DIRTBAG CHAPTER 26

    Sensing danger, Cecil told Lan and Stuart to stay in the office, while he went to see what Elaine wanted.  Then he saw the ADA waiting for him in her office.  This was unexpected.  Why would John want to speak with him?  Immediately, he thought of his clandestine detective work.  His breathing quickened and his pulse rate went up in anticipation of the meeting.
    John said, “Ah, Cecil nice to see you,” cordially smiled and shook his hand.
    Cecil felt uneasy and held back on the pleasantries until he knew what this was about.
    Elaine went “John was surprised the names of two of your employees were on the visitor list to see Dan Murdock.  I told him no one working under me is pursuing a closed case, right, Cecil?”
    “Yes, um,” put immediately on the defensive, he cleared his throat, “while some unanswered questions in the double homicide at Nigel Mann’s residence-”
    “So you are pursuing a closed case,” John jumped in the conversation impatiently, “and I suppose you want to reopen it.”
    “No!  Not exactly, no, but I go where the evidence leads me-”
    “Did you ask Dan Murdock about the double homicide?”
    Put on the spot, Cecil chose his words carefully.  “He said nothing to me-”
    “Answer the question!”
    “Yes,” the detective blurted out, then spoke softly once he had everyone's attention.  “Yes, I asked him about the double homicide at Nigel Mann’s house and you know what?  He knows something, I’m sure of it.”
    The ADA chuckled, closed his briefcase and stood up.  “You are not to see Dan Murdock again, unless you clear it through my office with pre-approved questions.”
    “Listen,” Cecil said, desperate to save his case, before he had the ability to do so, “Dan was in Nigel’s house on the night of the murder and I can prove it.”
    The ADA turned and faced Cecil.  “You have evidence of this?”
    “Well, not as of yet, but I will soon.  I took a hair sample from Dan Murdock for comparison with hair follicles found under Mary Donovan’s fingernails.”
    “Are you out of your mind?”  John was infuriated.
    “The sample is being analyzed in the lab now, but if my hunch is right, he was with Nigel on the night those two girls lost their lives.”
    “You yourself proved he couldn’t have been.  They were separated at the gym, at Foothill College.”
    “That’s true-”
    “You know what?  I think I’ve heard enough,” John said, “forget the double homicide, case closed.”
    “Dan had access to Nigel’s address!”  Cecil raised his voice in desperation.
    “Cecil!”  Elaine shouted, “That’s enough.”
    John stopped and turned, as Cecil started up again.
    “Just one more-”
    “You are not reopening this case.”  John was adamant.
    “Won’t you listen to reason?”
    “The DNA results are negative for Dan.   There’s no way he was in that house-”
    “We never tested for hair.  We thought all his injuries were a result of the fight he had with the water polo team, but he may have also been injured by Mary Donovan.  I think Dan definitely had something to do with her death and he knew where Nigel lived.  The Water Polo Team Coach, held Dan in his office, until the campus police arrived.  There’s a rolodex file, with Nigel’s address in that office.  He had motive and opportunity to grab his address, and take off before the police arrived and the coach confirmed that is indeed what happened.  Nigel Mann’s address was missing from that rolodex and Dan broke through the glass door to escape.”
    The ADA stared bullets at Cecil, then made for the door.
    Perplexed, Cecil had to know, “Aren’t you interested in finding the truth, finding out what really happened to those girls in that basement?”  Now it was dawning on him.  He could see, John really didn’t give a damn, as he stood in the door and faced Cecil, when the detective said, “You don’t care who goes down for this crime, do you?  For you, it’s all about getting a conviction with the least amount of work, and with Nigel, you don’t even have to-”
    “And for you it’s all about the truth, is it?”  John said, stepping closer to his adversary.  “Well, I think you wouldn’t like the truth so much if it were shining a spot light on your life.”  He knew Cecil was having trouble with his boy and pointed a finger at his chest and said, “The truth is: there is no truth, just winners and losers.  Remember that and don’t let yourself get caught up in the truth!”  He said it with distain, then looked at Cecil’s boss and smiled, “Elaine, a pleasure as always.”
    She smiled and he left abruptly, without so much as a glance at the lead detective.
    Cecil pursed his lips, knew there was some truth in what John said about shining a light on his life and he thought of his step son, estranged from his mother, living with his father getting in trouble and what was he doing about it?

    That evening, as Moore lay in a hospital bed, asleep, Elaine walked in and stood beside him.
    Tubes were connected to an IV, that went into his arm.
    Elaine fingered the syringe in her pocket and looked around.  The coast was clear.  She closed the door and swished the curtain around the bed.  Now they had some privacy.  She removed a vial of amphetamine from her jacket pocket, withdrew 10 cc’s, as instructed and inserted the needle into the tube receptacle connected to Moore’s arm.  She looked at Moore for a reaction.  There was no visible sign the drug had any impact on the man, so she administered 10 cc’s more.  The patient entered a groggy incoherent state, so Elaine administered just 10 cc’s more for a total of 30 cc’s.  Now he was wide awake and wired.  He sat up immediately and looked around, “Am I in a hospital?  Why?”  He moved to get out of bed.
    “No, no, no, no, no, no…”  Elaine tried pulling up the bedside guard, but Moore was already swinging his legs over the floor and standing, stretching his IV tubes to the breaking point.  Thinking quick, she grabbed the other vial out of her pocket, while pushing her back against his chest.  He was virulent and adamant.
    “But I’m feeling fine, never better,” he said, as Elaine used the full force of her body to stop him, while trying to put the needle into the vial and missing.
    “Get back in bed!”  She yelled, getting the needle in the vial this time, as Moore was making his way around her, breaking free of his IV tube.
    Elaine injected the sodium pentathal, 20 cc’s into his neck, hitting the jugular vein, causing an immediate reaction.
    His eyes rolled back in his head, as he fell backwards, crashing into a rolling cart, knocking cups and saucers full of stuff off the tray, landing on the floor and in the middle of that mess was Moore, lying on his back.  The initial effects of the drug were now in play and Moore was asleep.  Elaine put the needle away in her purse and tried to pick him up, but he was too heavy.
    “What’s going on in here?”  The nurse swished back the curtain and registered a moment of shock, followed by decisive action.
    Elaine began to cry, her knees on the floor, telling the nurse Moore fell out of bed.  Before she knew it, a couple of attendants were helping him back into bed and putting up the guard rail, when Moore awoke.
    He was happier than he should have been under the circumstances, betraying a certain euphoria.  “Hello, who are you?  My name is George.”
    The nurse asked him to lay back while she reconnected his IV.
    “You want to play doctor?”  A moment later Moore was asleep.
    After strapping down her patient, the nurse was reluctant to leave, looking suspiciously at Elaine, then decided since she was with the police…  She left her alone.
    Elaine gave Moore another 20 cc’s of sodium pentathal and removed his IV.
    It wasn’t long before he awoke and looked fondly at Elaine.  “Hi Elaine!”
    “Moore!”  Elaine said, trying to keep her voice low.  “Stay calm.”  She needed him to focus on her.  “George, did you see me with Weiss?”
    “Oh, yeah,” Moore said.  “You met with him in the lawyers offices across the street.  I saw you.”  He was pointing his finger at her playfully naughty.  “Youuu…”
    “Did you tell anyone about it?”  She asked.
    “No, no Elaine, I didn’t tell anyone, at least not yet.  I was waiting to talk with you first, wanted to hear your story, before I fit you with some new bracelets.”  He was laughing, feeling jubilant, “You better watch out for me, Elaine.  I saw you with the cash in the bank, right after you met with Weiss, right?  Where did you get that money Elaine?  Did Weiss give it to you?  Don’t tell me you won it at the track.”
    “Shut up,” Elaine said and tried to cover his mouth, but he moved her hand away and kept right on talking.  “I don’t know what happened, but I was planning to see you…”   She reconnected his IV and within a minute, Moore was asleep.

    That same evening, Jake, Cecil’s step son was having a conversation with his father in the living room.  Pete started out by saying, “I’m really sorry, but I can’t see letting you stay here any longer.  I don’t have the time to look after you like I should and give you the attention you apparently need…”
    “You’re kicking me out?”  Jake felt like, what an outrage!
    “I’m afraid I-”
    “You’re sending me back to that hell hole?”
    “I know you have your reservations, your doubts about your step father, Cecil, but he isn’t such a bad guy.  He went to great lengths to have the charges against you dropped, so you wouldn’t have a record.  He called the arresting officer and spoke to him personally, convinced him you were worth saving.  I think you’ll be safe with him.”
    “I can’t believe you’re doing this to me!”  Jake was seriously worried.
    “Honey, I’m ready.”  “The bitch," as Jake referred to her, was in the back room, a hairy woman sprawled out on the bed in lingerie.
    “Well,” his father said calmly, “back to work.”  Pete looked like a man who enjoyed his job, as he walked toward the master bedroom.
    “What about me?”  Jake wailed.  “I need to eat.”
    “There should be about 40 dollars in my wallet.”  He said, without turning around, taking out his wallet and putting it on the kitchen counter as he went down the hall, his attention riveted by the siren sound coming out of “the bitch.”
    Jake took the money out of his bill fold and left, before the heavy breathing got any louder.

    The next day, the lead detective caught a break in the case: some evidence he could use to leverage a confession out of Dan Murdock: the results from the lab, on the hair follicle taken from under Mary Donovan’s fingernails was a match to the convict, putting Dan in Nigel’s house, on the night those two girls lost their lives.
    John, the ADA was livid when he heard the news.  However, he said, it wasn’t enough to reopen the case.  “The evidence is simply insufficient,” he said.
    “Insufficient?”  Cecil said, “It puts Dan Murdock in Nigel’s house the night two women lost their lives.  What more do you need?”
    Speaking slowly to get his point across, John said, “You are not to look into this matter any longer.  This is a closed case and you are to treat as such.”  He hung up the phone.
    It looked like Cecil was out of luck.  Then someone, who shall remain nameless, leaked it to the press that some recent evidence has come to light, that others beside Nigel Mann were involved in the murders of Mary Donovan and Dorothy Wilson.  The news spread across the airwaves and a lot of concerned citizens were putting the pressure on the DA’s office to reopen the case, so it wasn’t long before John released a statement to the press:
“It has recently come to light that others may be involved in the Dorothy Wilson/Mary Donovan slaying.  It is the intention of this office and the District Attorney, as always, to bring those responsible for these horrible crimes to justice, all of them, every last one of these criminals to justice and now that we know Nigel Mann was not solely responsible for their deaths, we will of course, be pursuing the guilty parties with the full weight of the criminal justice system behind us.”

    Later, John showed up in the detective division.  Elaine showed him to Cecil’s office.  Lan and Stuart were also at their desks.  The ADA was pissed and he wanted to know, “Who leaked this story to the press?”
    All faces turned away, the detectives were non-responsive.
    “Well, when I find out who did this, they’re going to pay.”
    The detectives faced the floor and swiveled around in their chairs.
    John was resolute, “All right,” he said, “let’s see all the evidence you have on Dan Murdock?”
    Cecil handed him a file.  “That’s all we have so far.  I still have to reinterview the suspect.”
    John perused the file, then closed it and said, “Thank you.  I’ll take it from here.  No need for you to do anything.”
    Cecil was surprised to see the ADA leave so abruptly.  He thought his plan was working brilliantly until now.



 Copyright 2016  William Leslie