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The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 01

By: WifeWatchman



The chronological order of my stories is now listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

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

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

*****

Part 1 - Prologue 

"Mail call!"

The small group of workers hurried into the meeting room for the twice-weekly ritual after completing their twelve hour shift. Care packages and letters were passed out. These guys were contractors for a highly classified monitoring station in the extremely remote location of the northern Alaska wastelands.

"Got something there, Chris?"

"Oh yeah." Chris Washburn said happily as he tucked the manila envelope under his arm. His roommate grinned, knowing that the package for Chris was from Chris's wife. Hurrying to his quarters in the quonset huts, Chris opened the package. The results exceeded even his wildest expectations.

The first pictures showed his wife, her dirty blonde hair in gentle drilled curls, wearing a sundress that showed off her short, shapely, stocky body. The next picture was of her full body, showing her legs as she stood in high heel slides. Then followed one of her from behind, bent over slightly so that the delicious curves of her ass were outlined by the tight fitting dress.

The pictures progressed, showing his wife in the sunroom of their hope, outlined against the window, then stepping outside into the backyard. There, subsequent pictures showed that she had been joined by their young neighbor from across the street. He had light colored hair, more ash than yellow blonde, and his tall, lean body was ripped, the muscles not overdone but rock-hard on his body.

The next pictures Chris saw were of his wife and the young man sitting on the patio, having what looked like frozen daiquiris. Then the camera got closer to the lovely woman from below, showing her legs... then up her skirt. It was as if the young man didn't realize that she was showing off her private parts to the camera.

There was another set of pics. The first showed the young man pouring more drinks, not seeming to notice the woman hitching up her skirt at the camera, showing off her bare ass! Chris groaned at the sight of the delicious globes of his wife's asscheeks. Then the next picture showed his wife with a message on a piece of paper that said 'Watch the video.'

Racing to his laptop, he plugged in the jump drive and started the first video. It was his wife in her bedroom. "Honey," she said, "it's warm so we're changing into something more comfortable. He's in the other room." With that, the woman slowly let her sundress fall to the floor, then she proceeded to put on a thong bikini while looking into the camera and smiling lustily. "Okay, honey," she said, "look at the second set of pics."

Back to the pictures. Chris began going through them. They showed his wife and the young man back in the backyard in the lawn chairs. The young man was in tight fitting swim trunks that looked like blue boxer shorts, and the outline of his huge cock could easily be seen under the thin fabric. In one pic, while the guy was looking away, the wife was pointing at the bulge between his legs with her other hand to her lips in an 'Oh my!' pose.

The other pics that followed showed various scenes of Chris's wife. In one, the young man was looking away and she had the thong bikini pulled to one side, completely exposing her pussy, her cuntlips open and wet. Another pic showed her pulling the bikini top down to expose and uplift her breasts, followed by the young man getting a good feel of her fleshy boob. Then one of him sucking her rock-hard, distended nipple as she displayed a look of pleasure on her face.

That was the last pic. Chris checked the jump drive. There was a second video, but it only showed his wife and the young man talking about going out to dinner together that night. There were no more pictures nor videos. His wife was probably going to send the pictures of her date and their night on the Town in another mail package. Such a tease she was! he thought to himself.

Then he noticed another file, not named like the others. It had two photographs, which totally shocked Chris. One showed his wife very clearly sucking a huge, hard cock, her moist, lipsticked lips tightly clinging to the thick shaft. It was obviously the young man's cock, even though Chris could not see the other guy's face. Then there was the other pic, and Chris reeled...

It showed a very close-up picture of a quality not as good as the others. A man was on top of a woman in the missionary position, and his cock was buried almost all the way into her pussy. Unlike the young man in the previous pics, the backs of this man's legs were hairy, and the nutsack was smaller than the other man's...

It looked like his wife's vagina, but he couldn't quite be sure, he thought. He couldn't see any telltale moles or marks, and the lovers' bellies were pressed together, preventing any of the rest of their bodies or faces from being seen. But in his soul, Chris knew that he was looking at his wife being fucked by another man, and he wondered if this picture had been meant to be included in the package, or if others that should have been in the package were missing...

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

Friday, September 18th. I was watching my beautiful wife Laura on her back, her luscious legs spread and high in the air, her gray high-heel pumps the only thing she was wearing. The young teen stud Ryan was naked and on top of her, pumping his large meat into my wife with youthful vigor.

"Baby, slow down," Laura moaned, "you'll come too fast."

"It's okay, I'm under control." Ryan said. I was a bit stunned; usually men this young would come very fast, but Ryan had better control that expected. I reasoned that he must've come before meeting us for our double date.

I looked down at the lovely woman beneath me. Ryan's mother Marlena had black hair and a voluptuous but still hourglass-shaped body. Her legs were her best feature, shapely and fairly firm, and her feet looked hot in the high heel slides she was wearing. They were the slides that she'd been wearing with her housecoat on the night of the Michelle Schell murder across the street from her house, and now having those legs caught under my arms as I pumped my cock into her, tasting and tonguing her legs and feet as I fucked her, and seeing my own wife being fucked by her well-hung son, was intensely pleasurable.

I briefly remembered fucking the big girl Willa a few months back, then remembered other big girls I'd fucked in college. Marlena was hotter than them, she was moving her hips and ass in response to my hard, steady thrusts, but I did enjoy the pillowy sweetness of her body as I let my weight press my groin and abs onto hers.

"UHH!!" I heard my wife gasp. I looked over seeing her eyes closed, her body straining, her mouth in an "oh" as she gasped and moaned. Laura was having an orgasm, and I heard Ryan grunt as he pushed his ass forward, trying to keep his cock buried nuts-deep in her pussy as her clenching cunt seemed to try to push his invading cuntsplitter out. It was a feeling I'd enjoyed many, many times when Laura came around my cock.

Marlena was moaning as I sped up the power and intensity of my own thrusts. She had climaxed, though her pussy did not clutch me as tightly as Laura's usually did. It was amazing to me, as always, how women would go through their climaxes in different ways...

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

"It's an away game." Ryan said. "I'm redshirted, so I didn't get to go on this trip." Ryan was on the University's football team, which had an away game over the weekend.

"That's our gain." Laura said as she snuggled into him. "Definitely my gain." She leaned her head back and kissed Ryan's mouth.

"Ryan," said Marlena, "why don't you tell them about the couple we've been swapping with."

"Oh, yeah," said Ryan, "Sean and Cassie. They're our neighbors... well, they live in the same subdivision but farther down the road. They're a mother-and-son duo and they fuck each other like Mom and I fuck." Marlena smiled lovingly at Ryan as he said "We've hooked up with them a few times, and they might be a good couple to join us for a bigger party, or you guys could swap with them, too."

"Sounds good." Laura said, then she asked "Do you think they would be willing to talk to me for my research? Like you and your mother have been doing? Fully anonymously?"

"Maybe." said Ryan. "I can ask them. I'm sure Cassie will do it if you pay her. Don't ever get between her and a dollar bill if you don't want to get run over!"

"Ryan!" gasped Marlena. "That's not nice!"

"Sorry, Mom." Ryan said, grinning. "Anyway, I'll talk to them if you like, Laura."

"Mmm, good." Laura said. "Now why don't you get my husband's sloppy seconds while he gets yours?" With that, we swapped partners. I got behind Laura in a 'spoons' position, lying on our left hips so that Laura could watch Ryan fuck his own mother. I could feel my wife's excitement as I pumped her sperm-filled pussy, enjoying the weird wet slickness that was getting frothy. 

So was Marlena's cunt, as her son Ryan was fucking her very hard and deep. Her legs were pulled way back to give her son full admission to her slick, sloppy vagina, and he was plowing her furrow into a hot, creamy lather...

Part 2 - Groundwork 

"What I don't understand," said Cindy Ross, "is Dora Ellis. I've been following up on her for Jack Muscone and the FBI, as you know."

We were sitting in my office at 8:30am, Monday, September 21st, drinking coffee and just chatting after the conclusion of the "Crowbar's Angels" meeting.

"Yes." I said. "Anything new on that?"

"No." Cindy said. "Just that Angela Harlan was all over her like a wet blanket while Dora was in Texas. After Angela died up here, the FBI office in Dallas obtained everything in Texas that they could get on Angela, including all her police cases, notes, the works. But they had even more on Dora Ellis, because Angela was just about to hand off a money laundering case to the FBI down there. Dora left the State, fell off the FBI's radar... and Angela started going nuts, too. It wasn't all that much later that the first Black Widow cases started up."

"Yes." I said. After a pause I asked "Am I the only one in the room who disbelieves coincidences enough that I see a possible connection in all of this? Dora in Texas, then up here. Sharples in Texas, then up here. Angela Harlan in Texas, then up here."

"No sir, you are not." said Cindy, who then grinned. "You know... my father, Dr. Eckart, says the same thing about coincidences. He got a good laugh when I told him how you quote Dame Agatha Christie on that."

I smiled as Cindy said "By the way, Lindy Linares of the FBI up here worked with me to get some of this material."

"Yes, she's very good with the white collar crimes." I said. "She's the FBI's version of The Abacus." The Abacus was Vice Detective Julie Newton, whose wizardry with ledgers, numbers, and discovering means of moving money around was without equal in the State, if I do say so myself.

"You know," Cindy said, "Lindy and I were wondering if we should bring Julie into this. Maybe even get her on the FBI payroll as a temporary consultant or something."

I considered that. "No." I concluded. "We'll keep Julie all to ourselves. I think Teresa has her working on some other stuff, too."

Cindy said "True enough. Teresa put her onto Domingo Shipping, and she came up with a couple of names in the Tenderloin District. One of them is a member of T-Square's 'Regiment', a guy named Tyrell T. Underwood, who goes by the name of 'Smooth'. The other is Weinstein, the Jewish guy that runs a club on the Southern end of the Tenderloin District. No one has seen 'Smooth' in several weeks, and we haven't found him yet, either. We've got some people watching Weinstein."

"Interesting." I said. "Tell Teresa very quietly, and for her ears alone: don't waste much time looking into 'Smooth'. Let's just say that one is a 'dead' end."

Cindy peered at me, knowing all too well that I had a meaning in my words. I piled on.

"Also, Cindy," I said, "we need to consider the possibility of key people leaving the Force. No, don't get your hackles up, I'm not saying anyone is doing anything wrong, but people do find other jobs, or they get married, or get bored around this place."

"If they're bored," Cindy replied levelly, "it's because you made it that way. Criminals are scared to do anything in this County because they know exactly who is about to bust them up."

"I think it's my partner they're really scared of." I said with a grin. Then I frowned a bit. "I do wish it were true that we were feared that much by the criminal elements. But the point I was trying to make is that we can't allow ourselves to be diminished if someone leaves or is incapacitated. I want you to think of what would happen if The Abacus ever left. Who would we have to 'follow the money' if she wasn't around?"

"Good point." Cindy said. "You think she's looking to leave?"

"No... no, I wasn't trying to imply anything. I just used her as an example." I said. "And this is a better example, though painful to think of: what is your plan if something happens to Teresa or Tanya?"

Cindy's eyes widened a bit as she contemplated those repercussions. "Perish forbid that ever happen." she said. "But you're right, it's something I need to think about and plan for."

She then asked, obviously to change the subject, "Speaking of Angela Harlan, did you ever follow up on Selena Steele?"

"Not really. Not yet, anyway." I said. "There are just so many threads to follow, I'm just trying to find the time to keep up with all of it. And we looked into Selena back in the time of the Black Widow cases. I've got it on the list of things to work on, though."

Cindy was again peering at me, wondering what I was hiding from her. The fun thing was... I had just told her the God's-honest truth. Selena Steele was a back-burner issue for the time being.

"Okay." Cindy said. "There was one thing I was going to ask you. About Dora: by all accounts she was very liberal, majoring in 'Women's Studies' and all that. But she was part of a viciously racist white supremacy group called 'White Roots'."

"So you're saying that liberal Democrats can't be racists?" I countered. "Only Republicans can be racist?"

"No--" Cindy faltered. "No... I... well... I didn't mean it like that..."

"So Joanne Cummings is a racist?" I asked. "She and her family are very conservative, very Christian, definitely Republicans, too. But not racists."

"Okay, okay," Cindy said, trying to recover, "I said it the wrong way."

"I'm glad it was here in private, and just between us." I said. "Speaking of Texas, Laura is from Texas also. Did you know that the Texas Republican Party was founded by three whites... and 20 blacks? I need not even mention that the Ku Klux Klan was founded by Southern Democrats, nor that Southern Democrats tried to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was overcome by other Democrats... with Republican help."

I continued: "The problems is twofold, my friend: first, the Media labels the Republicans as racists; second, the Republicans don't fight back. They let themselves be pasted as racists, as women-haters, and so on. They're cowards, even worse... but I cannot say in front of a woman what I would like to call the Republicans. As you know, I am no fan of either political party."

"Yeah, I know." Cindy said, getting tired of my verbal lashing.

"Okay," I said, "you were saying about Dora Ellis?"

"Yes." Cindy said, getting back on track. "I was going to say that Dora went to Texas, a conservative State, and worked in banks there before coming to our State. I would not think someone majoring in Women's Studies would be working at banks."

"She was originally from California," I said, "which is not a conservative State. Her father is an insurance man in San Francisco. He's no conservative, nor a Republican, but a staunch Democrat. I know because I've been investigating him. And not that it's connected in any way to politics or political parties, but he's likely a member of the Superior Bloodlines group, which stays in the shadows, but is as deeply racist and even more dangerous than the open, public groups like the Klan or the stereotypically hick 'White Roots' people."

"So," I continued, "she obviously was working for her father. She did what he told her, whether it was to infiltrate a bank or work with drug gangs, or be a C.I. for a dirty cop like Susan Wexler."

"So, Mr. Iron Crowbar, whom not much gets by..." said Cindy, her sparkling eyes substituting for a grin, "who is going to be put up by the Republicans to oppose SBI Director Jack Lewis for Governor?"

"Admit it, you're just a political junkie!" I said with a grin. That got Cindy's eyes rolling and nearly got me cursed out. Me, I deal with the politics but I'm a political atheist. By way of contrast, Cindy actively hates the shenanigans of politics.

"Okay, just kidding." I said. "And the question is an interesting one... but far above my pay grade."

"They wanted you to run." Cindy said, her eyes twinkling again as she realized I'd gotten in a good one on her. "And I understand you telling them to pound sand. But you have to have thought about it." She was peering at me expectantly, trying to get something out of me.

"I wish you would work this hard on getting your paperwork done, Captain." I said with another grin. Again, Cindy was not amused.

I continued: "Yeah, I've thought about it. And my answer is that I would prefer to see Governor Jared run again, even though he has said he doesn't want to run for another term. Failing that... I'm not sure who the Republicans can put up against him."

"Well," Cindy said, "they'd better figure it out quick. By Hallowe'en at the latest. The Election is over a year away, but the Primaries are in March... and this is not some local race. "

"That's true. So..." I said, my own eyes peering at Cindy, "has Jenna decided to run against Krasney?"

"No." said Cindy, not bothering to ask how I was so certain of something that had not been mentioned publicly. "Meaning 'no, she's not going to do it this election cycle'. She doesn't feel like she has enough time to get organized, get support, and then campaign against her own boss and be able to win."

I fell into a near-reverie. "You know," I said, my voice sounding far away, "if I'm right, some things might open up for her, if she really wants to get into politics. Tell her... yeah, tell her to get her positions on things honed and into sound bites, and to start laying some groundwork, just to be prepared... and tell her to make sure she really wants to get into politics..."

My reverie was interrupted by a loud knock on my door. The Duty Desk Sergeant opened the door and looked in.

"Commander, Captain," she said, "we just got a call. A body has been found behind the Ladies Auxiliary Clubhouse building."

Part 3 - The Crime Scene 

"Ma'am," said Detective Joanne Cummings, "I'm sorry, but you can't be here."

"It's quite all right, young lady." said the old woman, who was wearing a shawl that partially covered her face even in the early Autumn warmth. "I'll be on my way. But please do ask your medical examiner to look into the age of those bruises on this poor woman's face."


The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 01



"I will, ma'am," said Joanne, trying to be nice, "but this is a crime scene and you really must come away from here."

"I'll take care of this, Detective Cummings." said a voice behind them. They whirled around to see Captain Cindy Ross coming up to them. "You get back to examining the body. I'll escort the Widow Jones out of here. Madam, you really do need to go before the Commander gets here."

"Yes, I suppose I must." said the old lady as she and Cindy walked away from the scene. "Such a dreadful thing, a lovely young lady murdered in the prime of her life."

"I agree." said Cindy.

"As I was telling your young but promising Detective," said the Widow Athena Jones in her scratchy voice, "have your medical examiner look into the age of the bruising on the woman's face. I might also suggest that her clothing is very interesting, and she was covering some of her bruises with actor's makeup."

"I'll tell them." said Cindy. "There's Commander Troy now, so I'll let you go. Have a nice day, ma'am."

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

As I got out of my silver Police SUV, I did a double-take. Cindy was escorting an old woman away from the crime scene. I peered at them as Cindy came over to me and the woman disappeared into the small crowd watching outside the Police cordon.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"One of our 'seasoned citizens'." Cindy replied, and her attempt to force the nonchalant tone of her voice was not lost on me.

"More importantly," I asked, my voice more severe, "how is it that she got on the inside of our security cordon?"

"I think she was already there before we set it up." Cindy said. "Detective Cummings was politely but firmly getting her out of there when I came up, so I had Cummings go back to work and I got the lady out of the area."

"I see." I said. We were approaching the Patrolmen at the barricade. One had a clipboard. Cindy came up to him first.

"Ross, Captain, TCPD badge number one-zero-six-nine." Cindy said.

"Yes ma'am, come on inside." said the Patrolman. "You can come in too, Commander." The other officers, including Cindy, looked at him as if he'd just made an obscene gesture.

"And you already know my badge number, Patrolman?" I asked quietly.

"Uh, no sir." said the Patrolman. "But everyone knows you're the Commander."

"And that's the point, Patrolman." Captain Ross said to him. "Even the Commander, even the Chief, even the Sheriff himself has to go through the protocol before coming through this security checkpoint, with the time logged."

"Uh, yes ma'am." said the young officer, realizing his mistake. "I'm sorry, sir. What is your badge number?"

"I'll give the you the full meal deal, just to say I did: Troy. Commander. TCPD badge number one-six-four-zero." I said.

As he wrote it down, I asked "What's your name, Patrolman?" I asked even though I already knew... it's not like I couldn't read his name tag.

"Culver, sir." said the Patrolman, a look of fear suddenly masking his features.

"Relax, Patrolman Culver." I said. "You got the freebie today, and got to learn the easy way. Just don't make the same mistake again."

"Yes sir." Culver said, now looking considerably relieved that I had not administered a Crowbar beatdown, verbal or otherwise.

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

I came up to the body of a white woman in her thirties, with light brown hair with blonde highlights and in a frazzle of curls a bit softer than Dr. Bonnie Karpathian or FBI Agent Lindy Linares wore their hair. The woman was relatively short, under 5'5" tall, with a stocky but shapely body which was relatively fit. Her dress was a clingy gown of a pale green color with gold trim, the gold matching her fingernail and toenail polish. She was wearing wedding rings, but no other jewelry... not even earrings, though her ears were pierced.

What immediately got anyone's attention was her face. She was pretty, but her face was bruised up pretty badly, as was her upper chest, shoulders, and arms; she'd been beaten up in the recent past.

"Hi, Martha." I said to the Medical Examiner as she examined the body. "How are you doing?"

"I am doing the best I can," said Martha acidly, "while every know-it-all Detective and old lady in the County is trying to tell me how to do my job." It did not take a great feat of detection to observe that Martha was peeved. I looked at Detective Cummings.

"Sir," Joanne said, "the old lady that was here said to tell the M.E. to look at the age of the bruising, some makeup on her body, and also the woman's clothes." It also did not take great ability to see the pouty frown on Detective Cummings's face, and that she was feeling a mixture of guilt at annoying Martha... but also irritation that Martha was giving Joanne hell for passing on the old lady's comments.

"Interesting." I said as my eyes took in a lightning inventory of the scene. "So, Martha, what have you found so far?"

"Death appears to be by strangulation." said Martha. "The markings on the neck suggest she was strangled from behind. Death occurred at least twelve hours ago; my preliminary guess is late yesterday afternoon or early yesterday evening."

"Detective Cummings," I said, "how close to the body did that old lady come?'

"Not very close, sir." said Joanne. "She never got closer than about 15 feet, that I saw." Other officers confirmed this upon my queries.

"Good." I said. "The garbage men found the body?"

"Yes sir." said Cummings. "And they called it in. I got their names and contact information, then let them go to do their jobs."

"Good enough. We definitely do not want the Citizens complaining to the Council that their trash is piling up because a Police Detective arrested them." I said with a grin. Joanne stifled a giggle.

As I looked around, I said "The body was brought here and dumped. Did anyone find a purse or an ID on her?"

"No sir." said Joanne. "No purse, no personal effects in any pockets of her dress. I photographed her face and sent it to the Data Group."

"And fingerprints?" I asked.

"I haven't done those yet, sir." Joanne said. "I was staying out of the Medical Examiner's way." I understood the underlying complaint of that comment.

"Martha," I said, "let Cummings get a couple of fingerprints." Martha said nothing but grudgingly got out of the way. Joanne came up with her Police iPhone and started an app that would read the deceased's fingerprints when pressed to the screen. Within seconds, the FBI database would be searching for those prints. Technology... is cool.

I also noticed that Joanne took the time to study the woman's wedding rings, even trying to pull them off the fingers. Ah good! I thought to myself. Someone learned from the Murdered Bride case!

As Joanne did her work, I asked Martha: "So let's do talk about those bruises on the victim's face, Martha. Am I right that they don't look as recent as the strangulation marks and the fingernail scrapes and splitting where she tried to fight off her attacker?"

Martha knew that I was not a 'know-it-all' Detective, that I observed and deduced things. But she still gave me a look suggesting I was a 'know-it-all' Commander. I was beginning to tire of her attitude this morning, as it was making mine not much better.

"I don't know, sir." Martha said. "I'll have to do a closer examination during the autopsy. The Crime Lab has already taken samples of the makeup that was covering the bruises on her shoulders, so ask them for those results."

"Okay." I said. "Expedite the autopsy, if you will. There are some... 'strangenesses' about this crime scene."

"By the way, sir," Joanne said, "the woman was not wearing any shoes, nor did we find any in the area."

"Hmmm," I said, "that might or might not be important. Not to put too much emphasis on it, but the likeliest place she'd be without shoes in the early evening... would be at home."

"And 'home' is what we need to find out next about her... along with her identity." said Cindy Ross. "Did the FBI App come back with fingerprints yet?"

"No ma'am." said Detective Cummings. "The app is pretty fast, too. So for it to take this long means it's likely that her prints aren't in the database."

"So, Detective Washington," I said to Theo Washington, who had been working with uniformed officers in looking for clues around the area, "why do you think the perp or perps brought the body here, behind the Ladies Auxiliary Clubhouse building?"

"Uh," said Theo, with a puzzled look on his movie-star-handsome face, "there was no one here last night and it was convenient?"

"Could be... could be." I said. "What do you think of that theory, Captain Ross?"

"Only that you don't share it." Cindy said to me. "I don't know what it is, but you have some knowledge about this particular place that I know I don't have. So clue us in... sir." That was Cindy's little way of barely maintaining decorum while expressing her impatience with my little game.

"I need to get as many of you up to speed on things like this as I can." I said. "You're right, Captain: this location is known as a 'dead/live' location. There is cellphone service, but there are no surveillance cameras in the immediate area. If I were a perp, I'd want to drop off a body in a place like this, where my cellphone was available to take calls, but no cameras are observing or recording me dumping the body. I happen to have an idea that the late Captain Malone used to come here to use his burner phones."

"Where are the other 'dead/live' zones, sir?" asked Theo.

"We'll have to have some classroom training on that." I said. "For now, I'll just say that good portions of the Fairgrounds, some of Ronald Reagan Park, and of course Promontory Point."

"With all the kids that go up there," asked Joanne Cummings, who had been listening to us, "wouldn't Promontory Point be the place cameras are needed most?"

"You'd think that, but Chief Griswold and I absolutely wanted 'plausible deniability' on having any idea who is up there at any given time." I replied. "We absolutely do not want parents screaming at us that their daughter got pregnant at Promontory Point and we knew they were up there and didn't tell said parents."

"Flawlessly logical, as Mr. Spock would say." said Cindy.

"Yes." I said, trying not to laugh at Joanne's facial expressions. "Okay, speaking of flawless logic, let's try to apply some to identify our Jane Doe and start solving this crime. I can tell you from my own observations that there is little of interest here. The old lady was right that the victim's attire is interesting, and that the bruising of her face where she was beaten up is older than the injuries leading to her death. Somebody beat her up a few days ago, then someone killed her last night. And I don't think she was out and about last night; her clothing suggests she was at home... or someone else's home. Has everyone examined the body?"

"I didn't take a close look yet." said Theo.

"Go do that now, so we can release the body to the M.E." I said.

After one last look around, I said "Okay, I'm heading back to Headquarters. Who has Perlman put on the case-- speaking of that, where is Perlman?" I looked around, not seeing her at all.

"She called me and said she's on another mission, sir." said Cindy. "She sent Cummings and Washington down here, so I'll deduce she wants them handling the case."

"That's fine." I said. "And Cummings, you are the primary on this one. Let me speak with you a moment before I go. Ross, Washington, I'll see you both at the Station."

I had Joanne come a few steps away so that I could speak privately with her. She looked worried, thinking she was about to get chewed out.

"Cummings," I said, "I just want to mention a few things. First, I was told how you handled the old lady with courtesy but firmness. That's very good, and I commend your handling of the situation."

"Thank you, sir!" gushed Joanne, blushing a bit at the praise. I think she was expecting anything but praise, but she'd done well from all that I'd heard.

"Second," I said, "I observed you looking at the wedding rings. What did you find?"

"They'd been on her hand for some time, sir." Joanne said. "Indentations on the fingers below showed that. Also, I didn't try hard, but I would have to try hard to get them off her hands."

"Yes." I said. "She's married, and has been for some time. She has family. So I would expect to hear of the Station being called with a Missing Persons report pretty soon. Keep in touch with the Duty Desk and all the Precinct Duty Desks."

"I will, sir." Joanne said.

"Last," I said, "I know you tried to handle that situation with Martha politely. But I want you to remember that this is your crime scene, not hers. The M.E.s are invited in as a courtesy, not a requirement. Don't let Martha or anyone else give you grief or intimidate you, okay?"

"Yes sir." Joanne said, absorbing the lesson.

"Okay, carry on." I said. "I have some work to do." With that, I took my leave of the scene.

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

Back at Headquarters, I went straight to the small Lieutenant's office that was Tanya Perlman's. Knocking on the door, I went straight inside.

"Good morning, Commander." Tanya said, grinning up at me, her cheeks rosy. "Did you have a good weekend?"

"It was excellent." I said. "And you obviously had a good weekend, as well."

"Not much gets by you, sir." Tanya said with an even happier grin. "Dr. Wellman's wife was hostessing some function for some group dedicated to saving African elephants, so I entertained him and kept him from getting bored."

"Or kept him board stiff, if I don't miss my guess." I said, very inappropriately, very rudely... and Tanya loved it.

"You betcha." she replied. "He was really randy, all hot and bothered, too. Maybe he'd been looking at dirty pictures and his wife didn't give him any relief."

"Which begs the question of who she was giving relief." I replied. "But it wasn't me, so I'm not too worried about it. So... what did you find out that kept you away from a murder scene this morning?"

"Well," Tanya replied, "first, I didn't go down there to give my Detectives some breathing space. You might want to do that, also... they're using us both as crutches, and I want them to develop their own skills."

"I can understand that." I said. "But I'll be bored as a gourd if I don't at least go look at the scenes."

"Anyway," Tanya said, "I've been finishing up my investigation of Selena Steele for you, as well as her father Edward R. Steele and her boss, J.P. Goldman."

"What did you find?" I asked.

Tanya replied: "First of all, J.P. Goldman has been a banker for decades, and while his sphincter is as tight as a cat in a dog kennel when it comes to money, he's one of the most honest and aboveboard people you'll ever meet. He's given a lot of money to charities, supports the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Clubs, and various University Hospital projects. 

"He's they only person who has simultaneously served on the Town & County Council and the University Regents Board, and he's still on both now. He's always been involved with the political people in the State, and is a friend of Governor Jared. He's twice brokered political deals between the City and the State, especially the SBI. But as he's gotten older, he's backed off all that stuff and is just living more quietly here in our good Town and County, being a philanthropist."

Tanya continued: "Edward R. Steele is also a Councilman. He's a good friend of Chief Griswold, as is Mr. Goldman. Mr. Steele was in banking himself, but then became a developer of a lot of the subdivisions in the area. The Kensington District was one of his developments. He was also a friend of late Mr. Bonniker, the former head of Crown Chemicals, and who built and owned your Cabin before you bought it... and rebuilt it. He's rumored to have been in the bond business with Hamilton Myers, whose home was robbed in the Parole Officer Case you solved, so he's got oodles of money."

"And he's aboveboard?" I asked.

"Pretty much." Tanya said. "As far as I can tell, and I dug deep. He has more international connections than Mr. Goldman, especially in Japan. If your nephew Todd wants to do more business there, it probably wouldn't hurt for him to talk to Mr. Steele."

"And date his gorgeous daughter." I said. "What about Selena?"

"Well, Selena and Todd would probably be hot in bed together, but I'm not sure how they'd get along otherwise." Tanya said, letting her eyes lock onto me as if to suggest she knew some things I didn't. "She's pretty demanding of the people working for her in the Goldman Bank, she's very sharp with numbers, and word has it that she is going to run the J.P. Goldman bank eventually. Todd, of course, is carefree, happy-go-lucky, and while he's a good CEO of BOW Enterprises, from what Barry Oliver is telling me, I think his laid-back attitude would grate on Selena."

"Interesting." I said. "What else about her?"

"She was in Texas, then Missouri, then came up here." Tanya said. "You know this because you know Angela Harlan followed her up here, trying to frame Selena for murder." Tanya's face was falling; she was remembering who the Black Widow had successfully murdered-- the father of Tanya's child, Pete Feeley.

"Yes," I said, "no need to rehash that unless there's some new bearing I don't know about."

"Nothing except that it's odd Angela would go nuts over Selena." Tanya said, then saw me peering at her. "Don't worry, Don, I'm okay talking about this."

"Not sure I can say the same thing." I said, the pain still heavy on my heart. "But go ahead."

"Like I was saying," Tanya said. "Selena is sharp, in control, a great leader. She'd have been a good military officer in the Finance Corps of the Army, if she'd wanted that. As it is, she runs the J.P. Goldman Bank, having made some good deals for them and made wise investments of J.P.'s money all over the place. I'm still just beginning to look into those investments and the companies involved."

"Okay, thanks." I said. "I want you to be a bit careful getting into these companies, though. Check with me on anything you discover before delving too deep. I want to make sure we don't step on FBI toes as they investigate some things that I'm helping with... and I sure as hell don't want to tip off our Consultant of Crime to what you are doing."

"Gotcha." Tanya said. "By the way, I know the Vice people are looking into Domingo Shipping, but I did some backdoor snooping. Seems Domingo paid a visit to State Senator Jimmy 'Coffin' Cerone of Southport. Jack Muscone told me that the FBI learned that Domingo wanted Cerone to put out a hit... on you."

"So I heard." I said. "I take it you didn't get this from Muscone, at least not in his office?"

Tanya grinned. "I hav vays too make him tawk. He ees unable to ree-sist my methods of extraction." she said in her best German-speak voice.

"Your feminine wiles are too much for heem." I said, also in German-speak. "I must bee on guard against yoo myself."

"You will be unable too ree-sist." Tanya replied, her eyes smoking.

"Okay," I said in a normal voice, "so Domingo was trying to put a hit on me. Cerone very wisely told Domingo to sit and spin, which caused Domingo to fly into a rage, whereupon an armed standoff occurred. No one was killed, but Domingo has left the State, and maybe the country."

"There's more." Tanya said. "Domingo also may have been shipping for Thaddeus Ward of Ward Harvester. Some legit ammonium nitrate went out with Domingo, but you know Ward... and that he sometimes sends 'extra'."

"I sure do." I said.

"In addition," Tanya said, "I came across a company called 'Vauxhall Medical Supply'. Domingo was shipping for them, too, but then the relationship was suddenly broken off. I was starting to look into Vauxhall, who is based in the City, but Jack Muscone waved me off that one."




The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 01



"First I'm hearing of them." I said. "So you found all this about Domingo pretty easily?"

"Well, the part about Cerone was from Jack, and privately," Tanya said, "so that wouldn't be easily found. But the Ward Harvester stuff is right out there. Vauxhall was accidental, but it wasn't like I had to dig all that hard for it."

"Did you come across anything related to T-Square, or Weinstein?" I asked.

"Nope." Tanya said. "And I know why you're asking. T-Square's boy 'Smooth' has disappeared. I'm guessing it was his headless body found in that drum at Crown Chemicals, and that it will take a 'Crowbar' to truly pry out all that was going on about that."

"You didn't hear me say a word about that." I said. "Though Booker T. Washington's science classes now have a very nice brain to study." Tanya grinned and nodded.

"Okay, this is great stuff, Tanya." I said. "I need not tell you that it needs to be kept between us, though if you and Jack Muscone share some things I'll understand. Oh, and be careful... always look back over your shoulder, and try not to be alone at any time. If the Shadow Man finds out about your research..." I let the sentence hang, unfinished.

"I hear you, sir." said Tanya. "And I'm always careful, just like you are." I nodded as I left Tanya's office.

Part 4 - The Curiously Unclaimed Wife 

Wednesday, September 23d. The 'Angels' meeting had been more than unproductive with regard to the murdered Jane Doe case. So I had Cindy Ross, Tanya Perlman, Joanne Cummings, Theo Washington, Myron Milton, and Martin Nash join me in Classroom 'E' behind MCD for a conference.

"The autopsy came back yesterday afternoon." said Tanya Perlman. "Death by strangulation, from behind. Time of death is Sunday afternoon, possibly from 5:00pm to 9:00pm, likely toward the earlier time. That's Martha-speak for between 5:00 and 7:00, by the way; she gives wider times to cover her ass, like all M.E.s do, of course."

Tanya continued: "The bruising was definitely from an earlier time period, at least 36 to 48 hours before her death. There were some very deep bruises that were working out, as well as the more visible surface bruising. But here's the funny thing: Martha thought the bruises were strange, so she consulted with Dr. Cordell, who's a retired Navy doctor living in Nextdoor County on Lake Reservoir. Dr. Cordell said the bruising was consistent with calculated, systematic blows to the head and upper body, not the wild, disconnected punches that an angry person beating her up would produce."

"That's interesting." I said... and no one realized that my comment was about Dr. Leonard Cordell (Admiral, USN, Ret.) being anywhere near this vicinity with one of the CIA's highest officers (my wife Laura) in the next county over. Dr. Cordell had also saved Cindy Ross's life in the O.R. on the night she was so grievously wounded.

"Okay," I went on, "talk to me about this woman not being identified yet."

It was Joanne Cummings that spoke first, on behalf of MCD: "Sir, we've melted the wires over this one, but nothing has come up. We've gotten no missing calls about any woman at all in the last 48 hours, much less a woman near her description. Fingerprints were re-submitted to the FBI for a much more comprehensive search, but so far nothing has come back. Martin contacted the FBI's Missing Persons Bureau, but they don't have anything, either."

"Was this a formal check, Nash?" I asked, "Or did you or Sandra talk to someone in a more behind-the-scenes way?"

"Along official lines, sir." said Martin Nash.

"Okay," I said, making a note on my pad, "I'm going to talk to Jack Muscone and see if he or his people can get us something on the side from Missing Persons. If Sandra knows someone, Martin, see if you can get her to ask a few quiet questions.

"Yes sir." said Nash.

"What is striking to me," I said, nearly lost in thought, "is that no one has called about this woman."

"Maybe her husband or one of her family members did it, so they wouldn't want to report her missing." Cindy Ross said. 

"Could be," I said, "or the husband is out of town and doesn't know that his wife is dead. The way she was dressed, she might have been entertaining a lover and something happened. Okay, what did the 'Data Guyz' find from any street cameras in the area?"

"Nothing, sir." said Joanne Cummings. "I sat with them a while to learn how they went about searching. As you said, there are no cameras in the immediate area of the Ladies Clubhouse, but we looked at the nearest camera coverage of the road leading to the Clubhouse, as well as into the Kensington neighborhood nearby. There was nothing suspicious; every car we saw on camera belongs to someone that lives in the Kensington area."

"Hmmm, that's interesting." I said. "Myron, anything to add?"

"No sir. Everything Detective Cummings said is accurate." said Myron Milton. "I did go back to the next 'ring' of cameras that leads to that area, but most of that data from the main road has been erased due to high traffic flow. Those cameras mostly are for someone to view from a monitoring station, anyway. I also sneaked a peek into KXTC and KSTD's feeds from their helicopters to their servers, but there was nothing in that area during that timeframe."

"Geez, Myron," I said, "you are going to get me in serious trouble one day."

"I'll make sure it's worth it, sir." said Myron, drawing a mock disapproving look from Your Iron Crowbar.

"Sir," said Joanne Cummings, "I would appreciate anything you can suggest to help me find out who she is and what happened to her."

"I wish I had something to tell you." I said. "But there's nothing to observe yet, much less deduce, and the good old fashioned grunt work is not coming up with anything. So that means that we have to just keep pounding away at it."

I thought about it, then added: "There is one option left: publicity. I would absolutely hate to have to go to the Media about this... but it might be our only option at this point."

Just then, there was a knock at the door, and Patrolman Culver peeked in. "Sir, we just got a call about a break-in. Kensington district." He handed me a sheet of paper with the address.

"Ah, Kensington district!" I said, looking around the room. "Captain Ross, what do you think of coincidences?" I asked enthusiastically.

"Whatever my boss thinks of them, so do I." Cindy most very astutely replied. "So we won't hand this off to Vice. Theo, take the lead on this."

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

The house was down the road and a couple of turns from Ryan's house and the house where Michelle Schelle had been murdered by electrocution some time before, but it was of similar construction: split level, three bedrooms, greatroom with a brick fireplace, kitchen and breakfast room/dining room area.

And it was a mess. It had been thoroughly trashed. The Crime Lab had been called in and were examining everywhere for prints and other clues. Meanwhile, Theo and Cindy were talking with the owner, a woman named Cassie Sanderson.

Cassie was the mother of Ryan's friend Sean. This was Sean's house. Cassie was a woman in her 40s, about 5'7", black hair, and voluptuous. Not actually fat, but just a bit fleshy in all areas. She was wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans, and black sneakers.

Sean was in the backyard with Sergeant Rudistan and Sr. Patrolman Morton. It was standard to separate family members so that they could be questioned separately.

"Where are you employed, ma'am?" asked Theo.

"I work for myself." said Cassie. "I'm a photographer. I mostly do weddings and social events, but I've done a few freelance jobs and sell my photos to the Media stations."

"So you weren't here last night?" asked Theo.

I listened in as Cassie said "No sir. My son and I were visiting our friends Ryan and Marlena." She gave Ryan's address as the location, then continued "We had dinner with them, then watched some television, and we decided to stay there overnight--"

"Ma'am," interrupted Theo Washington, "why didn't you just come back home?"

"Uh... ah..." Cassie stammered. "Uh, it was just more convenient..." She was being defensive, and my immensely valuable time was about to be wasted. So I cut in.

"Ma'am," I said, turning to them and giving Cassie my full attention, "I can understand if there was alcohol being consumed and you don't want to say so because Ryan and Sean are not yet 21 years old. But that is of no concern to me. I do need to know what happened here, so please give us every detail, and be assured I'm not going to arrest you for something like that."

Theo blinked as understanding penetrated his brain. Cindy had an 'Of course!' look on her face as understanding dawned. Cassie's eyes showed me that I was right about her reticence to answer that last question. Now reassured, she said "So we stayed overnight with them and came back this morning. We found the house like this. The back door had been kicked in, and the house was trashed."

"Do you know what all has been taken?" Theo asked.

"My jewelry box in the dresser in my bedroom is missing. "said Cassie. "Sean said a couple of his electric guitars are missing, as well as the speaker he uses with them. Our flat-screen TV that was on that wall, too." I had been facing the fireplace, and looked to the wall to my left where Cassie was pointing. The mountings for the TV showed where the flat-screen itself had been. Below was a long, thin table, which had some plaster dust scattered on it, which had come from where the TV had been torn off its mounting on the wall, damaging the wall itself in the process. In the middle of that table was a clock with arms (legs?) to each side and a round middle, that was made to be set on fireplace mantles.

As I looked around the room a bit more intently, Cassie said "I had my laptop computer with me, and my two best cameras and video camera were in the car while we were at Marlena's. But the other cameras were stolen, as well as my entire file cabinet of negatives and some of my backup external hard drives."

I was looking at the mantle over the fireplace. "Where is your computer and that camera equipment now?"

"Still in my car." said Cassie.

"There's something missing from this mantle, also." I said. "There's a clean spot in the middle."

"Oh, that clock was there." said Cassie. "I moved it to the side table under the TV a few of days ago and hadn't put it back yet." I put on latex gloves and went over and picked up the clock, which was of solid wood and metal construction, and heavy. Underneath was the same evenly distributed plaster dust that covered the whole table.

"Ma'am," I said as I set the clock back down, "can you show me the room where your photography stuff and the negatives were?"

"Sure." said Cassie, leading the way down the hall.

Just before I followed, I grabbed Cindy by the arm and said quietly, my voice barely over a whisper, "Tell the Crime Lab to get photos of that clean spot on the mantle and the dust under this clock." I said quietly, my voice barely over a whisper. Cindy just nodded and went to find a Crime Lab technician.

We went down the stairs of the split-level, which led to the garage. Turning left, we entered a small office room. It was indeed trashed, with papers and photographs strewn everywhere. A wall safe on the right side was opened and empty. A filing cabinet against the left wall had four drawers, all partially open and all empty. On the far side from the door, against the window, was an office desk, which had also been ransacked.

"Yep, they did a number on this room." I said. As I turned back towards the door to the hall, I saw a large, framed photograph on the wall to the right of the door as I faced it. I gasped out loud.

The photo was of a lovely woman, her hands clasped behind her head or running through the back of her hair, which was light brown and in drills of gentle curls. She was half facing the camera, showing off her shaved right armpit and also her large breasts, barely covered by the thin fabric of a sundress. The woman's eyes gave a promise of sexuality, her lipsticked lips glossy and beckoning.

"Ma'am," I asked Cassie, "who is this in this photograph?"

"Oh, that's Emma." said Cassie. "She's my friend. She lives right across the street, to the left of the house right across from ours."

"What's her full name?" I asked.

"Uh..." Cassie said, "Emma Washburn. Why?"

"And she lives in 1105, right across the street?" I asked, peering at the photo.

"Uh yes, why?" Cassie said.

"Just curious." I said. "We may need to talk to her. When was the last time you talked to Emma?"

"Uh, Sunday." said Cassie. "She was here that afternoon, and I took some photos of her. Then I left to go to church while Emma changed clothes before going home."

"That was normal?" I asked.

"I'd left Emma here by herself before." Cassie said. "She's stayed overnight at times, too. We're good friends."

"And you haven't seen her nor spoken to her since Sunday?"

"No." said Cassie. "Her husband is a contractor and is home on leave from Alaska. I think they're spending some 'quality time' together, if you know what I mean."

"I certainly do." I said. Just then Cindy came into the room. I pointed at the photograph and said "Lovely photography, don't you think?"

Cindy's eyes widened like saucers as she looked at the photograph. The woman in the photograph... was the dead woman found behind the Ladies Auxiliary Clubhouse.

To be continued.



The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 02



The chronological order of my stories is now listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

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

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



Part 5 - Connecting The Dots 

"Captain," I said to Cindy, "would you take Mrs. Sanderson into the living room while Detective Washington and I examine this room more closely? And send in some Crime Lab peeps. I want this room expedited."

"Without a doubt, sir." Cindy said. She asked Cassie to go with her. Cassie had an inquisitive look on her face, but went along. 

Cindy knew not to mention that Emma had been found dead two days before. Police everywhere try to not divulge things like that without first asking the family, friends, etc., some questions to see what the answers will be. This was a crucially important time.

"Recognize her, Theo?" I asked, once we were alone. Theo looked at the picture, and understood, his own eyes widening as Cindy's had.

"Don't say anything to Cassie nor to Sean that Emma is dead." I said. "We'll spring that on them later."

"Uh, yes sir." Theo said as I began looking around the room. On the desk I found an 8" x 11" photograph that had been printed on photographic paper from a now-missing computer printer. The quality was excellent, and one would think it'd been developed from a negative, but I knew the secret tell-tale signs that gave away it being digital.

The photo showed Emma on her knees on the floor of Cassie's greatroom. She was wearing the filmy green dress that she'd been found dead in. The dress barely covered her breasts in the photo, and her nipples were hard and pretty much visible beneath the thin fabric. Emma's hands were on her thighs, and her legs were bare. She also was not wearing any shoes. It was an erotic but not hardcore photograph. I wondered if it were part of a set. 

I also noticed something else: Emma was wearing heavy makeup, and it was to cover up the bruising on her face. The skin of her upper shoulders and neck also looked strangely and unevenly colored, and I realize that was makeup to cover bruising, also.

As I looked harder at the photo, I noticed the clock behind Emma on the thin table; the time on the clock was 8:00, almost straight up-and-down on the hour. The plasma TV was just above the clock; it was not turned on.

"Theo," I said as I photographed the photograph (Department of Redundancy Department, there) with my Police iPhone, "see if you can find any other photos that this one might be part of a set with. I'll be back in a few minutes."

I stepped into the hallway then out the door at the end to the garage for privacy. I made a phone call, which took a few minutes to complete. Then I went back inside and down the hall to the greatroom, seeing Cindy and Cassie sitting on the sofa. Cindy was having Cassie recount her movements of the entire time from Sunday to the present, saying it might give the Police a clue to her being observed by the burglars. Cassie was being cooperative.

I did not join them, but went instead to the backyard and saw Sean with my officers. Sean was tall, slender, fit and athletic, and his hair was blonde, not yellow or honey blonde but an ash, almost grayish-white blonde. He definitely looked the stud that Ryan had described a few nights before, and I could just tell: Sean was getting a lot of pussy.

"Hello Commander," said Rudistan in his jovial voice. "I was just talking with young Sean, here, about the burglary."

"Hi Sean." I said.

"Wow, the Iron Crowbar himself!" said Sean. "My friend Ryan told me he knows you."

"Yes, yes he does." I said. "He told me about you, too. So, what can you tell me about this mess?"

"Like I told the officers," Sean said, "my mom and I got home this morning and found the house broken into. The back door was open, and you can see where it was kicked in." Indeed, I had seen the damage to the door around the lock, and the barely-noticeable imprint of a heavy boot that had kicked it in. I'd also seen traces of that boot and others... and where others had walked over them.

I sat down on a lawn chair next to Sean and had him recount visiting Marlena and Ryan the night before. Then I asked what he'd been doing the night before last, that being Monday night.

"Uh, I was hanging out with Ryan and a couple of girls from the School." Sean said.

"University students?" I asked.

"Yeah." Sean said. "Ryan and I took them out to dinner, then we went dancing and hung out, then back to one of the girls' dorm room."

"And had sex with them?" I asked.

"Oh yeah." said Sean. "I gotta admit, Ryan has hooked me up with some extremely hot women."

"I'll be discreet," I said, "but I will need their names and that dorm room number." Sean readily gave me the information.

"What about Sunday night?" I asked.

"Uh, Mom and I were at Marlena's Sunday night, too." said Sean. "We had dinner with Marlena and Ryan."

"Did you spend the night?" I asked.

"No." said Sean. "We got home about midnight."

"What time did you get to Marlena's on Sunday."

"About eight o'clock." said Sean. "We all went to the Sunday evening church service at First Baptist at 7:00, then went straight to Marlena's house when it was over."

"So that woman whose photo is on the wall in your mom's office..." I said, "who is that?"

"Oh, that's Emma." Sean said. "She lives across the street. She's Mom's friend."

"Tell me more about her." I said. "Friendly? Outgoing? Shy?"

"Oh, she's a great lady." Sean said, his eyes brightening considerably. "She models for photographs for my mom. Her husband is in Alaska, so Mom takes photos of Emma so that she can send them to her husband."

I asked Sean to tell me more, and this was his story, which I condense here: Emma would take photos that were increasingly sexy and provocative, sometimes becoming partially or fully nude. These photos were sent as sets to Emma's husband. Emma also wanted pictures of herself on 'dates' with Sean, going to restaurants that were favorites of Emma and her husband, a few photos of them on a picnic, all taken by Sean's mom Cassie. Sean said that Emma would then pose alone more sexually while Cassie took the shots.

"Okay, thanks Sean." I said. "I'm going to have to ask you to come to the Police Station and make a more complete statement. Sergeant Rudistan, will you drive Sean down to Headquarters? And don't walk through the house. Just go around the outside..."

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

Re-entering the house, Crime Lab Technician Christina Cho came up to me.

"Here are two more photos we found." she said. I looked at them. One showed Emma partially nude on a bed in a room with lavender walls.

"Must be Emma's house." I said. "We'll find out in just a little bit, when we go over there." Then I looked at the second pic. It showed Sean and Emma posing together, her in a sundress and him in a very tight-fitting t-shirt, both smiling at the camera, arms around each other's waists.

"Bag these as evidence." I said. "And Christina, a warrant is on the way to seize Cassie's laptop computer and digital cameras, which are in her car. Bag 'em as soon as that warrant gets here, and get 'em to Myron Milton ASAP."

"Yes sir." Christina said. Cindy then came up to me.

"Either she's a great actress, or she doesn't know about Emma." Cindy whispered.

"Okay." I said. "We're taking her to the Station." I then led Cindy back to where Cassie was.

"Mrs. Sanderson," I said, "I'm gathering that there is no Mr. Sanderson in the house, other than Sean?"

"That's right, Commander." said Cassie. "As I was telling your Captain, my husband left us several years ago."

"I see. Were you and Emma Washburn friends at that time?" I asked.

"No, my husband never met Emma nor her husband." said Cassie. "Commander, I'm wondering why all the questions about Emma. You don't think she had anything to do with breaking into my house, do you?"

"No ma'am, I do not." I said. "At least not directly." I showed Cassie the photo of Emma on her knees, which was in a clear plastic evidence bag. "Ma'am did you take this photo of Emma?" I asked.

Cassie looked at it. "No, I didn't. I copied that off Emma's Facebook account. It's only visible to friends." She got out her cellphone, which was not locked, opened the Facebook app, and after finding the photo she showed it to me. It had been uploaded to Facebook Sunday night.

As I looked at it, Cassie said "I can see it was taken here in this room, but I didn't take it. I printed it off because I wanted to ask her who had taken it. We weren't at home at the time."

"Oh?" I asked. "Where were you?"

"My son and I were at church, then we went to Marlena and Ryan's."

"That was Sunday night, not last night."

"Yes sir." said Cassie. "We visited them both nights. Sunday we came home about 11:30pm, maybe a bit later. Last night we stayed over."

"Okay," I said, putting the cellphone into an evidence bag. "I'm going to have to keep this, and I am going to have to ask you to come to Police Headquarters and give a formal statement."

"Uh, sure, but why?" asked Cassie, looking at me a bit skeptically. "What difference does it make between here and there?"

"Because we have videotaping equipment there." I said. "If you will please go with my officers here." Officer Lydia Green and Detective Joanne Cummings were ready to go.

"What? What's going on?" Cassie said, peering hard at me. I was looking right back at her.

"I'll explain everything at Headquarters." I said. Cassie did not look happy, but went with the female officers.

"What's next?" Cindy asked.

"I'm waiting for the warrants to get here, then we'll go to Emma's house." I said. "So, what did Cassie say? Particularly about Sunday?"

"She said Sean and Emma posed for some pictures, then Sean left and she and Emma took a few more pictures." Cindy said. "This is unprofessional and just a guess, but I wonder if some muffdiving happened while they were alone. Watching Cassie, I think she was smitten with Emma."

"That could be." I said. "What about Monday and Tuesday?"

"Said she spent most of her time here, working on wedding photography sets." Cindy replied. "Had a couple of appointments, which she met...."

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

With four uniformed officers, Detective Theo Washington, and of course Captain Ross in tow, I went with warrant in hand across the street to Emma Washburn's house. My knock on the front door was answered by a medium sized man in a wife-beater t-shirt and short pants, a three-day-old beard, and bleary eyes. He'd be handsome if he were cleaned up, I noted.

"Yeah?" he asked gruffly.

"Mr. Christopher Washburn?" I asked.

"Who wants to know?" the man asked. I could smell whiskey on his breath and he was unsteady on his feet.

"I'm Commander Donald Troy of the Town & County Police Department. We have a warrant to enter and search your home."

"Whaaaa?" the man asked. I had two officers assist Mr. Washburn back inside. "What's this about?" he asked as he half fell back onto the sofa in his greatroom.

"Sir," I asked, "is your wife at home?"

"Naw." the man said, scowling. "She's probably over at that bitch Cassie Sanderson's house, fucking her son."

"Has your wife been having an affair?" Cindy asked, trying to make her voice sound gentle and caring.

"Yeah, but so what? Is that what that warrant's for? That's no reason to come into my home." Washburn asked. He was beginning to sober up.

"When was the last time you saw your wife, Mr. Washburn?" I asked.

"What's today?" asked Washburn.

"Wednesday." said Cindy.

"Shit." said Washburn. "Geez... hell, it was Saturday or Sunday that I saw her last."

"What happened?" I asked. By now Washburn was figuring it out.

"Why do you want to know?" he asked, his voice more demanding. "Why are you police here? What's going on?"

"Just answer the question, Mr. Washburn." Cindy said. "When did you last see your wife, and why haven't you seen her since last weekend?"

"I'm not saying anything else without a lawyer." Washburn said. "And I want a lawyer here before you go through my house."

"Trying to hide something?" Cindy asked. I whirled to face her, almost grabbing her arm.

"Captain," I said, my voice shocked and severe, looking daggers at Cindy, "the man just asked for a lawyer." I turned to Washburn. "Okay, Mr. Washburn, these officers will escort you to Police Headquarters, from where you'll be able to call an attorney. We're searching your house under a warrant, and do not need to wait for your lawyer to do so."

"Am I under arrest?" Washburn asked.

"Not yet." I said. "But I can make that happen, if you insist upon it." Washburn said nothing else, and did not resist as the officers took him to a police cruiser to transport him to Headquarters.

"I will speak with you privately when we're back at Headquarters." I said to Cindy, not reprimanding her in front of the other officers, but letting her know that she was going to get her ass very thoroughly chewed out for her egregious mistake.

Crime Lab people began going through the house. I also walked through, finding a bedroom with lavender walls, as I'd expected. It was not the master bedroom but a guest room, very neat and well-appointed, but a bit lifeless and sterile.

"Sir, we've found four cellphones." said J.R. Barnes. "The one in the blue casing is Mr. Washburn's. The one in the rose casing is Emma's, as the phone number is in Cassie's phone list as being Emma's."

"Good observation." I said.

"The other two, I'm not sure about." said J.R. "The one in the flower print casing is locked. And the one in the black casing is a burner phone, and totally empty of any information at all. Could be his work-related phone, but I'm not sure of that at all."

"Bag 'em and tag 'em." I said. "And examine them for pictures, videos, and such things. If you find anything at all, get it to Milton to download to the evidence servers."

"Wilco." said Barnes as I continued my walk around this all-too-clean, too-sterile house. It reminded me of that mansion that Janet Riordan and her husband shared on Lake Reservoir. There was something not quite right about it. There were a few pictures of Emma and her husband on the walls, but the kitchen was clean and felt unused.

In the master bedroom, Lab technicians had found some half-packed luggage and a knapsack that contained a laptop computer. This obviously belonged to Christopher Washburn, who had just traveled home from his deployment. Inside the large suitcase were several manila envelopes. When the technician saw what was in them, he handed the packages to me. Again wearing latex gloves, I opened the envelopes and examined the contents.

"Holy shit." I said.

The photographs were of Emma. They were sets, going in progression from the lovely woman fully dressed to her being semi-nude, then progressing to full nudity. Then pics of Emma using sex toys on herself, shoving large dildos into her pussy. A couple of sets had Emma looking as if she'd been fucked, with a thick white liquid smearing her distended, swollen cuntlips.

Cindy was observing the pictures with me. "Looks like sugar paste." she said. "That's what Callie Carrington said they use to look like a cumshot in porno flicks. Obviously that much is more than one man is going to shoot"

"True enough." I said, knowing about the paste made of sugar, flour, gelatin and water from the Porno Set case... and not quite understanding how the lesbian Cindy Ross knew so much about the amount of male ejaculations.

"Okay, let's go to the Station." I said. "Crime Lab guys, get that computer to Milton immediately. I need to know what's on it."

Part 6 - Interviews 

1:30pm, Wednesday, September 23d. Interrogation Rooms Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie were full. Cassie was in I-Alpha, her son Sean in I-Bravo, and Chris Washburn in the rarely-used I-Charlie. I was having them sit and wait, to increase their agitation at the unknown. Washburn had been allowed to call his lawyer, an esteemed legal beagle from the Men's Law Firm of Effim, Goode & Hart... normally divorce attorneys.

"We're still processing stuff." said Myron. "I'm downloading Cassie Sanderson and Chris Washburn's computers onto encrypted servers. There's a ton of video and photos, and you may want to make the contents 'eyes only', if you get my drift, sir."

"Restrict it to the Chief, me, Captain Ross, Lieutenant Perlman, Detective Cummings, and yourself." I said.

"Sure you don't want to scan it yourself first?" Myron asked. I said no, but didn't tell Myron why. Because of my and Laura's relationship with Marlena and Ryan, I had to tread carefully on legal waters. If there was something there that caused a problem, I couldn't be seen with any appearance of hiding the truth from the rest of my Police Force.

And to that end, I made sure to send other Detectives to interview Marlena and Ryan, having Joanne Cummings and her Lieutenant, Tanya Perlman, do the interviews. Joanne was just coming up to me now with affidavits.

"Sir, they confirmed the Sanderson's alibis---- er, what the Sandersons told us." Joanne said, remembering I did not like the word 'alibi'. "The Sandersons were at church with them at 7:00pm Sunday night, then at home with them until nearly midnight. They also stayed over all of last night."

"Separate interviews?" I asked.

"Yes sir." said Joanne. "Ryan was on Campus; we got Lt. Hanson of the Campus Police to go with us, and we pulled Ryan out of class. His mother was at work and we talked to her there."

"Okay, good." I said. "Okay, so the times mostly fit. You regularly attend First Baptist, Cummings... did you see any of these people there?"

"Seth and I weren't there Sunday night, sir." said Joanne. "We went Sunday morning, so we had dinner with Sheriff Allgood and Melina Sunday night."

"Ahhh." I said. "Okay, it's time for you to help me interview these people. Remember that none of them have been told of Emma's death, so they shouldn't know. So don't mention that and we'll see if something slips out."

I called Cindy and Tanya and told them to meet us in the anteroom to the three Interrogation rooms, and that I wanted them and Theo to watch and listen in.

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

"This is Detective Cummings." I said to Cassie as we came into Interrogation Room A. "As you know, I am Commander Troy. We need to go over everything and get a formal statement from you."

"Okay, but I don't have anything new that I haven't already told you." said Cassie.

"One never knows." I said. "Detective Cummings?"

"Ma'am," said Joanne, "just to clarify: you and your son visited Marlena and Ryan on Sunday night and came home around 11:30 to midnight? And last night, Tuesday night, where you stayed the entire night and only came home this morning?"

"That is correct." said Cassie. She was getting impatient, I could tell.

"And on Sunday you went to the Sunday evening church service. What time did you get there?"

"Just before it started, within a few minutes of 7:00pm." Cassie said. Right on cue, Joanne looked at me.

"Mrs. Sanderson," I said, wanting to change the subject and introduce 'shock' value, "I want you think about this for a second: when you got home this morning, can you think of any valuable items that were not stolen from your home?"

"Uh, not stolen?" Cassie said, thinking about it. "Let's see... that mantle clock was pretty expensive and valuable, but it was still there. None of the silverware or silver plate was taken. And they took every camera, but there were several special lens attachments that were left behind; those in themselves are very expensive and valuable."




The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 02



"I see." I said. "So it looks like the criminals were looking for something in particular, besides loot. Do you have any idea what that might be?"

"No sir." said Cassie. "I can't think of what they might want."

"In searching for clues to this burglary," I said, "we have come across photographs of your friend Emma Washburn. She is your friend, is that correct?"

"Yes, we're good friends." Cassie said.

"How long have you known her?"

"Uh," Cassie said, thinking about it, "several years. Five or six. Since she and her husband moved into the house across the street."

"And you were taking pictures of Emma so she could send them to her husband?"

"Er... yes." said Cassie. "Her husband liked them. Some of them got pretty... risqué. He was on assignment to Alaska, and it was something she would do for him. I... well, I don't want to be rude or uncooperative, but that's kind of private stuff between them, so unless you think it has a bearing on the burglary in my house, I'd rather not discuss it."

"It might have a bearing, ma'am." I said, perhaps a bit severely. "Do you know Emma's husband, Chris?"

"Yes, of course." Cassie said.

"How would you describe him? And for that matter, their relationship?"

"He's... okay. Seems nice enough, but he could be kind of pushy." Cassie replied, seeming to choose her words carefully. "He and Emma seem to have a good relationship, even though they've been apart for months with his deployment." Cassie said.

"How long had he been gone?" I asked.

"He had an 18 month deployment, and got to visit home for two weeks every six months. He just came home for the second visit, so he's been gone a year."

"And when did you and Emma start sending the photos?"

"Uh, shortly after his first visit home, six months ago." Cassie said. "Emma said that they'd talked about it, and they thought it would be a fun thing to do while he was gone. I agreed to help them by taking some pics."

"Mrs. Sanderson," I asked, "do you know or did Emma ever tell you of any time that Emma and her husband fought, or if he hit her?"

"Uh, not that I know of." said Cassie, her voice beginning to sound nervous and thoughtful, as if she were choosing those words carefully. "But he's been away so much, I don't see them together a lot, so I can't say they've never fought or that he wasn't abusive.

After a pause, Cassie said with a bit more emphasis: "I will say this: Emma had some bruises on her last weekend. She wouldn't say where they came from, even when I asked about them. She used some makeup to help cover up the bruises, too. I can't openly say what I think about that because I have nothing to back it up..." she let the sentence hang.

"Okay, I understand." I said, not needing to ask to know that she suspected Chris Washburn. "So let me ask, did you or Emma send the pictures you took to Emma's husband?"

"She sent them." Cassie said. "I would give her the files on a jump drive, and she would take them home and send them from her computer at home. I'm not sure which of the pics she actually sent."

"What about printed or developed pics on photographic paper?" I asked.

"Emma had me print out some of the pictures." Cassie said. "She said her husband might be without electricity for periods of time, so she would send prints so he could look at them without needing a computer."

"And when was the last time you saw Emma?" I asked, peering at Cassie.

"Sunday afternoon." Cassie replied. "Five o'clock, six o'clock or so, before I went to church."

"Do you remember what she was wearing at the time?" I asked.

Cassie sighed. "A... a blouse, light green, kind of filmy if you know what I mean. White pants..." She made a shrug, as if to suggest she couldn't really remember.

"Mrs. Sanderson," I asked, "did Emma ever mention having enemies? Do you know of anyone who would wish to harm Emma Washburn?"

"No, she was a very sweet lady." said Cassie. "Everyone really liked her.... look, I don't want to be uncooperative, but what does any of this have to do with the break-in of my home? You said earlier you didn't think Emma was involved in that. So what is going on here with Emma?"

Joanne looked over at me, her eyes silently saying 'What now?' I knew that now was the time to tell her.

"Mrs. Sanderson," I said, "On Monday morning Emma Washburn's body was found. I'm sorry to say your friend is dead."

"What?!" Cassie exclaimed, her hands going to her mouth. "Emma's... dead? Oh my God! How?"

"That's what we're trying to ascertain now." I said. "So again, are you sure there is no one that to your knowledge might have reason to harm Emma?"

"No... no, I don't know." Cassie said, shaking her head as her glazed eyes looked past us. "I... uh... no, I don't know... oh God, poor Emma..."

"If you need a minister, we can call our Chaplain for you, or Pastor Westboro if you prefer." I said. "In the meantime, please stay here for a moment." With that I got up and signaled Joanne to follow me out and into the anteroom.

"She seems shocked." said Cindy after the door had closed.

"Sir," said Joanne, "is it suspicious that she started getting defensive when you kept asking about Emma?"

"No." I said. "Put yourself in her place: if you'd just reported your home burgled, and the Police are asking exclusively about one of your friends, wouldn't you want to say 'What's this all about?'?" Joanne just nodded.

"Okay, I'll get to Sean next." I said. "Unless he suddenly confesses to something, I think we'll have to let him and his mother go home. Keep her there until I'm finished with him, though. Theo, you're with me on this one." With that, I headed for I-Bravo, which was the door a few feet down from I-Alpha.

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

"Hi Sean," I said, "thanks for waiting. I apologize for keeping you." I sat down, Theo Washington next to me. "This is Detective Theo Washington, and you know me, Commander Troy, already."

In case you are wondering, I was saying my name for the benefit of the camera recording every bit of this.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Sean asked.

"We've got to get your statement." I said. With that, Theo asked clarifying questions about the times, which corresponded to his mother's answers and corroborated by Marlena and Ryan, then about his guitars that were stolen. He said he had seen Emma early Sunday afternoon, then went to visit friends on the University campus. Then it was time for me to hit him with the hard stuff.

"Okay, Sean," I said, "we've come across pictures of your neighbor Emma Washburn. What was going on with those?"

"Like I said before, my mom was photographing Emma for her husband. Emma would pose and the pictures would get more provocative and sexy. Emma would take off more and more clothes, like a strip-tease."

"Were you present at these sessions?" I asked.

"Some of them." Sean said. "Sometimes Mom would make me leave before they got too hot. But sometimes I was around even after Emma started showing off her tits or pussy---- er, womanly parts."

"So you posed with Emma?" I asked.

"Well..." said Sean, beginning to falter a bit, "I... sometimes Emma would have me come to restaurants, or on a picnic, or walk around Town like we were on a date, with my mom photographing us. Emma said her husband liked pictures like that, like he and she did when he was home."

"For lack of a better term, how 'heated' did those pics get?" I asked.

"We'd hold hands while walking, or snuggle up a bit." Sean said. "I know there were a couple of pics where Emma said she wanted me to give her a good-night kiss after our 'date', so we kissed and my mom took pictures of that."

"Who sent the pics to Emma's husband? Emma, or your mom?"

"I guess Emma did." said Sean. "I didn't know anything about all that."

"Sean," I said, looking him hard in the eye, "did you and Emma ever go farther? Did you ever have sex with her?"

Sean's eyes widened for a second, then he peered back at me. "I... I think that's kind of a private matter."

"I'm asking because it's important to my case." I said.

"I don't see what something like that would have to do with our house being robbed." Sean said.

"So you won't answer the question?" I asked.

"No sir," said Sean with alacrity, and some spine, "not unless you show me why the question, much less the answer is relevant. I want to help you guys, but that question is crossing the line."

Theo was about to say something, so I stopped him by speaking up myself. "You have a point there, Sean. So let me ask this question before I explain the relevancy of my last question: when was the last time you saw Emma?"

"Uh... last weekend. Early Sunday afternoon, as I said." said Sean. "Why? Has something happened to Emma?"

Yep, time to answer. "Sean, Emma's body was found Monday morning. She's dead."

"Oh, geez..." Sean said, his voice lowering to nearly a whisper. "What happened to her?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out." I said. "And that's why I asked, and must ask again... did you have sex with Emma."

"Aw, fuck..." Sean said. "That really sucks. She was a good person." He then saw us peering at him. "Okay, the answer is yes. Emma and I had sex."

"For the pictures, or at other times?" I asked.

"Both." said Sean. "Sometimes the pictures got a little racy. Like one time Emma was posing in a bikini by the pool, then me with her. Mom had us make out, then we took some pics after Emma took off the bikini top, then Mom had me lie between Emma's legs... but her bikini bottom and my bikini were on the whole time. But after the pictures were done, I had a hard-on sticking out above my bikini and Emma was playing with it. So as Mom put a fresh memory card in the camera, Emma pulled her bikini to the side and I slid my dick into her. The pics came out like we still had our suits on, but I was nuts deep in her. Then after Mom finished, I began fucking Emma until I came inside her."

Sean continued, "Then, after the picnic shots, Mom had us simulate sex again. The sun was going down so Mom stopped taking pictures because it was dark. So I put it inside Emma again and we had sex for an hour. Mom left before we finished and I had to ride back home with Emma."

"So your mother know this was going on?" Theo asked, his voice one of shock... or awe.

"Oh yeah, she knew." Sean said. "At least those times. I don't think she knew that I went over to Emma's house a few times a week, and we would make love in her bed. No cameras, no Mom, just me and Emma hooking up. Like I said before, Emma was a really sweet lady, and she was great in the sack too. I really liked taking care of her... needs."

"Sean," I asked, "do you know if Emma's husband knew about you and her?"

"Hell, I don't know." Sean said. "Emma could've told him, for all I know. He was an okay guy, though. Before he went on his deployment, he asked me to help make sure Emma was all right while he was gone. I don't think he meant sexually, but who knows? And he was fine with me when he got back from his deployment a few days ago. He said he liked the pictures of me with Emma."

"Do you know if Emma and her husband had any arguments at all? Did he ever get rough with her?"

"Naw, nothing that I ever saw. He wasn't the real aggressive type, though he wasn't the timid cuck type, either. I know you know what I mean by that, Commander."

"Yes, yes I do." I said. "Okay, Sean, thanks for your candid answers. You and your mother need to stay in the County, and let the Police know if you need to go out of the County for any reason at all. This is a serious situation, so I'm not just suggesting this, okay?"

"Yes sir, I understand." Sean said.

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

"All right," I said, "does Washburn have his lawyer?"

"Yes sir, and I might add the guy is pissed at being kept waiting." said Cindy. "We told him you were interviewing other suspects, but he's still ticked off."

"Suspects?" I said drily. "I wasn't aware we'd formed such opinions yet." Cindy peered at me with something bordering on anger as I took Theo into I-Charlie, telling her to watch from the anteroom with Joanne.

"Hello, Mr. Washburn, I appreciate you waiting." I said. I greeted the lawyer, Mr. Ferguson Stegall the Third, Esq., of the Men's Law Firm of Effim, Goode & Hart.

"With all due respect, Commander," said Stegall, "we've been waiting for some time, so if we can get right down to it..."

"Certainly, Counselor." I replied. "I hope Mr. Washburn has sobered up."

"He has." said Stegall.

"Okay," I said, "so when did you get back into Town, Mr. Washburn?"

"He got back late last week." said Stegall.

"I asked him." I replied. At that, Stegall and Washburn looked at each other, and Stegall nodded.

"On the advice of Counsel, I am invoking my Fifth Amendment right to not answer any of your questions from this time forward." Chris Washburn stated. Theo Washington looked totally stunned. Me, not so much.

"Ooo-kay." I said. "That's unfortunate, though. Does your client know what has happened to his wife?"

Stegall looked over at Washburn, who was staring at me. He looked over at his lawyer with a shocked look on his face, and shook his head.

"I'm sorry to tell you that your wife was found dead Monday morning, Mr. Washburn." I said. "My condolences to you." 

Washburn looked as if a dump truck was bearing down on him at high speed. Then he broke down and began crying.

"Can I have a moment with my client?" the lawyer asked.

Part 7 - Rights and Suspicions 

Some moments later, we were called back inside. Washburn had stopped crying, but still looked devastated.

"My client will maintain his invocation of his right to silence, but I'm instructed to tell you that he maintains his innocence in the death of his wife." said Stegall. "He was afraid something was wrong when she did not come home Sunday night, but he was afraid for his own safety to call the Police or do anything."

"If he's afraid for his own life," I said, "I need to know the situation so that I can protect him."

"I understand that." said Stegall, "but I'm bound by privilege to not say anything. I have advised Mr. Washburn to seek a criminal attorney, as I'm a divorce attorney and my expertise is there."

"That'll be between you guys." I said. "The only other thing I want information on is about the physical beating Emma was subjected to some days before her death."

"Again, Commander, my client has invoked." said the lawyer, which meant that on this matter he was not going to speak on his client's behalf, which was the way of giving information without the client actually directly speaking or confessing.

"Stay in Town, Mr. Washburn." I said. "If you try to leave my jurisdiction, you'll be arrested for suspicion of murder. When you get new legal representation, make sure that representation lets us know who he or she is."

With that, I got up and left the Interrogation Room, Theo following. In the anteroom, Cindy was about to explode.

"You're not arresting him?!" she asked incredulously. I stared daggers into her eyes.

"On what charge?" I replied.

"Uh, murder, maybe?" Cindy said sarcastically. "Or assault and battery? Domestic violence?"

"If you have some proof of those charges, Captain," I replied, "I would love to be made aware of it." That somewhat shut my partner up.

"Okay guys, meeting in the main Conference Room in thirty minutes." I said. "All of MCD that's on the burglary as well as the murder case, and the Miltons."

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

At the meeting in the Main Conference Room, which had sunlight that Classrooms 'E' and 'C' lacked, I took the seat at the far end of the table. Chief Harold Bennett was asked to attend, and he sat at the head of the table. Also attending were Captain Ross, Lieutenant Perlman, Detectives Cummings, Washington, and Nash, Supervisor Myron Milton and Master Technician Mary Mahoney Milton.

"Okay," I said, "I've contacted Jack Muscone of the FBI. He's going to get a Federal warrant and have FBI agents in Alaska examine Chris Washburn's quarters at his station in Alaska. The location is remote, so it might be a while."

I continued: "In the meantime, we have Washburn's computer and Cassie Sanderson's computer. We did not find a computer for Emma Washburn, which is strange because everyone and their mother has a computer these days, and how else would Emma connect with her husband through Skype and such things?"

"Maybe whoever killed her took it." Joanne Cummings said. "Or maybe she used a tablet or her cellphone."

"Possibly." I said. "Of course, we haven't found a tablet, either, but that could just mean it was stolen, too. Myron, did you download the contents of those computers into the evidence servers yet?"

"Yes sir." Myron confirmed. "Encrypted and with limited access, as you requested. I've also got all the Crime Lab pictures uploaded to the evidence servers, as well as the contents of all the cellphones that we've taken in."

"Good, thank you." I said. "The reason it's limited, everyone, is because of the potentially salacious nature of the videos and photographs on those computers. I'm going to begin looking at it after this meeting. I'll look at Washburn's computer first, to find out what he'd been sent and had seen, then Cassie's computer to see what was not sent to Washburn. And then I'll look at everything else."

"Do you think something in those computers is relevant to these cases?" asked Chief Bennett.

"Yes sir," I said. "Or more precisely, something is in the photographs or videos that Emma was sending to her husband."

"Sir," said Joanne Cummings, cautiously, "are we sure the burglary is related to Emma Washburn's murder? Could they possibly be a coincidence?" Everyone looked at her funny and there were some murmurings... until I spoke.

"That, Detective Cummings," I said, pointing at her, "is Iron Crowbar thinking. No, we have not ascertained that the crimes are related or that they're not. And anyone else in here making any assumptions should be cautious in those thoughts." Joanne was very happy, despite some not-so-happy looks in her general direction.

"I know you don't like to theorize early, Commander," said Chief Bennett, "but do you have any ideas about this case... er, these cases?"

"Not yet, Chief." I said. "Obviously there is her husband, her friend, and her friend's son with whom Emma was having a relationship. But just to round out the picture, pun not intended, I have to consider outside possibilities. I've really got to look at the stuff on the computers, and I want to hear what the FBI finds in Alaska.

"And in the meantime," I continued, "you MCD guys need to dig into Emma's past. What her daily routines were, who her friends were that we don't know about yet, things from her past that might have come back to haunt her. And obviously I need that for Cassie Sanderson, Sean Sanderson, and Christopher Washburn."

"Sir," Cindy Ross said, "I believe we need to do something about Chris Washburn. He is scheduled to return to his work in Alaska in a few days. As such, he's an extreme flight risk."

"Ma'am, we've notified his company of his wife's death," said Tanya Perlman, "and told them that he will not be immediately available to return to Alaska until our investigation is complete."

"Even so," Cindy countered, "don't we need to arrest him?"

"On what grounds, Captain?" I immediately asked.

"You yourself, sir, always say that the spouse is a suspect." Cindy said, her ice blue eyes boring into me.

"That's true, and he is a person of interest to be investigated. But we don't have any grounds to arrest and formally charge him with anything." I said.

"He took the Fifth." Cindy said.

"So what?" I said.

"Commander," said Cindy, growing angry, "if he has nothing to hide, why did he take the Fifth instead of assisting us in our investigation?"




The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 02



"Captain," I replied, "taking the Fifth is not a confession of guilt, nor can it be construed or implied as one."

"Commander," Joanne said with a bit more confidence in her voice, "there is another reason why Mr. Washburn has to be the primary suspect." She took a copy of the photo of Emma in front of the clock and showed it to us. "He doesn't have an alibi for the eight o'clock time period, while Cassie and Sean Sanderson were in church, then went to their neighbors' home for dinner."

"If she died right after that photo was taken, it fits in within the Medical Examiner's timeframe," said Tanya, "but Martha is usually more accurate than this."

"True enough." I said. "Look, everyone... I'm not saying Washburn's not a suspect; indeed, he's the primary suspect. But we have to follow the Constitution and the laws of Criminal Justice, here. Make no assumptions about any of what is in front of us."

"I'll contact the District Attorney's Office," said Chief Bennett, growing bored by our philosophical discussion, "and see what we can do about holding Washburn within our jurisdiction. In the meantime, he is under 24-hour surveillance, and any attempt to flee the County will be enough to arrest him. Commander, I will need something from you about possible murder suspects by tomorrow morning. The murder case is our top priority, and there are several people and possibly unknown persons still at large."

The Chief stood up. "I've got to go to a meeting with the Sheriff. You guys carry on." With that, he walked out the door.

"Anyone have anything else?" I asked. No one said a word. "Okay, let's get back to it, then."

As everyone got up, I said to Cindy, quietly but loud enough that others could hear, "Captain, go to your office and wait there. I'll call you into my office in a few minutes." I could feel the tension in the air grow, as everyone knew that the verbal equivalent of a Crowbar battle was about to happen...

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

"Mom," Sean said, "I just checked on the Internet. Emma's not just dead, she was murdered!"

"Oh my God." Cassie said, coming up behind her son and reading the KXTC website story on the screen. "That's... awful. No wonder the Police were asking about her and being weird with us."

"Mom, the Police probably consider us suspects." Sean said.

"Yes," said Cassie, "they probably do. Of course we had nothing to do with this, but we need to be careful whenever we talk with the Police. If they want to talk to you, ask for a lawyer and I'll get Mr. Fowler to sit in on any questioning."

"Wow..." Sean said, as the seriousness of the situation dawned on him. "Okay----"

*KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* 

"OPEN UP!!!" yelled a voice. Sean went to the door and looked outside.

"Mom, it's Chris." Sean said. Chris Washburn banged on the door, yelling and screaming for the door to be opened. He was clearly inebriated again.

"Don't open it." Cassie said. "I'll call the Police. Oh, shit!... they still have my cellphone!"

*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*

Washburn was kicking at the door, trying to break it down.

"He's trying to kick in the door, Mom!" Sean said. "Tell you what, I'll open it, subdue him, and you run to the neighbor's house."

As Washburn raised his foot to kick the door again, Sean suddenly opened it. Washburn went sprawling inside the house. Within seconds, the young, muscular athlete was sitting on top of Washburn's back and had his arm pinned behind him. Cassie ran past them, screaming as she ran to the neighbor's house...

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

"Well, that solves that." Captain Ross said happily. "He is under arrest, charged with disorderly conduct and breaking-and-entering." Lt. Tanya Perlman was in Cindy's office, telling her of the arrest that had been effected by Sergeant Rudistan and Sr. Patrolman Morton.

"Cassie Sanderson said she wants to press full charges." said Tanya. "We can hold him and arraign him for that in the morning. Then, at the least, we can have ankle monitoring."

"Good." said Cindy. Her eyes showed that she was a million miles away. "You can go."

"Have you talked with the Commander yet?" Tanya asked as she walked towards the door. 

"No." Cindy replied.

"This is out of turn and you can chew me out for it," said Tanya, "but when you go in there, remember he's your boss, not your cousin."

Cindy looked up at Tanya, her eyes showing ice blue fire. Tanya quickly left the office. Cindy exhaled, realizing that Tanya was right.

Her phone rang. "This is Helena, Captain. Will you come to the Commander's office now? And I'll show you in when you get here." Formal, Cindy realized as she acknowledged the summons and hung up the phone. This was going to be bad, she realized.

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

My phone buzzed. "Captain Ross is here upon your request, sir." said Helena, my assistant.

"Show her in, and close the door behind her." I said. A moment later Helena opened the door and Cindy walked in. She stood in front of my desk as Helena closed the door behind her. I was sitting upright in my chair behind the desk. Our eyes were locked together, and I could feel the battle of wills brewing.

"Captain Ross," I said, "today we had not one but two serious situations develop. At the Washburn home, you breached protocol and violated Mr. Washburn's rights after he lawyered up. You followed that by publicly stating suspicion of him based upon him exercising his Constitutional rights, and you did that in front of the Police Chief as well as Officers that are subordinate to you."

"Sir, I----"

"I didn't say you could speak, Captain!" I said, letting anger whip through my voice. "You will speak when I ask you to, and not until then. This is a formal reprimand, Captain, and I suggest you do not forget yourself while I am talking."

Cindy's face was reddening but she held her tongue as I continued: "The point here, Captain, is not the man's guilt or innocence. Of course he's the primary suspect, and that is not lost upon me. The point is that you simply cannot say something like that in front of subordinates! You are a Captain on this Police Force, and no matter your personal feelings, you must hold yourself to a higher standard than everyone else... and if you don't, I will hold you to that standard."

"What is worse," I said, leaning forward and looking at Cindy through my eyebrows, "is that if Washburn remembers what you said at his home after he asked for a lawyer, and he tells that lawyer, then any case we have on him... if he is guilty, of course... might be destroyed by that one comment you made. You know that activist appellate judges like Leahy just love to put convicted criminals back on our streets if he can point to even the slightest indiscretion by the Police."

I leaned back, then said "This is a verbal reprimand, and I expect to never have this conversation with you again. But to make sure this never happens again, you are going to attend a refresher course on the law. As you know, the Police Academy has several days of classroom instruction on just these things. ADA Paulina Patterson got the short straw this time, and she will be teaching this material at the Police Academy next Monday and Tuesday. And you will be in attendance all day, both days. I will be checking with Ms. Patterson, and I'd better hear that you were there... or else this reprimand becomes a written record in your file. Do I make myself clear, Captain?"

"Yes sir." said Cindy. She wanted to say more, but very wisely held her tongue.

"Good. Dismissed."

"May I say something, sir?"

"No." I said. "Get out of my office." Looking angry and defeated, Cindy turned and left.

Part 8 - Family 

4:40pm, Wednesday, September 23d. I took a phone call; it was from FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone.

"Our guys in Alaska reported back." said Jack. "Chris Washburn left some of his clothes up there, some books and stuff. But he brought back his computer and any jump drives he had. Also, his co-workers up there told us a few interesting things. He didn't drink very much, maybe a couple of beers on off nights, and he never got plastered. He also showed his colleagues some of the pictures his wife sent him. They said the pics they saw were of her dressed and in lingerie, but nothing more explicit."

"Ah," I said "so he shared the pictures. That's interesting. Thanks, Jack!"

The phone was no sooner in its cradle when Helena buzzed me. "Detectives Cummings and Rose would like to see you, sir." she said. Rose? I thought to myself.

"Okay, send them in." I said. "And you can go home, Helena."

Joanne Cummings and Lorena Rose came in, both in plainclothes. "Sir," Joanne said, "Lorena got a tip about Chris Washburn."

"Have a seat. Tell me about it." I said. The very beautiful ladies sat down in the 'hot seat' chairs in front of my desk.

"Sir," said Lorena, "some of the bars near campus are open and serving alcohol on Sunday night. I got a tip that a man was having dinner and drinking a lot on Sunday evening. His credit card showed him to be Chris Washburn."

"Lorena and I went to the restaurant." said Joanne. "The manager called the guy who'd been at the bar Sunday night. Fortunately, the guy lives near there and came in. He recognized the photo of Washburn, and said he came in around 6:00pm Sunday. Washburn had dinner, a burger and fries, and drank a lot. He stayed at the bar until 9:00pm, where they cut him off because he was getting wasted. He got angry, but didn't really make a scene, then paid his bill and left."

"And you got an affidavit of this?" I asked.

"Yes sir." Joanne said, handing me the document. I perused it as she continued "We checked the other bars in the area. There was one place where a lot of students go, it's kind of a dive, and the people behind the bar remember Washburn going there. They refused to serve him because he was already really drunk. He got belligerent but was too helpless to really do anything, so instead of calling the Police they called him a cab, which took him home." She handed me two more affidavits.

"Excellent!" I said. "Good work, both of you! Anything else?"

"Sir," Joanne asked, "this basically means Mr. Washburn has an alibi for the timeframe we think Emma was killed. Is there any advice you can give me on what to do now?"

"Sir," said Lorena Rose, "before you answer that, I am wondering if Mr. Washburn maybe staged this alibi, and maybe killed his wife before he went to the bars?"

"Let me put two things into your minds about that." I said. "We have a photo of Emma in front of a clock saying 8:00pm that was uploaded to Facebook right around 8:00pm Sunday night. I am having Mary Milton check and see if it was an auto-uploaded picture from a cellphone, and what time that photo was uploaded. If that's all good, then his alibi would appear to be good."

"The second thing I'll suggest," I said, "is that if Chris Washburn knew about the photo of Emma in front of the clock, he could create an intentional alibi. But if he did not know about it, then it's a coincidence, and at that point I want to know why this guy was drinking so heavily on a Sunday night."

The two women looked at each other as if simply overwhelmed. I hoped the gears would engage in their minds over the next few hours.

"Okay, ladies, thank you for this." I said. "Have the affidavits scanned into evidence servers and put the physical copies in evidence. Lorena, you can go. Joanne, stay a moment."

After Lorena left, I said to Joanne: "Are you still working out with Captain Ross and learning defense techniques?"

"Yes sir." said Joanne.

"Ask her to work out with you early tomorrow morning." I said...

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

At 5:20pm, still Wednesday, September 23d, Teresa Croyle knocked on the door of Cindy Ross's office and walked right on in without invitation.

"Come right on in." Cindy said sarcastically. "What the hell is it?"

"Let's go have a beer at the Cop Bar." Teresa said. "My treat."

Cindy emitted a sound that was something like a growl, followed by "I'm not in the mood for socializing or a beer."

"Let's go, mon capitaine." Teresa ordered. "That's not a request. You're coming with me." As Cindy looked up at Teresa, about to go off on her, Teresa met her eyes defiantly and said "We are going to meet someone there, whom I've already invited. So let's go, or I'll pick you up and carry you."

"I'd like to see you try that." Cindy said, but Teresa knew it was an acquiescence.

"And I don't even need a crowbar, sister." Teresa said, her eyes gleaming.

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

It was starting to get cooler in the afternoon and evenings, Cindy noted as she and Teresa drank their beers on the outside patio of the Cop Bar.

"Hello, ladies," said an older woman, bringing her beer and an extra for Cindy, "may I join you?"

"Hi Phyllis." said Cindy. "What brings you here?"

"Your soul sister Teresa asked me to join you." said Phyllis Troy, mother of the Iron Crowbar. "I understand you had what we might call 'a bad day'."

"No doubt about that." said Cindy. "I mean... yeah, I was wrong, but wow... I didn't expect that."

"Yes, that is what I wanted to talk about." said Phyllis. "I'm sure that as bad as it was for you, it was bad for my son, also. He loves both of you more than life itself. He is still pissed off to this day that he wasn't in front of you at that ambush at the Olivet gym, and it did take three of you to tackle him and prevent him from going out there to get you."

"Yes, I know." said Cindy. "But still..."

Teresa asked "Was this the first time since you found out you and he are blood kin that he's had to reprimand you?"

"Yes." said Cindy. "And before you say it: yes, I got complacent about it and took our relationship for granted."

"Yes, you did." said Teresa. "I'd noticed it, but you and I are pretty informal at times, too, so I didn't say anything."

Phyllis said "I would also venture a guess that it was very hard for him to have to do that. Not to call you a child, Cindy, but any parent knows that when they have to punish their child it's unpleasant, but it's for the child's good as well for the future. As your boss, Don felt the same way, I'm sure."

Phyllis added "And it does have to be tough for you ladies. A Lieutenant and a Captain at ages that most police officers are barely rookies. You are exceptional ladies, but you're still growing. And of course we all make mistakes. Don is your boss, and he has to do what he has to do."

"Point taken." said Cindy. "Okay, let's change the subject. Phyllis, you are not just here to talk about me getting my ass chewed off. You want to know about this murder case."

"Oh, was it that obvious?" Phyllis asked, making both Teresa and Cindy smile.

With that, Cindy filled Phyllis in on the details of the case, then said "Washburn was arrested after he went to Cassie's house and made a scene. Washburn was really drunk and Sean subdued him pretty easily. But before I left the Station I heard that a couple of Detectives found some witnesses that might give Washburn an alibi. Goth Girl Mary is looking into the Facebook photo to see if it'll give as good an alibi as he'd like."

"That is very interesting, is it not?" Phyllis said. "Why would he go to their house in a drunken state and begin causing trouble? I believe that is a very significant event."

"Anything else you think is significant?" asked Teresa, fascinated at getting to watch the Commander's mother in mental action... and realizing that she'd seen glimpses of this in her fuck-buddy Todd, Phyllis's grandson.

"Well," said Phyllis, her eyes introspective, "there are too many events happening, like dominoes falling one by one, in a seeming order. The husband returns home. Emma is beaten up, and rather severely I understand. Emma is found dead, but no one noticed enough to call the Police. Emma's friend Cassie's house is burgled. The husband is drunk when you went to his house, refuses to talk to Police, but then goes to the Sanderson house and creates enough of a ruckus to get himself arrested."

"Just another of our simple cases." Cindy said. "How can it not be Chris Washburn?"

"How, indeed?" Phyllis said, cryptically.

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

Taking my laptop with me, I drove home to the Mountain Nest in my Police SUV at 7:30pm. I had been looking at what was on Chris Washburn's computer, and decided to go home and eat before looking at what Cassie's computer contained.

Laura and the kids were finishing up dinner, and we had a guest: my mother Phyllis. I made myself a plate from the items in the kitchen, then put the remaining food in the refrigerator... after throwing a few morsels to a good-looking blonde-furred dog that had come in with high hopes, and having those hopes rewarded. Bowser then situated himself in the corner of the room, watching us while I sat down at the table with my plate.

"Honestly, Carole," Laura said, "you have more food on you than in you. And that doesn't count what you tried to feed the dog." I laughed heartily at that, which caused Carole to laugh, mimicking me. I then talked to little Jim as he played with his juice cup, which most very fortunately had a cap on it that prevented spills. Then I settled into eating, feeling my mother peering at me, though not knowing the reason.

"You're a million miles away." my mother said.

"Yes, darling, you are." Laura said. "New case?"

"Yes." I said. "You know about the woman we found Monday?" Laura and Phyllis both nodded as I continued "Well, we were called to a home for a break-in. And the dead woman was a friend of this family and had been the model for the mother, who is a photographer. And you might be surprised who the photographer's son is... remember Ryan telling us about his friend Sean and Sean's mother? It was them."

"Oh wow." said Laura. "Small world. So there's a connection to the dead woman?" I gave the details of the case.

"Son, let me ask this." my mother said. "you said that Sean was having an affair with the woman that died?"


"Emma." I said. "Yes. He admitted it."

"I am just wondering to myself," said my mother, "if Emma was having an affair with any other men."

"I haven't thought of that." I said. "It could well be, though we've found no information on that."

"Perhaps you should ask Emma's friend Cassie." said Phyllis.

"See, Laura?" I said with a smile. "I've been working on this case for days, and my mother hears a five minute synopsis and is already figuring out more than me."

"That's why she's 'Mycroft' and you're 'Sherlock', darling." said Laura.

"You're still pensive, son." Phyllis knowingly said. "What else happened?"

"Oh, yeah..." I said. "I had to bring the hammer down on Cindy today. She fucked up when Washburn asked for a lawyer, then again in our meeting." I gave the details.

"That must've been tough." Laura said. "But you did the right thing. Was she pissed?"

"I think so." I said.

"I'm sure you'll find a way to make it all right, son." Phyllis said, her eyes twinkling. "If you haven't already..."

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

9:30pm. Phyllis had gone back to her basement MIL apartment. I was sitting on the sofa in the den of the main house, looking at videos and photos. Laura came down and sat down beside me, her left hip pressing into my right side. Her perfume smelled good...

"The kids are asleep, and Bowser is in his basket under Carole's bed." Laura said. "So, can I peek at these photos?"

"Sure." I said. "These are from Chris Washburn's computer. There's a series of photographs, showing Emma from being clothed to progressively becoming less and less clothed, to nudity. Here is one where Emma's vagina is wet and looking used, and what looks like semen all over her pubic bush. I'd say it's a bit too white and thick, and too copious, so we're thinking this is goop."




The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 02



"Who is 'we'?" Laura asked.

"Cindy and myself." I said. "By the way, Washburn had printed copies of these photos as well, which we found at his home. There's also a few videos. Mostly Emma talking to the camera as if she's talking to Chris. Most of it is showing Emma buying sexy clothes, trying on shoes and the like, and then there's some of Emma having dinner with Sean. Emma's telling the camera how good the food is. Then at the end, Sean gives Emma an innocent looking kiss goodnight. But what Sean admitted today was that he and Emma were having sex off-camera."

"I don't blame him." Laura said. "She's cute, and he's a hot looking young man."

"Oh wait, I didn't see this. These were sent recently, part of the last batch." I said. I showed Laura the pics. One showed Emma sucking a huge cock from very close up; I could not see who the man was, though it was very likely Sean. The next was a closeup of a man on top of a woman, his slender penis penetrating her vagina, the cuntlips clinging to the shaft, the man's balls at the top of the photo. I could not see faces as their groins and bellies were pressed together, but I could see his legs were hairy, and there was a birthmark on the back of his leg and a big mole on his nutsack.

"Oh wow, those are nice." Laura said.

"Yes, but it might not have been so nice to Chris Washburn." I said. "Okay, now let's see what was on Cassie's computer." I began pulling up files.

The most recent was apparently taken Tuesday night. A video showed Sean on top of Ryan's mother Marlena in the missionary position. Sean was pumping his long, very thick cock rhythmically into Marlena. Her beautiful legs were caught under his arms, her sexy feet in high heel slides pointing high. The video moved around a bit, occasionally moving down to their coupled loins, where Sean's monster cock was pistoning rapidly in and out of Marlena's sopping cunt, then the camera panned along Marlena's legs back to her face. She was making an 'oh' with her mouth, obviously enjoying being fucked by this stud.

"So that's Sean?" Laura asked. "I would love to be getting fucked by him like that.... what do you think, darling? Would you like to see that young man fucking me like that?" With that, Laura turned her face to me and kissed me on the mouth. I returned it, letting my tongue slide into her mouth before breaking the kiss.

"I would love to see that, honey." I said. I kissed her again and then said "Unless Sean is Emma's killer, of course." We turned back to the video.

There were more videos, one showing Ryan fucking Cassie, and another of Sean and Marlena, the timestamp showing that this one was from Sunday night. I moved on to the next videos, taken a couple of weeks before. This one showed Sean and Emma making love.

And 'making love' it was. They were in the room with lavender walls in Emma's house, and they were sharing deep kisses as Sean deeply fucked Emma on the bed. It was obvious to me that Sean was very much into Emma, giving his all to her as they copulated lustily, and Emma was enjoying it immensely as well, pushing her loins to meet her young lover's as they adulterously mated.

"That one didn't get sent to Chris." I said. There was another video, showing Emma and Sean in a field, with picnic trappings nearby, and they were eating and talking, then drinking wine and talking. A second video of this set showed Emma giving Sean a blowjob, sucking his big cock for all she was worth. "Chris got the first video, but not the second." I said. 

"I'm going to be sucking your cock like that when I get you up to bed." Laura said.

"No, because I'm going to be fucking your hot pussy hard and deep like Sean was fucking Marlena." I said. Laura and I began making out, which was not helping me make progress towards my video review... but which I was not going to stop.

"Mmm," Laura said as I nuzzled her neck, "I think you liked fucking Marlena the other night, didn't you?"

"Hell yeah, I did." I readily admitted. "You can see how hot she is. And you were going at it with Ryan pretty good, too... but I think you really want to feel Sean sinking that big dick of his into your cunt, don't you?" 

"Ohhhh, yesssss...." Laura said, then shut me up with another hot kiss. My cock was throbbing as Laura broke the kiss. She said "Okay, you need to finish that up. I'm going up to bed and... prepare for you. By the way, can I get a private copy of all this, just for our personal use?"

"What, you think I haven't done that already?" I growled. I reached over and handed Laura a plastic bag with several jump drives. "Extra copies." I said. "You can look at them upstairs in bed while I finish down here."

I continued looking at photos of Sean and Emma. There was another closeup of them in the missionary position, Sean's cock splitting Emma's distended, swollen cuntlips and buried almost balls-deep, his ass and smooth bare legs visible along the top and sides of the photo, his huge pink nutsack hanging down. Then another of Emma sucking Sean's meat, his face visible in the background, looks of pleasure on both their faces.

It would be a while before I was done, but by the time I was finished I needed some serious relief. So did Laura, and she was exceptionally well fucked by the time I was done with her...

To be continued.



The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 03



The chronological order of my stories is now listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

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

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

*****

Part 9 - Making Amends 

5:15am, Thursday, September 24th. I did not want to get out of bed, having had inadequate sleep, but I had to do what I had to do. I swiftly dressed in gym clothes, putting my uniform for the day in the suit bag to protect it, with accoutrements in the pockets of the bag.

At Police Headquarters, I headed to the men's locker room, where I donned the body armor and a football helmet. I left the red crowbar locked in the locker with the suit bag, and took the orange one that I used for practice. Then I went into the gym, hearing the clanging of iron and female grunts and groans.

In the boxing ring, Cindy and Joanne were going through some drills. They were also attired in body armor and football helmets. Mostly it was Cindy attacking and Joanne defending. Cindy was clearly venting some anger. I would give her the opportunity to vent some more.

I walked up to the ring. The women saw me and stopped fighting.

"Okay, I think I'm done." said Joanne, very astutely. She left the ring and went to the locker room. Meanwhile, I got into the ring. 

"Defend yourself, Ross!" I yelled in the Klingon tradition as I went into the attack, as I always did whenever Cindy and I got our morning exercise this way.

*CLANG!*

Iron struck iron as we battled, thrust and parried, circling and feinting, then engaging in several rapid series of blows. Cindy was attacking harder and harder, really letting me have it. I stayed on the defensive, but on purpose, just parrying her attacks, watching and learning and remembering how she liked to attack. 

It was several minutes before she caught on that I wasn't trying to take advantage of the openings she was allowing me... all traps, of course. So she changed tactics and slowed down herself. Then I feinted as if to attack and she came at me with the martial arts blow, trying to kick me square in the chest. I moved out of the way, then had to parry her vicious backhand blow.

After several more minutes we were both tired, so I called the halt. We climbed out of the ring, leaning back and half-sitting on the side of the raised ring.

"Feeling better?" I asked.

"Not really." Cindy said. "But you were right. I was wrong to say that in front of subordinates and the perp." She wasn't changing her mind on being suspicious of those that take the Fifth, but we were moving past that.

"And in front of the Police Chief," I said, "who is not in your corner as it is."

"Yeah, I know." Cindy said, wincing. "By the way, who is going to be in charge for me while I'm in Paulina's class?"

"Oh, Teresa and Tanya can handle their divisions." I said. "And by the way, if this case is not solved, you can wait until the next class at the Academy in six weeks. But you are going, eventually."

"Sounds like you think it will be solved." Cindy said.

"It's not all that hard, at least as far as the murder is concerned." I said. "It's the burglary that I'm wondering about. Okay, let's get cleaned up and get some coffee..."

Part 10 - Realities and Hypotheticals 

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the lovely redheaded reporterette at precisely 7:00am, Thursday, September 24th. "Channel Two News has learned that Christopher Washburn was arrested yesterday on assault charges. Washburn is the husband of Emma Washburn, who was found murdered behind the Ladies Auxiliary Clubhouse this past Monday."

I was barely paying attention as Bettina said "In other news, Channel Two News has learned that the Town & County Council has formed a Study Group to work out new solutions for the Public Safety Department's rank structures. Members of this Study Group include Councilpersons Carnes, Colby, and Westboro, as well as Sheriff Allgood, the Police and Fire Chiefs, and the Public Health Officer. The EMS services are not represented on the Study Group, as the Fire Department objected to separate EMS representation."

"Hoo boy." I said. "Another fire to put out, pun not intended. That EMS situation is going to become a real problem one of these days."

"Why would they want to mess with the rank structure?" Joanne Cummings innocently but astutely asked. That caused me to do a double-take as the implications of that hit me.

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

At 8:00am, we had a meeting in Classroom 'E', attended by myself, Captain Ross, Lt. Perlman, Detectives Cummings and Washington, and Master Technician Mary Mahoney Milton.

"Sir," said Mary to start things off, "I've been able to confirm that the photograph was auto-uploaded. The FB account is named 'Emma Hot Wife', and it appears that the phone uploading to it is a burner phone, not Emma's phone that we found in her home. It may be one of the other phones we found, but Myron is going to have to confirm that."

"That's good." I said. "What about that photo of Emma in front of the clock?"

"Auto-uploaded at 8:01pm last Sunday night." said Mary. "Looks to be legit."

"So," I said, "what you're telling me is that we can say that Emma was alive at 8:00pm Sunday night. That means that Cassie, Sean, and Chris all have alibis. I might add that Marlena and Ryan have alibis, too." Mary nodded.

"Okay, ladies," I said, "this just got more interesting. Cummings, Washington, what do y'all have?"

"Sir," said Joanne, "I've been following up on the victim, Emma Washburn. She and Chris married nearly 10 years ago, and have lived here in Town for six years. He's been deployed off and on for several years. Everyone who has known Emma and Chris have said they were a loving couple, no arguments that anyone knew of, and no issues."

Joanne continued: "Chris and Emma have no real debts, and they have about $2000 in savings in the J.P. Goldman Bank. The only anomaly in their bank accounts was a cash withdrawal by Emma of several hundred dollars about three weeks ago, just before the Labor Day holiday. Where that cash went to or what it might have been used for, we have no idea yet. Chris has a credit card, but has only used in in Alaska for basic things up there."

"Did Emma have a job?" I asked. "Did she do any part-time work?"

"Not that I can tell, sir." said Joanne. "There were no direct deposits to her banking account, and no other deposits that might be work-related checks. She gave cooking classes for the Ladies Auxiliary Club and a couple at First Baptist, but as far as we can tell she wasn't paid for those. Word is that she is a top-level cook and could be a professional chef if she really wanted to."

After Joanne wrapped up, I turned to Theo. "What about Cassie?"

"Sir," said Theo, "she was married for twelve years and then her husband left her for another woman. She had a good divorce attorney and did pretty well in the divorce, getting the house and child support for Sean, but one interesting thing was that the payments were cut in half when Sean turned eighteen. They'll continue until he's 21, unless he moves out of the house permanently or if he gets married."

Theo continued: "Cassie works as a professional photographer, and does irregular work such as seasonal staffing during holiday times. About two weeks ago she applied at City Hall for a business license... for a catering business."

"Ahhh," I said. "Emma's a chef and Cassie does photography. That'd be a great business for them together: catering and photography for weddings and other events."

"Yes sir," said Theo. "Cassie has avoided any large debts but is barely solvent. She's a member of First Baptist Church, attends services more often than not. She is liked by those who know her, but she has no very close friends except for her neighbors Emma and Marlena, and their sons."

"What about Sean?" I asked.

"Not much on him." Theo said. "Football player on the high school team. Hangs out with other jocks, dates the cheerleaders, also has dated a few college girls with his buddy Ryan. Doesn't have an official job, but always seems to have at least some cash on him."

"Wonder how he's making that?" asked Tanya musingly.

"Any ideas, Theo?" I asked.

"No sir." said Theo. "If he's doing something illegal, we don't have anything on it."

"All right. You and Joanne are doing a great job on these cases." I said. "Meanwhile, there's nothing new from the FBI, and I'm waiting on Myron and Mary to give us more details from those various cellphones we recovered, as well as Cassie's cellphone." 

"Oh, that reminds me," said Tanya, "Cassie called the Duty Desk last night. She wants her phone back."

"She ain't getting it back yet." I said. "Tanya, make sure our warrants to keep it are in order, and if there's any problem, ask Paulina to get us a fresh one. But no matter what, we have to keep that cellphone."

"Yes sir." Tanya said, making a note on her pad.

"So," I said, "did Chris get a new lawyer?"

"Yes sir." said Tanya. "Guy from Succup & Payne, P.C., which are personal and family lawyers. A Mr. Gibson Stelling, I believe."

"Okay, let's call him and tell him I will be interviewing Chris Washburn at 9:00am." I said. "No, Washburn can't speak, but if this attorney is doing his job, he'll be able to speak for Chris."

"What do you want to find out from him?" Cindy asked.

"Anything I can about what happened to Emma, and why she took that beating that she did." I said.

"I'm not expecting an admission that he did that to her himself." Cindy said drily.

"Neither am I." I said, cryptically. That got two pairs of Angel Eyes peering at me, and confused looks on the faces of my young Detectives...

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

At 8:30am, I had a very angry Cassie Sanderson in the lobby of my Police Headquarters. I told Cindy that we would just have to do this the formal way.

"Hello, Mrs. Sanderson," I said, appearing in the lobby. "Would you please step into this room?" I was indicating Interrogation-A.

"I came here to get my cellphone." said Cassie angrily. "You Police have it, and I want it back."

"That is what I want to discuss with you, ma'am." I said. "Now if you'll please step in here, I'll explain everything." Cassie was clearly unhappy, but finally complied. Once in Interrogation-A with the door closed, Detective Cummings came through the other door, from the Police side, and sat down beside me.

"Mrs. Sanderson," I said, "I am going to read you your legal rights." I proceeded to do so from the card, then asked if she understood the rights.

"Yeah, but why are you reading me my rights?" asked Cassie. "Am I a suspect or something?"

"You are a person of interest in the death of Emma Washburn." I replied. "I just want to make sure we follow things according to the letter of the law. I want to ask you some questions about Emma's death, as well as the burglary of your home. Would you like a lawyer to be present?"

"I just want my cellphone." said Cassie.

"We have taken that into custody under a warrant." I said. "You will not be getting it back until we're through with the portions of our investigation that pertain to it. Are you willing to answer some questions? And would you like a lawyer?"

"Oh, go ahead and ask." said Cassie.

"First," I said, "when was the last time you saw Emma?"

"Sunday afternoon," Cassie said. "I took a few photos of her."

"Did you see the bruising on her face and upper body?" I asked.

"Yes." said Cassie.

"Did Emma say how she got those bruises?"

"As I said before, I remarked on them," said Cassie, "and Emma said it was nothing, and to not worry about it. It was obvious to me she did not want to discuss it, so I didn't say anything more. I figured her husband did it. I put some pancake makeup, like movie actors use, over the bruises and we took our pictures."

"Had Emma ever mentioned her husband hitting her before?" asked Joanne.

"No." said Cassie. "And that was the first time I'd ever seen her with any marks like that on her."

"Mrs. Sanderson," I said, "do you know of any reason why her husband, or anyone else for that matter, would want to physically assault Emma?"

"No, I don't." said Cassie, matter-of-factly. "I'd speculate she and her husband got into a fight, but I don't know why."

"So you left her at your home when you left for church?" I asked.

"Yes." Cassie said. "I told her she could clean up before going home, or that she could stay the night if she wanted. She wasn't home when Sean and I got back that night, so I assumed she went home."

"Do you know how Emma died?" Joanne asked.

"I saw on the KXTC website that she'd been murdered." said Cassie. "It's pretty shocking. I'm not sure of any details, though. The article was pretty vague."

"True enough." I said. "Mrs. Sanderson, are you aware that your son Sean was having a sexual affair with Emma?"

"Yes." said Cassie. "The photo sessions got a little steamy, and I know Sean penetrated Emma a couple of times."

"Are you aware of other times they had sex? Off camera?" I asked. "Or that they were dating?"

"Uh, I never saw where they were together or going out... beyond the photography sessions."

"Do you know of anyone else that Emma was having a sexual affair with?"

"Sean's friend Ryan might have had Emma." said Cassie. "But I never saw them together, so I don't know for sure. I don't know of anyone else, though. And Emma never talked to me about things like that, she never confided in me."

"Were you and Emma going to start a catering service?" I asked, as if out of the blue.

"Uh, we had talked about it." Cassie said. "I was laying some groundwork for it, but Emma hadn't committed to doing it yet."

"I see." I said. "What about Sean? What does he do for money?"

"I... I... " Cassie stammered. She stopped, then said "I don't want to be uncooperative, but I think I should ask to have my lawyer present."

"That's fine." I said. "I'll send in an officer to help you make the phone call. While you're waiting, Detective Cummings and I will step out of the room for a few minutes."

We went into the anteroom, where Cindy and Officer Lydia Green were waiting. "Officer Green," I said, "please attend Mrs. Sanderson while she uses the phone to call her attorney. Don't allow her to leave I-Alpha except to use the restroom, and escort her there if she needs to go. Captain, Detective, come with me."

We went down the hall past Vice, MCD, and our offices, then along the back hall and the various offices, classrooms and breakroom to Interrogation-2, where Chris Washburn and his lawyer, Gibson Stelling, Esq., were waiting.

"Hello, gentlemen." I said. "This is Detective Cummings and I am Commander Troy, as you know. I understand that Mr. Washburn has taken the Fifth, but I would propose talking to you, Mr. Stelling, in a discussion of 'hypothetical' situations. I have a few questions here, written on this sheet."

Talking about 'hypotheticals' was a way to get around Fifth Amendment invocations without violating the suspect's rights... hypothetically. I hated 'hypotheticals', but in this case I needed information more. Ergo, I played the game.

The questions on the sheet were as follows:

Hypothetically, how did Emma get the face and body bruises?

Hypothetically, was Emma having a sexual affair with other men? How many, and, hypothetically, who?

Hypothetically, was Emma considering leaving her husband?

Hypothetically, who would have reason to harm Emma, and why?

"I'll need a moment with my client." Mr. Stelling said.

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

After we were seated in I-2, Mr. Stelling said "Hypothetically, my client does not know how his wife got the bruises. He might hypothetically have asked and was hypothetically told that it was nothing and she would not say more. He thinks that it's a hypothetical possibility that Cassie or Sean Sanderson could've done that to Emma."

Stelling continued: "Hypothetically, my client's deceased wife might have been having a hypothetical sexual affair with Cassie Sanderson's son, Sean. He does not know of any other such hypothetical situations, but can't rule any out."

Stelling read from his notes, then said: "Hypothetically, my client is unaware of any hypothetical situations where his wife was considering leaving him. Also, my client cannot think of any hypothetical situations where someone would want to harm his wife, unless there was something going on with Mrs. Sanderson or her son of which my client was unaware. My client was stationed far away, and so would not have any hypothetical knowledge of any hypothetical situations in this Town."

"Okay." I said. "Well, if your client can come up with any hypothetical situations that can help me solve his wife's non-hypothetical murder, please let me know."

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

Back to Cassie, who now had Mr. Fowler with her as her attorney in I-Alpha.

"My client wants to cooperate," said Fowler, "but she will not answer any questions about her son. She does not want to give erroneous information, only to later be accused of lying to Police."

"I'm not worried about that." I said. "We can always arrest Sean for suspicion of murder, haul him in here and question him for hours and hours. We certainly don't need anything from Mrs. Sanderson." I was pleased that Joanne held her face expressionless when I said that. Cassie Sanderson was not so stoic; a look of shock appeared on her face at my menacing words.

"I will be representing him, also." said Fowler, rescuing Cassie from my scare tactic. "And I will not allow you to browbeat my clients. Yes, your reputation precedes you, Mr. Iron Crowbar, and I will not brook your shenanigans."

I smiled. "I have no idea what shenanigans you are talking about, Mr. Fowler," I said, "unless my sterling record of successes and getting legitimate confessions or convictions is considered to be 'shenanigans' by the hopelessly inept defense lawyers in this County." Fowler was steaming at the deliberate insult. Joanne broke down; she began giggling.

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

"Hi, Sean." I said as Sean was escorted into Interrogation-B with Mr. Fowler as his representation. "I just have a few questions for you, but I am first going to read you your rights from this card." I read Sean his considerable Constitutional rights, and he said that he understood them.

"Sean," I said, "you probably know by now that Emma was murdered. I'm sure you understand that your relationship with her has to be investigated as part of our case."

"Yes sir." Sean said. 

"So let me ask again if Mr. Washburn knew of your relationship with his wife." I said.

"Like I said before," said Sean, "I don't know what or how much Emma told him, but when he got back last week, he told me that he really liked the pictures of Emma and me, and he wanted me to keep doing them. He said he was cool with me kissing her and with the sex pictures, too."

"Whoa." I said. "He said he had pictures of you and Emma having sex?"

"Er, no," said Sean, "he didn't say that. I thought he meant our simulated sex poses. But like I said, I don't know what Emma sent him, so she might've sent pics of her sucking my cock or a penetration shot, if my mom got any of those."

"I see." I said. "Sean, your mother's income is from her photography work, is that right?"




The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 03



"Yes sir." Sean said. "She was getting child support from Dad, too... until a few months ago, when I turned eighteen."

"Do you know the arrangements of that child support?" I asked.

"No sir."

"Were you ever thinking of moving out, away from your mom?"

"Uh, no sir." Sean said. Was that the slightest change of facial expression? I thought to myself. Just the slightest change in his eyes?

"What about money, Sean?" I asked. "What did or do you do to make money?"

"Uh, nothing, really." Sean said.

"Sean, we know you've been spending some money, and your mother doesn't have much." I said. "So how are you getting money?" At that point, the legal beagle Fowler leaned over and whispered something to Sean.

Sean then said "I'm not selling drugs or any bad shit like that, but I don't think it's something I can talk to the police about."

"Sean," said Fowler out loud, "at this point I think you should conclude this interrogation and say nothing more." Sean looked over at me as if he didn't want to stop, but he had his orders...

"What do you think, Joanne?" I asked my young Detective as we walked back down the hall after the interview.

"Everyone clams up when Sean's job or income is brought up." Joanne said. "I don't want to assume anything, but that has to be important..."

Part 11 - Lunchtime Meetings 

Captain Cindy Ross received a text message on her personal cellphone at 11:45am. She went to the Commander's office, into which she was immediately admitted.

"Sir," she said, "I need to take a long lunch and take care of a couple of errands."

"Sure." I said. "Keep your radio with you, though. I've got a lunch meeting with the Chief, and I don't know when I'll be back. If we get a break on the Washburn case, they'll need to be able to get you on the radio."

"Yes sir." Cindy said. "By the way, do you have any idea what's going on with this case? It looks like all the persons I'd call suspects have alibis, so is there anyone else to consider? And the burglary took place a couple of nights later, and I can't help but think it's related."

"I've got a few roadblocks in my mind, as well." I said. "What I'm not seeing is the motive for Emma's murder."

"If it's related to the burglary, I can see that." Cindy said. "And if her husband did it as a crime of passion, I can see that."

"We'll talk more about it this afternoon." I said. "I think we're going to have to move on it soon." That got Cindy peering at me, but she said no more as we left the office.

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

Cindy walked along the street that went east-west and was north of the Downtown and Courthouse Square areas. She saw two old ladies on a bench near the road. Across the street was a strip mall. On the right side of the strip mall, she saw the empty space that had been Nathan Allen's campaign headquarters.

"Why, hello Captain Ross!" said Old Mrs. Boddiker. "How are you doing today? Do you know my friend, the Widow Athena Jones?"

"Yes, I do know her." Cindy said. "And I'm doing very well. And you ladies?"

"We're enjoying this warm sunshine before the weather turns." said the Widow Athena Jones in her scratchy voice, a few gray curls of hair escaping from under her nondescript light blue shawl. "Please, have a seat with us."

"I can only stay a moment." Cindy said. "Anything interesting to see from this bench?"

"Oh, the traffic is very interesting." said the Widow Jones. "People rushing from one place to another, not taking time to consider where they are, what they are doing, yes?"


Cindy smiled. Then the Widow Jones got to the point. "Over there in that strip mall, on the left side, are the offices of Planned Parenthood for the Town, County and University. Many women go there for reproductive services."

"Oh yeah." Cindy said. "So what's significant about them? Any protests by the Pro-Lifers recently?"

"Oh no," said Mrs. Jones. "But some very interesting people have gone into that place in the last few weeks. May I suggest... that you determine if that young lady that was murdered last Monday was a... patient there."

Cindy almost gasped, but held her face set and firm. "I'll certainly see what I can find out about that. If you ladies will excuse me, I'll be on my way." With that, she got up and took leave of the ladies.

"Such a nice lady." said Mrs. Boddiker. "And so accomplished. It takes a woman like that to keep a man like the Iron Crowbar in line."

"Ye-es." said the Widow Athena Jones. "He is indeed a man that bears watching... but not as much as the man we are watching..."

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

I had changed into plain clothes. I was wearing my gray suit with black mock-turtleneck shirt. My badge was affixed to my belt and my gun was in its shoulder holster under my left armpit.

Chief Harold Bennett rode with me in my Police SUV to the Country Breakfast Diner. On the way, we discussed the case, and I got him up to speed on possible suspects.

At the Country Breakfast Diner, they were serving their lunch buffet. We went through the line and headed to the private back room. Somewhat to my surprise, several other people awaited us: Town & County Councilpersons John 'Jack' Colby (owner of this restaurant), Kelly Carnes, and Pastor Raymond Westboro. Also present were Sheriff Daniel Allgood and Fire Chief Patrick Quinlin.

It was no great feat of deduction to see that I had been invited to an 'informal' meeting of the Council's 'Study Group'.

As we ate, everyone discussed seemingly innocuous things: the Fall Festival coming up in October, the University's football team and the three high school football teams, some questions about the Emma Washburn case that weren't very deep, and general family chatter. I realized that this was the beginnings of the political 'game', and I let my mind enter what I called 'the zone', to best be ready for the serious business that would soon come.

After lunch was over, with Daniel and myself making sure to get large second helpings of food, everyone settled into the business of this meeting.

"Commander," said Councilwoman Kelly Carnes, "we've asked you here to get your input on the Study Group's work. With your deductive abilities, we're wondering if you've figured out yet what we're doing."

"I have no idea." I said, realizing I'd been asked to sit at the center of the table so that everyone could hear me, "but I'd hazard a guess that it's about rank structure of the Police Force, especially with respect to the Detectives."

"I told you." said Jack Colby, grinning at Pastor Westboro, who nodded.

"I promise, I didn't tell him." said Chief Bennett.

"Oh no, no one told me." I said. "But I've heard the rumblings, and I'm not unaware. I'm also very much aware of the issues between the Fire Department and the EMTs, which is a much worse situation." Fire Chief Quinlin grimaced as I said that.

"I'm sure it is, Commander," said Pastor Westboro, using his most soothing pastoral voice, "but we'd like to confine our discussion with you to the Police Force, over which you have such considerable influence." I could not argue with that, I thought to myself. And my opening effort to attempt to solve the EMS problem had been rebuffed.

"Don," Daniel Allgood said, using my first name to show that he was on my side, as well as showing the others that his and my status as brothers was not being set aside, "how would you describe the current Police Force rank structure?"

"It's a two-tier system." I said. "As you all know, it was put in place when the Town and County merged their governments and public services. One of the tiers is the Uniformed Officers, and the other is the Detectives. It evolved that the Detectives are more like military Warrant Officers, while the Uniformed Officers are like Enlisted personnel."

"Would you say this system is the common structure of police forces?" asked Kelly Carnes, who I could tell was the de facto leader of the Study Group.

"Yes and no, ma'am." I said. "The TCPD, and in fact all of the Public Safety Department, has a more rigid rank structure than many jurisdictions, but in actuality the two-tier lines are there in some way or another in virtually every Police Force of any appreciable size."

"And of course," I continued, "there are ranks, like Sergeant and Corporal, and there are of course Lieutenants and Captains. The 'Commander' rank is actually not all that common; usually Departments will just have some 'Assistant Chiefs' and such, then Captains. The Atlanta Police Department as a rank of 'Major'. By the way, I'm not giving up the 'Commander' title, so don't even think about that." There was some laughter in response to my half-humorous tone of voice.

"We would not dream of doing that." said Sheriff Allgood, a bit severely. "But where are Detectives within other Police Forces?"

"What we're asking," said Kelly Carnes, "is 'What is a more typical structure of police departments?'."

"There's different ones." I said. "It's still ultimately two-tier with Uniformed Police and Investigators, though. Some places, like San Francisco, have 'Inspectors'. You may remember the 'Dirty Harry' movies.

"More common, though," I continued, "is to have 'Detective-1', Detective-2', and so on. There are Detective Sergeants over them, and then a Lieutenant over the bunch. Our structure of a Vice Lieutenant and MCD Lieutenant is common, as far as that goes. Big cities will have separate divisions for Homicide, Robbery, Sexual Assault, and so on, but we're not that big. In some places, ranks are a bit fluid: a 'Detective-3' does not formally outrank a 'Detective-1', but would be respected for experience and knowledge."

"And a 'Detective-1' would not outrank a Sergeant, or even a Uniformed officer at a similar pay grade?" asked Jack Colby.

"It would depend on the particular jurisdiction, and how the structure was set up." I said. "Let me put it this way. If you go into City Homicide, you'll see Detectives in plain clothes at their desks, one or more of them being a Detective Sergeant, and a Lieutenant in an office nearby. If you go into City Vice, you'll see Detectives in plain clothes at their desks, one or more Sergeants, Lieutenant in a nearby office. Uniformed officers will rarely be seen in those areas, except to bring in perps in custody to interrogation rooms."

I continued: "If you go into Midtown, you'll see the same thing with respect to Detectives... but you'll see Uniformed Officers stationed in the same buildings, walking the same halls. Our Headquarters is like Midtown's, but our Precincts are like the Uniformed City Police stations."

"Commander," said Pastor Westboro, sitting back as if the question were casual, but his peering eyes giving away the seriousness of the question, "would you say the current system is the most efficient? Or can we do better?"

"With respect to the Detectives, the current system works very well." I said. "We have Detective Apprentices, which don't outrank Sergeants, and we have Detective, Junior Grade, which we call 'J.G.', that are like Corporals. They're called 'Detectives', but it's about the same thing as other places. The full Detectives are given responsibility, they are in charge of investigations and need a certain level of authority to get their jobs done."

"The New York Police Department isn't structured this way." said Kelly Carnes. "And they're one of the biggest and most experienced in the world. Do you think your Department is better than theirs?"

"Why, I most certainly do think the Town & County Police Department is the very best in the world, and I'm proud of them, thank you very much." I replied, shooting down the implied insult. I noticed Jack Colby grinning, and Chief Bennett and Sheriff Allgood nodding at my defense of my Police Force.

"I would add this." I said. "The NYPD may not, but the Los Angeles Police Department does makes differentiations in their Detective ranks, though not with Warrant Officer bars like we do. They use Sergeant stripes with diamonds like Army First Sergeants. But it's very similar to our own structure when all is said and done."

"Commander," said Pastor Westboro, "what is your opinion on the Precincts. How has that worked out?"

"There have been some positives and some negatives about Precincts." I said, treading carefully. "It's been good in that Patrol Officers get to know their areas, get to know the people in the areas, and what's going on. On the flip side, it's still almost too small a County for three full precincts, and we're still ironing out communications issues and dividing manpower and equipment."

"My point to the question, Commander," said Westboro, "is that you were opposed to Precincts, but now that they are in place, they seem to be working well for you. At least that is what your Police Chief has reported to us. Is he wrong?"

"He's my boss, he's never wrong." I said, drawing some laughter as I deftly avoided creating strife with Chief Bennett. "But like I said, there are ups and downs to Precincts, and I still think we're too small a jurisdiction to really justify them."

Westboro got to his point: "But despite your opposition to Precincts, the world did not fall down when they were instituted. If we were to... streamline the Police rank structure, would that really be a burden?"

"In answer to that, Pastor," I said, "I am going to be politically incorrect amongst you politicians. What is going to end up happening is that we will still have the same or very similar structure as we have now. After you guys study the structures of large cities like New York and L.A., small towns like Hillside, Westphalia and Eastphalia, and the various Police Forces within our State... whatever you decide to do will still have us end up with essentially the same thing. What I don't want, and won't brook very easily, is y'all doing anything that demoralizes my Police Force, especially the really excellent Detectives I have working for me." 

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

Cindy Ross practically ran into Headquarters after tearing into the parking lot in her Police SUV. She hurried down the hallway to the office of ADA Jenna Stiles, which was situated along the back wall of Police Headquarters, on the other side of the Main Conference Room from the Chief's office suite in the back left corner.

Jenna was in her office going through stacks of papers with her assistant Gor-don. Cindy knocked on the half open door and said "ADA Stiles, can I speak with you? It's business, and it's urgent."

"Uh, sure, Captain." said Jenna. "Gor-don, go ahead and take these papers to my office in the Courthouse. We're ready to go with these cases." Gor-don collected various collapsible file folders of papers and carried them out, glaring harshly at Cindy for intruding.

"What's it about, sweetie?" Jenna asked as Cindy closed the door behind Gor-don.

"I know you've worked with the Planned Parenthood people before, giving them legal advice and all." Cindy said. "And you're in contact with them in preparation for whatever political career you decide upon."

"That's true." said Jenna. "So what's up?"

"Do you have anyone inside there you can contact to get me some information?" Cindy asked. "I need to know if a woman had an abortion there recently. I don't want to go through the hassle of getting a warrant to do it formally, and then only to have them tie it up in Court for weeks on end."

Jenna considered it. "I think I can ask one or two people there to discreetly look up something, but only to confirm it, and 'off the record', as it were. Who do have in mind?"

Cindy replied "Emma Washburn... the woman that was murdered earlier this week."

Part 12 - Rumors and Innuendo 

As I entered Police Headquarters from the side door that served the fenced-in employee's parking lot, Lt. Teresa Croyle fell in beside me, and we walked down the hall together.

"Can I speak with you in your office, sir?" she asked.

"You certainly may." I said. I had felt tension in the air as soon as I'd walked into the building.

Once inside, I had Teresa sit in one of the comfortable 'hot seat' chairs in front of the office as I sat in my comfortable Command Chair behind the desk. "What's up?" I asked.

"Sir," said Teresa, "My Vice Detectives are acting like cats in a room full of rocking chairs. Julie told me that there are rumors going around that they're going to change the rank structure and demote all the Detectives. Is that true, sir?"

"Wow, that traveled fast." I said, more to myself than Teresa. I saw the look on her face and said "Look, let's not get ahead of ourselves, here. I just found out about the Study Group at my lunch meeting. They are talking about the rank structure, but they can't demote anyone without cause even if they wanted to. You saw how the Police Union was about Sharples? Can you even imagine what they'd do if the Council tried to demote all of the Detectives?"

"Sir, that's not a denial." replied Teresa.

"Actually, it is." I said. Just then, there was a knock on my door and Lt. Perlman bounded in.

"Is this about the rank structure?" I asked, seeing the look in her eyes. She nodded.

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

At 4:00pm the meeting of all of the Detectives was held in Classroom 'J'. I was going to nip this shit in the bud without delay.

"Okay guys," I said, sitting in a chair on the raised part of the floor in the back of the room as the Detectives sat in the school-style desks. "This meeting is to dispel the rumors you've been hearing about the rank structure. I can't talk openly about what little I know. But I can tell you that none of you will be demoted, and you will certainly not lose your pay grades... unless you whack me upside the head with a crowbar or something." No laughter. "That's a joke, guys. Lighten up, they don't get any better."

"Anyhoo," I said, "the Police Union would scream if the Council messed with any of you... and then the Council would have to deal with me. Okay?"

Detective Julie Newton raised her hand. "Sir, are they going to split us up and assign us to Precincts?"

"Over my dead body." said Lt. Tanya Perlman, her normally cherubic face looking dark and menacing.

"No, guys, you are not getting away from me that easily." I said. No laughter... tough audience today. "Seriously, guys... that's the one line they know they can't cross as long as I'm the Commander of this Police Force--" I saw ADA Jenna Stiles peek her head in the door.

"Captain Ross," I said, "ADA Stiles has some information for you." Cindy turned and saw Jenna, then got up and went into the hallway.

"Guys," I said, "the bottom line here is to not worry about the rumors. If the Council does do anything, it'll be weeks, months even. I'd rather watch glaciers moving than have to watch these politicians take action on anything."

Julie Newton raised her hand again. "Sir," she said, "Precincts were always a rumor, then all of a sudden they were there."

"Look," I said, "I cannot sit here and tell you that the Council won't do anything. But I can tell you that none of you will be negatively affected, that you'll be working from right here in Police Headquarters, and that our jobs haven't changed. Do not let this b.s. affect your morale. And to boost that, I will bribe you with doughnuts tomorrow morning, okay?"

"Three boxes, Commander." said Joanne Cummings. That got a big laugh. What does she have that I don't, I thought to myself... besides a beautiful face, a smoking hot body, and an innocence that belies her tremendous abilities...

Cindy came back inside. "Commander, I hate to break this up, but we've got something on the Washburn case..."

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

"Yep," Cindy said. "Emma had an abortion a little over two weeks ago. She was about two months pregnant." The pertinent MCD people were in Classroom 'E' with me and Captain Ross. 




The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 03



"So that's where that cash Emma took out went to." said Tanya Perlman.

"This is good information, Captain," said Theo Washington, "but I'm not seeing where it helps us with these cases, especially the burglary."

"Oh, it helps us tremendously." I said, my voice musing. I was halfway to a reverie. "It clears up a lot of things, particularly with regard to the motive for Emma's murder."

"Care to share this clearing up of things?" asked Cindy. "I'm not seeing where this fits in. I'm not even seeing who could've murdered Emma, much less any clue on the burglary."

"Tell you guys what." I said. "I know what I always say about theorizing, but I want you to do that now. Tell me what you're thinking about these cases. Nothing is off limits, this is just a conversation. I want to see where you are on this. Who wants to go first?"

"I'll go first." Tanya said. "I've looked at all those photographs and videos. I didn't see anything except a couple of shots of Emma and Sean having oral sex, and some closeups of penetration. I can see where Emma's husband might get upset and even violent over those, even though he seemed to like them.

"However," Tanya continued, "Sean is apparently the father of Emma's aborted baby, and if Sean found out about that, he might've gotten angry that his baby was aborted and he took it out on Emma."

"So who murdered her?" I asked.

"We've simply got no proof on either Sean or Chris." said Tanya. "Nor anyone else, for that matter."

"You're wrong there." I said. "Okay Theo, forget I just said that. What's your thinking?"

"I've been looking at the burglary more than the murder, as that was assigned to me." said Theo. "I think something was caught on Mrs. Sanderson's photographs, something none of them realized was on there, but whoever broke into her house knew it and took all the pictures, videos, computers, cameras, etc., that might've contained that information."

"That's a very good thought." I said. "Did you see anything in any of the photos?"

"No sir." said Theo. "Unless the people in the background while Emma and Sean were on their dinner dates are part of the issue."

"That'll be a bear, trying to identify all those people, then having to investigate them to see if there's any connection to Emma or Cassie." said Cindy.

"And it'd likely be a waste of time." I said. "So Theo, any ideas who did trash the house?"

"No sir." said Theo. "I guess Mr. Washburn might have done it, but I don't see why. I'd say it was outsiders, but who and why... you'll have to tell me, sir. I know I've missed something that you've seen."

"You've seen everything that I have." I said. "Indeed, all of you have. But I've not just seen... I've observed! Okay, Joanne... what say you?"

"Sir, I was thinking about the interviews with Mrs. Sanderson, Sean, and Mr. Washburn." said Joanne. "Mrs. Sanderson... Cassie, if I can call her that... was constantly subtly suggesting that Chris Washburn was involved. And Chris was implying that Cassie was involved. Chris went over to Cassie's in a drunken state and tried to kick the door down, and I wonder if he thought Cassie or Sean was behind his wife's death. In any case, I get the feeling Cassie and Chris don't like each other very much."

"Good thoughts." I said. "And a very astute observation that Cassie and Chris don't like each other. I agree with that."

"And there was something else, sir." said Joanne. "We talked about it, but I'm still having trouble getting my head wrapped around it. Cassie stopped talking when you started asking about Sean's income, and she wouldn't discuss it. Their lawyer threw up firewalls about that, also. I was thinking that was really strange, and maybe it has something to do with the case. Maybe what's on the pictures or videos has to do with whatever suspicious thing he's doing to make money."

"Very good." I said. "Very good. Let me throw up these caveats, though. First, Sean does not need to burgle and trash his own house if there's something on a video or picture. He can look for that at leisure, then destroy it when he finds it. I would also ask how that ties into Emma's murder."

"Someone knew something." Cindy said. "Maybe Emma knew something she wasn't supposed to. The perps beat the truth out of her, then they killed her."

"Wouldn't they want to kill Cassie and Sean too, then?" I replied. 

"Maybe they were going to when they broke in." Cindy replied. "But they weren't there, so the burglars just took all the photography and videography stuff, and a few extra things either they wanted or thought they could sell."

"And they waited two days after killing Emma to burgle the house?" I asked. "That seems rather... lazy of them. So who killed Emma, Crowbar 2?" I asked.

"Must be outsiders." said Cindy. "Cassie, Sean, and... I'm sorry to say... Chris all have alibis, though I know what you think of those."

"Indeed." I said. "If they didn't have that photograph of Emma auto-uploaded to Facebook, we'd be having entirely different conversations, wouldn't we?" That got Cindy peering at me.

"Okay, Crowbar 1." my partner replied. "Time for you to spill it."

"Better than that," I said, "I'm going to perform a little exercise. I think I have proof, but I'd like something a little more solid. Here's what we're going to do..."

Part 13 - The Sting 

At 6:30pm, I headed to the house of Cassie and Sean Sanderson. Cindy was riding with me in my Police SUV, as we were keeping two-man control of the evidence I was bringing to the house. The police convoy behind me contained Joanne and Theo, Tanya, Sergeant Rudistan and Sr. Patrolman Morton, and Crime Lab Technicians J.R. Barnes and Christina Cho, both with cameras to record the lecture I was about to give.

Coming into the greatroom, I noticed that the mantle clock had been restored to its original perch on the fireplace mantle. I set about putting all the cellphones collected as evidence on the long side table against the wall where the TV had been mounted, as well as an easel and a piece of cardboard covered by a cloth.

"Ah, everyone, come on in." I said. Cassie and Sean came in, accompanied by their pastor, Raymond Westboro.

"Ah, Commander, twice in one day I'm running into you." he said. "I was in Spiritual discussion with Cassie at the church when she got your call."

"I asked the Pastor to come with me." said Cassie. "And I called Mr. Fowler, of course." Indeed, Mr. Fowler was also present.

"That's quite all right. This bit of police business might interest you, Pastor." I said. "Okay, Rudistan, bring Mr. Washburn in." Rudistan did so. Chris Washburn had an ankle monitor on, and Rudistan removed his handcuffs. Everyone sat down in the chairs brought into the room from other parts of the house.

"Okay, everyone, thank you for coming." I said. "I brought you all here to discuss the unfortunate death of Emma Washburn. There are some discrepancies in the case that I'd like you to help me resolve."

I took the cloth off the cardboard on the easel, revealing an enlarged photo of Emma in front of the clock. The image was also a mirror-image of the photograph I'd taken of that important photo while gathering evidence during the initial burglary investigation.

"Okay, folks, this is the photo of Emma that was uploaded to Facebook." I said. "As you can tell, the clock behind Emma says four o'clock--"

"Wait, that's not right!" said one of my observers. "The original uploaded photo said eight o'clock!"

"No, this is the photo." I said. "And it says four o'clock, so in reality, none of you have an alibi for the time involved."

"You're full of it." said the observer, who got up, grabbed the cellphone in the flower-print sleeve from the table, quickly entered the code, then showed me a photo. "That's the uploaded photo! The clock says eight o'clock. You've got this picture backward! You see?"

"Oh yes, I see..." I replied.

To be continued.

You have all the clues. Who murdered Emma Washburn? Why? And what led the Iron Crowbar to an (upcoming) successful arrest? Answers next chapter!



The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 04



The chronological order of my stories is now listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

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

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

*****

Part 14 - A Successful Arrest 

I said "J.R., did you get that on videotape?"

"Yes sir." said Crime Lab Technician J.R. Barnes, who was recording with a videocamera.

"Christina?"

"Yes sir." said Christina Cho, also recording.

"Captain Ross, did you observe that?"

"Yes, Commander." said my partner.

"Detective Cummings? Washington?"

"Yes sir." both said.

"Sergeant Rudistan, did you observe that?"

"Oh yes sir, I did." Rudistan said jovially.

"Morton?"

"Yes sir."

"Pastor Westboro, did you observe that?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid that I did." said Pastor Westboro, his voice sad and his face downcast.

"What? What is it?" asked Cassie Sanderson. I took the cellphone from her hands.

"Cassie Sanderson," I said, "you are under arrest for the murder of Emma Washburn, a human being. Lt. Perlman, take her away."

"Yes sir." said Tanya. She affixed handcuffs to a totally stunned Cassie, reciting to Cassie her considerable legal rights.

"Okay guys, get affidavits from everyone else here, including each other." I said. I walked up to Pastor Westboro. "Pastor, I don't want to inconvenience you by having you come to the Station. So if you will just give Detective Cummings your statement here, you can go home when you're done."

"Yes, er... thank you, Commander." said Westboro, who was also stunned by the turn of events. "I've heard about your abilities, Commander, but this is the first time I've had the chance to observe them so closely. I must admit that I am stunned, truly stunned."

"Thank you, Pastor." I said. "Now if you all will excuse me, I must go to Headquarters."

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

Cassie Sanderson was in Interrogation-1, her lawyer Fowler in attendance. I went in with Paulina Patterson and Detective Joanne Cummings, with Rudistan guarding the prisoner.

"That was entrapment, Commander!" Fowler snarled. "This will not hold up! I will have your badge for this!"

"I've heard that before." I said. I took a document from Paulina and handed it to Fowler. "This is a warrant for the sting operation you witnessed today. It's not entrapment. It's a sting. And Cassie fell right into it."

"What the hell did I do?" Cassie asked, a mixture of disbelief and anger in her voice. "I showed you the right picture."

"How did you know it was on that phone?" I asked. "And how did you know that was the phone from which the photo was auto-uploaded to Facebook? And how did you know the code?"

"Obviously, it's my phone." said Cassie.

"Except that we found it at the Washburn home, where you planted it." I said. "You were hoping we'd think it was Chris Washburn's phone, and that we would blame him for his wife's murder. And you might well have succeeded if you had not been stupid in other areas."

I continued. "Also, that phone is a burner phone. Last, but not least, if it's your phone, who was using it to take that photo of Emma? You told me earlier that you didn't take that picture. So if you did take it, you were lying to Police, which is a felony crime in this State. Also, if it was you that took it, you're guilty of the murder. But if it wasn't you... well, obviously it was, and you knew too much about it."

I met Cassie's stare of disbelief now mixed with hatred as I said "You gave yourself away when you saw that mirror-image photograph, then went for the phone to make your alibi hold up. You should never have known that the uploaded picture was on that phone.. but you did, and you demonstrated that by actually unlocking the phone to show me the picture."

Cassie's face was turning to shock as she began to fully realize what she had done. "Ohhhhh, shiiittttt." she moaned.

Her lawyer Fowler had seen enough, and admitted defeat: "What kind of deal can we make?" he asked.

Paulina said "If you save the County the expense of a trial and don't waste our time, confess and give a full statement, answer all the questions to the Commander's satisfaction, then I'll offer twenty-five to life with possibility of parole."

Cassie took the deal, and began talking. When she finished, I only had one question.

"Cassie, are you sure you don't know who else besides your son that was having a sexual affair with Emma? Are you sure she told you nothing?"

"I was telling the truth, Commander." she said. "Emma did not confide things like that to me. I didn't even know she was going to Culinary School at the Town Technical Institute for months, until she suggested we start a catering and photography service. She never mentioned the men in her life, besides her husband."

Part 15 - The Emma Washburn Solution 

Friday evening, September 25th. The party at The Cabin was attended by me, Laura, my mother Phyllis, Jenna, Cindy, Cindy's sister Molly, Teresa, Joanne, Joanne's fiancé Seth Warner, Theo Washington, Tanya Perlman, Jack Muscone (as Tanya's date), Sheriff Daniel Allgood, and his lovely wife Melina. The kids (Laura's, Molly's, Melina's, and Tanya's) were also there, being watched over by the redoubtable Bowser.

Daniel and I cooked hamburgers and hotdogs while Laura and Melina had prepared all the trimmings. Cindy and Teresa brought beer and colas, and Joanne brought several cakes she and Melina had baked... with Joanne teaching my ex-wife how to properly bake a cake, I might add.

"So," said Cindy to Daniel within my hearing, "it was Chief Bennett that got the Council started on this rank structure thing?"

"Yes, it was." said Daniel. "I don't think he ever liked the current structure. He found some ears on the Council that were willing to listen, and poured some ideas into them. I don't think he liked it when the other Study Group members insisted on getting Don's input, but I don't think it's going to be any big deal. It's the Fire Department and EMTs that might erupt. That's been brewing for some time."

"Yeah, I know." Cindy said. "And I think I know why Chief Bennett did what he did..."

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

Meanwhile...

Melina and Joanne were telling Laura that they were planning a deer hunting trip to Lake Amengi-Nunagen. Jack Muscone overheard and said "Laura, that reminds me... some properties up there came up for sale, if you want to check them out."

"Way ahead of you, Jack." said Laura. "I've already put down an option for a place on Lake Watchacoochie, which is east of Lake Amengi-Nunagen and over the ridgeline. It's going to be a surprise for Don on his birthday, October 26th... well, if I can keep it secret from him until then."

"Good luck with that, sis." said Melina. "Nothing gets by that man. Nothing." Joanne giggled.

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

"Are you ready for your Academy class Monday?" Teresa asked Cindy as they munched on snacks.

"Yeah, I guess so." said Cindy. "I'll be bored as hell for two days, but I'll do it."

"I have a surprise for you." Teresa replied. "I'm going to be there with you."

"What?!" Cindy asked, stunned. "What did you do?"

"Nothing." Teresa said. "But you won't have to sit in the class alone. We'll tell everyone we're monitoring what's being taught, and we'll get our refreshers so we can make sure our Detectives are doing it right."

"What did the Commander say when you asked him to go with me?"

"I didn't ask." Teresa replied. "I told him that I was going with you. He just asked who I was going to leave in charge of Vice, I told him Purvis needed a shakeup and some testing, and he told me to have a nice day and to get out of his office." 

"Well, I'll appreciate you being there with me." Cindy replied.

"What are friends for?" Teresa asked. "I've got your back, sister." Cindy just hugged Teresa in response.

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

"How is the Nextdoor County Police, Lieutenant Evans?" Teresa asked Molly, who smiled.

"It's going very well." Molly said. "I'm getting up to speed, mostly doing desk work, which I'll be pretty much restricted to until the baby is born in November. To be honest, though, Janet Riordan had a pretty good Vice operation going, and with you kicking ass in this County, the pipeline to the City through our jurisdictions is considered to be the 'Road of Death' for drug smugglers."

"The City gets supplied along the Southport-Midtown-City route." Teresa said. "Our problem is the lucrative market of University students. But I've been picking up on some increased traffic in things besides drugs... contraband, stolen goods, weapons and explosives."

"Yes," said Molly, "Janet showed me some things, too. We'll have to have an official cooperative pow-wow about it soon."

"How's Captain Moynahan and Frank Soltis in Midtown?" Teresa asked. "I haven't talked to either of them in a while."

"Frank is doing okay. He might be transferring to the Mob Squad... which actually investigates corrupt politicians more than Organized Crime, as you well know from your time down there." Molly replied. "Captain Moynahan is being boxed out and shut off, and with his team disbanded he's pretty much twiddling his thumbs awaiting retirement."

"That's too bad." said Teresa. "With the possible exceptions of Chief Griswold and Commander Troy, Captain Moynahan is the best cop I've ever known."

"That he is." said Molly. "Just keep your eyes peeled and your ears open. If what I'm hearing is true, he'll be landing on his feet..."

*ding* *ding* *ding* *ding*

The musical quality sound of a spoon tapping a glass echoed through the air, rung by Cindy Ross.

"Okay, everyone," Cindy said, "it is that time again. I saw it all, and I am still not understanding, so would the Iron Crowbar please tell us how he solved this case?" A loud acclaim of cheering and applause started up, aided by Bowser barking in displeasure at the noise. I gave my dog (okay, Carole's dog) a comforting skritching before moving over to the group.

"All right." I said as we all sat down in chairs and on the sofa in the main room of The Cabin, the view outside fading as it began getting dark and the lights of the room reflected off the bulletproof glass of the windows.

"This was one of the most interesting cases I've had since coming to the TCPD. It looks simple, but as I think about it, it was pretty complex." I thought about it, then said "So... in order to help everyone can understand this, I'll reverse my usual pattern. I'll talk first about my own observations, then about what led up to the murder and the burglary."

I began. "We had a body of a Jane Doe, a married woman who had no fingerprints on file with the FBI. The body was dumped in a 'dead/live' zone behind the Ladies Auxiliary Clubhouse, which is interesting in and of itself. She had bruising on her face, which would suggest that the beating was a cause-and-effect relationship to her death. That turned out to not be the case.

"I'd expected to hear from family of this woman's disappearance, but we never did. Considering that even prostitutes have had family contact us in the past when their loved ones went missing, this was really strange. And it got more strange when we responded to a burglary call, and lo! and behold! there is a photo of our victim on the wall. This could not possibly be a coincidence with two crimes surrounding this woman, could it?

"But before I ever saw that photo, I already had an idea that something was wrong with this picture, pun fully intended." I said, to tepid laughter. "As I looked around, something was odd. A mantle clock had been moved from the mantle, where it had sat for a very long time, to the long side table. But when I looked under the clock, there was plaster dust scattered evenly on the table from where the TV had been ripped off the wall. I realized that the most likely explanation of that was that the burglars had moved the clock from the side table, maybe to the floor or a nearby chair, to get to the TV on the wall... and then someone put the clock back on the side table!"

"Now why would someone do that? I thought to myself. Why not either leave the clock where the burglars put it, or put the clock back where it came from on the mantle... where I could see it had been, and where Cassie confirmed it had formerly resided upon my asking her about it. I asked Captain Ross to make sure that the Crime Lab documented that strangeness, though I did not know yet what it meant."

"I found that out soon enough," I said, "when I went into the office room. I saw the picture of Emma on the wall... our unreported, unclaimed, dead victim. And that is the moment I suspected Cassie of being the murderer. It could have been Sean, but I suspected Cassie, especially over time, because she had the explanation of the clock being moved, she had moved it herself by her own admission. And I was already discounting Emma's husband, who we had not yet met. The reason for that is the photo I found on the office desk, of Emma posing in front of the clock on the side table."

Seeing the looks of utter fascination, but also of non-understanding, I said "I realized immediately that the clock had to be put on the side table so that it would appear behind Emma, and that the clock had to be returned to the side table because it was meant to be an alibi for someone. The clock was not operating when the photo of Emma was taken, and Cassie had set it to 8:00pm when she took the photo of Emma.. yes, Cassie was the one who took the photo. She knew the Police had to see that clock on that side table so it would appear natural that it was in the photo. She lied and said she didn't take the photo, but that was easy enough to see through over time."

"I'm already lost." said Seth Warner. Joanne patted his thigh.

"It's harder to explain it than to have realized it." I said. "The photo being found on the desk was necessary for the alibi, as well. Cassie had that photo with her at Marlena's home, so it wasn't stolen. This was actually a bit of coincidence and luck that she did have it, as she could not print another one... the printers were stolen... and it was an important piece of her alibi. So, who knows why she had the pic with her at Marlena's?"

"Oh, isn't that obvious?" said my mother Phyllis, her eyes twinkling, already seeing it fully. "That one is easy, son."

"Easy?!" Cindy exclaimed. "Maybe to you, Mycroft, but not to me!" Everyone laughed and agreed.

"And Mom, why is that?" I asked.

"Why, the Facebook upload, of course." said Phyllis with a knowing smile. Everyone else was still stymied.

"Okay, let me show you this." I said, taking out my Police cellphone and bringing up the photo. "This is what I made the mirror-image out of. It is the picture I took of the photo on the desk... let me say that again: I took a photo of a photo. And I realized that that is what Cassie had done... she used the burner phone to photograph the photo, and it auto-uploaded. She did this at Marlena's house. She excused herself to go to the bathroom at just the right time, clicked the pic, and it uploaded. The Facebook photo is a snapshot of another photograph, not the original photograph!"

"Ohhhh, I get it!" Joanne said, as if she'd found a new toy to play with. "The original photo of Emma was taken earlier, this photo of that photo was uploaded at 8:00pm, though Emma must've been killed earlier! It was an illusion, to create an alibi."

"Yes, exactly!" I said. "The auto-upload was crucial to the alibi. Without it occurring at the right time, Cassie is left hanging in the wind. So is Chris Washburn, for that matter, but I'll get to that later."

"So I already knew two things..." I continued, "that either Cassie or Sean was the culprit in the murder, and also that the burglary was a separate, coincidental event."

"Okay, I've followed you to this point," said Tanya Perlman, "but now you've got me."

"The reasoning goes like this." I said. "The clock was put on the side table, removed, then put back, and I know this because of the way the dust settled on the table in such an even manner, and only then was the clock put back on the side table. If Cassie or Sean was staging the burglary, either would have likely left the clock where it was, knowing its importance to the murder alibi. I might add that Cassie and Sean were not at home during the burglary, and we have witnesses to that."

"So the burglars moved the clock, Cassie put it back. Ergo, the two crimes are very likely not as directly related as it would appear. This became very important later on, too."

"We move to the Washburn home." I said. "When we arrived, Chris was drunk as a skunk, like some of you are about to be if you keep drinking that beer." Tepid laughter. Your Iron Crowbar is just not a comedian.

"Even in his presence, I had already all but exonerated Chris as the murderer of his wife. Co-conspirator? Maybe, but I was skeptical, which would be borne out later. At any rate, we found several cellphones and the pictures in the house. I thought of the possibility that those phones were planted to incriminate Chris, though I did not follow that route very hard. But it would come in handy for the sting."

"So," I said, "returning to Chris: he's drunk, he'd been drunk for a while. He took the Fifth, which in a rare occurrence actually showed me he was innocent! Why? He knew that his wife was in danger, he knew that he himself was in danger. By taking the Fifth, he keeps from slipping up. And only afterwards does he find out that his worst fears are confirmed and his wife is dead, when I told him we'd found her body."

I added "He also knows that he'll be the primary suspect, and he thinks his explanations won't hold water with the Police--"

"And with any Police Department that does not have the Iron Crowbar, that would probably be true." said Cindy Ross. "I need not add that I'm still not following this very well."

"Yes, this is where I went outside the box and used some imagination." I replied. "I realized it almost unconsciously, and it was because of the bruising on Emma's face from days earlier. The beating was systematic, as revealed by M.E. Martha's astute observations that were in her autopsy report. The beating was not the wild randomness of a drunk man beating up his wife, so it likely was not Chris in a drunken state."

I went on: "Someone had beaten Emma to get information out of her, I realized. What information? Photographs and/or videos. Which ones? The only anomaly in those photos... was the hairy-legged man fucking Emma that was on Chris's computer. Not Sean... but another man. Emma sent Chris that pic, risking trouble in her marriage, as a way of preserving a record of his existence. She may have sent others to her husband, or to somewhere else, but so far the FBI has found nothing in Alaska. She may have done it so that if something happened to her, Chris might ask the Police who the Hairy-Legged Man was in that photo. Alas, her 'protection' did not work.

"Anyway, this other man obviously thought she had more photos of him, that gave more of his features, even his face. And that is why he beat the hell out of her, to get the photos that would identify him--"

"Ah, and this confirms that the burglary was separate from the murder." said my mother. "This man was behind the burglary, after Emma told him that the other pics were in Cassie's house."




The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 04



"Maybe, Mom, but there are a couple of possibilities, which I'll get to in a second." I said. "But you're right that it confirms the two cases are separate. Anyway, Chris had seen that his wife was beaten up. I don't know what she told him, but he knew something was very badly wrong. And when Emma didn't return home Sunday night, he was fearful for her safety, or perhaps she told him that she was going to hide or stay with other friends. So he stayed quiet, and he drank heavily, knowing that both she and he were in a world of shit and he had no idea how to get out of it."

I continued: "So what is all that about? Emma was holding those pics of the other man, possibly as a hedge against him. That means she knew he was a bad, bad man. Unfortunately... I think he got the pictures that might show who he is. He beat her up, or had her beat up, until she told him where the pictures were."

"Now, I know what you're thinking." I said. "The burglary did not happen for two more nights... why wait? My thinking is that Emma told this man something false, to try to keep him from knowing where the pictures of him really were. She may have thought she could hide her stuff among all the many photos Cassie had stored in her home."

"However... Emma turned up dead on Monday morning. Mr. Hairy Legs knew this, and so held off for a short period of time. However, whatever Emma had told him originally had not panned out, and he couldn't go back and beat another confession out of her. But... he knew enough to figure it out. 

"He knew Emma and Cassie were friends, and he knew Cassie was a photographer. So he took the precaution to burgle Cassie's home, likely with a couple of subordinates helping him, and he took every photo, video, negative, camera, computer, and video storage device he could lay his filthy dirty hands upon. One of the subordinates took Sean's guitars for his own personal use, and someone got a nice new TV out of it, as well. And those served as distractions from the real object of the break-in: all photos and videos that might expose him."

"The way you're talking about this guy," Cindy said, her ice-blue eyes suddenly glowing with ice cold fire, "I think I know who you think he is."

"That is Iron Crowbar thinking, there... Crowbar 2." I said, our locked pairs of blue eyes needing no further words to understand that we were both thinking of our Shadow Man, the Consultant of Crime... our 'Moriarty'.

"So," I continued, before others could ask questions, "he burgled the Sanderson home. It is to Cassie and Sean's great fortune that they were not at home that night, or they might have ended up on slabs next to Emma in our morgue. He simply cleans out the place of any photos and videos that he finds, not knowing that Cassie has planted cellphones on Chris at Emma's house. Cassie may not have known about what Emma hid in her house, or Emma may have asked Cassie to hide the stuff. Either way, he found what he wanted. All of that potential evidence and information is now gone."

"So why would you not think this other man was Emma's killer?" asked Jenna Stiles.

"Ah, because I already knew who the killer was." I replied. "This other lover did not have to kill Emma... because by sheer coincidence, for him anyway, Cassie had already done so herself.

"Cassie took a few photos of Emma on Sunday, and what I think happened is that she suggested to apply more pancake makeup to Emma, but when she came up behind Emma it was to strangle her from behind! She did just that, then got the body into the trunk of her car and dumped it behind the Ladies Auxiliary Clubhouse, which she admitted she knew had no street camera coverage. She then went to the church service and to Marlena's.

"It was pre-meditated, too, as she had the clock ready to go, the stuff she needed in the car to take to Marlena's. The body was lying all night behind the Clubhouse, and was found the next morning."

"The poor woman." said Joanne Cummings, looking sad. "But why? Why did Cassie kill her?"

"I pretty much knew that Cassie was my primary suspect by the time I'd finished examining the burglary crime scene." I said. "The only thing I did not have was a good motive, which I would need to establish with a Jury in order to get a conviction. And I got no answer through interrogating any of them... until I heard about the child support payments."

"The alimony had just been cut in half when Sean turned 18." I said. "Cassie had very little money coming in, and she was tired of that. She had hoped to go into a catering business with Emma, but that turned bad when she found out that Emma was planning to leave her husband and fly with another man.

"Cassie naturally thought that man would be Sean, as Cassie knew Sean was in love with Emma. Indeed, Emma had Sean wrapped around her finger, and I suspect she had other lovers wrapped around her fingers, as well. But for Cassie, the thought of Sean moving out, thus completely ending the child support payments as well as not having the catering business with Emma, was too much. And Cassie pretty much admitted this in her confession. She said that Sean had told her that Emma was pregnant, Cassie assumed the baby was Sean's, and she didn't know that Emma had gotten an abortion.

"Now I am not at all sure that Sean is the man whom Emma wanted to leave her husband for and run away with, but I believe Emma may have planned to not be in Town by the time her husband got home on leave from his deployment. It is even possible she was just planning to move away by herself. This part is hazy because only Emma knew the truth, and she went to her grave with the secret."

"But Cassie killed Emma, then tried to set up Chris Washburn as the patsy. And no, Cassie and Chris did not like each other; in fact, they deeply hated each other, though they put on pretenses of friendliness for Emma's sake. Cassie planted the extra cell phones on Chris, and it may have been her that sent Chris some of the explicit photos of Emma having sex with Sean."

"So at this point, I thought that I had enough for a case, but I wanted something a bit more solid. And that is where my little trap with the reversed picture and the phone came in. I put all the phones out there, including Cassie's and the burners, then showed everyone the picture with the backwards clock. Seeing that her alibi was going to hell in a handbasket as I talked about a different time frame, she unthinkingly rushed to shore up her alibi by grabbing not her phone but the burner phone showing the real photograph that was uploaded. Of course, she exposed herself in doing so, and as Chief Griswold would say... that fish was landed."

I do have to admit it... I felt satisfaction at seeing the looks of total amazement on the faces of my colleagues, friends and family.

"Any questions?" I asked. That got laughter, which started slowly and then built up until everyone was beside themselves.

"My God! where do we start?" sputtered Molly.

"You didn't see everything." Cindy said. "I did, and I'm still just dumbstruck by all this."

"Four hundred years ago, Don..." said Jack Muscone, breaking the silence. "Four hundred years ago..." He was referring to previous jokes that I would've been burned at the stake... after a fair witch trial, of course.

"I have a question, Commander." said Theo Washington. "We never found a computer for Emma. Did she not have one? Or is it missing?"

I said "Cassie admitted that Emma sent most of the stuff to Chris from her, Cassie's, computer. But Cassie also said that Emma had a tablet of her own, which as all of you know are pretty much computers in and of themselves these days. And we have not found that tablet."

"Why did Chris go over to Cassie's and start trying to beat down the door?" asked Molly. "I mean, I know he was drunk, but why make that kind of confrontation when he knows he has to be a suspect?"

"That's exactly right... he was drunk." I replied. "I think he suspected Cassie had something to do with Emma's death, maybe thought both Cassie and Sean had something to do with it. So he goes over to confront them. Of course, that gets him put in jail--" I suddenly had a thought, and almost slipped into a reverie...

"Oh! I do have a question." Joanne Cummings said. "Where was Sean getting money from? What was he doing that had everyone clamming up and shutting down?"

"That's a good question." I said. "And I think it might be best if I maintain 'plausible deniability' on any knowledge of what Sean's income source might be. Cassie didn't know, and I have no reason to bring any problems down upon Sean."

"Ahhhh... of course" said Laura, sitting next to me, her voice barely a whisper. My eyes met my wife's; we just nodded at each other as I realized she had figured it out.. .and that very likely she was the only one in the room besides me that had the knowledge to do so.

"For me," my mother Phyllis said, "I'm wondering who is the father of Emma's baby, the one she aborted."

"I figured it was the guy who burgled the house." I said. "But we'll never know. Cassie said she didn't know, either."

I saw my mother looking right through me as she said "Son, perhaps that is something you should contemplate further." I peered at her, realizing that Mycroft was trying to give Sherlock a cluuuuuuue...

Part 16 - The Sean Sanderson Solution 

Sure enough, a lot of beer in a lot of police officers meant people crashing at The Cabin. Molly and Ross were staying in the guest bedroom anyway, and Laura and I (and our children) were in the main bedroom. Joanne was sober, so she took Seth and Theo home. Jack gave Melina and Daniel a ride before taking Tanya and baby Pete home. Cindy and Teresa were crashing on the sofas in the greatroom and my mother on the sofa-bed in the front living room, at her own insistence despite Molly's attempts to give Phyllis the guest room bed. Of course, wherever Carole was, Bowser was nearby.

"So you figured it out about Sean? I asked Laura as we snuggled on the bed.

"Rita?" Laura asked.

"Yep." I said. "He's secretly one of her Satyrs at 'Lashes & Lace'. Not a bad gig, but technically it's male prostitution, so I didn't want to mention it."

Laura said "I realized that Marlena was a member there, and a frequent visitor. That might be where she met Sean, too. And that would be a reason everyone would not want to talk about his income from there."

"That's Iron Crowbar thinking, there." I said, nuzzling my wife's neck. "Want a job on the Force?"

"Hell no." Laura said, smiling her lovely smile. "Police Psychiatrist is enough for me. Besides," she said, reaching back and caressing my thigh, "I prefer being married to the hottest cop in Town than being one..."

As we drifted off to sleep, I was remembering...

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

I'd dressed in civilian clothes for the Study Group lunch because I knew where I was going afterwards. Chief Bennett was given a ride back to Headquarters by Sheriff Allgood, and I drove towards the area south of the University, to the office spaces that enclosed the 'Lashes & Lace' establishment. I didn't want to go in wearing a uniform, for obvious reasons.

Going inside, I saw a number of people in the front area having lunch. I headed to the right, to the "back bar" area. The two large men at the door knew me, and did not impede my entry to the room.

"Why hello! Cop." I heard the familiar voice say. Rita was in the back of the room, dressed in a shimmering electric blue dress, white stockings and white high-heel pumps. With her were two Goth women, dressed in black leather.

"Mmm," Rita said as I approached, "mock turtlenecks are soooooo out of fashion that they're almost the new thing. Only you can pull off that look, you delicious man." She got up and gave me a warm hug, followed by a warm kiss to my lips.

"You really have no idea what you are doing," Rita said, keeping her arms wrapped around me, "walking in here looking like this when I have not had sex in four... fucking...days. Cop."

"Maybe I can help you remedy that." I said, sliding my hands around the statuesque blonde's hourglass waist.

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

Gasping for breath after an hour of intense, exhausting sex, I lay on my back on the bed in Rita's downstairs office. Rita was snuggling into my side, finally satiated. It had taken a 'gray viagra' for me to keep up.

"Mmmm, that was very good. Cop." Rita said. "Soooo, why did you really come to see me?"

"Just a little informal fact-finding session." I said. "I just want you to confirm that Sean Sanderson is in your employ, as one of your Satyrs satisfying the County's hottest women on a nightly basis."

"Mmmm, you're not just good in bed. Cop." said Rita. "I cannot confirm that, of course, but you don't hear me denying it."

"I don't expect you to." I said. "He's just over eighteen. Yet his friend's mother, Marlena, has been a client here for a while, and she has known Sean for... a while. Can't speak further of those deductions."

"A wise precaution. Cop." murmured Rita...

Part 17 - The Missing Tablet Found 

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the lovely redheaded reporterette at precisely 7:00am, Monday, September 28th. "Channel Two News has learned that all charges against Christopher Washburn have been dropped. Washburn's wife, Emma Washburn, was found dead last week, and one of her neighbors, Cassie Sanderson, has confessed to the murder. The Police have declined to comment on the murder or Sanderson's reasons for killing Mrs. Washburn, citing a coincidental burglary of the Sanderson home two days later as an ongoing investigation."

"It's not going to help him." said Tanya Perlman as we watched in MCD and drank coffee... along with consuming three boxes of doughnuts. "His company fired him, saying his security clearance was revoked. I don't know what he's going to do now."

"At least he's not facing the death penalty for his wife's murder." said Martin Nash. "Which I feel very sure would be the case right now if it weren't for the Iron Crowbar."

"Don't tell the Commander I said this," said Tanya, who knew I was standing right behind her, "but if it had been most of us, that would've been the case. He was certainly my primary." There was general agreement.

"Yes, that's true." I said. "And let this be a lesson to all of you to not assume anything, and to base theories on facts, not facts upon theories." I did not mention what everyone knew: Captain Ross was not here enjoying the doughnuts because she was at the Police Academy, receiving refresher instruction for having made, and expressed, such assumptions.

"Sir," said Joanne Cummings, "any idea on the burglary?"

"I have ideas." I said. "But unless someone is caught with the stolen goods, we'll never get a case for a conviction. What I'd really like to know is what Emma did with her iPad tablet. That would help me far more than finding Sean's guitars."

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

I had considered my mother's words about Emma's various affairs, and that any one of these men could've impregnated her. So at 10:00am I was in my office, going through days of duty logs, looking for any small thing that might show where the Shadow Man had gone in search of those pictures, perhaps on red herrings given by Emma despite the beating she received.

My work was interrupted when my lovely assistant Helena French buzzed me.

"Sir, the Duty Desk says there is a man who wishes to talk to you, and only you. He says it's urgent." She gave a name.

"Oh wow," I said, "have them escort him to the Main Conference Room, and I'll join him there."

A moment later I went into the Main Conference Room with the man's card in my hand. He was Dr. Robin Grayson, Vice President and Assistant Research Director for BigPharmaCorp.

"Hello, Dr. Grayson." I said, shaking his hand as I came in. "I believe I met you at the reception University President Wellman gave for the Pharmacy School."

"Yes, that's right, that's right." said Dr. Grayson. He had a full head of black hair that had a touch of gray on the edges... which was hair coloring because I could see he was youngish, in his upper 30s at most, and he wanted to look older instead of the prodigy that he was. He was a brilliant chemist with two patents in his name, chemical and drug processes he'd licensed to BigPharmaCorp.

I noted that he was clutching a brown manila envelope tightly to him as I indicated a chair for him to sit in. As we sat down, I said "I read your University paper on addictive drugs, and how those derivatives of some of our street drugs were refined to the point the lab mice stayed high on the drugs forever. It was interesting, though I don't want our Citizens to be trying that stuff."

"How... oh, your wife must've let you access that one." Dr. Grayson said. "The report is practically classified. For a second, there, Commander, I thought you'd done something extraordinary. And you did solve the Emma Washburn crime, which in itself in an extraordinary thing."

"Yes." I said. "And I perceive that the Washburn murder is why you want to speak to me now. So please, go ahead."

Dr. Grayson had given a visible start when I'd said that. He peered at me, then said, "I need to ask your discretion in this matter. I know you're a police officer and you have to do what you have to do. But I have a wife and two children, and I don't want to lose them to a mistake."

"I'll be as discreet as I possibly can." I said. "So tell me about your affair with Emma and share the contents of that envelope which you are holding so tightly."

"Oh... yes, that." said Dr. Grayson. "Wow, you are good. Okay, here it goes." He extended the envelope to me. I opened it, and pulled out... an iPad tablet. It was my turn to look stunned.

"As you've surmised," said Dr. Grayson, "I was having an affair with Emma Washburn. We met when she was giving a cooking class at BigPharmaCorp. I was... absolutely smitten with her. We began meeting, mostly at hotels and an apartment BigPharmaCorp keeps on retainer. I love my family, but I just couldn't give up the affair..." His face looked tortured still.

"I can understand that." I said. "And you're not the only man... or woman... upon whom she had such an effect. So how did you come to have this tablet in your possession?"

Dr. Grayson said "Several weeks ago, Emma and I were together at her home. She said her husband was coming home on leave from his deployment, and she then asked if I would do something for her. She said that if anything happened to her, she wanted me to give this envelope and its contents to the Police Commander personally. She said just that: 'the Police Commander, personally'. That is you, of course."

"I see." I said, my mind already figuring out why Emma knew to have this brought to me.

"I have no idea what's on that tablet." Dr. Grayson said. "I didn't even take it out of the envelope. I asked her what was bothering her, what she was afraid of, and she said that it was just a precaution from something from her past, something she hoped was well behind her. She then stopped me from further questions by..."

"I understand." I said. Emma was a hot, seductive little tart, I already knew.

I told Dr. Grayson that I would have to take an affidavit from him, but that no one else would see it unless it was needed as evidence in a future Court case. After getting the affidavit, I escorted Dr. Grayson to the front lobby, then returned to the office with my package.

The tablet was protected by a four-number password. I plugged in a small device that could go through all 10,000 possible combinations without causing the device to shut down. No, that did not come from my wife, but from the Deputy Director of the FBI...




The Hot Wife Photos Ch. 04



Opening the tablet, I went to the videos, which were not protected. As I played them, I could see that it was Emma and a man in her lavender-walled bedroom. The camera was obviously hidden. Another video would show from another camera, secreted in the A/C vent. And what they showed... was solid gold.

I've got you, I thought to myself. I've got you now.

I recognized the man, who I already knew was my arch-enemy, the Consultant of Crime. He and Emma were rutting hotly on the bed. There were also photos of him, naked on a bed in a hotel room.

I uploaded the contents of the tablet to an encrypted evidence server. The only people with access to it were myself, Cindy, and Tanya Perlman, and Chief Griswold knew the passwords if something happened to the three of us.

As I took the tablet to the Evidence Rooms downstairs and secreted it and the affidavit in a locked safe whose combination was known again only to me, Cindy, Tanya and Chief Griswold, I thought with some amusement... and a great deal of macho pride... that my cock and balls were bigger than his...

Part 18 - Epilogue 

"I saw the whole frickin' thing!" Captain Cindy Ross gasped. "He had me get the Crime Lab to document the dust under the clock and the clean spot on the mantle! And yet it just went clean over my head! Zoommmm!" She made a motion over her head.

It was Wednesday, September 30th. Cindy was sitting in a chair in the Vice Room, wearing a standard-issue dark blue Police uniform, with pants and short sleeves as the warm temperatures had not yet given way to Autumn cooling, and Captain's bars on the shoulder epaulets.

Lt. Teresa Croyle was sitting in a nearby chair, wearing a light blue uniform shirt with dark blue pants, and dark blue soft shoulderboards denoting her Lieutenant rank. Sitting at her desk was Detective Julie Newton, in a civilian blouse and skirt, and black high heels. They were the only ones in the room at the moment.

"No shame in that." said Teresa. "No one else got it, either. And the logic held, giving him a different perspective on everything that happened afterwards, including Chris Washburn's innocence."

Julie Newton said "Captain, you saw everything. Lt. Perlman saw everything, and Theo and Joanne saw everything. Yet no one else came to those conclusions. Maybe the Commander didn't just observe and deduce it."

"Wha?" Teresa said with a scowl.

"What do you mean?" Cindy asked Julie.

"The Commander knew Sean friend's Ryan." Julie said. "Maybe he knew Sean already. Maybe the Commander knew something, learned something from his friends that we never knew."

"How do you know the Commander knows Ryan?" Teresa asked.

"It's common knowledge." said Cindy. "Ryan forged the Commander's red crowbars, both of them, at Town High School."

"Oh yeah." Teresa replied. "I'd forgotten about that. But so what?"

Julie said "I'm just wondering if the Commander knew something instead of just observing it. It's much easier if he already knows the solution before he even goes to investigate, like seeing the jigsaw puzzle picture before putting it together. It was just a thought I had. As you said, everyone else saw, but no one could've put those puzzle pieces together like that."

"I might agree with you," replied Cindy as she got up, "if I hadn't been watching him for what, three years now? solving cases with that kind of brilliance. Okay, I'm going to get back to work. Newton, let us know if and when you find more on a connection between 'T-Square' and Domingo Shipping."

"Yes ma'am." said Julie as she turned to her computer screen and keyboard. Cindy walked out, followed by Teresa.

"That was crazy talk." said Cindy as they walked down the hall.

"You know," Teresa said, "she has a point. Don is definitely good, but sometimes I wonder if he has knowledge of things that we don't."

"Naah." Cindy said, knowing that she herself knew more than most. "He's just that good. With him, I have seen enough to know that I have seen too much."

"He sees way too much." Teresa said. "He sees this Shadow Man in everything that happens. But... I cannot complain about the results.

"True enough." replied Cindy. "Oh, by the way... tomorrow is little Pete Feeley's birthday, and Tanya wants us to come to her place and have a party for him. Want to go shopping with me for a gift?"

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

Meanwhile...

I was in the Chief's office, having briefed him on the wrap-up of the Cassie Sanderson/Emma Washburn case, making sure to express my professional happiness with Detective Joanne Cummings's good work and progress as a Detective.

"There's one thing before you go, Don." said Chief Bennett. "The Study Group isn't going to move quickly, but you and I both know the politics of all this. They're not going to waste the time and money without taking some kind of action to justify themselves to the taxpayers."

"They can really justify themselves by solving the Fire Department and EMS issues." I replied.

"Don," said Bennett, "I know you and Commander Singer of the Fire Department are friends, and she was an EMT and takes up their cause, but allow me to give you some unsolicited but friendly advice: don't wade into the cesspool of pure shit that is the Fire Department/EMS situation. That is one thing that is not going to change in this County, no matter what. You could've run for Sheriff and won the job, and you still wouldn't be able to fix that."

"Hmmm, interesting." I said, more to myself than to the Chief.

"What's that?"

"Oh!... nothing." I said. "Just an idle thought. Is there anything else, Chief?"

"Yes." said the Chief. "What I was about to say about the Study Group: I don't know exactly what they will do, and you were probably right that ultimately nothing will substantially change. But you need to start thinking of how to best handle things when Detectives are assigned to Precincts. Your core in there might stay, but others from the Uniform ranks might be made Detectives and assigned to Precincts. Get ready for that."

We'll see about that! I thought to myself. I said out loud. "Okay, Chief. Anything else?"

"No, you can go." he said. I got up and headed to the door, but then turned back as if having been struck by a thought.

"Oh, by the way, Chief..." I said, "speaking of the Study Group: I think I need to clear up something with them, or perhaps you can do it for me: it's possible that someone thinks that if the Detectives are dispersed, then the Captain of Detectives will become redundant and obsolete. But it's the name that is the misnomer; the Captain of Detectives is actually in charge of the MCD and Vice Divisions, as well as the Data Group, not just the people. And no matter where the Detectives are, there will always be an MCD Division and a Vice Division to which they'll be assigned, and always under the Captain of Detectives."

"If you'll pass that message on, Chief," I said, "I'd appreciate it. Oh, and if you'd like to discuss the Study Group some more over a glass of Scotch, feel free to come by my place. If you'll excuse me, sir..." With that, I turned and left, leaving a Police Chief behind me that realized he was not dealing with an Agency of the Weak Minded.

The message had been understood: I'm overmatched, Chief Bennett thought to himself as he stared at the closed door the Commander had just left through. I am in over my head. He is too much for me.

With that, he picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Yes, let's have lunch." he said in answer to the greeting on the phone. "Let's talk about your proposal..."

Finis