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Seriously Inconvenienced 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, Ch. 01.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, extreme language, and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial or racist language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

*****

Part 1 - Prologue

It was a multi-alarm fire. The three-story building was engulfed in flames, being consumed by the raging inferno. I pulled onto the scene in my Police SUV next to Captain Charles's vehicle, from which he was implementing the traffic plan to re-route vehicles away from the scene. The date was Wednesday, November 12th.

"Couldn't have happened in a worse place. But your plan is working extremely well. Outstanding job!" I said to Captain Charles, who nodded and then responded to something on the police radio. Captain Charles rarely left Headquarters except to go home after work, but had deployed on this day for this big-deal mission. I thought about why this was such a big deal as I listened to Captain Charles give orders. Allow me to explain:

The road that leads from the east, from the City and Nextdoor County, into our County is a 4-lane divided highway. Just east of the town it swerves south and becomes the Bypass, crossing the river near Junction Station to the south of Town, curving north and paralleling the River on the west side of said River, then turning west just north of the northern border of Town. The railroad tracks run alongside the highway for the most part, especially west of the River.

From the Nextdoor County highway, a road named Jefferson Avenue splits off and comes straight west into Town. University Avenue, the major north-south road that runs between the Town and University, intersects Jefferson Avenue just a couple blocks south of the University Hotel, which is at the southern edge of University property. University Avenue continues south to become the main road to Coltrane County and on south to Midtown.

Jefferson Avenue goes west, and is the southern 'border' of the areas known as the Tenderloin District and the Southwestern Ghetto. Jefferson Avenue crosses the River and meets again with the Bypass. Just further north, Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard runs east-west, parallel to Jefferson Avenue. MLK Jr. Boulevard runs through the heart of the rougher areas of Town that would soon be in the 2nd Precinct.

University Avenue goes north, then turns sharply left and heads west as the de facto northern border of the Town until it also crosses the River and meets up with the Bypass, that road continuing straight west until it crosses another river, which is the State Line.

Ergo, the fire was at the northwestern corner of what was one of the biggest and most-trafficked intersections in the County. I'd long since been informed of the various contingency traffic plans, though the thinking was that the event would be a fatal car accident or pileup. I was pleased to see that Captain Charles' plans, formulated with Chief Griswold over the years, was working well, and I was very impressed with the efficiency of the Police Department's Uniformed Officers in their handling of the crisis. Police were at the junction of Jefferson Avenue and the Nextdoor County highway, not letting people come into Town on that road. Likewise, University Avenue was shut off well north of the fire site. Traffic was not too bad, even though it was 4:45pm, the beginnings of the afternoon rush hour.

"Not the best way to end the day, eh, Commander?" I heard a voice behind me say. I turned to see Town & County Fire Chief Eugene Gillem, in full firefighting attire, with a white fire helmet that was the traditional color helmet for a fire chief.

"No sir, Chief." I said, giving him the respect of his rank. He was equivalent to Police Chief Griswold, and I knew he was retiring the same day Griswold was. We'd miss his experience and expertise, as he ran a terrific Fire Department.

"This is Patrick Quinlin." said Gillem. "He's going to become Chief after I retire. Patrick, this is Commander Donald Troy that my friend Chief Griswold keeps raving about."

"I've heard a lot of raving about you, too." said Quinlin. "Glad to meet you."

"Good to meet you, sir." I said as I shook the redheaded man's hand. "I've bought houses from both your daughters."

"Good." said Quinlin. "As to this fire, we might need your deductive abilities on what caused it. I was just telling Chief Gillem here that I've never seen a building go up this fast or hot."

"My Crime Lab is ready to help your Arson team with whatever you need." I said. The way it worked was that the Fire Department's arson team would investigate, then if evidence of arson was found, the police Crime Lab would also come into the picture to investigate the crime further. I also had brought the arson team's lab facilities into my Crime Labs, which saved the Fire Department (and the County) a ton of money, but also kept things under my control.

"Anyone inside the building?" I asked.

"Not that we know of." said Chief Gillem. "The restaurant's customers and employees ran out as the smoke filled the first floor rooms. Mr. Veccio and his family are over there." He pointed to an older man who was on the University side of University Avenue, tears streaming down his face as he watched his restaurant, which was the first floor of the building, burning. His name was Santo Veccio, and his family's home was the 2nd floor of the building. The third floor apartments were rented to University students. "We think the students that lived on the top floor are at classes, but there's no way to send my guys in to find out. The fire was already too dangerous when we got the first alarms."

"Commander!" called out Captain Charles. "There's a bulletin coming over Police radio. There's been a robbery at Second National Bank!"

Part 2 - The Bank Job

Because of the traffic, it took me some few minutes to reach the Second National Bank, whose offices were north of Courthouse Square in the heart of Town. I drove on some medians and even on the sidewalk to get there as quickly as I could, blue lights blazing and siren blaring.

"Whaddya got, Nash?" I asked as I came in. Detective Martin Nash was the first Detective to arrive at the scene after the robbery call came in.

"While that big fire had everyone distracted," Nash astutely commented, "three men charged in the back door to the lobby just before the 4:00pm closing time, and robbed the bank at gunpoint. They had military assault rifles, likely M-4s from the descriptions and the video tape I just looked at. They were wearing all black and had black cloth masks over their heads. They had everyone lie down on the floor. One guy was here in the middle of the lobby with the customers, a second in the back with the manager, forcing him to open the safe, and a third grabbing cash from behind the teller windows."

"Anyone hurt?" I asked.

"No, sir. But they took one of the tellers with them as a hostage." replied Nash, with a worried look on his face. "Detective Torres is getting info on her right now.

"What else did they take?" I asked as I looked around the room.

"We don't yet know exactly how much cash they got, but it was a pretty big haul." said Nash. "They also took the customers's and tellers's wallets, purses, watches, jewelry, and most importantly, cell phones. Every last one of them. Put them in black cloth bags like they put the money in. They then destroyed the phone system at the junction in the utility room, so it took a few minutes for someone to go somewhere to call in the robbery."

"That gave them a head start, and like you said, we were distracted by the fire, putting us on low manpower." I said. "And all the credit cards and stuff will be a lot of identity theft, and it's going to suck for these poor people."

"Yes sir." said Nash as Detective Torres came up to join us. "Diana... anything on the girl they kidnapped?"

Diana Torres said "Commander, first let me tell you that we've got the surveillance tapes, which are being taken to headquarters for Myron to process." I nodded as Diana turned to Martin and said "As to the woman, her name is Luisa Gomez. She's of Hispanic origin, 26, recently divorced. She's wearing a light green dress and wooden slides with a white strap." Diana showed me the picture of Luisa Gomez that had been sent to her iPhone. The woman was pretty, with brown hair cut fairly short, bright, sparkling eyes, and nice full lips.

"Their vehicle?" I asked.

"Ubiquitous white van." said Nash. "No markings on it, had a rack on top for ladders, but no ladders on it. The license tag looked like it had mud smudged on it, so we don't have a number. We've put out an APB, and with our officers manning a number of traffic diversion points for the fire, I'm really hoping someone will see the van. I called to see if we can put some more patrols out, and we have an APB out for Luisa Gomez, to see if she was dropped off anywhere."

"More patrols is one thing, but tracing the right van is another." I said. "Get as many cellphone numbers from these witnesses as you can, and give them to Myron as fast as you can. He might be able to get some pings or tracings, which could give us a location, or at least a direction they went." Nash got right on that, moving as urgently as I'd ever seen him move.

I spoke to several of the tellers, who were all women. Some were sobbing, knowing the extreme danger their friend Luisa Gomez was in at this moment.

"Do any of you know why they'd choose to take Luisa?" I asked. "Did she ever say she was worried about anyone or anything?"

"Her ex-husband was abusive towards her." said one of the women, a rather dumpy girl with light blonde hair like Cindy Ross's. "But she said he left the State after she divorced him, and that was a year ago." I got the name of the husband, though that name of 'Pedro Gomez' didn't give me a lot of hope of finding the correct individual easily.

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

"The amount taken from the bank was about eighty-five thousand dollars." I said to the group gathered in the main conference room at 9:00pm. Present were myself, the Chief, Detectives Nash, Torres and Parker, Myron Milton, and 'Crowbar's Angels': Teresa Croyle, Tanya Perlman and Cindy Ross. Also present were FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone and FBI Special Agent Sandra Speer. 

"Why bother with customer wallets, if they got that much?" wondered Detective Teddy Parker out loud. He quickly corrected himself. "Sorry, sir. The question was rhetorical."

"No, it's a good question, and I'd suggest a couple of reasons." I said, rescuing Teddy, who was young but had flashes of promise. "One, for the credit cards and other information. They can use the information for identity theft, or sell the information to others, again for identity theft purposes. Two, to cause the customers and us police to be as distracted and overwhelmed as possible having to process all this information."

I continued: "The eyewitnesses said the criminals were in excellent physical condition, and the video tapes shows that their black clothing was somewhat clingy to their bodies, and their bodies do seem to be fit. I would also suggest from watching the tape that they moved in a very well-coordinated and practiced fashion. Anyone know what that means?" I asked, testing my detectives.

"That they practiced." Cindy Ross said sarcastically, meaning to be half-humorous. I tried not to laugh... and failed.

"Stoppit." I said as more laughter cropped up.

Martin Nash spoke up, very serious, almost frantic. "I think you're trying to get at the idea that they're some kind of paramilitary organization, that they keep fit and that, as Lt. Ross said, they practiced their actions and timing very well."

"Yes, good." I said. "I'm thinking a bit farther, though. I'm thinking that we still have three stand-out criminals from the old Corrigan Cell, and that these guys were them. They needed money, so they robbed the bank."

"That's a thought." said the Chief. "Is that why you are here, Agent Muscone?"

"Partly." said Jack Muscone.

"If I may, sir," said Myron Milton, "it's not the only reason the FBI was brought into the case. Commander Troy contacted them earlier today after I told him about the cell phones that were stolen today. They've been shut off and we're not getting any pings from them anymore, and I suspect they were placed inside a shielded box so that their signals can't get out. But before that happened, we got a few pings from towers to the west of the River, suggesting they went West. They may have crossed the State Line. And that means we'll need the FBI in on the case."

"And if they are indeed the last remnants of the Corrigan Cell," Jack Muscone said, "then this may be our chance to get at them, and I really want to get them. My boss says he doesn't sleep well at night knowing those killers are out there possibly watching us and you guys."

"And especially wanting to get revenge on your new FBI consultant. I share your boss's concerns." said Chief Griswold, not fooled at all by Jack Muscone's commentary. "Any word on Luisa Gomez, the kidnapped girl?"

"No sir." Nash quickly replied. "After Myron told me about the pings, we had patrol officers go along the West Highway all the way to the State line. Didn't find a thing. I'm still checking with the patrols, but we think they still have her."

The room became quiet, and the women in the room looked downwards, especially downcast. They understood fully what might be happening to Luisa Gomez even as we sat here trying to find her, and they felt the fear that every woman experiences every day... and more frequently than they'll admit.

"We don't think she was pre-chosen." said Myron. "She has very little money after her divorce. No current boyfriends that anyone knows of, and her ex-husband was last heard of in California. The other tellers said that she hasn't mentioned having any contact with him since she was divorced from him. Can't rule him out until we find him and account for his whereabouts, but it looks like they just took one teller at random as a hostage in case we got onto their track before they could get away."

"No, it wasn't just random, nor for insurance. They didn't release her." I said. "That is very bad, but at least we haven't found her dead body yet. I also think they might have taken her to keep us occupied in looking for her, which ties into the other thing I wanted to bring up: I don't think the timing of the bank robbery and the big fire today was coincidental. It has crossed my mind that the fire was set as a distraction for the bank heist."

"That's 'Iron Crowbar thinking', there." said the Chief. "What has the Fire Department told us about that fire?"

"Not much, yet. The building collapsed." I said. "It's still too hot to try to go in there. They're going to look for evidence of arson in the morning after things cool down some. We've got some officers on the scene keeping watch. The good news is that everyone known to be living in that building has been accounted for, and are alive and well."

"Can't they water down everything and then go in?" asked Diana Torres.

"No, not really. That might damage or destroy evidence." I said. "And they really don't want to go in there at night, anyway. They'll wait until daylight, when they can see better."

"Which is very wise. Okay guys," said the Chief, "not much we can do, except keep looking for the girl. I'm going to send you all home now, but Lt. Ross, I'd like some of the Detectives to work here on shifts overnight. Overtime is authorized, four hour shifts max, and they can sleep while here; I just want a presence. Crowbar, I'm sure you'll be working with our FBI friends here?"

"Yes sir." I said. Indeed, I was in for a long, nearly sleepless night looking at reams of camera evidence, cell phone pings, and anything else that might help us get a clue to the whereabouts of these criminals.

Part 3 - Fire in the Embers

"Okayyyy..." said the Fire Marshal, kneeling before a spot inside the charred remains of the building that had burned the day before. The morning of Thursday, November 13th had dawned overcast and gray, with what looked like the threat of a storm being barely held in abeyance.

The gray light revealed the total and complete damage done to the building by the ravaging fire. Nothing but heaps of black ash seemed to remain. The building had been relatively old, with brick and large amounts of real wood walls in the upstairs apartments. All that tinder had gone up in a hot conflagration.

"Sergeant," said the woman, "it's obviously arson. Go ahead and call in the Police Department."

"Consider them called in." I said as I came up behind her. "I'm Commander Don Troy, Town & County Police."

"Oh!" said the Fire Marshal, her eyes lighting up. "I'm Fire Marshal Zoe Singer." she said, standing up. "I'd shake your hand but it's very dirty."

"Doesn't bother me." I said, taking her hand and shaking it, pulling it slightly in towards me as I sized her up.

Zoe Singer had black hair combed straight and to each side of her face, with a severe part in the very top of her head. Her hair curled slightly at her jaw, framing her face nicely. She had very light brown skin, and I could not tell if she was Hispanic, light-skinned Black, or just had dark skin for a Caucasian woman. Her voice gave me no clue: perfect English without any hint of inflection nor accent.

She was wearing dark blue Fire Department coveralls and black workboots. I noted pinned-on silver oak leaf clusters on the epaulettes of her shoulders, denoting her to be the Fire Department equivalent rank as myself. 

The Fire Department had a Chief, equal to our Chief Griswold, then had three ranks with silver oak leaf clusters: Assistant Chief, Battalion Chief, and Fire Marshal. The Assistant Chief was second-in-command of the Department, and was all paperwork and structures and property; while the Battalion Chief was the senior field officer overseeing 4 to 6 fire stations. Theoretically, there could be multiple Battalion Chiefs. The Fire Marshal was semi-independent, and the Fire Marshal's office did inspections and issued permits as well as arson investigations.

Zoe's coveralls were snug, and I could see that she had a nice body, her breasts not small but not large, her figure nice and trim, her ass not too obvious but I was betting was a nice, firm heart-shape. The uniform had a stitched badge over the left pocket, identical gold star-and-wreath shields as the Police Department, but the lettering was in red instead of the blue that my badge's letters were. Her name was sewn in red over the right pocket.

"I'm glad to finally meet you." I said. "I've heard a lot about you." Indeed I had. The Fire Marshal not only investigated arson crimes, but was the de facto Internal Affairs for the Fire Department, answering to the Town & County Inspector General, Horace S. Wellman. Zoe Singer had been fearless in rooting out previous corruptions within the Fire Department that somewhat matched the racist cabal within my Police Department.


Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 01



She also had started out as an EMT, which is part of the Fire Department, but unhappily so. She was the only person actively in the EMS Department that had earned an EMS Medal - the equivalent of the Police Medal or Fire Medal - for her bravery in evacuating children through a dangerous fire some years before. Since her time, the Fire Department had made malicious delight in denying EMTs well-deserved awards, among the many problems between the two services. That Zoe Singer was able to rise in the Fire Department ranks with such a history bespoke volumes of her abilities.

"I've heard a lot about you, too." Zoe said. "I know your wife, Dr. Fredricson, by the way."

"Ah, cool." I said. "I'll tell her you said hello. So... what can you tell me about this fire?"

"Deliberately set." Zoe replied. As she talked, I felt an undercurrent of attraction to Zoe. She was not especially pretty, and was in her upper 30s, maybe early 40s. But I just felt an attraction to her, an energy of sorts that connected us in some way. I wondered if she felt it as my blue eyes locked with her brown ones.

"This is a trip box. It was used to set the fire." said the Fire Marshal, showing me the device she'd recovered. A 'trip box' was a device used to cause electrical wiring to overload and to get hot, thus sparking a fire, usually within the walls of the building. Done properly, a trip box would leave little evidence. Obviously, that was not the case here.

"The interesting thing is how well-preserved this is." Zoe said. "They don't make the trip boxes this obvious at the Fire Academy. I was just saying to my assistant that the trip box was not only blatantly obvious, it was made of non-perishable materials. Normally, the trip boxes burn up and only leave wiring, and we have to search hard for their remains. Not this one, though. And it seems to be complex for a trip box."

"Interesting." I said, thinking, halfway into a reverie as I considered the implications of this crime and the evidence of it left behind.

"Okay, Sergeant, bag this as evidence..." Zoe said, giving the Arson Investigator, a Fire Department Sergeant, the remains of the trip box.

"Arson, eh?" I said as I came out of my reverie and looked around, feeling Zoe's eyes looking me up and down as I had done her previously.

"Yes, arson. Pretty cut and dried." Zoe said, then showed her powers of observation: "Seems to have caught your interest, too. Your gray eyes have a light to them and they get sort of blue when you're thinking hard, like you obviously are now."

"Yes..." I said, my voice still far away. "It... well, it ties in with something that I've been thinking about." I said.

"What's that?" Zoe asked. I realized I'd said more than I should, but for some reason didn't worry about it.

"I think this fire was set on purpose to occupy the Police while criminals robbed the Second National Bank at the same time. It's at the perfect location to cause the worst traffic snarls, and it was at the worst driving time of day. Your finding of arson will give me probable cause to get a warrant to collect tape evidence from street cameras and such that overlooked the fire.""

"Oh yes, I heard about that robbery on the news." Zoe said. "Have you found that poor girl that was kidnapped yet?"

"Not yet." I said, seeing Zoe grimace, a reaction I'd seen from many other women about the news of the kidnapped young woman. "We're working on some leads, though."

"Well, you'll need some strong leads to help Santo Veccio." Zoe said. "My people were looking into him last night, and we'll pass on our findings to you, of course. Seems Santo's restaurant was heavily in debt, and he was close to having to close down." 

"Does he own the building?" I asked.

"No." Zoe said. "A group named Northwest Properties Management, Inc. owns it. Mr. Cook of the Town & County Council is one of the owners. They also owned that property the Police Department bought for the 1st Precinct. Nice little windfall for Mr. Cook."

"Yes, I know." I said, the derision in my voice matching Zoe's. "So do you think Santo Veccio did this?"

"No, I'm not going so far as to say that, at least not yet." said Zoe. "But I do know that Veccio's insurance for the restaurant won't pay out for as long as possible, if ever, since it's obviously arson. They may even accuse him of setting the fire, just to spite him. I'm seeing a lot of that the past couple of years in this bad economy. At any rate, this'll wipe him out. Too bad; his restaurant had pretty good food."

"I never got to try it." I said. Just then someone called out "Commander!"

"Yes?" both Zoe and I said at the same time. We then looked at each other. I smiled and Zoe gave a brief, shy smile. We were both ranked as Commanders within our respective departments.

One of Zoe's arson agents had called out, and she came up and reported something to Zoe. We went over to where the woman wanted us.

"Ma'am," said the younger woman, "it looks like some kind of accelerant was poured here. We're finding several spots like this."

"Tell Commander Troy what that means." Zoe said.

"Oh my God, the Iron Crowbar?!" the younger woman gushed at hearing my name. "I can't believe I'm meeting you!"

"Yep, plain ol' me." I said, exchanging a handshake and introduction with the girl. Zoe's face had changed to shock, and then admiration... she had not fully connected me with the 'Iron Crowbar' reputation when we were first introduced, I noted. "So, tell me what is going on here." I said.

"Sir," the girl said, acting as if she were in front of a rock star or royalty, "it looks like someone came through and poured flammable substances all around the place. Liquids or powder, maybe both. Once the original fire started, it spread very quickly, and the whole building was engulfed far more quickly than an accidental fire would've caused. You can see this ring of ash, here..." she pointed at an area, "... and you can see where the flammable substances burned themselves and the floors they contacted more quickly and hotly."

"That makes sense. And you guys are good." I said, taking out my cellphone. "I'm going to call my Crime Lab- oh, they're already here." Out of the corner of my eye, I had just caught two vans of police Crime Lab people pulling up.

"I've had them called in already." Zoe said. "I don't want to waste time on this one before it rains."

"Thank you, I'm grateful for that." I said. "And you've got a great team here. I'll be sure to have my Chief tell that to your Chief. Well, I have to get back to finding the bank robbers and their hostage. If you'll be kind enough to give that trip box to my people, I'm going to have an electronics expert look at it."

"Certainly." said Zoe.

"And maybe you and I can get together for lunch soon?" I said as I handed Zoe my card. The other woman looked envious.

"Sure." Zoe said. She handed me her card as well.

Part 3 - Brutality

The young woman screamed into her makeshift gag. Her hands were manacled to the steel bed frame above her head as she lay on the flimsy mattress. On top of her naked body lay a muscular thug, pumping his six inch cock in and out of her violated vagina with long, deep thrusts. Luisa had had a blindfold taped over her eyes, and her panties stuffed into her mouth and taped inside to soften her screams as she was repeatedly defiled.

"Shut that bitch up, willya?" complained the much older man, sitting at the table in the room. They were in a guesthouse behind an empty farmhouse about five miles from the State line, having crossed out of the Iron Crowbar's County, and State, the day before.

"Pipe down, Santa Claus." said one of the other men. "You didn't seem to mind taking a couple of turns at her last night."

There were three of them in black clothing, the three that had committed the bank robbery. In addition, the older man, Keeler, was sitting at the table drinking whiskey. The four of them had taken turns raping the young Hispanic woman all through the previous evening and night.

They watched as the rapist slid his cock out of the woman's vagina, applied some lubricant, then guided his meat back into her. The other two men in the room, making six total, had not defiled Luisa... one sported a thin beard, while the other had a shock of white hair and looked older than he was. Skinny Beard and Gruff were homosexuals, and had watched the forced copulations more to enjoy the sight of the men that were violently fucking the young woman.

"Damn, this is some sweet pussy!" said the man raping Luisa, pumping the full length of his cock in and out of her, the lube helping him to get some slick traction through all the loads of semen that had been ejaculated into the abused woman. Everyone watched her swollen cuntlips clinging to his meat as he shoved it into her then withdrew it with rapid strokes, his balls striking her taint with loud smacks.

"We weren't supposed to fucking kidnap anyone." Keeler growled over the staccato slaps of flesh on flesh. "We were supposed to rob the fucking bank. We should've dumped the bitch once we left Town. Why the fuck did you grab her, Sheets?" Keeler used the nickname of one of the three thugs, the man currently raping Luisa, who had been a prominent member of the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee and Mississippi in previous years.

"She looked hot." said the guy, continuing to enjoy the fucking. "And I was right: this is some of the best fucking cunt I've ever had."

"You should've asked her for a fucking date, then, instead of grabbing her and endangering the mission." Keeler said.

"Shut the fuck up, old man." said one of the other black-clad criminals. He was younger than the man raping Luisa, and had a very take-charge attitude about him. He also had the largest cock and by far the biggest balls. "It'll work into The Man's plans. He wanted the Iron Crowbar's police to be distracted, so we'll go dump the bitch and let them wonder who the fuck did it."

"Besides," said the third black-clad man, "this is just practice for what we're going to do to that Allgood bitch that killed our three team members, our brothers in arms, with cop-killer bullets. Just killing her is not enough; we're going to rape her in front of her husband the Sheriff until she is dead."

"As long as I get to kill the woman's ex-husband and his bitch wife." said one of the other men in the room. "He led the raid that killed the Black Widow, and she and that old Jew doctor saved that fucking cop's life after I'd injected the poison into him." He was the young man nicknamed 'Skinny Beard', and he was avidly watching as the perp raped Luisa, enjoying the sights as well as the sounds of her pain and struggle, also enjoying the sight of the cock slicing in and out of her helpless cunt. "By the way, take the black van. They'll be looking for the white one."

"No shit, Sherlock." grunted Keeler.

"Keeler," said the younger man, the leader, "I'm getting tired of your shit attitude. Zip your shit shut."

Keeler grumbled acquiescence. It was a dangerous situation. These three men had been trained in various military schools, including Army Ranger School, Special Forces, and Marine Sniper school. Not to mention the extensive CIA training they'd undergone. They were among the world's best mercenaries now, but were being relentlessly hunted by the FBI and CIA after the destruction of Deputy Director Jody Corrigan's cell, may he rest in peace, and may the Iron Crowbar and his wife be damned for his death.

Keeler himself had been a Marine Sniper. He still did not understand how or why the Iron Crowbar still lived and walked this earth after the shot he'd fired at the bastard redhead. It had missed by the merest of margins (in fact, it had grazed the then-Supervisor of Detectives), and then someone else had obliterated Jonas Oldeeds a split-instant afterwards. Damn the luck.

His thoughts were interrupted by the groans of the rapist as he came inside Luisa's ravaged cunt. "My God, Sheets," said the third black-clad man, "did you take a fucking viagra?"

"Sure did." replied the man fucking the helpless, pretty young woman. "I'm loving fucking this skank. God damn! that was good! Anyone else want some more?"

"No, that's enough." said the younger black-clad man, taking charge. "We have to get on with our work. Let's get ready to take her back. The black van will continue on into Nextdoor County, and be abandoned at Rendezvous Point 'November'. Make sure it's wiped down and wear gloves while inside; don't leave a god-damned clue for the Police to find. We'll circle back here through Coltrane County, after getting lunch at that restaurant in Buford that's so good. Sheets, you and Keeler stay here. Gruff, you're driving..."

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

"Damn, is this what you call music?" the passenger riding shotgun asked the driver. They were college students, and were riding east along MLK Jr. Boulevard, following a black van as they drove past the Cannon Building, also known as The Old Mill.

"It's better than the shit you listen to!" said the passenger in the back seat.

"That's bullshit- hey, watch out!" the front seat passenger said. The driver hit the brakes as the black van in front of them slowed down. The back doors swung open and two masked men threw out what looked like a roll of carpet. It hit the pavement with a thud.

The honking of horns of cars behind the students started. They had almost hit the car as it screeched to a stop within inches of hitting the bundle. The two passengers got out and ran up, and were shocked by what they saw: a woman was wrapped up in the carpet.

"Call the cops!" one of the students yelled as people rushed up...

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

"She's unconscious." Teresa Croyle said in the my office as I met with my Lieutenants Three at 3:00pm on that same afternoon of November 13th. "The doctors sedated her. She has a concussion and a broken hip from where she was thrown out of the van. Fortunately, the carpet saved her from far worse injuries, and lucky the car following the van didn't hit her."

"That's the good news." Teresa continued, the the coldness of her face attempting to mask the anger beneath. "The bad news is that she was gang raped, probably for hours and by multiple men. She was bleeding internally from her vagina. She woke up briefly, then began screaming and that's when they sedated her. We've got Detective Gayle Tunnin from Internal Affairs ready to talk to her when she comes out; Tunnin is very experienced with rape victims. My question is 'who do we send to support and learn from Tunnin?'. We need help in that area."

"Funny, I was talking to my wife about that just a week ago, after the officer psychological evaluations." I said. "Claire Michaels has had some training in handling rape victims while she was in L.A., so she can help us in a pinch if she's not doing SWAT duties. Tanya, you can handle it mentally and you're going to have to get up to speed on the techniques, but we'll also have Torres and Joanne Cummings get training on this. Do you all agree that women are best for this?"

"Generally, yes." said Cindy Ross. "But what about Martin Nash?"

"This stays in this room," I said, "but Martin Nash got no sleep last night worrying about this girl. He sometimes gets too emotionally into cases like these. He wants to go do something about it, even when there's nothing we can do. It's a lesson the Chief has had to drill into me time and again, so I'm sympathetic. Martin is a good Detective, he can handle dead bodies at murder scenes. But I dunno if he can handle raped women very well."

"I agree." said Cindy. "He volunteered to stay all night last night. I tried to nix it, but he didn't go home even when Parker came in to relieve him."

"Exactly." I said. "Also, watch Joanne Cummings carefully; she's a bit young and might not be battle-hardened yet." That was the best way I could think of for saying Joanne Cummings was still young, inexperienced, and perhaps a bit naive.

"She's learning quickly." said Cindy. "Those cases of the swingers opened her eyes to the real world, and the election stuff her cousin went through had the side effect of making her jaded. Just what I like in my Detectives: cynicism and distrust of what things appear to be." I knew Cindy wasn't really kidding about that.

"So," I said, moving the meeting along, "I understand it was a black van that dumped Luisa Gomez onto the street, not a white one like the one that was the getaway van after the bank robbery,?"

"Yes sir." said Lt. Perlman. "We got a partial plate number, and we put out an APB for it. About an hour later the Nextdoor County Police called and said they'd found a black van abandoned just north of Hillside. I sent a Crime Lab team over to help them, but the van was wiped clean: no prints, no smudges, no spittle, nothing but Clorox. I might add that the tires were wiped down, too.

"Oh, now that's curious." I said. "You understand what that means, don't you?" Tanya nodded, but I was chagrined to get two uncomprehending stares at me. So I asked Tanya to explain.

"Overabundance of caution, I'd say." offered Tanya Perlman. "They knew they were driving through an area with soil specific to that area, and they don't want the location of their hideout known."

"Yes, true." I said. "But it's more than that: different farms around here grow different things, and they use different chemicals. So they didn't want us to find any dirt tracked by the tires that would have those specific chemicals. Ergo, that suggests they've done some driving on dirt roads, suggesting farms, and they are indeed being overcautious in us not finding which farm they might be on."

"Geez, that'd take some time for us to figure out, even with you in the Command Chair there." Cindy said. How had she figured out my secret name for my comfortable chair? I wondered silently.

"Au contraire, mon ami." I said, knowing my French was the wrong gender but not caring. "Myron can get records of what these farmers buy and use within minutes, and our Crime Lab is damn good about finding what chemicals would be in the dirt."

"Cool." Cindy said.

"And that suggests..." I said. This time I wasn't waiting for an answer... I had slipped into a reverie. When I recovered, I felt three pairs of eyes boring into me.

"It suggests?" Cindy said.

"That whoever these perps are, they really thought about things to the last detail." I said. "Either they are just that smart, or..."

"Or?" Cindy asked as I continued halfway in the reverie.

"Or they are well aware of how good we are." I said. "And that suggests familiarity with this County and its Police Force. I wonder if we have another mole...

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

"I looked at it, and I also had one of my experts look at it, while keeping it under chain of custody." said Barry Oliver, the Arrowpoint Solutions executive and Police Auxiliary member, with whom I consulted about the trip box. "It is definitely not just an ordinary trip box, but has a radio device so that it could be activated by remote control."

"So that they could activate it in at the time of their choosing." I said.

"Yes sir." said Barry. "And that device is high-grade sophistication. I'm just surprised they made it all of metal; if they'd made it out of plastic, most of it would've been destroyed."

"So what's your deduction from that?" I asked Barry, testing him. He shrugged.

"Obviously, they wanted us to find the device. Why, I don't know yet." I replied. Barry nodded.

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

At 5:50pm I stopped by Cindy's office on the way out the door. "Okay, Crowbar 2, I'm heading out. The Chief has gone home, and anyone not hot on something should go home, too, including yourself. Any updates for me?"




Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 01



"Can you come inside a second?" Cindy asked. I did so, and sat down on the love sofa opposite her desk.

"Your Angels have been talking," Cindy said, "and I want to run this by you."

"Lorena Rose to Vice and Joanne Cummings to MCD?" I asked. "Y'all have decided to go through with it, I would guess."

"Not much gets by you." said Cindy. "But yes, you're right. Our conversation with you earlier today got us talking about it some more. Lorena is good, and potentially could be great, but she needs action more than detecting crimes. By way of contrast, Joanne Cummings just should not be in the rough-and-tumble world of Vice. I think she's smart and observant, though. Pretty good at crime scenes, persistent in doing research, stuff like that. Tanya and Teresa are agreed on it."

"I agree, as well. I'd love to get Joanne with Tanya and myself and get her some training, then get her to Police Academy Detective School, where Theo Washington is now. She'll be awesome. I'll run it by the Chief." I said. "In the meantime, I'm expecting a ton of publicity over the bank robbery and Luisa Gomez. We need to do what we can, as fast as we can."

"Agreed," said Cindy, "but my belief is that they crossed the State Line and are hiding on one of those farms over there." I was happy to hear Cindy's words, as they revealed she was really becoming astute at thinking about things the proper way.

"Well, unless we get lucky, nothing will happen tonight." I said, getting up, "And my wife has plans. We're having the Fire Marshal over for dinner. Zoe Singer."

"Zoe Singer?" Cindy almost shouted. "I didn't know you knew her."

"Met her yesterday at the fire scene, and she already knows Laura." I said. "You know her?"

"Oh yes." Cindy said, then lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "I dated her off and on for six months, right about the time you and Melina moved here. She's a good person, and really hot in bed, but she has some issues that tend to crop up in her relationships."

"Hmmm," I said, "thanks for telling me. I was wondering why my wife knows her. Maybe Laura is helping Zoe with her issues?"

"Maybe so." said Cindy, giving a facial expression that was meant to convey a shrug.

"What are you going to be doing tonight?" I asked.

"Listening to Jenna blab about what's going on in the Courthouse." Cindy said. "You should buy me drinks at the Cop Bar more often, Crowbar 1... there's some good juicy gossip I could be telling you."

"I'll keep it in mind, Crowbar 2." I said, smiling, then I got serious. "Speaking of Jenna... I'm about to bring the hammer-like crowbar down on that punk Gor-don using the other ADA office. I'm getting tired of hearing Tanya bitch about it. If you don't want to say anything to Jenna, that's fine with me, but I am going to pry that little shit out of there. You have a good night." With that I turned and left the office before Cindy could reply.

Part 4 - The Zoe Project

"So let me see if I've got this straight." I said to my wife as we prepared for our guest to arrive. "Zoe Singer has been seeing you professionally... your profession... about being sexually abused by her father and then an abusive husband. But despite that, and even though she's been dating women the past several years, you think her ultimate desires lie with men, pun not intended, and you want to help her into heterosexual relationships with a better class of men... and your first such test subject is your own husband. Is that about right?"

"Pretty much," said Laura, "if you're willing to help out and date Zoe. You've got a good bit in common, being in the Police and Fire Departments, you're the same rank, you've got similar heroic backgrounds..."

"And I'm definitely a better class of man, is that right?" I asked, teasingly trying to draw more compliments out of my wife.

"Absolutely." my wife said, coming up to me. "The very best." With that she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and gave me a warm kiss. I felt the arousal from the kiss all the way into my loins. I wrapped my arms around my wife's waist, and the kiss lasted for a very long minute.

"Well..." I said when Laura finally ended the kiss, "you certainly make a... persuasive argument. But you'd better keep trying." Laura laughed and gave me a kiss on the mouth, but released me.

"Silly." she said. "Nice try, but we've got to get supper ready. Zoe will be here in half an hour. Your mom has the babies; she took them to Todd and Jeanine's, so there's a baby-fest going on over there."

"Carole thinks all babies are her little brothers." I said. "She'll be ecstatic tonight."

"And we'll be having a pleasant evening, also." Laura said. "Just let me lead the conversations, and take the openings when I give them."

"I'll try." I said. "I'm not good about taking hints, though, as you know."

"You solved cases based on chess sets, large handbags and smudges of dirt in front of a fireplace, and you tell me you can't take a hint." Laura said in a teasing but withering voice.

"Keep kissing me like you just did and I might learn better." I said. It was a good try, anyway...

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

"So Krasney is beginning to wonder about some of Sharples's cases, too." Jenna said. "He wants to have a meeting with Don and Teresa about it, and he might want you to be there, too- Cindy?... you all right?" Jenna Stiles said as she and Cindy sat on the sofa after dinner. Neither one could've told anyone the program that was on the television at the moment, but Jenna noticed that Cindy was lost in her thoughts.

"Uh yeah... yeah, I'm fine." Cindy said. "You were saying? Krasney wants to meet with us?"

"What's the matter, babe?" Jenna asked. "You've got something on your mind."

"Yeah, I know." Cindy said. "I'm trying to decide what to say."

"You can tell me, you know that." Jenna said.

"It... it's not a trust thing." Cindy said. "I'm just being put in a position between a rock and a hard place."

"Well," Jenna said, edging over until she was hip-to-hip with Cindy, and putting her arm around the platinum blonde's shoulders, "why don't you tell me what's bothering you and we'll figure it out together, hmm?"

"Okay," Cindy said, her voice one of resignation, "I'll tell you the background, and then I think you'll understand the dilemma I'm in. Commander Troy made a point to speak to me today... about your assistant Gor-don using the other ADA office as if it were his."

"It's our office, to use as we see fit." Jenna said. "What's the problem?"

"There's four problems." Cindy said. "First, Gor-don using that office is causing morale problems with our Detectives, especially Lieutenant Perlman, who is stuck in an 'office' that doesn't even qualify as a storage closet. Second, I think you'll find both the Chief and Commander disagree with you about who actually owns those offices; they're part of Police Headquarters. Third, the offices are for ADAs to use, not your paralegals and administrative assistants. Fourth, and the problem for me: Don said I didn't have to speak to you about it, but it's obvious he wants me to. I think he's hoping I'll talk to you privately and you'll take action to prevent further problems. But I don't like being put in the middle. I try to keep my relationship with you separate from my Police Force work."

"Oh... yeah, I understand." said Jenna. "And he's half-right... if he had said anything directly to me without you knowing about it, you'd be in the middle of a shouting match, anyway. I'll talk to Krasney about it, see if he'll sanction Gor-don using the office."

"That won't fly with Don." Cindy said, her face a mask of worry: Jenna wasn't fully understanding. "He means for Gor-don to be out of that office, and he will get his way, by hook, by crook, or by crowbar."

"Like I said, I'll talk to Krasney, let him and the Chief slug it out." Jenna said. "And if it'll help you, you can tell Don you talked to me, and that I'm ignoring what he wants me to do."

"Thanks sooooo much." Cindy said acerbically. Jenna kissed her on the cheek then got up to make them both drinks.

Cindy said no more, but she was clearly not mollified. And now Jenna was agitated. Sometimes, Cindy thought to herself, the original Iron Crowbar's direct style was a bit too direct aggressive... and this time was one of them...

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

"That was delicious." Zoe said as we sat down on the large leather sofa in the den area after a dinner of things cooked on the grill: steaks, chicken, corn-on-the-cob, shish-kebobs. All three of us ate a very good bit. 

"Don is very good on the grill." Laura said. "What will you have to drink?"

"Godfather." I said, then turned to Zoe who was sitting on my right side, almost hip-to-hip with me. "That's Scotch and Amaretto."

"Mmm, sounds good." Zoe said. "I'll try one of those." Laura poured three Amarettos, two with Scotch and one with whiskey sour mix, which she preferred. Keeping the liquor flowing was part of my wife's plan.

Zoe was looking really hot. She was wearing an aqua-cyan jacket and skirt, and a multicolored pink, salmon and yellow blouse. Her high heel sandals had a dark wood sole and thin straps in the same cyan-pink-yellow multicolors. Her legs were toned, curvy and very shapely, and her feet were exquisite, almost as nice as my wife's. I felt my loins stirring as I admired the lovely Fire Marshal, thinking that I had a fire for her to put out...

Laura had made sure to leave Zoe and me alone on several occasions, including out on the back deck admiring the twinkling lights of the Town. Back in the den, I noted that Zoe was being open to me, not turned away nor defensive, and as we sat together now, Zoe had crossed her legs towards me instead of away from me. I also noticed that Zoe was even more open to Laura during the times they were talking, and I could feel that they had a connection with each other.

"I'll go refresh these drinks." I said, putting the glasses on the tray and carrying them into the kitchen. A moment later Zoe came into the kitchen and practically trapped me against the counter.

"I thought you might need some help with those drinks." Zoe said, her dark eyes sparkling at me.

"Certainly with drinking them." I said. I turned around to face Zoe, we were almost touching. I slid my hands around her waist, gently but firmly, and bent down to kiss her. She did not resist nor pull away, and our lips met.

I felt her hands slide up my arms to my shoulders as the kiss deepened. But as my tongue began to slide past her lips into her mouth, I felt her body tense. I had to take it slow, I knew.

A few seconds later we broke the kiss. Zoe was a bit flustered, but her eyes were also shining as if she'd accomplished a goal she'd set out for herself. I hoped that my goal, of sinking my cockmeat balls-deep into Zoe's warm, wet snatch, would soon be achieved.

"Let's go back into the other room." I suggested. Zoe led the way as I carried the drinks. In the main room, Laura was watching us as we came in, and I saw her smile of satisfaction.

I sat down in the middle of the sofa as Laura said "Let's sit on either side of Don, Zoe." Laura sat down on my left and Zoe took her place on my right side, sitting on her legs but facing me. I could definitely feel that she was warming up, and that the tension in the room was purely sexual tension... and anticipation. "Feeling surrounded, Don?"

I put my arms around both women, drawing them into me. "Mmm, I definitely am liking being surrounded this way." My wife leaned into me for a kiss and I obliged; our mouths met in a gentle, warm kiss that Laura made sure to turn into a tongue-twiner outside our mouths so that Zoe could see it. I felt Laura lead Zoe's hand to my crotch.

Then I turned and kissed Zoe, who was more than ready to return it. I gently probed her warm mouth with my tongue, and she not only let me penetrate and explore her mouth with my tongue, she began sucking on it.

I heard the zipper of my pants being opened, then felt my wife's hand dip inside and fish out my cock. I was already getting hard, and Laura had to tug it out. I felt her place Zoe's hand on my shaft, and my cock immediately went iron-hard, throbbing at the pleasure of feeling a new and different woman's hand on my weapon of lust.

As we broke our kiss, Zoe looked down at the manhood in her hand. She began to gently jack it, guided by Laura's actions.

"I'm going to suck my husband's cock, Zoe." Laura said. "I want you to help me." Zoe said nothing but just nodded as Laura bent over and kissed the head of my meat. I felt her hands unbutton my pants, and I helped get them under my ass and down my legs. As Laura cupped my balls and began licking and kissing my cockhead, I turned to Zoe again and our lips met in a deep, hungry kiss.

It is one of my favorite pleasures in life to kiss a woman's mouth while having my cock sucked by another woman or have my meat buried in the other woman's cunt. I kissed Zoe deeply as Laura engulfed my cock and began sliding her lips tightly up and down over it. I groaned into Zoe's mouth, which caused her to tense up. We broke the kiss.

Laura was keeping an awareness of both of us. She took her mouth off my meat and said "Zoe, come down here and have a taste of this delicious big hard cock. Zoe eased herself down the sofa so that her head was near my lap, watching Laura lick and kiss my manhood. I was throbbing with pleasure, but so far was able to hold off from a premature ejaculation that would bring the evening to an end too soon.

"Kiss it." Laura said, guiding my cock towards Zoe. The lovely woman complied, and I felt her lips kiss the swollen head of my cock. Zoe then licked around the big mushroom helmet and kissed her way down and up the shaft.

"Take him into your mouth, Zoe." Laura commanded. My hand was gently caressing Zoe's back and I felt her nervousness, but she did open her mouth and slide her lips down my shaft until almost all of it was buried past her tongue and almost halfway down her throat.

"Yes, suction the air out of your mouth as you come back up." Laura said, teaching the other woman her special technique that she knew I loved. As I felt Zoe's mouth sucking back up my shaft, it felt like she was trying to suck my balls right out of my nutsack.

"Unnnnnh!" I groaned. The pleasure was immense. Soon, I was enjoying Zoe sucking my cock as Laura nestled down and began tonguing my balls, wetting them down as she kissed and sucked at them. Laura then told Zoe to swap places, and Laura sucked my cock as Zoe orally explored my balls.

Soon, both women were licking and tonguing up and down my shaft. I noted that they were beginning to kiss each other through my cock, and often they took time to kiss each other's mouths before servicing me again.

"Mmmm, my cock needs some attention, ladies." I groaned as they began engaging in a long, tongue-twining kiss. Zoe giggled as my wife asked "Is getting a double-decker blowjob not enough for you, stud?"

"Mmm, I'm loving it." I said. "And I want more."

Laura let Zoe begin sucking my cock and eased herself up to me. My wife and I shared a deep, wet kiss as Zoe's mouth flew up and down my cock. I broke the kiss.

"Easy, babe." I instructed Zoe. "Take your time, take it slow. We've got all night." Laura eased back down and they began taking turns again.

It wasn't too long before I felt my nut rising in my tightening ball sack. Laura told Zoe to finish me off, and to swallow my semen. Zoe's body tensed again, but as Laura jacked the base of my cock, Zoe kept her mouth securely on my cockhead. I gasped as I erupted, pleasure coursing through my loins as spurt after spurt of my hot man cream painted Zoe's mouth and throat.

"Mmmm, that was... really good." Zoe gasped as I finished. She drank some of her drink. "Mmm, your semen goes well with amaretto." Laura was cleaning me up, using her lips and tongue to lap up the remains of my cum that had seeped out of Zoe's mouth or dribbled out of my piss-slit as the last vestiges of my orgasm ran through me.

"Okay, Don," said Laura, "I think you've been well-serviced tonight. Zoe and I are headed to the guest bedroom to... talk... about things." Indeed, I had to go to bed alone, satisfied, while whatever Laura and Zoe 'talked' about in private remained just that: private, between them.

Part 5 - Friday Night Fights

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" the lovely redhead reporter practically screamed into her microphone at 7:00am, Friday November 14th. "Channel Two News has learned that Luisa Gomez, who was kidnapped by the criminals that robbed the Second National Bank two days ago, is in an induced coma as she recovers from severe injuries at University Hospital!"

As I listened to Bettina giving the report on the TV while drinking my coffee in the MCD room at Headquarters, I wondered how Bettina felt about reporting on Luisa Gomez. After all, Bettina Wurtzburg had endured a severe gang rape and even worse beating at the hands of my nephew Ned and his henchmen.

And that was possibly the reason Bettina didn't go into nearly as much detail as Priya Ajmani at KSTD would an hour later. Bettina merely said: "Miss Gomez was thrown out of the back of a moving van yesterday, and was nearly run over by traffic afterwards. Fortunately the car behind the van was able to stop, and its occupants rushed to help the badly injured woman. Miss Gomez was badly beaten and her hip was broken, but doctors believe she is out of life-threatening danger and that she will make a full recovery." Priya would give explicit details of the woman's rape and vaginal injuries, but that would be an hour later, after I put my Detectives to work so they wouldn't hear it. And that would be because of what was said now:

"That's easy for Bettina to say." said Detective Martin Nash derisively. "But what about the mental part of it? Does Bettina Wurtzburg have any idea what that poor girl went through for nearly a day?" He felt the eyes staring at him from the women in the room, and he looked around uncomprehendingly.

"Martin," I said, rescuing him, "you weren't here during the Arruzio-Burke murder case. If you read those files, you'll see that Bettina Wurtzburg knows all too well what Luisa Gomez endured, and then some. But I do understand your point. Ms. Gomez has a hard recovery in front of her."

"Uh... I'll check it out." Nash said, still uncomfortable. He went to his desk and began typing on his computer.

"I do wish something could be done for Miss Gomez." said Lt. Tanya Perlman. "Like what Dr. Eckhart's 'Vision' group did for Tommy and Candy that time."

To my surprise, I saw Cindy start, then blink hard. "Excuse me a moment." Cindy said, then left the room.

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

As dusk approached, most people in the Town were headed to their homes to begin their weekends of rest and relaxation. By way of contrast, the officers of the Vice Squad of the Town & County Police Department were just getting started. I was mostly listening in as Lt. Teresa Croyle instructed the four Vice Detectives, eight SWAT Team members, and fourteen uniformed officers. They were going to make a drug raid tonight.

"The intelligence is good, and we've confirmed it." I remember Teresa telling me a few hours before, with Detectives John 'Grubby' Paul and Christopher Purvis in the office with us. The information was that a large shipment of cocaine and heroin was going to be moved into the County, into a warehouse in the Warehouse District this night, brought in under the guise of food delivery trucks from the City.

"Who originally got wind of this?" I asked.

"Some of my contacts." said Grubby. "And then Sharples came in with the same information about fifteen minutes later, independently obtained."




Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 01



"I then had Purvis confirm it with a deep undercover C.I., someone who has never failed us before." said Teresa. "The intel is good, and they are indeed planning to move the shit in tonight."

"Good. And I'm glad it's not just Sharples's information." I said. "I get worried when he starts bringing in leads."

"Me, too." said Teresa Croyle. "That's why I had this independently verified. Half of Sharples's leads turn to shit, and the other half usually lead to Dirty Lenny, and are thus invalid." Too many coincidences surrounded Sergeant Sharples and the slug Lenny being mentioned in the same sentence. Internal Affairs was aware of the situation and was investigating, but I digress.

I called Cindy Ross and Lt. Claire Michaels into the office and told Claire to put the full SWAT Team on alert for a night mission. Then I told them to make their tactical plan and brief me on it. As they briefed me, I had a premonition that something wasn't quite right. I didn't know what it was, and the tactical plan was sound, so I gave the 'Go' order... but told them to make sure everyone wore double protective vests.

"Why?" Cindy Ross asked. "You think those bastards with cop-killer bullets are still out there?"

"I don't know." I said, my voice and mind far away. "I just have a feeling..."

"Your feelings are our orders." said Teresa. "I don't want to have to nurse Miss Hardbody back to health again." She was referring to Cindy, who was glaring at her though fully aware of the underlying love in Teresa's comment.

"I could not agree more, Lieutenant Croyle." I said. "Six weeks of Lieutenant Ross on light duty was more than I could take." I said, also teasing Cindy. "Which is why you are not going tonight, Lieutenant Ross."

At Cindy's look of shocked anger on her face, I said: "This is Lieutenant Croyle's mission to lead, Ross; it's her Vice Squad. You're staying here at Headquarters and monitoring on the radios... right next to me. Okay guys, do it, but be careful... be very, very careful..."

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

The 'Radio Room' had been upstairs, between the Duty Desk area and what led to the anteroom to Interrogation Rooms A-C. However, I'd managed to get the Chief to agree to move it downstairs to part of the old I.T. area when they remodeled it. Everything was more secure there, and we could monitor the police activity (as well as other communications over the airwaves) much more efficiently.

I was downstairs in the semi-darkened room with Cindy Ross, Myron Milton, Goth Girl Mary Mahoney, and six Uniformed officers whose job it was to monitor the radios and dispatch patrols. We were listening in to the communications of our Vice Squad and SWAT Team as they moved into position at the Warehouse.

"The trucks are en route, crossing the County line." came the voice of Patrolman Johnson, who was monitoring the Nextdoor County road." The trucks did not know that they were being followed every step of the way by unmarked police cars. The moment they crossed the County line, they were ensnared in my Vice Squad's trap.

"Roger that." said Hugh Hewitt's voice. Senior Sergeant Hewitt was the radio man for the SWAT Team. He was on a radio fit with an encryption device (like Channel 5 Police Radio) so that our communications could not be intercepted in the clear, and for the moment he was the only member of the task force permitted to be on the radio. Hewitt continued "All units are in place. People are waiting at the warehouse for the trucks."

As Cindy and I listened, one of the uniformed dispatchers handed me a green telephone handset. It looked like a telephone, but at the other end was a policeman on a radio.

"Commander, this is Sergeant Rudistan." said the normally-jovial Sergeant. "We've got eight bogeys in unmarked black vans that followed the trucks into the County at a distance."

"Commander, this is Sergeant Irwin at the Coltrane County line. We also have eight bogeys in black vans coming across the County line. They have State Government license plates."

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed. Just then the radios lit up... the trucks had pulled in, Teresa had given the order to make the raid... and all hell was about to break loose.

"C'mon, Cindy!" I shouted, "we've gotta go!"

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

The truck entrance of the warehouse was to the right side of front of the building, which faced west. At the left front side were other doors that the Police teams had moved through to take up positions inside. Teresa situated herself near the door where she entered, having a decent view of the lighted area around the trucks that had just arrived. To her left, the back of the warehouse had a number of pallets, and was dark and apparently empty. She could make out a closed door at the back, and so she had Hugh reconnoiter that area. Some of the SWAT team maneuvered back there to make sure no one was hiding and had given the 'all clear' signal.

The SWAT team led the way inside, followed by the other officers, who moved in an impressively disciplined way to surround the drug perps. Just as Teresa said over the megaphone "POLICE! FREEZE! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" the perps quickly dashed for cover and began firing. The SWAT Team returned fire with overwhelming lethality.

Just then, someone began firing from the dark area to Teresa's left. "AMBUSH!" she yelled into her megaphone. She immediately called for fire to be returned to that area, and moved toward it herself, making sure to stay well-covered. The new ambushers had semi-automatic, military-style weapons.

The TCPD fire began to overwhelm the ambushers, though some of the original drug perps were able to run and escape.

Suddenly someone yelled from the back area "THIS IS THE SBI! DROP YOUR WEAPONS! I ORDER YOU TO CEASE FIRE AND DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"

"TO HELL WITH YOU! POLICE, KEEP FIRING! SBI, DROP YOUR WEAPONS!!"

That last order came from one very pissed-off Police Commander. To emphasize my point, I raked the area over the SBI's heads with a squad-automatic-weapon, or SAW... it had been the one captured from the perps on the night Cindy had been shot up. By now I was the only one firing a weapon, but it sounded like World War Three in the warehouse.

Finally, a hand appeared over one of the pallets, with a gold SBI badge. I knew who it was. Some of the SBI's Narcotics Task Force had been issued gold badges instead of the normal silver ones. This one was SBI Agent Richard 'Dick' Ferrell's.

It took every ounce of willpower I had to not shoot that badge right out of Ferrell's hands, but I stopped shooting and said "YOU WITH THE SBI! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS RAISED!" Fortunately for them, they all did. I had my men (and women) surround them, guns at the ready to kill them, similar to what Chief Griswold almost had done to these bastards before.

"What the fuck is this, Troy?" yelled Ferrell, coming up to me as if he were in charge. I had a flashback to the day on the Fairgrounds, investigating Oldeeds' murder, and remembering what Jack Muscone had done to Ferrell. I did the same thing.

As Ferrell came up to me, I swung a right-hand haymaker as hard as I could. My clenched fist connected solidly with Ferrell's jaw and sent him sprawling.

SBI Agents gasped, then acted as if they were going to rush me, only to be stopped cold by the barrel's of my officers' many guns.

"What the fuck, Troy? This is our fucking raid!" Ferrell gasped as he got up.

"Like hell it is!" I roared. "You gave no notice to us you were coming in to the County, as required by law. As far as I'm concerned, you're in league with the perps. And you're all about to be under arrest."

"We don't have to give you notice, dipshit!" Ferrell yelled. "We have jurisdiction. We supersede you. We're the State, you're just fucking County shits. You answer to me, boy."

I knew that legally Ferrell was wrong, but I also knew that his words were a deliberate test of my manhood. I took off my khaki trenchcoat and asked an officer to hold it. Then I handed the red crowbar to Cindy. "Crowbar 2, would you mind holding this a minute?"

"With pleasure, Commander." Cindy said. Then, before Ferrell could react, I lunged at him. My first blow connected with his nose, and I felt the tissue give way. Then a second blow smashed into his ribs with a loud *thud*.

"Okay, Commander," said Sergeant Rudistan, intervening, "this one's fragile. Gotta stop you now before you really fuck him up."

"Shut the fuck up, you fat piece of shit." gasped Ferrell. He tried to rush Rudistan, but then I threw a left-handed haymaker that connected with the side of Ferrell's face, a really hard blow. Ferrell went sprawling and was down for the count. He struggled to get up.

"I'd have thought Jack Muscone's beatdown would've taught you some manners, Ferrell." I said. "By the way, I'm ambidextrous. I hit as hard left-handed as right-handed, as you just found out. Want another demonstration?" Fortunately, Rudistan had Ferrell up and was handcuffing the SBI agent.

"I try to help you out, man." Rudistan said jovially to the solidly beaten Ferrell. "I keep the man from wasting you, and you insult me. That's gratitude for you, eh, Chief?"

"Ferrell is too stupid to understand the meaning of the word 'gratitude', Sergeant." said Chief Griswold, who had just walked in and up behind us. "Just like his piece-of-shit boss Lewis." I had called the Chief while Cindy and I rushed to the scene, after I'd surmised that the vans coming in to the County were carrying SBI agents conducting an illegal surprise raid. I was unable to get the word to Teresa in time, however, and people had been injured, but fortunately no one killed.

"Okay, Croyle," ordered the Chief, "get the drug perps into the Station, impound the trucks. Rudistan, take some men and arrest the SBI assholes. Their Director will have to come here and bail them out himself..."

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

"You just are not going to let me retire in peace, are you Crowbar?" the Chief said in his office. It was 1:00am, and SBI Director Jack Lewis was on his way to our County. The Chief had already called the Governor.

"I don't want you to retire at all, Chief." I said. "But the SBI is in the wrong on all counts on this one. They have seriously inconvenienced us tonight."

"I agree." said the Chief. "And I am going to spend the month I have left on this Force rubbing Jack Lewis's nose in his own dung over it." The Chief then peered at me.

"Take some deep breaths, Crowbar." Griswold ordered. "I haven't seen you this pissed off since you arrested that dog-abusing fuckwad... what's his name... oh, Thatcher. You okay?"

"I will be." I said. "But two Patrolmen were struck by SBI gunfire. They were double-vested, thank God, so they're unhurt. No Purple Orders tonight, but I'll write them up commendations, anyway."

"Two SBI Agents were wounded." Griswold said. "Not including the ass-whipping you gave Ferrell. By the way, where was Ikea? I thought he'd jump at the chance to be in on this."

"He's still recovering from the surgery he needed after that beatdown I gave him for hitting my mother." I said. "He's scheduled to return to SBI field duty on January 1st."

"I see." said the Chief. "By the way, is it just me, or did some of those SBI Agents actually seem to enjoy seeing Ferrell take that beating?"

"The Narcotics Task Force agents want to kill me right now." I said. "But the others with them, who are members of their idea of a SWAT Team, didn't seem to mind as much. But Chief, what's pissing me off... is that if I didn't know better, I'd think the SBI came in to shoot at us, the TCPD, on purpose."

"That's a serious charge, kid." said Griswold. "What's backing it up?"

"We went in, Teresa did the right thing and yelled 'POLICE!' into the megaphone. But there was not one single word from the SBI, they just started shooting... and at our guys. I checked and re-checked the stories, and they're consistent."

"Croyle told me the same thing." Griswold growled. "Anything else?"

"I'm still checking, but the SBI never informed anyone in this Police Department of their intent to come in and do a drug raid." I said.

"Technically, they only have to inform the State Highway Patrol in the County and the Sheriff's office... and we don't have a Sheriff until January 1st, so they're claiming they didn't have anyone to notify." said the Chief. "The Governor said that would be an item for the legislative battle next year, so that's a silver lining to the cloud. But one thing the SBI did fuck up: their warrants weren't properly issued, so their raid is technically as well as practically illegal. That alone is what is saving you from being in trouble for firing over their heads with that military semi-automatic rifle."

"Ah, so we can keep them in jail?" I asked, my face lighting up.

"Heh." said the Chief, grinning. "Good try, but no. Lewis will be taking them home with him. The Governor told me to let him have them and let this thing die down, and in return, the Governor will have our backs publicly."

"Is that it?" I asked.

"No. Here's what's going down." the Chief continued. "The Governor has called Inspector Maxwell, but she'll recuse herself as she came from this County, or the University anyway. She's going to appoint someone in her Division to do the investigation, which doesn't worry me. But this is going to have the aforementioned serious repercussions politically, with the SBI battle in the Legislature next year, and our County being represented by your best buddy Katherine Woodburn." The Chief's sarcasm failed to humor me.

"If the need arises, you take the Fifth and answer no questions." the Chief further said. "I'll handle the fallout, and with them unable to force my retirement for a second time, I'm going to unload on them. But again, I won't be around next year."

"You're having fun with this, aren't you Chief?" I asked, grinning for the first time.

"You betcha-" the Chief said, but was interrupted by the phone ringing. The Duty Desk was calling to say that a very angry SBI Director Jack Lewis had arrived...

To be continued.



Seriously Inconvenienced 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, Ch. 1-2.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, extreme language, and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial or racist language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

*****

Part 6 - Jailbreak

At 10:00am Saturday morning, November 15th, I was reading the early edition of the Town & County Examiner, the local newspaper. The headline is large letters said "SBI-TCPD FEUD HEATS UP!". 

There were three items of interest. First, the Governor had publicly come out in support of the Town & County Police, saying the SBI was wrong in going into the County without giving notice. Furthermore, the Governor had suspended the entire Narcotics Task Force until the SBI's Internal Conduct and Review Board could conduct an investigation into the matter. Chief Griswold had not been fully correct: Inspector Brittany M. Maxwell had not recused herself, and was personally leading the investigation.

Second, Sheriff-Elect Daniel Allgood had issued a statement supporting the TCPD, saying their actions had been correct and even restrained in light of coming under the criminally unlawful gunfire of the SBI. Of course, and by way of contrast, State-Senator-Elect Katherine Woodburn condemned the TCPD in the strongest terms, and especially called for an investigation of Police Commander Donald Troy as the instigator of the Police's interference with the SBI's work.

At least the newspaper had taken malicious delight in calling out their former owner Woodburn for being incorrect about the jurisdiction: she said the SBI had jurisdiction, but everyone else and their mothers knew that they didn't, and it was soon to come out that the SBI had not even obtained a legal warrant for the raid, while the TCPD had ADA Jenna Stiles's rock-solid, ironclad warrants authorizing their actions. The paper pointed these things out in explicit and copious detail.

For the first two items of interest, I noted that the Elections being over was causing some people to come out and say and do things they would not ordinarily do. The Governor was openly reining in the SBI, politicians were speaking out more directly now (especially Katherine Woodburn), and the battle over the SBI in the Legislature was heating up even more with this botched drug raid added to the inflammatory, volatile mixture. 

The third item of interest was what was not discussed: the robbery of the Second National Bank. It was as if it didn't happen; the Media had lost all interest in it. Not even a perfunctory report of Luisa Gomez's progress in the hospital.

Then the phone rang...

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

"Hi Don, thanks for coming over." FBI Special Agent in Charge Jack Muscone said as I entered his makeshift office in the FBI offices off Courthouse Square. "I thought it might be better for you to come here rather than for me to cause a sensation by going to your Headquarters."

"I think you're getting mighty comfortable in these offices here in Town, instead of your normal City location." I said, needling Jack. "Or is it really just the double-cheeseburgers at the Cop Bar?"

"Stop that. You're making me hungry." said Jack. "By the way, congratulations on your new son. We're all happy for you and Molly."

"Thanks." I said. I took a cigar out of my pocket and presented it to Muscone. "So, what brings me here?"

"Just a commendation for whipping Dick Ferrell's ass even better than I did that time at the Fairgrounds." Muscone said, unable to hide his enjoyment of that.

"Funny thing, I thought of you and that incident as I beat him down." I said. "I had to make sure to keep up the high standard you set."

"I just wish I could have been there to help." Muscone said. "I really, really hate that bastard; he's fucked up so many things in this State, it's a wonder he's not dead already, and by that I mean at the hands of Law Enforcement at any given level."

"If he comes into this County again like he did the last two times," I said, "I doubt I will restrain myself any further. So, what did you really want to talk to me about?"

"Some serious stuff." said Muscone, his countenance turning to match the importance of what I was about to hear. "First, Remember that white supremacist Tommy Gunn from your Black Badge gang? I found out this morning that he has been broken out of prison."

"Hmm, should I tell our morgue to expect a new guest?" I asked, somewhat flippantly I admit.

"Maybe not." said Muscone. "As you know, we have FBI teams like mine all over the country. Our team in Atlanta has been working on the 'Superior Bloodlines' group for a while. They think the group is headquartered somewhere in Tennessee, which is in their, the Atlanta FBI Team's, region.

Muscone continued: "They also think that the Superior Bloodlines team and the Black Badge gang you broke up are not cut entirely from the same cloth. Tommy Gunn might have been working with the Black Badge gang here, but was also part of the Bloodlines group, and they, meaning the Bloodlines group, might not want to kill him but have him continue to work with them."

"That's interesting." I said. "And Harold Malone moseyed down to Alabama after getting exposed here. I always thought that Gunn was Malone's 'boy'. Any chance of a connection there?"

"Our Atlanta team is working on that, too." Muscone replied. "I've had them keeping an eye on Malone since he went down there. So far, nothing out of Malone at all, except that his wife got Auburn football season tickets by pulling some strings that should not be legally pulled."

"Don't ask me to investigate that." I said. "I've got enough problems being a Wildcat in this Town. Investigating SEC football is not my idea of fun." Muscone laughed.

"No, and that would be a waste of FBI resources, as more powerful forces are at work there." Malone said, the merest hint of sarcasm in his voice. "But I'm waiting for your next question."

I thought a moment, then it hit me. "Oh, Jack King and the Black Badge gang. Something about them?"

"Yep." Jack Muscone said. "After we learned of Gunn's disappearance, some FBI agents up near the Federal Supermax prison where King was incarcerated went up to see him-"

"Was incarcerated?" I asked, catching on to Jack's slip immediately.

"Not much gets by you." Jack said drily. "Here's what went down: our guys went up there, and when the prison guards brought the prisoner into the interrogation room, our agents could see immediately that it was not Jack King. Guy didn't even look all that much like King, just enough plastic surgery to bear a resemblance. Fooled the guards at the prison who weren't paying attention, though."

"Hoo boy." I said. "They may have been well paid to not notice. But I'm not surprised. Conrad King wasn't going to let his son rot in Supermax for too long. I suspect Jack King is no longer within the friendly confines of the United States of America."

"Probably not. Nor Canada." Muscone said. "We think he may have slipped out to France on a fake passport. Meanwhile, the guy still in the cell didn't have a thing to say. Said his name was John Doe and he was from this here Town that we're sitting in right now. I'm not supposed to mention this, but Homeland Security did some extracurricular interrogation on him, but he did not break. Whatever brainwashing he got, it's sticking pretty good."

"Any idea what the guy looked like before being made up to look like King?" I asked as certain ideas formed in my mind.

"Ah, now that is the Iron Crowbar thinking pattern that I've been expecting to hear." Jack said, giving what was for him was a grin. "We had a doctor do some x-rays and thermal imaging. Here's a computer makeup of what we think he looked like before."

I took the image that Muscone handed to me across the desk. I found myself looking into the face of a man that looked very much like 'Gruff', one of my assailants on the day that the Reverend Jonas Oldeeds was obliterated. And of course that meant that the man bore a striking resemblance to one Dr. P. Harvey Eckhart, founder and leader of 'The Vision'.

"He looks like Gruff, but he's not him." I said. "I can tell a couple of slight differences here and there. It's not Eckhart either, obviously."

"So Don," Jack said, "tell me why we have at least two P. Harvey Eckharts, not to mention the original, showing up around these here parts." I could tell that Jack was putting the question to me not only to gather information, but to test my loyalties. And I knew how to pass the test both ways.

I said "I know that Eckhart had several guys made up to look like him some years ago, when Eckhart feared being assassinated. I think he was having some trouble with you guys in the FBI, as well. My guess would be that Gruff and this guy are two of those people."

"So do you think Eckhart's involved in the prison escapes?" Jack asked, trying to hide that he was peering hard at me, and failing.

"Doesn't sound like the type of stuff Eckhart likes to get into, but who knows?" I said, truly unsure.

"What does Eckhart like to get into?" Jack asked. Now I knew for sure I was being played.

"Eckhart's into a much softer game, and for money." I said, not telling the full truth, but not lying either. "As far as I can tell, Eckhart doesn't get into criminal enterprises or activities. He runs his worldwide self-help cult, which is a pretty formidable operation in its own right, and leaves the crimes to other folks, like our billionaire buddy, Henry R. Wargrave." I threw in Wargrave's name to take this conversation away from P. Harvey Eckhart.

"Yeah, Wargrave." Jack Muscone said. "You think he's behind the crap going on in your County these past few days and weeks?"

"To some degree, yes." I said. "But I'm not sure why. By the way, do you know where he is?"

"He's in the City." said Muscone. "We've been keeping tabs on him, especially since the night you waxed Corrigan and his cell. But he's slick. At least four times we think we knew where he was, only to see him on TV in New York City or Los Angeles giving a speech or something. My boss is a patient man, but Wargrave is embarrassing us. I did go see him, though."

"See who?" I asked, not understanding.

"Mr. Moriarty..." said Muscone. "a.k.a. Wargrave."

"You what?" I asked, incredulous. "Here in Town, or in the City?"

"In the City." Muscone said. "In his office, on the 30th floor. Beautiful view."

"On what pretext did you visit him?" I asked.

"I had a story all ready to go." Muscone said. "I was going to ask him if he could give us any leads on a group of smugglers. It's not an untrue story; we think some of the 'Superior Bloodlines' people are working with the Oldeeds Group to smuggle drugs and maybe arms across the border. Anyway, I asked, and Wargrave said he'd have his people sniff around. He said his shipping businesses are legal, but they sometimes hear things. He was quite cooperative."

"I'm sure he was." I said. "Did he have a Greuze painting behind him?"

"Huh?" Jack said, not getting my joke. I was remembering the Conan Doyle story where the police officer went to interview Professor Moriarty. Meanwhile, Jack said "No, the windows were behind him, with the view."

"Light behind him, in your face, eh?" I asked.

"Yeah, now that you mention it." Muscone said. Then his beady eyes narrowed. "I think you're messing with me right now, but I'm not sure how."

"I'll make it up to you by buying you a double cheeseburger at the Cop Bar." I said. "Let's go. I'm hungry." Muscone did not have to be persuaded further.

Part 7 - The Ensigns of Detection

"Why hello, Cindy." said Phyllis. "I'm so glad you came by to visit. Do come in."

Lieutenant Cindy Ross entered the basement MIL apartment of Don's mother. "Thanks for seeing me today." Cindy said.

"I'm always so glad when you come by." Phyllis said. "And now we're sort of related. My new grandson is your nephew, yes?"

"That's true." Cindy said, with the beginnings of a joking smile. "But I am not going to start calling you Aunt Phyllis."

"At least not yet." Phyllis said, and Cindy noted the cryptic tone of the older but lovely woman's voice. "Here, have a seat. I'll pour us some coffee."

As they drank their coffee, Cindy outlined what she wanted to do. "Don is busy as hell. He's running the entire Police Force as well as watching over us in MCD and Vice on our cases. He's trying to delegate, but he's still doing a lot... and that includes his efforts to do research about this industrial espionage group he thinks is based in our County."

"He's told me several times that you're doing very good work with the Detectives, and that it is lightening his load." Phyllis said in her most complimentary voice.

"Thank you," said Cindy, "but what I want to do is try to do some independent research work to help Don."

"And why don't you want to tell Don you're doing this?" Phyllis asked, a knowing gleam in her eye, understanding what Cindy was thinking even though Cindy had not yet said it.

"Uh... I could tell you because he'd tell me not to, and it's easier to get forgiveness than permission." Cindy said.

"You could, and you'd be very correct." Phyllis said, her smile getting brighter. "But you could also say you want to show Don that you're capable of solving things like this even without him.."

"I do want to show him that he can trust me... and our entire Detective Team, of course." Cindy said.

"Of course." said Phyllis. "And you can take my word for it that he does trust you and all of the Detectives very much, even if it seems like he doesn't. He is trying to let all of you work without him, but he's not going to let perps get away in the process."

"Yeah, we get that." Cindy said.

"Of course," Phyllis said, "you have a special fire in your eyes about this, my dear. You want to find those perps that shot you and also put your friends and colleagues in such great danger, if I don't miss my guess."

"I can see that denying it to you would be useless." Cindy said matter-of-factly. "So, where should I start?"

"I have just the solution for you. You and I are going to go see someone who is at least as brilliant and capable as my son is, and can give us tremendous help." said Phyllis.

"I'm already talking to you now, Phyllis." Cindy said in her most complimentary voice.

"Why thank you, dear." said Phyllis. "But I mean someone who can help with data much more than I possibly can. Let's go."

"Are we going very far?" Cindy asked.

"Oh, not too far." Phyllis said. "Just upstairs."

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

Laura could not help but laugh out loud.

"You ladies are going to get me in a lot of trouble." the lovely CIA Deputy Director said. "Not only with my employer, but with my husband when he finds out about this. Notice that I said 'when', not 'if'."

"Leave your husband to me." Phyllis said. "He'll mind his mother when I tell him to stand down."

"That is not how he reacted when the two of you kept me, or perhaps my sister, from being assassinated at the hands of Eleanor Burke." Laura chided. "However, I think this is a good idea; one that I'd been thinking of, as well. And since I do owe you big-time for foiling Eleanor Burke's plot, I'll be glad to help as far as I can. Cindy, are you fully aware of who and what I am?"

"Yes, ma'am." Cindy said. "And I also know who and what my gym business partner, who happens to be your sister, is."

"Yes, and thank you for keeping quiet about that. Do you have any kind of clearance?" Laura asked.

"I have a Secret clearance, since I'm in the SBI Reserve." Cindy said. "Don had me apply for it then expedited it through the FBI."

"Good." Laura said. "I'm going to have you fill out some paperwork to upgrade that to Top Secret. I can give you interim TS clearance right now, too. Not that you'll really need it, but by having it I can give you some access to some data."

Laura added: "By the way, I'm certainly not going to lie to my husband if he finds out about this, but at the same time I don't intend to just go up to him and tell him, either."

"That would probably be very wise." said Phyllis, her eyes twinkling.

"Phyllis, you are having entirely too much fun with this." Laura noted.

"We are so fired." Cindy said. Laura couldn't help but laugh again. Phyllis excused herself to go and make tea for everyone.

"By the way, Cindy," Laura said once the two women were alone, "bring Jenna here tonight. I have those devices ready for you, and Don is not going to be here..."

Part 8 - Sex On The Mountain, Fire In Our Souls

Cindy Ross and Jenna Stiles arrived at the Mountain Nest that evening, both looking exceptionally hot in the clingy dresses and high heels they were wearing. Laura met them at the door looking radiantly beautiful herself.

As they sipped their drinks, Laura filled them in on what was going on. "Both of you have come by my office and let me make molds of your vaginas. I've fashioned my special dildos that will fit inside you exceptionally well, and I've also attached the penises for them. You only have to sign these releases, so that if the pleasurable electrical impulses go haywire and burn you, you won't be able to come after me personally for them. The chances of any damage happening are virtually nil, though."

After the paperwork was done, Laura brought out her gifts in their boxes. "Cindy, the 'penis' on your device is police blue; and Jenna, yours is fiery red like your hair, and from what my husband tells me, your personality."

"Not much gets by your husband." Cindy said, getting a cutting look from Jenna before they all started laughing. After more drinking and chatting, Laura suggested they head to the guest bedroom to try out their new toys.

"Only if you come help us test them out." said Cindy. She'd been longing to sample Don's sexy older wife for some time; she was not going to let this opportunity pass by.

"Definitely." said Jenna, though her desire was born more of curiosity at what she'd heard about the hottest sex professor on the local or any other campus...

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

"Such a beautiful view." Zoe Singer said as she looked out the windows of the greatroom of The Cabin. It was a bit too nippy to go out onto the deck, but the view was still lovely... and so was the view of the Town from the lattice of windows. Zoe was wearing high heel pumps, but I couldn't tell what her dress looked like. She'd kept a light khaki trenchcoat on all through dinner, as if it were her dress.

"From here it's hard to believe that the Town is anything but peaceful and good." she added.

I handed Zoe her drink, which she'd requested to be double-strong, and sipped on my Scotch and Amaretto. "It is good, despite a few bad apples. And the few bad apples keep me employed."




Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 02



"Unfortunately, you can't put fire in a prison cell." said Zoe. She sipped her drink, then said idly "Some people say fire is alive, that it's the simplest form of life. What do you think, Don?"

"I've often wondered that myself." I said. "Certainly it's energy untamed. In some ways, we're all like that, and we all have fires inside us. Right now I've got a fire inside me, looking at you."

"Mmmm, a flirtatious young man, and not wasting any time." Zoe said, looking from me back out the window. "I have to admit, I'm shocked your wife doesn't keep you all to herself. I guess... I sound like a prude."

"No, you're the normal one." I replied. "What Laura and I have is very special, but different than what some would think of as normal." I didn't say what I was deducing: that Zoe yearned for a long-term relationship, and a man that would care for her and be faithful to her... and that she'd yearned for this since her childhood, a childhood with more than its fair share of horrors for her. Definitely not the time to bring all that up.

"I guess we all have our own idea of what 'normal' is." Zoe said. She then turned to me and opened her trenchcoat. "Is this 'normal', Don?"

Indeed, the trenchcoat was the dress, and underneath Zoe was wearing nothing but a pair of black lace panties. Her breasts were standing proudly out, her nipples hard spikes begging for attention. I could also tell that Zoe was nervous, and that she was well beyond her comfort zone in the actions she was taking.

"I'd say it's much better than 'normal'." I replied. I stepped up to Zoe and slid my hands along her waist, feeling her warm light brown skin. I gently pulled her to me and bent down to kiss her. Our lips met in a warm kiss, but before I had a chance to sink my tongue into her mouth, she broke the kiss.

"I... I'm getting a little lightheaded." she said. "Can we sit down a minute?"

"Sure." I said, making sure to not rush things. Taking too much control right now might be more harmful than good, I realized as Zoe and I sat down on one of the sofas, snuggling together and sipping our drinks...

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

The Irish Pub, a.k.a. the Cop Bar, was pretty busy this Saturday night, but the cold weather meant that most of the patrons stayed indoors. The owner had installed a couple of 'fire pits' on the deck for people to gather around, actually raised up from the deck, the fake logs heated by natural gas. Several members of the TCPD SWAT Team had gathered around for a beer, but most of them had since dispersed, leaving Claire Michaels and Hugh Hewitt alone together.

Claire had had no trouble getting most of her SWAT Team to come out for some beer and fellowship after training; Hugh Hewitt was the only one who seemed reticent to join the group fun. Claire knew why, and was determined to help Hugh get over the mental scars left by the Black Widow. They'd had several beers already, and Claire had already arranged for designated driving to happen for them later.

"I'm glad you came out tonight, Hugh." Claire said. "It's not the same without you. The whole team is glad, too."

"Thanks." said Hugh, looking into the fire in the 'pit'. "I'm not much of a party guy, anymore. You know about my past history, don't you?"

"Sure." said Claire. She had read the official reports, and heard the stories from fellow Detectives about Hugh's near-death experience as well as his demotion and transfer to the SWAT Team. "So have you dated Selena or anyone else since all that stuff happened?"

"Naah." said Hugh. "Selena and I really aren't from the same neighborhoods, if you know what I mean. She's a good person, and we talk from time to time, but it's a bit awkward."

"I can understand that." Claire said. "And after that woman found out you'd hooked up with Selena, she couldn't just send you a 'Let's just be friends' text, could she?"

"No," said Hugh, the alcohol helping him to see the humor in Claire's remark, "I don't think that was exactly what she was trying to say. Good thing all my police buddies crashed that party, and the Commander's wife had the antidote to that poison..." His voice trailed off.

"I couldn't agree more." said Claire. "And I'm the lucky one: you fell into my lap with the SWAT Team." Her efforts to connect with him were far more than professional or as friends. She didn't know if Hugh was catching on to her double entendres, her flirtations with him. She was soaking wet as she looked at the handsome younger man, desiring to feel him on top of her and his big cock plunging into her again and again.

"Yeah, I was lucky." Hugh said. "I heard the Chief was going to fire me, but the Commander saved my ass."

"I'm glad he did." Claire said, realizing she'd have to find and use more blatant ways to get Hugh to 'understand'. "The Commander thinks very highly of you. And he's a damn good judge of people. When I was hired as a Detective, I had no idea he was already thinking of me for the SWAT Team."

"Yeah, that's where I ended up, too." said Hugh, then caught himself. "Oh, don't get the wrong idea, I love the SWAT Team and working with you and the guys..."

"You wanted to stay a Detective?" Claire asked, hoping she was finally breaking through and getting to the real Hugh.

"Yes and no." Hugh said, growing reflective. "SWAT is good, and I know I'm good at it. But being a Detective on this Police Force wasn't like anywhere else... it's a cut above. I liked that challenge... though I'm not sure I was succeeding at it. And then there's the Iron Crowbar... geez, I always felt that guy had x-ray eyes whenever he looked at me or anything else..."

"Yes, that's the feeling I get, also..." said Claire. Not only about the Iron Crowbar's x-ray eyes, but that Hugh had not been succeeding fully as a Detective...

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

Once in the guest bedroom, Laura said "Why don't you two get undressed." Somewhat to her surprise, Jenna began undressing Cindy and vice versa. Laura watched, her own loins melting as she watched the lovely redhead unzip Cindy's dress then slowly lower it down the platinum blonde's well-toned body.

Then Jenna slowly undid Cindy's bra, freeing her luscious breasts, and Laura watched as Jenna kissed Cindy's neck while undressing her and then massaging Cindy's big boobs. Cindy moaned slightly, then moaned again as Jenna's hands slid down along the sides of Cindy's body to her panties. Jenna began bending her knees, easing herself down as she slid the panties down Cindy's legs, and as Cindy stepped out of them, still wearing her clear acrylic high heel slides, Jenna slid her tongue up under Cindy's magnificent ass and tongued her slit.

Then they turned around and Cindy slowly undressed Jenna the same way. As Jenna's panties fell to her her suede, nude/tan high heel pumps, Cindy was behind her, tonguing her sopping wet slit.

Laura produced a tube of vaginal lubricant. "You both might want to use this. Of course, it'll be best if you're already wet."

"I think you're going to have to help us with that... Doctor." Cindy said. "And I think you are way overdressed right now." The two women approached Laura, Jenna slipping behind her while Cindy came face to face with her, their eyes locked. As Jenna began undoing Laura's dress, Cindy leaned forward, her head tilted up to meet the taller woman's. Laura bent her head down just enough for her mouth to make contact with Cindy's, and let Cindy's tongue slide over hers as they kissed.

Cindy's hands went up to Laura's big breasts, finding that Jenna's hands were also there and massaging the beautiful older woman's mammaries. Cindy bent down and kissed Laura's left nipple, then sucked on it... and mewled in surprise as the warm liquid from Laura's milk-filled tit coated her tongue!

"Mmmm, you're still nursing." Cindy said quietly, but her voice filling the room. "Jenna, you've got to come suck these delicious tits." Jenna quickly complied, coming around and kissing Laura's right breasts. Soon both women were feasting on Laura's milk as they hungrily sucked her teats as if they were starved.

"Mmmm, that feels nice." Laura whispered, enjoying the sensations, feeling the younger women's hands sliding over her body, exploring her. She felt Cindy's left hand slide under the hem of her panties and over her clit, then begin exploring inside her labes, quickly finding her hole and sinking her finger deep inside. Laura was already very, very wet.

Cindy reluctantly gave up Laura's breast and bent her knees, kissing her way down Laura's taut, firm body. Her hands slid Laura's panties down over her high heel blue strappy sandals, then Cindy licked Laura's slit, making Laura groan. Jenna then covered Laura's mouth with her own in a hot, tongue-twining kiss as Cindy began eating Laura's pussy in earnest.

As she munched on Laura's fur-lined muff, Cindy moaned in pleasure. Laura's pussy was far and away the tastiest, most delicious cunt the hot blonde policewoman had ever tasted. Jenna was good, and Cindy ate her pussy out of love, but there was something about Laura's snatch that made her taste buds sing. Maybe it was because this was the wife of her handsome boss, Cindy thought. And Don is one lucky-as-hell man to be getting to eat this sweet pussy every night...

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

"I want to see your Medal of Valor one of these days." said Zoe as I refilled her drink. She was getting a good buzz on, getting 'liquid courage' to help her allow me to seduce her.

"It's locked up in my desk at Headquarters." I said. "Just come by any time."

"Well, in exchange, I'll show you something now." Zoe replied. She fished a flat box out of her purse and handed it to me. I opened it and got a surprise.

First, the background: all the Public Safety Department, Police, Fire, EMS, Deputy Sheriff, and Public Health Department medals and their ribbons, called 'drapes', are uniquely colored, just as the military ribbons are. Unlike the military, the County's ribbons had patterns. For example, the Police Cross was a red ribbon with blue outer edges and a thin white line between the blue and red. The Fire Cross was a red ribbon with the white lines, but with red edges.

Ergo, the various Police medals were blue-edged; Fire Dept. medals, red-edged; Deputies, brown-edged; Public Health, salmon-pink edged. Those medals for all of Public Safety (Public Health was a part of Public Safety), had silver-gray edges. The Medal of Valor had a red ribbon worn around the neck, but the rectangular ribbon worn on the duty uniform was gray-edged, thin white vertical stripes, then red field with five tiny silver stars. The Purple Order ribbon was gray-edged, thin white vertical stripe, and a purple field, the same award going to anyone of any of the various County public safety services.

In olden days, before the merger, the EMS medals were green-edged. But after the EMS was rolled into the Fire Dept., the Fire Dept. and the Council had forced the EMS ribbons to have red edges. The EMS Medal, equivalent to the Police Medal and Fire Medal, had a green field, white stripe, and red edge.

In the box Zoe had handed me was her EMS Medal, but it had the old green edges. She'd been awarded it before the changes, and she could still wear it (and did). This was 'old school', and I could very much appreciate seeing it, since I might not ever see another one again.

"Wow." I said. "This is awesome." She was obviously proud of it, and I could understand why.

"Yeah." Zoe said. "It makes me the badass of the Fire Department. After they fucked us over and forced EMTs to wear Fire Department-colored ribbons, I came to appreciate it a lot more."

"Yeah, that's going to come to a head one of these days." I said, knowing that tensions there were growing.

"Yeah." Zoe said. "But speaking of 'head', there's a different kind of 'head', and I'm here to give it to you."

She was ready, and I was ready as well. I put the medal down next to Zoe's purse and turned my attention to her. She melted into my arms and our kiss turned deep and heavy...

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

"Okay, Cindy, slide it in." Laura said. Cindy had volunteered to be the first to wear her custom-fitted toy. She slid the blue dildo with its waves and ridges past her cuntlips and sank it deep into her wet pussy, aided by the generous lubrication Laura had put on it.

It was a nice, tight fit, filling Cindy's vaginal almost completely up, with just a bit of room at the end to allow for movement. Cindy pressed the curved plate that covered her labes and groin area to her as Laura tightened the straps. The nearly nine inch long, wrist-thick 'penis' bobbed out in front of her.

"Okay, baby," said Jenna as she lay back flat on the bed, pulling her legs up until her knees were pressing into her breasts, and spreading her legs, "sink that big thing into me, let me take your virginity." Cindy complied, mounting her lover and sliding the penis along Jenna's cuntlips. Laura was busy applying more lubricant. Finally, Jenna reached between her legs, pushed the hard rubber-like cockhead deep into her labes and to her honey hole, and moaned as Cindy pushed forward, penetrating the beautiful redhead.

"Unnnh!" Jenna gasped as her tight pussy was filled with Cindy's 'cock'. Laura watched, guiding Cindy as the platinum blonde got used to the rhythm and moving properly, but she was soon fucking Jenna with long, hard, deep strokes.

"Pretty soon you're going to begin feeling the tingling, Cindy." Laura said. "Don't start fucking Jenna too hard, or you might start hurting her with that big cock."

"Oh yeah, I"m feeling it now." Cindy said. Indeed, the friction of the 'cock' in Jenna's pussy was sending back little electrical pulses, that then fired along nodes in the dildo inside Cindy and 'tickled' the nerves inside her. Sexual pleasure began to radiate deep inside Cindy, even as Jenna moaned from the pleasure of being deeply fucked by the 'cock'.

Laura watched Cindy fucking Jenna, making observations as the ruggedly attractive, still-muscular platinum blonde leaned over and deeply kissed her almost willowy, redheaded lover. 

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

Zoe moaned as I ate her pussy, my face buried in her sopping wet hole, my tongue delving deep inside as my cheeks rubbed against her labes. Her legs were over my shoulders and she was gently sliding her feet along my back, which I enjoyed very much as I tongued her slit with zest.

Our kissing on the sofa downstairs had rapidly turned to foreplay. I'd sucked Zoe's breasts, lashing at her hard nipples, my fingers finding their way into her pussyhole as her hands undid my pants and fished out my cock. It wasn't long before I was getting out of those pants, allowing Zoe to play with my cock and balls with her warm dry hands.

"Take me to bed." Zoe whispered through a kiss. I got up and picked her up and carried her towards the stairs. I had to go to the front part of the house to reach the stairs, and even as I was carrying this lovely woman upstairs to make love to her, I was thinking that I needed to do something about this floor plan and having to go all the way to the front door just to get upstairs to the bedroom.

But we made it to the bedroom just fine, and after depositing Zoe on the bed and stripping naked, I slid between her shapely legs and went down on her. Her pubic bush was thick but neatly trimmed, and her pink pussy glowed invitingly from between her darker pussy lips, making me want to dive face-deep in there and start feasting on that delicious womanhood. But I made sure not to go too fast, lest I make Zoe nervous.

As I raised up after bringing Zoe almost to the brink of a hard orgasm, my cock was throbbing and iron hard, sticking out in front of me as the true weapon of lust that it was. I mounted Zoe as her hands guided my hips, her legs easing back and spreading wider as the wide, spongy helmet of my cockhead found its target and slid past her swollen labes and into her hole. I pushed forward, joining our loins in deep ecstasy until our pelvises met, my balls coming to rest on Zoe's taint and asscrack.

"Oh God, you're going so deep!" Zoe moaned as I began fucking her in a steady rhythm, withdrawing about half of my cock before sinking in balls-deep again. I noticed that Zoe was not really matching my thrusts; she was essentially lying there, letting me pump in and out of her in whatever way I wanted. Time enough to teach her those things later, I thought, right now I just wanted to enjoy the intense pleasure of pistoning my cock in and out of her warm, wet cunt while I kissed her mouth, neck and occasionally sucked on one of her big breasts...

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

After nearly twenty minutes of steady fucking, Cindy screamed out as her hard, intense orgasm rocked her body and soul. Jenna had already come twice. Shaking, the hot blonde pulled the long, thick 'penis' out of her girlfriend's sodden pussy.

"How was it, Cindy?" Laura asked.

"Oh my God." said Cindy, still trying to recover. "Oh. My. God. That was so fucking intense! Laura, you could make a billion dollars if you patent and market this thing."

"Yes, and one lawsuit would wipe me out." Laura replied. "I think I'll just keep this a secret gift for my closest friends. Jenna, are you ready to try yours out?"

"Sure." Jenna said. Laura helped her as she eased the red dildo into her cunt and strapped the device more tightly to her. Cindy was lying on the bed and Jenna wasted no time mounting her.

"Oh God!" Cindy groaned as Jenna harshly shoved the long, thick 'cock' into her tight pussy. Jenna struggled to get the right rhythm, and the women worked together to find the best ways to move. Finally, Jenna got enough stroking rhythm going that she began feeling the tinglings from the dildo in her own pussy...

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

With Claire's help, Hugh made it through the door of his apartment and to the sofa, but that was about as far as he could go. He practically crashed onto the couch, and Claire sat down hard next to him. The stud war hero was very buzzed, which is what Claire wanted.

"Okay, stud," Claire said, "no more talking. It's time for action, and no more holding out on me." She reached down and began opening Hugh's pants, having to undo his belt to free his large cock. As she jacked his organ, it began swelling to its full, thick, eight-inch length.

Claire swiftly got on the floor on her knees between Hugh's legs. "Mmmm, I've been wanting to suck this big thing for the longest time." She gripped the shaft at the base and quickly opened her mouth to envelop his meat.

Hugh gasped, as much in shock as in physical pleasure. He had not engaged in sex since that night in the warehouse, when he'd been poisoned and fucked nearly to death, literally, by Angela Harlan. The mental scars from that ordeal had not gone away, though he worked mightily to hide from his fellow officers, lest he be re-evaluated and declared unfit for duty.

And here was Claire Michaels, sucking his cock with all the power her mouth could muster. God! she was gorgeous, her face softer and more womanly than Angela's sharp features had been, even though Claire was in her upper thirties already. Claire's dark brown hair was wavy and fell gently about her shoulders, her body was firm and toned (Cindy Ross was her personal trainer), her breasts jutting proudly out, her ass filling the tight uniform pants of her SWAT suit. Hugh had felt deep desire for Claire, but again the horrors of his ordeal with Angela, whom he'd trusted and nearly paid for that trust with his life, prevented him from taking the correct action steps.

For her part, Claire had wanted Hugh since the moment she'd met him. She'd flirted with him, and had to understand that it might take time for Hugh's trust level to return. But she was now at the end of her rope of patience, and she now had the younger stud's cock in her throat, right where it belonged.




Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 02



"Mmm, God, this cock is so good!" Claire gasped as the head popped out of her mouth. She licked down the shaft to Hugh's bloated balls, sucking and licking on them, then raising back up and engulfing his fuck-stick again. She fellated his size with every bit of talent and experience that she could muster.

Hugh tried to hold back, but it was the smell of her perfume wafting into her nose that overcame him.. She smelled so good! and the smell of her had enticed him for months now. He felt almost detached from his body, but the pleasure was still incredible as the jolts of climax hit him and the molten sperm erupted from his balls and into Claire's sucking throat. She greedily swallowed up each thick, ropy spurt until Hugh's balls simply had no more to give...

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

As I pumped deeply in and out of Zoe's cunt, I felt the walls of her tight vagina clamp down on me a couple of times, accompanied by deep groans from her.

"Oh God," she said after the second one, "I can't believe you made me come... I didn't think I could ever come with a man..."

"I'm getting close myself." I said as I felt my nut rising. "Are you on the pill?"

"No," Zoe replied, "but don't pull out. Come inside me, Don!" As if to emphasize the point, Zoe wrapped her shapely legs around my waist, the heels of her bare feet pressing into the backs of my thighs, then wrapped her arms around my neck. I slid my hands down and grasped her firm, full asscheeks, really enjoying the feel of those luscious globes of assflesh in my hands. I nuzzled her neck hard then groaned.

"I'm coming!" I gasped as the first spurts of my hot load shot deep into Zoe's cunt. I drove forward, grinding my pelvis into Zoe's as my hands clutched her ass harder, and pumped every drop of potent, virile semen from my balls into the woman beneath me, letting the pleasure invade the very core of my being, body and soul...

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

Jenna was lying on her back again. Cindy was wearing her toy, fucking Jenna with it, but slowly. In the meantime, Laura had straddled Jenna's face and sat her sopping wet pussy onto the redhead's mouth. As Jenna ate Laura's pussy with gusto, Cindy and Laura were sharing a deep, wet, tongue-twining, toe-curling kiss. Their lips slid along each other's as their tongues twined then explored each other's mouths.

Cindy was feeling the heat from Laura's kiss as much if not more from the dildo-fucking she was giving her girlfriend. And she was again thinking how lucky Don was... Cindy loved Jenna, but physically Laura was the most phenomenal kisser and pussy-eater, and had the tastiest cunt of any woman Cindy had ever been with. Damn, how does the Iron Crowbar get so lucky to have this woman fall in love with him and be in his bed with him every night? not to mention giving him those two wonderful babies... Don must've done something truly great in a previous life to have good karma like this... for that matter, so must've I...

Jenna pushed Laura slightly upwards so that she could speak. "Hey babe, I'm starting to get sore. That cock is really big, and unyielding..."

"I hear ya, babe." Cindy said, easing the prick out of Jenna's well-fucked cunt.

"Why don't you fuck me with it, Cindy, if you still want to keep going." Laura offered. "Jenna, you can sit on my face."

"I think I'll just sit back and watch you two." Jenna said. Laura lay on her back and Cindy mounted her, easily finding Laura's cunthole and sinking the big 'penis' into it, making Laura groan.

Jenna kissed Cindy's mouth with a warm, deep kiss, then said "Fuck her, baby. Fuck her like her husband only wishes he could!" Cindy grinned at the challenge, and then began to pump her 'cock' into Laura with hard, long, deep thrusts.

Jenna sat back and watched, and it was a magnificent sight. Laura had pulled her long, shapely legs back, her knees above her shoulders, almost to her ears, her calves along the side of Cindy's body and her elegant, shapely feet, still in the high heel sandals, just above Cindy's pistoning ass. Cindy had taken off her high heels and was now literally on her toes as she drove the 'cock' into Laura with every bit of energy that her powerful body could put into the fucking. Cindy had slid her arms under Laura's back, holding her, and Cindy was alternating between sucking Laura's milk-filled breasts and kissing Laura's neck, face and mouth.

The sex was extremely intense, and while Jenna enjoyed watching it, she also felt a little bit jealous of her woman fucking another woman so hotly. The redhead then became entranced with the luscious globes of Cindy's hard ass pistoning up and down as the blonde fucked the black-haired older woman. Jenna slid next to the rutting couple on the bed and bent down and began kissing and tonguing Cindy's sweet asscheeks. Jenna's tongue did have to compete with Laura's finger that was sinking into Cindy's tight asshole, but the effect, along with the impulses of the dildo as Cindy fucked Laura relentlessly, was that Cindy came apart at the seams in the most deeply intense orgasm she'd ever had...

Part 9 - Past Pain, Future Gain

It was now well past midnight as Zoe and I slept together, me on my back and Zoe nestled into my right side, her breasts pressing warmly into me. I felt her rustle as she came awake, then felt a strange sensation: her hand was caressing the scar of my wound where Ned had shot me.

"You're a very brave man, Mr. Iron Crowbar." she whispered.

"You're a brave woman." I replied.

Zoe raised her right leg and flung it over me, then slid her body on top of mine. "I've met so few men who have any integrity at all." she said. "You have no idea how good it is to meet a man not only with integrity, but willing to take something like that on behalf of others."

"Man or woman, there's too little of that in this world." I said.

"Did your wife tell you about me, about my story?" Zoe asked.

"No." I said. "Only that you'd had some bad experiences. And you don't have to say anything to me if you don't want to." Indeed, all Laura had told me was to not try to fuck Zoe from the rear, either on our sides or dogstyle, and only the briefest synopsis of Zoe's younger life.

"I do want to." Zoe replied. "When I was young, I was molested by my father. Worse, I had an older sister, a good bit older than me. My father molested her regularly. When she told my mother, my mother told her to shut up and do whatever her father told her to do. When she told a teacher that he was molesting her, the teacher called her a liar to her face and then called our father and told him what my sister had said. When he got her home that day, he beat her nearly to death. My mother sat there and watched the whole thing."

"My sister ran away from home. The cops, who were very corrupt in that town, caught up to her and dutifully brought her right back home, where they joked with my father about her running away and her claiming that he was molesting her. The second time my sister ran away, the cops caught up to her again. That time, they took turns raping her themselves before bringing her home to our father. One week later, my sister committed suicide."

Zoe continued, her voice almost surreal in the abnormal intensity of its quietness: "When I was old enough, my father would come into my bedroom and rape me. It was useless to fight it, and my mother knew and did nothing, would do nothing. I would just turn my back when he came into the room, either on my side or my stomach. He'd get behind me or on top of me and rape me."

"This went on for a few years until I decided to make a run for it. I knew from my sister's experience that the cops would be nothing but trouble, so I hid from them as I ran, and I made it to the City. At that point, I ran into a man who said he'd help me. He said that if I married him, I would never have to return to my father, and I believed him. Well, he turned out to be as abusive as my father had been. I finally got away from him and went to a group that helped troubled young people. The man who ran the program and some of his acolytes- er, friends- helped me. I was able to get into a nursing program, and then became an EMT here in this County."

"I didn't trust men any more, so I ended up becoming intimate with women." Zoe continued. "Then Dr. Fredricson came to this University. I'm not sure how I came to her attention, but I did, and she's worked with me for a while to make my social issues with other people better. She also believed that though I was dating women, I still had an affinity for men. In that she was right; I never gave up on the idea that there was a good man out there for me. When I told her that I'd met you, she asked all about how I felt about you, and I was pretty shocked when she said that I should date you in order to get used to dating men. I'm glad she did, though." Zoe bent down and kissed my mouth.

"Me, too." I said. "You're a special lady, and you'll find that special man soon." And until you do, I thought, I'll be glad to continue making love to you myself.

Perhaps sharing my thoughts, Zoe reached down between our bodies and grasped my hard cock. She fit it into he labes and then sank her wet pussy down onto it, impaling herself on my hard male meat until I was balls-deep inside her. Zoe began riding me with a smooth easy rhythm, and I just let her ride at her pace, her way, enjoying the pleasure of our joined loins. After holding her waist for a while, I let my hands slide down her calves and took her feet into my hands, holding and gently squeezing them as she ground her loins onto my impaling little iron crowbar until she was gasping in climax...

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

Hugh Hewitt woke up to find himself naked in his bed. Feeling the warm body next to him, he looked over to see Claire Michaels lying next to him, naked, her lovely body pressed against his muscular frame.

"Claire... oh my god, what's going on?" Hugh asked, momentarily confused. Then he remembered the intensely hot blowjob he'd gotten not long before, and his cock became instantly rock hard at the memory, not to mention the feel of Claire's body and the smell of her body and her perfume.

"Hi handsome." she replied. "We've been having a good time." She reached for his cock and began to jack it until he was throbbing hard. She then quickly mounted him, taking his eight thick inches into her dripping wet quim and beginning to ride him.

Alas, it was not to be. Hugh began having flashback memories of what Angela Harlan had done to him tat night, and of her last ride on his cock. He began losing his erection, his efforts to continue to fuck Claire notwithstanding.

Claire understood, and she didn't push it. But she did lean over him and begin sucking his cock. She got him hard enough to jack off as she sucked him, and she was soon rewarded with a second load of his semen splashing into her throat...

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

Cindy woke up at 4:30, as usual. She was just putting on her underwear when she heard Carole in the next room, cooing and singing. Going into the room, she said "Hey little girl. You're awake too?"

Carole grinned and reached up, wanting to be picked up. Cindy picked her up and, talking to her, carried her towards the kitchen to get her a bottle. In the kitchen, she found Laura already there, warming the formula up.

"Ah, there's my girl and her buddy." said Laura. Carole was happy for the attention, as well as knowing she was about to be fed. Laura said "I'm warming up a bottle for her, Cindy. You and Jenna did a real number on my tits last night."

"I would apologize, but I had too much fun." Cindy said. "Sorry, Carole, it's formula for you." Carole did not seem to mind.

"Despite all the fun we had last night," Laura said, taking Carole, "I can that you and Jenna are beginning to share something much more than just a night of fun. And I'm sure as hell not going to say a word to my husband about any of it."

"Oh, that's okay." Cindy replied. "He'll have it figured out in no time. Not much gets by that man."

"Maybe, but-" Laura said, then for some reason her eyes went to the scars from Cindy's wounds, which were not covered by the bra. Cindy felt the look, then felt Laura's hand as she touched the scarred spots. Laura had a strange look on her face.

"You..." the older woman said, then gathered herself and said more firmly, "you and my husband are meant to work together. Just as he and I were meant to be husband and wife, just as you and Jenna were meant to find each other... you and Don are meant to be the team that takes down the Evil in this County."

"Yeah..." Cindy said, her own voice becoming eerie. "I know what you're saying, and you're right."

"I just hope..." Laura said, "I just hope you and he won't be accumulating too many more scars in the process... and that we all live to see it through..."

To be continued.



Seriously Inconvenienced 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, Ch. 1-3.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, extreme language, and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial or racist language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

Part 10 - The County Badass

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" said the redhead reporter at 7:00am on Monday, November 17th. "Channel Two News has learned that the fallout of the drug raid last Friday night, which resulted in local police officers and the SBI's Narcotics Task Force exchanging gunfire with each other, is having ramifications across the State. Tensions between the SBI and various local law enforcement agencies is reaching a boiling point, which is causing many experts to believe that unless something is done, the effectiveness of law enforcement in the State will be negatively impacted."

"In other news, it is believed that the criminals that robbed the Second National Bank and kidnapped Luisa Gomez may be part of a larger criminal organization. Commander Donald Troy of the Town & County Police Department has confirmed that the FBI is now working with the local police, as the criminals may have crossed over the State line to our West. Luisa Gomez continues to undergo rehabilitation at University Hospital as she recovers from her grievous injuries."

Tanya Perlman said "I heard that Dr. P. Harvey Eckhart from that 'Vision' cult in Coltrane County brought a couple of psychologists to help Luisa, and that they're doing a lot for her. The hospital staff isn't thrilled about it, but Dr. Fredricson stepped in and suggested the psychologists be allowed to continue working with her."

"Oh really?" I said. "First I'm hearing of that. Cindy, you're not the only person who doesn't get told things." I was needling my partner very hard.

"Stoppit." was all Ross said as she sipped her coffee, but I noted that her rugged but pretty face remained unperturbed.

Chief Griswold came up as we watched in the MCD room and growled at me "Crowbar, why in the world did you give that woman that confirmation that the FBI is working with us?"

"Case of 'damned if I do, damned if I don't', Chief." I said. "Bettina already had the info, and denying it would just cause the reporting to be more intense and hostile. Jack Muscone said it was okay to confirm it, as well... he wants the bastards to know the FBI is on their tails, hoping to get some cell phone chatter to start up, I guess."

"In that case--" started the Chief, but we were interrupted as Lt. Teresa Croyle came into the room. She was not alone.

"Look who's back from the Police Academy, everyone!" Teresa said. It was Detective Theo Washington, the 'movie star handsome' black Detective, whose brother Franklin was one of the ADAs at the Courthouse. Theo was dressed in a suit that rivaled Martin Nash's for the 'GQ look'.

"About time you got back, Washington." growled the Chief in a friendly way as he shook Theo's hand.

"How was Detective School?" I asked. Theo had attended the course at the Police Academy that I'd felt the need to re-write for them.

"It was good." said Theo. "But I think I learn a lot more from the Iron Crowbar and Lt. Perlman's hands-on training."

"Glad to see they taught you how to kiss ass properly." said Chief Griswold, getting a good laugh out of everyone in the room. After more small talk, the Chief told us all to get to work and left the room.

"I'm glad I graduated Friday." Theo said. "My cell phone lit up over the weekend about that shoot-out you guys had with the SBI. Just about the only thing anyone was talking about the whole time was what's going to happen in January in the State Legislature. There's a lot of tension, some people favoring the SBI and some dead-set against them."

"That's interesting to hear." I said. "Okay, Perlman, get Theo up to speed on what's going on around here. I'm going to follow the Chief's orders and try to get some work done." I left the MCD room for my office. I was not surprised that Cindy Ross followed me in.

"How was your weekend?" I asked as I pointed at a seat for Cindy to sit in.

"Exhausting." Cindy said, settling into the seat and crossing her well-toned, shapely legs. "I now have full carnal knowledge of why your married life is so happy."

"I think my wife enjoyed herself with you and Jenna, as well." I said. "But she's also very good at keeping secrets, and she didn't tell me a thing except that she had an exhausting evening herself. What happened with y'all stays with y'all, and I don't wanna know the details." I had no idea just what secrets my wife and my partner were keeping from me, and in not knowing what I didn't know, I'd made a remark Cindy thought was unintentionally funny. But after a brief smile, she turned serious.

"Well, that's not what I came to talk about." said Cindy, stiffening in her chair a bit. "Sir, may I speak frankly?"

"By all means." I said, getting an idea of what was coming.

Cindy said "I just wanted you to know that I talked to Jenna about her punk Gor-don using the other office. Jenna wasn't happy about it-- about your complaint, that is. And I felt like I was put between a rock and a hard place. I talked to her, but that's the last time I mix business with my personal relationship with her, Don. I will not be your unofficial go-between with the D.A.'s office, particularly with Jenna, again."

"I understand." I said. "And while we're speaking frankly, privately and the ranks are off: a superior officer normally never apologizes to a a junior officer, but I do owe you an apology for putting you in that position. I was thinking about it over the weekend, and I regret having made that suggestion to you. I won't do that to you again."

"Thank you." Cindy said. I could see in her eyes that my apology meant a lot to her.

"All right, ranks back on, let's get back to work." I said. "While I'm downstairs making Myron and Mary work their asses off about the bank robbery, I want you to consolidate the Vice raid. I need expedited reports from everyone that went on it. Definitely about the SBI shooting at them, but also about the perps and the haul that we captured..."

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

Dr. Laura Fredricson sat at her desk in her office in the University's Psychology Building, typing away at her laptop computer. But it was not School business she was doing on the computer and the heavily secured internet line to it. It was 'Company' business.

She called her assistant Gayle Roberts into the office. "Let's sweep for bugs." Laura ordered. Both beautiful women got out their bug detection devices and began sweeping the room, their high heels clicking on the floor as they walked around. Laura also went into her nursery room behind the office, checked on Carole and Jim, and swept that room for bugs also, knowing that the audio/video baby monitors might transmit voices if they weren't careful.

"It's clean." Gayle said. She then brought up a chair very near to Laura's desk so that they could talk in low tones. "You must have something important to discuss." she said as Laura sat down.

"Overabundance of caution." Laura replied. "I've been doing some research since we walked in on that bastard Wargrave sitting in my nursery last October 6th, as has Jack Muscone and his FBI team. My husband believes that Wargrave is connected to the recent string of murders and suicides in this County, and the Muscone Team has been following up on that. Jack has reported to his boss that he thinks he's found a couple of leads that might tie in to Wargrave."

"That's great!" Gayle said, then saw Laura's face. "Er... isn't it?"

"I'm seeing something different." said Laura. "The NSA has picked up on increased communications chatter in this area recently. My Director has been told about it, but the FBI has not. Wargrave has contacts at the highest levels of Government, in the State Department, Homeland Security and Defense Departments, and we are concerned he has contacts inside the NSA, as well, so only a very few people are being informed of this."

"What is the different thing you're seeing?" Gayle asked.

"I think Wargrave is on to Muscone, and he's laying a trail of bread crumbs for Muscone to follow, a trail that will lead to nowhere... or into a trap."

"I understand the 'need-to-know' aspect of this," said Gayle Roberts, "but don't we need to let Mr. Muscone or someone know? Not only to keep him and his team safe, but so he doesn't waste his time?"

"Certainly." said Laura. "But this may also be an opportunity to trap Wargrave, get him to commit to something we can act upon. Then I can unleash the 'Huntress' upon him." Laura did not say out loud that 'Huntress' was the Company's code name for one of the best 'wet boy' snipers they'd ever had... the sniper who had so skillfully eliminated the evil Rev. Jonas Oldeeds. "It is not my intention, nor my Director's, to arrest Wargrave nor bring him into a Courtroom."

"So what are we going to do?" Gayle asked, knowing that Laura Fredricson already had a plan.

"Well, I'm certainly not going to go to the local constabulary about this." Laura said. "But my husband will have to know some of it, to cover for us. And we need to act fast, beginning tonight." Laura then detailed her plan to Gayle.

As Gayle was about to leave to send out the orders to implement Laura's plan, she turned and said "Laura, can I ask you a question?"

"Certainly." said Laura.

"Why do you think Wargrave was in your nursery room that morning?" Gayle asked. "I never was convinced he was just there to scare you and deliver that warning to your husband."

"I've been thinking about that, as has my husband, for weeks now." replied Laura. "Don thinks Wargrave was here for another reason and we surprised him, so he had to go into the nursery but got caught there anyway. We did a super-sweep for bugs and found none, and I keep no Agency files here at all. Nothing was taken, and he left no notes, pictures, or paintings, either; apparently those are saved for my husband. So we're not sure."

At that moment, the baby monitor emitted that most beautiful of sounds: Laura's daughter was awake and singing to herself in her crib. As Gayle went to send out the orders for the plan, Laura went into the nursery.

Carole was in her crib, looking up at the ceiling when her mother's lovely face appeared. "Mama." she said, holding up her arms in a gesture asking to be picked up. Laura did so.

"Hi Carole, how's my girl?" Laura said, holding her daughter at face-to-face level. "You're so pretty today! Are you ready for lunch?"

"Yeh." Carole said, and Laura didn't know if Carole was really answering or just making a noise to hear herself talk...

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

"Thank you for calling, sir. I'll definitely take action, and let you know of my plans." said Henry R. Wargrave. Hanging up the phone after the call ended, he turned in his chair and looked out the windows of his office, thinking as he looked at the view of the City. He reached for his cell phone and made a call, summoning his friend Austin R. Murphy. Murphy arrived within fifteen minutes.

"Have a seat, Austin." Wargrave said as the secretary ushered Murphy into the office. "Would you like something to drink?"

"No thank you, I just had lunch." Austin said, sitting down. "What can I do for you, Hank?" Austin R. Murphy was one of the few people in the world that had been invited to address the billionaire by his nickname.

"First, let me make sure we're not being overheard." said Wargrave. His security man Josh came in with two other men. They swept the room for bugs, including a 'wipedown' of Austin R. Murphy.

"Room is clean, sir." said Josh.

"Thank you, Josh." Wargrave said. After the men left, Wargrave said "I've gotten word that the FBI is trying to track me. It seems they think I'm involved in some sort of industrial espionage in the Iron Crowbar's County. I've left false trails for them to follow, but Muscone sidestepped them... looks like he was warned by the Iron Crowbar, and now Muscone may be getting onto the right track. The Iron Crowbar is seriously inconveniencing me again."

"Are you suggesting we take steps to stop him?" asked Murphy. His words were understood to mean assassinating the Iron Crowbar.

"No, at least not yet." said Wargrave. "I've been told to leave him be. But I think we can take a more effective action, eliminate the FBI threat, and let the Iron Crowbar know that he's in over his head and needs to stick to being a policeman in his County." He told Murphy his plan.

"Sounds good, but it'll bring down heat from Washington." said Murphy.

"Leave that to me." said Wargrave. "No point in having expensive contacts in Washington and within the Federal Government if I can't make use of them."

"Speaking of contacts, Hank," said Murphy, "our new deep cover operative in the County is set up. The police there have no idea."

"Good, but tell him to be damn sure to be careful around the Iron Crowbar. That man..." Wargrave said, going into his own version of a reverie. "Well, let's just say that man is just a wee bit too active for us to continue to mess with. We need to make sure that there continues to be... distractions... for him while we make our move, and while we set up in another location, and with our new partners."

"Yes, sir." said Murphy, wondering who the new partners were, but not asking out loud.

"By the way, has anyone spoken to Katherine Woodburn? To... 'congratulate' her, of course."

"That's being handled over there." said Murphy. "He wants to handle that himself, so I was told." Murphy did not need to say who 'he' was; Wargrave was all too aware. In fact, 'he' was the one who had just phoned Wargrave.

"All right." said Wargrave. "By the way, the big game against our in-state rival, State Tech, is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and it's a home game for us. Do you want to go with me in my plane?"

"Sure, thank you." said Murphy. The State Technical Institute, the University's in-state rival, was northeast of Midtown on the way towards the City. While a conference member, State Tech was an inferior opponent for most teams, and it was imperative for Interim Coach Bronson to defeat them and continue the six-year winning streak against them. Failure to do so would mean that University Trustees Wargrave, Murphy and the others would have to find new coaching.

"It's Nick Eastwood's last game, I hope he'll do well for the NFL scouts that will be there. He's been our badass for several years. He deserves a good pro career." said Wargrave...

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

"This drug case is a big one, and the SBI really threw a wrench into the works with their illegal raid." said District Attorney Gil Krasney. "So Jenna, I want you to use Paulina's help to get us through it and get the convictions. And that case Sharples brought... might as well decline to prosecute it; his sloppiness in making the arrest is so bad that even Judge Watts would throw it out. I'm going to talk to the Chief and the Commander about it; they really need to do something about that guy."

"I've already talked to Lieutenants Croyle and Ross, sir." said Jenna Stiles. "The Police Union is a big problem in them getting Sharples out of the way, but Internal Affairs is trying to get something solid. But the fat guy is slippery as an eel."

"I'll see what I can do." said Krasney. "Okay, that should wrap it up." said Krasney, sitting at the head of the table in the main conference room in the Courthouse building. Present at the mid-afternoon meeting with him and Jenna were ADAs Paulina Patterson, Franklin Washington, Dwayne Gregory, newly-elected Solicitor Miriam Walters, and ADA Savannah Fineman, who was now the Deputy Solicitor at the appointment of Walters and Krasney.

"Sir," said Jenna, "I have one more issue to bring up. The Police Commander has been complaining about my assistant Gor-don using the extra office from time to time. I think it's our office and Gor-don should be able to use if if one of the other ADAs isn't there--"

"Yes, Jenna," Krasney said, cutting Jenna off, and also seeing Paulina roll her eyes, "I've already heard from the Police Chief himself about it. Guys, I want you over there to work with the Police, not develop adversarial relationships with them. The offices aren't really ours; we're there at the courtesy of Chief Griswold and the Police Department. I told the Chief I would speak to all of you about it, and I also told him that Gor-don using the desk space didn't bother me if ADA Stiles has him doing something needing the space. Jenna, keep it circumspect, and don't annoy the Iron Crowbar. Yeah, he's the Department's badass, and he's earned the title-- in both good and bad ways."

"Yes sir." Jenna said, not mollified at all, but not taking the argument further in the public decorum of the meeting.

"Okay, guys, let's get back to work." said Krasney. "Franklin, can you stay a moment?" The room emptied except for Franklin Washington and D.A. Krasney.

"Franklin, I don't normally want to exploit the fact you're the brother of one of the Police Detectives," said Krasney, "but is there anything you can tell me about this business with Jenna's assistant and the Commander?"

Franklin replied "My brother Theo said that Jenna's assistant is using that office all the time, and some of the Detectives, who are in cubicles or offices so small they're worthless, are complaining to the Commander about it. Word is that the Commander and Jenna are at odds about it, and it may come to a head soon. And when things come to a head with the Iron Crowbar..." Washington did not finish the sentence.

"I see." said Krasney. "Okay. I think Jenna is a really great ADA, but she's headstrong, and I definitely don't want Commander Troy getting pissed at us when he's about to be Acting Chief of the Police Force. So here's what I'd like you to do to set the table for me..."

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

"Hi Aunt Laura!" said Todd as Dr. Fredricson entered his office at BOW Enterprises. "You wanted to talk to Barry Oliver? I'll take you right to him. By the way, this is my assistant, Mariko." Todd was referring to a pretty young Asian woman with a very shapely body. Her cheekbones were very high and her eyes very slanted, even for Asian woman, and her legs were exceptionally gorgeous in the very high heels she was wearing. Laura did not need the Iron Crowbar's skills to observe that Todd was fucking and depositing his sperm into this gorgeous woman at least once a day.

The three went through the factory, Todd pointing out some features and equipment, until they reached the research labs. Todd's capacity as company CEO was the only reason Laura was admitted into the area.

"Hey Barry, you remember Dr. Fredricson, my lucky Uncle Don's wife?"

"Sure." said Barry Oliver. "Dr. Fredricson, this is Takaki Taichi, surname 'Takaki'. We call him 'Taro'."




Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 03



"Hello, Taro." Laura said, shaking the Japanese man's hand. He was in his upper 30s or lower 40s, and he was adding weight to his belly but otherwise looked strong. As a doctor, Laura observed that his skin color wasn't quite right, and wondered if he was not fully well. "So 'Takaki' is your family name?"

"Yes ma'am." said Taichi. "We Japanese say our surnames first, then our given names, the opposite of you Americans."

"Of course." Laura said, not mentioning that she fully recognized that surname, and knew just who this man's father in Japan really was. "Taro, and Barry too, I have a request of you. My husband recently gave you some schematics of a remote control device he obtained from a former CIA agent." Laura didn't mention that the former agent was the disavowed and now-imprisoned Alicia Foster. "Here's what I need..." She explained what she needed. "Can you do it?"

Taro said "I've been dabbling with those plans, but I cannot adapt them to what you want. However, I do have another solution for you." He explained the solution.

"That will do perfectly." Laura said.

"See Aunt Laura?" Todd said boastfully. "I told you these guys were good!"

"Yes, they are." Laura said. She made her goodbyes and Todd escorted her back to his office.

"I appreciate you and Jeanine keeping the kids so much." Laura said. "I really owe you."

"We love having them, and so do our kids." said Todd. He then came up to Laura and eased his strong arms around her waist.

"As to owing me, why don't you and Uncle Don think about having some fun with us?" Todd asked. He bent down, not needed to bend far, and began nuzzling Laura's neck as he whispered "Jeanine and I are getting into swinging, and she'd love to fuck Don while I get nuts deep into you."

"Mmmm, sounds good." Laura said, letting her arms encircle her nephew's neck. "Maybe after all this... excitement... dies down, yes?"

Todd kissed Laura's mouth, sliding his tongue past her lipsticked lips and over her tongue, practically into her throat. They deeply kissed for several moments before Laura finally broke it.

"Whew, you're getting me hot and bothered doing that to me." Laura whispered. "I've got to go, but we will continue this, and soon."

"You better believe it." Todd said. After one more kiss goodbye, Todd escorted Laura out of the building.

His ten inch cock thickening at the pleasant thought and aftertaste of Laura's kiss, Todd fished his cellphone out of his pants and made a phone call. He needed sexual relief, and he knew just who would provide it for him...

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

The sun had just set upon the Town & County, ending the daylight of Monday, Nov. 17th. Katherine Woodburn sat alone in her brand-new offices, which were partially furnished. She had opted for different offices than those used by the late Senator Nathan Allen. Except for the position and title of 'State Senator', she wanted nothing in common with her odious predecessor.

It had been an exciting but busy time since she'd been 'elected' State Senator. Her lawyers had easily crushed John Cummings's legal attempts to contest the election and expose the fraud that had put her into power. She had already given instructions to her staff to have the State Internal Revenue Division audit Cummings, and also have allegations made that would require the Federal BAFTE to inquire about Cummings's Federal Firearms License to sell guns at his store. She remembered the words of the late Donovan Donolan, that enemies should be absolutely crushed once they were on their knees. It was too bad Mr. Donolan had not lived to see his philosophy employed by her.

She heard the outer door to her offices closing. "Who's there?" she called out. "Oh, it's you! What can I do for you?" she said, seeing the visitor appear in her office door.

"I came by to congratulate you on your fine win, Senator Woodburn." said her guest. "And to welcome you to the team." The guest was waving a metallic device around the room; Woodburn knew that it was to detect listening devices. The Iron Crowbar was not the only one possessing such devices without proper authority. But the fact her guest had this device spoke to the sheer power that this guest commanded.

"Team?" Woodburn asked, glancing up at her guest.

"Oh yes." said the guest. "Senator Allen knew his place, but got a bit too big for his britches, as the saying goes. Thought he was more of a badass than he really was. I can't say I blame him for some of it; his son's freedom from prison was at stake, and at that he failed, as well. But I'm sure that you'll be a much more trustworthy and reliable ally than he was. And I'm sure that you understand well that helping those that have recently helped you is most essential to your new Senate career."

"Of course. You know that you can count on me." said Woodburn. "Especially when it comes to the Iron Crowbar. I am committed to his destruction."

"I'm glad to hear that." said the guest. "But let me warn you: don't become consumed by the Iron Crowbar. He is a powerful enemy, and he knows how to use your emotions to your own destruction. Both Senator Allen and some of my other people have found that out the hard way. Rein in your hatred of the Iron Crowbar, and I can assure you a hand in the final consequences that will befall him... and his seed."

The guest turned to leave. "I'll be going now. Your mission is to settle into the Senate seat and be ready to fight with us in the SBI battle next year. I cannot understate how important that battle is."

"I'm ready." said Woodburn. Her guest did not reply and she heard the office door shut as the guest left. She contemplated the conversation, believing that, despite the guest's words, she was meant to bring about the extermination of the Iron Crowbar with all the power available for her to muster...

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

"We just got a call from the City." said the leader of the group as they ate supper in their farmhouse hideout. "Our new plan is active. The FBI is getting too close to some of our operations, so we're going to wipe out their local team. Here's the plan..."

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

My mother Phyllis had told us that she was leaving in the morning to go to Apple Grove. One of her friends and a member of her former church, old Mrs. Starnes, had passed on, and my mother was going to go help the family with funeral arrangements. My mom expected to be back over the coming weekend.

"So that's the plan." Laura told me as we got ready for bed. I now understood why she'd swept the Mountain Nest for bugs.

"Pretty elaborate." I said. "Two questions: Think it will work? And second, why tell me?"

"Yes, I think it will work." Laura said. "At least to the point that we can get Wargrave to do something, and then we might have a shot to take him down. And I'm telling you in case you hear of any strange events over the next few days."

"All right." I said, then added teasingly "Sounds crazier than some of the things my mom and Cindy come up with, though."

"You come up with some pretty wild-ass things yourself, stud." Laura said. She came forward and wrapped her long arms around my neck. "You've been the badass in this County for a couple of years now; it's time to show you how much of a badass I can be." She kissed me hard on the mouth.

"Kiss me like that again, and I'll let you show me your badass side any time you like." I said. Laura pulled me to the bed and began showing me what a badass she was... in bed, anyway. And she was one hell of a badass in the areas of intensely pleasurable sex...

Part 11 - Deer Blinds and Funeral Parlors

The morning of Tuesday, November 18th, began strangely. No, not Bettina's newscast, which had no mention of the SBI raid nor anything of significance, but the call that came to me at 9:00am. But it would be a good opportunity, as well. I went to Cindy's office.

"The Duty Desk got a call from Cummings Outdoors." I said. "Break-in there. Sergeant Rudistan called me, said it was one of those strange things that appeal to me personally. So let's get Joanne Cummings to ride with us and head over."

I had Joanne ride 'shotgun' in my Police SUV, with Cindy sitting in the backseat, so that I could talk to Joanne about the upcoming Detective swap. "Detective Cummings, I understand that my Lieutenants have talked to you about moving over to MCD. Now no b.s.ing me, speak frankly: are you good with that?"

"Yes sir!" Joanne said enthusiastically. "Nothing against Vice, but I think MCD is a great opportunity!"

"It should be." I said. "And we'll send you to Detective School next February if all goes well, which I think it will. Ross, we'll formally swap Rose and Cummings on December 1st. The Chief is good with it."

"Yes sir." Cindy said as I pulled into the lot upon which stood Cummings Outdoors. I drove around to the back of the large building, seeing two police cars at a small building behind the larger one. It was the building where harvested and dressed deer were processed and packaged for meat, or else stored until the taxidermist was ready for them. In addition to Rudistan, Morton and Hicks, I saw John Cummings and one of his employees.

"Okay, Rudistan," I said, "why is this worth my while?"

"It's a weird one, sir, and I know you like these things." said Rudistan, in his usual unperturbed, jovial mood. "I'll let Mr. Cummings tell the story."

John Cummings shook my hand as I glanced at him. His electoral defeat and treatment by the Republicans had worn deeply on him; he looked exhausted and listless.

"Mike here processes the deer for meat packaging. Our other man in this department had a death in the family and has been off the last couple of days." said Cummings. "Mike came out this morning and saw that the lock was fastened, but it had been tampered with, as you can see." Indeed, I could see the padlock had been struck with a heavy object, and the door had been jimmied open with what looked like a large crowbar. "Two deer are missing from the inside."

"Open it up, if you will." I said. They did so, and I stepped inside. To the left was a big cooler with deer for processing into various cuts of venison. To the right was the cooler for trophy deer that the taxidermist would be working on. The lock to the cooler on the left also bore signs of being forced, though the one on the right was just fine.

"The deer in the trophy cooler are all accounted for." said Mike. "But two deer from the left side are missing. We'll have to call the owners."

"Why don't you do that now, see if you can get them to come down and give statements to my officers." I suggested. "But before you go, let me ask this: anything unusual about the deer that were stolen? Unusually large?"

"No sir, mid-sized deer." said Mike. "One was a four-point, the other a six-point, but neither was really worth mounting, so the owners were just going to have them processed for the meat."

"Commander, want me to call a Crime Lab team down?" Cindy asked. "Rudistan says you are the only person he's called so far."

"Yeah, have Rudistan call two people down and have them see if any fingerprints show up. I'm not hopeful, though." I said. "Mr. Cummings, do you have any cameras trained on these doors?"

"Yes, and your officers looked at the tape. It's all black, can't see anything. Looks like the cameras were covered or something." said Cummings.

"And where are those cameras?" I asked, mostly to myself as I peered around. Cummings pointed out the cameras, one of each corner of the roof, unobtrusive and virtually undetectable unless you looked hard, which covered the back driveway; and two on the top of the cooler building, that covered the back entrances to the main store.

"So, Detective Cummings," I asked, "what do you make of this?"

"Homeless vagrants hungry for food, breaking in to get some venison?" suggested Joanne Cummings.

"Ross?" I asked. Cindy was peering at the cameras.

"I'm not liking that idea." said Lt. Ross. "Someone disabled the cameras; vagrants would likely not even know the cameras were there, and to climb to the roof and disable them suggests they wanted their identities to be hidden. Vagrants likely wouldn't care about that."

"Yes, good thinking." I said. "I would add something else: this seems like a very strange, unusual crime, but those are the ones that offer the best clues for observation. Not only did these thieves think enough to take out the cameras, they took the time to lock the doors back up. That is indeed interesting to me. I'd say someone came in with a real plan and purpose, and they executed that plan and left as little clue to their identities as possible. Now our question is why they'd want to steal two deer."

"For the blood?" Cindy asked. "Maybe they want to fake a crime scene?"

"No ma'am," Joanne said, drawing upon her hunting knowledge. "These deer have been dressed and drained of blood and the vital organs." Cindy nodded.

"Yes, good thought, Detective Cummings." I said. I was being formal only because Joanne's cousin John was there, listening to us. "No, they want the deer for something, but damned if I know what it is. Rudistan! When you guys interview the deer owners, find out where the deer were harvested, and give them immunity if they harvested them illegally; I just need to know where they shot the deer, and any unusual characteristics of the deer, if any at all."

"Wilco, sir." said Rudistan.

Just then, my police cell phone rang. It was the Duty Desk. "Sir, Frank Freeman Funeral Home is calling. They said something strange happened there overnight. They also said that Pastor Westboro is there, and specifically asked for you."

"Thanks. I'll head there now." I replied, then told the Detectives: "Okay, Pastor Westboro is a Town & County Councilman in addition to being the pastor of a 2000-member church, First Baptist. Let's head on over, Ross. Cummings, you can stay here and work with Rudistan and the Crime Lab, or come with us." I offered.

"I'll come with you." Joanne said. Smart woman, she was.

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

On the trip to the funeral home, Cindy and Joanne fluttered like parakeets, throwing out ideas about the deer cooler break-in while I silently drove. Finally Cindy asked "Commander, what do you think it might have been?"

"No data yet." I said. "Capital mistake to theorize without proper data to back it up. Cummings, if there is only one thing you learn by hanging out with me, let that be the one thing."

Going inside the funeral home, we were met by the assistant director, who brought us back to a room that had an oven for cremations. In the room leading to the cremation room was the director, Pastor Westboro, and three persons who I could see were a family, two men and one woman.

"Hello, Commander, thank you for coming." said Pastor Westboro, shaking my hand. His friendliness was a surprise to me; he very often joined Malinda Adams in politically harassing me. The only other friendly time we'd had was when I'd brought him in with Steven Ikea to meet the Reverend Jonas Oldeeds, just moments before Oldeeds was 'harvested'.

"Pastor." I said. "This is Detective Cummings, and I believe you know Lieutenant Ross."

Westboro shook Joanne's hand politely, then became much more effusive with Cindy. "Why yes, Lieutenant Ross. I was so happy to be able to cast a vote to award you the Medal of Valor. Such bravery! You are fully recovered, I hope?"

"Yes sir, thank you." said Cindy modestly. "How can we help you today?"

"A very strange happening here, very strange." said Pastor Westboro. "This is the Lawson family. Her grandmother passed away Sunday, and I met them here to retrieve her ashes and plan the service. Mrs. Lawson?"

"Yes sir." said the woman, who was thin and looked like she lived on a farm. "Grandmother wanted to be cremated and her ashes spread on the land of our farm. We came here this morning, and my brother Jed here thought something was peculiar. We called Pastor Westboro, and he suggested we call you."

"I am sorry for your family loss, Mrs. Lawson. I will endeavor to get to the bottom of this issue. So what is the peculiarity?" I asked. I noted the funeral director also really wanted to say something.

"Sir, I work at Cummings Outdoors." said Jed, a husky man that reeked of a backwoods upbringing. "We cremate the remains of the deer after we process them. I've seen enough of ashes that I think the ashes in this urn are deer ashes, not human."

"Sir," said the assistant funeral director, his restraint breaking,"I do most of the cremations here, and I agree with Mr. Jed here... those ashes don't look like human ashes we normally see."

"Tell you guys what." I said. "Detective Cummings, will you take Pastor Westboro and the family to an office or perhaps the chapel and get their statements? I am going to talk to the funeral directors, and I don't wish to disrespect the family by having them hear what I need to ask."

Once the family was out of the way, I called Headquarters and asked that Technician Christina Cho specifically be sent to the funeral home. I then turned to the funeral directors and said "I can see that you want to tell me something else."

"Yes sir." said the assistant director. "If you put your hand up to the oven, you can feel that the oven is still warm. It was used last night, but neither of us were here using it. Also, we had four bodies to be cremated. This morning we came in, and two of the bodies were gone, and these urns of ashes in their places. One was the Lawson grandmother, the other an old man whose family has not yet come to fetch the ashes. I don't know what's going on, Officers, but it's strange."

Christina Cho and J.R. Barnes appeared. I explained the situation to them, and asked if there was any way they could confirm if the ashes were the grandmother's, or even human.

"At what temperature do you cremate the bodies?" J.R. asked.

"About 1200 degrees." said the assistant director.

"Commander, that temperature will degrade any DNA." said Christina Cho. "Our only hope is to sift the ashes for a less-burned piece of bone or something, and get something out of that. But I wouldn't hold out much hope."

"The oven was cleaned out after being used, also." said the funeral director.

"Let me ask this." I said, looking into the urn at the ashes, not able to see anything but ashes. "Could something get into the oven or the fuel that might color the ashes differently than normal?"

"Don't know what that could be, nor how." said the assistant director. "But it cannot be excluded as a possibility."

"Good." I said. "That might be my fallback position. Well, this is going to suck... now I have to go ask the family to allow us to take the ashes and essentially desecrate them. Wanna get breveted to Commander, Miss Ross?"

"No sir!" said Cindy, with alacrity. "That's why you get paid the big bucks... pun not intended." My look at Cindy could not be held; I broke down laughing, as did she and the funeral parlor employees.

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

At 7:00am on the morning of Wednesday, November 19th, I was barely breathing as I waited for Bettina's morning report, scared shitless of what she might say of the two strange crimes of the day before.

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" declared the lovely redheaded reporterette. "Channel Two News has learned that Police have no leads in two very strange crimes committed yesterday. The first was a break-in of the deer cooler behind Cummings Outdoors General Store. It's deer season and there is a brisk business in storing and processing deer, but yesterday someone broke in and stole two deer from the cooler.

"State Senator-elect Katherine Woodburn issued a statement that if Cummings can't keep a deer cooler safe, then the assault guns he sells in his stores are also at risk of being stolen, and the guns could find their way into criminal hands. Woodburn has notified the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms, and Explosives, B-A-F-T-E, and requested they suspend Cummings's Federal Firearms License pending a full investigation of Cummings and his business operations."




Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 03



"In a second bizarre crime, Police were called to the Frank Freeman Funeral Home, where it is believed someone broke in the night before. The Funeral Home says that there was no damage and no bodies were harmed nor desecrated. Police believe the break-in may have been just a prank by teenagers."

As Chuck Pringle gave the boring sports report, seeing that the University's Bulldogs had an open date before the finale against State Tech, Cindy Ross said to me: "Whew, I think we dodged one. Bettina didn't talk about the possibly stolen ashes of the Lawson woman."

"That's because I sealed the police reports, so the Press only got the information that there was a break-in." I said. "I cited family privacy and respect for the deceased during the ongoing investigation. My final report, which by the way will be written by me personally, will not mention the crazy shit about possible deer ashes and such. What did Joanne have to say?"

"She did well." Cindy said. "She connected the two events, but has no idea why someone might bring the deer from Cummings Outdoors to the funeral home to be cremated. Neither do I, for that matter. We're wondering if this is some sort of University fraternity prank."

"Could well be." I said. "By the way, Jack Muscone and his FBI team are flying to Washington this afternoon, and taking some evidence on their plane with them. I told them that you and I will be there to help guard the evidence, so be ready."

"O-kayyyy." said Cindy. She was learning; she didn't say anything else, but I caught her glancing at me several times.

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

As I came out of my office at 8:00am, I saw a very pretty woman moving some stuff into the desk in the anteroom, in front of Paulina's office. Paulina was in the doorway to her office.

"Ah, Don," said Paulina, "just the man I needed to see. I want you to meet my assistant and paralegal, Yvonne Newton. She's going to be here at this desk while I'm here in this office. Our workload is rising, thanks to your Detectives' abilities to solve so many more crimes."

The woman was slender and thin, with short black hair and nice legs. "You're Detective Julie Newton's sister?" I asked, very sure, as I shook her hand.

"Why yes sir, I am." said Yvonne. "Did she tell you I was going to be working here?"

"No." I said, "But I can see the family resemblance. Welcome to Police Headquarters. I hope to have my own assistant as this other desk to keep you company by the New Year..."

I carried on, not only thinking of getting my own assistant, which I would need to help with my increasing paper workload, but of the Gor-don situation in the other office... a situation that would need resolving, and soon.

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

"I'm sorry, sir," said Christina Cho in my office later that morning, in the company of J.R. Barnes, "there were no ashes that allowed for any possibility of DNA or other cellular testing. I tried running a small sample of ashes against a human sample from the morgue and a deer sample from Cummings Outdoors, but my tests were totally inconclusive."

"Don't apologize for that." I said. "In fact, it might be for the best. Let me ask both of you this: is there anything, anything at all, to exclude the possibility that these ashes are of old Mrs. Lawson?"

"No sir." said J.R. Christina shook her head.

"So if I twist the English language to say that these ashes are likely the ashes of the old woman, I won't be committing perjury, will I?"

"No sir." said Christina. "Certainly we cannot prove such a statement to be intentionally incorrect."

"Good." I said. "I'm going to tell the family that it is my belief the ashes are the grandmother's despite Mr. Jed's belief they are not, that perhaps some contaminants got into the oven when the body was being cremated, making the ashes look slightly different than normal, and that this strange case is just a strange coincidence. Any issues with that from either of you?"

"No sir." said Christina. "If I'm ever asked, I'm going to say there simply is no way to prove otherwise." J.R. Barnes nodded agreement.

Part 12 - Final Flight

The County Airport was a bit busier than normal that afternoon. It was overcast, and the wind was just beginning to pick up a bit. The small, sleek, white and blue jet was near the tower. Two white vans pulled up nearby.

"Sir," said the driver of one of the vans to FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone, "Special Agent Lester Craig asked if you could take these crates to Washington." He handed Muscone a manifest and a letter from Agent Craig.

"Yeah, sure, we've got room. Go ahead and load 'em up before we put the other stuff on board." Muscone said agreeably, then turned to me. "As I was saying, we should be back in the City by the day before Thanksgiving. My team will want to spend Thanksgiving with their families." 

"As long as you come spend your Thanksgiving with me and my family." I said, knowing that Jack Muscone really had no family to visit. "Molly's coming up, and I told Cindy and Teresa to come also, and told them that was not a request. I think they're secretly happy."

"Yeah, I sympathize with them, especially Teresa." said Jack. "You guys really are her family." I agreed as I watched three crates, four foot by four foot by four foot, being loaded onto the plane. Then other workers began loading Jack's crates into the back of the craft...

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

"Yeah, some guys in coveralls are loading crates on the plane." said the spotter as he watched the loading through binoculars from the woods to the north of County Airport. "Okay, Muscone and his team are boarding... there's the redhead woman, her cop boyfriend kissing her goodbye... the curly-head woman and the Spic guy..."

"You don't have to narrate their every move." Keeler said.

"Shut up, you old fart." said the radio man. "I'm relaying this into the radio."

"Okay," said the spotter, "that redhead police officer with the crowbar is at the door of the plane... his wife, the Deputy CIA Director is at the door of the control tower waiting room.... that blonde policewoman is with her... the loaders are coming off the plane... they just closed the door. Radio the team leader that it's done, the cargo is loaded." The radio man sent the message.

"Okay..." said the spotter, "the cops and the CIA woman are getting in the Police SUV and driving away... the plane is taxiing to the end of the runway... wow, it's getting windy, the plane is jerking around a bit... okay, there it goes..."

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

Martin Nash had left in his car after kissing Sandra Speer goodbye. I waved goodbye to Jack's plane as it began moving out, then got into my Police SUV, in which Laura and Cindy were already waiting.

As I drove down the road to the entrance gate of County Airport, the plane behind me began taking off as the skies turned darker gray. Laura was riding shotgun and Cindy was in the back.

"Whoa, something doesn't sound right." Laura said, her head whipping around to look out the window. Just then I caught the sound. The plane was just clearing the ground, but seemed to sputter--

***KA-BOOM!!!***

"Holy shit!" I yelled in total shock as the shock wave of the explosion impacted my body. I almost overturned the SUV as I whipped it around 180 degrees and hit the gas, instinctively hitting the blue lights and siren. As the plane hit the ground in a fireball right at the end of the runway, I tore down the apron and then the runway itself, the blue lights casting an eerie glow on the concrete of the tarmac. I called into my radio for police and fire units to respond. The Airport had one Fire Engine; it was pulling out right behind me, red lights blazing.

We got to within 30 feet of the outskirts of the debris when I hit the brakes. The fire truck went on past me before stopping, firemen racing to get hoses out and foam on the burning wreck. I got out of the car, feeling more than seeing Laura come up to my side, Cindy somewhere right behind me.

"Oh my God, oh my God..." I gasped. Laura came up to my side and put her arms around me, possibly thinking I'd try to go forward into the wreck. But it was too late for that. I put my arm around my wife as we looked on in shock, neither of us able to do a damn thing about our friends in what was left of that plane...

To be continued.



Seriously Inconvenienced 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, Ch. 1-4.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, extreme language, and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial or racist language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

Part 13 - Debris

Two hours after the explosion and crash of the FBI jet at County Airport, I watched, still in disbelief at what I was seeing in front of me. Martin Nash had returned to the airport upon hearing the crash, he was also in shock but looked as if he couldn't decide whether to get sick or to cry. I knew how he felt.

The Crime Lab was scouring the scene, and a lot of evidence had been collected, including the obvious indications that a bomb had exploded just as the plane had lifted into the air just before it cleared the end of the runway. I watched as our best bomb dog, K-9 Sergeant Seymour, scoured the area. He was having a field day (pun not intended) finding the remnants of the bombs that had detonated.

Fire Marshal Zoe Singer directing her arson and bomb investigators, helping my team collect evidence. We both knew it was important to do as much as we can before the Federal teams from the FBI and NTSB got here. It was also fortunate I was an FBI Consultant; otherwise the Federales would be pissed at us, but I knew that between Laura and myself we could push back effectively.

But none of it took away the shock as I looked at the five charred bodies lying side-by-side, which had been recovered from the debris, now shrouded in blue body bags...

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

"Okay..." said the spotter. "We've got one reddish blonde police officer in shock waving his crowbar everywhere, his wife is crying, the other police officer in the suit can barely stand up, the blonde policewoman talking to the Fire Marshal... those babes are hot, I'd love to fuck 'em both right now..."

"Boss wants to know about casualties." said the radio man. After another moment, the spotter replied:

"Five bodies, one pilot and four dead FBI agents... a great day all around, gentlemen."

"They just sent congratulations and said we can exit the area." said the radio man.

"Yes, let's very slowly get out of these woods before someone has the bright idea to search the area." said the spotter, securing his binoculars in their case on his belt. The well-trained mercenaries extricated themselves and left the scene, easily avoiding detection.

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

"There's nothing more you can do here, Crowbar." said Chief Griswold, who was now on the scene. "The Crime Lab is processing the evidence. Muscone's boss called, he's going to want to talk to you later tonight. You guys go back to Headquarters."

Seeing me not move, still dazed, the Chief ordered "Sergeant Rudistan! drive the Commander, his wife and Lieutenant Ross back to Headquarters in the Commander's SUV." Rudistan complied, not a trace of joviality on his features at this dark moment. It began to rain as we pulled out.

Part 14 - Lakeside Views

Thursday, November 20th. Of course the day began with the news, which meant the one and only Bettina!

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News! Channel Two News has learned that the explosion and crash of the FBI's plane at County Airport was very likely the result of a bomb planted on the plane before it took off. The FBI is not making any statements, not even confirming the deaths of four of their agents and the pilot of the plane. Town & County Police Chief Griswold issued a statement that the local Police are working with the FBI, Homeland Security, and the NTSB to determine exactly what happened. Channel Two News will bring you any information as we learn it..."

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

The sun was rising over Lake Amengi-Nunagen in the mountains to the north-by-northwest of the County and State, some two hours drive away from the disaster at County Airport.

"So, Martin," I said as Nash and I sat on the front porch of the cabin, "that's the gist of it. This rogue CIA cell's last remnants are likely the ones that planted the bomb on the plane."

"Wow." said Nash. "That's a lot of stuff that's been going on. Of course we Detectives were getting bits and pieces..." He was dressed in his suit and tie as always, looking a bit out of place in this wilderness and this rustic cabin. None of the hunters who had other cabins in the area realized that this was an FBI safehouse, and a place where FBI agents occasionally retreated to in order to plan operations.

"Yes," I said, "I really couldn't tell all of you any more than I did. Some of it is classified stuff at the Federal level. Of course, my question is: 'Why our County?' Why are they operating in our County, Martin?"

"All the industrial and University research that's there to be spied upon?" suggested Nash.

"Possibly." I said. "But I think it may be more than that."

"By the way, did you get pictures of the delivery men bringing in those crates?" Nash asked.

"Yes." I said. "But they had their hats on pretty low to their heads, so we don't have much."

"Did anyone contact Special Agent Lester Craig?" Martin asked.

"Yes, Jack did. He called Craig to let him know that Jack and the team wasn't really dead." I replied. "Craig said he did not send up anything to be taken to Washington, so the bomb was likely in one of those crates."

"But why was Muscone and his team targeted?" Nash asked.

"That's a question I'd like to hear the Iron Crowbar answer, also." said a voice behind me... the voice of FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone!

He also wore his standard suit and tie. His team, still inside eating breakfast, were taking advantage of the situation and wearing comfortable clothing.

"Don't get me wrong, Don." said Jack. "I'm grateful to your wife for sniffing out the plot and arranging this subterfuge. But why were we targeted?"

"Laura believes that you were getting too close to Wargrave, that he was feeling the heat." I said. "She also believes Wargrave wants to move on something, and needed to get you out of the way in order to do it. She's hoping that Wargrave will move now, and quickly, while the FBI seems to be confused and preoccupied with your 'deaths'."

"Let's go inside and check with the radio guys." said Muscone. We went into the cabin. At the table, eating breakfast, was my wife Laura, Sandra Speer, Eduardo Escobar, Lindy Linares, and one of the FBI radio listeners, all in jeans and flannel shirts. We went past them into a back room, which had been set up with all sorts of electronic equipment.

"Nothing yet, sir." said one of the two other radio listeners. "And reports from the City are that Wargrave stayed at home all night, and he's made no unusual phone calls. He talked to his associate Austin L. Murphy about an hour after the plane crash. Murphy has made several calls to media people and to other University Regents, but nothing else out of the ordinary for him. Wargrave also talked to the University President, Dr. Wellman, for nearly an hour last night. Nothing since, and no other phones in use at his residence nor offices."

"I'm not liking this." said Laura, turning to us from her place at the breakfast table. "I thought for sure he would've called Conrad King and others that we know he works with outside his legitimate businesses."

"Anything on King?" asked Muscone. "What about Fred Dixon in New York?"

"The NTSB called a cell phone we believe is Dixon's." the radio man said.

"Wanna bet NTSB Investigator Fred Dixon appears at the crash site today?" I asked, meaning it rhetorically.

"Would he dare, after what you told him in San Jose?" Jack Muscone replied.

"He might." I said, then realized something. "Ohhhhh..." I declined to elaborate further.

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

Later that afternoon, Laura and I were speeding back to the cabin in the jeep that came with the FBI cabin. She looked smoking hot in the tight blue jeans and snug flannel shirt she was wearing, and I had been aching to get a chance to fuck her brains out.

We had been looking at properties in the area, as both Laura and I had discussed buying a place that would serve as a getaway, much the way Melina's property had been a getaway for my ex-wife and myself when we'd been married. Unfortunately, Laura and I had found no properties with lakefront to Lake Amengi-Nunagen that we liked. In fact, Laura had decided she didn't think much of the Lake itself, and I was glad to hear that, as I didn't like the area, either.

The radio in the jeep had called us back in. When we got to the cabin, I was told that Lt. Cindy Ross had called from Police Headquarters in our Town. We had no cellphone reception this far out; the FBI's equipment had detected that there was a phone call... how, I didn't know, and didn't really want to find out. I used a special FBI satellite phone to call Cindy, which allowed me to type in my name so that it would show up on Cindy's caller-ID. Ain't Federal Government technology wonderful? I thought acerbically to myself.

"You guys might as well come back." Ross reported after hearing my voice on the phone. She told me why, and I was not surprised...

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

Driving in our rented car, Laura and I got back to Town and to Police Headquarters that evening around 7:00pm, and went straight to Cindy's office, where Tanya Perlman and Teresa Croyle also were.

"We went to lunch," said Cindy, "and when we got back, this was on my desk. I haven't touched it, but the Crime Lab did check it for prints and foreign substances. 'No joy' on that, so far."

It was a map, one of those Government topography maps, of the Lake Amengi-Nunagen area. There was a red cross and circle, like a target, right on the spot where the FBI's cabin was situated.

"Why put it here in Cindy's office?" Teresa asked. "Why not in yours, Commander?"

"So that you would find it and call me." I replied as I examined the map. I was not looking at the marking where the cabin was, but something else that was at the edge of the map, east of where we'd been.

"Check out the note that was attached to the map." said Teresa Croyle. I did so, picking it up, then handing it to Laura. My wife looked disgusted; I was grinning and trying not to laugh.

The note read: "DEER me, Mr. Holmes, DEER me."

"Shit!" gasped Laura. "They found out. The fucking bastards found out." Meanwhile, I was chuckling as I got out my cellphone and left a message for Jack Muscone's radio operatives, telling him that the ruse had not worked and that they could- and should- return.

Part 15 - The Failed Ruse

While waiting for the FBI team to come back, I went into my office... and immediately called out "Ross! Has anyone been in this office while I was away?"

"No, sir, not that I know of." Cindy replied as she came to the door. "But the door wasn't locked-" She stopped when she saw what had gotten my attention: there was a book in the middle of my desk. It was a copy of the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, those pertaining to the characters Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson, M.D.

As I looked at the book, I noted that a page was marked with what looked like a photograph. I opened the book, noting that it was the page of the story A Scandal In Bohemia. The photo was a duplicate one of Laura and myself taken during our wedding, which sat upon her desk in her office. Laura's face was marked in a red circle and cross, similar to the marking on the map in Cindy's office, and scrawled below were the words "THE Woman".

"Ho-lee shit." Cindy breathed.

"Cindy, you and Teresa were helping with my kids at Todd and Jeanine's." I said. "Who's with them now?"

"Probably no one, police-wise." Cindy said. Teresa tore out of the room, which she'd entered right behind Cindy.

A few moments later she was back. "Rudistan and Morton are on the way there, and will stay until I get back tonight. You've authorized them overtime, by the way, Commander. I talked to Todd, and he's also going to have Seth Warner come over. Seth can spend the night, as will I."

"Thank you, Teresa." I said. "Put yourself down for three hours of overtime, also, though I can't authorize it for the entire night."

"Oh, don't bother with all that." Laura said. "I'll be picking the kids up later tonight."

"Let's talk about that first." I said to my wife as I looked at the book. As I flipped through the pages, a flash of yellow caught my eye. Turning to that page, I noted that it was from the story The Final Problem. The yellow was a highlighted line, which read "They set fire to our rooms last night...

I sat down and had a long, long reverie, thinking very deeply, virtually meditating. I let my mind go in many directions as I let everything coalesce into the correct picture. When I finally came out of it an hour later, only Laura was with me in my office. She was watching me.

"You knew, didn't you?" Laura said, halfway between a question and an accusation. "You knew they were onto us..."

"I had an idea." I admitted. "When the FBI guys said Fred Dixon had been called, I realized that they would only send him here if I, Your Iron Crowbar, was not in the County to intercept him and make good on my promise to him. So I figured the bad guys knew about the ruse, and I was going to say something when we got back from looking at properties."

"But Don," said Laura, "our children..."

"Honey, I do not let a second go by that I don't think of our children's safety." I said, "But to what you are thinking: first, we were two hours away and there was nothing to be done as I figured this out. Also, I think the kids were safe and will continue to be safe at Todd's: they live in a gated community and the security at the front gate is very good about verifying anyone who goes in. With Seth and Teresa also there overnight, I'd be shocked if there would be any problems there."

"And second, as to this photo of us in the book here..." Our eyes locked in understanding as I finished the sentence: "... I think we now know what Wargrave was doing in your office that morning you caught him in the nursery. He took a photo of the photo on your desk."

"Jesus, he was planning that since then?" Laura asked, stunned. "He knew I'd try this that far ahead of time?"

"No." I said. "I think it was a contingency, that he'd send that threat if I got on his track too far. Obviously, my love, we have indeed gotten on the train on that track, and it is leaving the station as we speak..."

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

It was now 9:30pm and in the main conference room were Chief Griswold, myself, Cindy Ross, Martin Nash, Jack Muscone and his FBI Team, my wife Laura, and her assistant and fellow CIA agent, Gayle Roberts. The FBI Team had just gotten back from Lake Amengi-Nunagen.

"So, Dr. Fredricson," said the Chief, "tell me again exactly what this plan was."

"As everyone in here knows," said Laura, "I received information that led me to believe that the remaining criminals from the late Jody Corrigan's rogue CIA team was going to try to kill Jack Muscone and his FBI team, by planting a bomb on an FBI plane. So I made it easy for them, leaking information that the team was going to board a plane here at County Airport. It apparently worked, and the perps did plant that bomb.

"But what they did not know, at least I thought they didn't, was that the FBI team and pilot got back off the plane dressed as workers putting crates aboard. The crates had dead bodies in them, which were placed in the seats. The plane was remotely rolled out, and it was actually our bomb that exploded on takeoff... in a plane that had no living persons aboard. However, it appears that Wargrave's team did know of the ruse, and sent these messages in the map and book."

"I have a question." said Jack Muscone. "Who knew about this from the beginning? Maybe someone said something to the wrong person and it got around to the wrong ears."

Laura replied "Me, Gayle, all of you in here except the Chief and Cindy-"

"Cindy knew." I said. "I did not risk the wrath of the blue crowbar by not telling her what was up and why I'd be out of the office. We can add to the list several FBI agents, including Les Craig and Jack's boss."

"Also your nephew Todd, Barry Oliver and Takaki Taichi." said Laura. "They rigged the remote control device that got the plane to taxi and then take off."

"You know..." I said, my mind going into overdrive, "I'm not sure that anyone who knew spilled it. And I'm not sure that your ruse failed in and of itself." My voice was a bit hollow as my mind was still far off, trying to put puzzle pieces in place. "But at some point the perps did catch on, and the message in Cindy's office showed that they had figured out just how the ruse was done."

"And how was that?" Cindy asked, then adroitly added "I'm not sure the Chief knows."

"Laura, you don't say a word." I said. "It would be a confession to a crime, albeit misdemeanors. What happened, Chief, is that someone broke into the deer cooler at Cummings Outdoors. They took two deer, and transported them to the Frank Freeman Funeral Home, where they cremated them. Two deceased human bodies, meant for cremation, were taken from the funeral home. Those bodies, as well as three others, were then brought onto the plane and placed in seats. The already-dead bodies were the ones recovered from the crash."

"Good grief." said the Chief. "Messing with a funeral parlor is bad enough, but even worse is that you guys are wreaking havoc on my poor County Airport. And the reason was to make these perps, which I gather is the remnant of that rogue CIA cell, expose themselves?"

"No, not exactly." said Laura. "The goal was to flush out the person I think is leading what's left of that team."

"That would be one Henry Wargrave." I said. "But that is not all: I have a new theory that I want to run by all of you."

"Is this where I get to swing a crowbar at you to make you think better?" Cindy quipped, blue crowbar in hand and at the ready.

"Close." I said, waving my red crowbar back in her general direction as I tried not to grin at Cindy's 'pawky' sense of humor. "And you might just swing it at me afterwards when you hear how hair-brained this is."

I sat upright in my seat and said "Ladies and gentlemen, there's been a certain repartée between myself and Henry Wargrave along Sherlock Holmes/Professor Moriarty lines. However, I realized today that, to quote Spock's father Sarek, 'it is possible that I have been in error'."

That got everyone's attention. "You? In error?" said Jack Muscone, his voice trying to be teasing, but serious surprise on his face, matching everyone else's. "Is that even possible?"

"Well, it's not the first time." I said. "Any time I'm not in alignment with my wife, I am of course in error." The Chief laughed and nodded as Laura looked at me funny.




Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 04



"I see that the Iron Crowbar knows the true secret of a happy marriage. Take notes, Nash, Escobar." Griswold said. Martin Nash and Sandra Speer both blushed. Eduardo Escobar was also a married man, and he just nodded as The Chief said "Go ahead, Crowbar."

I said "In the Conan Doyle stories, Professor Moriarty had a top assistant, a Colonel Moran, who was a big-game hunter in India and who was the action-taker, and who tried to shoot Sherlock with an air-gun. Well... it's occurred to me that Henry Wargrave is the action-taker, the international hunter, i.e. arms dealer, and that Wargrave is working for someone else, who is the real Professor Moriarty! The real Moriarty hides in the shadows, not getting his hands dirty, and Wargrave has been doing the dirty work for a while now."

"Oh wow." I heard someone say, then I heard Cindy (of course) say "And how did you arrive at that conclusion?"

"It goes like this." I said. "I've been wondering for a long, long time why this Town and County has been the base location of these criminals' various operations. Why Ned was here, why Corrigan and Bartholomew Scott were here, why Ward Harvester and DynaCorp were involved, the Langs, the Fosters, Trish Donolan, Cat Clausen, and all that. Maybe even the Black Widow choosing to come here. I've always wondered 'Why?'."

I continued: "Oh, I know that there is industry and research and the School here. And Henry Wargrave is an alumnus, booster and Regent of the University, as well. But he's based in the City and always has been; this Town becomes important to him only when the University is involved, and of course when the football team is playing."

The last line had been meant semi-humorously, but my audience was too enraptured to realize it, so I just continued: "Yes, Wargrave has been the 'contact' man, if you will, and I think he's been behind some of the things going on. He may have been behind this attempt to kill you FBI agents. But now... I think I'm seeing another presence, the real spider in the center of the web, feeling every vibration of that web, knowing every thing that is going on, and being the true root cause of a lot of the criminal activity we've been facing."

Seeing the eyes looking intently at me, I said "Wargrave has played the Moriarty/Holmes game with me, which was actually started by me at my first confrontation with him. And he was happy to let me believe that he was the brains and the power in the County. But while he's a smart and extremely dangerous adversary, he's not the spider at the center of the web."

"So who is?" asked the Chief.

"That, I'm not sure of." I said. "But I can say this... the real Moriarty, the real crime boss, the real espionage power... he's basing here because he lives here, works here. In other words, our 'Moriarty' is a local resident. This is his home."

"His?" Cindy asked with a hint of a sarcasm.

"Or her," I said, "but I'm assuming for now that it's a man, no offense intended. But he has slipped, to the point that I can guess at the possibility of his existence."

"How did you even get to that?" my wife asked, total shock in her voice. As I was about to answer, I noted the merest gleam in the Chief's eyes. I answered anyway.

"The two messages left in mine and Cindy's offices." I said. "I believe that they were left separately. In this case, the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing. Now the message in my office was left by Wargrave, through his agents. It's a threat upon my wife, whom Wargrave hates immeasurably." I was remembering the words told me by Dr. P. Harvey Eckhart.

I did not give Laura nor the group time to contemplate that as I said further "I think the message in Cindy's office was left by the real Moriarty. He got wind of the plan early; he knew to not take action that would give himself away. By way of contrast, Wargrave was in the City the whole time, and he was likely the action figure behind the attempt on our FBI friends here."

I added: "And that's why I think Wargrave didn't detect the ruse. He was too 'into' his own plan, and didn't realize we were turning the tables on him. He deliberately avoided being in the County when the crash occurred, he stayed off the phones just in case someone looked into his communications.

"However, 'Moriarty' caught on, and after the crash told Wargrave somehow, and then both had the separate bright ideas to send us little notes. Moriarty's was left in Cindy's office so that she'd find it and quickly tell us. The other was left in my office, where it might not have been found for some time. Ergo, Moriarty wanted us to know he knew; Wargrave didn't know or care."

"Why do that?" Martin Nash asked. "I mean, why send the map? Why not just let us think we've fooled them and sit there twiddling our thumbs?"

"Egos and emotions." I said. "The real Moriarty wanted us to know we'd been found out, to demoralize us but also to let us know that he knows. And Cindy, that's one reason I think 'Moriarty' is a man: a woman would have done as Martin suggested. A woman would've set aside her ego long enough to act sensibly." Cindy nodded and the women in the room grinned.

"As to Wargrave," I said, continuing, "I think he realized what happened, saw that we were coming after him, and became really angry. The note in Cindy's office was meant to be semi-humorous but condescending. The note in my office conveyed direct threats against Laura, here. All in all, two separate messages."

"Let's not kid ourselves here, folks." said Chief Griswold. "Wargrave didn't become a billionaire playing nice, and I mean no insult when I say he may be too big for us local officers trying to protect one county. I'm hoping you FBI guys can bring in some resources to help combat him, but in any case, you all be very careful, and don't let what we've discussed get out of this room."

The Chief turned to Laura and said "I can offer you police protection, Dr. Fredricson, but I'll defer to your husband on that, and also let you figure it all out at your level." By that he meant the Federal FBI/CIA level, I realized as the Chief finished: "In any case, you guys keep your eyes peeled, especially you, Crowbar. They've tried to kill you three times, I don't want a fourth attempt to be successful."

"I don't want for there to be a fourth attempt at all." Laura said. "And yes, we have resources we can bring to bear on this situation."

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

Laura hung up the phone after talking to Jeanine Burke. I had been talking to Teresa Croyle on my cellphone.

"Jeanine says the kids are all asleep, having had fun with each other all day, and the grownups are going to bed soon, totally exhausted."

I said "Teresa said we have two officers in an unmarked car in the driveway of Todd's house, well inside the shadows, and we have two other unmarked cars parked and watching the entrance to the subdivision, not to mention double our normal patrols driving through the area."

I began getting ready for bed, but noticed that Laura was looking out the window. "Honey, you okay?" I asked.

Laura sighed. "I guess I'm not the badass I thought I was, and certainly not what I used to be."

I went up behind her and put my arms around her. "You're my badass, and I love you for it. But don't worry about it; this is not the first time we've tried something that didn't work out."

"I know. Let's sit down." Laura said. She sat in the chair in the corner as I sat down on the bed. "When you said that about there being someone else, someone besides Wargrave and maybe over him, it made so much sense with me. I... and the Agency... have been very aware of the espionage situations here, which is one reason I came here in addition to overseeing Dr. Heinz's projects, and I'm sure you've figured out that it's why we had such a presence in DynaCorp.

She continued: "But it never quite made sense; Wargrave was always on the radar, but he never could be connected to a lot of things, and now we can see that he was acting as a distraction to move our attention away from the truth."

Laura took a breath, then said "When the Chief and the others brought you here, I had already fallen in love with you... but I really didn't think you'd get even this far. You've solved many crimes in the most brilliant fashion, but I never thought you'd be following and connecting these threads like no one I have ever known could do, except perhaps your mother. And the way my plan failed... what you said about women and their egos was right... but my ego is still feeling battered right now. You're the badass, I'm the has-been..."

I went over, but my hands under Laura's armpits and suddenly picked her up and flung her onto the bed. I jumped on top of her, covering her body with my own. "You are not a has-been, and never will be." I said, "And now I'm going to be the badass of the County- making love to the hottest babe in the world." I then began suiting the deed to the word, but as I nuzzled my wife's neck I had no idea that part of what was getting her aroused was thinking of the hot kiss she'd shared with my nephew Todd...

Part 16 - Night of the Long Penises

"Oh my God." said Jeanine Olivet Burke as she collapsed onto one of the sofas in the game room. The babies, all four of them, were asleep in the next room. "It's been fun having all the kids, but they are exhausting. I am so glad you guys were here to help."

"It was fun." said Seth Warner. He sat down next to Jeanine, handing her a drink. He had one of his own and was sipping it. "I think Carole considers herself one of the babysitters." Jeanine was wearing a red dress with black patterns upon it, and high heel black pumps. Seth was wearing a button-down shirt and slacks.

On the other sofa sat Todd Burke and Teresa 'Cunt' Croyle, also drinking. Todd was wearing a polo/golf shirt and slacks, but Teresa was wearing a tight t-shirt, cut-off blue jeans ('Daisy Dukes') and her favorite sneakers. They were simple white tennis shoes, well used and a bit dirty, and Todd knew that whenever Teresa wore those shoes she wanted to get fucked by his big cock. He intended to oblige her, and was getting aroused by her scent as well as the warmth of her body next to him.

Todd and Teresa had started drinking earlier, and were both getting a buzz. "That girl is going to be a handful when she gets older." Teresa said. "Does that run in the family, Todd?"

"You know it." Todd said. "I'm sure she'll be just as sweet and mindful as her Cousin Todd was growing up."

"Why do I have the feeling that's not 100% true?" asked Teresa, nestling into Todd.

"I have a feeling that she'll be more than able to handle those bad boys like I was, growing up, that will try to corrupt her morals." said Todd as he put his left arm around Teresa's shoulders. He then leaned over and began nuzzling her neck.

"Ohhhh... I'll give you two hours to stop that." said Teresa, enjoying the seductive foreplay. Jeanine didn't seem to mind, either; she watched her husband and the hot dirty-blonde policewoman as they began sharing kisses.

"Seth, you're not going to let them show us up on that, are you?" Jeanine asked as she turned to Seth. He did not fail, and pressed his mouth onto Jeanine's. As he sank his tongue into the black-haired beauty's mouth in a deep kiss, he was amazed at what was progressing, and how rapidly.

When he broke the kiss with Jeanine, Seth looked up and was shocked to see that Todd was already naked. He was sitting on the sofa, his massive, ten-inch-long weapon of lust sticking straight up, veins criss-crossing along the thick shaft as the huge helmet of Todd's cockhead strained upwards. Teresa had just taken off her shirt, exposing her large, firm breasts, her large nipples hard and pointing out like spikes, and she was settling back on the sofa to Todd's left in a way she could lean over him and begin sucking his huge man-meat.

"Oh, that's good!" Todd breathed as Teresa's mouth descended upon his huge meat pole. Teresa moaned through a mouthful of cock as she easily absorbed over seven inches into her throat. It took some time, but she worked her mouth down until she was hungrily gobbling up virtually all of Todd's cock.

Seth was amazed at the fellatio he was watching, even as he and Jeanine were exploring each other's bodies. Then Jeanine whispered for him to undress her and she stood up, facing Todd and Teresa.

Teresa kept sucking Todd as if his cock were the only thing in existence, but Todd was watching his wife. Their eyes locked as Seth undid Jeanine's dress, then slid it down her body. Todd watched as Seth cupped Jeanine's big breasts, massaging them until her nipples were hard. Then Seth's left hand dipped to Jeanine's fur-lined snatch, and he began to play with her cuntlips and clit, finally finding her hole and sinking his bird finger knuckle-deep into the sopping wet slit.

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

The Toyota Camry drove up the road at just under the speed limit. The patrolling police car on the other side of the road gave it a good hard look, as did the parked police car at the entrance to the road to Todd and Jeanine's inlet. The middle-aged man did not act as if he were looking for any house in particular, and looked surprised when his eyes caught the eyes looking at him through the police car's windows. He drove on.

He drove out of that neighborhood and back towards his home in a more seedy neighborhood south of Downtown. The tiny cameras mounted to his car had already transmitted their digital data to a collection point, where it was already being analyzed.

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

"Yeah, fuck her, Todd!" Jeanine almost yelled. Teresa's head was on a pillow on the floor, being forced down by Todd's powerful hand. Teresa's luscious ass was high up as she was on her knees, and Todd was slamming his huge mean deep into Teresa's pussy from behind. Teresa loved being fucked hard like this, almost forced into this position, feeling the pressure on her neck, unable to do anything but take the man's powerful male thrusts into her sopping wet, exposed womanhood.

For her part, Jeanine was loving watching Todd's hard groin smack into Teresa' firm, luscious ass as he pounded her cunt with his huge meat. Jeanine could see her husband's big cock sliding out of Teresa's filled cunt, only to watch him shove that slab of man-mean back into the hot policewoman with a driving thrust of his muscular ass. It looked as if Todd were easily fucking Teresa, his hands on her upper back to keep her head down, but in truth he was fucking her with tremendous power, and Jeanine could see that he was bathed in a sheen of sweat, as was Teresa, as the coupled with deep, wet intensity.

Jeanine was lying on her right side on the sofa, with Seth behind her, fucking her in a 'spoons' position. When they'd first began fucking, Seth came very quickly; he had not had sex in a long while, he admitted. Jeanine stroked him back to hardness, which also came quickly for the young man, and they began fucking again. This time, Seth had plenty of control, and he was pumping Jeanine's sperm-filled cunt into a messy, creamy lather.

Todd looked over at his wife as he brutally fucked the hot older policewoman whose ass and pussy had been so eagerly offered for his taking. He saw Jeanine reach back and pull Seth's face to hers, straining her lovely neck as they kissed deeply, her breasts proudly jutting out for Todd to admire. But Todd most enjoyed the clear sight he had of Jeanine's pussy being filled with another man's large, nine inch cock. Jeanine had her left foot on Seth's hip, and Seth's hand was pushing up her thigh to make sure their coupled loins were easily visible to the other couple that was rutting hotly on the floor.

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

"There's just no way we're going to be able to get in there." said one man. "They have police patrols, I would imagine there's at least one more car hiding in the shadows near the house, and there's some lights on in the house. I'd imagine they're on the lookout for us."

"Good." said the leader. "Let them exhaust themselves and their resources. No, we won't strike here, and not just at the kids. It's the Iron Crowbar and his bitch wife we're after."

"Boss wants the Iron Crowbar to know his kids were waxed before we kill him." said another man.

"And until he tells us how to make that happen, it's 'no go' on any more attacks." said the leader. "It's going to have to be his call. I'm not going to put my cock in a meat grinder like that without a hell of a lot better plan than we have now. That'll be up to the Boss."

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

Todd was on top of Teresa in the missionary position, driving his meat into her with long, deep strokes, again making it look slow, easy and lazy, but in reality splitting her cunt and filling it with hard, deep strokes. He had Teresa's shapely legs trapped under his powerful, muscular arms, her feet in the sneakers high in the air, a look of tortured ecstasy on her attractive face. Teresa had come hard four times already, and was being worked up to a fifth stunning orgasm.

Jeanine was admiring her husband's powerful, slender body, the rippling of his muscles making her cuntwalls ripple in sexual pleasure. She watched Todd's hard, muscular asscheeks clenching tightly as he fucked Teresa, and watched as well as heard Todd's huge balls, the largest by far that she'd ever seen, smack Teresa's asscheeks with wet, thudding slaps. She knew that soon Todd was be emptying those nuts deep into Teresa's sopping quim, possibly as Teresa experienced another body-shattering orgasm.

Seth was winding down, having pumped his second climax into Jeanine. They were also in the missionary position, and Seth was lying on top of Jeanine, his shrinking, once-nine-inch cock pulsing the last of his seed into the married lawyer's steaming snatch. As Seth nuzzled Jeanine's neck, she looked over at the other couple. Todd looked over at her, and she winked at him.

As Todd admired his wife's body and felt the pleasure of Teresa's cunt sheathing his cock beneath him, something about her wink made tingles of pleasure race through his whole body. He was suddenly realizing how lucky he was to have a wife like Jeanine, a wife that emotionally supported him, fucked him demonically, and now wanted to swing and let him sink his big meat into some of the hottest women in the County.

With a final series of driving thrusts, Todd felt himself on the brink. He then remembered his kiss with Laura Fredricson, and that drove him over the edge. He reached the crest and climbed Teresa all the way, then grunted as he began pumping his climax into her. Spurt after thick spurt of incredibly potent, virile semen jetted into the deepest parts of Teresa's spasming cunthole as Todd came inside her again and again and again, until he had shot an incredible nearly one half billion sperm into the woman's well-used cunt...

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

"Unnh! Oh, yeahhhh!" grunted the man as he climaxed into the college-aged blonde beneath him. He loved fucking younger women, and he definitely understood why Jonas Oldeeds had enjoyed sampling the youthful flesh of the girls that worshipped him.

The Rev. Robert Patterson eased his penis out of the girl, and with a quick kiss to her mouth got up and out of bed, heading to the bathroom.

BUZZ!! BUZZ!! BUZZ!!

It was his 'burner' cell on the table of the hotel room going off. He answered it. "Hold on one moment." He ordered the girl to get dressed and get out, handing her four $100 bills. He waited until she left, then closed the door behind her. When he said "Yes?" into the phone, it was dead.

He looked out the window, seeing the streets and lights of the City in the neighborhood he was in. The phone rang again five minutes later.




Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 04



"We cannot stay connected that long." the Voice on the other end chided harshly. "Next time, tell me to call back in five minutes, get your whore out of there, then wait for my call."

"Yes sir." Patterson said. "It's okay to talk now."

"Good." said the Voice. "I'm about to make the call and put 'Operation Phoenix' into action. Part of this plan is to force our friend Wargrave into either your camp or that old idiot Conrad King's side."

"Sounds good." said Patterson. "Will this help us to form our base of operations? And help decide where?"

"Maybe, maybe." said the Voice. "Just stay patient about that. Right now I'm making damn sure that the murder of that bitch's agent, young Mike, doesn't get solved. Tell Vicki Oldeeds that she is going to owe me big for that."

"I'll tell her that while I'm fucking that uppity skank's cunt like the whore she is." said Patterson, menace in his voice. The man at the other line laughed, a sinister, evil cackle that bode ill for Vicki Oldeeds and her vagina.

"Yes, that will be a pleasurable few moments, indeed." said the Voice.

"We sure do owe you for exposing Mike, and letting us take care of it." said Patterson.

"Oh, my pleasure, my pleasure." said the Voice. "Remember, Robert: nobody likes a narc. And here's more help for you: stay the hell out of the Iron Crowbar's County for the rest of this month, at least. It's going to get... rather warm there, as the children say in that game they play."

"Yes sir." said Patterson as the line went dead on him, wondering but glad he didn't know what was about to happen...

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

Todd came up to to Teresa, who was in the dark shadows of a room whose window overlooked the front drive and the road.

"Whatcha doing, babe?" he whispered.

"Just checking." said Teresa. "Nothing out there. The Patrols said all was quiet, also."

"Come get some sleep." Todd said. "You know we're as safe as we can be here."

Teresa nodded and allowed Todd to walk her back downstairs. She checked on the babies, who were all sleeping peacefully. Jeanine and Seth were also asleep, though Jeanine was now on the sofa Todd and she (Teresa) had been sitting on.

Teresa settled down onto the yoga mat on the floor, with two pillows under her head and a blanket covering her. Todd went and snuggled behind his wife, covering them both with blankets.

"I love you, baby." he whispered to Jeanine. She smiled as her hand caressed his hip.

"I love you too." she said, then kissed him. She pressed her ass into his groin and soon was back asleep.

For his part, Todd lay quietly but awake, realizing for the first time that he was no longer thinking of Melina like he had in the past. He realized that he never thought of Melina while he was fucking Teresa.

Then he realized that while thought the world of Teresa, both sexually and as a person, he was truly in love with his wife, Jeanine. And he'd not been the best husband to her to this point; he needed to make sure she knew he loved her, how he felt about her. He needed to rekindle their relationship before the stresses of all this excitement with his uncle's family snuffed out that fire. He had one idea of what to do...

Part 17 - Foreboding

Friday morning, November 21st. The sky was overcast, threatening to bring bad weather, but not not quite making good on the threat. The television looked considerably brighter as the red haired reporterette filled the screen. It was 7:00am, and that meant it was time for Bettina!

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" the lovely redhead yelled from outside the entrance gate to County Airport, as if her proximity to it would somehow make her report more watchable or accurate. I sure didn't care; my thoughts were, as always, about that lucky microphone in her hand.

"Channel Two News has learned that the four dead persons in the plane crash at County Airport were not FBI agents after all, but four workers who were transporting FBI cargo and documents to Washington, D.C. The FBI says that the names of the workers will not be released by the FBI until the next of kin have been notified, and that the FBI does not believe terrorism was involved in the plane crash. The FBI also stated that they will have no further information on the plane crash until the NTSB finishes its report, which could take a year or more."

Bettina continued, "In other news, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has issued a statement that the Bureau will not revoke the Federal Firearms License of John Cummings of Cummings Outdoors General Store; however, they will begin an audit of the business at the request of State-Senator-Elect Katherine Woodburn. As you know, Ms. Woodburn defeated TEA Party Extremist John Cummings in the Election earlier this month. Now let's go to Chuck Pringle for Sports. Chuck!"

"Thank you Bettina." said the recorded playback of Chuck Pringle's previously taped commentary. "The University is preparing to play State Tech the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and they are being motivated with the knowledge that this could their last game with Coach Brian Harlan alive to watch them. Channel Two Sports has been told that Coach Harlan is in hospice, in the last stages of cancer, and his team will certainly have him on their minds as they take the field against Tech..."

I began to feel a sense of foreboding. Not because of Brian Harlan's illness, but for some other reason, some undefinable feeling in the air. Cindy felt it too, as we went to lunch together.

"What's that smell?" she asked as we drove in my Police SUV to the Cop Bar to meet Jack Muscone for lunch.

"I dunno, smells like a chemical solvent." I said. "I smelled it this morning, and I figured I'd driven over a patch of something, or someone put a crime lab sample in the back."

"Better check and see." Cindy said, then added "Commander, you ever have one of those days where things just don't feel right?"

"Yeah," I said, "and I'm having one of those days today. Must be something in the water. Everything okay with Jenna?"

"Personally, yeah." Cindy said. "But I think something is going on in the D.A.'s office and she won't say anything about it. It might have to do with Gor-don and the office. But I don't think that's why I feel this way."

"I understand- whoa, was that Todd going into that jewelry store?" I asked. I'd gotten the merest glimpse of a young man that looked like my nephew going into Jared's jewelry store.

"I didn't see it." said Cindy, looking back out the window. "Is that why your spidey-sense is going off? Nephew spending too much money?" I laughed, and we proceeded to the Cop Bar. Jack noted our quietness, and we told him about our undefinable worries. He just nodded in understanding, but consumed his double cheeseburger in front of us with gusto, his appetite unaffected by our worries. I noticed Cindy barely ate any of her lunch. I suggested she might be fighting off an illness, and that she should get plenty of rest this weekend.

About an hour after lunch, I got a call from a very vexed Laura. "The power is completely out at our house... the Mountain Nest. The Power Company called me and said the transformer and wiring in the area is damaged, and it's affecting our house and a couple of others on the hillside above the School. It'll be Monday before it's back up."

"That's no biggie." I said, trying to sound cheerful and unconcerned. "Mom is not coming back home until Monday, so I'll go get the food and baby formulas out of the freezer and refrigerator, take it all to The Cabin, and turn the heat on up there. We'll stay there over the weekend."

"I hope the weather doesn't dump on us and trap us up there." Laura snapped. Then she caught herself. "I'm sorry, you're right. At least we have a place to go to."

The sun was setting and darkness fast enveloping the Town as I stopped by Cindy's office to tell her to go home, as the Chief had just done to me. Cindy asked me to come in.

"You feeling better?" I asked.

"Not really." Cindy replied. "I do know Jenna said something to Gor-don about the other office. He's an arrogant little punk; he just went in and turned all the lights on to make sure we can see him in there. At this point, I'm just about willing to go kick his ass out myself, just to make a point, even if it does piss off Jenna."

"Naah, just hold back." I said. "Higher powers than mighty Crowbars are at work on that. I'm leaving it be for now, too. By the way, how is Lorena Rose feeling about moving to Vice?"

"She's ecstatic." Cindy said. "Tried to say all the right things about having learned a lot in MCD, but she couldn't hide the joy on her face."

"Good." I said. "Get the hell out of here. Get some sleep, you've been working hard. See you Monday."

"By the way, are you good with your security, or lack of it?" Cindy asked. "Captain Charles said to give the word and he'll have a patrol take up station and another drive around."

"No, it's okay." I said. "We're going to be up at The Cabin this weekend, by the way."

"Oh?" Cindy asked, surprised. "I thought your wife didn't like that place much."

I explained the power outage situation, then told Cindy to stop asking questions and get out after dismissing the Detectives for the weekend. As I left, I had another strange sense of foreboding... I'd long known that Laura preferred the Mountain Nest to The Cabin, but Cindy's seeming knowledge that my wife did not like The Cabin at all? What was up wit' dat? I wondered...

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

Cindy woke up with a gasp in the early morning hours of Saturday, November 22d. She had been dreaming, and she was seeing Don's children Carole and little Jim crying, surrounded by fire consuming them. She woke up, flinging herself to a sitting position, tearing herself out of Jenna's arms, whose embrace had been keeping her. She looked at the clock. It said 2:05am. The room was still and dark, but her heart was thumping and her soul racked with tension.

"Wha... what is it?" Jenna groggily asked, having been wakened by Cindy's sudden movement.

"Something's wrong." Cindy said, somehow very sure. "I... I've got to call Don." She grabbed her cellphone that was on the bedside table and speed-dialed the number.

"You all right?" Jenna asked. "What, what is it?"

"Shhh, I'm on the phone." Cindy said. "Come on, Don, answer the phone..."

Part 18 - Fire On The Mountain

I was awakened by the incessant buzzing of my cell phone. I quickly grabbed it, hoping that the noise did not awaken the kids, who were in their respective cribs next to Laura's side of the bed. My wife was asleep, fitfully so, but asleep.

"Troy." I said sleepily into the phone.

"Don!" came Cindy's voice through the phone. "Is everything all right up there?"

"Cindy? Uh, I..." I said as I came awake. And then it hit me: I smelled smoke!

"Ross, stay on the line!" I said as I flung myself out of bed. I went to the bedroom door and opened it to a staggeringly frightening sight: The Cabin was on fire! The front wall, the front door, and the stairs were a sheet of flame!

"Cindy!" I yelled into the phone as I slammed the bedroom door. "The house is on fire! Call the Fire Department, then drive up to the road below the house; we're going to have to evacuate by sliding down the mountain!"

"Wilco!" I heard Cindy say, then the phone disconnected. By now Laura was up and getting dressed. She did not need to see what was downstairs to know the grave danger to her children. Smoke was beginning to fill the bedroom.

"Wrap the children in blankets!" I shouted as I quickly put on my clothes, including my cellphone and my police belt with its gun and radio attached. "We'll have to go out through the bathroom!"

It is amazing how the human mind works, especially the subconscious. As soon as I'd seen the conflagration at the front door, I instinctively knew that it was arson, that the front of the house had been set afire first to keep us from getting out that way, and that reaching the back deck was our only chance. I prayed that the back way wasn't covered by snipers (yes, I thought of that even as all the rest of it was going on.), and that we could slide down the mountain to safety.

In the bathroom, the window over the hot tub opened over the garage, which presently housed Laura's Mercedes. I opened the long window and practically threw Laura through it to the roof. I then handed her our two precious, blanket-wrapped bundles, then climbed out the window onto the garage roof. It was hot, and I knew that the garage itself was on fire, as was the whole downstairs.

I dangled Laura off the side of the roof then dropped her. It wasn't far, and she landed like a good U.S. Paratrooper, feet together, then rolling. She got up and I handed down the babies, then scrambled down myself, executing a dynamite parachute landing fall, putting to damn good use what I'd learned at Airborne School. Why I was actually thinking of that in these moments of mortal danger, I did not know.

"The walkway is burning!" Laura shouted, having looked around the side of the house.

"We'll have to slide down the mountain!" I yelled back. I helped Laura over the deck rail along the walkway, which was not too high nor steep, transferred the kids, then went over the rail myself.

"Take Carole, I'll take Jim!" I said. If you slip, slide on your back with the baby held against your chest."

"Keep your feet and knees together!" Laura yelled back. "A sapling coming up between your legs will have you singing soprano for a month!" She began to descend.

Just as I began going down, I looked back. Through the lattice of the windows, I could see that the house was a sheet of red-orange inside, and I got a glimpse that the upstairs had also begun to burn. I began scrambling down the mountain, slipped quickly, and slid through the darkness on my fourth point of contact. I could hear Laura crashing down the mountainside ahead of me and the crackling of the fire behind and above me. Almost before I knew it, we were on the road below The Cabin.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, you?" Laura replied. Carole had begun crying, knowing something was wrong. Laura soothed her and hushed her. Little Jim was shuffling in my arms, but stayed quiet. I felt proud of him staying calm through it all, knowing that he didn't realize that his dad was all nerves and breathlessness and heart thumping a thousand times a minute...

I looked up the mountain where we'd just come from. The Cabin was now engulfed. We were incredibly fortunate to still be alive, I thought. So far, it was just not our day to die.

But the danger was not over. "Stay in the brush." I said to Laura as we waited. "We don't know if the perps are searching for us."

"You have a gun?" Laura asked. "I'm unarmed."

"Yeah." I said, feeling my gun still strapped in its holster on its hip. I got out the police radio and called in. The Radio Dispatcher said that Lt. Ross had called in, the Fire Department and several police vehicles were on the way, and asked if we needed an ambulance.

Just as I said we were all right so far, the powerful headlights of a car came over the hill. My heart froze, wondering if the occupants were friend or foe. Thankfully, the blinding blue LED lights that signaled a Police vehicle were flashing, also.

Inside the SUV were "Crowbar's Angels": Teresa driving, Cindy riding shotgun, and Tanya in the backseat. The car stopped as I hailed it. I handed Jim to Tanya and then ushered Laura, holding Carole, into the backseat of the car next to her. Cindy got out as I asked "Is there another gun in the car?"

"Glove compartment. Pistol." Teresa said. "Shotgun in the back."

"Give Laura the pistol." I ordered. "Where are you going, Headquarters?"

"Todd and Jeanine's." Teresa replied. "I've already called them. Security is setting up like last night."

"Thanks. Y'all get out of here." I said. "Go to the hospital if Laura or the children need it." I kissed Laura goodbye, then watched as the Police SUV drove down the road, carrying my family to relative safety.

As Cindy and I walked up the road towards the driveway, I looked up. I could see the flames reaching for the sky, lighting the whole mountainside. Just then, a huge explosion sent a fireball into the sky. A moment later, a second explosion rocked the ground under our feet.

"Jesus, Don," Cindy said, "what the hell were you keeping up there?"

"I think that was the cars." I replied. "But gas tanks don't explode like that, so I'm suspecting that the cars were rigged with explosives in case we escaped and tried to use them."

"Geeeeezzzzz..." was all Cindy could say, and I wasn't sure if her gasp was thinking about the steps taken by the perps, or that I was figuring it all out so fast.

Just then we saw two Fire Department vehicles come up the road, red and white lights blazing, followed by a police cruiser. The smaller fire truck went up the driveway, while the larger fire engine, with its powerful water pump, stopped at the entrance to the driveway where the fire hydrant was. Firemen began unwinding and connecting hoses.

"By the way, Cindy," I said, "your phone call saved our lives. How did you know to call?"

"I woke up out of a nightmare that Carole and Jim were surrounded by fire." Cindy said. "I knew something was wrong... but I had no idea it was... this." We rounded the curve from the road to the driveway. The Fire Department guys tried to stop us, and were more than a bit surprised when we flashed our badges and they realized who we were.

"I can't stop you from going forward, Commander," said the Engine leader, "but I'd advise against it. Any idea whose house this is?"

"Yeah... mine." I said. As the Engine leader looked at me in shock, I said "We'll stay out of the firefighters' way. And everyone got out safely, so tell them not to go inside looking anyone. It's empty, and the cars' gas tanks have already exploded."

"Yes sir, thanks for telling us that." said the Engine leader, who relayed the information to the fire truck in my driveway.

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

I looked on, feeling the deep pain of watching my beloved home burn fiercely. I remembered the pain of my final goodbyes to my childhood dogs, I remembered my pain in responding to the 'Officer Down' call when Pete Feeley had been lost, I remembered the sadness of losing my father. This was right up there with those moments. I felt helpless.

But I also felt gratitude. My family was alive and safe. My mother was still out of town and not caught up in this, as she otherwise might have been. I thought of how my partner had miraculously called me in the nick of time, wondering what kind of psychic power had come to her... oh, of course, I thought as I peered at Cindy. Of course.

I felt these things as I saw the burnt-out ruin of my Police SUV, which had been parked near the door. The bulletproof windows had exploded outwards, I pointed out to Cindy, confirming my thoughts that the cars were rigged with explosives. She nodded and wondered aloud if that was the chemical smell we'd detected in the SUV earlier that day.

As I watched, I knew what I had to do. I reached for my police radio, tuned it to the Fire Department's frequency, and said the painful but necessary words:

"This is Police Commander Troy. The house is gone. Contain the fire, keep it from spreading to the mountainside." The Fire Department did so, watering down the brush and trees around the house on all sides. Any brush fires were quickly doused.

But the house was indeed gone, and indeed could hardly be seen inside the orange blaze of light and heat. The flames were reaching dozens of feet into the air, a pyre that was visible to all of the County. And words could not express the fire of righteous anger within me that burned just as hotly at that moment...




Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 04



To be continued.



Seriously Inconvenienced 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, Ch. 1-5.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, extreme language, and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial or racist language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

*****

Part 19 - The Spark of Vengeance

At dawn on Saturday, November 22d, I left the smoldering remains of the disaster and went to see my family. There were hugs and tears and offers of condolences, but also one moment of happiness: my daughter Carole reached for me when I came through the door and hugged me tightly, refusing to let go as I held her. No matter how bad it was, hearing the word "Da-da" again and again from my healthy, unharmed baby girl was wonderful.

After eating some breakfast (and feeding Carole half of it), I returned to the scene. Fire Marshal Zoe Singer was there. "My arson team is on the way." she said.

"Call 'em off." I said. "It definitely is arson, we'll never catch the perps, and I don't want the BAFTE crawling around my home." I knew that Zoe would be obligated to call in the BAFTE if and when she found remnants of explosives in the cars, so I spared her the trouble by preventing her from finding anything. And, except for the Chiefs of the Police and Fire Departments, I was the only person who could possibly call her and her team off the case.

"If you say so." Zoe replied, then got on the radio and told the arson team to hold off for the time being.

Afterwards, as we looked at the heaps of ashes, I saw tears in Zoe's eyes. "This is where we-" she started, but didn't finish. The death of my home had meaning to more persons than just me. I put my arm around her and she nestled into my side for a moment. Then I showed her where the tunnel to the underground wine cellar was, and admonished her to keep people away from there lest they fall and be injured. Zoe marked it off with crime scene tape and didn't let anyone on her arson teams go there. They may not even have known what was there.

Moments later, the police cordon admitted another person: FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone. I had rarely seen him look so somber as I introduced him to Zoe.

"Commander Singer," said Jack, "I wish I was meeting you under much better circumstances. I also need you to know that I'm going to have my agents take over this case. We consider it an assassination attempt upon our FBI Consultant, Commander Troy." In addition to thinking that he was keeping the BAFTE out of the equation, Muscone was not saying out loud that the FBI also considered this an assassination attempt upon a Deputy Director of the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology, that being my wife.

Zoe acquiesced, actually relieved about it, as I said "Excuse me a moment." I began going around the far side of The Cabin, then into the ashes.

"Don!" Zoe yelled. "Be careful! It's still hot, and you might fall through a weak floor space."

"I'm not going far." I said, then saw what I wanted to see. There had been a wall safe in the upstairs bedroom closet, installed by me to keep a few valuables while I was at The Cabin. I saw a corner of it amongst the collapsed wall of the house. Wrestling it out, I found the safe to be scorched but intact.

"What's that?" Jack asked as he and Zoe came up to me. The combination wheel turned, but the lock handle was jammed, and it took a strong effort to push it back. The safe still wouldn't open.

"There is something very valuable in here." I said. "Here, Jack, hold it steady while I use this here red crowbar for something worthwhile." Jack held the safe and I jimmied it open fairly easily.

Inside, the papers that had been in there were damaged, and the cartridges in the revolver I had in there had exploded, rendering the device inoperable until a gunsmith could repair it. Fortunately, a smaller fireproof box inside had held up, and inside that box were some metal insignia from my ROTC and Army days, and some coins... including the one in particular that I was seeking: the ancient Roman coin that my great-grandmother had left Germany with while escaping the Nazis. "Thank God, it's here." I said. I showed Jack and Zoe the coin, explaining its deeply personal meaning to me.

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

"I'm absolutely sure that this was an attempted murder." I said. It was 11:00am and I was in the Chief's conference room with the Chief, Laura and Jack Muscone. Cindy was at The Cabin, working with Lt. Tanya Perlman, the Crime Lab, and the Arson team, and had been doing so all morning. I'd told Cindy to keep the Fire Department teams away from both destroyed cars, and Tanya Perlman and Police Auxiliary Officer Barry Oliver were personally working them 'at the request of the FBI', that being Jack Muscone again..

"I just checked with the Power Company people, and they think the transformer was deliberately damaged, which got us out of the Mountain Nest and into The Cabin... right where they wanted us." I said. "Whoever left that message in the book about 'setting fire to our rooms' along with that picture of her with a target on my wife's face... obviously they followed their threat with execution."

"Just two questions." said the Chief. "First, why not just set fire to the Mountain Nest, where you've been living for months now? And second, why warn you of the plot to set your house on fire? Why not just do it?"

"To answer your first question: the Mountain Nest is virtually fireproof." Laura said. "It's concrete and brick, and the other materials inside are fire resistant; it was built to not burn down by a previous resident who was paranoid about fire. The several fire detectors in the home are wired into the alarm system, and The Cabin is not as well protected in that way.

Laura continued, almost getting carried away: "There is much less shrubbery and a lot more lighting at the Mountain Nest, which is gated, and there is also a path down to the University from the back deck of the Mountain Nest, making for an easy escape route. I don't think they expected us to try to go straight down the mountain behind The Cabin, though my husband immediately realized it was our only hope. Last but not least, The Cabin is far more isolated, and was simply a much easier target for what they did... tried to do to us."

"As to warning us," Laura said, "maybe its someone's ego again?... Don... Don? Helloooo, Don..." Needless to say, I had gone into a reverie.

"I hear you." I said, though my voice sounded tiny and far away. "I was just realizing something... several things."

"Do I need to call in Lieutenant Ross for some blue crowbar treatment?" Jack said, trying to be humorous.

"She'd love it if you did." I said. "But I was just realizing... if I'm right, this is so much larger... so much deeper than we thought."

"What do you mean, Crowbar?" asked Chief Griswold, who was peering at me with abnormal intensity.

"Let me demonstrate this way." I said. "Laura, who do you think is behind this?"

"Henry Wargrave." Laura said. "Who else could it be?"

"And you reeeeeealy wanna kill him, don't you?" I asked my wife.

"You bet your ass I do-" Laura said, then stopped. "Why? What are you getting at?"

"Laura, Jack, you've both been tracking Wargrave for some time." I said. "Tell me, is this his modus operandi?"

"I'd say it's not out of the realm of what he might permit himself to do." Jack said. "He's had people killed before, the FBI is sure of it. Mostly in other countries, though."

"He's absolutely ruthless, Don." Laura said. "As much or more than Oldeeds was."

"But he's not this sloppy." I said. "Leaving things to chance that we might get out alive?"

"He had his people rig your cars with explosives." said Jack Muscone. "Perlman has already told me they've found residue of 'plastiques' in the cars. Enough to blow out the bulletproof windows of your Police SUV."

"Which reminds me," said the Chief, "we're already outfitting you a new SUV, even more armored. The insurance plus a little extra, at the insistence of the Town & County Council, is paying for it. Sorry to interrupt, Jack. You were saying?"

"Just that they expected you to get out, go to your cars, then they'd blow the car that you took up, with you inside it." Jack finished.

"Doesn't make sense." I said. As they looked at me, I said, "That would suggest they were watching, but didn't bother to shoot us when we came out of the house. That would be worse than sloppy."

"So what are you suggesting?" the Chief asked. I could tell in his face that he was mentally getting to the crux of the problem, if not the answer.

"Just this." I said. "First, in all the study I have done of Henry R. Wargrave, I have not found a single instance of where he has harmed a child. Not one. Yet our children were definitely put in mortal danger by the fire."

"That's true." Jack Muscone said. "And in addition to that, Wargrave has built orphanages in many places in the world, and full wings of children's hospitals, including at University Hospital here."

"First time for everything." Laura said, meaning the attempt to murder a child.

"Maybe," I replied, "but I seriously am doubting it at the moment. Second, he would know damn well that if either Laura or I survived that fire, his own life would be forfeit if he ever showed himself in public again. Laura said as much to him. And he somewhat backhandedly reassured me he was not after our children in our past verbal sparrings."

"Tie this in a bow for the FBI and CIA people in the room." the Chief astutely said. "I don't need your skills to see that they're not feeling you on this."

"Yes sir." I said. "Guys, what I'm getting at is that Wargrave may not have been behind this. In fact, it could be someone trying to get us to do the dirty work of eliminating Wargrave for them."

"What?!" cried out three voices in unison.

"Think about it." I said. "Laura, you have the equivalent of a license to kill, and you've cleaned up one asshole member of the Corrigan Cell already, to my utter delight. But if they'd gotten one of us and our children, the other would've done whatever it took and damn the consequences to take vengeance for our children's lives. And as such, Wargrave would be dead, another of the Corrigan Cell cleaned up."

"400 years ago..." Jack said, then realized that talking about burnings at the stake would be ill-timed. "Oh, sorry, that's not the right thing to say right now."

"I'll laugh later." I said, understanding Jack's meaning. "After I take care of this bastard and the remnants of his rogue CIA cell." My eyes became jet, and my reverie was not one any decent person wanted to know about.

"What are you going to do, Crowbar?" asked the Chief.

"I am going to finish off the Corrigan Cell, once and for all." I said severely, then said brightly, suddenly changing my mood like Shayla Belle would do while talking, "But first, the four of us are going to the Cop Bar for lunch! We're still alive, and I for one am starving. By the way, Jack, the owner named your favorite item 'Jack's Double Cheeseburger' after you."

"Well, that's nice of him." Muscone said. "What did he name for you?"

"The flatiron steak." Laura said. "It's now 'The Iron Crowbar's Flatiron Steak' on the menu."

"Complete with 'Griswold's Grizzly Fries' and 'Gillem's Firehouse Hot Wings', named after the Police and Fire Chiefs, respectively." I said. The Chief blushed, but his mustaches were twitching with merriment.

"All this talk is making me hungry." said Jack. "Let's go."

"By the way, Laura," I asked as we got up. "President Wellman is having his pre-Thanksgiving parties next week. When are we invited?"

"Monday night." Laura said. "That's when he's having the Council and the Chief and us and some of the Town businesspeople there. Tuesday night is the Faculty reception, and you and I will be doing it all over again."

"Would you do me a favor?" I asked. "Get with him on the guest list for Monday night. I want to make sure certain people are there..."

Part 20 - Plan of Action

After lunch, Laura and I went by Todd and Jeanine's house. Upon my observation and comment, Jeanine showed me a new emerald ring on her finger, gushing that Todd had given it to her the evening before... before all hell had broken loose in the early morning hours.

For himself, Todd was playing some game with Carole, bouncing her on his knee, and he had his little cousin laughing merrily. When she saw me, though, she reached out and I took her into my arms. I got another strong baby hug, and Carole didn't want to let me go.

"She's going to be clingy for a while." Laura said. "She knows that something bad happened last night, and she wants to keep you very close and safe."

I had intended to talk to Todd and move out on my mission quickly; my wife's words changed my suppositions. I spent the next half hour holding my daughter while talking to Todd, Teresa, Jeanine and Laura about anything but fires, and also expressing my gratitude for them keeping Carole and Jim for me and Laura. Jeanine took a picture of me holding Carole; I still have that picture in a frame on my desk in my office.

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

Todd drove with me to the Crime Lab building, where we found Barry Oliver, Tanya Perlman, J.R. Barnes, Christina Cho and a couple of other techs working. I endured the condolences over the loss of my home, then quickly got down to business.

"Definitely arson." Tanya Perlman said. "Something fast burning, maybe gasoline, on the front walls of the house, definitely all over the door and in the garage. Plastic explosives were injected into the door panels of both cars, maybe some underneath. Those cars were rolling bombs."

"Don," said Barry Oliver, "can I talk to you privately?"

"Sure." I said. Barry, Todd and I went into the main office that was now Dr. Woodrow's.

Barry said "I found the remnants of the device in your wife's car that set off the explosives with a charge to a blasting cap. I'm not discussing this with the rest of the techs unless you tell me to."

"Probably a good idea to keep it quiet." I said. "What did you find out about it?"

Barry replied "The device was rigged so that it would've gone off about one minute after someone sat down in the driver's seat. It also had a type of fuse that set the explosives off when the device got really hot, meaning while it, the car, and the house were all burning. They thought of both contingencies: that you might escape by the car, or that you might not make it out alive, and so the bombs were set off to prevent us from getting more information about them."

"Geez." said Todd.

"And there's an alarm that would go off if they'd gone into the garage of The Cabin." I said. "Meaning that this was done ahead of time. Planned in advance all the way."

"Uncle Don," Todd said, his voice eerie, "can I go up and see it?"

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

We stood on the driveway before the house. We could now see the Town and the farms to the west of the river. I saw a train coming down the track out of the western horizon.

"Those bastards." Todd said, his eyes looking over the wreck and ashes. The cars had been towed away, only support posts and ashes remained.

I knew he'd rarely been to The Cabin, so this show of feeling was unexpected. As if in answer to my unspoken thoughts, Todd said "Those bastards tried to kill my baby cousins, Uncle Don. Who did this? I want to kill them."

"I know how you feel, Todd." I replied. "I'm calling dibs on killing them. But you can help. Call Barry Oliver and let's meet him at your offices."

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

"Uncle Don, you've met Takaki Taichi, whom we call 'Taro'." Todd said. Takaki bowed formally to me in Japanese style. Perhaps to his surprise, I returned the bow politely.

"Yes, Taro-san." I said. "I've heard great things about the work you are doing for my nephew and Mr. Oliver here. I'm looking forward to working with you on something of vital importance."

"You are too kind, Commander-san." Taro replied in good but accented English. He was a native of Japan. "I am honored to be of service to the Iron Crowbar. How can I help you?"

I discussed the remote control plans that I'd obtained from Alicia Foster and given to Barry before. I told what I wanted done, that I wanted a truck to be rigged to be driven by remote control. I explained my plan further.

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

Saturday night. The power was back on at The Mountain Nest, so we went back home with the kids. Cindy, Teresa and Todd all volunteered to stay with us, and to my surprise Laura asked Cindy and Teresa, and also Jenna, to stay overnight, while telling Todd to go home and reap his 'reward' for that emerald ring he'd bought his wife. Carole was happy to be getting so much attention, especially from her buddy Cindy. I realized as I watched them that Laura was more nervous than she was letting on.

"I put in the order with Ward Harvester that you wanted, through intermediaries." my wife told me privately. "It'll be ready for pickup Monday afternoon. Also, the guest list will be as you wanted it for Monday night; in fact, it was already that way, so I didn't have to say much."

"Good." I said. "I'll have my guys pick the truck up at Ward Harvester."

Later that night, I found myself dozing off as I talked 'shop' with Teresa and Cindy, solving all of the Police Department's problems in one sitting... or not. Laura was attending to the babies and pretending to talk with us, though she was a million miles away, it seemed.

We all headed to bed. Cindy was sleeping in the baby room, having insisted upon doing so, and Teresa was in the guest room. I headed to the master bedroom to get some sleep. 

I did dream about the fire, but not too much. I also dreamed about Zoe, and Molly and baby Ross, and I had a dream about being at the 'Vision' headquarters with voices talking around me as P. Harvey Eckhart looked on and multi-colored lights flashing... then back to the orange light of the fire at The Cabin...

I woke at dawn, realizing that I had gotten some sleep and that I felt refreshed. I looked up to see that Laura was sitting at the window... she had not been able to sleep all night, and she was exhausted.

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

The back warehouse of Arrowpoint Solutions, Inc. was the only building with lights on. Inside, Taro and Barry were working with the large refrigerated truck.

"We can control it pretty well in a straight line." Barry said. "But I just can't get it to turn fast enough."

"Leave that to me, Barry-san." Taro said. Barry noted that Taro looked exhausted. "I have some additional things I can do. No, I will not say anything about what they are until our mission is complete, but I have been working on a special guidance system for some time."

"Okay, I look forward to seeing it when you have it ready for me." Barry said. He knew that Taro did not like to reveal things until they were worked out and error-free. He left it alone, knowing the measure of Taro's brilliance and successes so far.




Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 05



Part 21 - The Party and the Party

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" blared the redheaded reporterette from Courthouse Square. "Channel Two News has learned that the fire on the mountainside that destroyed the home of Police Commander Donald Troy was very likely arson and an assassination attempt. The FBI has taken over the case, saying only that they believe the arsonists have been crossing the State Line in and out of the County, thus making this a Federal case, but would not confirm any other details, including the intended victim of the assassination attempt."

Shut the fuck up, Bettina, I thought silently as I watched. Have I mentioned that despite having some really good sex with Bettina Wurtzburg, I was still not a fan of the Press?

Several still photographs of the fire, taken by citizens all over the County, were being shown as Bettina continued: "Citizens have sent in photos taken of the fire, which could be seen from miles away, even over the top of the mountain by people to the east. This was once the home of the late CEO of Crown Chemicals, old Mr. Bonniker, and there has been speculation that the arsonists were part of the environmentalist terrorist group 'Proactive Citizens of Greenworld'."

"However, Commander Troy himself stated that he does not believe it was environmentalists from an incident a decade ago that set the fire. Commander Troy also stated his gratitude for the Town & County Fire Department, who he said acted with the highest professionalism and whose actions prevented any brush fires that might have caused a larger threat to other homes and to the University below the house." Okay, that part was more acceptable, I thought to myself. I might give Bettina another good rogering, after all...

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

Monday night, November 24th. I escorted Laura to the home of Dr. Sidney Wellman, President of the University. Sheriff-Elect Daniel Allgood and his lovely wife Melina rode with us.

I endured a great many offers of condolences upon the loss of my home, accepting them as graciously as I could then trying to change the subject as quickly as possible. I understood the sympathy and the social graces in their words, but I simply did not want to deal with all that for the time being.

About an hour into the party, I was in the back library room. Also in the room at the time were President Wellman, who was talking to BOW Enterprises CEO Todd Burke and Dynacorp potential heir Seth Warner. I noted that Town & County Councilman and pastor of First Baptist Church, Raymond Westboro, was talking with Daniel Allgood and T&C Councilman Thomas P. Cook. I'd been chatting with Dr. Bonnie Karpathian when Councilman Reginald B.F. Lewis joined us. I took the opportunity to engage Councilman Lewis in conversation.

"I have to admit," said Lewis, "I didn't know if you were going to give Precincts the effort I wanted, but I've been pleasantly surprised. And your idea of the Old Mill for the 2nd Precinct, I've got to admit, Commander, that was a stroke of genius. It's working out much, much better than I had originally hoped it would."

"Thank you Councilman." I said with alacrity, hoping that my voice would carry, and it did. "As you know, my background is in I.T., and tomorrow night I'm going to be personally overseeing the installation of the secure I.T. and phone lines there. We're going to work through the night, and should be finished by Wednesday morning."

"You can't do that during the day?" Lewis asked, his voice also carrying.

"Since it's the secure lines, the fewer people, the better." I said. "I'll have our people who have the highest clearances working, and by doing it through the night we'll maintain secrecy better."

"But you'll have protection, there?" asked Lewis, "You'll have some patrol officers there in case there's trouble?"

"No sir." I said. "Nobody will know we're there. We're keeping it quiet. I'm not anticipating any trouble, and we can call for help if we need it."

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

"We've got them!"

It was Myron Milton. He had burst into my office with the news, forgetting decorum. It was Tuesday morning, November 25th, about 1:30am.

"We just got the cellphone pings- oh, sorry Commander, I didn't even knock."

"And if the news is as good as I think it is, you don't need to." I said, letting him off the hook.

Myron put a large map on my desk, facing me. "Right here, just to the west of the State Line. There's a small farmhouse here, which is used by workers for BigAgraFoods when they're harvesting the crops. Right now, it should be empty. But three of the stolen cellphones from the bank job lit up there about midnight, then a burner phone lit up for nearly 30 minutes."

"Good." I said. "Keep this quiet, Myron. I'll let the proper people know."

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

At 4:30am Teresa Croyle, wearing all black, pulled the car off the main road and stopped briefly, letting off the two black-clad, fully masked men. Seth Warner and Teddy Franklin crossed the road and ran straight down the road to the farmhouse nearly a mile away. Todd Burke stayed in the car with Teresa.

The white van was parked under an awning in the backyard. Not a sound could be heard as the young men crept up to the vehicle. They very gently put tracking devices under the bumpers, which had magnets enabling them to stick tightly to the steel frame of the van. Two in back, one in front. Only one of them clanked as it was attached. The young men retreated back down the road, and they only had to wait a moment for the car coming east down the road to stop and pick them up.

"How'd it go?" Teresa asked as she crossed the State Line back into her home County.

"Great." said Teddy.

"The party never stops in my uncle's Town & County." said Todd. "The tracking transmitters will work... if they're not detected. By the way, why did my uncle want us to plant those devices?"

"He told me so that if the perps tried to run before the FBI was ready to go in after them tomorrow, we'd be able to track them." Teresa replied.

"Why not just go get them now, tonight?" asked Seth Warner.

"That's what I wanted to do." said Todd, menace in his voice.

"Which is why your uncle told me to keep you in the car." said Teresa. "As to why... maybe the Feds aren't ready to raid them yet, or maybe they expect more people to show up. At any rate, the Commander asked me to drive by the Old Mill and time the drive..."

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

"What was that?" Keeler said. He had been dozing when he thought he'd heard a metallic clank from somewhere.

Keeler's voice awakened the youngish leader of the group. "What was what?" he hissed.

"Nothin'." Keeler said, looking out the back window, not seeing anything in the darkness.

"You idiot, did you fall asleep?"

"No, of course not." Keeler said, not admitting that he had indeed dozed off.

"Keep watch, old man. You're not relieved until dawn."

Keeler looked out the window, then went to one of the front rooms and looked out. He could hardly make out the front drive that led to the road. He turned back inside, needing to use the bathroom, and did not notice the two figures in black that merged with the pre-morning darkness as they ran swiftly down the road...

Part 22 - Murder in Cold Blood

"So, did you get the device installed?" Barry asked Taro late on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 25th. Taro had been in his office most of the day.

"It is ready to go." said Taro. "I will handle it personally."

"Taro, are you okay?" asked Barry. "You're looking tired. You should take the rest of the week off for Thanksgiving, even if you said you don't want to. Why don't you come to our place Thursday? Tanya is a good cook."

"I am fine, my friend." Taro said. "And I appreciate your kind invitation. But perhaps you are right. I will stay at home and rest. Would you do me a favor, Barry-san?"

"Sure." said Barry.

"Tomorrow, please mail this letter to my father." Taro said. "And give this scroll to your Commander Troy."

"Uh, sure, but why don't you do it?" Barry asked.

"Ah, but I will be resting, as you have advised." Taro said, a smile forming on his face.

"Okay, sure. I'm heading home myself. See you tomorrow." said Barry.

"Sayonara, Barry-san." Taro replied. Barry left the office, feeling strange about Taro's actions.

Taro remained in his office for a long time, until the darkness of the night had descended. He thought of his father, one of Japan's greatest men, and the family heritage of ten thousand years, a lineage of the greatest nobility. Taro was the second son of his father, and his father had been angry when Taro had not followed his elder brother into the family business, but had become an engineer and emigrated to the United States.

Taro had felt the shame of what his father had considered betrayal of the family heritage, and he knew he had to make things right. For his soul's salvation, he would make things right.

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

"Yes," Todd said into the phone. "We're set. It's all good." He hung up as his wife came up to him.

"Who's that at this hour?" she asked.

"Oh, nobody." Todd replied. "Is dinner ready?"

"Just about." Jeanine said. "Why don't you get Doug ready and I'll change Jack? Wow... only two babies... slow night tonight."

"Yeah, but it's been fun with Carole and Jim." said Todd. "Carole thinks its her job to be their second mommy..."

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

I entered the semi-darkened warehouse. The Ward Harvester truck was near the entrance. Taro was next to it.

"Taro-san." I said. "Here is the device you needed. It's tuned to the frequency of the transmitters, so you'll know what truck it is."

"Thank you, Commander-sama." Taro said. I was struck by the '-sama' title, it was addressing me as Taro's superior. Taro noticed that I had realized it, and the honor being done to me.

"You are a very great man doing very great things, Commander-sama." said Taro. "I am honored to work with you tonight."

"Thank you, Taro-san." I said. "I'm honored to be working with you, also." Why the formality? I wondered as I looked into the truck, seeing some equipment in the center, attached to the dashboard. "So is that the remote control?"

"It is part of it, Commander-sama." said Taro. "I had trouble making your schematics work, but I have found a better solution. With this tracking device, it will work well."

I instinctively knew what was going on. Taro extended his arm, a scroll in his hand, rolled up and tied with string. I took it with both hands, formally.

"Please, send that to my father." said Taro. "I think you should return to the Old Mill and get ready, Commander-sama."

"It will be my honor to make sure your father receives this, Taro-sama. May the kami guide you in your mission tonight." I said, returning the honor. I bowed and Taro returned the bow, then I turned and left.

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

"Okay, we've got the word." said the leader of the group. He and his two counterparts were dressed in all black. Gruff was dressed in a flannel shirt and blue jeans. Keeler was dressed in black pants and a blue pullover sweater, not yet changing to the uncomfortable black shirt. Skinny Beard was dressed in his normal college attire. 

"The attack is on." said the Leader. "We're going to hit the Old Mill at 4:00am, kill the Iron Crowbar and his team, set the building on fire like we did the Iron Crowbar's house on the hill, then pull out within ten minutes. We will not be coming back here, but will drive on south to Coltrane County, then west back into this State and then drive west until we hit the Bay Area in California. We'll disperse there. Keep your 'blue' burner phones available for when the Boss calls us back into action. Any questions?"

"Skinny Beard, don't you have to get dressed?" Keeler asked, contempt in his voice.

"He's not going with us tonight, old man." said the Leader, equal contempt in his voice... for Keeler. "Skinny Beard, I know you want to kill the Iron Crowbar yourself, but the Boss wants to make sure this is done right and done fast, and your poisons won't be what we use. The Boss has been very happy with your work in this County, and he's going to have some good compensation for you. He wants you to drive to the City tonight. Leave right now, get in touch with our contact in the safehouse there."

"Yes sir." said Skinny Beard, not questioning the orders, though disappointed that he could not administer the death poison to the Iron Crowbar that he'd so joyously delivered to Pete Feeley, Tim Dawdle, Hugh Hewitt and the others. His days of killing were not over, though. He realized he had better things ahead of him. He also knew what was going to happen, and was glad he did not have to witness it nor be any part of it.

Skinny Beard left, taking the old car that had also been parked behind the house, heading east. He'd go by his dorm room at the School, pick up his things, and be off to the City by the time the mercenaries pulled out for their mission.

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

After taking Laura home from Dr. Wellman's reception, with Teresa and Cindy staying with her again, I went to Police Headquarters.

"Okay, Hugh," I said to Senior Sergeant Hewitt, the SWAT Team leader, who was dressed as a technician. "Is everything ready?"

"Yes sir." Hugh said. "Are you sure four of us is enough?"

"Yes." I said. "I'm anticipating only three or four of them to attack us tonight. We should have plenty. Lt. Michaels has the other four on standby here at Headquarters, just in case. 

"Sounds good. We're ready." Hugh said. The weapons were already in the van, and so it looked like four technicians and myself were climbing in without arms. We believed we were being observed, but though I watched carefully, I saw no one. And that is what I expected to see when the real 'Moriarty' was involved.

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

"Okay, that was good." said the Leader after the third practice of their movements for the raid. "Let's get the weapons in the car. Gruff, you're driving. Sheets, you handle the door and take the rearguard."

"You sure have more than enough firepower in that van." Keeler said.

"We're carrying it all." said the Leader. "As I said, we're not coming back here."

"What do you want me to do?" Keeler asked.

"Nothing." said the Leader. "You're not going with us. You're staying here."

"What?" Keeler said. "But you said you're not coming back here!"

"That's right, you piece of shit." the Leader said. A semi-automatic pistol appeared in his hand, a .22 Magnum with a silencer, which the thug quickly raised to the side of Keeler's head. "We're tired of your shit and your attitude. End of the line for you, old man." With that, the Leader pulled the trigger and the bullet drove through Keeler's head from left to right. 'Santa Claus' dropped to the floor, dead... murdered in cold blood. A second shot to the eyeball made sure.

"Well, that puts us on the 'naughty' list." said the Leader, grinning, having done to Keeler what he'd wanted to do for some considerable time. The others laughed, then the Leader said "Let's get going."

Part 23 - Night of the Samurai Warrior

At 3:45am the van pulled out of the driveway and turned east onto the main road. Within some minutes they'd crossed the bridge over the river that was the State Line. Gruff kept a sharp eye out as he drove the legal speed limit, but failed to notice the patrol cruiser that was hidden well inside the brush, some distance from the road.

Sergeant Rudistan and Sr. Patrolman Morton did not speak into a radio, but only pushed the talk button five times, breaking static. I heard the breaks on my police radio at the Old Mill.

"Okay, they've crossed the State Line." I said to the SWAT Team. "They're coming." It had been a busy few hours at the Old Mill, as we had a couple of lights on and I really did install some servers, though not the secure ones... those had already been put in place, days before.

It was all a ruse. We were going to see who would ambush who.

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

Takaki Taichi waited in the truck. His body was racked by pain, which was now his constant companion.

Don't think of the pain, he thought to himself. What is pain but a privilege for a samurai to bear. It will not be long now, and the pain will go away. Bear the pain, as the samurai warrior you are, the warrior you are meant to be, that your father wanted you to be...

He heard the breaking of the radio, followed by the words "Go Time!" on his radio, set to encrypted Channel 5 police radio. He pulled the truck out onto the highway, coming north on the bypass.

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

"Okay, Gruff," said the Leader after taking a radio message, "take the bypass south to Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, go east on MLK and drive right into the Old Mill parking lot. They're there, nobody else is. Sheets, anything on Police Radio?"

"No, not yet." said the black-clad mercenary. "Their encrypted channel broke static for a second, but I didn't catch anything. Probably nothing."

"Keep your eyes out, all the same, Gruff." said the Leader. "If you see any police patrols near the Old Mill, any extra cops at the site, anything at all, we're aborting the mission."

"Hey dude," said Sheets as he listened to the radio. "I'm picking up some strange static. Like a transmitter signal in a feedback loop."

"What does that mean?" asked the Leader.

"Type of passive device picks up a signal then echoes back." said Sheets. "Probably some feedback from a car or radio station."

"Keep going." said the Leader, growing nervous. "Sheets, let me know if you get something strange again."

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

Taro's beeper on his device began beeping. He saw the blip of light on his device. He revved the truck, flooring the gas pedal as he began driving north in the southbound lanes with his lights turned off. The signal became stronger and he could see the shape of the van in the distance in front of him. He steered toward it, his truck gathering speed, as the signal became stronger, much stronger...

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

"Oh shit, feedback loop is getting strong." said Sheets. "Could be police or a detection device."

"Keep driving down the bypass." said the Leader. "We'll circle back and hit the Mill if we don't see cops. If we do see cops, keep going south, Gruff.

Gruff acknowledged the orders, looking out onto the darkness of the road. Then, in that darkness, he was realizing that a seemingly darker shape that had blended in with the horizon was now getting bigger. Only too late did he realize that it was a truck bearing down on him at breakneck speed! There was no time to swerve, the collision was inevitable.

"Oh, shit..." Gruff said, then lost control of his bowels... saying it and then doing it in his last act of life...

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

As he bore down on the van, Takaki Taichi felt the exultation of his final mission, his supreme moment in life. He could feel his innermost soul crying out for release, and as the vehicles were about to make contact he heard himself scream almost joyously:

"Ban-saiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...

Part 24 - The Dying Fire

***KA-PWOW!!***

The explosion was felt all over Town, waking many residents up. I looked out the window of the Old Mill in time to see a bright fireball to my northwest rolling upwards.

"What the hell was that?" yelled Senior Sergeant Hugh Hewitt.

"Let's go!" I shouted. "Looks like a car collision on the West Bypass!" I ran out and got in a police cruiser, the SWAT team piling into their van and following.




Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 05



"That was not just a fucking car collision," snarled Hugh Hewitt as they got going, "that was like an ammo truck going up!" Only now did the first glimmers that there was more going on cross Hewitt's mind.

Blue lights blazing, we were the first on the scene. It was a carnage of two fused, fiercely burning vehicles. I called in on the police radio, and it did not take long for police to block off the bypass and re-route traffic. By the next morning, the northbound lanes wold be made into a two-way lane, and while slower, the traffic would be restored.

But in the meantime I had a southbound bypass road with a crater in it, and the remains of two vehicles, a big cargo truck and a van. Fire engines and EMTs began pulling up, followed by more police cars...

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

Dawn was breaking as Chief Griswold, Jack Muscone, and I watched the examination of the scene. An EMT came up to us.

"Sir, we've found whats left of four bodies in the van, and one body in the big truck. Guy in the truck had his I.D. in a fireproof sleeve hanging around his neck. His name is Takaki Taichi, he works at Arrowpoint Solutions. There are no IDs on the three guys in the back of the van, and not much left of the ID of the driver of the van." He handed me the ID. I could see that we had a partial name of "Grif", but more importantly we got some of the picture in the ID... and I could make out the face of Gruff.

"Sir," said Sergeant Rudistan, who had come up from his patrol near the State Line when I'd called him on the radio after the explosion, "we found bags of burned money and what looks like melted cell phones and credit cards. We also found several assault rifles in the back of the van, as well as some grenade parts. Looks like the big truck had ammonium nitrate from Ward Harvester in the back. None of these guys had a chance in hell. Lucky it was this early in the morning, or other people might have gotten killed."

"Thank you, Rudistan." said Griswold, who then turned to me and said "He's right, Crowbar: other people might have gotten hurt. We're lucky, Crowbar, verrrry lucky." I knew he was pissed at me, just as I'd been pissed at my mother's scheme to entrap Eleanor Burke in the attempt to kill my wife.

"Yes sir." I said quietly. "We were lucky. Fortunately, no one else was hurt." I did realize that my plan was brilliant, but if an innocent person had been hurt or killed, that would've been a serious disaster and more than a reproach of my plan's execution. Somehow, I still felt it had been worth it. Maybe it was the Dark Side welling up in me again.

Still, I told the Chief that he was right, which mollified him a bit.

"Any idea who these guys were?" Jack Muscone asked.

"The guy in the truck worked for Barry Oliver, who was our Police Scientist and now works with my nephew at Arrowpoint." I replied. "The guys in the van were most very likely the last three bastards of the Corrigan Cell, and the driver of that vehicle was that guy Gruff that we'd arrested a while back." I explained further to Jack who Gruff was, though he knew already.

A few minutes later, Sandra Speer, Eduardo Escobar and Martin Nash drove up. Sandra reported to Jack Muscone: "Our agents raided the house on the other side of the State Line. We found one man, dead. No one else, and they'd cleaned everything out before leaving. We suspect the haul from the bank robbery is what was found burned in that van." 

As she spoke, Sandra showed us a picture of the dead man.

"Merry Christmas, Iron Crowbar." Jack Muscone said, handing the picture to me. I looked at the dead face of the older man with the white beard, instinctively knowing that I was looking at the person who had nearly murdered me on the Fairgrounds just seconds before the Reverend Jonas Oldeeds had been dispatched to Hell. Now Keeler was consigned to Hell, I thought to myself, having failed to kill me... but me being much more successful in my vengeance, however unexpected...

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

"I can't believe it." Barry Oliver said when I told him his friend and employee was dead. Todd was in the room, also. Barry said "The system we tried, to drive the truck by remote control, didn't work, but he... he said he had another system in place."

"Yes." I said. "He drove the vehicle itself. It was a guided missile, and a kamikaze mission."

"But why?" Barry said. "Why did he choose to end his life?"

"He was dying." I said. "He had liver cancer. That's why his belly began sticking out and he looked so sick. He was having treatments for a year, but to no avail."

"Oh geez," said Barry, "I thought he was just gaining weight. He never said a thing."

"No." I said. "He wouldn't. He would consider it more shameful to say anything, to complain, or let it affect him and his work, than to keep silent and keep going in pain. He got this opportunity to go out in a blaze of glory,... and he took it, bless his soul."

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

Thanksgiving Day was at the Mountain Nest, and it was crowded. Besides Laura, my mom Phyllis, and our babies, Molly and baby Ross had come up from Midtown. Cindy and Teresa were 'invited' (meaning instructed) to attend, and Jenna Stiles was there as well. Daniel and a very pregnant Melina Allgood had come, which meant Todd and Jeanine Burke had chosen to go visit Todd's father up at Lake Amengi-Nunagen.

Jack Muscone also came, having no other real family, and looked as happy and relaxed as I'd ever seen him. The family atmosphere was one thing, but the Corrigan Cell likely being gone for good added to his happiness.

Before eating, I said to everyone "I for one am glad to be alive, to have my family and friends alive and well and here with me, and happy that everything has turned out so well for us this year, despite some near misses. I can always rebuild a house destroyed by fire, but I can't replace any of you in this room with me today. Let's keep that going for next year, too, which means Teresa and Cindy should keep teaching each other how to duck."

Everyone laughed, but they knew that I meant it... about the rebuilding as well as the rest of it. I was already spending hours of my free time making plans for a new Cabin on the same site, a better house that would have the best of the old with improvements on that which hadn't been as good. Laura had not really said anything, except to complain that I was taking too much of my free time working on that instead of with the babies and of course with her.

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

"So, you think the threat has ended?" Cindy asked me as we stood on the back patio, braving the cold for a few minutes of private conversation after everyone had eaten. Everyone else was inside enjoying drinks and/or coffee.

"Yes, most of it." I said. "The Corrigan Cell is gone; the weaponry those guys had in that van was consistent with what the cell had been using, including when you were shot. I can't say for sure, but I think we got 'em."

"And they were coming to gun you down at the Old Mill?" Cindy asked. "And you had a trap laid for them, but they got blown up along the way."

"That's about the size of it." I replied. But the explosion had been a trap, also, I thought silently to myself. Laura had gotten CIA contacts to order the ammonium nitrate from Ward Harvester, and I'd had some people pick it up. Then Jack Muscone had arranged for some FBI agents with explosives experience to rig it up to detonate on the vehicle's impact. Then Taro was supposed to put a remote control on the truck to steer it, but it was too unreliable... and Taro had chosen another solution, one that I understood but still left me saddened.

"Fortunate." said Cindy. "Our planned ambushes have not always gone too well." she added drily, remembering her nearly fatal experience the previous summer, not to mention the SBI showing up at our drug raid. "So who sent them?"

"I suspect it was whoever our 'Moriarty' is." I said. "And just between you and me: I only mentioned out loud and in public that I would be at the Old Mill overnight at one place at one time, and there were eight other people in the room when I told Reginald B.F. Lewis that I'd be there: Councilman Lewis himself, Councilman Thomas P. Cook, Dr. Sidney Wellman, Pastor Westboro, Dr. Bonnie Karpathian, my nephew Todd Burke, Seth Warner, and our new Sheriff-to-be, Daniel Allgood."

"Oh my God, you think one of them is in league with this 'Moriarty', as you call him... or her?" Cindy asked.

"More than that, mon ami." I replied. "I think that one of them IS our Moriarty."

"Oh geez..." Cindy said, totally stunned. "Surely not your nephew, nor the Sheriff?"

"They were both there. But don't stress on it." I said. "Time enough to figure that out."

"So, what's left for us to do?" Cindy asked.

"Solve crimes." I said. "Get Sharples out of our Police Department. Get the TCPD ready for a new Sheriff and a new Chief next year. And, of course, keep an eye on Wargrave. He may not have been behind this foiled attack, but he was at least partly responsible for what happened to you last summer. By the way, are you and Teresa going to start training for the Independence Day Triathlon any time soon?"

"Yep." Cindy said, but we'll start that in earnest in January, after the Holidays. And speaking of those... got anything strong enough to tie Teresa down for this coming month?"

"Besides you?" I quipped. "Seriously, I'm hoping it'll be a new and better Holiday season for Teresa. She's come a long way this past year. A long, long way. And I'm grateful she has you as a friend."

"Me too." said Cindy. "But don't forget your own long journey this year. Your own brilliance has been nothing short of stunning, Don. I'm thankful you've now avoided four assassination attempts, and that I'm working for and with you."

"Not five attempts?" I asked.

"I'm not counting that last one on the highway." Cindy said. "That was you setting them up and then knocking them down like tenpins at the bowling alley. And beautifully done, by the way..."

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

"Ah, Lilly, you have surpassed yourself!" exclaimed Conrad King as he finished up his dessert on Thanksgiving Day as the guest of Henry and Lilly Wargrave. "It was wonderful!"

"Thank you, Mr. King." said Lilly Wargrave. "And I'm so glad you accepted Henry's invitation to Thanksgiving dinner with us. There are drinks on the sideboard, so both of you help yourselves, and I'll just excuse myself." Mrs. Wargrave knew that the men wanted to talk serious business. They watched the tall redhead leave, enjoying the sight of her firm ass and especially her long, slender, shapely legs and sexy feet in her high heel pumps as she took leave of them.

Once they were alone, Conrad King settled into a chair near the fire, the warmth feeling good to his aged body, and the sherry he was sipping helping even more. But the pleasant feelings had to end, and King got right down to it:

"Henry, I know you're angry about losing the last of the Corrigan Cell, as the Town & County locals are calling it, but we're going to have to let this one go. The attempt to murder the Iron Crowbar's children has riled him up, not to mention the entire County and its citizens. Whoever did that has done us no favors at all; it's getting very ugly for us now. As Admiral Yamamoto so astutely said about the Pearl Harbor attack: "we have awakened a sleeping giant."

"Nothing a few bullets to the backs of a few heads can't fix." Wargrave said, with some asperity.

"Which is why I am here, Henry." said Conrad King. "You had better not be the one to kill him. Certainly not while I'm alive and my operations are ongoing."

"I'm not the one that set the fire to his home in the first place." said Wargrave.

"It doesn't matter." said King, his aged voice barely above a whisper. "The mud has been splashed onto the innocent, meaning you, and by proxy the rest of us. A huge mistake was made in sending two simultaneous warning messages to the Iron Crowbar; I have word that our friendly neighborhood Police Commander has figured out that it was from two separate entities, and that he's fully aware of your status. Your Leader is now known to the Iron Crowbar; at least his existence, if not his name. As a result, we have made a decision: you must either cut ties with him, or with us. There is no longer any in-between, no longer any independently working for both. No man can serve two masters. You must now choose yours."

How had it come to this? Wargrave thought to himself as he looked into the flames of the fire in the fireplace. No, it had not been him that had set the fire at The Cabin, nor his instructions to do so. He had intended to have Laura Fredricson assassinated by a well-timed, well-planned ambush. He had been told about the highlighted passage in the same book he'd used to send the photograph to the Iron Crowbar; he wondered which of his intermediaries had dared to do such a thing... and for who.

Hubba hubba hubba, who do you trust? Wargrave thought, remembering a line of The Joker from the Keaton/Nicholson Batman movie. Conrad King was just a bit player himself in the organization he represented; Wargrave really was no fan of that group. At least the man in the Iron Crowbar's County had criminal ties that Wargrave could use to continue his own schemes.

"I'll give you my answer in 48 hours." said Wargrave. Both men knew as they stood up that this answer meant that Wargrave had already decided.

"I hope you'll still be with us, Henry." said King, knowing that Wargrave's loyalties lay elsewhere. "But if you're not, I very much appreciate the years we've had together, and the lucrative deals we've done together."

"Thank you, sir." said Wargrave, remembering that this man's son Jack King had said similar words before falling to the wiles of the Iron Crowbar. Would History repeat itself? Wargrave thought as the men shook hands and Conrad King ambled out the door.

Part 25 - Epilogue: The Expiation of Shame

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, November 28th, Selena Steele entered her office at the J.P. Goldman Bank. Her boss, J.P. Goldman, had asked her to come in to handle a special client. Despite the forewarning, she was still shocked when she saw who came through the door, closing it behind him.

"You?" Selena said. "Er, come in."

"Ah, my dear Miss Steele." her guest said. "I am very grateful that you have made some time to see me today."

"Certainly, though I must confess to being surprised to see you of all people here." Selena replied. "Please, sit down."

"Thank you, my dear." said the guest. "As you know, my friend the Iron Crowbar has recently lost his wonderful little cabin on the mountainside to filthy arsonists. I am here to create an account so that you my offer him a construction loan to rebuild the house. You may tell him that the loan is for two million dollars, but I will secretly add another million for any cost overruns."

"That's... very generous of you." Selena Steele said. "You must think very highly of Commander Troy."

"Oh indeed, I most certainly do." said the guest. "He is doing a wonderful job cleaning up this County and the corruption buried deeply within it. And of course, he saved a lovely woman such as yourself from being falsely accused of several hideous crimes."

"Yes, I am indeed grateful for him." said Selena as she busied herself setting up the account on the computer. "Do you want him to know who his benefactor is, or shall we keep your name safely anonymous from him?"

"Yes, let's see how long it takes him to figure it out." said the guest with the beginnings of a grin. "With his powers, I'm sure it won't be long, don't you agree?" Selena laughed, and the paperwork was completed. The guest handed over the credentials to transfer the money into the account.

"I'll let Commander Troy know of this today." Selena said.

"Thank you, my dear." said the guest. "I must now go and finish other business elsewhere. Happy Holidays, and I do hope to see you again soon."

"Likewise, I'm sure." Selena said, though it was to the back of the man already on the move. She watched as the flash of bright white hair went through the door, which closed behind the great mental presence that had just filled the room...

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

Having no idea of the financial transaction being done on my behalf, I boarded the FBI helicopter at County Airport at dawn, along with Cindy Ross and Barry Oliver. We had been summoned by Jack Muscone's boss.

Landing on the roof of the Federal Building in the City, we were escorted by several FBI agents. Their manner was efficient, but I could tell they were on high alert, and I wondered what was going on.

We were brought to a conference room inside the building, where Jack Muscone and the FBI Deputy Director were waiting. There were also four Japanese men in the room, two of them obviously security guards. I felt the power of the Director, as always, but I also felt the power in the presence of one of the other men in the room.

He was an aged Japanese man, with a tall, thin body and a chiseled face that showed well his regal and masterful bearing. I knew that he was Takaki Masaki, Japan's equivalent of the Director of the FBI in our country, and recently semi-retired. It was rumored that he had also had close ties to the Japanese version of the CIA, and that he was, like Conrad King, one of the 'Big Boys' in the world. His presence here was surrealistic.

He was also Takaki Taichi's father.

As the FBI Dep. Director introduced us, I bowed, then introduced Cindy and Barry. The old man bowed to us, not quite as deeply as we did to him, and introduced his son, who was his eldest son. The son was following in his father's footsteps in high-level Japanese governmental affairs, which meant that he was not introduced by name and that his name was not spoken aloud. I did not feel the same aura of power from the son, though I did feel he was a lot like a Japanese equivalent of myself, and was good at observation, deduction, knowledge, and taking action. It was the son who spoke first, on behalf of his father.

"I understand," he said in decent but heavily accented English, "that my father's son, my brother, was recently killed in your County."

"Yes, that is true." I said.

The old man looked hard at me and said "Tell me. How... did he die?"

I did not flinch. I stood erect and looked the man square in the eye.

"He died well, Takaki-sama." I said. "With honor, and with the greatest bravery." I bowed formally.

The old man nearly collapsed with relief, his son prepared to catch him. Takaki rallied, then stepped up to me and took my hand, shaking it in Western style, and also bowing, bowing lower than before. I bowed back, angling slightly to my right so that we didn't hit our heads against each other. He was bowing to hide his emotions, lest he be shamed by them. I was bowing to hide mine.

"Arigato, Troy-san, arigato." the old man said. As we stood up, I brought out the scroll Taro had given me.

"Takaki-sama, your son requested that I give you this scroll." I said. "It is his death poem." The old man signaled to his son, who formally received the scroll. The son opened it, examined the hiragana characters, and at the silent nod of his father read the poem in Japanese, the sonorous words seeming to soar through the room though I did not understand any of it. But all of the Japanese in the room were clearly moved by it, I noted.

"Translate it, please." the old man said. The son did so, speaking the final words of the innermost soul of Takaki Taichi:

Glorious Life continues on,

Death and Evil will be defeated;

My life has been but a dream within a dream,

But my death shall bring victory over the wicked!




Seriously Inconvenienced Ch. 05



No words were spoken, nor needed, as we contemplated the words in our hearts and souls.

"Again, I thank you." said the old man after a moment. "Thank you also, Director," he said to the FBI Deputy Director. "I must now go." Takaki Masaki shook everyone's hand, followed by his son shaking our hands, then the Japanese entourage left the room.

"Well, Commander," said the FBI Deputy Director, "when your career with the Police and with us is finished, just let me know if you want a career in our Diplomatic Corps."

"Thank you, sir." I said, "I think I'll stick to dealing with our Town & County Council for the time being." The Deputy Director smiled in his pursed way, understanding.

"Our chopper has been sent on another mission, so we have a car to drive you back home." the Director said. "But let's have some breakfast first. I want to talk to this Medal-of-Valor-winning partner of yours and recruit her into the FBI."

"Good luck with that." I said. "I'm not letting her get away without a fight." Cindy blushed at the compliments, but during breakfast I was thankful to hear her say she wanted to continue working with me before she got involved with the FBI. But she didn't exactly close the door on it, either...

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

"Taro told me a little about Japanese tradition, and his family heritage." Barry Oliver said as we rode in the back of the FBI limousine towards home. "He said something about breaking with his father's wishes, that he became an engineer instead of working for his father's business in Japan. So... he committed suicide?"

"Yes. Or you could look at it as him sacrificing his life in battle with the Enemy." I said. "He did use himself as a guided missile to exterminate those evil perps from the Corrigan cell. He was already dying, and he knew that by committing honorable seppuku in this way that his death would serve a good purpose and have meaning, that he would restore his honor with his father, and continue his family's honor in his home country. His father understood when I answered his question as I did. And as you could tell, it was well-received and all is now forgiven."

"The Director is right." Cindy said. "You could be in the Diplomatic Corps, knowing the way to answer that question. How did you know?"

"It's harder to explain than to have known." I said. "I only hope that when my death comes, that it will be as honorable, and as brave, as Taichi-sama's."

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

Upon getting back to my office at Police Headquarters, I saw the object sitting on my desk. Cindy was coming in right behind me and said "What's that?"

I went around and sat down in my chair, peering at it. It was a horse made of matchsticks and toothpicks, sitting on a wooden base. The horse was about a foot long and ten inches high. The plate on the base said 'The Fall of Troy'.

"Should I call the bomb squad?" Cindy asked, concerned.

"No, let me look at this." I said. There was a little trap door in the horse's belly, and I pulled back the hook and let it fall open. No bombs went off, as the horse was hollow, but a little scroll of paper fell out. I unrolled it and read the words on it, which were as follows:

"crossed path,

incommoded,

seriously inconvenienced,

hampered,

positive danger."

"Don, why are you grinning like that?" Cindy asked, seeing the wide grin on my face, which I could not help giving and which I could not stop. I looked up at my partner, then handed her the slip of paper.

"It means we got them." I said. "It means we wiped out the last of the Corrigan Cell on the bypass. It means we have degraded Moriarty's assets, and we have seriously inconvenienced him."

"Why am I not exactly feeling relieved right now?" Cindy said, somewhat sarcastically.

"Oh, we've got another couple of words to go before I get worried." I quipped. "And I'm acquiring such a nice collection of Trojan artworks. This really is a well-made matchstick horse."

I began to laugh. Cindy tried hard to keep a straight face, and totally failed; she began laughing with me until we were both nearly in tears...

Finis... for now.