Remember the Halocracy

Chapter 1

For a murder that had just been discovered, the investigation was rapidly coming to a close. At least it was almost over in Lieutenant Thomas J. Baker's estimation. Baker was the Toronto police officer in charge of murder investigations.

A heavy rainfall on Wednesday had proven to be lucky. Late that evening, hikers in Toronto Park had found a hand sticking out of a shallow muddy grave. That wasn't so much lucky as it was observant. Most people would notice such a thing.

Police were at the murder scene early Thursday morning and Baker took charge at 9 am. After carefully removing the mud around the burial site, the police found a man's body. A wallet inside his pants pocket revealed him to be a Mr. Harry Morgan. That same wallet gave them his address. The dry dirt under his body suggested he was placed in the grave before Wednesday's rainfall. That, and the condition of the body led the police coroner to establish the date of death as Tuesday, April 13, 2089.

The bullet through Morgan's forehead gave cause of death. A discolouration on the man's forehead established that the gun had been shot from close range. The bullet was recovered at the scene. Investigators would be looking for a Colt 45 handgun. They didn't have far to look. A Colt 45 was found safely entombed under Morgan's body. It had been protected from the grave's loose dirt by the heavy-duty paper bag that enclosed it. The gun was carefully removed from that bag. We have fingerprints, Lieutenant Baker observed through a magnifying glass.

The gun and the body were removed from the grave and sent to police headquarters for processing: the body for an autopsy; the gun for fingerprint analysis. They also found a portable shovel underneath Morgan's body. Campers take this kind of shovel with them for multi-purpose duties, like digging latrines. The blade of the shovel was olive green – a replica perhaps of a military shovel. The paint on the blade was almost pristine. Digging this grave was likely the first time it had been used. Baker concluded that the murderer had shot the man close to what would be his grave, dug the grave with the shovel, placed the shovel in the grave first, the bag with the gun second, and the man third. The murderer had then used his hands to cover Morgan up with the soft dirt. He may not have known that the first rainfall would wash some of the loose soil away.

The shot through the forehead prompted Lieutenant Baker to remember a second murder that he had worked on recently. That death was that of a teenager – Carlos Escondido. He also had been murdered at close range. The bullet had gone through his forehead and the coroner had found a similar discolouration. Baker ordered the police lab to compare the bullets from that murder to the recent murder and to test fire the Colt 45 that had been found in the shallow grave. While this was being done, he dispatched Detective Louie Tubb to interview all the residents in Morgan's apartment building. He instructed Tubb to withhold the news about the earlier murder.

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Tubb started on the top floor of the building and made his way apartment by apartment down to the ground floor. He told each resident that the police were looking for Harry Morgan, the occupant of apartment #4 on the third floor, because his sister had filed a Missing Person's report. He then asked if they could tell him anything at all about Mr. Morgan that would help the police find him. Unfortunately, none of the residents knew anything about Mr. Morgan. They might nod at him in passing, but that was the extent of any communications they might have had with him.

During his tour through the building, Tubb questioned a young woman named Beneditka Ekelund. Like other residents, she told him that she knew nothing about Morgan, but her ignorance about the man was because she didn't live in the building. She was staying temporarily in the third floor apartment with her boy friend who was downtown talking with his employer. That led to Tubb discovering that her boyfriend was Cowboy, also known as Jim Jackson. Tubb didn't think anything of that at the time. He did notice some wet camping gear that was spread around the apartment to dry.

One of the ground floor apartments belonged to a Mrs. Madhuri Lee who lived there with her teenage daughter, Annika. Neither of them knew anything about Morgan. Tubb was only making conversation over a cup of coffee and some banana bread when he happened to mention that he had worked with one of their neighbours in a recent murder case – the neighbour being Cowboy. That led to Mrs. Lee praising Cowboy effusively, especially with how he had helped Annika deal with a persistent bully at her school. Tubb probed for details as any detective would. That led to Mrs. Lee saying that Cowboy had repaired the bars outside their window so that the bully couldn't force his way inside. He had even gone to the bully's home and spoken to him about leaving Annika alone. That led to Tubb asking Mrs. Lee who the bully was. That led to Mrs. Lee revealing that she only knew of him by Annika's nickname – Pitface. That led to Tubb asking Annika what his real name was. Annika replied Carlos Escondido. It was at this point in the interview when Tubb's social conversation became less social and more detectivey.

Mrs. Lee continued her side of the conversation by saying that whatever Cowboy had said had definitely worked. Pitface never bothered Annika again but that probably wouldn't be a problem for her any longer. Annika was much more confident now and she didn't need Cowboy's protection. That led to Tubb learning that Cowboy had given Annika shooting lessons. That led to Tubb asking her what kind of gun she had learned on. A Colt 45 was the response.

My readers may recall from the events of the previous novel (Old Stone Face) that Cowboy had taken over a murder case from Detective Aloysius Tubb and had solved it quickly. Tubb's image within the Toronto Constabulary had taken a hit when that quick success had garnered praise for Cowboy and sarcastic comments about Tubb. You'd be right in concluding that Tubb was not particularly fond of Cowboy.

Annika joined the conversation at that point and said that Cowboy's girl friend had also helped with her shooting. The friend, nicknamed Bean, was a very good shooter. At the shooting range, she had hit the bull's eye six times out of six even though she was rolling around on the ground while she shot. Bean used to be in the military. She had told Annika that she herself would aim for the forehead when she had an open shot because death would be instantaneous.

Tubb thanked Mrs. Lee for the coffee and dessert, but he was needed back at the police station now and would have to leave.

He seemed nice, Annika said as she helped her mom clean up the dining room.

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By Thursday noon, the examination of the fingerprints on the gun under Morgan's body had been completed. The prints were top quality. All the police forensics specialist needed now was a suspect. If that suspect had killed Morgan, the finger prints would convict him. Since the first murder had been committed in the same style, Lieutenant Baker believed those fingerprints would solve the first murder too.

Lieutenant Baker decided to act now even though microscopic examinations of the bullets found in the two bodies were not ready yet. He personally conducted the interview with the girl friend in Cowboy's apartment. He said that he was investigating the murder of Harry Morgan, the neighbour next door. Questions included: Where did she receive her military training? What position was she trained for? Had she ever killed in the line of duty?

Bean refused to answer, as was her right. She knew that neither she nor Cowboy had been involved in any way with Harry Morgan. She had learned that saying nothing until you knew the reasons for the questions was a smart strategy.

Lieutenant Baker didn't need answers right now. He was looking for signs of guilt and this non-communicative young woman had given him that. He brought Bean down to the police station for further questioning. When she continued to refuse to answer the simplest of questions, he informed her that he was concerned for her safety, living all alone as she was in a building where a murderer could be hiding. His concern was so acute that he was putting her in protective custody until he could establish that she would be safe if she returned to the apartment complex. Bean learned that Baker's idea of protective custody meant locking her in a cell. It was standard procedure for all occupants of locked cells to have their fingerprints taken. Those fingerprints were immediately compared to the fingerprints on the gun that had been found under Harry Morgan. They were identical.

The conclusion was obvious. Bean had murdered Harry Morgan.

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Chapter 2

We'll take a one chapter break from Baker's murder investigation now and skip merrily back in time. The last time my readers saw Cowboy, he was watching Dr. Richardson's trial in Nebraska. Cowboy left Nebraska the day after Dr. Richardson had discovered that it was inherently dangerous to climb up to the rafters of a Wal*Mart store with a rope fastened tightly around his neck and its end tied to a ceiling girder. Cowboy arrived in Toronto the next morning, Monday April 12. His last contact with Bean had been the previous Monday. For reasons some of my readers will understand, he had been very motivated to return quickly to Toronto. I'll skip describing what happened after he arrived.

Tuesday morning, he and Bean began to catch up on the past week. Cowboy told her all about his investigation including accounts on how others had been involved in bringing Professor Richardson to justice. He also gave her the black Stetson that he had bought from Stu as a gift for her.

Bean was happy for Cowboy but her mood was subdued. She had passed her courses, but the marks would never qualify her for advanced medical studies. That prompted Cowboy to suggest that they go camping which was exactly what Bean needed. They packed up the camping gear that Cowboy has received in a barter deal and headed downstairs. While Bean packed the copter, Cowboy rapped on Madhuri Lee's door and asked Annika if she would tell her mom that Dr. Richardson had been caught and the girls Cowboy had been looking for had been rescued. The tent that Cowboy had propped up against the wall prompted Annika to ask where he was going. Cowboy replied that he and Bean would be camping outside of the city for a couple of days. When they returned, he'd give her mom all the details of his investigation.

The camping trip had mixed results. Cowboy was able to tell her about Professor Zewinski from York University and how she had suggested that Bean might find York's accelerated program for medics appealing. It was geared for first responders to traumatic events. Bean was receptive to the idea so long as the courses didn't require her to memorize page after page of medical definitions.

They spent the rest of Tuesday hiking. The weather turned nasty on Wednesday morning with a heavy rain and biting wind. They decided to come home early and unlocked the door to Cowboy's apartment Thursday morning at 8. Bean would spend the rest of the day online checking out York University. Cowboy left the apartment after breakfast.

His first errand was to check in with Megan O'Flaherty and tell her that his investigation had been concluded successfully. With no new work assignments available to him, Cowboy decided to visit Professor Lillian Zewinski. Perhaps she'd be back from her visit with her family. The university's departmental secretary shared the bad news as kindly as she could. Professor Zewinski had died of cancer and he had missed her memorial service. She did give him the name of the cemetery where she had been buried.

Cowboy spent some time at the grave site. Professor Zewinski had seemed so happy and energetic, but all the time he had been with her, she had been silently fighting the cancer. The gravestone boiled her life down to two facts. Professor Astrid Zewinski: born March 13, 2019, died March 30, 2089. But she was so much more than that. If it hadn't been for the professor, Cowboy knew that he might never have caught Richardson and rescued his daughters. He certainly wouldn't have known about York's accelerated program. However, he couldn't help but think that with a first name of Astrid, no wonder she liked her Lillian nickname more.

Cowboy left the gravesite and arrived at his apartment at 5:30 pm. By then, Bean was sitting in a cell, but he didn't know that yet.

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Chapter 3

We're back to present time. Cowboy opened the third floor hallway door and found his way blocked by a big stocky man in a dark blue uniform who turned at the noise and raised his palm in a Stop now order.