Chapters Eight to Ten

Chapter Eight

Phil Mann is at home, its nearly eight thirty he answers his mobile phone, he recognizes his sisters voice, "Phil its Anne, she is in trouble, she is at the park shelter. Says her boyfriend is dead, can you meet us there, she says he took something I guess drugs."

"Yeah okay, I will be there before you." He heads for the door, "Janice I am going out."

She comes in from the small dining room, "What's wrong, is it work?"

He raises a fist, "Well, it's Anne she is in trouble, but yeah its work."

Phil gets into his car; he hits the speed dial. "Peter its Phil, I am on the way to the park, the old shelters my sister Grace just called, her daughter Anne called her and said her boyfriend is dead. Said he took something, you should have someone else meet us there, this is too personal for me. Can you get the EMTs from Staunton to respond? Maybe she is wrong maybe he is just out cold."

Peter gets up from the sofa, "Get there, don't let anyone touch anything or leave, I will be right there."

Peter looks back at Carol, "I need to go out work."

She gets up from the sofa, "Peter what is it? I can see you are worried."

"Phil's sister Grace called him, said her daughter called from the park, her boyfriend took something she thinks he is dead."

Peter see's Carol's lips quivering, "Phil's sister Grace Jenkins, I met her daughter at the game today, did he say Anne?"

"Yes why? What's wrong Carol?"

Carols eyes flash with panic, "Her boyfriend is Paul Murray, oh God did he say Paul is dead. I am going with you."

Peter hugs Carol, "he didn't say the boy's name. Let me do my job, you stay here with Chance. I will call you when we know something."

                   *******

Phil can see the gas lantern dimly illuminating the picnic table in one of the shelters, he can see Anne sitting near the lantern and what looks like a body lying on the ground near the back wall of the shelter, "Anne it's uncle Phil."

She runs towards him, "its Paul he is dead, he just took two of them, they dared him over and over, he has never taken drugs and he just slumped down and died. They all ran away, ass holes!"

Phil hugs her she is shivering, not from cold, she is nearly in shock. He puts his jacket on her.
He points to another table farther from the body, moves the lantern "Anne sit down over here, let me check Paul."

He turns on his flashlight and kneels next to the body, he is already cold to the touch, no pulse he has seen this before. Pupils are tiny and constricted, pinpoint pupils classic for opioid overdose. Beer bottles all over the ground. He walks back to Anne and sits beside her.

"Sorry sweetie, Paul is dead."

Anne is moaning and swaying, "it was supposed to be a celebration, they won the game today, Paul just got the scholarship and we were all done with school. I didn't mind some of them drinking beer, but the drugs it made me nervous." She starts crying, "and then they started in on Paul."

The EMT vehicle arrives moments later and immediately after that Peter Clay's patrol SUV. Peter gets out and is walking towards the shelter. Phil hugs Anne, "I will be right here, close by."

Phil walks over as Peter gets near the shelter, Peter points to the body, "who is it?"

Phil sighs, "Paul Murray, the baseball player, he is dead."

Phil sees his sister and her husband they are running towards the shelter, he gestures for them to slow down. "Grace you and Tommy can sit with Anne, Paul is dead. We are going to have to interview her formally, it can't be me."

Phil looks at Peter, Peter nods in agreement. "I will call in Julie, you all take Anne to the office and meet Julie there. I will take care of things here."

Carol is pacing in the kitchen and drinking coffee its nearly ten o'clock she has resisted the urge to call Peter, she knows he is busy. Her mobile phone buzzes, "Peter, is someone dead? Who is it?"

"It's Paul Murray, he was dead when we got here, Anne said he never did drugs or even drank, sounds like he took a dare, got something bad. I need to go and see Reggie and Ginna, his mobile phone has buzzed a few times they are trying to call him."

Tears are running down Carols cheeks, her voice trembling, "come and get me, I will go with you. Rita from next door can stay in the house until we get back."


Chapter Nine

Phil Mann and Julie Butterfield are sitting in the patrol SUV, parked in a gravel lot across from the food shacks near the sports fields. The windows are open, Julie is looking through the binoculars, "Harry Powell is working it today, what do they call him?"

"Spaceman."

Julie nods as she continues watching Powell, "that's right, Scout, Runt and Spaceman. These idiots are freaking smart, its damn impossible to catch them." She puts the binoculars down on the center console, "gonna be hot today."

Phil picks up the binoculars, "yeah it is." He watches Powell, "your right all three of them are clever." He puts the binoculars back down. "I am not sure people are right, everybody in town thinks the drugs are coming in from Staunton, Peter thinks it could be someone in town. I have no idea of who that could be, if we could sit on Scout round the clock for a month." He chuckles, "if we had five more people maybe."

Julie is tapping her fingers lightly on the dashboard, "How is Anne doing now? It's been two months now."

"A little better, she is still struggling. Grace says she still blames herself, lots of guilt."

"Not her fault, those jerks from Staunton brought that crap over here, still can't understand why he took the pills, everyone says he did not do drugs or drink. Anne is a good kid, honor roll right, straight A's."

"Yeah, Anne has never caused Grace or Tommy any grief, Paul was a good student like her, she needs to get her head together before college starts in the fall, that's what they are worried about now. Virginia Tech engineering, heck of a lot smarter than me or her mom. Thanks for how you handled that interview that night, you got everything we needed but you didn't crush her soul."

"Her soul was already crushed, I have met her before, I could see that she was telling me the truth. What a crappy night."

"Yeah, I thought it was a bad omen, but so far the summer has not been so bad, the one guy that overdosed in the rental cabin, but he made it." Phil picks up the radio microphone, "dispatch this is patrol two, we are on the move, bus station area, then we are done for the day."

"Roger that patrol two."

                   *******

Peter wakes up, he reaches across the bed its empty, he looks at the alarm clock, its only five thirty and Carol is up already. He heads down the stairs, she is sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee.
"Carol you okay, honey you don't have to be at work for another three hours. You haven't been sleeping well for a week now. You were asleep at seven last night, you need to get back on a normal pattern."

"I know, worried about Chance he will be starting high school in another month, Ginna and Reggie are really struggling with Debbie going." She brushes away tears as they roll down her cheek, "Ginna keeps apologizing for missing so much work, what a waste."

"Yeah, what a waste. Chance will be fine; we can't watch over him every moment, I think Paul's death really hit him as well. Give Ginna the support she needs okay, if you need to put in some extra hours to cover don't worry about it. I will make you some breakfast okay."

Carol gives a forced smile, "thanks." She sighs, thinking of Ginna, Reggie and Debbie and the promising life lost, so much pain and grief. She is also starting to feel anger, towards the people bringing this poison into Flat Top gap. She hopes Peter and the deputies could stop them, she knows they try hard, she isn't going to criticize them.

                   *******

Peter is first into the office, he puts a USB on his desk, turns on his computer and prints out the patrol rotations for the week.

Mark Bird is running late, he opens the door and sees everyone in the small conference room, "sorry, sorry let me get my coffee, be right there."

Patricia Gray chuckles, "already poured you a cup, sitting right here, it's not cold yet."

Mark puts his jacket on his desk chair and sits down with them, "thanks Pat."

Peter goes through the rotations and priorities for the week, he is wrapping up, "Phil and I will focus on the break in at the post office last week, still going with the idea that someone was looking for cash or checks."

He holds up a USB, "found this in my mail box this morning, someone did not want me to miss it, the mailbox door was open, with a sticky note with Sheriff written on it." He slides it over to Julie, "take a look before you and Mark head out on patrol."

The meeting breaks up Peter is back in his office, Julie puts the USB into her computer, she shouts out, "Peter, you are going to want to see this USB, everyone is going to want to see this USB."

Peter gets up from his chair, "okay bring your laptop into the conference room." He gestures to Pat, "Pat, you stay with the phones okay."

"No problem Peter." She can see the laptop screen clear as day, through the glass partition, she is curious. Phil, Mark and Peter gather next to Julie at the end of the conference room table, she starts clicking through picture after picture.

Peter leans forward elbows on the table, arms folded. "That's enough, how many pictures are on there?"

Julie clicks on properties, "looks like little more than two thousand."

Peter shakes his head, "I have never seen anything like this, these are very professional." The pictures all have labels, with time, date and location and suspect names."

Phil sits back with his hands on his stomach, "it's a lot better surveillance than we have on any of those three dealing."

Mark nods in agreement, "someone following Ricky North to Pittsburgh, definitely a drug run. Telephoto shots through the windows, those were definitely drugs on that table. He is a crusty ole dude, but I never thought of him as bringing in drugs. Spaceman, Runt and Scout going to the scrapyard the next day, they must have been bagging the stuff up to sell with North."

Peter sits back rubbing his neck, "Gavin Scott showing up the next day, meeting all of them at the scrap yard. Several meetings between Scott and North, the money man calling the shots, is that what is going on? I don't know North very well, rough around the edges, kind of hard to seeing him running an operation like this but I guess it is possible especially if someone smart like Scott is calling the shots."

Julie Butterfield shakes her head with a hardened look, "my father has known Gavin Scott for years, they hunt together sometimes. The hardware store is doing great, I can't believe he has anything to do with bringing drugs into Flat Top Gap, no way. Something else must be going on between Scott and North."

Phil stands up pointing to Peter, "let's go after them Peter, the three of the dealers. We get them to roll over on Ricky North and then we get him to tell us if Gavin Scott is involved or not."

"Hold on Phil, I want to get who ever is bringing drugs into town and we know the three stooges have been involved, but we need evidence and probable cause."

"What the hell is this! How much more evidence do you want?"

Peter cocks his head to the side, "Phil, is that evidence? Do you have sworn affidavits or statements from law enforcement officers on the dates and times of those pictures? Let me talk to Mark Ingram."

"The mayor?"

"Mark is a lawyer; he is the city lawyer and mayor. I will go over to his law office a little later and see what he thinks. We keep this to ourselves okay."

The three deputies nod that they understand. Peter points a finger at Phil, "you don't have evidence to go after any of these dealers, you understand me. Change of plan for you and me Phil, we will get on the post office tomorrow, you take out patrol three, I will stay in the office and take my patrol vehicle."

Phil mutters walking away, "understood."

                   *******

Mark Ingram plugs the USB into his computer at his desk, Peter sitting across from him in Ingram's office. Ingram shakes his head with a scowl after scanning through dozens of pictures on the USB, he looks over the top of his glasses at Peter. "This is a copy right, not the original."

Peter nods, "yeah."

Ingram takes off his glasses and lays them on his desk, handing the USB back to Peter. "This was in your mailbox this morning, no call, no note, no message just these pictures. This looks very professional."

Peter shakes his head, "no kind of message just a sticky note, with sheriff written on it. It is very professional; it looks like law enforcement surveillance and a heck of a lot better than we are capable of with our people or equipment. What do you think?"

"I don't know Peter. None of these would be admissible in court, there has to be a witness to testify that the pictures are a fair and accurate representation. But for an arrest warrant, I am guessing not for most any judge. They need your affidavit as to the authenticity of these photos and you cannot give that. You don't know where these came from, conspiracy nuts might say they were manipulated images to frame people. Especially those involving Gavin Scott, you told the deputies to be quiet about this right."

"Yeah, told them not to say anything."

"Okay, tomorrow I will talk to the county prosecutor, to see what she thinks, I will not give her all the details of what you have, let's see what she says."

Peter heads back to his patrol vehicle, and buckles in he hears Pat on the radio, "Patrol one this is dispatch, you need to get back here, Phil arrested Roger Stanley."

Crap! "Patrol one, on my way."

Peter comes through the door he sees Stanley in the holding cell, he walks to Phil's desk, Phil is typing on his computer, "Phil what the hell? I said to wait."

"No Peter you said we can't use any of the pictures as evidence, I have independent grounds for the arrest, probable cause. I'm writing it up now."

Peter clenches his fist at his side, then relaxes. "Phil let's talk in my office."

They both remain standing as Peter closes the door. "Was he holding drugs, did you get him with drugs?"

"No but I have a picture of him, handing something off at a spot over by the bus station. Saw me coming and he ran and threw something into the creek."

"Did you recover any drugs?"

"No, after I caught him, I came back and looked, couldn't find anything. But he has more than two hundred dollars in cash."

Peter exhales slowly, "You know better than this Phil. What does he say, I am guessing he does not admit to dealing?"

"No said he was just out for a walk by the creek."

Peter walks out, "stay here for a moment."

Peter walks over and looks at Stanley, then heads back into his office. "Please tell me you did not hit him; he has a bad bruise on his cheek."

"I didn't touch him Peter, idiot ran right into a tree."

"You are going to release him and apologize for the mistake, lets hope we do not get sued."

Phil slams his fist on the table in Peter's office, "you know he is a dealer; we all know it?"

"We gonna just start throwing people in jail for what we know, what would a judge do with this case, what would the county prosecutor do if we took this to her tomorrow?"

Phil looks down at the floor, "sorry Peter, I just snapped, I saw him out there dealing and I snapped. I will try and make this right with Stanley." Phil opens the office door and walks towards the holding cell."

                   *******

Pat Gray finishes her dinner, and puts down another saucer of milk for her cat, "Felicity you would not believe the things I saw today." She pours another glass of wine and picks up her mobile phone, "hey Kendra, you and Rudy already have dinner, you got some time?"




Chapter Ten

Peter is sitting in his patrol car the next day parked on the south side of town. He answers his mobile phone, he sees it's the mayor, "hey Mark what is it?"

"You need to take a look at the Flat Top Report online, story was just posted thirty minutes ago. Sheriff's Office Goes Rogue is the title, Kendra Morris makes Flat Top Gap sound like a Nazi police state. You know how she is, somebody in your office has been talking to her. Did Phil really beat up Roger Stanley?"

"No, but he did arrest him without sufficient cause, we released him and Phil apologized. It has to be Pat she is good friends with Kendra, I'm sure Kendra didn't tell her she was going to write about it online. I will head over to the office and take a look."

"You know most people here will not take it seriously, but you know what can happen in cyber space with this type of stuff."

Pat sees Peter come through the door just before lunch, "Peter I am sorry, I think I made a big mistake last night, a couple of glasses of wine and my tongue got away with me, Kendra went wild with what I told her. I am never going to speak to her again"

"That's okay Pat, I heard about the article. You and Kendra have been friends for a long time, just avoid talking about work."

Peter sits down at his desk and brings up the article, Kendra is quite a good writer, anti-establishment with some radical views that she shares with her husband. He heard they were both quite active years ago for causes in their college days, but they have been peaceful members of the community for longer than Peter has been here. He starts reading, Reliable sources report a wide ranging illegal surveillance operation of the sheriffs office, spying and photographing citizens all over town. He chuckles, she goes on in this vein for several pages and then she starts with the harrowing tale of the illegal search, arrest and beating of Roger Stanley, a long time resident of Flat Top Gap. She has several quotes from Roger, the article closes out, the sheriffs office was forced to release Stanley, he was relieved uncertain as to whether he would survive a night in the jail. We will continue to monitor the Sheriff's office for further violations of civil and human rights.

Peter rubs his chin with a grin, most everyone in Flat Top Gap will get a chuckle out of this. He knows why the mayor is worried, he is worried about the towns image. The story could get amplified in cyber space, on large media platforms nothing they can do about that, Phil already feels bad enough as well as Pat.

Pat walks up to Peter's office door, "its Mark and Julie, they want you to call them on your mobile, immediately. I dispatched them to Clyde's Salvage while you were reading, someone called in and reported a break-in, it wasn't Rick North, didn't give their name."

Mark answers his mobile phone, "Peter you need to get over here now, Clyde's Salvage and Scrap, Gavin Scott and Rick North are dead inside, shot to the back of the head."

"What! Umm, okay I will be right there, don't touch anything."

Peter heads out of his office, and stops at Pat's desk, "radio Phil I need his location to pick him up to respond to a code 187." Phil is walking foot patrol down town, told Peter he wanted to walk off the sting from the problems he caused yesterday.

Pat does not know code 187; she looks down at the code list cheat sheet she has taped to her desk. they don't much use codes and she has never used that one. She sees it near the bottom, Code 187 homicide, she looks at Peter, "homicide, there has been a killing?"

Peter heads to the door, "just radio Phil."

Phil is puzzled but he responds, "I am across the street from the post office, what is a 187?" Pat does not answer his question, she knows Peter doesn't want anyone in ear shot of Phil's radio to hear homicide.

"The sheriff will explain."

Peter is in his patrol SUV he hears Phil on the radio, he hits speed dial on his mobile, "I will be there in two minutes, code 187 is a homicide we have a double homicide ."

Peter parks in front of the Salvage building, he sees Mark and Julie waiting with someone, he cannot put a name to the face. Phil and Peter get out, walking towards the three, Mark walks over, "Chester Green works for Rick North, he called it in as a break in. Said he saw feet of people laying on the ground not moving and did not go all the way in, at least that is his story. It's a strange scene in there, storage room to the back right."

Peter looks at the door to the old main building, "Okay you and Julie stay with him out here, get his statement and where he lives. Buy him something to eat and drink if he wants, get him to stick around until we can see what is going on. Phil you're with me."

Peter and Phil put on gloves, and carry shoe covers and slip them on before they walk inside. Phil looks toward the right the door to the storage room is open, he can see feet and legs up to about the knees without going any further, "maybe Green is telling the truth."

They walk up to the door leading into the storage room, Phil gestures to the door, "pretty heavy duty." A big steel reenforced door with a place for a pad lock, nothing like the rest of the old building. They step inside, Gavin Scott and Richard North, on the ground on their stomachs, flex cuffs around their wrist and what must be gun shot wounds to the back of their heads.

Peter gestures, "looks like meth and opioids."

Phil walks over, hundreds of small bags all laid out on the floor in front of a sturdy safe open and empty. He walks over to the table next to the safe, "Yeah, and money, that's a lot of money."

Phil picks up a notebook on the table flipping through a few pages, "tracking money and bags of dope to Scout, Spaceman and Runt. Got scales bagging equipment, everything."

They both hear Pat on the radio, "Patrol one dispatch, there are people here in the office, I don't know what to do sheriff."

Peter keys the microphone on his collar, "what have you got? We are busy, you can talk freely."

"Scott Peters, Roger Stanley and Harry Powell. The just walked in, they put a pile of drugs and money on my desk and said they want to surrender and confess to dealing drugs."

"I will have Julie come back to the office. Tell them to have a seat or go into the holding cell and you close the door on them, if they are serious."

"They walked into the holding cell already and closed the door themselves."

                   *******

Carol has been waiting she sees Peter pull into the driveway, she goes out the front door and walks over to the carport as he gets out of the SUV, "you, okay? It's past eight thirty, you gotta be tired."

"I have been better."

She takes his hand as they walk towards the house, "Did you eat anything?"

"A couple of sandwiches, lots of coffee."

"Are the state police here now?"

"Yeah, they have been here for hours, they took over the crime scene for us, they have a couple of homicide detectives working it now."

They walk inside, Carol heads for the kitchen, "I have fried chicken and mashed potatoes, you want me to heat it up?" She sees if she can get a smile, "even though it was your night to cook."

"Yeah sorry about that, I could eat something, let me get a shower. Has it been on the news in Richmond? Is Chance in his room?"

"It's been pretty big on national cable news, get a shower and eat first. Chance is at Kyle Ballard's house."

He bows his head, "national news."

"Yeah, go ahead and get a shower."

Peter finishes eating, they head to the family room. She picks up the television remote, "some of the news coverage has been bad, some of it about the Sheriff's office. Chance heard some of it and got upset, I told him to go over to Kyle's house, I told him to ignore it. Dee Ballard said they have been playing video games, he can stay the night if we want."

"What do you mean? What are they saying?"

She shrugs, "I haven't been watching for the last couple hours, let's see what they are saying now."

Peter looks at the tagline running at the bottom of the screen of WNN, Drug Slayings and Police Abuse in Virginia. The news anchor is talking, a map of Virginia is projected behind him with a red star marking Flat Top Gap. "Details are slowly emerging from the small town of Flat Top Gap in Virginia not far from the West Virginia border about a two hour drive north west from Richmond Virginia. Two local businessmen were found dead, killed execution style, with large quantities of drugs. Now questions are being asked how the drugs got there, what might really be behind these murders and whether the sheriff's office might somehow be involved. We have a local investigative journalist by video chat."

Peter's eyes go wide as Kendra Morris appears in the upper corner of the TV with the title, editor and investigative reporter. Peter points at the TV, "editor and reporter, its just her damn blog."

Carol puts her hands over her mouth waiting for Kendra to speak.

The news anchor continues, "Ms. Morris please tell us how this story started with your local investigative reporting."

Kendra's eyes narrow a bit, she answers in a somber tone. "We have been monitoring the sheriff's office for some time now, earlier in the week we called them out for doing photographic surveillance of people in town, harassing and assaulting one local citizen. Now two of the people that they were following and taking pictures of have been found dead. We also understand the young man they assaulted has supposedly confessed to selling drugs. We have sources that say he received a text message with two of his friends, of the two dead men threatening them with the same treatment if they did not turn themselves into the sheriff."

"Are you saying the sheriff's office is behind these killings?"

The corners of Kendra's mouth turn up in a suppressed grin, "I am not making that claim, but the governor's office and state officials need to call for an investigation of the sheriff's office. These murders and this harassment, intimidation and gestapo like surveillance needs to be investigated by someone outside the sheriff's office. People being beaten, followed and photographed and now killed, gunned down in our small town. Who will be the next victim?"

Peter picks up the remote and turns off the TV and heads toward the bedroom, "I'm going to bed."

Carol follows him, "you don't want to talk about this."

"No, I do not."