Point Hollow Ch. 05

The chronological order of my stories is now listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

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.

This story is dedicated to the memory of Dame Agatha Christie, and is partially inspired by her Poirot novel 'The Hollow'.

Part 24 - Evil at Point Hollow (Continued)

He ran at the top of his speed to the copse of trees, shouting "He's over here! He ran this way!" Then he stopped short.

"We've got him! We've got him!" shouted several heavily armored TCPD Officers. They had Dirty Lennie under arrest, and were bringing him out of the Hollow. Dirty Lennie was wearing a protective vest, and the Officers had him totally surrounded, protecting him from possibly being shot while taking him to waiting TCPD vehicles.

Other Police had sprung out of seemingly nowhere. They were by the River, near the drive to the road, and around the house. And then Captain Cindy Ross came up, wearing double armor, her gun drawn.

"Agent Sharples!" she called out imperiously. "We need your help in the house! Commander Troy has been shot! Let's go, let's go!" Not really given a choice, Sharples came with the contingent of Officers that suddenly were all but surrounding him.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As the SBI vans drove up, NTF Director Dick Ferrell's eyes grew wide when he saw what was in front of them. The driver had to stop.

TCPD cruisers were stacked and staggered three-deep along the road. Barriers were set up on either side. Behind all this were both 8-man squads of the TCPD SWAT Team, as well as twice their number of Officers in heavy armor, and with military-grade rifles. The Town & County Police were not just ready to stop the SBI... they were totally prepared for full combat.

In the Navy, it's called 'crossing the T'. This was done by Lord Nelson at Trafalgar to win that huge victory, and it was done by the US Navy in the Philippines in World War Two to defeat the Japanese and retake the Philippines. The TCPD had just done the equivalent on land. The TCPD had every tactical advantage. The SBI Agents were dead if the signal was given.

And yes, the TCPD had more than one machine gun... a hell of a lot more than one.

"Pull back." said Ferrell, bitterness in his voice. "Retreat and regroup. If they follow us, we'll have to make a stand, but let's get out of here."

"What about Sharples?" asked the driver.

"He's on his own." said Ferrell. "There's nothing we can do for him."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

SBI Agent Leonard Sharples was led to the greatroom of the Point Hollow house. There were lamps on, illuminating the room. To his shock, Sharples saw broken glass from the window... and from a shattered mirror. A small chair was in the middle of the room, as were a number of TCPD's Finest.

"What's going on?" asked Sharples.

Suddenly, he had two handguns pointed at the sides of his head. Cindy Ross came behind him and quickly and deftly fastened handcuffs to his wrists behind his back.

"Sit down." she said, bringing the chair over and forcing Sharples to sit on it. She then tore open his trenchcoat, then his shirt and pulled them down his arms.

"That's just in case you have a cyanide capsule on you." Ross said as officers searched him. They'd confiscated his SBI service weapon as well as the silenced pistol... and a third gun, a revolver whose small caliber matched the auto-pistol, strapped to his ankle.

"Concealed third gun." said Cindy. "Illegal for Officers of the Law at the State level to carry those like that. You SBI farts never learn, do you, Fat Boy?"

"What the hell is this about?" asked Sharples.

"Why, it's about the attempted murder of the Town & County Police Commander." said Cindy. All eyes then went to the entrance to the great room. Standing there, dressed in ubiquitous Tilley Hat, trenchcoat, and tapping the red crowbar in his hand... was none other than Your Iron Crowbar.

"Aw, shit." breathed Sharples, seeing that his attempt to assassinate me had utterly failed.

"Hmmf!" I uttered as I walked slowly up to him. "Serrrgeant Sharples... Serrrrrrrrgeant Sharples... how you thought you could succeed with this ridiculous plan, I"ll never know. But you are busted. For attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and when the Hamilton County Sheriff files the papers, you will be charged with the first degree murder of Scrawny Haskins, a human being, and planting a gun on his dead body."

Sharples's eyes got wider, and then he began looking around.

"No, Sharples, your SBI buddies did not show up." I said, knowing his thoughts. "They've abandoned you. They didn't come... they left you to your fate, they left you totally alone. You are well and truly fucked, Sharples."

Sharples turned away from me, and looked at the mirror shards on the floor. I could see him trying to marshal his thoughts. I poured it on.

"That's right, they abandoned you, Sharples." I said. "So why don't you tell me who put you up to this... instead of going down alone for it."

"You can take that crowbar and shove it up your ass, Troy." snarled Sharples. "You don't know jack shit. You're as clueless as the day Harlan murdered Pete Feeley because you couldn't figure it out in time. You think you're hot shit, but Pete Feeley is dead, your sister is dead, Perlman is in a wheelchair... because you are not good enough, and never well be."

"Don't rise to the bait, Commander." said Cindy Ross, watching me carefully, concern on her ruggedly pretty face.

"Oh, I won't." I said. "Fat Boy here is not worth it. Captain, read the suspect his considerable rights, and make sure you are videotaped doing so. Then put adhesive tape over his mouth so he can't try to swallow cyanide, and transport him to Police Headquarters."

"Not the County Jail, sir?" asked Sergeant Rudistan.

"No." I said. "Police Headquarters. We're going to be up all night with this fat ass, and I want to have my own coffee cup available." No, that wasn't the only reason...

Everything was videotaped. Sharples tried not walking to the Police cruiser to be transported. Now my instructions to have a dolly available made sense to my officers... it wasn't to transport drugs, but one fat former police officer to the vehicle. The Officers might have been a wee bit rough with putting Sharples on and off the cart...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was well after dark and getting near midnight as we finished up all of our crime scene work and cleaned up. I had supervised it all, making sure nothing was overlooked, nothing was messed up. This one had to go down smooth and rock-solid.

"That's it, Commander." said J.R. Barnes of the Crime Lab. "We'll send you all the reports as soon as we process them. We'll be back in the morning for more work in the Hollow, too."

"That's good." I said. "Great work, as always. Y'all have a good night."

I was last on the scene. I headed to my Police SUV to follow everyone down the road back to Town. And then I heard it.

At first, it sounded like a mountain lion beginning to roar, then the sound changed to an eerie wail, as if a woman were calling out from the trees of the Hollow. As I looked that way, I saw nothing at first. Then I heard a woman scream, a chilling scream as if from the depths of Hell itself.

I felt a coldness grip my soul as I gripped my gun and began walking towards the Hollow to investigate. As I started walking, I thought I saw a glowing bluish light in the trees. And then it seemed to move up. I realized I was seeing what looked like a human form. Like a man wearing a suit and tie. His head was featureless.

No, this has to be a joke by one of my officers, I thought to myself. Slender Man? Really?

And then the wind blew, hard. And I heard a deep male voice say "Leeeeeave heeeerrrre." The cold clutched at my soul again.

Then the lights of a vehicle struck me from the right, nearly blinding me. It was Cindy's SUV, coming up to me. "Come on, Commander! We've got a fat suspect to question!" She was not going to leave me here alone, I realized. I got into my vehicle and headed down the road, now seeing nothing in the Hollow but pure darkness. Cindy followed me as we drove away from that place...

Part 25 - A Successful Arrest

Wednesday May 11th. Sharples was sitting in Interrogation-1, in an orange jumpsuit. His clothes had literally been cut off of him during booking before we would remove the tape from his mouth and unhandcuff him. We found a capsule attached to the collar of his trenchcoat, as well as an upper button being too big. Tests would show that they were indeed cyanide-filled.

Earlier, Sharples had tried to call Dick Ferrell; the call went unanswered. Then he called SBI Headquarters to get a lawyer. They told him bluntly that he would not be getting one from them.

"Get Mr. Sharples a Court-appointed attorney." I finally ordered. It was a beautiful day when the lawyer that showed up was the incompetent Dexter Epstein. We made sure it was documented that he really was the next in line, and not assigned out of turn. When Sharples saw him, he immediately demanded another lawyer, and Cindy took pleasure in telling the Fat Boy that he was correctly represented.

"Before you take the Fifth," I said to Sharples, "you should consider that the SBI has totally abandoned you; they have left you in the dirt to take the fall yourself. It will go much, much easier on you if you give me Dick Ferrell. He does not deserve your loyalty."

"As if you do?" snarled Sharples.

"I tried to give you that child kidnapping and molestation case." I said. "I really did give you a chance. Ferrell.. he's going to walk away while you sit here rotting... until you get to the syringe table at Jacksonville State Prison."

"That's harassing my client." said Epstein.

"I want to talk privately with my lawyer for five minutes." said Sharples.

We all left the room. When we went into the anteroom, I said "Clear this room. All but Captain Ross." Everyone else was puzzled, but left. Cindy realized why I'd given that instruction when I flipped the switch to hear the conversation. She didn't even bat an eyelash.

"Listen, punk." ordered Sharples. "You call Dick Ferrell. You tell him that if he does not send me a real attorney, and a competent one, I am going to start telling Troy everything I know... and I mean everything."

"I can't do that." said Epstein. "I'm not going to relay a message like that."

"Fine." said Sharples. "I'll just tell the Iron Crowbar there that you're part of a drug gang, and their mole in the Court system. I'll tell them, and swear to it in Court, that you are as dirty as anyone in this State. It doesn't matter if it's true... you'll be suspended as an Officer of the Court while it's investigated, and then you'll be fired and out of a job. All because you're trying to play it righteous and won't make a simple phone call."

Epstein was clearly rattled. He got out his cellphone and made the call...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

4:00am. The lawyer from Gresham & Mason was young but determined when he walked into Headquarters and imperiously announced that he was Leonard Sharples's' attorney.

After a ten minute conversation with Sharples (which we did not listen to), the lawyer banged on the one-way glass. Cindy and I went in.

"My client needs sleep." said the lawyer. "Put him into a holding cell, under protection, until I come back later this morning.

I could feel Cindy's eyes on me, and the anger welling up inside her, as well as in myself. "Come in here." I said, pointing to the anteroom door. Cindy was behind him and practically shoved him into the room.

Inside the anteroom, I squared up to the guy. He was much shorter than me, and I towered over him. "Listen, punk, you do not give me orders in my Police Station. You show me some fucking respect, or I'll beat the god-damned shit out of you right here and right now. Now I will give you some orders: if you're Sharples's representation, then get your fucking ass in there and represent him... and you damn well better do it with courtesy and respect to me and my Officers."

I turned to Captain Ross. "Would you like to reinforce what I just said?" I asked.

"If you need to take a bathroom break," Cindy said, "I'll keep this guy company for the next few minutes, and get in some practice for the Boxing Matches." Maybe it was the blue crowbar Cindy was tapping in her hand, or maybe a premonition that he was about to get hurt, but the legal beagle got the message...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Back in I-1, the lawyer said "Okay, how in the world are you going to prove one bit of these fallacious charges against my client?"

"Sergeant," I said to Rudistan, who was watching near the hallway door, "what are my favorite four words?"

"Uh... 'you are under arrest'?" Rudistan guessed.

"Well, yes." I said, grinning and conceding the point. "So what are my next favorite four words, Captain?"

Cindy's face lit up as she said "Ah... 'Let's watch some TV'."

"Yes, indeed!" I said jovially. "Let's do watch some TV." I clicked on the TV with the remote and began playing the pre-prepared tape.

"Okay," I said, "here we have Sharples escorting Dirty Lennie into the Hollow. Oh, what is this? Sharples is tying Dirty Lennie to a tree... has his mouth gagged so he can't call for help. Let's put kidnapping down as a charge, Captain."

"My client was making an arrest of that suspect." said the lawyer.

"Before the assassination attempt? Interesting... we'll see about that." I said. "So now I have film from several angles showing Sharples going to the house... oh, that's a drone up above him, filming the whole thing as well. Very kind of the FBI to loan us that equipment... oh, what do we have here? Why... who is that taking out a gun and shooting through the window? Why, that would be Mr. Sharples, here."

"My client shot a mirror." said the lawyer.

"Point Hollow is not exactly a good place for target practice." I said. "Anyway, here's some film footage of me preparing to stand to the side of the mirror, so that whoever is outside would think I'm standing in the window. I had to make sure it looked right from the outside... guess I did well enough, eh, Sergeant Rudistan?"

"You shoulda been in Pictures, sir." joked Rudistan with his great joviality.

"This is entrapment." said the lawyer. "I'm going to roast you on a spit for this."

"Oh yeah, that." I said. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a document. "Ah, here's the warrant for the sting, issued by a Superior Court Judge. No entrapment, and I'll have to ask why an SBI Agent is shooting at what he thinks is a Police Officer in a window."

"Well obviously no one was shot." said the lawyer.

"Yeah, and that's because I prevented Dirty Lennie from being murdered by Sharples." I said. "Here's the footage of my guys untying Lennie, and they wait for Sharples to start running back... then they take Lennie out of there, protecting him from being shot... oh my, Sharples... looks like your plan didn't quite work."

Sharples had a dull, defeated look on his face, and the lawyer looked totally shocked at the enormity of what he was realizing had happened.

I turned to Sharples. "You murdered Scrawny Haskins just this way in Hamilton County." I said. He drove to that farmhouse, you took him to the back, tied him up, then when everyone else got there, including the SBI, you shot him, then shot a second gun into the air, which you then planted on Haskins. You were going to do the same with Lennie... you intended to run into the Hollow, have a 'shootout' with Lennie, he'd wind up dead, and you'd have seemingly 'caught' the murderer of the Police Commander."

"You'll never prove that." said the lawyer.

"Oh, I dunno." I said. "Juries in Hamilton County are composed of smart Citizens. The Sheriff there has countered the SBI claim that the Haskins killing was a 'good shoot', and they intend to bring up murder charges against you, Sharples. The similarities of that killing to this attempted one will be plenty for a Jury to consider, especially with that illegally concealed gun with no serial number we found strapped to your ankle. I'm certainly willing to let a Jury make that determination, after your fair trial, of course. And you'll still be on trial for the attempt to kill me."

"By the way," I said, "one difference in the cases... why didn't the SBI show up this time, Sharples? Why did they abandon you?"

"Are you kidding?" asked the lawyer. "Why would they show up at The Hollow? They never even tried to go up there."

Cindy couldn't wipe the grin off her face in time, and Rudistan was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. The lawyer caught it, and he groaned...

"Sharples." I said. "You should really reconsider not talking to us. I'm not kidding and this is not a threat... when we're done, you're going to be strapped to the table at Jacksonville State Prison like Lance Priemus was, and you are going to be executed by the State. Save yourself from the death penalty, and don't go down alone..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I told Cindy to call in all MCD and Vice Detectives to be here by 6:50am. It cost me a good deal of money, but I had enough doughnuts delivered to every Precinct and to Police Headquarters for every Officer (on both third and first shifts) to have at least two.

When my Detectives came into MCD that morning, the doughnuts were there, the coffee pots were full of well-prepared coffee. I invited Della Harlow and her Administration people, and of course Chief Moynahan and Chief Griswold came in. Everyone in the overcrowded room chatted as they enjoyed the doughnuts, wanting to know what the celebration was about.

At 6:59am, I said finally spoke, and said "Let's watch some TV.". I turned on the monitor with the remote. Only seconds later, the fun began.

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the lovely redheaded reporterette, her makeup and attire just a bit better than usual as she spoke from outside County Jail. "Channel Two News has learned that SBI Agent Leonard Sharples has been arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Police Commander Donald Troy..."

The room erupted into the loudest cheer I'd heard since the National Championship football game. After a moment of celebration, it got quiet as I turned back the DVR so everyone could hear the whole thing again.

"Agent Sharples was caught by Police firing a gun into a window where Commander Troy was standing at the Point Hollow farm in the north of the County." Bettina said. "The shot missed Commander Troy, and Sharples was apprehended at the scene. Asked why he was there, Commander Troy said that he and his Officers were following up on the case of the disappearing students. He reserved further comment, referring Channel Two News to the District Attorney's office..."

KSTD had the story an hour later, but only because they'd watched KXTC. Priya was way behind the power curve in her reporting of the arrest of Sharples. She didn't look all that happy, for sure...

Part 26 - Another Successful Arrest

"Okay," I said at 8:30am to my 'Detective Fiction' Club. "Let's wrap up this disappearing students case with a neat bow. Lt. Masters, have Detective Parker take some Officers to bring Ron Estes to Interrogation-Alpha. Have Detective Washington lead a team to bring Ben Ellman to Interrogation-Bravo. If either resist, arrest them and bring them in anyway. They are material witnesses."