The Phyllis Files Ch. 03

The chronological order of my stories is as follows:

Todd & Melina series, Interludes 1-5, Sperm Wars series, Russian Roulette series, Case of the Murdered Lovers series, Case of the Murdered Chessplayer series, The Swap series, Interludes 6-10, The Murdered Football Player Series, Case of the Black Widow series, Teresa's Christmas Story, The Case of the Black Badge series, A Case of Revenge series, Trilogy Series, Dark Side Of The Force series, Caught In The Act series, Case of the Murdered Bride series, The Credit Card Caper series, The Hot Wives Investment Club series (when published).

The Phyllis Files, Ch. 3

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.

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Part 0 - The Solution to The Case of the Break-Ins

"Okay, Mom," I said, "where is your probable cause?"

"Well, it's a current investigation." said my mother. We were in my office, with Cindy Ross and Paulina Patterson also in the room. "We could take a team there, say we're following up on a lead, then have someone go into the lake and-"

"Mom," I said, "I agree with everything you've said about what is going on and why, but if we don't have a warrant, they can order us off the property, and the case will be over. To get a warrant, we need something to give the judge. And right now, we have nothing but your hunches. Good hunches, to be sure, but not legally actionable. Am I right, Paulina?"

"Yes, Commander." said Paulina. "Now you know how I feel when I talk to you sometimes." It's a good thing Paulina is so beautiful; I could not give her my withering look for too long.

"Let me ask this..." said Phyllis, ignoring the looks Paulina and I were giving each other, which were more flirtatious than anything else. "In the subdivision, the lake itself... whose property is it? Do the property lines of the lots extend into the lake itself?"

"I don't think so." Cindy said. "I remember something about that from when I was looking at investing in the place. The lake belongs to the developers, but the County has some kind of jurisdiction over it to control flood issues."

"If the lake is not part of the properties, then divers can approach from another property, such as the empty home between the Smith and Jones homes." Phyllis said. "And if the divers find what I think they'll find, you'll have what you need for a warrant."

Paulina got up. "I'll go ask about that right now." She left the room.

"Maybe. I said. "Okay, while we're waiting, run the whole thing by me again..."

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We were in the backyard of the empty house between the Smiths and the Joneses. The J.P. Goldman Bank, which had foreclosed upon the house and now owned it, had given us permission to go onto the property. It's nice when the bank's Chief Operations Officer, Selena Steele, continues to show gratitude for her life being saved from the Black Widow's vicious plot against her.

We watched as a Police Diver, actually a member of the SWAT Team, surfaced near the water line. He throw a globe onto the bank. A second Diver came up with what appeared to be a weird statue of some Greek god holding the world. A stapler also was fished out of the water.

I looked over to the side, seeing Mr. Jones watching from his patio. The divers had made sure not to touch the dry land that was his property.

"All right." I said to Sergeant Thompson and Patrolman Hicks. "Bag that shit as evidence. If this does not get us a warrant, I don't know what will. If the Jones' try to leave, go ahead and arrest them."

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"Mr. Jones," I said as I entered the Jones's home. "This is a warrant to search your home for property that was reported to the insurance company as stolen." I handed Mr. Jones the papers. "Would you please open your safe upstairs?"

"I will not." said Jones. "I will not help you in any way. I want a lawyer, and I want a lawyer present before you conduct your search."

"He'd better get here fast." I said. "I don't need to wait, and if you won't open the safe, I'll have it cracked." Jones said nothing, but got out his cell phone to call his lawyer.

Thirty minutes later, the safe was open, thanks to my close associations with the FBI. What most people don't know is that when they buy a gun safe or other safe for their home, the combination is known to the manufacturers and to the Government; and unless the new owner knows how to change it, it sits there... known to the Government. I had the serial number to the safe from the label, the name of the maker, and within thirty minutes had the combination to open the safe. (Note: people, that really is true.)

Inside the safe was a computer, silver plate, a framed sheet of stamps showing the State Flags in the era of the American Bicentennial, and some other items. I wasted no time in having my officers place the Joneses under arrest.

"Add insurance fraud to the charges." I said at Headquarters as they were being processed. They were taken to Interrogation-1 and Interrogation-2, but both invoked their Fifth Amendment rights and demanded lawyers, which were quickly provided.

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"Okay, Mom, Cindy, you did an amazing job." I said as we sat on the back patio of the 'Mountain Nest'. My daughter Carole had been cranky when anyone else would hold her, but she was happy as could be sitting on Cindy's lap. I was holding baby Jim. Laura and Paulina Patterson were also there. "So, tell us the whole story."

"It was all your mom." said Cindy. Carole cooed.

"By no means, my dear." said Phyllis. "I could not have done it without you, Cindy. But as to the solution, I'm afraid that it wasn't all that difficult."

Phyllis settled in and began talking. "What got my attention about the case, and caused me to go get Cindy to investigate with me, was the odd nature of the stolen items. With only rare exceptions, the items were of no value. The houses were ransacked, especially the Smith home, but that was nothing, as both Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones said they had no papers of value in their studies."

"Let's look at the first crime, the Smith home." said Phyllis, "I could see that because the Smiths were away from home, professional thieves would've had plenty of time to crack the safe, but they elected not to. Therefore, I eliminated professional thieves in that case, and thought about vandalism. However, it became very clear during our investigation that there were no marauding groups of kids, and that neighbors were watching pretty well. So I ruled out vandalism. That left no good reasons for that crime."

"And then came the Jones break-in." said Phyllis. "Now there were some items of more value taken, but still there were some oddball things that disappeared. The room was trashed... but not as badly as the Smith home, from my evaluation of the photos of the Smith home. Last but not least, it was an amazing coincidence that the Joneses had their silver out and was cleaning it just when the break-in occurred."

"EWWWWW!" shouted Carole.

"Like father, like daughter." I said. "I don't believe in coincidences, either, right Carole?" Carole looked at me and smiled brightly and giggled. Everyone laughed.

"She is just so precious." said Phyllis, ever the doting grandmother. "Anyway, I went to the back yard of the Jones home. The grass was not trampled down at all, meaning that no one had snuck around back to the patio door. The driveway was lit up, as well. The only possible access to the Jones backyard was through the empty house between the Smith and Jones homes, and that looked a bit iffy. Cindy made many very good observations about the difficulties of intruders from the outside. In the end, I was thoroughly convinced that there had been no intruders, and that the Jones's whole story appeared to be unrealistic."

"So," Phyllis continued after drinking some water, "I thought about the Smith break-in. We learned that Mr. Jones had been getting Mr. Smith's mail and taking it into the house. He had access to the house, so if he really wanted to steal anything or find papers, he could take his time and search at leisure. I suspect strongly that he trashed the house on the last afternoon before the Smith's came home. Of course, it was attributed to a night-time raid when he, Mr. Jones, said everything was fine when he left."

"Why do that?" asked Laura.

"I believe it was to set a precedent." replied Phyllis. "The plan was to trash his own home, steal his own stuff, and make an insurance claim."

"Makes sense." I said. "The insurance company will see it's the second burglary in the neighborhood, and not be as likely to investigate Jones himself."

"Yes, I believe that was Mr. Jones's thinking. But now we're honing in on him." said Phyllis. "The Smiths are not very healthy at all, but the Joneses are. So there's another reason to eliminate the Smiths as possible suspects. Now came the question of why. As I looked into their financial records, I found the Joneses were in dreadful shape, while the Smiths were in no trouble at all. I still am not sure what Mrs. Jones's involvement was, but she certainly was not contributing to the family finances."

"I can answer that." I said. "She had been involved in the sex industry. Probably a hooker, maybe a porn star when she was young. She still looks good today. Jack Muscone and I think she had an internet porn site going, which was doing well enough for them to buy that house. However, the site may have crossed the line, age-wise, so it was shut down. Mrs. Jones had to disappear, lest she be arrested for child pornography, so she went completely off the grid, and of course her income contribution was lost in the process."

"That sounds quite reasonable." said Phyllis. "So I had motive, I had means, and I had opportunity. The only problem was actual evidence and that bugaboo known as 'probable cause'."

"That 'bugaboo' gets more criminals freed than I want to think about." said Paulina.

"Yes, and because you are such an excellent District Attorney," Phyllis said in her most flattering voice, "we knew we had to make a solid case to get a warrant. Fortunately, the lake itself was communal property and we could search it. I suspected Mr. Jones might have thrown those larger, bulkier items into the lake... such a convenient hiding place, wouldn't you say?"

Cindy said "And Mr. Jones made a huge mistake telling you who his insurance company and agent was."

"Yes, indeed." said Phyllis. "And that was the crux of the matter. I'm not sure what charges might have been brought to bear against the Joneses. Technically, he cannot steal his own property, and we still didn't have any real proof he'd trashed the Smith home and stolen anything from there. But once he filled out that insurance claim... he committed insurance fraud, and that is a felony offense. Once we knew the claim had been filed, we only needed to find the stuff thrown into the lake to show probable cause for a warrant, and once we had the warrant and got into the safe and found the stolen items there, it was all over for the Joneses."

"So it was all a ruse, and really for not all that much money." said Laura. "Very nice how you saw through it."

"True." I said. "But I still have to keep my eye on you two as a partnership. It was all I could do to keep you from personally going out there and serving the arrest warrants."

"Just wait until I'm off light duty." said Cindy.

"At this rate, I'll see to it you never get off light duty." I said. "You and Mom can just keep solving these cases and other cold cases."

"What do you think of that, Carole?" Cindy asked my daughter as she held her.

"EHHHHHH!" screeched Carole unhappily.

"That's my girl!" said Cindy.

"I see I'm being ganged up on, soooooo... it's your bedtime, Carole." I said. "And that goes for your buddy, too. Go home and get some rest, Cindy. No telling when my mom will be at your doorstep again..."

Part 1 - The Case of The Home Invasion

It was getting cold outside in the early part of November. The Elections were over and the Town & County were settling back into the routine of Life that precedes the Holiday season that ends the year.

That routine was interrupted at Town & County Police Headquarters when a youngish man and woman entered through the front door. The man was practically dragging his wife into the building.

"Police!" he all but shouted as he approached the Duty Desk. "I need the police! My wife has been raped!"

"Would you keep your voice down!" the woman hissed, her face crimson with embarrassment and anger.

"Ma'am, sir, you're in the right place." the Duty Desk Sergeant said. "Kirkpatrick, would you take this couple to Room Alpha over there? I'll have a Detective come to see you immediately." The Sergeant was following instructions of not calling the room 'Interrogation Alpha', as 'Room Alpha' would be far less intimidating and far less understood by the Citizens than the actual use of the room its real name implied.

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Lieutenant(B) Cindy Ross was sitting behind her desk. On the sofa in front of the desk sat Auxiliary Police Detective Phyllis Troy, mother of the Police Commander. They were chatting about Phyllis's latest observations of the politicians of the County when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" said Cindy. Detective Teddy Parker appeared in the office.

"Ma'am, we have something unusual in Interrogation Alpha." said Parker, a youngish but perceptive Detective in the Major Crimes Department. "Lieutenant Perlman isn't here, so I thought I'd bring this to you. There's a couple that came in, a husband and wife. Guy says his wife was raped, but she's tried to leave twice and he's dragged her back... to the point we had officers having to separate them and stand guard over them."

"Oh, this should be most interesting!" exclaimed Phyllis. "Lieutenant, would you have any objections to me observing this one?"

"None at all." said Cindy. "In fact, until your son gets back and fires me for allowing it, you pretend to be a full Detective yourself. Okay Parker, let's go see what's going on." The three Detectives headed down to Interrogation-A, with Parker giving details of the couple's entrance into Headquarters, and entered the anteroom to the Interrogation rooms.

One peek through the one-way glass showed some raw emotions being displayed. A youngish man with sandy brown hair and an angry, red face was sitting at the table. He was slender, almost gaunt, and fairly tall but not what anyone would consider physically strong. His wife, who was possibly in her late twenties or early thirties, was beginning to show some weight gain but was otherwise shapely, and she had with reddish hair. She was also red-faced with anger, and was being guarded by Corporal Kirkpatrick and Patrolman McGhillie.

Before Cindy could enter the room, Phyllis stopped her. "Tell me, Cindy, what do you observe about these two?" Cindy looked at them for a few moments.

"Fairly well-to-do couple." Cindy said. "They're angry right now, so that hinders a reading on how they feel about each other and thus the state of their marriage. She dressed very hastily; from what I just heard about him dragging her in here, it would seem he drug her right out of bed and down here."

"Very good!" said Phyllis. "Teddy, do you have anything to add?"

"He's been injured." said Parker. "He came in here with a slight limp. He also has some scarring on his face and neck right around his right ear. Maybe caught in an explosion of some kind?"

"Oh, that's very, very good." said Phyllis. "I'll be sure to tell the Commander of your powers of observation, young man." Parker blushed slightly, but was ecstatic to hear that the Commander's mother was promising to say good things about him to her son.

"Okay, Phyllis, what did we miss?" Cindy asked.

"Only that- oh my." Phyllis started, then was stopped as the woman tried to get up and leave again, only to be detained by the patrolmen. She began shouting at them, prompting Cindy to enter the room.

"Ma'am!" said Cindy, getting the woman's attention. Once she had it she said "My name is Lieutenant Cindy Ross. What is the world is the problem?"

"Am I free to go, Lieutenant?" the woman asked angrily.

"Not until she tell you what happened to her the night before last!" growled the husband.

"Okay, guys." Cindy said, taking charge. "What are your names, please?"

"My name is Paul Goldberg, and she's my wife Lisa. She was-" the man started, but Cindy held up her hand in a 'stop' sign.

"One thing at a time, Mr. Goldberg." Ross said. "This is Detective Phyllis Troy. Mrs. Goldberg, would you please go with her and Corporal Kirkpatrick to the room next door? Corporal, take her to Room B. I'll be there in a minute. And Mrs. Goldberg, you are not free to go until I get the whole story here, so you might as well go with them and get comfortable for a few minutes."

"But, I want her to tell her story!-" the man started, while at the same time his wife almost screamed "Now just a damn minute!-", but Phyllis interrupted both of them.

"Mr. Goldberg, I perceive that you have been in Afghanistan, and that you were wounded while in military service." Phyllis said.

"Uhhh, yes, that's right." Goldberg said, wonder in his eyes.

"And Mrs. Goldberg, I know that sitting behind a desk in your work can be very tedious, but we really are going to have to ask you to sit just a few more minutes, in the next room." Phyllis said to the wife. The woman's sullen face was turned to surprise as she went with Phyllis and the Corporal to the next room. Meanwhile, Cindy sat down and said "This is Detective Parker of the Major Crimes Squad. So you want to report a rape?"

"Yes." said Goldberg. "The night before last-"

"Hold on." said Cindy. "Just let me spoon-feed you the questions. First, where do you live?" Goldberg gave the address, which was in a decent neighborhood just south of the Courthouse Square. His was one of several long buildings of three-story townhouses, eight to a building, in a gated subdivision.

"And where do you work?" Cindy asked.

"I don't." said Goldberg. "Well, I'm not discharged from the military yet, but the paperwork is being processed. Medical discharge, honorable."

"I appreciate your service." Cindy replied. "How were you wounded?"

"I was in a supply depot with the Quartermaster Corps." Goldberg said. "Some idiot was playing with a grenade when the pin fell out. Instead of throwing it where nobody was, the bastard threw it into our Tent City, where I was. It was two tents over, but shrapnel still got me on the right side of my head and in my groin area. I didn't even get a Purple Heart or combat compensation for it. The fucking bastard who was playing with the grenade... nothing happened to him. They just sent him to a combat unit, and next thing I hear he's getting a Silver Star."

"That's too bad, for you." Cindy said. "So, what happened the night before last?"

Goldberg exhaled. "We were watching television, and I began getting sleepy. That happens to me sometimes after I've taken my medications. So I was dozing in and out, and the next thing I know I'm tied up to a chair in my bedroom, and on the bed in front of me, some guy wearing a mask is on top of my wife, raping her."

"Can you describe the man?" Cindy asked.

"He was tall, very well-built and muscular." said Paul. "He was wearing a full mask, like a ski mask, that covered his whole head."