Criminal Affairs

Chapter 8

"Remember that Mel Gibson movie 'Lethal Weapon', guys?" Melina asked. When the other ladies said they did, Melina began whistling as she moved her target downrange, at least 50 yards away.

Other people in the room stopped to watch as Melina picked up her gun and fired eight rounds in quick succession. Whistling as she reeled the target back in, she had perfectly duplicated the feat from the movie: the shots formed a perfect Smiley face in the center of the round target.

"Why that's very nice, dear." Phyllis said, impressed.

"If you didn't have a gun in your hand, I'd spank you for being a showoff." Cindy said.

"Oooh, is that a promise?" Melina said, grinning at Cindy.

"Why you naughty girls!" Phyllis said in mock shock. "Why don't we go have some lunch. I need to talk to you ladies about what I think is a serious situation coming."

Just then, Cindy's cell phone rang. "Duty calls." she said, hanging up. "Your son wants me to come back to the Station, pronto. I'll have to take a raincheck for lunch."

"I'll talk to you soon, Cindy." Phyllis said. "Melina, let's you and I go to lunch. We need to have a nice conversation..."

---

"Thank you so much for coming to lunch with me, Melina." Phyllis said. "You're looking very well, very beautiful. How is the campaign trail?"

"Thanks, Phyllis." Melina replied. "You're looking great yourself. The campaign trail has been a lot more fun than I would've realized, and Daniel is loving it. How Don knew we'd like it so much, I'll never know... but he was right. How are things with you?"

"Oh, quite good." said Phyllis. "Between babysitting stints and Police Auxiliary fun, I go to the Women's Club and the Ladies Auxiliary and listen to all the juicy gossip. Very good information, at times."

"Are you sure you're just listening?" Melina said, teasing Phyllis.

"Why Melina! As if I'd repeat gossip!" Phyllis said with a grin, then got serious. "I need to get right to the point here, and I'm afraid it might be stressful for you. I would never ask if this was not extremely important right now. Would you please tell me about your relationship with Jack Burke and my son, while in college and then in this town."

"Uhhh... oh, wow." Melina said. "I wasn't expecting that one."

"Yes, and again I am so sorry to have to ask." Phyllis said. "But you'll have to trust me that I have very good and very important reason for asking, so important that lives might be at stake... and I don't want to have to ask my son."

"Okay." Melina said, not questioning her ex-mother-in-law's desire to know; she knew Phyllis didn't play around and was asking for a reason. She began telling the story from her unique perspective...

Part 8 - The Politics of Control

"I'm going to have a drink." said Senator Nathan Allen in his Midtown office. As he poured himself a large gin and tonic, he asked "Anyone else want one?"

"Thank you sir, but I'm on duty." said said SBI Agent Richard "d**k" Ferrell. The deeply religious Evangelical Agent Steven Ikea also declined, being a teetotaler and considering the consumption of alcohol sinful and a harbinger of evil.

"I'll just have the club soda part." said SBI Director Jack Lewis as he shuffled papers on the table. Soon the four men were sitting around the conference table. It was 1:00pm on May 15th.

"Gentlemen, I thank you for coming over today." said Senator Allen in his almost-whiny politician's voice. "We've got several issues to discuss. First, Jack, will you update me on 'Operation Restoration', please?"

"Sure, Nathan, and let me explain it in some detail to d**k and Steven here." replied Lewis, who then began speaking as if lecturing. "As you know, we have 96 counties in the State, and then there's the City... which is an 'independent' entity, practically a sovereign state unto themselves. A few years ago, a number of us began a program to make the SBI the premiere law enforcement agency in the State. With our greater resources, training and quality agents, we felt then as we feel today that we could do a much better job of solving crimes than the local county and town police departments. We didn't say that out loud, of course, but that was the gist of it."

"And we rightfully take the credit for our superior abilities and efforts." said d**k Ferrell.

"Well, of course. And cases that the locals would've f****d up and lost, we'd successfully handle, and of course we should get the credit for that." replied Director Lewis. "Anyway, the Legislature managed to push through a couple of laws concerning jurisdiction and handling of cases, including turning them over to the SBI from local authorities, though getting that legislation through was tough going with a lot of resistance."

"The problem was that some of our agents did not do a very good job interacting with local authorities." continued Lewis. "Some of them were alienated, and even though we were much better equipped to solve nearly all of the cases, they refused our offers of our talents.

"Southport has a lot of Federal presence due to the boat and rail shipping there; they push us around a lot," continued Lewis, and every man was aware but did not say out loud that the Feds were doing to the SBI what the SBI wanted to do to the rest of the counties in the State- push them around, "and the City was antagonistic to us immediately.

"Things got to the point that their Police Commissioner, Whitney 'Buck' Savage, actually told his officers that any SBI agents who came into the City should be immediately arrested... or shot dead. As we were trying to smooth that over, we had that fiasco over the Jefferson Jackson death, where our crime lab made some horrific mistakes. As a result, Town & County Police Chief Griswold has made it his Department's policy to not cooperate with us.

"Due to all that, our reputation became so bad, thanks to a rabid and badly misinformed Press, that many other jurisdictions began rejecting our help. The Midtown Police have begun communicating with us that our presence and help is not welcome, and they've begun devoting resources to a crime lab of their own."

"Here's an example of the problem." said Senator Allen. "Take my district: I think Griswold's personal jealousy over Agent Ikea's abilities no longer being available to him is the reason for his bad attitude, but he's been fighting us hard all the way. Now Coltrane County has few resources and are almost forced to come to us, and with the State Asylum there we have a strong foothold. But Nextdoor County just contracted with Griswold's police force for his crime lab to run their tests. And while the University Police's program is under the State, they've contracted with the County in a cooperation program which essentially cuts out the State Crime Lab."

"Exactly." said Director Lewis. "To continue: Griswold, City Mayor Lucian Phelps, SBI Deputy Director Conlan and others have Governor Jared's ear. I've done all I can to get Conlan fired, but my friend the Governor simply won't let me do the right thing in that regard. Griswold, Phelps and Conlan came up with that SBI Reserve program, and Senator Allen, myself and others went along with it primarily to help the SBI's reputation and to possibly recruit some new Agents away from the local forces when the time was right.

"Unfortunately, it all backfired." continued Lewis. "The Reserve program has worked too well, and now nearly half the State wants the SBI to be cut back severely, to be only a supporting entity for the locals to use like prostitutes and then discard when they're done, and the locals take all the credit. The City's legislative delegation has even called for the total dismantling of the SBI. While no one else wanted to totally shut us down, the Legislature fought over the issue. No bills were passed, and everything is status quo for the moment."

"We originally had counted on Harold Malone winning the Sheriff race in my County." Senator Allen said, observing the look of hatred and disgust appearing on Ikea's face at the mention of Malone's name. "That was back when you were still with them, Agent Ikea, and we thought that with Malone winning the Sheriff race, he and you would be very cooperative with the SBI and set the example for other jurisdictions."

"I have to say, Senator," Ikea said, "I'm much happier here working with the SBI and these excellent agents rather than that scum in that police department."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, son, we're delighted to have you here with us in the SBI," Allen replied as he poured himself another large gin and tonic, "but we were also counting on Malone defeating the Iron Crowbar in the race up there. Once Malone won Sheriff, the CIA or FBI would come in and hire away that hotshot Lieutenant, and that would have left you to be in a high place, maybe even police chief after Malone humiliated and fired Griswold."