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  • Black Velvet Ch. 02

Black Velvet Ch. 02

123

This story is part of an ongoing series. 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 7 - Criminal Intent

Monday, February 6th. Nearly sunset. The local county's Crime Lab team had shown up to process the body, aided by the FBI's forensic experts. Sergeant Grover and his handler had been sent home with my thanks. Cindy was with me, tears streaming down her face even as she tried to remain stoic and keep working.

"We need to bring the body out before it gets dark." said someone on the radio. I just nodded to FBI Special Agent Martin Nash, who was generally in charge of the overall crime scene. He radioed for them to do that.

After finding Jeanine's body, I'd made a quick examination, then waited for the Crime Lab people. Then I went back to the road, Cindy following. Todd and Michael Burke had both generally figured out what was going on. I went up to them.

"I am sorry to report that we found your wife's body, Mr. Burke." I said to Michael. "My condolences upon your loss."

"What happened to her?" asked Michael Burke, his face gray and showing his shock. "And where are the babies?"

"The babies are safe." I said. "As to Jeanine, she was chased through the woods." I said. "She went tumbling down into a ravine, as did her pursuers. They caught up with her soon afterwards. Before I say more, I need to know what circumstances brought you here, Mr. Burke."

"I could ask the same of you." replied Burke.

"Jeanine came down to our Town." I said. "We had reason to believe she was in danger, but found that she'd already left the County. We FBI Consultant types began following her route, and we found her car here. So what's your side of it, Mr. Burke?"

"Like I said earlier," said Michael Burke, "I got a call from her that she was being followed up the road. Then it got cut off; the call, that is. I was very worried for her safety, and began driving down while trying to call her again but never getting through. Then I came up on all you guys here."

By now all the FBI Agents, State Patrolmen, and the local Sheriff and his County Police were standing around listening to us. "Sheriff," I said, "you have jurisdiction of the village just southwest of Lake Amengi-Nunagen, which is called 'Beaver Ruin', I recall?"

"That's right, Commander." said the Sheriff. Seeing my eyebrows raise up, and Cindy doing likewise, the Sheriff said "Yes, I know who you are, and that red crowbar in your hand just confirms it, Commander Troy."

"Your reputation precedes you, Commander." said Jack Muscone.

"And follows me." I said. "Sheriff, why don't we all go to your Headquarters, so we can talk about this."

"Good idea." said the Sheriff. "Mr. Burke, if you'll follow us in your car, we'll---"

Just then, a team brought out a sheet-covered body on a stretcher. Michael Burke gasped out, then hurried over. I motioned to Todd to go with him. Michael pulled back the sheet, then began crying as he saw his deceased wife's face. Todd put his arms around Michael and led him back to us. Todd's face showed his own misery; Jeanine had been his wife, and the mother of one of his children.

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

A Sheriff's deputy drove Michael Burke in his car back north to the small town that was the gateway to the Lake Amengi-Nunagen area, which was called 'Beaver Ruin'. The creek that was near where Jeanine had been found ran north and into a larger creek that ran just south of the town. Todd rode with me and Cindy in the Black Beauty.

Cindy, Jack Muscone, Martin Nash, and myself were invited into the Sheriff's office, which was a relatively large room in the relatively small building. This building could've been a military base building or a Scout Camp building in the past. It was not meant for large-scale operations.

"Okay, so tell me what I've got here." said the Sheriff. All eyes went to me.

"Jeanine Burke is from our Town." I said. "She married Michael Burke and they moved up here, to the Lake Amengi-Nunagen area."

"Yes, I know them both." said the Sheriff. "And I know that young man Todd is Michael's son."

"Yes, Sheriff, that's true." I said. "He lives in our Town, also. So we got wind of possible danger to her, and we were driving up and arrived too late."

"And you knew something was the matter. You've got a good cadaver dog, there, Commander. He arrived up here very fast." said the Sheriff observantly.

"Sheriff," said Jack Muscone, "at this point, I'm going to have to tell you that this may relate to a Federal case we the FBI have been working on for some time. We can't give you all the details, and I'll apologize in advance for keeping you and your people in the dark. Commander Troy and Captain Ross are consultants for us, and they acted upon knowledge we had given them of possible threats to the Burkes."

The Sheriff nodded. "Oh, I know some of the people who live up in this area are what you people would call the 'Big Boys'. And I don't think I want to know what's up with them, nor you Feds. But I do have a murder on my hands,. That's 'State & Local', and I need to catch some killers. Can you help me do that?"

"Yes, Sheriff." I said. "Well, I hope to be able to. I would ask for you to give me some leeway in my methods of investigation; they can be strange to some people, as Special Agent Muscone will attest."

"No doubt about that." said Muscone. "But he's the most brilliant Detective I've ever met, no disrespect to anyone else."

"All right, just keep me in the loop." said the Sheriff. "So what are you going to do next?"

"I need to talk to Michael Burke, and if you have an interview room with a camera, I'd like to do it there." I said.

"We've got an audio recorder in our Interview room." said the Sheriff. "These days our guys just use iPhones to make video."

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

We listened to Jeanine's call to her husband, recorded on his cellphone, and the 9-1-1 call she'd made. We examined both the Burke's cars; both had large amounts of luggage in the trunks. I examined topographic maps of the area, provided by the Sheriff.

"All is not as it seeeems, Ms. Ross." I said to Cindy, imitating Chief Moynahan's peculiar inflection of voice. "Okay, I'm ready to talk to him."

Michael Burke had been led to the interview room and was sitting at the table, still in total shock. When the door opened, he looked up and saw me entering. His face registered hostility.

"Again, Mr. Burke, I am sorry for your loss." I said as I sat down opposite him at the table. "Obviously I'll need to ask you some questions."

"I don't know what I can tell you." said Burke.

"Mr. Burke," I said, taking command with my voice, "you know who I am, you know how good I am, and you know I'm seeing things already. I want to find your wife's killers, and I want to exact Justice upon them. But I need your truthful answers to help me."

"Where were you when my son Jack needed Justice for that meddling bitch Ivy Starnes, eh?" spat Michael. "Hell, you even helped her get away from me!"

"You really want to go there with me?" I asked, my voice sharp. "Now is really not the time. Why don't you let me help you find Jeanine's murderers. Or will we have to play this the hard way?"

"How's that?" asked Burke, his eyes peering at me.

"Mr. Burke," I said, "once again... you know who I am, you know what I've done, and you know what I'm capable of. Now I have observed a great many things, heard others, and I have a tendency to put things together in my head. For example, you and Jeanine have been arguing for some months now; something had gotten between you in your marriage."

"Now I think you got involved with a group of people that were too much for you." I said. "I think you were in fear of your life and your wife's life and her children's lives. You see, Mr. Burke, I believe your original intent here was to fake both your deaths and disappear. But something went wrong."

Michael Burke had practically come out of his skin when I'd said that. "My God!" he gasped, then relented as he stared into my unrelenting eyes. "How did you know?"

"We'll talk about that later." I said. "But something went wrong in the plan. There's a bridge high over the river just north of where we found her car. The creek we found Jeanine by washes into that river in its gorge. I think you were going to meet up with her, push her car over that bridge, have it wash down, bodies never found."

I could see in his eyes that I was right, so I hit him with the haymaker: "But she was coming from the wrong direction, wasn't she?"

Burke's face fell, then he looked up. "Yes, she was. She was supposed to drive down to the bridge, make the call to my phone, then I'd come down, pick up her and the kids, and push her car over the gorge. But she left early, hours ahead of time. I couldn't call, because investigators would see the attempts. Then when she called, I headed out... and she wasn't at the bridge. I kept going, and came upon all of you..." His head bowed as he began crying.

"You were faking your deaths to get away from these people." I said. "Very bad people, too, if they are who I think they are."

"You have no idea how bad... and how big they are." said Michael Burke.

"Oh, I think I do." I said. "Wallace Bedford is one of them. Richard Ferrell is another."

"Yes, Bedford is one of them." said Burke, who had shown his shock when I mentioned the name. "I don't know who Ferrell is... oh wait, he's that SBI Agent that attacked that poor girl in the wheelchair."

"You haven't seen or had contact with him up here?" I asked.

"No." said Burke.

"Who else?" I asked. "You don't owe these people a damn thing, Michael. Tell us now."

"I still have Todd, and little Todd and little Jack." said Michael. "They'll go after them. And for all your abilities, Commander Troy, if they set themselves out to destroy my children... they will do it. They will succeed."

I shook my head. "Not now, they won't." I said. "Listen, Michael. I'm going to bring in the FBI guys. Talk to them, tell them what you know. Then we will be all over them like a wet blanket."

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

"Can't wait to hear how you knew all that." said Cindy as we watched through the one-way glass as Jack Muscone and Martin Nash interviewed Michael Burke. Because of the nature of the discussion, we couldn't listen in, but it was being recorded by Jack and by Martin.

"Think, Captain." I said, perhaps a bit shortly. "You saw what I saw, heard what I heard. You tell me."

"The luggage in the cars." said Cindy. "Her call to Michael didn't sound like she was frightened... but her voice in the call to 9-1-1 was full of fear. Don't think she intended to make that call."

"That's a lot of it." I said. "Good thinking."

"But I'm obviously not up to the Iron Crowbar standard." Cindy said, and her voice sounded forlorn.

"Neither am I, right now." I said. "If I was, Jeanine might still be alive."

"You don't know that."

The voice came from behind me. It was Todd. "Hell, Uncle Don, you were probably as close as you could possibly have gotten. Don't start beating yourself up over this one, too." I glared at my nephew, but in typical Troy family fashion, he just met my stare with his own, refusing to relent.

"Uncle Don," Todd said, "I've been really patient, but I have to ask... did my father have anything to do with Jeanine's death?"

"Not directly, Todd." I said. "And I appreciate your patience. I know you loved Jeanine, also. And for that matter, you'll get custody of little Todd easily, but little Jack will be more difficult. Teresa's his godmother; that will help. But you're going to have to get custody and hold it; there is no way you can allow your father to regain custody of them."

Todd just nodded, a determined look on his handsome young face. Cindy's ruggedly pretty face registered open shock at my words.

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

"We got a little bit," said Jack Muscone, "but not very much we didn't already know. I don't think it's just fear that's keeping him from talking, either."

"Want to offer him immunity in exchange for some truths?" I asked.

"Right now we don't know how much to offer, nor how much is good enough in exchange." said Muscone. "He did tell us Wallace Bedford was a contact, and he told us that Doug and Roberta Jackson were behind the attempt on Eckhart and his acolytes. That'll help if he testifies at their trial."

"But nothing more about the operational plans," I said, "nor the names behind Superior Bloodlines."

"That's right." said Jack. "And he may not know any names, which is why I hesitate to offer any immunities. He did say that there were some go-betweens, some foot-soldiers, couriers, people that carry out orders. He said he didn't know the names, but one of them was fairly tall, black-haired, and a real computer genius, like your Mouseketeers."

"Fuqua." I said to Cindy.

"Could be." she replied. "But what makes you think he's mixed up in this?"

"I think he's a go-between, a messenger between Superior Bloodlines, and someone in our County. Maybe Thomas Cook, maybe Katherine Woodburn, or it could be someone else."

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

"Okay," said the Sheriff in his office, "what I am going to do is release Todd Burke here to the custody of you, Commander Troy, and on his own recognizance as CEO of BOW Enterprises. If we need you, son, come on up; don't make me get the Marshals."

"Yes, Sheriff." Todd said.

"I'm going to release Michael Burke on his own recognizance, as well. I've asked him to stay at home up here for the time being, and he's agreed. We've impounded both their cars; I don't have a 'warm and fuzzy' about the luggage that was in the back of his vehicle. Well, it's late, after midnight, and you guys have a ways to go to get home. I do appreciate your help, Commander Troy."

"And I appreciate yours." I said as I shook the Sheriff's hand. He then shook hands with the rest of us.

As we left, Jack Muscone said "I'll drive Todd back to your Town. And we'll be in touch with you, Don. We've got a lot to process up here."

"I know." I said. "I'll see you when you get back. Cop Bar and double cheeseburgers will be waiting."

"Aw, don't do that to me... now I'm hungry." Jack lamented.

"Like we're not?" I replied.

As we got into the Black Beauty for the ride home, Cindy said "I'm sorry, I'm not hungry. Jeanine was a friend, and Todd is suffering though he tries to hide it."

"Yeah, I know." I said. "Jeanine was special to me, too."

"You were lovers?" Cindy asked.

I nodded. "Before Todd or Michael."

She said "Yes, no matter what, that makes a difference."

"I'll tell you something else, too." I said. "I didn't want to say this in front of Todd or Michael... but I think Jeanine was not going to go through with their plan. I think she put her children where they'd be safe, then she was driving back up to tell Michael she was leaving him. Then she thought she could drive back down to Town, and come tell us what was going on and beg us to protect her and her children."

"How do you figure that?" asked Cindy as she drove along the road in the dark woods.

"Because she brought the kids down, leaving Lake Amengi-Nunagen early, and Michael was surprised by her leaving early." I said. "Why leave the kids then disappear, where she couldn't reclaim them?"

"Think Michael knew?" Cindy said. "That might be a motive."

"Yes, it's a motive." I said. "But no, I don't think he knew. I do think he's going to figure it out in the near future, and then he'll realize just how bad things are for him right now."

Part 8 - Plodding Along

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded MILF reporterette from in front of the Courthouse at 7:00am, Tuesday, February 7th. "Channel Two News has confirmed the story we first reported on last night's late news, that the body of a woman found near Lake Amengi-Nunagen to our north is that of Jeanine Olivet Burke."

"Mrs. Burke was formerly a resident of this Town and a lawyer with the Women's Law Firm of Dewey, Cheatham & Howe." continued Bettina. "She was married to Michael Burke, former owner of Burke Enterprises, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of BOW Enterprises Group, and she leaves behind two young children."

"Local police and the FBI are not commenting on Mrs. Burke's death, but did not deny that foul play is suspected." Bettina went on. "The FBI also would not confirm that they consulted with Commander Donald Troy of the Town & County Police Department about this case."

"And in other news," Bettina said, "Nextdoor County Police have no new leads in the double murders of Lenora Holmes and Rob Dortmund. Dortmund's friends Karl Vilseck and a minor that cannot be named were released after questioning. The NCPD is not commenting on reports that the bodies of the victims were found wrapped in a black velvet cloth."

"God damn it." I muttered as I listened in MCD, which was full of silent Detectives. Most of them had known Jeanine. "The Nextdoor County Police Force is not mine, but they have leaks as bad as ours. I really did not want the world knowing about the black velvet cloth."

"Why is that bad, sir? I mean... it's bad, but why?" asked Jerome Davis. "The killer might destroy any velvet he still has?"

"Yes, that's some of it." I said. "But it's also a distinctive feature of this case. Now... well, some copycat might get a bright idea to start doing the same thing, and have us think unrelated cases are related."

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

"Teresa is taking care of the kids, and taking care of Todd, too." Cindy said when she came into my office at 8:00am.

"Did you tell her that I'm taking care of Jeanine's funeral arrangements?" I asked.

"Yes sir." said Cindy. "She was wondering why Michael was not doing that."

"The FBI is going to bring Michael down to his home down here." I said. "He's in bad shape. So I've started the ball rolling. When the body is released, we'll bring it down here, have a wake and all that." Cindy nodded.

"So, did you get a copy of Martha's autopsies on Lenora and Rob?" I asked.

"Yes." Cindy said. "Just got through reading it. Rob's semen was in Lenora's vagina, and also that of another man. It's going to take some more days to get a real DNA workup of the other man. Martha said there were some abnormalities in the DNA markers, so she's asked the FBI to run the profile against mental hospitals and also prisons."

"And it was a scalpel that cut them up." I said. "By the way, have we gotten any requests from the Nextdoor County Police to get a warrant and obtain Lenora's clothing, all of it?"

"No." Cindy said. "Should we have?"

"Well, by the time they finish reading the autopsy report, they should be asking." I said. "So... look, I have stay clear of that part of this case, recuse myself from anything to do with the Meadows or Walnut Prep. So, you should go ahead and get with Paulina. Rob's semen in Lenora's vagina is probable cause."

"For what?"

"They'll start investigating Walnut Prep, to see if students and teachers were having sex." I replied. "We have to cover our asses on it. I'll talk to the Chief in a few minutes." I shook my head, then let my face rest in my hands."

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