DIRTBAG CHAPTER 33

    All the pieces of the puzzle came together for Cecil after he spoke to his mother.  Now he knew what Weiss did, how he did it and why.  All he lacked was physical evidence, a problem that was solved when Blair confessed, after Dan identified him as the killer.  Now he had enough for a search warrant on the home of Victor Weiss in Half Moon Bay.   Like dominoes, they all came crashing down and the last domino standing was Weiss.
    Taking the lead, Cecil asked the servants to step aside, displaying the warrant for them.  Followed by Lan and Stuart, the Half Moon Bay sheriff and his deputies went through the house, room by room, looking for the billionaire.
    Finally Cecil asked one stuffy servant, “Where is he?  The master of the house?”
    The servant whimpered, too afraid to speak, while his shifty eyes darted to the right, toward Weiss’s office.
    Cecil told Lan and Stuart, “Come with me.”
    They followed him into the empty office and the lead detective searched through his desk, opening drawers and crouching down to see underneath.
    “What are we looking for?”  Lan asked, as he began to peer around nervously.
    “Anything that moves,” Cecil said, going over to the book case that occupied an entire wall.  There was a step stool he used it to pull out books.  They toppled to the floor.
    Lan and Stuart were pulling out books too, until Stuart came across one that wouldn’t budge; instead of pulling out, it lowered at a right angle, opening in the secret passageway.  Through this doorway in the bookcase was another room, containing whips and heavy chains, a rope fastened into a noose hanging from the ceiling, the corner ruler and compass on a gold Masonic Medal.  The big “G” and the Iron Cross and the Swastika with an eagle on top of it cast in bronze, a metallic eye in a triangle, like on the dollar bill, the sword, the shield and the iron mask, the display case with the old pirate ship and the flag with the skull and bones, the Totenkopf and paintings of men dying on the field of battle.  He was baffled.  Where was Weiss?  If he wasn’t in here, then…  He started looking for another hidden passageway.
    The sheriff and  his deputy joined Cecil in his search for some lever, some switch to open the hidden passageway.

    Cecil started handling everything he could in the room, and the other detectives joined in.  When the lead detective took hold of the Masonic gavel, it lifted like a lever, opening a hidden door, sliding into the North wall, leading into a dark tunnel.  He looked for a light switch and found one.
    “Come on,” Cecil said, pulling out his gun, “follow me,” and he lead the way.  A hallway lead to a staircase going down two, three stories, until they reached a windowless dank room, with cement walls and ceiling; a steal door creaked open into a subterranean passageway.  In the dim light, he could barely see something slithering over moss covered walls.
    An open passageway, that lead into a darkened space, with a bright beam of light, that shone on a display case, with the top removed, in the center of the room.  Inside: a blackened piece of skin, with a Caucasian edge, pierced by nylon thread along the edges, stretched out inside a square metal frame: his own skin, Cecil’s skin.  He was sure of it.
    And standing next to the case was Weiss, a pair of scissors in his hand cutting the nylon thread, attached to a metal frame, that held the skin in place.
    “Freeze!”  Cecil yelled, pointing his weapon at the billionaire.
    Weiss put up his hands and Cecil told him to “drop the scissors,” when 6 men in black stepped out of the shadows, with their guns aimed at Cecil, Lan and Stuart as well as the sheriff and his deputy.  Everybody had their weapons on everybody else, but nobody was pulling any triggers.
    “How do you want this to end?”  Weiss asked.  “In blood shed?  Because I can guarantee you, no one wants that.  You let us walk out of here, everybody lives.”
    Cecil thought about it for a moment, considering the practicality of what he said was true.  “Then what?  You take that piece of skin… my skin?  You take that and run?  Where are you going to go?  Where ever you go, we’ll hunt you down.  You really want that kind of life?”
    “Don’t you worry about me.  I’ll do just fine.”  Smiling, he didn’t seem worried.
    As Weiss cut the nylon threads holding the stretched piece of skin taunt in the display case, Cecil was astonished to view the piece of skin from the other side.  A black light shone from below on the dark patch, where he could see glowing white lines, a series of numbers and above the digits, a small pyramid with an eye on top.  If it was Cecil’s skin, and it sure looked like it, then it was evidence the billionaire handed to one of his security guards, who put it into his jacket pocket.
    “Just tell me, is this square of skin you have, my own?”  Cecil was a little horrified, even though he thought something this sick might be a possibility.
    Weiss’s smile mocked his troubled brow.  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”  His phony concern nauseated Cecil.  “Are you sure you saw what you think you saw?”
    “I saw it too.”  Lan shouted.
    “Second that,” said the sheriff.
    “Really?  What did you see?  Whatever it was, you’ll see it no more.”  Weiss said with a flourish.
    Slowly, they were backing out of the room.
    “It’s no use trying to get away,” Cecil shouted.  “This place is crawling with cops.”
    The men in black protected Weiss, stood in front of him, walking backwards through a dark corridor.  An overhead light came on and they nearly fired their weapons in response, but everyone held back, thinking of the consequences.  Lan put in the call over the radio and the sheriff and his men and Stuart kept their guns on the men in black as Cecil took the lead.
    Turning a corner, going into a small room with an elevator, Weiss and his men got in, keeping Cecil and his men at bay, the doors closed behind them.  Cecil yelled, “Look for the stairs!”  And pushed the button to get the elevator back.
    “No stairs,” someone shouted, “no stairs!”
    The elevator doors opened and all the cops got on it and Cecil’s finger hesitated over the push button panel: G and floors 1 - 4.  G could stand for garage, or ground floor and he pushed G.  The doors closed and when they opened again, they went cautiously into an empty room, a long hallway, that lead to an outside door.
    The night air was chill.  A limo was parked nearby.  Weiss was running toward the car.  Lan made the call over the radio.  “Suspect on east side of house heading toward a black limo.”
    Search lights sprang on from all sides, exposing the suspects; shots rang out from above them and the cops pulled their triggers and let the bullets fly.
    Dropping and ducking for cover, as gunfire erupted in deafening bursts, a bullet whizzing by his head and his left side, Cecil shot at Weiss, as he was getting into his car and the bullet ricocheted off the side of the vehicle.  Bullet proof…
    Another one of Weiss’s men was hit by a good shot, coming from his right flank.  The limo was started and now it was in motion, heading straight for Cecil, his foot in the path of the wheel.  Rolling over to the side, he pulled his foot out of the way just in time.
    Sirens were blaring, as three squad cars came in to block the limo’s path and bring it to a halt.
    Two more men in black continued to fire upon the police, as they got into their black sedan.  One black suit was aiming his weapon at Cecil and just as he was about to pull the trigger, a bullet blasted through his head and he fell to the ground.
    The last remaining man surrendered and Weiss got out of the car with his hands over his head.  It was over.
    They were surrounded by about a hundred cops, and the billionaire was taken into custody.

    Cecil was sitting across from Victor Weiss, with his team of lawyers and John, the ADA faced them from Cecil’s side of the table.
    The multi-billionaire wasn’t talking, so Cecil did it for him.
    “You once described your order as having a cause and if I’m not mistaken that cause is world domination, or as close to that goal as you can get.”  Cecil said bluntly.  “You believe in the superior gene pool and the eradication of unwanted citizens.  Mason’s tend to be high ranking officials: school superintendents, judges, important politicians, people with influence.  One of them got in trouble.  Didn’t he?  Someone with a reputation to protect, Senator Hayworth, who had an illicit affair with Dorothy Wilson and while it was brief, it resulted in an unwanted pregnancy.  He wouldn’t have the baby aborted and he couldn’t reveal the affair.  He was married with children and ran on a platform of family values; a scandal like this would destroy him, so he had the woman sign a confidentiality agreement and set up a trust fund in her name, that was funded by a dummy cooperation set up by you.”
    Weiss chuckled.  “Good luck proving it.”
    Cecil said, “We will, once we look through your records.”  This had no effect on the suspect, but the detective wasn’t finished.  “I got to admit it was brilliant, luring me to the cafe in Half Moon Bay, chasing a fictitious motorcycle gang: the Junk Yard Dogs, until you had me right where you wanted me, alone in the cafe, where you had me abducted, using your private security detail.  Tell me, who really performed the operation on me?  We know it wasn’t Doctor Tory Johnson, so who was it?  Doctor Lenard Schneider?  We traced a gurney you used to transport me, after the operation to a supply store Schneider sends all his patients to, for a small percentage of the sale as a referral fee, also a Mason, high up in the order, your colleague and a brother.  It wouldn’t be right if he was hung out to dry, would it, better to pick a doctor who botched a breast augmentation operation on your mother: Doctor Tory Johnson, wouldn’t you say, Victor?”
    Weiss was feeling a little uncomfortable, trying not to show it, shooting glances at his lawyers.
    “Two women, Mary and Dorothy lost their lives for this senator’s benefit and as you see it, the benefit of your cause: drone warfare, the ability to target individuals; accused terrorists, or more likely: unwanted citizens who degrade the gene pool and oppose your rule, wipe out thousands, and make it legal: this is your vision for the future of America: this is what you see when it comes down to it: a nightmare of horrors.  And it was very important to you, the senator be in place, to vote for the drone bill, so it might pass.  But Dorothy knew too much and she was talking to Mary, telling her who the real daddy of her child was and the deepest darkest secrets of the secret order.  So you had them eliminated, didn’t you?
    “Todd Jacobs was the man who stood in your way of becoming Worshipful Master, so you had him eliminated too… in the cafe, where you had me abducted an hour later, after dumping Jacob’s body and leaving an anonymous tip for the police, so the sheriff would be called away from the cafe and I would be left on my own, without back-up.
    “What do you have to say for yourself?”
    A lawyer whispered in his ear and Weiss smiled, presenting both hands in opposition, his lips shut tight on lawyers advice.

    Even with all that money, the billionaire was going away for a long time and as for Moore, there was light at the end of the tunnel.  By the end of September, he was out of the hospital and staying at home.
    Coming in person to deliver the good news, Cecil sat down near his partner, who was recuperating in his recliner, reading a book, by a lamp; he set the book in his lap.
    “Congratulations,” Cecil said, “your name has been completely cleared.”
    “What do you mean?”  Moore asked.
    “You are officially exonerated of all charges of misconduct, any mention of food tampering is off your record.  In addition to that, in light of the fact, Elaine was guilty of corruption and she planned to kill you, they are dropping the other matter as well,” Cecil cleared his throat, “when you conducted your own investigation into my whereabouts.”
    “You mean that’s it, it’s over?”
    “If you agree not to sue the department, you get 3 days back pay and disability leave and an apology from Detective Stuart.”
    Moore stood up, as if he was never sick a day in his life.  He made a fist and threw it up in the air in triumph. “Hooray!  Yeah!  I win again!  I’m getting an apology from Stuart.”



 Copyright 2016  William Leslie