Fatal Boost

We all crowded around Hazel..Dr. Hazel Baylor in the Medical Examiners office as we looked at all three bodies of our murder victims...

"They were murdered....but you guys know that.....They were poisoned....The poison used was simple grade a cyanide..."said Hazel...

"You said you smelled almonds Hazel?" asked my wife Carlotta...

"When I got up close to them I did...I took samples from the saliva that was around their mouths and it was rampant....We opened them up....and it appears that their last meals or drinks were protein shakes..

There were three glasses with the protein shakes in them around the table...They were loaded with cyanide...Because the Protein shakes are so sweet...It masked the taste......" said Hazel...

"We found a refrigerator full of the type of Protein shakes they drank..." said Tyriq...

"I'm having my lab people open every one to check for cyanide..." said Hazel...

"I'm checking their financials to see when and where this stuff was purchased and I plan to visit the market and the manufacturer.."said Sirena..

"Good Sirena...Take a couple of Lt. Tragg's men with you." said Sissy....She looked at Carlotta, Tyriq and Jimmy...

"Carlotta,You Rico and Jimmy take three of Lt. Tragg's guys and interview family,friends and business associates of all three of these people..Find out if there was any beef ,any disputes financial or otherwise..."said Sissy..

"We on it Lou." They said.

"Hop...You and Duke...check those cameras...Take some of our uniforms who are adept in this...Find out who else was on that houseboat..who left, who visited and get them down here.." said Sissy..

"We on it Lou." they said..

Sissy and I looked at Angie....

Angie looked at us...

"I know...Baby sit Lt. Tragg..." she said.

"You can tell him that we know they were poisoned...Don't allow him to do any news conferences..And don't tell him who is investigating what....He'll know all of that in due time..." said Sissy...

"I've got a forensic team assisting Hazel's team..Looking for finger prints, shoe prints..DNA and everything possible...on that Houseboat....I'm going up there shortly...You can ride with me Angie."said Sharon...

"Thanks Sharon."said Angie..

"I owe you girlfriend..." said Sissy, smiling weakly...

"Yes you do...my drinks are all on you..." laughed Angie...

Her husband, Jimmy whispered in her ear...

"I sure would like to be all on you." he said and kissed her on the cheek...

"Ouuu..that sounds good...If I gave you some real quick would you trade places?" she asked jokingly...

"Much as I love you babes....and as hot as you get me...NO...not even for that." he joked..

"Ouuuuuu Jimmy...you are so wrong." she said...

We all laughed and then split  up to take care of business..

II-

 "This water is beautiful....I envy you this great view everyday Lt. Tragg." said Detective Angie Belton-Barlow...

He looked at her like she was crazy....

"You don't envy me this job....Going out on a damn fishing boat everyday....Checking licenses of drunken fisherman and boaters...occasionally finding a floater...usually someone who has drowned or overdosed....Smelling fish, rotten stinking fish and getting sea sick to the point you are vomiting daily...Do you know how much Scope I have to drink to keep my breath fresh after one of my spells? No this is a god forsaken job detective.....Nobody envys me this...I hate it here...This triple murder is my way back into the city, back to what I did best...POLICING!" he said.

"Wow...Tell me how you really feel Lt. Tragg."said Angie....

He realized he had come off rather harsh...She was  the only one of Sissy's detectives he could talk to...He didn't know Detective Sirena Pile...Tyriq's wife...and had all but burned his bridges with my wife ,Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace..

He didn't trust FBI Deputy Special Agent in Charge ,Sharon Hopkins...

And he didn't know her husband....Detective Tony Hopkins at all..

That left Detectives Tyriq Pile ,Edwin "Duke" Baylor and James Barlow...

All admittedly brilliant detectives , but to him lousy personalities...He would get nothing from them and Sissy, who he believed coddled her detectives too much....allowing them to date and marry each other would not control them or reign them in where he was concerned...

Her total lack of respect for him was astounding...but so far the Deputy of Operations had failed to reign her in....

He knew why....Sissy and her detectives brought in cases....They had a high clearence rate ...The highest in the entire department and they brought in big time criminals....They were the darlings of the department....Just like he used to be...

He thought to himself...Four of Sissy's detectives...Carlotta, Duke,Tyriq and Angie's husband, Jimmy were all once his detectives...He could kick himself for not seeing their value...

He looked at Angie and asked....

''So what do you have Detective?"

"Well we know that all three people were poisoned with cyanide...that was put in their  Protein Shakes...They had a refrigerator full of the stuff...

Hazel is checking to see if the cyanide was in all of the shakes.....Tyriq's wife, Sirena and Duke are checking the manufacturer and the market those shakes came from...

Detective Hopkins has a team of our guys and some FBI guys checking the street cams, the ATM cams and the Traffic cams....He's expanded his search for up to ten miles..He and my husband are really good at this.." said Angie...

There was a silence between them...

Then Lt. Tragg  looked at Angie....

"So where are we on our murder victims?" he asked..

"Gucci is a millionaire socialite as you know and the other two were his real estate brokers....We don't know if this meeting was social or business....We haven't determined a motive as of yet...

Detectives Pile, My husband and Carlotta Wallace and some of your men are interviewing their business associates...family members and friends.."said Angie..

"And that is as  far as we have gotten." said Angie..

Lt. Tragg looked at her...

"That's a whole lot of nothing...You've got no motive and no viable suspect." he said.

Angie could see why her husband and her two best friends hated Lt. Tragg so much....Here he hadn't done a thing and was brow beating the people who were investigating this thing..

As the police boat docked in the shore..Angie went to the refrigerator...She saw some protein shakes..

"You drink these sir?" she asked.

Lt. Tragg looked at them and shook his head...

"No...No...I never touch that crap...One of the other officers who rides on this boat drinks that crap...Bud Mathis....I don't eat until I'm on dry land and actually back in the city." he said.

"I knew Bud Mathis... He was a Detective once...I didn't know he was out here."said Angie.

"Yeah...This is where cops go to die...or at least their careers do."said Lt. Tragg dryly...

He looked at her...

"Detective...Who to your knowledge runs the rackets in this area?" he asked..

"Ronnie Mo....Everybody knows that...He's got a package , he 's got a little gambling going on...lightweight loan sharking...But basically he's a lightweight..."said Angie..

"Yet none of you guys have mentioned his name...None of you have thought to interrogate him."said Lt. Tragg..

"This doesn't look like him or anything he'd have involvement with....at least not yet...We are going where the evidence leads us sir."she said..

''Are you? or is this Keith Wallace and Sissy's way of keeping me in the dark...Feeding me little  bits of information while the big fish...your big target is who you're keeping me from eh?" he asked..

"I don't know what you mean sir." said Angie..

"I think you do."he said.

III-

 While that was playing out.... Sissy,Carlotta,Tyriq, Jimmy, Duke,Sirena ,Hop and Three of Lt. Tragg's Marine police were meeting at a House Boat a little farther down the Marina...

Me and another uniformed policemen had brought them lunch...

The three marine officers and the uniformed policeman were grateful for the good food...

"Thank you ADA Wallace and thank you Lt. Sissy Van Buren....It's a pleasure working with you guys and just a relief not bein around Tragg all day...I kinda wish this case lasted longer.."said one
guy....

"No disrespect...but I hate workin with Tragg...I've already put in for a transfer..." said another...

"The morale is that bad guys?" asked Sissy, who knew the answer...

"Bad???Bad???...About 12 guys I know have put in for transfers...Even Tragg's boy ,Sgt. Richard Mathis...This used to be a routine ,easy gig until Lt. Tragg came out here....We know the brass is punishing him...but they're punishing us too."said yet another..

Duke,Tyriq and Jimmy busted out laughing...while passing mustard,ketchup and mayonaise around the table for the sandwiches..we brought them..

"We all worked under him...Believe me..We know how you feel." they said.

"I remember Richard "Bud " Mathis...He was one of your detectives Boss Lady,wasn't he?.."said Carlotta.

"I remember him too...I worked a case with him once...Not a very nice guy...He didn't respect women detectives much...a very angry,uptight guy."said Sirena..

''Yeah,I used to fetch coffee and sandwiches for him when I was a rookie..I never liked the guy...I thought he quit the force...I never knew he was out here."said Hop.

"Yes Chica...He was...Then he transferred to Lt. Tragg's unit ,shortly after you,Rico and Jimmy came aboard and got promoted to Sgt.  He got in a little trouble over there...Something about planting evidence on a suspect and wound up out on the boat....He kept his rank...but he gave up his gold detective's shield.."said Sissy.

"A lot of these guys out here on these boats are bitter ex-Detectives  and a few uniforms near retirement that want an easy gig. But enough about that...So what do you guys have so far?" I asked...

I interviewed all of their family members...Not one had anything bad to say about them and no one knew of any reason anyone would want to hurt any of them.."said Carlotta..

"I assisted Top with that...and I checked the financials of all three of our victims and did a cross check of everyone she interviewed....Nothing popped."said Tyriq...

"I actually Talked to all of the people who work in businesses that this guy Gucci frequented around here and I heard that in the last two weeks...He got a visit from two gentlemen....Both wore black suits and sunglasses, drove a Black BMW.....Nobody knew who they were, but they said after the visit he looked kind of shook up." said Jimmy...

"Duke and I co-ordinated with the local FDA and we went to the factory where those protein shakes are manufactured...Lucky for us it was Local."said Sirena..

''Yeah,Sharon took some FBI guys and Hazel and her people came along..

"They are doing a thorough investigation, but I don't think the cyanide originated there....And Hazel's people went through every one of those protein shakes that were in the frig and they were clean..No toxins...no poison." said Duke.

"So we know that whoever poisoned them ,poisoned them locally..." said Sissy...

"That still doesn't give us a suspect...Any fingerprints or DNA found?" I asked.

"After we eliminated the fingerprints of the victims...We found a palm print and finger smudge that didn't match any of them...We ran the palm print through decks and we got a Hugh Benny....A local guy with ties to Organized crime and then the other print isn't in the system at all...

"Okay...Hugh Benny's name stays with us...No way we want Lt. Tragg to find out..."I said.

Just then,Sissy's phone rang...

"It's Angie." said Sissy...

"That means Lt. Tragg is up to something." said Carlotta...

"Siss...Lt. Tragg is convinced that you are holding back evidence from him...He has assembled several Marine Policemen and boats and called the press in and he's planning to raid local crime boss Ronnie Mo's houseboat and arrest him on charges of a triple homicide."said Angie.

"Ronnie Mo?  On what evidence...That lightweight?? This is way above his pay grade.."said Sissy..

"What should I do Siss?" asked Angie..

"Nothing...Let him...Ronnie Mo needs a little rousting anyway....Meanwhile...Our investigation continues...Good work girl."laughed Sissy, who continued laughing as she hung up..

"What's so funny Siss?" I asked..

"Tragg has called the press and has three boats loaded to the gill with Marine police and a few uniforms and they're going out on the sea to roust Ronnie Mo...for this murder..." she said laughing hysterically...

"Ronnie Mo?"laughed Carlotta....

"Ronnie Mo?? " laughed Duke ,Tyriq,Jimmy,Hop and Sirena...

"Who is he?" I asked.

Carlotta kissed me and continued laughing...

"The fact that you don't know proves how of little consequence he is honey bunny...He's a wanna be gangster, sells a little pot, here and there...has a little bit of gambling going on...Thinks of himself as higher than he is...Kind of like Tragg."said Carlotta.

Sissy,the other detectives and the four policemen all busted out in gales of laughter...

(TO BE CONTINUED)