Tornado Down!

It was Noon...On a day that I, Assistant District Attorney ,Keith Porterhouse Wallace would normally be working...In fact...I  was off today...had been at a new Bistro with Attorney Robert Foxworth, my good friend and his assistants, Chance Howard, Cole and his newest attorney,Nelson East, who I remembered from the public defender's office.....When I got a call that Drug Kingpin and a suspect in several open homicides..including the recent slaying of a D.C. area Financial Analyst ,Johnnie "Tornado" Jones had been found dead not far from the Tony Neighborhood he lived in...

I bid my friends goodbye and hurried to the scene...When I arrived...I saw the M.E. unit removing the body ......There was blood everywhere.....

The first detective I saw was Hop...

"It's bad ADA..Real bad...The others are around the back...."he said..

The others were Lt.Sissy Van Buren...My wife, Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallce, his partner, Detective Sirena Pile, Detectives James "Jimmy" Barlow, Edwin "Duke"Baylor  and Tyriq Pile...

They all were standing around shaking their heads...They looked stunned....Carlotta walked over to me and hugged me..Sissy and Sirena were shaking their heads.... Even Jimmy, usually jovial was without words...

I looked at Tyriq...

"Anybody call Carol?" I said.

"Yeah, Boss Lady called her..She should be here any minute...She's gonna flip." he replied..

"This is crazy....This is  on some James Bond /Day of the Jackal-Jason Bourne type mess."said Duke.

His wife ,Forensic Investigator , Dr. Hazel Hunter -Baylor walked over to us..

"He was shot at least five times....Once in both shoulders and once in both knee caps....then the final kill shot to the temple.." she said...

"We got a call that a lot of screaming was being heard and then gunshots..." said Duke...

"In broad daylight?? In this neighborhood?" I asked..

"Right ,Honey Bunny, that's why we raced here....We found him shot to death in this back entrance and the video camera was disabled...So we have no visual.."said Carlotta...

"From the looks of the body...Somebody interrogated him and tortured him." said Jimmy.

"And they dug the bullets out of him...We have no bullets ,so we can't do a ballistics check...They knew what we'd be looking for.." said Hazel.

Carol drove up with FBI Special Agent Sharon Ferrell Hopkins and Lt. Cantrell..

We gave Carol the bad news....That Tornado Jones, Her main suspect was dead...Murdered!!She looked like she'd seen a ghost...She nearly collapsed in Lt. Cantrell's arms...

"I don't believe this...WHAT?" she said.

"Somebody is very afraid Carol...They're cleaning up any and everybody who could hurt them..You've stirred up a hornets nest."said Sissy..."And that's not the worst...Look across the street" said Sissy.

Across the street was the car!!! The 2014 Lincoln that Breland Bobbit was last seen in....The passenger seat had loads of dried blood on it and a pistol with a silencer was on the floor of the backseat...

"Want to bet that that blood is Breland Bobbit's and that the handgun with the silencer on the floor of the back seat is the murder weapon? "she said.   "Somebody just wrapped our little murder case up for us.....but killed your investigation..." said Sissy...

"It's too neat" said Carol..

"It's scary....If whoever is behind this knew about us looking at Tornado....You can best believe they know about you too Carol....They're going to come for you next...We are going to have to protect you..I can arrange that." I said...

"That's sweet...Carlotta, you got a gem right here...Don't lose  him..." she said looking at me..Carlotta smiled at me very sweetly...

"I don't plan to." she said ,hugging me and holding me tight.....As nice as this moment was..We realized that we were into something deep and we had work to do... The body was gone...A Tow truck came and towed the car away...Gradually the crowd and police dissapated...We all headed back to C.I.D. Headquarters...

II-

We all went home and got a good nights sleep...The next morning , we all sat in our conference room to discuss where we were in this baffling case..

Some uniformed officers and I passed hot steaming tumblers of coffee to DEA Agent,Carol Redding,my wife, Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace,Lt, Sissy Van Buren and Detectives,
Tyriq Pile, Edwin"Duke" Baylor, James "Jimmy"Barlow ,Sirena Pile andAntonio Hopkins...FBI Special Agent Sharon Ferrell-Hopkins had a hot tea with lemon...

Carlotta,Jimmy and Tyriq had been out all night working the case...Carlotta got home around 4:00 am, took a hot shower and went to bed... She was up at 7:00 am... and ready to go...I was amazed at her energy...

Sirena and Hop had been out all night too... I was anxious to hear what they had to report...

Carlotta was first to report...

"We went back over those seven homicides...and we found something interesting...These guys were not what we initially thought...Independents who didn't want to play ball....They were actually laundering a large amount of cash through him....Cash they didn't want to report...They thought he was holding it for them...One or more of them got wise that their money was gone and they demanded an accounting of their funds.." she said

"And that was the wrong question.....It cost them their lives...."said Jimmy...

"Duke and I found out the same thing in D.C. and Baltimore..and we found something else out."said Tyriq,smiling...

"Yeah...Those five guys in Baltimore, Your ten guys in D.C. and our seven guys have something in common.  Not Breland or Tornado Jones...They all did Federal time, all prosecuted and put there by one Owen McCracken....The Assistant District Attorney  in D.C. and eventually the U.S. Attorney, Southern District...He knew all of these guys..."said Duke...

"Here's where it gets cute...He and one John Lewis Jones...Known to you guys as "Tornado" went to Law school together......They've known each other for years...Ever wonder why Tornado Jones never had any convictions and why he always seemed one step above the law??  He has a friend in high places...A one time U.S. Attorney....Now ,Senator Owen McCracken...who has ,according to the papers the largest war chest in Washington,D.C. and beholden to no one!"said Sirena...

"He knew these guys were more than likely still in the game and they were still collecting huge profits...Most of them got paroled after only serving a few years....They owed him a favor...He started calling in his markers early.."said Hop...

"Oh My God...You guys are incredible...Sissy...I'd give anything to work with these guys all the time...Sharon, we got to talk girl...I'm thinking of moving back to Philly and transferring to our Philadelphia Regional Office...You have to tell me how you did that." she said.

"I had put in for a transfer here months before and frankly...D.C. was glad to be rid of me."said Sharon...."It helped that I was engaged and buying a house in the area too.." she added..

"Yeah ,well I'm not buying a house...but some other changes may be coming." said Carol...

"Girl...Did he pop the question?" asked Sissy...

"No...but he's kind of close.." she said...

I hated to break up their brevity..but I had to get us back on track...

"What do we have on this McCracken?? Any other links to him, besides the fact that he prosecuted them and may or may not have gotten them all light sentences....Because other than that...We got nothin..We can't touch him.."I said.

"No...but Sirena, Hop and I looked into Albert Collins"said Sharon...

"Yeah,it seems he was a very serious Anesthesiologist at one time....And then a very prominent patient of his died...The Hospital was sued for mal-practice..."said Hop..

"Yeah? Those types of things happen all the time."I said.

"Wait Honey Bunny...It gets better...He was brought up and indicted on criminal charges...for man-slaughter in the case..."said Carlotta..

"Guess who made the charges go away?" said Sirena...." U.S. Attorney Owen McCracken....So Albert Collins owed him a favor...He went into business..A very popular Pharmecutical company that sold the drugs used to execute death row prisoners to the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, California,Ohio, and more...He made a pile and he too funneled money into McCracken's war chest...Later when McCracken needed people taken out quietly...His good friend Albert Collins was more than happy to oblige..." said Sirena..

"Good work guys, but that's thin...very thin..." I said.

"Keith..it's thin I agree, but there are too many co-incidences...From the beginning we said that there had to be somebody with a lot of juice pulling the strings...We have McCracken...connected to Tornado Jones, Albert Collins and Breland Bobbit....as well as all of our murder victims in three cities...We have Albert Collins with Breland Bobbit in Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia on the days all 22 of our murder victims wound up dead...I like Albert Collins for the murders...with Breland Bobbit for conspiracy...."said Sissy.

"Okay...and they're both dead....We've got nothing to attach McCracken to any of this except that he knew all of these people somehow...We don't have any photos of him with any of them or tapes or nothing."I said.

II-

If I had put a damper on the mood in the room, Hazel came in and did me one better....She looked like she'd seen a ghost...

"I got bad news and good news.." she said.

"I've heard enough bad news."said Sissy playfully giving me the side eye.... Everybody laughed...
"What's the good news?" she asked.

"The blood and brain matter in that car is a match for Breland Bobbit....and the murder weapon is definitely the gun found in the backseat...The fingerprints on the murder weapon belong to Tornado Jones....He was your killer..." she said.

"And the bad news?" said Carol..

"We found one bullet in the back of Tornado Jones....It's from a .40 caliber pistol.....It's registered to you Carol!" said Hazel.....

"I didn't kill him...I thought about it...but I didn't kill him....Something you should know before you hear it from somewhere else...I found that car yesterday with the blood on it...I found it..but it was miles away in one of his warehouses...I thought I had him cold..but he showed up, told me that without a warrant ,I couldn't even say that I saw the car which was right...I thought I had jeapordized
my whole case...  I went to Ed's house very depressed...But Tornado was alive when I left that warehouse...He was probably followed and killed and a second party drove that car to his neighborhood..Why would he have that car on his street, when he knew the Philadelphia Police was looking for it??Think about it...and why would he still be holding on to the murder weapon...This was a set up!" she said.

"How can that be??...You have your side arm and that's a glock!" said Carlotta.

"I have a back up piece...A .40 caliber...It was stolen , from my apartment 's safe..along with $5000.00 from my apartment about two weeks ago....I filed a police report with the D.C. police and with the DEA...You can check it out." said Carol Redding.

"You're being set up....McCracken or whoever must have found out that you were on to him...He's coming after you." I said.

"Come on Hop, let's check her alibi out..."said Jimmy..as he and Hop left the conference room..

"On it Jimmy.." said Hop...

Sissy put her arms around Carol...

"They know you're serious now...That's why they killed Tornado and Breland...You're next and then McCracken or whoever is pulling strings is free and clear..."said Sissy...

"Let me put a protective detail on you....My guys are good, you won't even know they're there...You can't stay at Ed Cantrell's house anymore Carol...Not until this is sorted out...They probably already know you've been crashing there....Come on now...Don't be stubborn Carol...Let us help you." said Sharon..

Carol smiled at Sharon...They had known each other in D.C.  Had found out they were both from Philly and had been friends..They had even worked together on a case before...

"Okay...I'll go by Ed's house and get my stuff...and I'll meet you back here." she said. "Funny...his phone keeps going to voicemail." she said.

"I'll call his office." said Sissy...

She called his office...She walked back after a few minutes....

"That's funny, they said that he didn't come to work this morning."said Sissy...

"Oh he's probably sleep...He uh is uh quite active if you know what I mean..and he was uh pretty worn out this morning when he woke up!" she said.

Sissy,Sharon, Carlotta and Sirena all smiled sheepishly... Tyriq and Duke laughed...So Did I...

We all knew the deal!

III-

Jimmy and Hop came back about an hour later....

"Carol's alibi is tight...She did report the theft of her apartment two weeks ago..Stolen was one .40 caliber pistol and five thousand in cash....D.C. Coppers verified it. You keep that much cash on you...Can I get a loan?" laughed Jimmy...

Carol laughed...

"We checked with the DEA...They confirmed the report too..." said Hop..

She fiddled with her phone...

" Not such a good frame ehh?..Hmmm Ed still isn't answering..."she said.

"We are going home in a few minutes...Do you want us to drop you off?" said Carlotta..

"No dear..My Jeep is downstairs in the garage..and I have a key...I'll get my stuff and call Ed when I can..Maybe he went out." said Carol...She waved as she headed for the elevator...

I put my arms around Carlotta, she leaned her head on my shoulders...I looked at Sissy..

"You gotta admit...When Carol shows up...We do get the fun cases don't we?" I laughed...

Sissy laughed...

"We do don't we? We just cleared seven open homicides...Well eight if you include Breland and helped Washington and Baltimore clear their open homicides..Not bad for the week huh?" said Sissy.

"I would have liked to have made a case against Tornado Jones...He was so cocky,so arrogant.."said Carlotta..."But he's off the streets....It's a lot safer with him gone." she said.

"Yeah...how bout that...Hey Sis, you want to join us for a cold one at Josies?" I asked..

"Yeah,I could use one...Duke,Hazel ,Rico,Sirena ,Jimmy ,Hop and Angie said that they were stopping by after work..."said Sissy...

"What about Sharon?" asked Carlotta...

"She's stopping by after she gets Carol safely put up.."said Sissy...

"Good,let's get out of here." I said...

None of us had any idea then...but this case was far from over!

(CONCLUSION NEXT)