Chapter 3

There still were some repercussions from the shooting Ty was involved in that occurred in Judge Sullivan’s courtroom. A television news station wanted to do an interview with Ty but he refused to do it. A phone call from the Mayor to Kurt resulted in Kurt convincing Ty to do the interview. Kurt said the department could use all of the good publicity it can get.

The interviewer asked Ty about his background because of his short time on the police force and that he was already a detective. Ty covered briefly his twenty two years in the Army with most of it being a CID investigator. She asked about the shooting in the courthouse and Ty said he had no choice as he believed Heath was dead serious when he said he was going to shoot the Judge and the State’s Attorney and maybe his attorney. Since Heath had already shot a Bailiff it was apparent there was no reluctance on Heath’s part to fire the gun. Ty was sorry he had to resort to the shooting but he didn’t see where he had any alternative.

In the days that followed, things had died down from the excitement of the shooting. Ty asked Kurt if he could talk to him about a suggestion he had.

Kurt said, “What’s on your mind?”

“You know I have seen where our officers are being used as traffic cops after football games and church services and I assume other places where there are a large gathering of people. I wonder if that is a good use of our people as it takes them away from their regular duties as patrol and other assignments.”

“What are you suggesting? There is a need for traffic control at these events.”

“I agree but I wonder if we were to form a Police Auxiliary, that they could handle those duties. I would think there are some citizens and maybe some ex-military people, both men and women who would volunteer their services and join the auxiliary as their way of giving back to the community. Just directing traffic would be a kick for some people. I know at times I have needed a large number of people to search an area and all I needed to do was to make one phone call and I could get a platoon or a company of soldiers to help me search an area. If there was a need for that here we don’t have anyone to call on.”

“I can see some merit in what you say but that is going to require someone to oversee the auxiliary and to give out the assignments. Do you have any suggestions on who that should be?”

“Well I think Jane Gardner, excuse the expression, has the balls to organize something like that and coordinate the assignments. The cost for some yellow windbreakers which say POLICE on the back shouldn’t be that much.”

“Let me think about it and bounce it off the Mayor. On the face of it, it sounds like something we should do.”

About three weeks later while at his desk Ty was told there was a robbery out at the new motel that was built next to the interstate. He and Cory went there and met in the lobby a Victor Panas. He was a middle age man who was agitated that he had been robbed. Ty asked him to tell them what happened.

“I had gone after dinner to the lounge to have a drink. The lounge wasn’t crowded and as I was sitting at the bar a good looking lady who was a little younger than me came in and sat on the stool next to me. We started talking and she said that she was divorced and a little lonely and just had to get out of the house. She said she decided to come here for a drink. One thing led to another and I invited her to come up to my room for a nightcap. In my room I had to tap a kidney and she said she would make the drinks from the mini bar. When I came out she handed me my drink and that’s the last thing I remember. When I woke up this morning my laptop, my wallet and my drug sample case were all gone.”

“What’s a drug sample case?”

“I am a pharmaceutical company representative and as such I call on physicians asking them to prescribe our drugs and I give them free samples. It’s a small pull-a-long suit case that is loaded with these samples.”

“Is there a market for these drugs that were in the case?”

“A substantial one for those who have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or erectile dysfunction.”

“Did she give you a name which is probably bogus?”

“She said her name was Dee. She never gave me a last name and I didn’t ask.”

They continued the questioning asking for more details about how she looked and other questions trying to get more information to better identify this lady.”

When they had all the information they thought they could get from the victim Ty discussed the case with Cory. Ty said that Cory should asked a technician to come out and dust for finger prints by the mini bar, the glasses and bottles and the door but he doubted that there would be any as these people were too smart to leave fingerprints. He thought that the lady probably had a partner. Ty also said Cory should check with the motel management as to what video recordings they have since they knew the approximate time line these events occurred to see if he could get a picture of this lady. Also he needed to check the parking lot videos to try and identify the car and see if she had a companion.

Ty said he was going to the courthouse as the delayed preliminary hearing on Billy Dawson had been scheduled for today.

At the courthouse he walked into Judge Sullivan’s courtroom. Stephanie Adams saw him and waived him up to her. She told him that Dawson has agreed to the plea bargain she had offered. She said she had left Ty a phone message telling him this but he had not been back to the station to check his phone messages.

Ty left the courthouse and went back to the station. He was doing some paperwork when Cory came back. Cory said he looked at the recordings and did come up with one that had a good picture of this lady. The recordings also showed she did have a male companion but he was smart enough to wear a big hat and keep his face down. They were driving a gray BMW but the license plate was obscured.

“I got Mr. Panas’s credit card number from the front desk since he used it to check in. A call to the company besides cancelling the card showed it had been used this morning to purchase gas and some things at a gas station just short of St Louis. I am going to that station now to see if they have any videos for me to look at.”

“Good work on that. I’ll ask the techs to check her face against the data base to see if she can be identified. Either way I doubt if we will see these two people anymore as they won’t stick around and will move on to another location and do this again. If you can come up with a plate number at the gas station then there is a chance they can be caught.”

With Cory gone to the gas station Ty phoned Denise to see how a trial she had going on came out.”

Denise said, “The verdict was less than what we offered to settle the case for so we consider that a win.”

“With you having a win I think we should celebrate tonight.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“I thought I could pick up some Chinese and come over to your place tonight.”

Laughing Denise said, “You big spender, you are going to spoil me if you keep treating me like this.”

Still giggling she told him to come over at six.

Ty entered Denise’s condo and she greeted him with a nice kiss. Presenting her with the Chinese take-out he asked her about the trial. She said it was a question of who crossed the center line and the jury concluded that her defendant must have, which she said he probably did. The jury didn’t buy all this chiropractic treatment the plaintiff received so they didn’t award much more than his bills and an attorney fee. Overall she said it was a good result.

After eating and cleanup he took into his arms and gave her a nice long kiss which showed her how much she meant to him. The kissing proceeded to some caressing of her body and then to disrobing her. When she was down to her panties and bra she took his hand and led him to the bedroom. He made love to her and it was a win-win situation for the both of them. For her because she enjoyed what he did to her by his nibbling on some very sensitive parts of her body. For him because he enjoyed doing the nibbling and seeing her reaction to what he was doing. They both equally enjoyed his shaft entering and partially withdrawing from her very warm and wet most private part of her body.

The rested after they uncoupled and Denise said, “I want to ask you a very serious question.”

Here it comes he thought, she is going to want to talk about a commitment and then he thought “What is wrong with her doing that and maybe we should have that kind of a talk?”

She said, “When we make love it is always at my place, why don’t we do it at your home? I have never seen your home and I think it’s time that I do.”

Ty was relieved and then maybe disappointed as the subject of commitment wasn’t brought up but he said, “I would like for you to see where I live, I think it’s pretty nice. When do you want to see it?”

“How about this weekend? You could pick me up Saturday at noon from my office as I need to work a half day there and then we could go to your home.”

With a serious look on his face and tone to his voice he said, “You do know what it means if you are going to see my house this weekend don’t you?”

He could now see maybe a little fear in her eyes about commitment and she didn’t know where he was going with this but she hesitantly said, “No... , I... , I don’t know what it means.”

“It means I am going to spend a lot of time cleaning the house getting ready for your inspection.”

Giggling she said, “Oh Ty, you had me going there for a minute.”

With her still giggling a little he started kissing her neck then her lips and not much longer after that his erect shaft was back in her special place. It was another great night with Denise.

At work Cory told Ty the video cameras at the gas station had recorded the male partner of the female who had drugged the man at the motel along with the plate number of the car he was driving. The facial recognition software identified the female as Connie Gray who had a history of arrests for a number of different offenses. Cory had secured an arrest warrant and put out an APB on her.

Ty congratulated Cory on what he did on his own initiative. Ty said he felt that couple was long gone from the area which had him doubt an arrest here would be made.

Ty was at Denise’s office at noon on Saturday and needed to wait a few minutes as she changed out of her business clothes into something more casual as jeans and a sweater. Maybe he was a little disappointed after she changed because she still had on a bra but he thought somewhere tonight he could probably talk her out of wearing it.

Pulling into his driveway Denise said, “The house is nice, it is not what I expected.”

“I’ll bet you expected a two story wooden frame home. We live in one like that which we just passed by. Dad built this one story brick ranch type home for mom as she sort of hinted that she wanted a one story brick home. He looked to find land that he owned that had some trees around it and he picked this place for that and other reasons.”

“Was that pond behind the house always here?”

“No, Dad approached the crew that was improving the overpass down the road and volunteered that if they need dirt they could take it from there. They took enough dirt and then in their way to thank Dad because of some cold liquid refreshment Dad would periodically bring out to them on the hot days, they use their bulldozers and finished doing the pond which is a little shy of four acres. Dad had it pitched so the farm field won’t drain into the pond with their chemicals and also if there is too much water in the pond it will drain into the creek that the overpass was built to go over. I think if Dad wasn’t a farmer he would have been a civil engineer.”

“Are there any fish in that pond?”

“I don’t honestly know now if there are because of the tough winters there have been here, but when I was younger there were. Dad had the conservation people stock the pond with fish under a program that was in effect at the time and they said if the bass population would become too large they would come out and net some bass and release them in other lakes. If they still do that I don’t know. I would also hunt doves in the late afternoon that would come to the pond for water. Dad was a good father and provider. He taught me a lot and I do miss him.”