard Searles said as he turned to her, his action having the effect of walling us off. "Uh yes... uh, yeah, sure." she said. "I... I think we should go ahead and go back home." Turning to me, Gloria said "Commander, do come in and let me have a look at that wound of yours, to make sure there's no scar tissue flaring up." "I'll do that." I said. "Is everything okay with Mrs. Clifford?" "Uh yeah, yes." Gloria said, obviously flustered. "I was just talking to her about...well, it doesn't matter. You have a nice night." Turning to her husband, she said "Let's find the Wellmans and make our goodbyes." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Scar tissue?" Laura asked as we drove home. I had told my wife just how close I had gotten to penetrating Gloria Searles. "I have to admit I was totally shocked she came up with that." I said. "She didn't even see my scar." "Hmmm," said Laura. "It sounds like she's studied up on you, maybe since New Year's Eve. Or... maybe longer. Maybe she's had the hots for you longer than you realize." "That may be." I said. "But things went well tonight... until people came looking for her." "Mmmm, she left you with blue balls?" Laura asked, her voice growing husky. "Well, I know what to do about that. You may not have nailed Gloria tonight, but you're going to be getting some pussy. A lot of pussy." Laura's dirty talk was arousing the hell out of me. And once we got home and checked on the babies, Laura gave me another 'gray viagra' and we went to bed... where I proceeded to throw three hard fucks into my wife. I came on strong like a taunted bull, and I fucked Laura like I had wanted to fuck Gloria earlier in the evening. "UHHHH!!" I gasped as I shot my load deep into Laura's clutching cunt. "Oh God DAMN!" I was shoving my cock hard into my wife, getting every drop of my semen as deep into her as I could, my hands clutching her succulent ass. My cock began to shrivel... after coming for the third time, I was spent. Laura was cleaning up my cock, which turned into lazily and deeply sucking it back to half-hardness. As she fellated me for long moments, I relaxed and thought about, of all things, what had happened with the Cliffords, particularly Darla, and Dr. Searles... The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 01 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 4:58am, now early Tuesday morning. I was lying on my back on the bed. Laura was leaning over me, giving me my morning blowjob. Despite the intense sex just hours before, my wife's luscious mouth had me iron hard again. Laura was lying on her left side over my torso, the heat of her left breast warming my right side abs. I watched the back of her head bobbing as she fellated me, her warm lips sliding slickly up and down my throbbing shaft. She really loved giving me head in the morning, and I just let her play, enjoying the feeling of her tongue lashing my meat, exploring my balls, her hands working with her mouth to pleasure me. I lay back, thinking of what had happened the evening before. The warmth and taste of Gloria's kisses came to mind. The nearness of entering her and coupling with her still burned my soul as well as my loins. I felt Laura sucking me harder and more deeply, having sensed the jolt that went through me. My wife realized that I was becoming more aroused, and she intensified her oral ministrations. Just then I had a vision... I was seeing Gloria Searles, here in my bedroom, standing over me. "Avenge me." she whispered, then kissed me. I actually felt like I was tasting Gloria's mouth with that kiss. "Avenge me." she said again. Then the apparition was gone. As I came out of that semi-dream, I realized that Laura was kissing me, her hand stroking my still-hard meat, her mouth nuzzling my neck. Then she raised up. "Are you okay?" "Uh, yeah." I said. "Just had this... dream... I guess... that Gloria Searles was here in this room." "Nope, just us." Laura said. "So that's why your cock was getting so much harder...you were thinking about her." "No... it was more than that." I said. "Seriously, what the hell are in those 'gray viagras' you keep giving me? I have some kind of... 'vision'... half the time I take those things..." "I'm having a vision right now. Of being fucked by a handsome stud, right now." said Laura, rolling onto her back and trying to pull me on top of her. "Why don't you give me a morning fuck... think about her while you fuck me..." I mounted my wife and she guided my cock to her sopping wet cunt. I slid into her with one smooth thrust, as if we were tailor made for each other. I again saw a vision of Gloria Searles, her presence seemingly still in the room... then I heard a whispered "Goodbye", and all sense of Gloria's presence was gone. I leaned down and kissed my wife's upturned mouth and began making love to her with serious, purposeful strokes. "I love you, Laura." I whispered, saying what I knew I needed to say a lot more often. "I love you more than anything..." "Ohhh, darling... I love you so much..." Laura moaned back, then pressed her mouth to mine as she drove her hips up to meet my downward strokes. We fucked hotly for several moments. Then Laura wrapped those long, beautiful legs around me, and I felt the heels of her feet pressing into my asscheeks. Unable to hold back, I just let my nut rise, and soon I was ejaculating deep into Laura like I had wanted to come inside Gloria earlier that evening... Part 6 - The Crime Tuesday morning, January 6th. At 8:00am I was just beginning my morning 'staff' meeting with 'Crowbar's Angels' (Cindy, Tanya, and Teresa) when Detective Martin Nash knocked on the door. "Commander, Lieutenants," he said, "we just got a call that a body was found in a doctor's office on the north side of Town. Searles, Hartwell, Dembo and Muncey. Victim was shot in the head." Everyone was looking at me strangely, because I had nearly collapsed, and was standing behind my desk with my arms and hands on the desk, holding me up. "Did the caller say who the victim is?" I asked, my voice hoarse, something beyond instinct telling me who it was that was murdered. "A Dr. Searles." said Nash. "Dr. Gloria Searles." To be continued. The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 02 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, The Case of the Black Badge series, A Case of Revenge series, Teresa's Summer Race, The Trilogy series, Dark Side Of The Force series, Caught In The Act series, Case of the Murdered Bride series, The Credit Card Caper series, The Hot Wives Investment Club series, Seriously Inconvenienced series, Case of the Paper Trail series, Christmas Mystery Theater, The Porno Set Mystery series. The Medical Murder Mystery, Ch. 1-2. 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 6 - The Crime We arrived at 8:20am on Tuesday, January 6th. We were led by a uniformed officer into the office of Dr. Gloria Searles. I groaned as I saw her, lying flat on her belly on the floor behind her desk, looking towards her left, i.e. her left cheek was exposed and her right cheek pressed to the floor, her eyes closed. She was wearing the same clothes that she'd worn to the party the night before, but her shoes were under her desk. I could see where bullets had been fired into her head from close range behind her left ear. "You okay, Commander?" Tanya asked, seeing the look on my face, one of shock and sadness. I exhaled hard. "No." I said. "Goddammit... I know, I mean 'knew' this woman. I saw her just last night at the Wellman's party." I did not mention my vision of her Spirit visiting my bedroom early this morning, but the image was burning into my head. "All right, let's act quickly here." I said. "Her husband is Dr. Richard Searles, a cardiologist at University Hospital. Perlman, call Ross at Headquarters and have her call my wife and get her to find out where he is. If he's on Campus, get my wife to bring him to Police Headquarters, unless he's in surgery or something. If not, get a couple of uniforms to find him and bring him in. Get him his minister if he has one, or a Chaplain if he needs one." "Also: Tanya," I said to the MCD supervisor, "to whom are you delegating this case?" She got my drift. "Martin Nash as the lead, Diana Torres working with him." Tanya said, knowing I did not want to hear her say herself. "I'll be staying with it through the forensic phase." "That's fine." I said. "I need to talk to you and Nash and Torres. Call Myron and get him over here, I need him, and I need him here. I looked around Gloria's office, seeing two little piles of medical folders on a table near the door, Gloria's desk neat and clean, the room clean and seemingly undisturbed except for Gloria's body on the floor. Turning to the senior Uniformed presence, I asked "So, Sergeant Rudistan, who found the body?" "Her receptionist, Commander." said Rudistan. "She said Dr. Searles did not normally get here until 10:00am, as the patients they see are well-to-do and don't want to make appointments before eleven o'clock in the morning. The receptionist would get here by 8:00am, would pull files for the appointments for the day and have them ready, and then she'd get the files from the previous day from the table in Dr. Searles's office near the door, where these files are now, and begin putting information for the previous day's appointments into the computers." "Oh, Dr. Searles did not do that herself?" I asked, peering that those piles of folders, one pile set in a wooden tray on the right side, the other on the table itself and in the very middle. Rudistan was ready with his answer: "I asked the receptionist that, and she said that Dr. Searles did not like using her computer when talking with patients, and insisted paper files be pulled. Anyway, the receptionist came in to pull the files for today's appointments, and she saw the body lying on the floor." "Where is the receptionist now?" I asked, looking out at the desk. Anyone sitting behind the desk would be facing the door to Dr. Searles's office. "She's in the breakroom down the hall, with Officer Lydia Green staying with her." said Rudistan. "There are five doctors in this building, sharing the breakroom and common areas. We're not letting anyone but police into the building, and are holding anyone already inside where they are." "Good. Good work." I said. "Interview everyone in the building, get their addresses and phone numbers. Unless someone has some knowledge or seems to have a connection to this crime, let them leave. Not the receptionist, just others that were caught up." Myron Milton arrived as the Crime Lab team began coming in. As they began their forensics work, I gathered my Detectives at a small table near the reception desk area of Dr. Searles's office, and I sat down. "Guys," I said, "I saw our victim at Dr. Wellman's party last night, so I'm going to try to save us all some time. I'm going to usurp your leadership of the case a bit by giving some instructions." Everyone nodded. "First, I want you to call for warrants for every patient file Dr. Gloria Searles has, but I want you to to talk to her assistant and see if you can find out who was in here Monday and last Friday, especially yesterday, Monday. Those are probably going to be the files we really need to look at. The ones for yesterday might be on the table in Dr. Searles's office; that might make your job a little easier. "Also, and especially you, Myron, I want you to run some hard background checks on a Dr. John D. Clifford, who is a University Law professor, his wife Darla Clifford, and a pharmacist at Smith-Morra Pharmacy named Lockhart. Lt. Ross filed a police report over the weekend regarding those three; I'm emailing access to it to you right now." I continued: "I don't want the Cliffords brought in yet, nor this Lockhart guy, but I do want them tailed, and if they try to leave the County, then pick them up and bring them in. Nash, we're going to be interviewing all of them soon." "Before you ask me questions," I said, seeing that Nash wanted to do so, "I don't want to say anything about what I know or suspect until we've looked at the body and the crime scene. I don't want to taint your fertile young minds with what might turn out to be erroneous information, and therefore bias your thinking. Okay, I'm going in to look at the body." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "All right, Labcoat, whaddya got?" I asked the man who was never seen without a labcoat on, and whose hair seemed more silvery than normal this morning. "She hasn't been dead long, Commander." said Labcoat. "Body is still warmer than the ambient temperature of the room. Rigor has barely set in. I'd say she was killed between 4:00 and 5:30am." "About five o'clock." I said, more to myself than anyone else. "Sir?" said Labcoat. "Oh... nothing, I was just thinking out loud about something." I said, recovering from my slip. I didn't think Labcoat would understand an apparition in the form of Gloria Searles appearing in my bedroom at that very time. "So what else do you have for me?" "Two shots to the left side of the head, at very close range." said Labcoat. "Small caliber rounds, very likely a .22 Long Rifle or .22 Magnum. Both went nearly all the way through the head, but neither exited. Bit of bulging on the right side of the head, though that might have been compressed back in when she fell and came to rest on the floor. No expended cartridges have been found. No footprints, no blood trails. The filing cabinets behind the desk here were all closed, but she may have been standing and looking at one of them when the killer came in." "Yes." I said, seeing the pattern. From the door to the office, Gloria's desk was on the left side and sofas and chairs were on the right side. The office was not wide but was deep. The doors on the back wall led to a small bathroom, possibly where urine samples were given, and to a hallway that led to a lab area... and that connected with other doctor's offices. The wall behind Gloria's desk was lined with cabinets, which actually were drawers that kept hardcopy records of all patient files. Of course, computers also had the data stored electronically. Gloria's body was behind her desk, as if she had been looking in the filing cabinets. Someone could've snuck in, ambushed her, shot her in the head, and then been gone in the flash of an eye. "Any sign of sexual assault, or anything to suggest she knew her killer was in the room?" I asked. "Not likely a sexual assault, though we'll be doing a full rape kit as part of the routine. But her skirt is pretty tight on her body, and it shows no sign of having been removed. I won't go into the physics of why it would be difficult as hell to get her dressed again and leave no evidence of it or any blood anywhere, either. I think she was dressed like this when she dropped dead, and her body was not moved." "Yeah, I'm with you on that." I said. "Commander," said Martin Nash, "the receptionist said the clothes she's wearing are the clothes she put on when she left yesterday. She was wearing blue scrubs yesterday for her appointments, then dressed for the party she was attending at the University President's home." "What time did she leave?" I asked. "About 7:00pm." Nash said. "The receptionist said that Dr. Searles normally would have appointments from 11:00am to as late as 8 or 9pm. Last night she left for the party at 7:00pm." "So who took off her shoes, and why?" asked Labcoat. "Anything strange in that?" "I doubt it." I said. "The shoes are high heels and she probably was not comfortable in them. I imagine she came in, sat down at her desk, took her shoes off, and was looking into the files when someone came in and shot her. You can analyze them, though, see if anything comes up." A Crime Lab technician came up. "Sir, no fingerprints on the doors except those of the receptionist. No partials or smudges underneath, either. Looks like the doorknobs were wiped clean, then the receptionist touched them when she came in." "Okay, thank you." I said, dismissing the technician. I then said to Nash "Hmm, a strangeness... that the knobs were wiped clean in the first place." "By the way, Commander," said Nash, "the receptionist is a bit fired up about us seizing any medical files, even with a warrant. She called a lawyer." "All right." I said. I went into the front room. "Torres, have you started looking at these stack of files, yet?" "No sir." said Detective Diana Torres. "The receptionist claimed they're legally privileged information. She wants a lawyer and a warrant before we can look at them." I began looking at the files, looking at the names on the outside, but not opening the folders. I did not see the name I was expecting to see. I left the files as I found them. "If someone wants to bitch about me reading a name in plain sight," I said, "let them. Y'all saw that I did not open the files, so they can't bitch about that." Just then my cell phone rang. It was the lovely ADA Paulina Patterson. "Hi Don," she said, "I went to get your warrants, and Chase, Lynch & Berry beat me to Folsom. He wants more specifics, and wants to narrow it down. He's telling the Beagles to S-T-F-U about not getting any warrants for any information, but he admits a point on specifics, and says medical records require a high degree of attention to privacy." "Okay, I'll type up an email for you." I said. After hanging up, I went to my SUV, got my laptop computer, and brought it inside. I typed up an email, requesting the financial records of the company that was the practice partnership; all cell phone records of all of the doctors in the building as well as phone records of the offices; Dr. Gloria Searles's records of appointments, both paper and digital; as well as the files, paper and electronic, of those patients she saw the previous day (Monday) and the previous Friday. I added my explanations of why I wanted that data, then sent the email to Judge Folsom, with a copy to Paulina. I had my warrant within fifteen minutes. I had Myron Milton on the computers extracting the data within another fifteen minutes. Part 7 - Interviews I sat in as Martin Nash interviewed the receptionist, whose name was Jill. She was in her early 20s, single, and was going to Nursing School. Her answers are condensed here: She would come in at 8:00am and get out the files for that day's appointments, cross-check the data in them with the data in the computers, and then put those files in a drawer in her front desk. Then she would enter the data from the previous day's appointments from the file folders into the computers. Dr. Searles thought it was very bad practice to sit staring at a computer with a patient sitting in the room, as many doctors would do; she preferred to talk to the patient and make written notes. She had come in this morning and was going to extract the files for that day's appointments from where they were kept behind Dr. Searles's desk. She saw the body when she opened the room, screamed, and ran back into the front room. Dr. Hartwell had run in, checked and found Dr. Searles dead, and called the Police. No one else had gone into the room. She did not know of anyone who wanted to harm Gloria Searles. Gloria was impersonal but not mean or hateful to anyone, and she was professional and not overbearing to anyone. She never said anything bad about her husband or gave any indication that she had anything but a happy marriage. Dr. Guy Hartwell looked like he was in his thirties, almost boyish in appearance, tall and lanky. So I was a bit shocked to learn he was nearly 50 years old. He was good with children and had a folksy, Southern manner about him. He was married with three children, as well. He said that he and Gloria had known each other for the six years of their medical partnership, that he'd known Gloria's husband even longer, and that he had had no problems of any kind with either of them. He did not know of any problems between the Searles's, nor any problems either had with anyone else. He did not know of any problems within the business, except that Dr. Muncey had discussed possibly leaving the partnership and going on her own. Dr. Dembo was a European and a nerve specialist. He knew Dr. Searles professionally for five years, did not have any problems with her nor knew anyone who did. He was not comfortable answering questions, though. His answers were short and he never elaborated on anything, even when a question suggested that he should. I could not tell if that was a language issue, if he was naturally reserved, or if he was being evasive. Dr. Yelena was a pediatrician and as such was very good with children. She was part Asian and part European in ethnicity. She liked Gloria, they often went to lunch together if they had time, and she knew of no one else that had any issues with her. She thought Gloria's marriage was good and strong. The only thing she'd heard about the company is that Dr. Muncey might be leaving in the next few months, but nothing was certain about that. Dr. Caroline Muncey, who I knew because Laura was a patient of hers during the time of Laura's hysterectomy, said that she and Gloria got along fine, that there were no problems that she knew of between Gloria and any of the people at the practices, that everyone seemed to get along fine. She (Caroline) had discussed the possibility of leaving and starting her own practice, but those had only been preliminary discussions, would be months away in happening even if she decided to... and she had not decided to by any means. "So, Martin," I said, "anything stick out to you?" "No sir." said Nash. "No data yet, as you like to say. The only issue I saw was that Dr. Muncey might leave. We'll have to go over the books to see how badly that might affect the overall company." "I agree." I said. "Anything else?" "No sir, their stories matched in every way that I could see." said Nash. "Nobody saying over here that persons A and B fought a lot while everyone else denies it, and such. What did I miss?" "Not a thing, not a damn thing." I replied. "Okay, let's go ask Detective Torres how things are going with the medical files. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "So far, sir," said Torres, "there is only one person with a discrepancy between the file and the appointment calendar. One Darla Clifford was here yesterday morning, but her file was not in the stack of those for data to be entered." "Oh, Darla Clifford." I said. "Withhold my surprise." "Sir?" asked Torres. "Nothing, Diana. Please, continue." I said. Diana said "The receptionist said she did not process that file. I checked, and the file is in its proper cabinet in the drawers behind Dr. Searles's desk. I pulled it, wearing gloves, but the Crime Lab said no fingerprints except the receptionist's and Dr. Searles's were on it or on any of the papers inside the files." Then Diana hit me with the bombshell. "However, sir, two pages were missing from the file. They were torn out of the file folder, and were the ones on top, suggesting the notes from yesterday's appointment were the ones taken. They had not yet been entered into the computer, so we do not know what Dr. Searles's notes were." "Has the trash been secured?" I asked. "Yes sir." Diana replied. "The trash was emptied last night, and there was nothing in any trash cans in the building this morning, and nothing in a preliminary examination of the dumpster outside. I'm thinking the killer took those pages away." "Excellent work, jumping on that so fast." I said, praising Torres. I was indeed impressed. "What about Darla's previous visits?" I asked. "There was a routine checkup in early November." said Diana. "Dr. Searles made a handwritten note that Darla had a bruise on her lower leg, but nothing further, and the rest of the routine checkup showed no problems." "Hmmm, bruise on her leg..." I said, more to myself than anyone else. Then I remembered something. "Martin, get the receptionist and bring her in here. Right now." I ordered. Nash stalked off, and a minute later brought Jill back into room. "Jill," I said, "yesterday, were there any problems between Dr. Searles and any of the patients? Any arguments?" "No sir, not that I remember." Jill said. "I want you to try to remember harder." I said. "Did anyone come storming out, was anyone angry when they left, anyone at all?" "No, sir." "Not Darla Clifford?" I asked, boring in on the girl. "Uhhh, she didn't seem angry. She left hurriedly, but many people do that." "There was no arguing, no yelling inside the office when Darla was in there?" I asked. "No sir." "Jill," I said, "I need to be very, very clear with you: lying to police is a criminal offense, and you could go to jail for it. Are you sure you want to continue to lie to me?" "I'm not lying." Jill said, becoming defiant. "So you maintain that Darla Clifford did not yell, was not angry, did not leave in a hurry or angrily?" "I will answer no more of your questions. I am invoking my right to remain silent. I want a lawyer, and will answer no more questions without legal representation. Am I free to go?" "Well, you've certainly been well coached on what to say, haven't you?" I said, my voice quiet and level. "And you called a lawyer when we came in here. Hmmm..." The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 02 "Am I free to go?" Jill asked in the manner of an automaton, continuing her defiance. "You are not free to go." I said. "You're a material witness to a murder." "I want a lawyer. I demand to be furnished with legal representation right now, as I am being held against my will." said Jill. "Oh, you want to play it that way?" I snarled. "Detective Torres, place this suspect under arrest. Read her her rights, making sure you are videotaped doing so. Have female uniformed officers transport her to County Jail, have her booked. Process her fully. She's about to be charged with crimes that will insure she is never, ever, able to work in a medical facility again in any capacity. Once she's fully processed, she can be given the means to contact a lawyer to represent her. See ya, Jill, and I wouldn't wanna be ya." Torres handcuffed the girl and led her out. Jill had shown no emotion at all, even when I said she'd never work in the medical profession again. "Wow, that was interesting." Nash said. "She clammed up immediately when you mentioned Darla's name." "Yes." I said. "But it's far, far more interesting to me that she called a lawyer as soon as we got here, which had the effect of alerting Chase, Lynch & Berry to go work the judge to not give us what we needed. Now why in the hell do they want to do that?" * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Dr. Richard Searles had gone into surgery at 6:00am, and was not out by 10:00am, when I got to the Hospital with Martin Nash and Joanne Cummings. I had told both of them to let me lead the interview, that we were dealing with one of the pre-eminent cardiologists in the nation, and unless he confessed to the crime on the spot, we were to treat him with the utmost respect. At 10:20am, Dr. Searles finally came up to us. "The nurse told me you needed to talk to me. I'm sorry it took so long, but I had to wrap up all the odds-and-ends of the surgery." "I understand, Doctor." I said. "Are you at a point where we can go talk privately somewhere?" "Uh, sure." said Dr. Searles. "I just need to get some water." Just then a nurse brought him two bottles of water. "Well, never mind, then. Let's go into this room here." It was a side room with tables and a TV; I couldn't tell if it was a breakroom or a study room. Once we were inside, Joanne closed the door as I had Dr. Searles sit down. "So, Don, what can I help you with? Nothing serious, I hope?" "I'm afraid it is, Doctor." I said. "Let me ask you this: you came in early this morning. I suspect you went to bed pretty early?" "Er, yes, right after we got back home from the party. We left at, what, 10:00pm at the latest?" "Give or take." I said. "Did Gloria go home with you?" "Of course!" said Dr. Searles, looking confused. "Why wouldn't she?" "I meant that to mean: did she stop by her office on the way home, or did she go by her office while you went on home alone?" "No, we went straight home together." Searles said. "I went on up to bed, and she said she was going to do some reading. She's been doing some medical research on the computer off-and-on for a couple of months, but never said what it was about." "Did she do that often?" I asked, then realized my mistake in the tense of my question. But Richard Searles missed it. "Uh, whenever a patient comes in with something with which she's unfamiliar, she'll research it. She's good about doing that, she loves studying medicine and learning whatever she can, whenever she can." Searles said. "Has she mentioned anything about Darla Clifford, about the reasons for the incident at the party? Could that have been what she was researching?" "She didn't say." said Searles. "And she doesn't generally discuss her patients, unless it's to talk about a medical situation that might interest me or get my advice upon. I didn't ask about what happened at the party; I knew she would tell me when she was ready to." "I see." I said. "So she stayed downstairs while you went up to bed? What time did you wake up this morning?" "About 4:15am." said Searles. "I left for the Hospital at 4:30am to prepare for the morning surgery." "And your wife was at home when you left?" I asked, peering at the cardiologist. "Why yes, of course. She was in bed, sleeping soundly." said Searles. "She didn't have to go into work until much later that morning... why, what's going on?" "One more question, Doctor." I said. "Do you or your wife own a gun, particularly a small caliber gun?" "No. I don't. I hate guns, I think they ought to be outlawed and confiscated. Only the police should have them. I don't know if Gloria owns a gun or not, but I don't think so, I've certainly never seen her with one. Now why are you asking me these questions, Commander? Is something wrong? Is Gloria all right?" I knew it was time to answer. "Doctor, while you were in surgery this morning, we got a call to come to your wife's office. I'm sorry to tell you that your wife was found dead in her office this morning." "Oh my God!" Searles gasped, his face a look of total shock. "Gloria?... What happened?!? Why- why didn't someone tell me? Why didn't someone come get me out of surgery?" His voice had a tinge of anger towards the end. "Because we didn't tell anyone at the Hospital, Dr. Searles." I said. "And that was my call. Your wife was already dead, you could do nothing for her, and you were in surgery saving someone." "Oh... oh, yeah, well... yeah, that's true." Searles said, still in shock over the news. "Doctor," I said, "I'm truly very sorry for your loss, but I am going to have to ask you some more questions now, and I won't sugarcoat it: they'll be tough." "Uh, sure, yeah." said Searles, "but let me ask first.. what happened to her? How did she die? Was she shot? Is that why you were asking about guns?" "Yes sir," I said, realizing that Dr. Searles had put two and two together, so there was no point in hiding it. "She was found shot with a small-caliber weapon, likely at close range. She was in her office. So you have no idea why she might have gone to her office at a time so much earlier than normal?" "No, I didn't even know that she had gone there." Searles said. "Do you have any idea who might want to harm your wife?" I asked. "No, nobody that I can think of." "Any issues at work, with any of her professional colleagues?" "No...wait... she said that one of the doctors was talking about leaving and starting a new practice... but she didn't seem upset about it. She also said that one of the doctors was badly underperforming, and she was concerned about the company being sued. But she didn't say who it was." "Do you remember any particular time, especially in the last few months, that she seemed upset or distracted, or mentioned a problem with any patient? Anything last night?" "Well... I think you were still at the party when she tried to talk to John Clifford." said Searles. "On the way home, she didn't say anything, but seemed to be muttering to herself. Like I said a moment ago, I didn't say anything, she knew she could confide in me if she wanted to. And over the last couple of months, well, I told you how she'll start looking into something if she hadn't seen it before, but I don't remember anything totally unusual in that regard." "Doctor, would you mind if my people look at her computer at your home, and try to see what research she was doing?" "Sure, that'll be fine." Searles said. I asked if I could borrow his house key, and handed it to Detective Cummings, telling her to just get computers and leave the rest of the house alone. "Thank you, Doctor." I said. "Now I have to ask this: how was your relationship with your wife?" "Good." said Searles. "In fact, in the past few days things were getting better... really better. She had always been pretty cold about sex, we didn't have very much of it, certainly not as much as I would've liked. And she had not wanted to have children, but in the last few days and weeks, she really began opening up to the idea of starting a family, and things got better in bed, too." I did not let on as to what my role in that might have been as I asked the next questions. "So you and your wife did not have arguments, have problems over money? Anything like that?" "No." Searles said. "It was a marriage of two professionals that worked long hours, and sometimes sacrifices were made in some areas to achieve goals in others. But we loved each other, I'm sure of that." "No sexual affairs by either of you?" "Well..." Searles said, "... I'm not going to lie to you and say I've never had an affair. Gloria was very prudish about sex. But like I said, lately things were much better between Gloria and I, including in the affection and sex categories. As to her cheating on me, I doubt it. She wasn't of a sexual temperament. If she did, she hid it very, very well." "I see." I said. "Again, Doctor, I'm sorry for your loss. We'll have to do an autopsy, and then we'll let you know when you can claim her body and begin final preparations. I must also ask you to not leave the County without notifying the Police Department." "Sure, sure." said Searles. We left behind a very dazed doctor. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Think he had anything to do with it?" Martin Nash asked me after hanging up his cell phone. Diana Torres had called, saying she'd gotten the computers from Joanne Cummings, and was taking them to Myron at Headquarters. "I don't know." I said. "His alibi is thin, but that doesn't mean he's not telling the truth. So how did he seem to you? Genuine? Faking it?" "If he's faking, he deserves an Oscar for the performance." said Nash. "I can't read people like you do yet, though I'm working on it. I was watching him, and I didn't see anything that suggested he knew already or was telling a story. I did wonder if him talking about his better relationship with his wife was just a dodge, though." "I agree with you." I said. "And you're right about his bringing up the better relations with his wife, which might suggest they weren't all that good before. But I also observed them at the party last night, and also the one New Year's Eve. He might well be telling the truth; he and his wife gave no signs of problems between them." "Commander," Nash said, "that brings up a point: we're going to have to hear what you know, also, especially since there was an incident yesterday. I know there are certain protocols on this we have to go through." "You're absolutely correct, Nash, and I'm going to inform our new Sheriff of those and ask him to take the correct measures." I said. "Okay, let's go back to Headquarters, we need to have a meeting." Part 8 - Processing Data At 11:30am I convened a meeting in Classroom 'E'. Present were me, Cindy Ross, Tanya Perlman, Martin Nash, Diana Torres, and Myron Milton. There were two others, as well: the first was Sheriff Daniel Allgood, wearing khaki pants, a Western white shirt with a bolo tie, carrying a large light brown cowboy hat with a replica of his badge and a single gold star on it, the star denoting the Sheriff's rank. His badge was on his belt. Also present was the lovely Fire Marshal, Zoe Singer. She had come into the room with the Sheriff, dressed in civilian clothes, a black dress and high heel black pumps that showed off her nice legs. Daniel said he'd explain her presence later, and that he would speak later, but at the moment just wanted to keep abreast of the tactical situation. Zoe gave me a warm smile, which I returned. After we all congratulated Daniel on his new baby, which had him blushing and smiling with happiness, we got started. I sat at the far end of the table from the door, and we asked Sheriff Allgood to join us at the table and sit at the end nearest the door. "That's where the Chief always sat, Sheriff." said Cindy. "You might as well start filling in for him now." Daniel moved into the chair. I then asked Zoe to sit with us, also. I think everyone but me and the Sheriff were confused about why Zoe was really there. ((Author's note: quickly now, can you figure out why Zoe's at the meeting? Keep reading...)) "Okay," I said, "let's start from the top. Let me hear what you've found out, then I'll go last with some information I have. Myron, whaddya got?" "First the general background." said Myron. "Dr. Gloria Searles was age 36, married to Dr. Richard Searles, who is in his upper 40s but looks older, and they had no children. Dr. Searles was the majority owner of the medical practice Searles, Hartwell, Dembo & Muncey, P.C. The Searles's are well-off, their home is paid for, and the only debt either had was Gloria's debt from opening the practice, which she was paying off in a timely manner. The business itself was doing fine, always a bit of debt when buying new equipment, it'd get paid off, they'd buy another piece of equipment, and so on. Nothing out of the ordinary for any medical practice of this size." "The background checks of the doctors didn't show much. Dr. Hartwell is a virtual Boy Scout, belongs to the Kiwanis Club, donates to several charities for underprivileged children. His wife is a doctor also, and does a lot of charity work. Dr. Dembo is a European, and I don't have a lot on him, but no prior arrests or troubles of record. He does have quite a bit of medical school debt, and my data gives the possibility that he is struggling to meet those obligations. Dr. Yelena also has school debt, but it's manageable. Dr. Muncey has no medical issues, but she has had hits on her credit reports... by that I mean that people are hard-checking her credit." "How is that significant?" asked Diana Torres. I said "It means that she's been applying for loans and is being checked out. In the absence of further data, such as trying to buy a house or something, I'd suggest this gives some credence to the idea that she was preparing to start her own practice. Anything else, Myron?" "Yes sir." said Myron. "Dr. Richard Searles is a preeminent cardiologist, not only around here but one of the nation's best and most widely celebrated such doctors. He has no financial problems now, but that was not always the case. He took out a loan for $200,000 about four years ago, but I can find no record of major purchases or what he spent the money on, and it did not stay in his accounts. He repaid the money over the next two years, though." "Any idea what that's about?" Sheriff Allgood asked, directing his question at me. "Yes, but let me hold off on that pour le moment." I replied. "But let me ask Myron this: did that money come from a joint account with his wife, or his own accounts?" "His own." said Myron. "In fact, he and his wife have no joint financial accounts, though they co-own the house. She did the private practice in her name. Neither seem to have made major purchases like second homes or big boats or cars, etc. They both are self-incorporated, and expense everything they can in the name of those corporations." "Kills the idea of financial motive for Dr. Searles to kill his wife." said Martin Nash. There was a murmur of agreement, and I nodded my head. "By the way, Commander, do you want me to talk about this other stuff you asked me to look up?" Myron asked. "Not quite yet. Thanks Myron." I said. "Detective Torres, report on the files, please." "Yes sir." said Torres. She recounted the information about the files and how the receptionist entered them into the computers, then said "Only one file was not in the pile that corresponded to yesterday's appointments, and that was one Darla Clifford." Cindy's eyes cut to me at the mention of the name. "It was in stored in the main cabinets, is that right?" I asked. "Yes sir." said Diana. "It had been stored away in the cabinets again... or was never brought out." "Darla apparently showed up for the appointment, so I would imagine it had been brought out." I said. "For some reason, that was the only file that had been returned to the cabinets. That's a strangeness, there." Everyone knew what it meant when I said that... it was a cluuuue. Even Zoe realized that. "Okay," I said, "I think this is the time and place to save the Sheriff the time of explaining his and Commander Singer's presences here, as I have some information to share with you. Commander Singer is essentially Internal Affairs for the Fire Department, and she is the equivalent rank of me. Therefore, she is the I.A. presence for the Inspector General, and it doesn't hurt that the Sheriff himself, who might have spent a few hours in the Police I.A. Department himself, is here to listen to my story. Shall I continue, Sheriff?" "Not much gets by the Iron Crowbar." said Daniel with a grin, making everyone laugh. "But yes, we're going to record your statement here as you give it. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure you're aware that this is just routine procedure, but it's essential for the protection of evidence if we get a culprit to bring to trial. As you're probably aware, the receptionist called Chase, Lynch & Berry, who virulently hate the Police, early this morning, almost as soon as she found the body... and the Commander took her into custody. He also was present at a potential incident last night that might have bearing on this crime. Okay, Commander, go ahead, and please remember that this is a statement for our records." "Thank you Sheriff." I said. "Last night, that being Monday night, January 5th, my wife and I attended a reception given by University President Wellman and his wife. It was for the new doctors and lawyers that had joined the University and/or the Hospital Staff as of the beginning of this semester. Dr. Richard Searles and his wife Dr. Gloria Searles, who is the deceased victim in this case, attended that reception also. "During the reception, I observed that Dr. Gloria Searles, who I will just call 'Gloria' to avoid confusion with her husband, was attempting to talk to one Dr. John D. Clifford, who is a Professor of Law at the University. In fact, I overheard Gloria's husband come to find her to tell her the Cliffords were at the reception, which suggests she already had mentioned that she wanted to talk to either him or both of the Cliffords. "However, Mrs. Clifford avoided talking to Gloria, and I personally observed that Dr. Clifford also pulled away from her and refused to talk to her, and the Cliffords left very shortly after that. I have no idea at this time what that was about. "I do not believe in coincidences, as my Detectives have heard me say many times. We now have Darla Clifford having had an appointment with Gloria Searles, which she kept, and whose file was the only one returned to the cabinets after her appointment. And the second coincidence, which makes believe that there is no coincidence at all, is that the Cliffords' name came up last week. Lieutenant Ross, would you please give the details of the incident at Veccio's Ristorante?" Cindy gave the details of her encounter with the Cliffords and Lockhart, as well as the reasons for putting the police report under seal. Sheriff Allgood said "We'll need a copy of that sealed police report." and I said I'd send it to him and to the Inspector General. "Do either of you have questions for me before we continue with Myron's information on these people?" I asked Daniel and Zoe. "Just to confirm this." said Zoe, probably just to justify her presence. "Gloria Searles never mentioned to you nor to her husband what the specific medical issue with Mrs. Clifford was?" "Not to me, and I can't speak for what was told to her husband, though he told me that she didn't tell him what it was about." I said, "Also, I'm not yet assuming that it was a medical-related issue, either, even though Gloria was a doctor and all this happened after a doctor's appointment." The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 02 "All right, you may continue with the meeting." said Sheriff Allgood. "Myron, did you get cell phone records?" I asked. "And what is your information on the Cliffords?" "We're still amassing phone records, and I don't yet have a consolidated report or any obvious connections or discrepancies." said Myron. "As to the Cliffords: John D. Clifford is 45 years old. His wife Darla is 38 years old. His undergraduate degree was in Accounting, of all things, and he worked at County Regional Bank as an auditor before taking a job with the IRS. Yes, the IRS. But he left that job a couple of years later and went back to school full time, to law school. It took him three years, and then more study later, but he became a J.D. at age 30." "At that point, he became a specialist in medical malpractice, and he acquired a truly fearsome reputation. Doctors paled at his name, hospital staffs cringed at his name, and Insurance Companies despised him. He became known for not taking settlements, and for prosecuting doctors that committed malpractice to the limits of the law in the Courts. He didn't take a lot of the winnings, either, and he did not become overly wealthy at all." Myron continued: "He was with Chase, Lynch & Berry for a couple of years, but left after what was termed a 'philosophical disagreement' with them and started his own practice. About five years ago, he applied to become a Law Professor, was hired by the University here, and he specializes in teaching malpractice law there, turning out lawyers after his own heart in pursuing medical and other malpractice cases. He's a good professor according to the reviews, he's popular with his students." "Now, Darla Clifford." Myron said. "She is also a lawyer, but currently does not actively practice. She did have a job with BigPharmaCorp as a sales rep, then went to law school and apparently met John Clifford there. They were married when he was 32 and she was 25. They have no children. Any questions before I move on to Mr. Lockhart?" "No tie-ins with the Searles at all?" Tanya asked. "Was she ever sued by him, or was her husband?" "No," said Myron, "at least not that I've found so far. And I will say this: Dr. Richard Searles has been with the University for years. I can't conceive that the University would hire John D. Clifford if he'd sued either Searles before." "Nice inference there, Myron." I said. "Keep looking, and be sure to check if Clifford ever sued any of Gloria's partners." "What was the reason for the splitting with the law firm?" Daniel Allgood asked. "Anything there?" "No sir, Sheriff." said Myron. "I just found the record from the Unemployment Office files. That was the reason given for his leaving, with no further explanation. That document said that Clifford resigned, also." "If I may," I said, "I think we can make an educated guess on that. Clifford liked to pursue cases and not take settlements. Now lawyers, our own ADAs excepted of course, tend to not want to work hard; they'd prefer to settle and move on to the next billable case. I'm betting the firm and Clifford argued over his methods of pursuing justice for his clients." "Maybe he was about to sue one of the partners of Dr. Searles medical practice." said Martin Nash. "Gloria wanted to talk to him about it, he of course didn't want to and pulled away from her. Her husband said something that none of the doctor's did: that Gloria was afraid one of the partners was doing badly and the practice might get sued. That would also explain why she didn't discuss it with her husband, either." "It's a thought, and does not conflict with the data." I said. "Before we go interview the Cliffords... Myron, tell us about Lockhart." "You'll just love him, Commander." Myron said. "He's on the fringe. Just within the last year, the IRS, State Tax Division, FDA and State Narcotics Task Force have begun comparing notes about his finances and pharmaceutical operations. Seemed his cash flow did not match his pharmaceutical purchases and sales. He's been audited three times in the last 14 months, but so far nothing has been found that they can really hit him with. The IRS has the best chance to get him and is still looking." "His pharmacy serves low-end clientele, and by that I will politically incorrectly say the Tenderloin District and Southwestern Ghetto residents are his best clients. The doctors that write the prescriptions in his computers are mostly from bad areas of Town, and some are shady characters themselves. But again, they've been unable to solidly nail him as of yet." "Any ideas yet, Iron Crowbar?" asked the new Sheriff in Town. "Yes sir." I said. "I have the very good idea that Detective Nash and myself are going to go interview Dr. Clifford, while Lieutenant Perlman and Detective Torres are going to speak with Mrs. Clifford. Is my idea not correct, Lieutenant Perlman?" "I have the distinct feeling that your ideas will become reality within the hour, Commander." replied Tanya with a grin. Part 9 - Cliffords and Valleys "Thank you for seeing us today." I said to John Clifford as we entered his office on the University Campus. Nash and I had Lt. Bill Hanson of the Campus Police with us as an observer. I introduced them as John Clifford asked us to sit down. "Sure, Commander," said Clifford, "and I have to admit I'm curious as to what this could be about. Certainly not that little incident at Veccio's..." "Well, yes and no." I said. "Let me first ask you some questions that might be confusing, but if you'll bear with me all will come to light soon enough. First, some background: you were a lawyer before coming to the University, here?" "Yes." said Clifford. "I specialized in medical malpractice lawsuits." "I understand that you went to law school several years after undergraduate school. What drove that decision?" I asked. "You seem to know a lot about me, Officer." Clifford said, and I was aware of his underlying implication. "Yes, we did do a routine check after the restaurant incident, but also due to some more recent issues that I'll explain in a moment, if you'll bear with me." I said. "So why did you go to law school?" "Well, I kept seeing people getting screwed over. A doctor would commit malpractice, the insurance companies would put the victim through the wringer for years... it often was five to ten years before a case was moved forward... I kept seeing the insurance companies bear down on the victims to take a lousy settlement, then try to fuck- er, screw them over on that." Clifford continued, his face becoming a bit red with his passion: "But worst of all was the lawyers. They always wanted to settle, and for much less than the client deserved. They just wanted to get paid after doing little to no work. It was a farce, and a clique. I got tired of hearing those stories, so I went to law school myself, got my degree, and opened up a can of whoop-ass, er, excuse my language, on these bastards. I won a lot of cases for my clients, too, and got them good compensation for the wrongs committed against them." "Why did you get out of it and come here? To the University and the professorship, that is." I asked. "I realized I couldn't do it alone." said Clifford. "I wanted to teach others the law, so they could carry on my fight. Some of them are going to fall to the dark side, making deals, getting paid and leaving the client hanging, but a few of them are showing strong promise and are carrying on the work. They're in the City now." "What about your wife?" I asked. "Does she work with you?" "No." John Clifford said. "She worked some with me during my days in practice, but hasn't held a Law-related job for years." "What does she do now?" I asked. "She mostly does volunteer work with the Ladies Auxiliary." said Clifford. "Sometimes she gives legal advice, pro bono, to these charity groups or to people that need help on small stuff, such as wills, financial arrangements, and the like. But mostly, she's just my beautiful trophy wife." "I see." I said, forcing a smile to keep Clifford at ease. "Now about that incident at the restaurant. What can you tell me about that?" "Oh yes, that." Clifford said. "I don't know, Commander. I'm sure if someone grabbed your wife's arm like that guy grabbed my wife, you'd be whaling his ass with that crowbar of yours. Well, I didn't have a crowbar, and maybe lucky for me..." "I definitely can understand." I said. "So let me beat a dead horse for a second, pun not intended... what happened?" Clifford repeated his story, which 'jived' with the notes from Cindy's report. "Oh, one thing I didn't mention to your Lieutenant because it really didn't come up," said Clifford, "but the guy kept calling my wife 'Natasha'. Now my wife says she doesn't know anyone named Natasha, and I don't either, nor any woman that really looks like my wife at all. It was really weird." "Yes, it may be just a small thing." I said. "He thinks he knows who she is, but he's wrong, and you're there to defend your wife. Can't blame you for that. I do appreciate you telling me that about the name. Now let me ask this: did you ever come across the Doctors Searles, either Mr. or Mrs., in a professional way, that being your profession as opposed to theirs?" "No." said Clifford, shaking his head slightly. "Richard Searles is doing research as he does cutting-edge operations. If he loses a patient, it's usually someone who was walking dead anyway. Almost impossible to win something like that. His wife is a GP, she almost always refers a case of any magnitude to another doctor. By the way, I've only known them since I came to the University, and was past the point of bringing new cases." "So you don't have any legal actions against either of them, I gather?" I said. "That's correct." "I saw you talking to Gloria Searles at the Wellman's party the other night." I said. "Would you mind telling me what that was about?" "Ah, getting to the real issue now, I see." said Clifford. "Truth is, I didn't wait to hear it. She tried to talk to my wife, who bolted for the door. Then she, Dr. Searles, wanted to talk to me, but my wife was ready to go, so I shook Dr. Searles off." "But that's not the only reason." continued Clifford. "The fact is... I still don't like talking to doctors very much. Usually if they even speak to me, it in the form of threats or accusations of 'ambulance chasing' and such, and I have no love lost for them, either. So I didn't really want to talk to Dr. Searles. I told her to leave my wife alone, then I got out of there myself." "Did you ask your wife about it?" I asked. "Uh, yeah." said Clifford. "She said that Dr. Searles wanted to talk about her visit earlier that day, and Darla said she would call Dr. Searles back the next day, that she didn't want to talk to doctors while I was around. Apparently Dr. Searles did not take that as the invitation to leave that it was, and began bothering my wife. My wife headed for the door, and I was going that way myself when Dr. Searles accosted me. What is it with people these days? Won't leave people alone.." "I dunno, but it keeps me in business. So you went home from the party?" I asked. "Yeah." Clifford said. "We went home, watched some TV... smoked- well, I can't say anything to the police about that... and then went to bed. My wife was a bit agitated, and the best way to calm her down was several hours of play in bed, if you know what I mean... and as the husband of the sex professor on campus, I'm sure you do understand." "Yes, I sure do." I said, grinning, then becoming serious again. "What time did you get up this morning, and what time did you get to work?" "I usually am up at 6:30, get here about 7:30, my first class is at 8:10 on most days." said Clifford." "Your wife was at home when you left? Asleep?" "Yes, she was at home. She was already up. She fixed breakfast, and was working on the Internet when I left." "She was there with you all night? "Well, yeah." said Clifford, looking confused. "Right now, I could care less about what you smoked last night." I said. "But how did you feel when you woke up?" "A bit groggy, but nothing abnormal." said Clifford. "And you've had no other contact with Dr. Searles since the incident at the Wellman's, nor has your wife?" "No." said Clifford. "So, Officer, I am wondering what this is about." "One more question: do you or your wife own a gun, Dr. Clifford?" "No. Well, I don't. If Darla does I don't know about it." said Clifford. "Okay, Detective, I've been very cooperative here, but I really do want to know what's going on." "What going on, Mr. Clifford," I said, hurling the words at him for effect, "is that Dr. Gloria Searles was found murdered this morning." "What?!" Clifford gasped. "Oh my God!" He looked genuinely shocked. "You think Darla or I had anything to do with it?" "I don't know, Dr. Clifford." I said. "But we have to routinely follow up all possible leads, and I'm sure you understand that the incident with Dr. Searles has to be examined." "Yeah, yeah, I guess I can understand that." said Clifford. "But why would we kill her?" "You tell me." I said. "I have no idea about it." said John Clifford. He stood up. "I'll cooperate to the extent I can, Officer, but I think I've answered your questions and I should draw this conversation to a close." "Thank you for your time, Dr. Clifford." I said. "You've been helpful, and I hope to have this matter cleared up quickly. In the meantime, you know the deal: tell the Police Department before you leave the County." With that, we left the office. Back at Lt. Hanson's office at the Campus Police building, I asked the other men "Well, guys, what did you think?" "If you ask me, he ain't got it in him." said Bill Hanson. "It was a bit strange how he asked 'Why would we kill her?' the way he did, meaning the form of his sentence." "True." I said. "I think he was thinking about it even as I was talking to him, which prompted that 'thinking out loud' sentence. Martin?" Martin Nash said "The one thing I noticed was his obvious hatred of doctors. He could not hide his passion as he talked about suing doctors and medical malpractice. Whether that would lead to murder? I don't know." "Yes, and why do you think he has such a hatred of doctors?" I asked. "Well, he said he watched people getting screwed over and he wanted to do something about it." Nash replied. "And your inference from that is?" I asked, testing Nash. He knew it was a test, too. "Uhh... I guess I'm not seeing it." "May I suggest that that level of passion means he himself was the one screwed over at some point in time. It's noble to want to help others, but I think it's more personal than that with John D. Clifford. Now how it relates to Dr. Searles's murder, I don't know. So, Martin, what would you do next... or more accurately, what do you think *I* am going to do next?" Martin grinned, such as a grin from him was. "You're going to call Myron to get him to find out why Clifford hates doctors." "Bingo." I said as I drew out my cell phone. I made the call to Myron. Just as we were about to leave, my phone rang. This time it was Tanya Perlman. "Commander," Tanya said, "we went to Darla's home, but she's not there. She's not at the Ladies Auxiliary nor on the University Campus. Any ideas?" I knew what Tanya wanted me to authorize. "Have Myron trace her cell phone signal, if she has her phone with her. Also, if she has a car with a GPS, trace that too." I said. "Do that right away, but then call Paulina Patterson and get a warrant to cover you. Paulina can tell the judge that Darla Clifford is a primary suspect in the Gloria Searles murder case, and that finding her is imperative." "Wilco." said Tanya. Part 10 - Sexual Exploits of a Hot Trophy Wife "Oh God, yes!" gasped the woman as the handsome man entered her and sank the full length of his eight inch penis balls-deep into her. She groaned as he began pumping steadily in and out of her. The man had a full head of wavy brown hair, a thick mustache, and a muscular physique. He was short, only 5'7" tall, but that didn't matter to the woman lying beneath him on the couch. The woman was Darla Clifford, and she was enjoying the feeling of being deeply fucked by the stud's eight inch love muscle. They were in the man's office on the west side of Town, near the Warehouse District and also near the Southwestern Ghetto. It was a seedy neighborhood. "Oh God, you fuck me so much better than my husband does!" Darla gasped as she pushed her loins up to meet the man's vigorous thrusts. "Yeah, baby, you are one fine piece of ass. Fuck that cock with that hot cunt of yours." the man said, his raunchy words adding to the intensity of their mating as they rutted hotly. The office was a doctor's office, and the man had gotten his medical degree from one of those Caribbean schools of medicine of rather low reputation. His clientele were people who took Schedule III and Schedule II drugs, and he was part of a ring of seedy doctors that fed the illicit trade at a premium price, in association with pharmacies of questionable repute. But that was not in either lover's mind right now as the fucked deep and hot, like longtime lovers but knowing that every fuck might be their last ever with each other... "Oh yeah, I love the feeling of that bare cock sliding in and out of me." gasped Darla. "It's been so long since I've been able to fuck a bare cock." "Oh yeah, it feels great," the man said agreeably, "so hot and wet and nasty. Yeah, I love fucking this smoking hot cunt, baby." He rammed his meat in and out of her with long, driving thrusts, his hard asscheeks rapidly pistoning up and down as he fucked toward his release... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "All right, there's her car." said Tanya Perlman. She was with Detective Diana Torres. Lt. Cindy Ross had brought Officer Lydia Green as a uniformed backup. "Well, her car is parked out here in the front parking lot." said Lt. Perlman. "We'll just have to go door-to-door and ask..." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "What's that sound?" Darla asked as she heard a commotion in the hallway, just as her lover finished pumping his potent, virile load deep inside her sopping wet, well-fucked cunt. "Sounds like a fucking raid." said the man. "You go out the back door. I'll stay here." As Tanya, Diana and Lydia entered the reception room, Darla quickly put on her clothes and hurtled out the back door. "Going somewhere, Darla?" said the voice, stopping the woman cold in her tracks. Cindy Ross was standing in front of her, her fists on her hips, her legs spread slightly apart... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The pharmacist Lockhart put the landline phone down and said to his assistant behind the counter. "Lock up. We're closing." To the young man at the front counter, he said "Lock the front doors." "What's going on?" the girl behind the counter said. "Why are we closing?' "Annie, would you please just shut. the. fuck. up. and do what I tell you?" Lockhart snarled. "I'm closing! Now get out of here! Go home!" Annie didn't respond, but just stood there in uncomprehending confusion. When she didn't move, Lockhart's already-worn patience snapped. "MOVE, bitch!" he yelled, pushing her the several feet to the back door and out of it into the back alley, then slamming the door in her face. "Stupid bitch, dumb as a box of rocks." said Lockhart to his male assistant. "We got the message to bolt." Indeed, when he'd answered the phone, only one word had come across the wire: "Bolt." And Lockhart knew what it meant. After locking the front doors and turning the door sign to 'Closed', the young man moved towards the back. He and Lockhart turned off all the lights, and went out the back door, Lockhart securing it. The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 02 "Don't go by the main roads!" he said to the young man, who drove off through the back alley. Lockhart said. He himself ran to the parking lot next door and got into an old brown car and drove off. He did not notice that Annie was still in the parking lot, watching him. Within five minutes, three police cruisers pulled up to the pharmacy, one going into the back alley. Sergeant Micah Rudistan and Sr. Patrolmen Morton and Hicks got out, finding the doors locked. Patrolman Johnson radioed from the car in the alley that there was no movement. "Damn, I think we're too late." said Rudistan, his voice jovial despite the failure to capture Lockhart. "I'll call the Commander and give him the bad news." Just then he noticed a young woman coming up to him, calling out to get his attention... To be continued. The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 03 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, The Case of the Black Badge series, A Case of Revenge series, Teresa's Summer Race, The Trilogy series, Dark Side Of The Force series, Caught In The Act series, Case of the Murdered Bride series, The Credit Card Caper series, The Hot Wives Investment Club series, Seriously Inconvenienced series, Case of the Paper Trail series, Christmas Mystery Theater, The Porno Set Mystery series. The Medical Murder Mystery, Ch. 1-3. 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 11 - Obstacles 4:00pm, Tuesday, January 6th. I strode into Interrogation-1, where Darla Clifford was sitting with her lawyer, H.J. Lynch of the firm Chase, Lynch & Berry, P.C. John Clifford had come to the Station, but was informed that he could not act as legal representation for his wife, as he was also a suspect in the Searles case. I advised him to retain his own legal representation, and quickly. Also in the room was Detective Martin Nash and Detective Diana Torres. Lt. Ross and Lt. Perlman were watching from the anteroom, as was Paulina Patterson. Sitting in Interrogation-2, waiting for a lawyer, was Darla's lover. His name was "Dr." Paul Wicker. "It's unbelievable." said the lawyer Lynch as he sat next to Darla. "How in the world do you expect that we will accept this abuse of this prisoner? Arresting her on evading police charges is a joke enough, but suspicion of murder? I am going to tear you a new one in the hearing, Commander. You're really starting to piss me off now." "Best news I've heard all day, Counselor." I said flatly. "The more pissed off you are, the better my case obvious is, despite your bluffs. But there has been no abuse of this accused person, Counselor, and if you say it again, I'll go to the judge and have you removed from any association with this case. What's it going to be, Lynch?" "You think this is a fucking bluff?" roared Lynch, leaning over the table at me. "I mean it, Troy, I am going to fucking barbecue your ass in Court, and then I'm going to be making police abuse complaints to the Town & County Council. Then I'm going to sue the hell out of the County over this if they don't fire your sorry ass-" "And if you lose, will you accept disbarment?" I asked. "Because that's where I'm headed with you, Lynch. Keep up your threats and I'll have you before the Bar so fast it'll make your head swim. Now are you prepared to apologize for your claim of abuse, represent your client, who has some serious felony charges facing her, or do you want to go cry about it to the Council?" The air grew thick and heavy as I stared at the lawyer. The silence was deafening, and I kept it, not continuing. Finally I said "I asked a question, Counselor... are you prepared to apologize for your false claim of abuse, then represent your client in a professional manner, or are you going to leave and pursue a complaint against me with the Council? I've got all day and night to sit here and wait for you to answer." "I want to speak to my client alone." said Lynch. "No. Not until you answer my question." I said. "No more legal shenanigans, Lynch: are you going to apologize for your slander, then represent this client, or are you going to go right now and file a complaint against me with the Council? Whose bluffing now, Lynch?" At that moment, ADA Paulina Patterson came into the room. "I've already called the judge with a complaint against you, Lynch. He wants to know your basis for your claim that the Police Department has abused this suspect. Until you prove it, you're off this case and no longer able to represent this suspect." "Don't say a word to them." Lynch said to Darla. "Request new legal counsel." The lawyer then got up and left. "I want new legal counsel, and I will not answer any questions without a lawyer present." said Darla Clifford. I afforded her a telephone to call for new counsel, then had her taken back to her cell until that counsel arrived. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Okay, Dr. Paul Wicker." I said as I entered Interrogation-2 with Martin Nash, Sgt. Rudistan in the room also. Wicker's lawyer from Chase, Lynch & Berry was seated beside him. She was a tall, dark-haired woman, and had a bitchy attitude. Paulina was watching this one from the anteroom, as well. "I have advised my client to answer none of your questions." she said. "With what is he being charged?" "Aiding and abetting a wanted person in evading the police, and lying to police." I said. "When he was asked where Darla Clifford went, he denied knowing her, he denied anyone had been in his office with him, and that was at the same moment two officers came in his front door while Mrs. Clifford was being arrested coming out his back door. He could not possibly have not known she was in the room with him, not to mention that our Crime Lab technicians executed a rape kit, and his semen was leaking out of her. I'm sure that was consentual sex, but it does sort of show they knew each other... and in the Biblical sense." I leaned forward as I continued: "Also, I'll have to hear from him directly that he's taking the Fifth. And he might want to consider answering some questions before he does that. I'll also mention this: we're going to be looking into Dr. Wicker's prescription-writing practices. If we find the least thing wrong, we'll have both the Feds and State agencies all over him like white on rice. If he cooperates, we might just find it a waste of our time to crawl up his ass." "Come on, Commander," said the woman, "these charges are nothing. What's he going to get, community service at worst?" "And his medical license revoked." I said. "He won't be writing any more prescriptions of any kind... and I still have probable cause to investigate him to the limit of the power of the Federal and State Governments. But it's your call, Paul." "Let me have a minute with him." said the woman. We left the room. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * By now, the lawyer for Darla Clifford had arrived, and we had jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. The new legal eagle was from the powerful law firm of Gresham & Mason, P.C. "This is going to be fun." I said to Paulina before entering Interrogation-1 again. "Okay, Counselor, we've videotaped ourselves reading your client her rights. I understand that you have talked with her about her situation?" I said as I sat down on the other side of the table from them. "Yes, Commander." said the lawyer. He was a big man, not necessarily fat but looking like he was once an offensive guard for an NFL team. His hair was gray-white, and very short, sort of like Detective Wes 'Coldiron' Masters of the Midtown Police Department. "I'm not going to get into a legal pissing contest with you like that idiot from that amateur firm. But I'm going to be asking for and expedited hearing and bail." "Ankle monitor will be a necessity, and God help her if she tries to leave the County." I said, knowing that denying Darla Clifford bail would be a pipe dream, and so I was trying to get what I could. The lawyer whispered something to Darla, and she nodded. "At this time, Mrs. Clifford," I said, "I will offer the opportunity for you to re-invoke at a future time if you wish to make a statement or answer questions now that will help us." "We reject that offer." said the lawyer. "Mrs. Clifford has invoked and will answer no questions, as is her right." "Very well." I said. "Do what you have to do." I had the uniformed officer return Darla to her holding cell, knowing this powerhouse, wily lawyer would have her out by midnight, hopefully with ankle monitoring. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "The receptionist Jill is ready to talk." said Cindy Ross as I came out of I-1 into the anteroom. "Her lawyer is from Succup & Payne, and cannot believe she's been held this long." "She's cracking, though, isn't she?" I said. "Okay, bring her into Interrogation-1 when Darla and her lawyer leave." "Amazing how much better that guy was than that fuckwad Lynch." Cindy said. "I could not agree more." I said. A few minutes later I was facing Jill the receptionist. Her lawyer, a thin woman with heavy, thick glasses that looked like the poster child for the National Organization for Women, was with her. "Commander," the lawyer started, "do you really mean to press these silly charges against my client?" "Well," I said in my folksiest manner, "I might be persuaded to forget about her lies this morning... if she'll tell the truth and the whole truth now. I already know what happened, and I'll know if even one syllable she makes is a lie." The lawyer whispered to Jill, who said "But he's accused me of lying to police already. I'm not going to fall into that trap." "Jill," I said, "you better think about this. I just said I would not press charges if you come correct with truthful answers to my questions, and I just said it on videotape; I can't take it back, no judge would ever accept that. But also remember that this is a murder case here, not jaywalking. Your year and a half at Nursing School, at great expense, will be for nothing because I'll make damn sure you never work as a nurse or in any medical capacity, ever. What's it going to be, Jill?" Even the lawyer was surprised at Jill's reticence, and whispered to Jill to consider speaking. Finally, her face in pain from having to do it, Jill said "Okay, what do you want to know?" "Yesterday, Monday," I said, "Darla Clifford kept her appointment with Dr. Searles. Did Darla leave angrily, leave quickly, leave abruptly?" "She came out really fast." said Jill. "I can't say what her face looked like, it was kind of inscrutable, like she had some purpose. She walked out fast." "Did Dr. Searles say anything on the way out, try to stop her?" I asked. "She came to her office door and said 'Please, Darla, we really need to talk about this'." Jill said. "Darla just walked on out as if she had not heard anything." "I see." I said. "And did Dr. Searles mention to you what the issue was?" "No." "Did you peek at Dr. Searles's notes?" I asked. "I answered this question before, Officer: that file never made it back to the pile." said Jill, as if exasperated. "I did. not. see. it. As far as I know, Dr. Searles re-filed it herself." "Had she done that in the past? Or was this a totally unusual event?" "Unusual." Jill said. "Dr. Searles hated using the computer, but she knew she pretty much had to maintain the data digitally as a matter of law. She would always have me transfer the notes and information to the computers. But I'm telling you the truth, straight out: I never saw that file, and I assume Dr. Searles re-filed it herself." "One more thing." I said. "Did Dr. Searles use the computer to do research on medical things in order to become more aware of problems?" "I think she did that mostly at home." said Jill. "Once patients started coming in, it was non-stop until the last patient left." "And her appointments were from 11:00am to 7:00pm or so?" I asked. "Give or take." said Jill. "She'd be glad to come in earlier if a patient needed an earlier time, even as early as 8:00am. But most of her patients were the wealthy people in the County. They did not care to get out of bed that early, so Dr. Searles adapted, and usually had a later schedule." "Did she have any early appointments today?" I asked. "No sir." Jill said. "First one was at 10:30." "Thank you, Jill." I said. "You're free to go, but you are still a material witness. Do not leave the County without notifying the Police Department. I am sure your lawyer here will explain why it would be a good idea to respect that." With that, I got up, as did Martin Nash, and we left the room. I went and found Cindy. "Lt. Ross, have someone go pick up Dr. Caroline Muncey and bring her here, to Interrogation-A, or -B, whichever is empty. I'm not arresting her, but I want to talk to her..." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The lawyer for "Dr." Paul Wicker got tired of waiting for me. She had her client take the Fifth, which he did. She then hurried over to the Courthouse to get an expedited bail hearing... which Judge Folsom denied, saying he'd have his turn in due course. Meanwhile, Dr. Caroline Muncey had arrived. "I don't understand why I have to come down here." Dr. Caroline Muncey said as she sat down in Interrogation-A. I was seated with Diana Torres on the other side, with Cindy watching from the anteroom, and Officer Lydia Green observing from the inside. "Thank you for coming, all the same, Dr. Muncey." I said. "The main reason I asked you to come down was so that we could videotape this interview. That is for your protection." "All right, what do you want to know?" "Dr. Muncey, I need to know the full truth here... you were planning to start your own practice and leave Dr. Searles's group, weren't you? And maybe you still are, but my point is that you were a lot more definite than you let on earlier." "That is true." said Dr. Muncey. "I didn't want to say it where the other doctors might get wind of it. I'm hoping to get my practice up and running, then take my patients' files with me. If the other people got wind of what I'm doing, they'd block me from taking the files, and I'd have to start from scratch." "I see." I said. "But they seem to know you're thinking about it." "I was careless with my words early on." Muncey said. "I spoke out loud just as an concept, nothing concrete. The next thing I know, Gloria Searles is calling me into her office and saying that I could leave if I wanted, but I could not take the patient files... and if I tried, she'd take legal action. But we all know that if I got those files out of there, they'd essentially be mine." "So you were making copies? Taking data off the computers?" I asked. "Oh yes, I was copying digital data for weeks." said Caroline Muncey. "What kind of damage would it do to the group financially if you left?" I asked. "It'd hurt... I'm about 30% of the patients. Guy Hartwell is 30%, and Yelena is 35%. Dembo is 5% at best. Technically, Gloria was 100%, as all patients came to us as a referral from her, so I'm talking about the others." "I understand." I said. "So let me ask this: was any doctor underperforming, or performing in a way that could bring a malpractice suit?" Caroline paused, then said "This is going to be speculation, you understand. I have no proof, just hearsay." I nodded and Caroline then said "I think Dr. Dembo was flaky. He's from Europe, and a lot of the female patients were not comfortable with him. I'm not sure if he was coming on to them, but he rarely got repeat business. I think Gloria really wanted to get him out of the group." "Could she have done that? Could you as a group get rid of Dembo?" "Oh yes." Caroline said. "And it would't be all that difficult." "Is Dembo the reason you wanted to leave?" I asked. "Part of it." Caroline said. "I also was having trouble getting patients from other sources. If they came in, they were accosted to see Gloria first, which they did not want or need to do. I also was going to be on full-time staff with the University Hospital, which your wife helped me to get." "And where were you last night?" I asked. "All night." "I was... not alone." said Carolyn, then after a pause accented with my expectant look at her, she said "I was with Zoe Singer." "You're dating her?" I asked, surprised. "We hooked up last Friday night, and she's stayed over for the last several days.." Caroline said. "Just a hot encounter that's lasted several days." "Okay, thank you for your time." I said. "You're free to go, but please don't leave the County without notifying the Police Department. Our officers will give you a ride back home." After she left, I said "Damn. So much for the impartiality of the Fire Marshal in all of this." "Good thing the Sheriff himself was also there." Cindy said as we walked down the hall to my office. "So, anything else for tonight?" "Naah." I said. "You can go. I know you've got a lot of work to do with your gym, since Melina's out on maternity leave, so to speak. If you need to take some time, just let me know." "Thanks." Cindy said, following me into my office. "By the way, any ideas on this case? I thought for sure Darla Clifford was involved, but you just established some possibilities with the other doctors." "True." I said. "I'm waiting for all the phone records, which Myron will have for me tomorrow. I'm hoping to establish some patterns of communications. I also have Myron checking this Paul Wicker's numbers to see if any burner phones can be traced back to someone associated with Gloria Searles." Just then, I got a text. "Laura is telling me to come see her at Melina's. Want to go with me?" "Sure, I'd love to see the new baby." said Cindy. I texted Laura that Cindy and I were on our way. Part 12 - Realizations "Oh, he's so beautiful." said Cindy. "Thank goodness he looks just like his daddy." She was teasing Melina. "Good job of kissing up to the new boss, there, Partner." I said as I took little Danny from Cindy. "But he is a good looking young man, almost as good looking as my boy." "No bias there, I'm sure." Daniel said, grinning. "So, can we mention this case in front of everyone?" "Sure." I said, seeing no reason why not as I handed the baby back to Cindy. "Though I don't know if Laura and Melina could stand the boredom." "I'm curious." said Laura. Melina just nodded. "Unfortunately, we don't have much yet. I'm still waiting for data." I said. "By the way, Daniel, Caroline Muncey claimed to be in bed with Zoe Singer last night... which puts a damper on Zoe's impartiality." I saw Daniel's face fall. "Yeah, it sure does." he replied. "Good thing I was there, also. Damn, why didn't she tell us she was with Caroline Muncey?" "I wouldn't be too upset about that." I said. "Zoe very likely did not realize Caroline's association with the case." "I know we won't get any theories out of the Iron Crowbar." Daniel said. "But what about you, Cindy? By the way, call me Daniel in this family setting." "Sure, Daniel, thanks." Cindy said. "First, let me say that I got Vice involved in the Paul Wicker and Lockhart situations. Christopher Purvis and Julie Newton are working on it, as well as their data people, Sonali and Lainie. They've contacted the IRS, State Tax Division, and the FDA, DEA, and State NTF. The NTF told us to pound sand, which doesn't exactly shock me. The FDA and DEA are playing it close to the vest, but the tax agencies are cooperating with us on data, provided that we keep them in the loop and we'll probably have to give them first shot at any busts if we find anything." "Think there's a drug ring going on there?" Daniel asked. "Possibly. I'm thinking more in the line of prescription drugs than the street stuff." Cindy replied. "We get a little thread like this, we pull on it and see what happens. Maybe we'll get a break and get to a larger ring." The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 03 "Think Gloria Searles is involved in that?" asked Daniel. Cindy looked at me. "I don't think so, at least I see no connections as of yet." I said. "But I agree with Cindy that we've stumbled onto a thread of something. Lockhart the pharmacist suddenly closed his pharmacy and bolted. He and his male employee cannot be found. His female employee was very angry and talked with us very willingly. She said that he physically shoved her out the door and wouldn't say why he closed the shop. She also said he got a phone call right before closing down, and that he drove off in an old brown car which he had parked in the parking lot next door, i.e. not the parking lot in front of his own place." I continued "Then we have Dr. Paul Wicker. He was having sex with Darla Clifford and our officers almost got there in time to catch them in the act. I think Cindy kind of enjoyed that." I was needling my partner, and she smiled. "I definitely enjoyed the look on Darla's face when she came flying out that door and almost ran headlong into me." Cindy replied. "Anyway," I said, "Wicker pled the Fifth, clammed up. Charges against him are going to fall by the wayside unless something drug-related comes up, but what's he hiding?" "We'll solve it tomorrow." said Cindy. "I'm going to to the gym before heading home, and get all the paperwork done, since my partner has traded in that paperwork for diaper work here at home." "Which I suspect your partner wouldn't trade for anything." I said, seeing Melina's radiantly happy face as she held little Danny. Cindy agreed. "I guess we should go too, honey." I said to Laura. "Y'all stay a few more minutes." Daniel said. I realized he wanted to talk to me privately. After Cindy was gone excused ourselves to the kitchen while the women talked about the baby. "Just wanted you to know, Don," Daniel said. "That prick Lynch did file formal complaints with the Council, and also with the State Ethics Board. The Council is meeting tonight, and plans to formally tell Lynch to fuck off. The Council is also filing a counter-claim on your behalf with the State Ethics Board and also with the State Bar." "Sounds good, but that's not why you wanted to talk to me." I said. "Damn, nothing really does get by you." Daniel said, his voice teasing in nature, then becoming serious as he said "The Council is also going to go into executive session tonight, with the purpose of discussing certain spots to fill. They're nowhere near ready for naming a new Chief yet, and neither am I... unless you change your mind... but they do think they need to bring in a Deputy Chief to handle the overhead and admin side of things." "Any ideas who that might be?" I asked. "No, but Chief Griswold was right. One of the Council members told me they're going to eliminate some names for the Chief position... and I expect one of those eliminated names will be the Deputy Chief by the end of this month. Brownlee's the lead candidate, according to my sources." "Aw, geez. Captain Brown Nose can't lead a sheet of toilet paper off the roll." I said. "Just giving you a heads-up." Daniel said. "Thanks." I said. "Okay, I do need to go home and get some sleep. This is a big case, and I expect to make a move sooner rather than later, depending on what tomorrow's data brings." "Ah, so you do have an idea of who it is?" "Oh yes." I said. "Just not going to say who it is yet. I don't want leaks, and I don't have a case I can give to the D.A.'s office yet." Laura and I made our goodbyes. As we left, I caught sight of Melina sitting on the couch, not getting up as the baby was feeding. A memory and a thought occurred to me. Back home, we did the parenting things with our own babies, and I sat down with my mother and Laura on the sofa, my wife cuddling into my left side and my mother into my right side, my arms around their waists, pulling them into me. "Laura," I said, "Melina can't take the pill, right?" "That's right." Laura replied, her face looking surprised. My mother showed no reaction as Laura said "As you know, she damn near died that time her drink was poisoned with similar ingredients. Why?" "Melina's something of an exception in the level of her allergic reaction, isn't she?" I asked. "But other women can be allergic to the pill, also, right?" "Oh yes." Laura said. "And some can be all right at a certain dosage, but then add more dosage or some sort of steroid, and they become intolerant." "Is that right?" I said. "And how in the world could the pill suddenly have different dosages?" "You've got me there." Laura said. "Most brands are standardized, and pretty consistent across the board. I would say the only way would be if someone on the pill chose to take a morning-after pill, which would spike the dosage." "That's true. And of course the FDA regulates the manufacture of these pharmaceuticals pretty well." I said. "Sure, of course." Laura said. "I know you're going somewhere with this..." I said "What would some of the allergic symptoms be, short of a life-threatening reaction like Melina had?" "Oh gosh, anywhere from skin rashes to the hives, easy bruising, possible clotting in severe cases, swelling of the lips and tongue, and so forth." "Ah, that helps." I said. I would say no more. "Time for bed, ladies..." "I'll head up, and let you and your mother 'talk' for a few minutes." Laura said. "Good night, Phyllis. Enjoy yourself." Laura began turning off lights. "Thank you, dear." said Phyllis, gratefully, knowing what Laura was offering her. "Goodnight." After my wife left the room, my mother leaned over my chest, her hands opening my pants and fishing out my hardening cock. She was wasting no time, and I groaned as I felt my mother's mouth slide over my cockhead and down my shaft as she gave me head, both of us reveling in the fact that we were deliberately committing deeply sinful incest. The room was quiet, and as the pleasure of my mother's mouth fellating my cock coursed through me, I remembered the sensations of my few moments with Gloria Searles, and how unlucky I was that I had not been able to consummate that liaison with that woman. Then I changed my thought to gratitude that I was able to have this illicit sexual relationship with this beautiful woman that happened to be my mother. My fingers slid under her dress, to find that she was wearing no panties and that her pantyhose were crotchless. I slid my digits deep into my mother's sopping wet cunt, making her groan around my turgid meat. After another moment of deeply sucking my cock, my mother stood up. I slid my pants and underwear down past my knees and my mother stepped out of her high heel slides and mounted me, facing me. She slammed her mouth into mine in a deep, tongue-twining kiss, the taste of her mouth and the sweet smell of her perfume arousing me. She reached down and grasped my cock that was between our bellies, and guided it into her as she lifted up. We groaned together as the warm wetness of her cunt engulfed my throbbing hard cock as I slid into her until our pelvises ground together. I was balls-deep inside my mother! My mother wrapped her arms around my neck and began kissing me hard as she ground her cunt on my cock. Her elegant, shapely feet in the sheer stockings were resting on the tops of my hard things. My hands went to them, massaging them, and I made a point to enjoy the feeling of my mother's feet in my hands even as my cock was in her cunt as she fucked me with the intensity of a sex-starved teen girl. Mom was still in her dress, and my hands worked the zipper down, then slid the garment up off her body and over her head. I threw it down as she resumed kissing me hard while we deeply fucked. After a few moments, I had my mother stand up, and I got off the couch. I guided my mother to a blanket that I placed in the middle of the floor. She lay down and I grabbed her sexy legs as I mounted her, my cock unerringly finding her sopping honey hole. I felt her legs on my chest and her feet on my shoulders as I began fucking her with deep, hard strokes, making her groan and squirm around my plunging prick. *Chock!* *Chock! *Chock! *Chock!* The room was filled with the staccato slaps of flesh on motherly flesh as I copulated with my own mother, fucking my own mother. She looked so pretty, her face framed by her straight silver-gray-and-black hair, her eyes full of pleasure and lust as she was sexually invaded by her own son's iron-hard cock. I pumped relentlessly, and did not try to hold back as my climax built up rapidly and then overtook me with surprising speed and power. "AAWWK!! UHHH!!" I cried out as jet after thick, ropy jet of hot semen blasted into my mother's clutching vagina. I leaned down to give my mother a gentle kiss, but she made it into another hot, hard tong-twiner as we settled into each other in the pleasing lassitude of post-coital pleasure... Part 13 - Data Bombs "This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" blared the lovely redhead reporter from the steps of City Hall at 7:00am, Wednesday January 7th. "Channel Two News has learned that Police have made several arrests over the last 24 hours, but will not confirm or deny if those arrests are related to the murder of popular Doctor Gloria Searles yesterday morning. Dr. Searles was the wife of esteemed cardiologist Dr. Richard Searles, who Police say is not a suspect in the death of his wife, as he was going into surgery even as someone was gunning down his wife in her office." "Darla Clifford, wife of University Law professor John D. Clifford, was arrested yesterday afternoon on charges of evading police. She was released on bond last night. Dr. Paul Wicker was also arrested last night, and was given bail and released. Police have declined to say if either is a suspect in the Searles murder case." Thankfully, Bettina did not mention that both had been required to wear ankle-monitoring and that I had both of them being observed by police patrols, I thought to myself. Bettina continued: "In other news, the Town & County Council went into executive session last night to discuss the Police Department. They issued a statement saying that the search for a new Chief of Police is just beginning, and they set a goal of May 1st for filling the position. Additionally, sources tell Channel Two News that the Council expects to name a Deputy Chief more quickly, to give Commander Donald Troy the logistical support he needs as he works to solve the Searles murder and any other crimes in our County. This is Bettina Wurtzburg, bringing you the latest..." "That's one way of putting it: 'logistical support'." I said. "Okay, Lieutenant Ross, let's get this day started. Meeting of MCD at 8:00am, and tell Captain Charles that I intend to send several patrols out today to make some arrests in the Searles murder case..." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Moments before the morning meeting, Myron gave me the news: "Sir, someone else has been tapping into our files, looking for the incident report from the restaurant altercation between Clifford and Lockhart. It looks like it was routed through the Campus Police. Now they often get into some of our routine files, especially if it involves students. But this one came to light because the file was flagged as sealed. "Did they get the data on the Cliffords and Lockhart?" I asked. "Possibly, sir." Myron said, which meant that they did. "Okay, we'll talk better security in the near future." I replied. "Let's concentrate on this meeting for now." I ushered Myron into the room. The 8:00am meeting was convened in Classroom 'E' behind the MCD room. I sat at the far end of the table, and Cindy sat to my left, where she could get up and work the whiteboard we were starting up. Also in the room were Lt. Tanya Perlman, Detectives Martin Nash, Diana Torres, Joanne Cummings, and Vice Detectives Christopher Purvis and Julie Newton. J.R. Barnes of the Crime Lab was there, as was Master Technician Myron Milton and Senior Technician 'Goth Girl' Mary Mahoney. "J.R., let's start with you, so you can be on your way if you need to." I said. Barnes reported: "Two .22 long rifle slugs were removed from Dr. Searles brain, on the right side near the skull. Ballistics show the likelihood of a semi-automatic pistol as opposed to a revolver. We can determine that from the twist of the rifling. There is some stippling, suggesting the shots were fired at a range of just a few inches, certainly no more than a foot away." Barnes continued: "However, there is very little other forensic evidence. No bruising, no sign of a struggle at all, no damaged clothing. No fingerprints other than hers on her shoes, no fingerprints on any of the filing cabinets except hers, her receptionist and another receptionist that files the Specialists' cases away. That's really all we have right now." "Okay, Myron," I said, "this should be a big report." "It is, sir," said Myron, "and it's taken both me and Mary to get it all. First, there is a keycard entry to the building and to each doctor's office. Dr. Searles's card was used at 4:50am to enter her office. Her GPS in her car confirms that she left her home at 4:35 and arrived at 4:49am. The next person into the building was Jill, Dr. Searles's assistant, at about 7:40 am. She did not go into the office immediately, but instead went to the breakroom, where she might have been making coffee. Then others started entering in rapid succession." "So no keycard entry from the time Gloria went in until her receptionist came in hours later." I said. "Now let me ask, could Gloria admit someone without having to use the keycard once she was inside?" Martin Nash spoke up. "Theoretically, yes." he said. "I checked on this yesterday. The back lab areas give access to every Doctor's suite, and there is an emergency exit door on both ends to the outside. But they have alarms on them, which I guess Dr. Searles could have deactivated. As to the front door, Dr. Searles would have to prop open the outer door to her own suite of offices and then go open the front door to admit anyone that way and not use her card again. The Crime Lab checked and found no evidence any doors had been propped. The doors to the offices are heavy and would resist being propped easily." "Is it recorded if the doors are opened at all?" I asked. "If someone managed to open them without using the keycard, is there a record of it?" "No sir." said Myron. "Only the keycard swipe is recorded." "At this time," I said, "I need to add that, having sold security systems in a past life, I know that this system is not particularly good, and can be defeated with a little bit of knowledge and a determined effort. In addition, doing something like putting tape in the space to keep the door latch from engaging would be easy and not detected by this keycard entry system. Okay, keep going." Mary took up the story. "You were right, Commander, when you suggested to go back and look at John Clifford's legal cases. He-" "Mary, you've learned how to kiss ass, that's for sure." I said, and everyone knew I was teasing the highly independent-minded Goth Girl. And with the Chief not here, it befell to me to point it out and make the joke. "Thank you sir." said Mary, giving it right back. "If it gets me a raise, I might try to do it more often." That got a lot of laughter, and I conceded victory. Mary then continued: "When John D. Clifford was 25 years old, he went into a hospital in the City. He was supposed to have a tonsillectomy. When he woke up, he found he'd had his testicles removed as well as his tonsils." A slight gasp went through the room. Mary continued: "What happened was that there was a John 'A' Clifford in the hospital at the same time, who was scheduled to have his testicles removed because of testicular cancer. They got the wrong man, and the mistake was discovered after our John Clifford's testicles were cut off, but he was still under anesthesia. So they completed the tonsillectomy, too. The other guy, John 'A', had the correct surgery done a few hours later." "So they couldn't re-attach his testicles?" asked Cindy. "No ma'am." said Mary. "They might could've, but the vasa deferentia had already been tied off, so the effect of sterility was permanent. He wasn't impotent, but he could not have children, and he was understandably very upset, of course. He began seeking a lawyer in order to sue the hospital. He found that the lawyers didn't want to pursue the case; they only wanted to settle, and for relatively small amounts. "Clifford was embittered, saying he'd lost his chance to have children, and he really wanted to press the case and stick it to the hospital, but the lawyers did not give a damn and were equally adamant that he settle... to the point that he soon found no lawyer at all that was willing to take his case and work it through to a court case. In addition, in every settlement offer that was made, the hospital and their insurance company insisted on a gag order and a sealing of the records. I had to do some extracurricular stuff to get this." Mary continued: "Clifford saw that he could not pursue the case much further, so he finally took a settlement in the mid-six-figures. He used that money to go to law school with a very intense purpose in mind. And after he got his law degree, he became a holy terror to doctors and their insurance companies. He went after doctors and hospitals as if they'd wronged him or his family personally on each case that he took. He wanted jury trials, large awards, of which he took very little for himself, and the publicity of the malpractice meant more to him than the money. There were allegedly several attempts to assassinate him, so adamant was he about no settlements and no gag orders." "Wow." said Martin Nash. "That explains his passion for what he was doing." "So how does this connect to Gloria Searles?" asked Joanne Cummings. "Did he ever sue her or her husband?" "No mention of either Searles on the list of cases he filed that I've found so far." said Mary. "And no connection to any of the doctors in her group, that I can find." "The connection, if any, is what we have to find out." I said. "But it's great information, all the same. Excellent work, Mary. Maybe you'll get a raise for kissing up to me, after all." More laughter. "Okay, phone records." I said. "Please tell me I'm going to like what I hear." "You're going to like what you hear!" came a chorus, led by one Cindy Ross. "Yeah, I guess I asked for that one." I said, a wry grin crossing my face. "Myron, whaddya got?" "Recently? Very little." said Myron. "First, Gloria Searles. Her personal phone calls were almost completely to and from her husband. Her professional phone had calls to and from her associate doctors, a few to patients. None recently to either of the Cliffords... but back in November, after her last doctor appointment Darla Clifford, she made three calls to Darla's number. Looks like she left messages, no calls from that number were called to hers." "Dr. Richard Searles's personal phone had matching calls to and from his wife, and a few other calls to friends he was known to play golf with, a few to a pizza place, stuff like that. His professional phone had calls to and from the University Hospital switchboard, though which all calls are routed, so we're not totally sure who he was calling and was calling him." "If I may..." said Martin Nash. "I talked to the nurses about calling Searles to give him updates on patients and such. He doesn't have a large number of patients at any given time, but I'm suspecting the calls will correspond to checks on patients." "Good thought." I said. "Myron?" "That's probably the case." Myron said. "Dr. Searles's office phone routed through the switchboard, also. Bottom line is that he did not have a lot of friends, just a few. Nothing out of the ordinary, vis-a-vis his wife's death, either." The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 03 "Now the Cliffords." Myron said. "Darla only has one personal cell phone, no business cell phones. She made very few phone calls; in fact, I went to the lengths of checking tower pings... I think she left her phone at home most of the time. It didn't move. Ladies Auxiliary, grocery store, sometimes the mall, usually once a week to the River Valley Country Club, but for the most part it stayed at home. "John Clifford's phone went with him to the University. He didn't have many calls, and most of them were to and from his students, and a few were to and from lawyers in the City... I think he was advising them on cases." "The other doctors in Gloria's group?" I asked. "Nothing exciting..." said Myron, who then gave a very 'pregnant' pause, "...except that over the past three months, Caroline Muncey has been on her personal cell phones to banks, to real estate agents, and to an advertising agency last week." "She was planning her move." Diana Torres said. "She was planning to go on her own." "Yes." I said. "So there were no calls between Gloria Searles and the Cliffords? Especially anytime since she was at the party at the Wellman's on Monday?" "No sir." said Myron. "Did Darla Clifford's phone move during the night or morning of Monday into Tuesday?" "No sir." said Myron. "What about Paul Wicker?" I asked. "Still working on him." said Myron. "He's a sleazy one. Two burner phones were found in his office, one hidden in a secret drawer under his desk, the other under a potted plant. Our guys aren't missing those potted plants since that case of the Investment Club murder at River Valley Country Club." "Well, I'm delighted to hear that." I said, more acerbically than I'd intended. "Okay, folks, that looks like a 'washout' to me." I said. "We're going to have to double down on finding this pharmacist Lockhart. I'm also going to talk again with John D. Clifford-" Just then there was a knock on the door and the Duty Desk Sergeant stuck his head inside. "Sir, we got an anonymous tip that Mr. Lockhart was seen inside the Smith-Morra Pharmacy. We radioed a nearby patrol to check it out. They found the back door unlocked and went on inside. They found a body inside, and it looks like the man Lockhart himself." To be continued. The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 04 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, The Case of the Black Badge series, A Case of Revenge series, Teresa's Summer Race, The Trilogy series, Dark Side Of The Force series, Caught In The Act series, Case of the Murdered Bride series, The Credit Card Caper series, The Hot Wives Investment Club series, Seriously Inconvenienced series, Case of the Paper Trail series, Christmas Mystery Theater, The Porno Set Mystery series. The Medical Murder Mystery, Ch. 1-4. 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 14 - Lockhart Locked Down "One thing's for sure," I said to Cindy as we drove in my Police SUV to Smith-Morra Pharmacy, "Darla Clifford was at home all last night. Her ankle monitor didn't go anywhere, and our officers watching the front and back of the house said she did not leave or even open the door." "However," I continued, "the patrols did report that John Clifford left at around 8:00pm. The police checked his car to make sure his wife wasn't inside it or in the trunk, then let him go. He went to the University Hotel and checked himself in. I sent officers to pick him up and bring him to Interrogation-A." "Interesting." said Cindy. "This thing is getting deeper by the minute. One more killing, and it might be worthy of the Iron Crowbar." "Oh, I can assure you that vengeance for Gloria Searles is making it worthy for me." I said, feeling Cindy's ice-blue eyes watching me as I spoke. At the scene, I found the Crime Lab team showing up as well as several uniformed Police officers going in and out of the back door. "Okay," I called out. "Who got here first and found the bodies?" "We did, sir." said a young rookie officer, indicating himself and his partner. "Was the back door open when you got here?" I asked. "No sir." said the young officer. "We tried the door, and it was unlocked and it opened when I pulled on it. We entered based upon the phone call and the sighting of a wanted suspect... after calling for backup, of course. We found the body, and then cleared the pharmacy. There was no one else inside." "Good work." I said "So I guess you touched that door handle in testing the lock." "Uh, yes sir, I did." said the rookie officer. "I'm sorry, sir." "Lesson to be learned, but don't sweat it too much. We'd never have known the door was unlocked, much less found the body for hours if you hadn't have tried it." I said. "Labcoat! Use some testing technology to see if there are any prints underneath our officers' prints on that doorknob." Labcoat said he would. The tests would prove negative for the knob and the entire door. Inside, I saw the body of an older man, who gave me the strong impression of a nutty professor, lying on his back on the floor. The prescription area behind the counter was trashed. "That's the guy from the restaurant, Commander." Lt. Ross said. I nodded. "Did anyone move the body?" I asked loudly. A technician told me it had not been moved. "Interesting. It's not natural for a person to fall and lie flat on their back like this. That means the perp searched him. His wallet is here, but no cell phones. Lt. Ross, what do you want to bet the perp did not want us to find a burner phone on this guy that might lead us back to the perp or perps?" "We may never know one way or the other," Cindy said, "but I wouldn't bet against you." I nodded again as I looked at the screen of the computer on the counter in front of the dead man. I got out a pen and poked at the mouse with it. The black screen lit up. "Ah, here we are." I said. "A patient profile has been pulled up. One... Natasha Norelle." "Natasha..." Cindy said. "Yep." I said, making notes of the name, address and phone number of Natasha Norelle. "This address sounds fake, if I know my geography of the Town. But the phone number might be a burner that might come up in connection with our other cases." "Geez," Cindy said, "now I've got to memorize the entire Town map just to keep up with you." "Your time would be well spent doing so." I said. "Okay, any prints on that computer or mouse?" I asked the Crime Lab technician examining the computer. "Just the dead man's, sir." "Does this pharmacy have videocamera surveillance?" I asked. "Yes sir." said one of the Uniformed Officers. "It's set off by motion sensor when the burglar alarm is set, too. Our Sergeant has already secured the tape and it's going to Headquarters under two-man control." "Excellent!" I said, very happy to be hearing that. "Call the Station and tell them to make sure Master Technician Milton gets that tape immediately." The officers hurried off to comply. The assistant Medical Examiner, the woman who had examined the bride's body in the 'Murdered Bride' case, was here and examining Lockhart's mortal remains. "Hi Martha." I said. "How are things with you?" "All too busy these days." Martha said. "First poor Dr. Searles, she was such a nice lady and a very professional doctor... and now this man here." "Hello, Commander." said the new Coroner, John Quincy Kelly, coming up behind us. "Ah, Coroner," I said, "I didn't realize you were here or I would've said hello. How is your new job?" "Job is good, I'm getting into the hang of things. As to this case, I just happened to be in the neighborhood and stopped in." Kelly said. "Martha seems to have this one fully under control." I said nothing, knowing that Kelly had not just 'stopped in'. Something was going on... "Yes sir." said Martha. "And if Commander Troy would like to hear my preliminary findings, I'll be happy to give them." "By all means, Martha." I said. "By all means." "He was ambushed, hit on the back of the head by a blunt object." Martha said. "But that didn't kill him or even knock him out. However, he was weakened, and while he tried to put up a fight, he was quickly subdued. You can see the markings on his hands that show he landed a punch or two, but his face and neck took a much worse beating. He finally fell to the floor, where the blunt instrument, at least I'm thinking it's the same one, was pressed onto his larynx until he died of asphyxiation." "Any idea of a time of death?" I asked. "Eight to ten hours ago." Martha said. "Midnight to two a.m." I turned to Cindy. "Call Captain Charles and ask him who was supposed to be watching this location between 10:00pm and 6:00am. I know I ordered around-the-clock surveillance. And Cindy," I said as she was about to walk off, "don't tell Charles what happened, just ask and get the info. Then tell him to have all those officers available for questioning when I get back to the Station. If he asks, tell him I want to talk to them to see if anyone observed anything." Cindy nodded and walked off, knowing that I did not just want to 'talk' to them... somebody was in trouble for either sleeping on the job or not being where they were supposed to be. "Okay, anything else I need to be shown while I'm here?" I asked loudly, but mostly to Labcoat. "Nothing yet, sir." he said. "I'll get word to you immediately if we find something important." "Good. Detective Cummings," I said to the lovely blonde Joanne Cummings, who had come to the scene behind Cindy and myself, "remain here and stay in charge of this crime scene until everyone's finished. Have them see if any drugs are missing, especially Schedule II or III drugs." I then lowered my voice to a whisper. "Don't say this out loud, but I would be more interested if drugs are not missing than if they are." Out loud again, I said "Okay, I want a full inventory done of the drugs in this place, including any in the storerooms, and a copy sent to my email ASAP. You're in charge, Detective Cummings." With that I left, knowing that Joanne was trying very hard to hide her excitement and elation at the trust and confidence I'd just shown in her by leaving her in charge of this scene... Part 15 - The Clifford Cliffs I strode into Interrogation-A, with Detective Martin Nash and Lt. Cindy Ross joining me. A host of other detectives were watching from the anteroom. "Thank you for coming down, Dr. Clifford." I said. "As if I had a choice, Commander?" Clifford replied. "Well, at least you didn't give my officers any trouble." I said. "I had you brought here so that we could videotape this interview, and that is for your protection as well as ours. I wish to note that you are a lawyer yourself, but if you choose to have other legal representation on your behalf come in, I will afford you every opportunity to do so." "Thanks." said Clifford. "I might do that, but for now, what do you want to ask of me?" "You went to the University Hotel last night, checked in, stayed all night." I said. "Why did you do that?" "I... I got into an argument with my wife. A big one." "Did you stay there all night? Can your presence there be verified at all times?" I asked. "Pastor Westboro of my church came by to see me." said Clifford. "I'd called him. We talked for a few hours; he was very comforting. Then I went to bed. Surely the Hotel's cameras will show I never left my room until the next morning." I made a note on my pad, as if to write a reminder to check out this alibi. "So what was the fight with your wife about?" asked Nash. "Over her arrest." replied Clifford. "I don't need your room full of Detectives to figure out that she has been having extramarital affairs." "What gives you that idea?" asked Nash. "We have not said why we arrested your wife. Officially, she's a material witness and tried to evade us." "True," said Clifford, "but I've been suspecting something has been off for some time with her... with us. She's always leaving her cell phone at home, claims to forget it... but she's never forgotten it anywhere else, or lost it anywhere else. And that guy who actually grabbed her at the restaurant... he absolutely believed he knew her, and he must've felt some familiarity with her to grab her arm like he did. That suggests a comfort level between them." "So last night I asked my wife what the hell was going on." Clifford continued. "She was arrested on the west side of town, why the hell was she there? Why was a guy so sure he knew her that he tried to grab her and hold on to her at a restaurant? What was it that Dr. Searles was so agitated about after her doctor visit? And so on..." "What did she say?" I asked. "She denied everything!" Clifford almost yelled out. "She must think I'm an idiot! She keeps saying that the restaurant incident was mistaken identity, and that she was on the west side of Town shopping. Shopping! Over there?!?!" Clifford took a moment to regain his composure, but he was also peering at me to gauge the effects of his words on me. I remained passive, as did Nash. Clifford missed the look on Cindy's face, and she regained her look of passivity in time. "Dr. Clifford," I asked, "I noticed that your wife had bruising on her leg the other night. Do you have any idea where that bruising came from?" "No, and that's another thing." Clifford said. "She said she hit her leg against something, didn't hardly realize her leg was bruised. But she had a bruise on her leg like that a couple of months ago, too." "Any times previously?" I asked. "And how often?" That caused Clifford to sit back and think. "Nothing before November... well, she did have a bruise on her leg once about four or five years ago, and it wouldn't heal up properly for a while. It finally went away, and didn't come back... until last November." "So of course I have to ask: have you and your wife gotten into physical altercations?" I asked. "No." Clifford replied. "I understand you need to ask that, but we had a good relationship, a good marriage, until..." He let the sentence hang, unfinished. "Dr. Clifford," I said, "I'm going to have to be blunt here: we are aware of the botched surgery, and what happened to you a couple of decades ago. How did that affect your marriage with your wife?" Clifford's face showed his shock that we knew, and also the pain and humiliation of it all. "You know about that." he said. "Damn. Well, to answer your question: I told Darla about it before we were married. She was accepting of it, accepting of the fact that we could not make children together. I never heard a word of complaint from her, and I can still... 'perform'... so it didn't seem to be a problem." "Doctor," I said, "I would not ask this question if it were not necessary for my investigation: has the frequency of your sexual relations diminished over time, particularly the last few months and years?" Clifford answered "It never was all that frequent after about a year into our marriage. I could perform, but my desire was affected by the... botched operation. Darla didn't seem to be overly interested in sex, either. We did a good bit of cuddling and kissing, and we still do... well, after last night, I'm not sure how that's going to go." "Detectives," I said, "do you have any questions for Dr. Clifford before I let him out of here?" "Yes sir, if I may." said Cindy Ross. "Dr. Clifford, did you ask your wife what it was that Dr. Searles wanted to discuss with her? And what was your wife's response?" "Yes, I asked." said Clifford. "I asked after we left the party. She said it was nothing, and that she'd have to get back with Dr. Searles and let her know it was nothing. I brought it up again last night during our argument. She was yelling at me by then, and said it was none of my business." "And just to make sure," said Nash, "your wife was home the entire night and morning that Dr. Searles was found dead?" "I can't speak for the time after I left my house to go to work," said Clifford, "but she was there all night while I was there..." Part 16 - Burners Burned At 2:00pm on the same Wednesday, FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone was admitted into my office. Special Agent Sandra Speer was in MCD, gossiping with my Detectives while Jack and I talked business. "This Paul Wicker is coming up roses for us." said Jack. "The DEA has asked me to look into this. Wicker's 'patients', such as they are, are relatively wealthy women for the most part. He writes them prescriptions for all the fun Schedule II and III drugs: Percoset, which is oxycodone, barbitols, steroids, Fiorinal. We need to have a good conversation with him." Just then Myron called me and said he had some information. I assembled a meeting... but in Classroom 'C', which was Vice's meeting room next door to MCD's Classroom 'E'. (Classroom 'D' was on the other side of the building, for Uniformed officers, in case you're wondering). Present at the meeting were Myron and myself, Jack, Sandra, Martin Nash, Diana Torres, Tanya Perlman and Cindy Ross, but also Lt. Teresa Croyle and Detectives Christopher Purvis and Julie Newton were in attendance. "Okay, Myron, whaddya got?" I asked. "Two things, sir." said Myron. "First, the videotapes do show some movements behind the prescription counter, but it's very dark. Special Agent Speer has offered to have the FBI try to enhance the tape and see if we can get anything out of it, though it looks like the perp made efforts to hide his facial features." "I appreciate the FBI's help in this." I said, nodding at the FBI agents in the room. "So what's next?" Myron went into his narrative. "Sir, I first looked up Natasha Norelle's number from the computer entry at Smith-Morra Pharmacy. The phone number was a burner phone, and it contacted several other burner phones, including Paul Wicker's phone that was found in the hidden desk compartment. And I also need to tell you that this phone number information was asked about from computers at the University Campus Police Department." "And those can be accessed via the University's full computer network, with which most professors and the medical staff are connected." I said. "But they'd have to be Myron-and-Mary-class programmers to know what to do." "Or Commander-Troy-class." said Myron. "I've got my alibi, sir, what about you?" There was some laughter at Myron's effrontery. "Mine's pretty bad, everyone knows my mother and my baby daughter will say anything to give me an alibi." I said, to more tepid laughter. "So, keep going with your report, Myron." "Yes sir. One of the burners is pinging now... at the Fillmore Pharmacy, which is south of Smith-Morra Pharmacy, and in a fairly sleazy area near the Tenderloin District." Myron said. "They're well known for only having private appointments with certain people associated with gangs and drug pushers, and use that taxi service that came up in the dead bride case." "Geez, why didn't you tell me that when you first called, Myron?" I asked, angry at the time delay even of a few minutes. "Lt. Ross-" I began, but Cindy already had her police cellphone out. "Calling ADA Washington for a warrant now." she replied. "On what charge, by the way?" "Having a burner phone that has been called by known illegal drug distributors, or some such." I said. "Let Washington handle the correct law and terminology, and he might want to ask for a Federal warrant while he's at it." Cindy left the room. "Sorry sir," said Myron, "but I thought you might need more evidence to get a warrant, so I collected as much data as I could before contacting you." "We'll talk about that later." I said, not wishing to berate Myron in front of my Detectives. "So, what else did you find?" "Natasha Norelle's burner phone made three phone calls in the early morning hours of last Tuesday, just hours before Dr. Searles's death." Myron said. "Two were to Paul Wicker's burner. The third number has only a few calls, very sporadically... but one call from that third number was to our Duty Desk this morning... the call that gave us the tip about Lockhart being seen at Smith-Morra Pharmacy." That caused a buzz of conversation to start. I let it, because I was thinking hard, nearly in a reverie. A moment later, I asked "Myron, do you have any idea where that unknown person's phone was when the call was made... the tip to the Station, that is?" "Yes sir." said Myron, going through some papers. "Eastern Downtown District... the tower just west of First Baptist Church and just northeast of the Old Courthouse Building." "Courthouse, eh?" I mused, then got back to business. "Okay, guys, let's get going. Croyle, get with Ross and get ready to raid Fillmore Pharmacy. Heavy presence, SWAT is authorized if you see anything at all while casing the place before you go in. Nash, Torres, I'd like for you to hang around with me and Agent Muscone. We're going to help Myron analyze this data. After the raid, we're going to talk to Paul Wicker." Part 17 - Wickety Wicker At 3:30pm on Wednesday, I was informed that the Fillmore Pharmacy had been successfully raided. The burner phone in question was found on the pharmacist there, one Abel Fillmore. Plenty of evidence of potentially illegal drug transactions had been found, and Sandra Speer was working with my Vice team on that. Two DEA agents were also en route from the City. The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 04 "A lot of Dr. Paul Wicker's prescriptions were found filed at the pharmacy, but they're in date order, not alphabetical order, so it'll be a bear picking out any Natasha Norelle or Darla Clifford prescriptions." said Teresa Croyle in the Vice Room. Cindy, myself, Sandra Speer and Jack Muscone were in there, and Christopher Purvis and Julie Newton were at their desks, listening as Teresa continued "The prescriptions on the computer are encrypted; it'll take a bit of time to get into them, but Myron thinks it'll be pretty easy." "If he has any trouble, " said Jack Muscone, "the FBI has some experts that I can make available to help." "Thanks, Jack." I said. "So let's go talk to Abel Fillmore." "He's in I-2." said Teresa. "Immediately invoked and demanded to call counsel when we arrested him and found the burner phone in his pants pocket. Also, the DEA agents 'respectfully requested of the Police Commander' that we refrain from questioning him until they get here." "What law firm did he call?" I asked. "None." said Teresa. "He called the local chapter of the NAACP." Abel Fillmore was black, so that didn't totally surprise me. "They'll get him a public defender, I would imagine." I said. "But once his lawyer gets here, I want to ask him a question or two whether or not the DEA arrives... it's not about the drugs." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Paul Wicker was brought into Interrogation-1, where his lawyer, the dark-haired bitchy woman, was waiting for him. I'd asked Paulina Patterson to watch from the anteroom as Martin Nash and I entered the room to interview the not-so-good doctor. "Commander, what is the point?" the woman asked. "My client has invoked. He's not going to talk to you, and I'm going to have him out of here as soon as his hearing comes up tomorrow morning." "He's going to be facing a slew of new charges, Counselor." I said as I sat down. "And the Feds are probably going to want to take him into their custody. Paul, I'd suggest you reconsider, especially when I tell you some new information: we have arrested Abel Fillmore, and we're going to be offering him a deal to throw you under the bus. On top of that, I'm going to add suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder, which will mean no bail for you at all." "I didn't kill anyone!" yelled Wicker, his face red. His lawyer yelled at him to keep quiet, then she turned to me and said "All right, what the heck are you talking about?" "We have a murdered pharmacist named Lockhart." I said. "Known associate of your client. We also have another murder that has links to him, which you'll learn all about at the hearing. Bottom line, Wicker, be prepared for a long, long stay with us... or the Feds." Paul Wicker's countenance had changed. "Wicker, why don't you talk to your lawyer for a few minutes while we step outside." I motioned for Nash and the uniformed officer in the room to leave with me. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Fillmore's public defender is here." said Teresa when I came into the anteroom. I hurried over to Interrogation-2. Unfortunately, the public defender was not Dexter Epstein, but that didn't matter. I read Abel Fillmore his considerable legal rights, then said "I've only got one question for you before the DEA gets here. Is this woman a client of your pharmacy?" I held up a photo on my iPhone for Fillmore to look at." "You can't answer, you've invoked." said the lawyer. Fillmore sat back in his chair. "So this is not Natasha Norelle?" I asked, showing the picture again. "Commander, my client has invoked, and I will not allow you to breach that by asking repeated questions trying to trick him into answering." said the lawyer angrily. "I'm not going to abuse the man's rights, Counselor." I said, then left Interrogation-2. I had what I wanted; Abel Fillmore's eyes had told me what his mouth legally could not... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "My client wishes to cooperate with you." said Wicker's lawyer. "But only if he receives full immunity from prosecution in exchange for his truthful answers and testimony." Just then there was a sharp rap on the mirror, which was the one-way glass with the anteroom. Paulina Patterson opened the door and crooked her finger. I excused myself and went into the anteroom, where Jack Muscone was standing by the window where he could not be seen from the door. "Don," he said, "I know you have two murders to solve, but we can't give him full immunity unless he cooperates fully with the DEA and FBI, also." "Jack is right, Don." Paulina said. "We have to inform him fully of his obligations should he revoke." "Why don't you two come inside, explain it all to him, and let's see what he does." I said, realizing they were right. They came in with me, and I introduced them. "This is FBI Special Agent Muscone." I said. "If you revoke, you have to answer his questions and cooperate about anything you know regarding the drug trade you're writing prescriptions for." After exchanging a glance with his lawyer, Wicker nodded. "I agree to that." "You understand, Mr. Wicker, that in doing so you revoke your Fifth Amendment rights and cannot re-invoke your right to silence?" I asked. "I've advised him already of the potential consequences." the lawyer said. "I understand." said Wicker. "First," I said, "who was the woman who bolted out of your office when the police arrested you?" "Don't you know?" asked Wicker. "You're already not answering a question, Wicker." I said severely. "What was her name?" "Not trying to be flippant, but you arrested her, don't you know her name?" Wicker said. "One last time, Wicker: what was her name?"
 "Natasha Norelle, of course." answered Wicker. I showed him the picture in my iPhone... that of Darla Clifford. "This is her?" "Yes, it is." said Wicker, looking and acting as if these were children's questions. "What prescriptions were you writing for her?" I asked. "Birth control pills." Wicker said. "She wanted to buy them in bulk, so I wrote a year's worth of prescriptions for her at one time." "Where did she have them filled?" I asked. "For a long time, she had them filled at Fillmore's Pharmacy." Wicker said. "He was getting them cheap from Mexico. But then his supply got cut off and she had to go somewhere else. I think she went to Smith-Morra. Lockhart supplied several of my clients' prescriptions. I think he got a bulk order in from somewhere in Southeast Asia, maybe South America." "How did you meet her?" I asked. "I think one of her girlfriends referred her." Wicker said. "That's how I usually get clients, especially women. I have some men that come in for steroids when they want to do some bodybuilding, but it's mostly these rich bitches." "You don't remember exactly who referred her?" I asked. "Oh hell no." said Wicker. "It was a long, long time ago." "So Lockhart was the pharmacist you sent your customers to?" I asked. "Not always. I sent most to Abel Fillmore, 75% of them. Then he had supply problems, so Lockhart and some others filled the voids." Wicker named the other two pharmacies, both in the 'not better' regions of Town. "Do you know a woman named Darla Clifford?" I asked. "Same woman as Natasha." Wicker said. "I heard your cops calling her by that name. That was the first time I knew she had another alias." "What about Gloria Searles?" "Never heard of her." "Richard Searles?" "Uh, he's the heart surgeon at University Hospital, I think." said Wicker. "Never met him nor had contact with him." "Doctors Hartwell, Dembo, Yelena, Muncie? Know any of them?" "No, can't say that I do." Wicker said. "Think harder. Dembo." I asked again, severity in my voice. "No, never heard that name." Wicker insisted. "All right, Dr. Wicker." I said just as Teresa brought the two DEA agents into the anteroom, knocking on the door. "Thank you for this information. I'll let you talk to the Feds now." I left Teresa, Jack, and the DEA agents to their part of the interrogation." Part 18 - Discipline and Reverence "Sir," said Detective Joanne Cummings as she entered my office, "as far as we can tell, there were no drugs stolen from Smith-Morra Pharmacy. None of the prescription bottles were disturbed, except possibly the Viagra bottles. No dust-free places that would suggest a box was missing. Inventory matches the paper and computer records we found." "Excellent work, Detective Cummings." I said. "Have a seat." Cindy was in the other chair, and we'd been talking about the case. "So, Cummings, what does that tell you?" "That it wasn't a robbery gone bad. The perps came in with the intent to murder Mr. Lockhart." "Perps? Plural?" I asked. "Uh, it could be one person, of course." Joanne said, correcting her slip. "By the way," Cindy said, "while you were in the interrogation rooms, Rudistan reported that a very old brown car was found in a parking lot in the next strip mall over from Smith-Morra. Lockhart's fingerprints were all over the door handles, so Rudistan authorized entry of the vehicle. A burner phone was found inside, and Myron said it's number called or was called by Natasha's number, Wicker's number, and also the number that called in the tip, which we're calling 'Burner Phone X'. Cindy continued: "Lockhart's burner was called by 'Burner Phone X' about 11:00pm last night. That may have set up Lockhart to return to his pharmacy, where he was ambushed and killed. Then that same number called in the tip, for whatever reason." "That's strange." I said. "Now why would the murderer want us to find Lockhart so fast? Oh, wait... I think I understand-" Just then there was a commotion in my anteroom. "Ladies," I said, "would you please sit on my couch there?" I pointed at my couch, which was sideways to the desk, the far end of it just under the window that looked into the anteroom. Captain Charles knocked on the door and I waved him in. "Get in here!" he said balefully, ushering four uniformed officers into the room. They lined up side-by-side in front of my desk, Charles standing to the right side of the rightmost officer, half-facing them. "Tell the Commander what you've told me." he barked. "First," I said, "I am asking these two Detectives to observe for purposes of their training. Do any of you object to this?" None of them objected. "Okay, tell me." "Sir," said one of them, "we were assigned to watch Smith-Morra Pharmacy last night. We failed to see anyone enter the pharmacy." "So two of you were on evening shift, and two of you on night shift, changing at midnight, is that right?" I asked. "Yes sir." came a chorus. "So what happened that you did not see anyone enter the pharmacy, only to find that a man was found dead inside the next morning?" I asked. "Sir, we were supposed to both stay awake." said one of the night shift men, "but we took turns taking a nap while the other kept watch. And I was using apps on my cellphone and not paying attention to the building." "Playing video games." I said. "And you second shift guys?" "We were talking to each other and on our cellphones, too." said one of the men. "Captain Charles," I asked, "how forthcoming were they when you asked them about this." "They admitted it, didn't lie or try to hide anything." said Charles. "Well, that's good. Okay, gentlemen, I don't know exactly when Lockhart and his killer entered the pharmacy, and it was close enough to shift change that it could have happened then, or when either group was on watch. Bottom line up front, you can see that something happened at the time you were there precisely to observe such things, and possibly could've prevented this. Reprimands will appear on your records. Dismissed." The four men scrambled to get out of my office. Charles said "I apologize, sir." "Thanks for finding out what happened, Captain." I said. "You're dismissed." I was formal with Captain Charles only because of the two Detectives watching. "What did you think of that, ladies?" I asked. "I'm surprised that reprimands are all they're getting." said Cindy. Joanne nodded in agreement. "Detective Cummings, what would you have done?" I asked. Joanne was getting some good training and it was really coming at her." "I... I probably would suspend them, sir." she said, not knowing what else to say. Cindy nodded vigorously; I had no need to ask Crowbar 2 what she'd do. "Well, I could suspend them... might just yet... but they're fairly good officers apart from this hiccup in their careers. They just learned the hard way, and will either get much better, or will give me reason to suspend them in the future. Last, but not least, I don't know exactly what time the crime occurred, so I really don't know who to bring the crowbar- er, hammer down upon, and I don't want the Police Union whining at me. Ergo, they all get a little note dropped in their files and we move along. Good or good?" Joanne nodded. Cindy was more skeptical but didn't say anything. "Well, Lieutenant Ross," I said, "what do you think of this case?" "It's obvious that Natasha Norelle is Darla Clifford." Cindy said. "At the restaurant, Lockhart really did recognize her, maybe was shocked to see her. But instead of going his own way, he made a scene about it. Who killed Lockhart? Could be anyone associated with this prescription drug ring. But I have no idea how this could be tied to Dr. Searles's murder." "Don't you?" I asked. "Think about it." As Cindy's face scrunched into an attempt to figure out what I was getting at, I said "Okay, it's getting late. Joanne, excellent job today. Start consolidating your reports, but don't do it tonight, there's time enough. We'll talk about it in the morning. Cindy, you can stay and watch Teresa and the Feds extract information from Wicker and Fillmore, or you can head home or to your gym and catch up on your business' paperwork... which is what I'd advise." "I'll get while the getting is good, then." said Cindy. She and Joanne left. I prepared to leave myself. I had a couple of quick things to do on the way home. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Having called beforehand, I pulled into the compound of First Baptist Church, which was east-by-northeast of Courthouse Square. The main Church building was a large auditorium that could easily hold 2000 or more people. To the side was an older building that had been the previous church, which also housed the offices. "Come in, come in." called out Pastor Raymond Westboro as I came into the hallway. I saw the man, tall, lanky, with the beak nose, come out of a well lighted office, then step back into it as I approached. "How are you, Commander?" asked Westboro as I entered his office. His secretary, a woman in her late thirties, pretty and with blonde hair tightly pulled back and in braids looking like a wreath, sat at a small side table. She was getting voluptuous, but was still very shapely and had nice, curvy legs. "Fine, Pastor, and how are you?" I said, then said hello to the secretary. "I appreciate you taking a moment to speak with me." I looked around the office. The walls were covered with bookshelves, and the the shelves were filled with books; old books, new books, various Bibles, and other religious and non-religious texts. Pastor Raymond Westboro liked books, I astutely observed. "No problem at all." said Pastor Westboro. "And your wife and children? I hope they're doing well, also." "Yes, the kids are growing like weeds." I replied. "Good, good." said Westboro. "I've seen you at a couple of Council meetings, of course, but we haven't really talked since the day you brought me and Mr. Ikea to meet Jonas Oldeeds. I'd met him before, of course, but Steven was like a kid in front of royalty... and it was such a shame he was right there when Jonas was shot down. I don't think he's gotten over that to this day." "Yes, it was unfortunate." I said politely. "Think you'll ever find out who did it?" Westboro asked, his eyes peering at me, seeming to bore through me. "No, Pastor." I said. "You may recall that my Police Force and the FBI eliminated a rogue CIA ring of assassins. Right now we suspect they may have been behind it, but it's unlikely we'll ever know for sure." "Unfortunate." said Westboro, his watery blue eyes looking introspective almost by instinct. "Sad to lose Jonas. He and your late father were very close friends, weren't they?" "Yes, yes they were." I said, not really wanting to talk about Jonas Oldeeds, but needing to be polite in front of this man, who was a Town & County Councilman in addition to being the leader of a large church that served not only the County but the entire northwest region of the State. For some reason, I felt as if the secretary was studying me, and then I realized that Pastor Westboro had kept her in the room, which was not the norm. "So," said Pastor Westboro, "how can I be of service to you this evening, Commander?" "I do not want to violate the privacy of your relationship with your flock, Pastor," I said, "but I need to verify something. Were you in the company of John D. Clifford yesterday evening?" "Oh yes, yes I was." said Westboro. "He and his wife are going through an unfortunate time, as you probably know from your murder investigation. They had a row, and I met him at his room at the University Hotel. I was there from about 8:30 to 11:00pm with him. I can't go into specifics, of course, but our conversation was one of Spiritual matters and how the Lord brings comfort to His flock." "Yes, I understand." I said, standing up. "I appreciate your time and confirming that for me, and if you'll excuse me, I'll let you get back to your more important matters." "My time is yours, Commander." said Westboro, shaking my hand. "Come by any time... and I would love to see you and your family at our Sunday morning services." "Thank you, sir. I'll let myself out. You both have a good evening." With that, I hurried out the door, wondering why all churches and their hallways had that distinctive, peculiar smell to them, which was the same here as almost any church I'd ever been inside of... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * As I drove home, I got a phone call from Myron. He reported that with the FBI's help, they were able to get a few frames of videotape that showed the killer of the pharmacist Lockhart, including a good one of the perp looking at the computer screen. It looked like a man, dressed in a coat with a high collar, and a ski mask over his head. Myron sent a copy of that image to my cellphone. As I looked at it, I realized that the ski mask looked funny; the lower part of it around the mouth and jaw seemed to bulge out as if distorted, or as if the guy's jaws were swollen. Surely Lockhart didn't get a blow in that would make the guy swell up that quickly, I thought... then I had the insight and saw the meaning of it. And I knew who the killer of Lockhart was... Part 19 - Sexual Spirit of the Night It was midnight, Wednesday becoming Thursday, January 8th. Paul Wicker peeked out of the window of Room 204 of the Sunrise Hotel, seeing the slender form drive up on a motorcycle and park, both of them glad this side of the hotel faced away from the road, and few eyes would be upon them. She was clad in tight leather pants and jacket that her high-riding breasts pushed against, jutting out. She wore a motorcycle helmet which completely hid any features of her face, and kept the helmet on until she was safely inside Room 204, having been admitted by the handsome, muscular Paul Wicker. "Good to see you, babe." Wicker said, kissing the woman as she began removing the helmet and then her clothes. "You too, stud." she said. "We don't have a lot of time. Let's fuck!" She eased herself onto the bed, and Paul Wicker slid onto the hotel bed bedspread next to her, wearing only his underwear. The woman was now wearing just stockings, garter belt and bra, her panties laying somewhere on the floor, and her black-hair-lined pussy was wet with anticipation for Paul's big cock. The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 04 "Bad day, stud?" the woman asked in a demure voice, seeing the tiredness in her lover's eyes. "Yeah, but not all bad." said Wicker. "I cut a deal with the Feds, threw Lockhart and that nigger Fillmore under the bus. The idiots of the DEA lapped it up like cream." "Why did you ever even work with that nigger?" the woman asked casually, almost as if it were an idle afterthought. "None of 'em are any good, they always fuck things up." "Yeah, Fillmore really fucked this one up, for sure." Wicker said as the woman adjusted herself, lying over his taut abdomen as she took his meat into her hand and began jacking it. "If he hadn't have fucked up those shipments from Mexico, none of this shit would be happening now." "Don't worry about that, baby." the woman said. "We've got it all under control. All of it." With that she bent over and engulfed Wicker's meaty inches into her warm, wet mouth. Paul groaned, thinking of how good this woman was at giving head as pleasure coursed through his loins. He had always been attractive to good looking women, like a magnet, easily bedding some very hot women in the County, including the rich-bitch trophy wives. And after he'd climaxed inside them, they'd paid him handsomely for his prescriptions for powerful drugs. He knew that at least two children of wealthy County residents were his biological children, and he reveled in impregnating some wealthy cuckold's hot trophy wife. Now, things were potentially unraveling. He was under house arrest, but the cell phone app, given to him by the woman he was now with, had mimicked his ankle bracelet signal; the Feds had no idea that he was getting his big dick sucked by this pretty brunette and that he was about to fuck her and pump his full load deep inside her. And tomorrow morning, he'd be gone, out of the State, off the grid and disappearing into the melting pots of Los Angeles or San Francisco within days.. The woman expertly fellated Wicker, laughing inwardly, thinking of how stupid Commander Troy and his team were, how easily they were being duped by her and the master criminal she was working for... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Oh God, that is so fucking good!" groaned Katherine Woodburn as the Satyr slammed into her asscheeks from behind, his huge cock splitting her cunt open and driving balls-deep into it until he was sheathed to the hilt. The beautiful, dirty-blonde MILF was on her hands and knees, wearing her black lace bra that cupped her large breasts, sheer black stockings held up by a black lace garter, and matte black high heel pumps. Her staff assistant Clark was sitting naked on the sofa to one side of the bed in the hotel room, stroking his huge hard cock as he watched his mistress being fucked hard and deep in the rear-entry position, seeing the young, muscular Satyr driving his large cock into Katherine, seeing the other guy's huge nuts swinging underneath his pistoning meat, heavy and full of potent, virile semen. Clark wanted to be where the other guy was, but knew he'd have to wait his turn. "Oh yes, fuck me, FUCK ME!" Katherine shouted, pleasure rocking her toned body to her very core. As she was fucked, waves of pleasure washed over her... and she realized it was not just the young studs she was with nor the size of their cocks nor the sex herself... it was the thrill of power, the power that being a State Senator was bringing her. It was the power over other people, the power to make laws to rule them, the power to control them. The back-and-forth, give-and-take of political maneuvering had make Katherine Woodburn extremely horny, even hornier than she got when KXTC would break a huge story that would humiliate and even take down the powerful... and now she was one of the powerful. But she intended to control it all, as she knew how to do through her many media contacts, even now. *CHOCK!* *CHOCK!* *CHOCK!* *CHOCK!* The sounds of hard, physical sex filled the room, the slurps of her sopping wet pussy mixing with her groans, her lover's groans, and Clark's groans as he jerked off his own large meat. The Satyr was one of Rita's employees at Lashes & Lace, her BDSM Boudoir south of the University. He was also a traitor to Rita, taking pay from Katherine to give information to Katherine that he gleaned from listening to people talk at Rita's events. 
"Uhhh, gonna come baby, gonna come!" the Satyr said. "Where do you want it, babe?" he asked hoarsely. "Come inside me!" Katherine gasped, wanted him to release his full load deep inside her sopping quim. "Oh yeah, come deep inside me, squirt it all deep up in there!" Her dirty talk fueled the young stud to climb her all the way. He drove his hips forward as his hands grasped Katherine's hips, burying his cockmeat as deep as he could inside her quaking vagina. He gasped, almost a howl as spurt after spurt of virile semen shot out of his cock-cannon and into the depths of her womanhood. After several violent shivers, the young man collapsed on the bed. Katherine eagerly bent over his cock, sucking it into her voracious mouth, cleaning their combined juices from the half-hard but thickening shaft. "Come on, Clark!" Katherine ordered. "Get behind me and fuck my creampied cunt! Get those sloppy seconds, boy!" Clark rushed up like a well-trained puppy dog and got on the bed behind Katherine's sexy, upturned ass. He drove his large meat unerringly into her scalding, slippery cunt. "Uhhh!" Katherine gasped, then resumed sucking the Satyr's big cock, getting him back to full hardness so that he could fuck her brains out with his next turn. Clark realized that the Satyr's semen was not a good lubricant and was already pulling his dick out and lubing it up. Katherine groaned as he slipped it back into her. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Well, that was all too easy." Austin L. Murphy said as he watched the hard action sex on the screens. "Sure, but this is not nearly enough to compromise Katherine Woodburn." said Henry R. Wargrave as he watched. "She's a beautiful woman, single, fucking a couple of hung young studs. It'll shock the Religious Right in Town, especially Pastor Westboro's flock at First Baptist and Rev. Joseph E. Williams's congregation of the A.M.E. Church, but we'll need this and a whole hell of a lot more to keep this bitch in the fold." The Satyr that had betrayed Rita had taken Katherine's money... and turned right around and betrayed her, too. Wargrave had paid the young man handsomely to secrete taping gear in the bag he'd brought in, and it was picking up vivid, explicit, clear images of the two hung, fit studs taking turns fucking Katherine Woodburn. "Hank, I have to go." said Austin L. Murphy. "My girlfriend is waiting up for me." Wargrave gave a brief smile and nodded. He knew Murphy was getting horny as hell watching what was going on in Katherine's room and needed release. Once alone, Wargrave continued to watch. Katherine Woodburn was indeed a very attractive woman; he and she would've made a hot power couple had he chosen to go a political route. As it was, while Wargrave desired to fuck Katherine like those lucky young men were, his cock simply would not become erect. He felt the tightness in his body, the desire, the lust for the beautiful MILF, and felt some pleasure rubbing his cock in his pants. But his Unit simply refused to grow, simply refused to become hard. Oh well, he could always go eat out his pretty wife and use the vibrator on her... Part 20 - Final Puzzle Pieces The beautiful sounds of my baby daughter's laughter filled the room as my wife got her changed and ready for bed, mother and daughter sharing something hilarious to them that was totally escaping me. For myself, I was holding little Jim. A hockey game was on the television set and the lights and movement had attracted him for a while, but he was now asleep in my arms. After some moments, we put them into their respective cribs, and headed to our bed. "So, any progress on the Searles murder case?" Laura asked. "Bits and pieces." I said, lying down on the bed and watching my wife undress and put on a sheer black teddy. "Tell me something, Laura... did you help get Caroline Muncie on Staff at University Hospital?" "Yes, I put in a good word for her, but it was Richard Searles that went to bat for her- ohhhhhh, I see where you're going with this..." "Yes." I said. "So what can you tell me?" "Your mother has been putting me in 'observation training', getting me to observe people better than I had been." Laura replied. "Richard Searles has been described as 'full of himself', arrogant. He's the big dog in almost any room he enters, and he knows it, and he acts like it. To be fair, darling, you are like that at Police Headquarters and on Police missions, because you are the big dog and are expected to act like it. But you're not egotistical about it in social settings." "Nice to know." I said. Good thing I was thinking about this case, I mused to myself... Laura continued: "One interesting thing I noticed the other night at the Wellman's party was that Searles didn't act like the big dog... both Dr. Wellman and yourself were there, and he knows that both of you are at least the equal of him in your respective areas. He unconsciously respects you for your position and your accomplishments, as you respect him for what he is." "That's not my mother's observational powers." I said. "It's your psychological training and talents at work." "Sure enough, but getting to my point," Laura said as she eased onto the bed and cuddled with me, "I've noticed how Dr. Searles and Dr. Muncie act in each other's presence. Caroline may be 'AC/DC', or go both ways... but I suspect she and Searles have more than just a professional friendship." "And you're just telling me this now?" I asked, rather sharply. "I just realized it fully when you asked about Caroline getting on staff." Laura replied. "I'm not as good as you or your mother about these things." "Girl, please." I said, then kissed my wife. "But neither Searles nor Muncie mentioned their relationship. Your observations are definitely helpful." "Good." said Laura, taking my cock in her hand. "I'll just get my iron hard reward now, if you don't mind..." With that, she bent over and began fellating my little 'iron crowbar' until it was throbbing. Then Laura mounted me slid her sopping wet pussy onto my thick, standing erection. She began grinding, letting my cock stir the insides of her cunt. She often did this, doing all the work of our coupling; and she enjoyed doing it, so I just hung on for the ride. And as she fucked me, I was putting the case together in my mind. Somewhere nearby, I felt the presence of Gloria Searles's spirit, and I knew I was close to avenging her murder... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * At 5:45am, on Thursday, January 8th, as I was finishing dressing and just about to leave to go to Headquarters, my police cellphone rang. It was Sergeant Rudistan. "Sir, we just got an anonymous tip from the same cellphone that called about Lockhart." said Rudistan. "The person said there was a fight in Room 204 of the Sunrise Hotel. When we got there, we found Paul Wicker... dead." To be continued. ***** Dear Readers, you have all the clues. Who killed Gloria Searles, and how? Who killed the pharmacist Lockhart? See if your answers agree with the Iron Crowbar's solution in the next chapter. The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 05 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, The Case of the Black Badge series, A Case of Revenge series, Teresa's Summer Race, The Trilogy series, Dark Side Of The Force series, Caught In The Act series, Case of the Murdered Bride series, The Credit Card Caper series, The Hot Wives Investment Club series, Seriously Inconvenienced series, Case of the Paper Trail series, Christmas Mystery Theater, The Porno Set Mystery series. The Medical Murder Mystery, Ch. 1-5. 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 - The Crime Scene, Third Time The Charm "What am I missing my morning coffee for, here, Sergeant Irwin?" I asked as I arrived at sunrise on Thursday, January 8th. I'd arrived before any of my Detectives or the Crime Lab teams. It was Sergeant Irwin this morning, along with Sr. Patrolmen Morton, Patrolman Johnson, and two EMTs that had been called to the scene and found that the victim could not be helped. Lying in one of the double beds in the room was Dr. Paul Wicker, looking as if he was asleep, lying on his side in a fetal position, facing the edge of the bed, with the covers half on him. "Door was cracked open when we got here." said Irwin. "I peeked in, then called out to the man, but no movement, so I came in and found that he was dead. I called EMTs per protocol, but they confirmed he was dead. "So how did this man die?" I mused to myself as I stood close to the body, having looked at the floor already for clues and finding no tracking of any dirt or blood, nor any footprints. "Oh, Jesus H. Christ..." "What is it, Don?" asked a familiar voice. FBI Special Agent in Charge Jack Muscone was at the doorway. I'd called him as I was driving to the scene. He'd made excellent time getting here, I noted. "See this big red mark at the base of his neck?" I asked. "Someone took a huge needle, like several inches long, and stabbed it into the base of his head here, up into his head. Probably injected some sort of poison straight into his brain. Maybe he was drugged to be asleep first." "Geez," whispered Morton, not one for talking. "And I'd also say that it was a woman that had sex with him before killing him." I said. "Morton, Johnson, make sure the Crime Lab investigates the man's genitals as well as the sheets for a woman's presence. We may get lucky and get some DNA." "Sergeant Irwin," I said after a moment, "I want you to call in to Sergeant Rudistan and have him pick up Caroline Muncey, Gloria Searles's assistant Jill, Darla Clifford, John D. Clifford, and Dr. Richard Searles. Have them brought in to the Station. Immediately. Caroline Muncey and Richard Searles are to be kept separated from each other at all times, as are Darla and John Clifford from each other. Anyone who wants a lawyer can call one... and I would suggest that they do so. After you leave here, go back to Headquarters and oversee them until I get there to question them." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Sergeant Rudistan told me that everyone I'd requested by brought in was in the Station as I came into the main Conference Room at 8:00am. Caroline Muncey was in Interrogation-A, Dr. Richard Searles in Interrogation-B, and John Clifford in Interrogation-C. Darla Clifford was in an isolation holding cell, as was the assistant Jill. In the Conference Room were Sheriff Daniel Allgood, District Attorney Gil Krasney, ADAs Paulina Patterson and Franklin Washington, myself, Lt. Cindy Ross, and Detectives Martin Nash and Diana Torres. "Okay, Commander, you asked me to assemble these guys." said Daniel Allgood. "Do you have an idea of who committed these murders?" "Paul Wicker, not yet." I said. "But I have a good idea of who killed Lockhart, and I am absolutely sure who the murderer of Gloria Searles is." The silence and stares of amazement were broken by, who else, Lt. Cindy Ross, who said "Do I need to use this blue crowbar to pry the answer out of you?" "No, of course not." I said. I then told them who I thought it was, the reasoning for it, and how tricky it would be to get solid proof or a confession. "How did you eliminate Gloria's husband, Dr. Richard Searles, as a suspect?" asked ADA Paulina Patterson. "He was at the hospital at the time of her death." I said. "I don't think he had any idea that his wife got up and left the house immediately after he did, so he would not have been able to tell a confederate where she was. Caroline Muncey also has a good alibi. And based upon what else I'm seeing of this case, Richard Searles really didn't have a motive to kill his wife, which cannot be said of the Cliffords... either one." "Uh oh, reasonable doubt." said ADA Franklin Washington. "Which I hope to severely diminish." I said. "But it's going to require some careful questioning of the suspects. I want to play the Cliffords off each other, see who we can get to break first. I think we can break John and then we'll have a strong circumstantial case against Darla, but if we can get Darla to confess, what could you offer?" "I'll offer 25-to-life with parole only after 25 full years, but first we'll only offer to take the death penalty off the table." said Paulina. "That might not work." I said. "Once Darla realizes her life is essentially over, she may not care about the death penalty. Ditto that for no-nuts John. At the right time, 25 to life?" "Sure." said Paulina. "Sheriff," said D.A. Krasney, "I want only the Commander talking to these suspects. Nothing against your other Detectives, but I think only the Iron Crowbar can effectively get what he wants without destroying our case with an ill-timed improper question." "You got it." said Sheriff Allgood. "Morton will be in the room, as required, but it'll be Commander Troy and ADA Patterson, with Ross watching from the anterooms. The others can watch, too, if they want to and don't have an assignment..." Just then, Myron came to the door. He was very excited as he was admitted to the meeting. "Sir! We have some tape from the area around the Sunrise Hotel!" "Don't keep Lieutenant Ross in suspense." I said. As a warning, Cindy waved her crowbar in my general direction. Yes sir." said Myron happily. "Here's what we've got: slender figure on a motorcycle came in late in the evening, before midnight. Parking lot camera caught it, though it's a bit of a distance and a wide field. Can't get a good plate image, and the motorcyclist was careful not to take off his or her helmet... went into Room 204 with it on, came out about 4:00am with it on." Myron then played the video on his computer, which he had been hooking up to the projector as he talked. "Commander, I believe you'll recognize the motorcycle." "Yes. Yes I do." I said, the deadpan of my voice underlying the excitement I felt. "And the motorcycle's driver is the same too... likely a woman, judging from those breasts and legs in the tight leather." I said, then clued everyone in: "Back during the case we called the 'Black Badge' case, Brody and Gunn narrowly avoided being assassinated by this motorcyclist, at least that's my theory of the case." "Does this help us solve these murders?" asked Sheriff Allgood. "No sir." I said. "But it puts a few puzzle pieces into place... kind of like the edges of a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. I'm getting the framework, the edges, but there's work to do to fill it all in. But... that'll have to wait. I have suspects to interview so Cindy can start planning the wrap-up party after we put some perps in prison..." Part 22 - Exit Interviews I went for Caroline Muncey first. She had her attorney present. Entering Interrogation-A, I introduced Paulina Patterson, then read Caroline her rights. "Dr. Muncey," I said, "would you please tell me the exact and full nature of your relationship with Dr. Richard Searles?" Caroline's face fell. "I suspect you already know, from the form and tone of your question." "I still need for you to answer the question." I said. "Richard and I are good friends." said Caroline. "And we have had a sexual relationship from time to time." "For how long have you had your affair with Richard Searles?" I asked. "For the last several years, off and on." Caroline said. "It was never really serious, just a physically sexual thing, and I know he slept with the occasional nurse at the hospital, too. And before you ask: he never said he would leave his wife, I never asked him to leave his wife. It wasn't like that. We just talked from time to time and had sex from time to time." "Did Gloria know about your relationship with her husband?" I asked. "As far as I know, she did not." said Caroline. "Did Richard Searles finance your entry into his wife's medical practice?" I asked. "Say, a loan of $200,000, or so?" "No sir, he never loaned me any money." Caroline replied. "Was your relationship with Richard Searles the reason you were preparing to leave Gloria Searles's group?" "Let me phrase this answer carefully." said Caroline. "Richard was helping me get on Staff at University Hospital. Your wife helped me in that as well, Commander. To that extent, the answer would be yes. But I was not leaving the group due to the affair with Richard; I was leaving because of that sexual harassment asshole Dembo. I had to tell him at one point that if he put his hand on my ass again, I'd shoot him dead. And he was driving business away: his patients were telling my patients of his sexual harassment issues." "But couldn't Gloria have fired him?" I asked. "Yes, but he was threatening to make a public issue of it if he was kicked out. And that might have cost me getting on Staff, might have exposed my affair with Richard, and would've hurt the practice badly. Also, Hartwell is making inquiries about getting on staff at City Hospital; if he goes, it really is all over for us." "So Gloria's death hasn't helped you, has it?" "No, in fact it may hurt me opening my own practice, though I'm still going to be on Staff at University Hospital." "So why didn't you tell me all this before?" I asked. "You only made vague references to Dembo, you didn't tell us about Hartwell at all." "I didn't lie to you, though, Commander." said Muncey. Seeing the look on my face, which was scorn and anger, she continued: "Look, I understand that you are the cops, you're doing your job, which is to find Gloria's killer... and nothing else. But I had, and have, my life and future to think about. I told you Dembo was making female patients uncomfortable, which was true. But if I tell you he sexually harassed me and I threatened to kill him, you're looking at me as a murder suspect, you're publicly investigating Dembo and that Wurtzburg bitch is blabbing it all over the airwaves on her newscasts. Our practice is a shambles as it is with Gloria's death, and I did what I had to do." I had nothing else to say. I began collecting my things and getting up, and Paulina did the same. She went outside before I did. As I got to the door, I turned, feeling more sad than angry as I said "Dr. Muncey, I am... grateful to you and your medical skills for taking care of my wife's health last autumn. However... at this point, I think it would be a most very good idea if you find new employment... outside of this County. Goodbye, Doctor." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Dr. Richard Searles was looking pale and haggard as I entered Interrogation-B with Paulina. I read him his rights, telling him that it was a precaution. "Dr. Searles, would you please tell me the full nature of your relationship with Caroline Muncey?" I asked. Searles winced. "We've... had a sexual relationship at times." said Searles. "Not since October, though." "But you helped her get on University Hospital's Staff?" I asked. "Sure, and your wife was an advocate for Caroline after Caroline performed your wife's surgery so well last... September, was it?" "Did you ever plan to leave your wife for Dr. Muncey or at any other time?" "No." said Searles. "Like I told you before, things with my wife were getting better the last few weeks." "So why didn't you tell me about this affair when I talked to you earlier?" "Come on, Commander." said Searles. "You had just told me my wife was dead. I was in shock; I'm still in shock about it now. And I didn't lie to you, I didn't deny that I'd had an affair. But how would it have looked if I had told you about Caroline then? You might have arrested me on the spot. I didn't deceive you, but I sure didn't want to be figuring out the rest of my life in a jail cell." "No, you didn't lie to me," I said, my voice severe, "but it is fortunate that I had already figured out you could not have done it, and who likely did. If it had been just about any other Detective, you probably would have been arrested, especially once the affair with Dr. Muncey came out." "Tell me this, Doctor," I said, "why did you take out a loan of $200,000 four years ago?" "To pay off a debt." said Dr. Searles. "It had nothing to do with this case. I will say nothing more about it, and if you press, I'll invoke my Fifth Amendment rights." "Again, Doctor, it is most fortunate for you that I know the truth already." I said. "You were paying off another woman that you were having an affair with. Maybe she was blackmailing you, maybe you were paying her to get an abortion. I don't know, and it doesn't matter for this case." I got up. "I'm going to go see if I can get Justice for your wife, Dr. Searles. Again, I truly am sorry for your loss. She died because she was concerned for a patient's health, and tried to help that patient without knowing that her caring was what would lead to her death. You indeed lost a treasure far greater than anything Caroline Muncey, or any other women for that matter, provided for you sexually. Good day, Doctor." With that I left, leaving Dr. Searles with a frown on his face. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Okay, now it gets tricky." I said to Paulina. We entered the rarely used Interrogation-C room. "Dr. Clifford," I said, "I am going to read you your rights, as a precaution." I did so, then asked if he wanted outside counsel. He declined. "Doctor, I want you to be truthful with me: your wife was not at home all night last Monday night-Tuesday morning, was she?" Clifford paused, contemplating things, then shook his head, his eyes introspective. "Dr. Clifford, let me spell it out for you." I said. "I have a very strong case that your wife murdered Gloria Searles. And if you're not telling me the truth, as you have not been to this point, you become an accessory to that murder. Now I don't think you had anything to do with it, but I'm not going to play games, either... was your wife at home all night last Monday night and Tuesday morning?" I saw a tear form in Clifford's eye and he laughed a bitter whimper of a laugh. "Doctors." he said, more to himself than to me. "They took my future away from me years ago. And now a doctor, however well meaning, has taken my life away from me now..." I waited, letting Clifford marshal his thoughts. I knew he was at a huge crossroads in his life. Finally, he said, his voice barely a whisper. "No, Commander. Darla and I argued that night, and she left around 1:00am while I calmed down with some... good smoke, shall we say. She left her cellphone at home, as she often did, and I had no way to reach her. But I swear to God, I had no way of knowing what she was going to do..." He then straightened up, took command of himself. "But I want immunity from prosecution if you want me to testify to that." Paulina looked at me expectantly. I just shook my head. "I can't allow that, Dr. Clifford." I said. "The best I can do... is to get the ADA here to give you 25-to-life... for the murder of the pharmacist, Lockhart." The look on Paulina's face was priceless. But the look on Clifford's face, seeing that I knew, was even better. His eyes were wide with shock, his mouth gaping. He just about fell out of his chair as he was losing control of his body. He rallied, pulling himself together. "Well, I have to admit that's a funny one, Commander Troy." Clifford said, his voice almost a series of gasps. "Remind me not to play poker with you, seeing your skills at bluffing." I smiled, one of those smiles that perps did not want to see. "You must not know of any little reputation I possess, Dr. Clifford, if you think I'm bluffing." I said. "You're going to have plenty of time to play poker, though... in State Prison. Now here's the bottom line up front, Clifford: you give us Darla, you give us what we want to know, and you'll get the leanest sentence possible for your own crimes. But if I walk out of here and go talk to her, and she takes the deal, you'll be looking at the death penalty." After a moment, John Clifford looked at me and said simply "I call. I'm calling your bluff. If you think I killed anyone, you prove it." "I will." I said as I got up and walked out, Paulina hustling to follow. Officers came into Interrogation-C and arrested Clifford and took him through the booking process as I and my entourage strode down the hall to Interrogation-1... it was time to confront Darla Clifford, the murderer of Dr. Gloria Searles. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The lawyer H.J. Lynch had somehow managed to get himself back into representing Darla Clifford. So be it. I was looking forward to him seeing this. I re-read Darla her rights and made sure to comment that it was being recorded on videotape, as this interview would be. I introduced myself and Paulina Patterson, being as formal and meticulous as I could, almost to the point of a formal Japanese tea ceremony ritual. "Mrs. Clifford," I said, "We've taken your husband into custody. If he starts singing like the bird I suspect he is, he'll get a deal and you will get the death penalty when you're convicted of murdering Gloria Searles. However, if you cooperate, including the conversations you had with your husband while under house arrest that will show his intent to go out and kill the pharmacist Lockhart, the ADA here is willing to offer you a deal in exchange for your truthful testimony at trial. Do you need a moment to confer with your lawyer?" "No sir." said Darla. "I will tell you everything. I don't need the deal; I don't care if I live or die." "Darla, I have to advise you-" started Lynch, but Darla stopped him. "No, I'll talk to them." she said. "You can go." "I'll stay here anyway," said Lynch, peering at me, "to make sure this police officer doesn't abuse your rights." Paulina's face showed her anger, but I concentrated on Darla, who had tears coming out of her eyes. "I... I had no intention of killing anyone." she said. "I was scared, I thought my life was over, and I just didn't know what else to do." "Dr. Searles was asking you about the bruising on your leg, and she connected it to your use of birth control pills, didn't she?" I asked. "Yes sir." Darla said. "When I saw her talking to my husband, I was scared to death she was going to tell him. Doctors are like that, can't trust them to shut their fucking mouths, unless it's to keep from confessing to malpractice. You can ask my husband about that." The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 05 "Okay, so tell us what you did, from the beginning..." Part 23 - Solution Santo Veccio's new restaurant did not really have a 'back room', but he put together a catered spread for us that was a Feast for the Gods, and delivered it to the Junction Station Depot, which retired Chief Griswold rented for us. It was the evening of Friday, January 9th. Dr. Richard Searles had helped pay for all the food, but wanted it kept anonymous. He would have to work harder than he did if he wanted to keep my mother from finding out, but she and I kept the secret. Present at the celebration were me, Laura, Sheriff Daniel and Melina Allgood with their new baby, Chief Griswold and his wife, Cindy Ross and Jenna Stiles, Paulina Patterson (surprisingly alone, her husband had some other business to attend to), Franklin Washington and his wife Susie, Martin Nash and Sandra Speer, Diana Torres (alone), Tanya Perlman (alone), Myron and Mary, Sonali, Lainie, Christopher Purvis and Julie Newton of Vice. Teresa Croyle had made regrets, citing other business, as well. And then came Jack Muscone with the two DEA agents who had been working on the prescription drug case. Jack said that they'd gotten some good stuff: the FBI and DEA agents had gone to Wicker's home and found the cellphone, and app on it, that was transmitting his ankle monitor signal, which had allowed Wicker to leave undetected the night before. That was bad, but they were getting some further leads due to some knowledge of who might be creating such apps. "Any ideas who killed Wicker?" asked the new Sheriff in Town. "Not yet, sir." I said. I had already told Jack about the motorcyclist in the video, and had admonished those who had been in the room to please not discuss it even with other police officers and ADAs and the like. Finally, everyone was complaining that they had eaten so much that they could not move, and there was still food available. "Okay, Commander," said Cindy after tapping her water glass with her spoon to get everyone settled down. "It's my favorite part of the evening, asking you to tell us how you did it. And Chief Griswold will say I'm kissing your ass when I tell you that this might be your best one yet. I still am not sure how you did it, and you were telling me every step of the way... contrary to past cases." That last part was to needle me, and it got Cindy a 'friendly' glare back. "Nice job of kissing the boss's ass, Cindy." piped up Chief Griswold, his cheeks rosy. Everyone laughed loud and hard at that. "I have to say that I agree with Miss Ross." said Daniel Allgood. "It was absolutely brilliant. So, how did you get there?" Everyone got quiet as I got started with my story. "The chain of events was not particularly hard to put together," I said, "though I did have some luck in observing an altercation at the Wellman's party, and Lt. Ross here had reported on another altercation at Veccio's Ristorante. The problem, Sheriff, and everyone else, was getting a case to give to the D.A.'s office that they could spoon-feed to a Jury and get a solid conviction. Darla made it easy with her full confession, as killing Gloria Searles was weighing on her conscience, but I think we had the case anyway." "So what was that chain of events?" asked Cindy, ever the impatient one. "Okay, here goes. I'll tell it chronologically as much as possible." I said. "Many years ago, John D. Clifford went into the hospital for a procedure, which was botched. He couldn't have children anymore. When he met his future wife Darla, he told her the situation, so she knew about it going in. She thought she could handle it and everything would be okay, but over time she found that while her husband could have sex, his desire for it and his, shall we say, 'ability to perform' was not up to her needs. "Darla was beautiful and she was athletic and healthy, and she craved more sex. She began having affairs with other men, and an especially hot one with a rogue, nearly bogus doctor, Paul Wicker. Wicker was having affairs with several of the County's trophy wives, and to that end this becomes a delicate case vis-a-vis public consumption, but I digress." "Darla was smart as well as careful. She left her cellphone at home, so that the pings would not be detected anywhere but near her home. She created a whole new identity, that of 'Natasha Norelle'. She used burner phones, as did her lover Wicker, and she used birth control pills. But she had to hide those pills from her husband. Darla had a good, comfortable life, and if her husband found out about her affairs and divorced her, she'd have to go back to work at the least, and she wouldn't have the smooth and easy life she'd created for herself. "So now we come up to last November. Darla's husband hated doctors, but she needed to have checkups now and again. She went to Dr. Gloria Searles, complaining of not feeling well. Dr. Searles, who I'll call 'Gloria' to prevent confusion with her husband, noted she had a bruise on her leg but did not find any other symptoms... until the blood tests came back. Gloria tried to contact Darla, but never got a reply back. But what Darla did not know was that Gloria was doing research on what was ailing Darla. "Darla had been going to Abel Fillmore to get her birth control pills in bulk. He had a supplier in Mexico, but that got interdicted by the FBI and the supply stopped. So Darla had to go to Wicker's next pharmacist, Lockhart of Smith-Morra Pharmacy. Lockhart was a real sleazebag and a lecherous guy. Lockhart may have come on to her when she went to Smith-Morra, and Natasha did use a bit of makeup and a wig to disguise herself when she went to pick up her birth control pills. More on that later. "So what happened was that Lockhart's supply of birth control was not as good a quality as Abel Fillmore's, and it was a different dosage. Darla apparently had a reaction to the new birth control pills." I saw Melina wince, and I knew what she was thinking about and feeling, but I moved on with my story. "So, we now come up to last weekend." I continued. "John and Darla Clifford go to Veccio's new restaurant, and as Darla is going to the restroom, who comes out of the mens' room but Lockhart. He recognized her even though she was disguised at his pharmacy. She brushed past him and went into the restroom to try to wait him out." I saw the light come on in some people's eyes. Cindy and Joanne had started catching on almost immediately, but Jack Muscone and the DEA agents were still sitting in stupefied wonder. I went on: "There is an old unwritten rule that if a prostitute sees one of her clients out on the streets, she will not acknowledge or greet him unless he greets her first. Well, Lockhart was a total asshole as well as a total idiot. He stands there and waits for Darla to come out of the restroom, accosts her to the point of grabbing her arm when she does come out, and her husband does what any good husband would do: he goes up and is about to whip Lockhart's ass. If it had been me and he'd grabbed my wife, Lockhart would've had seriously broken bones, and I don't mind saying that in front of any of you." "Ask Steven Ikea what happens when the Iron Crowbar's family gets accosted." said the not-fully-sober Chief Griswold, remembering that day at Ward Harvester. After some murmurings of agreement, I took up my narrative again. "Anyway, Lieutenant Ross happened to be there and broke it up, but it was a horrible faux pas by the jerk Lockhart. The incident might have faded into history, but it had a very important side effect: it caused Darla to become scared that her double life was going to be found out, and indeed her husband asked a lot of questions and became suspicious. "So Darla has her next appointment with Gloria Searles, and she still has a bruise on her leg. She did not get it from hitting anything, and in truth the bruising was old and had not really healed at all. Gloria noticed, began inquiring about it with Darla... and with newfound knowledge from two months of research, she began asking about Darla using birth control. Darla wouldn't answer; in fact, she got up and bolted for the door, fully terrified that her secret was coming out. "Now I happen to have a very reliable and confidential source in the University Psychology Department," I said, looking at my lovely wife and grinning, "who happens to also be a medical doctor with specialization in gynecology. My wife told me that a change of dosage in birth control pills can cause an allergic reaction to them, which includes easy bruising. Darla's bruising was not from an injury, but from an allergic reaction to the bad batch of birth control pills provided by Lockhart. "Next comes last Monday night's party at Dr. Wellman's home, at which I was fortunate to be present and to observe what happened." I said. "Gloria Searles sees Darla Clifford and tries to talk to her. Darla won't talk to her, so Gloria goes to John Clifford to try to get him to get Darla to talk with her. Now Gloria thinks she's doing the right thing: she's very worried about Darla's health if Darla keeps taking these bad birth control pills. But Gloria did not know the history of John and Darla Clifford. And when Darla saw Gloria talking to John, she freaked... kind of a seeing her life flash before her eyes, as she called it during her confession. "Turns out that Gloria did not tell John specifically about birth control pills, and that might have sealed her fate. If she had told John, the cat would've been out of the bag, and there'd be no point in trying to silence Gloria. However, Gloria had not told John the details, and Darla thought she had to take the chance to eliminate Gloria to keep John from finding out. In her warped, nearly-mad mind, that was her thinking. And so she murdered Gloria in cold blood." That got the room buzzing. A ton of questions were hurled at me, including "How did Darla get into the office?" and "How did she know Gloria was at the office?" and "Did she kill Lockhart, too?" I let the buzz continue until Sheriff Allgood regained control. "Okay, guys, let the Commander talk!" he ordered. "Don, keep going." I resumed. "We now know that John Clifford lied, his wife was not at home all that night. She snuck out in the early morning hours, leaving her cellphone at home, and went to the Searles home. She intended to break in and kill Gloria at home as soon as Richard Searles left for the hospital. However, she saw that Gloria came out of the house immediately after her husband left, and drove to her office. Gloria was working hard on this situation, she was not going to let it go, and Darla realized that. "Darla was prepared to get into the office, and I'll get into that in a minute, but suffice it to say that Darla followed Gloria into the office, came up to Gloria as Gloria was getting into a filing cabinet behind her desk, and shot Gloria before Gloria even knew Darla was there. Darla then went to the pile of file folders on the side table, found her own, which had the effect of making two small piles from one larger pile, tore out the notes Gloria had made about Darla's case the day before, then took the interesting step of re-filing her own file in the cabinets rather than putting it back in the pile." "Why did she do that?" asked one of the DEA agents, drawing some stares for interrupting me, including from myself. Jack Muscone leaned over and whispered something to the agent. "I asked her that." I said. "She said that she did not realize her name was in the computer's appointment calendar, and she thought by putting away her file she would avoid detection as having been there, at least for a while. As it turned out, it became a discrepancy and had her in my sights rather quickly." "So let me quickly get to how Darla got in, and such." I said. "I have my suspicions about Jill, the receptionist. She was not cooperative, she invoked, and she was well coached on what to say and how to say it in invoking. How did Darla know where her file was after shooting Gloria? Maybe she saw files on the table and happened to look? I do have an idea that before the incident at the Wellman's, Darla had intended to steal her own file from the office, and enlisted Jill's help, with the inducements of green dollar bills, to make arrangements to do that. But then things got out of hand." "As to how Darla got into the medical offices?" I asked. "There is indeed a flaw in the security system, but very very few people know about it. Either Darla or Jill was given that knowledge, and it was then used." "How do you know there's a flaw in the security system?" asked one of the DEA agents. That got Jack Muscone leaning over and whispering to him, then Jack told me to go ahead with my story. I continued: "So I think it was Jill because Darla didn't have very much time to acquire the information from Paul Wicker or Lockhart or anyone else, but Jill could've told her, especially if they'd had prior arrangements." I continued: "Anyway, Darla, actually in her role as 'Natasha Norelle', was later arrested trying to leave though the back door of Paul Wicker's offices. And at this point the Federal drug case was opened up. But there was a side issue, the murder of the pharmacist Lockhart." "This is what really takes the cake for me." Cindy said. "How in the world did you see that one?" "I am going to get a solid blue-crowbar beatdown for this one." I admitted. "I guessed." That got the room buzzing for a minute, then everyone settled down as they realized I didn't really just guess. Chief Griswold was smiling very merrily. "Well, it was an extremely educated guess." I said. "Clifford had motive, means and opportunity. He had a fight with his wife, where he was cursing Lockhart's name from the get-go, and she said he was thinking out loud about whipping Lockhart again. But it was more... Clifford had by now figured out about his wife's infidelities and wanted to know the full story, so he was going to force it out of Lockhart." I continued: "And that is what he did: he checked himself into the University Hotel, which I think he knew had some security camera issues. I have an idle theory that he's been looking into Police Department files through his University computer, which some of the lawyers there do have access to do through the University Police. He may or may not have known about the University Hotel cameras, whose problems we came across in the 'Murdered Bride' case." "Ahhhh..." Martin Nash said, catching on. "Yes." I replied. "My last piece of evidence, which might not hold up in a Court trial but was good enough for me personally, was the picture recovered from the Smith-Morra cameras. Clifford wore a ski mask, but his beard and mustache made the lower part of the mask bulge to the point I could surmise there was a beard underneath." "So, I was on fairly solid circumstantial ground that it was Clifford, and I only needed to acquire evidence or some eyewitness testimony from Darla to reel him in. To continue with the story: Clifford snuck out of the Hotel and got Lockhart to come down to the pharmacy, which I am embarrassed to admit that our officers on the scene did not catch-" "Question!" said one of the DEA agents. "How did he know how to get in touch with Lockhart." More reproving looks his way, but I rescued him this time: "Excellent question." I said. "Right now, that's a blind spot for me, though I can formulate some theories. I seriously doubt Darla would've told him, but he must've somehow acquired information leading to Lockhart's burner phone number. Let me leave that for a moment and just say that he did get Lockhart back to the pharmacy, but Lockhart may not have given up Natasha Norelle's information. Clifford killed him, then looked up anyone in the database named 'Natasha', finding Norelle. John Clifford was pretty good with computers, which is why I suspect it was him that accessed police files through the University's networks. I'll be talking with Myron and the I.T. Department about improving security there." "Anyway," I said, to finish up, "Clifford found Natasha Norelle's file, and he left that up on the computer screen as he left. We found it when we found the pharmacist's body. You FBI and DEA guys will be going through all that, and I look forward to your successful pursuits in those arenas, especially the smuggling aspects of it." Part 24 - Epilogue As everyone prepared to go home, I approached Daniel and Melina. "Could you take Laura and Jenna home for me?" I said. "Cindy and I are going to drive Chief Griswold and his wife home, then I'll give Cindy a ride home." They agreed. I drove the Chief's car with himself and his wife inside, while Cindy drove my SUV behind me. "He's an Italian man and feasted and drank like one tonight." his wife said, somewhat apologetically. "He's earned it." I said. I helped Griswold inside and settled comfortably on the sofa, where his wife put blankets over him. Then I left. "I take it you want to talk to me." said Cindy. "Any officer could've driven the Chief home." "True enough." I said. "This is a Crowbar-only discussion. What did you think of this case?" "You did leave some gaps in your explanation." Cindy said. "Intentionally?" "What gaps would those be?" I asked. "Clifford getting all his info, for one thing." Cindy said. "Darla and Jill and the how and why of what they did." "Good." I said. "Yes, I'm either paranoid, or I'm seeing a thin thread running through this case... and 'Eightfold Fence' thread, if you get my meaning." "Yeah, I do, I see what you mean." Cindy said, thinking about it. "So does this help you against the 'real Moriarty'?" "You tell me." I said, getting Cindy to think. We might have been going around the Bypass loop three times by now... "Let's see." Cindy said. "Didn't see much of Seth nor Todd, nor Bonnie Karpathian, for that matter. You're gonna have to convince me about Sheriff Allgood. As to Councilman Lewis, this drug ring was primarily in his district, and a politician like him gets his cut in things like this." "True." I said. "As to Dr. Wellman," Cindy said, "this affected one of his professors and the big-name cardiologist at his University Hospital. And Pastor Westboro visited Clifford at the University Hotel. But you verified that, which has me eliminating Westboro." "Why is that?" I asked, very happy to be hearing Cindy say that. "Because you went to visit him alone." Cindy said. "Not only is that generally a breach of police protocol requiring having a partner or second person at all times to cover you whenever possible; but I would venture to say that if you thought he was the real deal guy, it would be exceptionally dangerous for you to go see him alone at any time at all. Ergo, you must not think it's him, or you would not have gone to see him alone, no matter what." "Excellent!" I said. "Very good reasoning on your part. Not totally enough to eliminate him, but very good thinking. Now what was that theory about Dr. Wellman?" "He tends to get weak in the knees when his harmony is disturbed vis-a-vis his University." Cindy replied. "He gets nervous whenever you're around on police business, even though your wife is one of his favorite professors and favorite people. Your mom told me that last bit, by the way, so don't credit me with the observation. Anyway, this case affected Dr. Searles, who is a really esteemed name, and it also affected one of his law professors, who won't be there any longer, of course. I can see him giving Clifford and/or Darla the information needed to hopefully make these problems for him go away, or at least be diverted from the University... which is what happened, of course." The Medical Murder Mystery Ch. 05 "Scintillating!" I muttered. "Truly excellent. You might make a good Detective yet, Miss Ross." "Stoppit." Cindy replied, trying to hide a smile. "Anyway, Thomas Cook... don't know if he had any business dealings with any of these people... maybe he was one of those that loaned to the Searles and Muncey practice?" "Yes, as a matter of fact he was." I said. "By the way, Karpathian is a professor at the University and knows both Clifford and Searles. Not saying she's involved, but not eliminating her, either." "True." Cindy said. "So... what did I miss?" "Not much, within the extent of your current knowledge." I said. "But I'll tell you this just to keep you awake all night thinking about it: I think the receptionist Jill was really a key factor in this. I explained why at the party, but what I didn't elaborate upon was that I suspect she is a key player because she has a key backer... our Big Boy, a.k.a. Moriarty. I continued: "I also think Lockhart was our Big Boy's minion. Big Boy told Lockhart to get out of town, then when he saw things unraveling he lured Lockhart back and then sent Clifford to wax Lockhart. Even as we speak, Clifford is expecting legal help, not realizing he was duped and used by our Big Boy to eliminate Lockhart, and now Clifford will be left hanging out to dry." "As to Darla," I said, "I don't think she knew anything or was in a wider scheme; she just panicked when she thought her husband was going to find out about her affairs. She confessed because she's in such remorse, and she's even trying to keep the death penalty on the table." "By the way," I said, suddenly remembering it, "don't be surprised if Dembo is arrested or deported. I suspect his European connections were valuable to someone, but will no longer be. I might have mentioned that to Jack Muscone and the DEA agents tonight. And Jill and Dembo might have been working together there." "What about Wicker?" asked Cindy. "Not much said about him tonight. Connected?" "Oh, of course, how could he not be?" I replied. "And our motorcyclist, who is a woman, was his killer. And is she in with the real Moriarty? Maybe, maybe not. I just..." I went off into a reverie. "Just..." Cindy said after a minute, as we began making our way towards the Mountain Nest, where Jenna and Laura awaited us. "I just am not feeling the vibe that our Big Boy and the Black Badge gang and Superior Bloodlines are one and the same." I said, trying to see the puzzle pieces. "Well, maybe this prescription drug ring will give us a clue to one or the other." Cindy said. "Teresa has Julie Newton working with the Feds. Something will pop up." "Yes." I said. "Something will pop up. It always does. As I've heard you say, mon ami, the party never stops in our Town & County..." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Indeed, because of her cooperation, Darla Clifford got 25-to-life, but in a medium-security prison, and she was afforded opportunities to do 'community service'. She would be paroled in 20 years. John Clifford finally took a plea deal that took death off the table, and he began serving a life sentence. Dr. Richard Searles continued his brilliant career at University Hospital, but it was noted that he became a lot more involved in the teaching of younger doctors, and that he became a lot less arrogant. Dr. Caroline Muncey and Dr. Guy Hartwell did indeed leave the private practice, which collapsed. They set up together in the town of Westphalia, which was one of the State's "Twin Cities" with Eastphalia, both south of the City. They are reported to be doing well, as is Dr. Yelena, who set up her own pediatric care center. Dr. Dembo was deported back to Europe after an attempted rape charge was filed against him. Hmmm, Europe... false rape charge... now where had I heard that situation before?!?!? * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Are you sure about this?" Lieutenant Teresa Croyle asked. "Yes ma'am." said Lainie Everett, who had been called back to Headquarters after the party. They were in Lainie's cubicle in the secure basement of Police Headquarters. Myron and Mary had also been called in from the celebration party and were looking at Lainie's findings as Lainie continued: "Whoever hacked into our computers from the University Campus Police connections had to have had help from the inside. They got stuff that was not the basic and accessible public information, including some of our shared data with the FBI and the IRS." "Shit." said Teresa. "I'll call Commander Troy right now. We sure as hell are not going to let this bad news get worse with age." She reached for the telephone on the desk... Finis. ... for now.