Chapter 44

Sunday Morning Brunch

Brunch was a relatively new affair at Liberty. The patrons were low key and in search of French style brunch, with Mimosa drinks, breads and the occasional hot eggs in one form or another. It was an after ten o'clock affair because no one wanted to wake up after closing the restaurant late the night before.

Vicky and Candy were out front, and were surprised to see Cindy, Carla and Juan and Kim and her husband there for an early meal. After taking the herd back to a seat for themselves, Candy then went about the business of being the manager, while Carla asked Vicky to stay with them. "Join us, we haven't spent time with you in forever."

Sensing that there was something more then casual camaraderie, Vicky pulled up a chair and became the sixth.

After a general breakfast and banter, Cindy opened up a conversation. "So, how is retirement treating you?"

"Not too bad. Working here is more fun then running down felons. And the benefits are pretty good." Vicky replied.

"Vicky, how would someone provide evidence anonymously to the police department? Something that might help the investigation of a murder?" Carla asked.

Sensing that this was a touchy subject. "Off the record, police have tips all the time. It is when it becomes the pivotal piece of evidence that leads an investigation that things get touchy. Prosecutors lean on you a lot to get names and force testimony. And that usually puts a witness in the pubic eye, and actions by the defense." Vicky said. "Of course, you don't want to have your evidence be the basis of charges against you either. That happens a lot and prosecutors say you either testify or we will lock you up for interference with an investigation. I used to do that all the time myself."

Vicky had been doing this too long to not notice the sudden glances between Carla and Kimberly. Unsurprisingly, she did not see any sense of alarm on Cindy.

"So, it would better to just not say anything?" Cindy asked.

"That depends. If you had something that could be corroborated by other evidence, or verified by other factors, you could anonymously send it to the investigators, with pointers to where the verification would be found. We had a couple of murders a few years ago that were like that. The anonymous tip pointed to the weapon lead us to the mutt who did the murders. Who rolled over on the rest of the connections about why and how. The big thing is to either be anonymous or be public. There is really no middle ground." Vicky said.

Looking at the faces of the trio, Vicky suddenly felt consternation and some anxiety. "But ladies, I want to tell you right now, an investigator always wants to know why. Not just what. If something credible is sent in, believe me that as much effort will be put into finding out who sent it in as there will be on what the evidence itself."

"Why is that?" Kim asked.

"Because, investigation never stops. Prosecution may limit what it can and can't use, but investigation looks at everything. The fact that you saw a crime while committing another gives leverage to force you to testify. A burgler seeing a murder has to weigh jail vs. testimony and reduced sentence. Those are the kind of games police play. Carol knows the games that lawyers play." Vicky said. "Now, ladies, if you excuse me, I have to get back to helping my partner. You all take care."

The knowing glances at the table spoke more volumes then Phil or Juan were ever to know.

Tuesday Afternoon

It had been a rough morning for Charlene. The US District Attorney had been polite but coldly hostile in their questioning of Charlene about the particulars of the Findley case, and the absence of her deputy prosecutor. While not directly saying that Charlene was shielding Colleen from being in court, the implication was pretty significant. When the session broke at noon, she was not happy to see an electronic summons to appear in chambers for Thelma this afternoon. When she arrived, she was not surprised to see Carol. But seeing Deborah Maxwell in the company of two other women was a shock.

"Well, your honor, I admit that I am late to this gathering. Could I ask what the reasoning for this is?"

"Charlene, I am glad to see you here. We have done nothing beyond introductions. This is Melissa Dove of the CPD Internal Affairs division, and Carey Jackson, from the FBI. You know Carol of course. Apparently all of us received this little piece of evidence and I wanted to have you here with us when we reviewed it jointly." Thelma said.

Seeing the bewilderment on Charlene's face, Carol smiled and thought to herself, "you didn't get the memo."

The next ten minutes were a film that was an interesting composite of text with the responses of Colleen's testimony of having used her office to persecute David Findley for personal reasons, followed by Debby's testimony that she killed David deliberately in response to an agreement with her old room mate for a position on the ISP as director of external affairs. The films were shot against a background of white cloth. The comments and questions were typed on the bottom of the screen, and the presentation was carefully edited to remove any voices or noises other then the sounds of the two women.

In the final edited scenes of the film, Betty was crying that she had just seen Colleen murdered in front of her by having the arteries in her lower legs cut and watched as she slowly bled to death. Betty's tear stained face apologized and hoped that this film would eventually be seen by her family so that they knew what had happened to her.

"I have been told that I am in Canada, where the PCA is still in effect. I was told that my body will be processed just like I saw Colleen's body processed, and that I would end up in soup tonight or tomorrow. And that David Findley treated all of his clients a lot better then this, but that this was what I deserved."

The next scene showed the two women hanging inverted, with their abdomen open and empty, ready for parting, boxing and shipping.

"Debby has also named several additional women who were involved in the shooting of Casey Merriman, We are following that up ourselves." Melissa said, breaking the silence after the showing.

"Where did this come from?" Charlene asked.

"This was sent to us as a link to a public social network of films that is based in England. The remailer is in Canada. The posting was made from an anonymous server in Cuba. So we really don't know where or who provided this." Melissa said. "My office, the FBI and Thelma were sent direct links to this."