A Case of Revenge Ch. 02

"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 "Dick" 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 Dick 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 Dick Ferrell.

"Well, of course. And cases that the locals would've fucked 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."

"However," continued Allen, "our plan suffered a setback. That hotshot young Lieutenant didn't run for Sheriff; he comes up with another man, the Internal Affairs Lieutenant, and plays the Republicans up there to accept Allgood. Malone is now telling me that he thinks the Iron Crowbar is going to ambush him, Malone, somehow, and that it might make the race much, much tougher. Thank God we have Katherine Woodburn of KXTC on our side!"

"Your re-election is important also, Senator." said Director Lewis. "We're going to need you in the State Senate next year. You've done the Lord's work for us, Nathan, but the future of the SBI is going to be at stake, and we need every soldier at the front lines."

"And I'm ready to lead that fight. We'll talk about that in a moment." said Allen. "Anyway, 'Operation Restoration' is a plan by those of us on Director Lewis's side to basically ram SBI leadership down the throats of local jurisdictions. They don't know what's best for them, we know better, and if they act like spoiled children we'll have to spank them and take control whether they like it or not."

"The Narcotics Task Force would be excellent for that." said Agent Dick Ferrell enthusiastically.

"Exactly, Ferrell." said Director Lewis. "But let me lay out the bigger picture: the City is probably lost to us; they're semi-sovereign in this State, and they have resources that at least match ours. We're willing to lose that battle to win all the others, though. And it has to start in Senator Allen's home district, especially in doing something about that piece of dog shit Griswold and his little pitbull with a crowbar."

"So we have a couple of inroads," said Nathan Allen, "and you, Agent Ikea will be our point man on one of them. We know you've been working in your spare time on the death of our great friend, The Reverend Jonas Oldeeds. I know you genuinely want to find his killer and administer Justice, and I feel exactly the same way: Jonas was a good friend to me for years."

"Yes sir." said Ikea, listening attentively. "He was an icon, and a hero to me."

"But we can kill two birds with one stone, there." Allen said. "We can have you and a small army of our agents, sniffing around -AND- have the Press hammering Griswold and his little pitbull for not solving that case of national and international importance."

"Our other inroad is drug interdiction, and that's right up your alley, Dick." said Director Lewis to Ferrell. "I'm getting some reports that with Harold Malone running for Sheriff, the Vice Squad up there is falling behind the power curve; seems the Iron Crowbar is either not interested or can't handle the job. If Malone wins Sheriff, all will be good again up there, but in the meantime we're going to be adding our weight to exposing the Town & County's lack of ability, and they'll be feeling the pain of you shoving red hot pokers- er, crowbars, right up their asses."

"I'm loving it." said Ferrell. Ikea looked a bit more skeptical... or maybe he was having memories of Barry Bounel shoving something up his ass.

"If I may just say one thing," said Ikea, "I think we need to move fast on any plans we make. Our enemies are powerful and abundant, and they will not be letting the grass grow under their feet in trying to pre-empt anything we try to do."

"That's an excellent point, Steven." said Senator Allen. "We're going to be making some things pop within a week. Okay, let's move on to our next issue: that little shit Phil Kearns is making things tough on my boy with his lawsuit. I would like to ask you guys to help me out on that. Not only do we need to find something on that bastard, but I want to make sure that Agent Ikea's buddy, Teresa 'Cunt' Croyle, is totally neutralized as a threat to my boy. Totally neutralized."

"She's no buddy of mine." said Ikea. "But she's long gone. I haven't even seen her in the County in months, and I've been keeping an eye out."

"Dick, Steven, why don't you two guys take a quick break and let me talk to the Senator here." said Director Lewis. Allen looked surprised as the two agents left the room.

"Nathan, what I need to tell you," Lewis said quietly, "is that some of our mutual friends have- 'suggested' to me that we not involve ourselves in the Kearns matter. We stand ready to support you in whatever move you want to make, but we can't do it for you, and we absolutely can't have the name of the SBI involved with the name 'Kearns' in any way. Our friends are concerned that it could hurt us. And I don't mind telling you that it's something you need to take care of, and take care of it completely. The Press is hammering you with it every time the Court issues a new ruling or statement on it. Your election is at stake, and I've already said how vital it is to have you with us next January."

"All the more reason I need your help on this matter." said Allen, becoming irritated and frustrated. He poured himself another gin and tonic. "If he ends up dead, that Wurtzburg bitch will be all over it like a fly on a cow patty. My other options are limited, though. I do have one idea, but it crosses county lines, and so I will need your boys Ferrell and Ikea to help me out on one part of it." Allen began telling Lewis his plan...

"All right, all right." said Director Lewis. "I'll see if I can swing it to give you that much help..."

---

"You wanted to speak to me again, Senator?" Steven Ikea said as he re-entered Allen's office.

"Yes, son, and privately." said Allen. He'd texted Ikea to come back to the office after Jack Lewis had left. They sat down at the round table again, Allen pouring himself another drink before beginning.

"Steven, I think you and I could find some things to cooperate on that would be helpful to both of us as well as greatly satisfying to you." said Allen. "I know Malone really betrayed you, he really threw you under the bus. I know you want to get him back and I don't blame you one fucking bit."

Ikea's eyes were jet and full of righteous anger and hatred. Allen knew he had his fish landed.

"What we can do, Steven, is destroy Harold Malone. He wins the Sheriff race, is installed, and then we hit him with a barrage of information I have about his many contacts and friendships with white supremacists. You'll lead that charge, doing it in the Lord's name, bringing righteousness to your County. And by the time it's done, Malone will have to resign the Sheriff position, or he'll be kicked out and maybe even arrested and jailed... and they might not fill the Sheriff position again for years.

"But before then, Steven, because Malone will have won the Sheriff slot, Griswold and his little redheaded cocksucker will have left. I'll make sure that you are hired back in... definitely as a Captain, and after some maneuvering you will be Police Chief Steven Ikea! How do you like the sound of that, son?"

Ikea chose his words carefully. "It sounds good, Senator, but what's in it for you?"

Allen laughed. "What's in it for me is a lot more security than I'm feeling right now. Our mutual cooperation in the County will be good for both of us. And one benefit to me is that I can bring some of my friends in the Oldeeds Ministries to the County, where you and I can keep them safe as they continue the work of the Lord that Jonas was doing before he was so brutally struck down by Satan's forces."

"Yeah, I can see that." said Ikea. "And they need help; they had a CIA mole penetrating them. Young guy, but he was a contact of that bitch Laura Fredricson."

"Ah," said Allen, asking out of simple curiosity, "how much do you know about that?"

Ikea could not hide a smirk. "Quite a lot, Senator. I know that Dr. Fredricson is a CIA operative, and apparently a pretty high-level one, at that. That young guy, the CIA mole in Vicki Oldeeds' personal staff... it was me who exposed him. Yes, Senator, I'm the one who spotted that prick visiting Fredricson and told Vicki Oldeeds about him!."

Enjoying the look of shock on Allen's face, Ikea felt the righteous anger whipping through him as he said, almost chanted "I've been working with them ever since Jonas died, working to find the Spawn of Satan that struck down that great man as he did the Lord's work! That bitch Fredricson might have been behind it, and I will find that out. In the meantime, Satan's agent within Vicki's inner circle is now burning in hell fire for all eternity!

"That FBI bastard Muscone, he's not hanging around the County just because of the good food at the local restaurants, and I'll see the day that he pays for his iniquities. I've got my eye on them, Senator, and when the time is ready... I'm going to smite them down with the Power of the Lord... I am His instrument, I am his Fist of Jusss-tice! And then... the Iron Crowbar is going to find himself burning in hell fire with the rest of the demons for ALL Eternity as the Lord's Justice catches up to him and his wicked ways!..."

Allen listened, realizing that Ikea was not the dumbass everyone thought he was. Religious nutball, yes. But also a vicious and smart attack dog to be used upon their mutual enemies in the County. It was going to be one hell of a hot summer in the County, Allen mused as he listened and drank his gin, one hell of a hot summer...

Ikea finally paused to catch his breath, knowing that he did not need the worthless Nathan Allen, and that Allen was desperate because he knew he was becoming totally inconsequential. But I can use him. Best not to waste this resource until he exhausts his usefulness...

Part 9 - The Business of Control

While Nathan Allen was meeting with the dirty SBI agents on May 15th, at the same time Karla Warner was being escorted by a female guard down the hall of the State Women's Prison. She was wearing her gray prison uniform that was essentially a dress, and some asshole had given her a size too small, making the gray cloth cling to her firm, hot body. She was also wearing gray slip-on sneakers issued by the prison.

She had no idea why she was being taken down this hallway, which was an area she'd never been in before. It was in the guarded areas, but locked away from the rest of the prison.

"All right, ma'am, I can only give you one hour." the guard said to the woman inside the darkened room as the door was opened. The woman inside the room acknowledged it as Karla entered, and the door closed behind her. The room looked like a library study, with a soft lamp illuminating the room. There was a plush, comfortable sofa on the left side and a table and chair on the right.

But Karla didn't notice that; it was the woman lying on the sofa, her legs spread obscenely, that had Karla's full attention. The woman was also wearing a clingy prison gray uniform that showed off the curves of her luscious body. Those spread legs of hers were gorgeous, as well. Her brown hair was cut and styled straight down the sides of her head, her bangs cut straight across her forehead above her glasses. The woman looked familiar to Karla, very familiar, but she couldn't quite place her...