Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I’m Lieutenant Deviled Yeggs.  I work homicide in the big city of Tracy.  Working for me are my old partners: Detective Sgt. Jim Wednesday and Detective Poached Yeggs, my nephew who is slowly becoming a good detective.  But Poached was in the Everglades.

Now that Lt. Tony Tagliolini committed suicide instead of facing the charge against him in court, we had Georges Evident in the precinct.  He has my old private office in interrogation room one.  He did not have any other perks, but since he reported to me, he was in the morning meeting.

I asked Georges, “How is Organized Crime?”

Georges smiled, “Disorganized for the moment.  Our information from Jazz paid off.  We performed a fake raid on the empty warehouse.  Jazz said that Empire Apple liked to stand by the window at the real warehouse and laugh at us coming up dry again.  We raided his real warehouse with the real crew and arrested him along with everyone else.  He did not crack during interrogation.  Sure, he owned the building.  Sure, he had binoculars.  That’s not a crime.  He was looking at birds on the roof of the other warehouse.  But there were no birds on the other warehouse roof.  Yeah, you dumb lummoxes at the police force scared them off.  We had to release him.”

Jim asked, “But you didn’t release everyone.”

Georges smiled, “Nope!  We had fingerprints on what we confiscated in the warehouse.  We held onto just about everybody except Empire and his driver.  The driver wears gloves, and Empire only touched his binoculars.  We confiscated both illegal drugs and prescription drugs.  We confiscated enough weapons to start a war.  That gave me the idea that Lt. Tagliolini’s idea was starting to work.  He had Empire concerned enough to be ready.  There were about a hundred bullet proof vests.  You might sell off the weaponry to someone who wants to shoot a deer with an assault rifle, but why have the vest?  There were diamonds, jade, and emeralds, probably smuggled.  We found enough single malt Scotch to keep Angus happy for a year.  No wait, maybe six months.  Angus MacDougall likes his Scotch.  Glenfiddich, Macallan, the pricier brands.  I swear.  We did not drink any to see if it was counterfeit hooch, but lieutenant, if you give us the word, Jim and I can sacrifice for the cause.”  I shook my head.  Georges smiled, “Can’t blame us for trying.  I bet Angus could tell the difference.  But back to the inventory.  We found one room with a printing press and counterfeit cash.  But then came the big prize.  There was a room with no ventilation, locked and guarded.  The guard put up resistance and we shot him.  He didn’t make it.  But inside the room, we liberated a dozen teenaged girls.  Five girls were from Tracy Central, two from Diet Smith school district, but the rest were from Doyle County.  Most of them lured to a secret rendezvous with a swarthy Latin lover that did not exist, all through social media.  With Sophie and Menzie’s help, you took down the human traffickers that were working with Ruth Collins, but their bosses just shifted to the Rotten Apples to continue business.”

Jim muttered, “All that, and the Commissioner didn’t even say thank you?”

Georges snickered, “The mayor said that he was pleased, but no key to the city.  I need to be somewhat anonymous.  You know, I need to be the shadow on the wall.”

Jim said, “Well, Georges, you have that down pat.  You look like a shadow.”

Georges snickered, but I chided, “Jim, that was a racist remark, and you know better.”

Georges waved a hand, “Forget it, lieutenant.  I claim to be Italian, and about half of my ancestry is.  Half my dark skin comes from my Indian grandmother.  She was from Bangalore, I think.  Besides I am more mocha than black.”

Jim wasn’t finished, “What is gonna happen when you and Jazz have a love child?”

Georges said, “If she is true to her word and just wants a baby, I do not think that is going to happen.  I am done with that kind of under sheets investigating.  Liked what I did there?  Under cover?  Under the covers? Under sheets?”

I groaned, “Georges, as much as I saw on that video, how can you be so sure she isn’t already pregnant with your baby?”

Georges winked, “Jazz does not know much about getting pregnant.  There was evidence that she had just finished the monthly curse.  Tony was unable to see her for about three days, and then I showed up the day after he did.  Her egg was not in place yet.  But as for her little drummer boy from the Snazzy Taz, who moved in a few days later, he might be looking at fatherhood soon.  I wonder if Jazz will kick him out after the baby arrives.  Honeycrisp hid her love child.  Ambrosia ‘adopted’ Ashmead but never identified the father.  Neither got married, although Ambrosia shacked up with Pine Apple.  And does anybody have an idea who Ambrosia’s other love child is?”

Jim and I simply shrugged.  Gisele said over the speaker, “Maybe there was no other love child, and Ambrosia was messing with Jazz or Jazz was making it up.  I was about to say, ‘messing with you’ but she was doing a good job of messing with you already.”

Georges gasped, “You let Gisele in on our private conversations?”

I shrugged, “The mute button is wired for her end only.  I just haven’t had the time to ask the electrician to fix that.”

The speaker again turned on.  “Forget it, Dev.  The electrician knows who runs this precinct, and I love keeping up with my favorite team.  From Genocide to Patricide, never mess with Homicide!”

Georges looked at Jim and me.  We shrugged.  I said, “I had not heard that one before.”

I leaned back and something came into my head.  “Wait!  You said that Empire admitted that he owned the building, but the building is owned by a holding company that is owned by a holding company, etc. etc.  He made another blunder.  When they are as cocky as Empire, they tend to make mistakes like that.  Have you checked the other warehouses that this particular holding company owns?”

Georges snickered, “Yes, sir.  It took you a while, but you are new to this Organized Crime thing.  They and a couple of sister companies own about twelve warehouses in Tracy. Three of those do not have the utilities hooked up, but lights are on at night.  I had some of my homeless guys root around the properties to pretend they were looking for a broken window or an unlocked door, some way inside to get a warm place to stay.  At least half of the warehouses look empty.  As for the ones that are not supposed to have utility hookups, there have been complaints by the neighboring businesses to the electric utility that they think their usage is way too high.  The Rotten Apples have a lot of skilled utility workers, and I think a few like digging tunnels.”

Georges’ cellphone rang.  He put it on speaker.  “Hi, Jazz, what do you need?”

Jazz was moaning, “A hospital, I think.  If I got pregnant, I am probably not that way now.  Jonathan Apple came by.  My little drummer boy had just left.  Well, he isn’t that little, Big Georgie, but compared to you, a horse might seem little.  Jonathan said he was making the rounds.  Empire did not know who leaked the information to the police, but he was beating up all that could have known where those girls were.  Don’t arrest Jonathan.  He’ll get out on bail and come back.  Honest, Georgie, I just said that was the next best big haul for drugs and smuggling, and I told Tony that it was the warehouse a block south of there.  I said nothing about the girls.  I didn’t know about the girls.  I am tossing this burner phone in the trash.  I’ll text you from the new phone.  I’ll go to T.R.U.S.T. Medical Center and tell them I fell down the stairs.  Who knows, I might really fall down the stairs getting to the car.”

With that, the call had ended.  I called the Snazzy Taz to see how the little drummer boy was doing.  The manager laughed at my concern.  The band’s drummer had gotten to the club early and was working out heavy on the drums.  He either had a fight with his new girlfriend or she told him she was pregnant.  At least, those were the manager’s guesses.  We were thinking that Jonathan caught him leaving the building and warned him that he had to keep his mouth shut if Jazz talked in her sleep.  Being told that his new girlfriend could get him killed might make him want to work out his fears, playing the skins.

Jim called an ER nurse that he knew a couple hours later, and she said that they were about to call the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention).  An epidemic had broken out with Apples falling down flights of stairs, and a couple of them lived in single level ranch homes.  Jazz was the fourth one to come in.  She was indeed messed up, but she was pregnant.  That kind of beating in just a few months would have not ended well, but they were hoping the baby was okay.  She was barely far enough along to show as positive on the test.  Jim’s nurse friend would not mention who the other Apples were, all female though.  We could find out with a warrant, but that might tip off Empire.  We started thinking of Empire’s harem, since he could not decide on which cousin to marry.  If he had weeded a couple out of the nest, they might be among the others who “fell down the stairs.”  We had to be careful with our interviews.  Empire might be on hyperalert.  We wanted the information, but we did not want to put these ladies into a worse situation.  But it seemed Jazz was on our side for the time being.  She did not want any part of the criminal activity, and she promised, in the midst of the beating, to text Georges with her new cellphone number.  But loyalty is rarely eternal.  She may be angry that Ambrosia was the target, one of the few who did not get involved with the criminal side of things.  Jazz had two role models, Honeycrisp and Ambrosia, and Pink Lady was also available as a woman who got free from the criminal side of the Apple family.  But Pink was so much removed from the criminal side of things, she had no contact with her cousins.

The phone rang and we had another homicide case.  We treated each one with the same respect.

Jim said, “Georges, the lieutenant usually drives out separately, after we have gotten the gist of what is going on.  He likes his detectives to pour over the details while he looks at the big picture.  Since Poached is in the Everglades, probably making a younger sibling for Scarlet Ibis, can you come along and pretend to be Poached?”

Georges asked, “Sure, but how do I act like Poached?”

Jim started counting them on his fingers.  “Walk through the crowd and greet all the ladies like you have taken each of them to bed with you, and you might have done so.  Flirt with Polly and Ruthie who are already on their way to secure the scene.  Both of them have met Callie and the three ladies compare notes.  Have the idea that to not disturb the crime scene is to stand back and take notes while I examine the body as much as is allowed before the medical examiner shows up.  And then after we interview a few people, come to a conclusion that the butler did it, even when there was no butler on the scene.”

Georges snickered, “He did all those things when we were partners on patrol.  I guess he never changed.”

I corrected, “He is working hard at not drawing conclusions before all the evidence is in.  He hasn’t blamed a homicide on the butler for a month.  Wait, he’s been in the Everglades for a month.  Make that six weeks ago.  Give him a break on that last one!”

They laughed as they walked out the door.  And I must correct myself.  We try and often fail to give every homicide the respect it deserves.  They’ll be laser focused when they get there, but gallows humor up to that point, I am sure.  How do I know?  I taught Jim most of the jokes.  When you are around death all the time, you need an outlet, or it gets to you.

Credits

I tried to include bits of several tentacles of Organized Crime.  Sorry, the Rotten Apples had no evidence of cybercrime in that particular warehouse.

The third trimester is the most dangerous time associated with trauma, since the baby is more pronounced.  During the third trimester, if exposed to trauma, such as a beating, the death of the unborn child is more likely and the death of the mother slightly higher statistically.