Chapter 89: Morgan City Police Dept
*People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou*
How do you kill a snake? Douggie could hear his father’s voice in his head clearly. “Quickly and efficiently.” He muttered.
“What was that?” Jefferson asked as the group of state police officers walked into the Morgan City Police Department building.
“Let’s do this, quickly and efficiently.” Douggie said as they walked around the surprised-looking receptionist.
“Yes, sir.” Jefferson agreed as another officer advised the receptionist to call all the staff into the conference room.
“What the hell is going on here?” Chief Devonshire demanded as he came out of his office and the state police officers fanned out through the bullpen and rest of the building.
“Chief Alexander Devonshire,” Douggie said handing over the packet of papers, “you will find all your information in there. Under the orders of the attorney general of the state, you have twenty-four hours to comply.”
The chief huffed as he opened the papers.
“Your staff is being relieved of their positions pending being vetted by a third party. Your office will compile a list of all certified peace officers with their complete personnel jacket. All employees will submit to a complete background check and interview.”
Douggie looked at his watch and marked the time on his own set of papers. “Failure to comply and assist in this investigation will result in arrest and imprisonment. It is currently twelve oh five on Monday, your department is officially suspended until further notice.”
“There is no way that you can get away with this!” Devonshire yelled. “I’ll call the damned AG myself!”
Having expected this reaction, Douggie took out his phone and clicked on the direct number to the AG’s cell phone. As the name William Turner appeared on the screen, Douggie handed his phone to the chief.
“He’s actually expecting your phone call.” Douggie offered a smile.
The chief took the phone and then stormed out of the bullpen and into his office. As he yelled and screamed, pacing in on the other side of the closed door, Douggie and his team continued with their jobs.
Johnson returned to Douggie’s side as he made himself a cup of coffee. “You worried about him doing anything with your phone?”
“Nope. It’s my secondary work phone, the only thing it will do is make phone calls. No wi-fi, no internet, and oh, yeah, no accessible keypad to dial. He can only call the programmed numbers.” Douggie grinned at the other man. “It’s good to be the king.”
Johnson chuckled at his boss. “Should have seen the lady in HR. She insisted on calling the lawyers before she did anything.”
“I thought the city attorney was with you.” Douggie said leaning against the coffee bar.
“Yeah, she was. And after the HR lady got off the phone, the city attorney walked around picked up her phone and hit redial.”
From the grin on Johnson’s face, Douggie knew that there was more to it.
“Who did she actually call?”
“Left a message for Fargo advising that we were there for personnel records.”
“Son of a bitch.” Douggie muttered.
“Attorney, Rebecca Walsh, is that her name?”
“Welch, like the juice company.”
“Okay, she suspended the HR lady for failure to comply with a subpoena, contact with a wanted person and ethics. Tompkins is booking her in for questioning. Rest of the office is complying.”
“Sometimes you have to make a sacrifice to make the others fall in line.” Douggie smirked as Devonshire opened his office door and angrily stalked over to the other two men.
“Can I stick around for the show?” Johnson asked quietly as he turned away from the chief and made himself a cup of tea.
“Why the hell not?” Douggie grinned into his own cup.
“Once my people pass *your* vetting process, they’ll be allowed back?” Devonshire demanded with a bright red face showing his anger.
“Not my process, but yes.” Douggie replied. “I turned in my report and findings, the is what the AG decided to do.”
“You just wait until the local press hears about this.” Devonshire warned and Douggie laughed as he glanced at his watch.
“In about two minutes, the AG is starting his press conference advising of the steps being taken and why.” Douggie informed the chief. “This transition has been planned out in extreme detail. And if we find out that *any* of your personnel have been in touch with Henry Fargo concerning his wife or the investigation, the repercussions will be felt all the way to the top.”
“Chief Devonshire?” Rebecca Welch said behind the seething man.
He turned to look at the city attorney dressed in a basic gray pant suit. “What do you want?”
“Per the mayor’s request, your employment has been suspended until the city council can convene in an emergency session. I advise that you present yourself before the council tomorrow night at seven.”
At this point, Douggie was surprised that you could not see smoke coming out of the other man’s ears. With the way his day was going, it was only a matter of time.
“Douggie,” Rebecca asked, “can you please have the chief escorted off the property?”
“I’ve got it.” Johnson said placing a lid on his tea and then setting it on the counter. “Sir?”
“I need to get my stuff from my office.” Devonshire huffed.
“Yes, sir.” Johnson agreed and escorted the man to his office.
Rebecca waited until they were out of earshot. “I’m sure he told you about the issue in HR?”
“He did. With Fargo, has uncle and cousins all being in the department, we expected that there were some that were talking to him.” Douggie admitted. “What time are you meeting with Will?”
“Two thirty.” She smiled. “How’s the coffee?”
“I’ve had much better.” He admitted as he handed her a disposable cup.
Laughing she accepted the cup. “But have you had worse?”
“My dad drank coffee so strong that my mom was certain it could be used as tank fuel.” He gave a soft chuckle. “Have you heard if the investigator is going to let you sit in on the interviews?”
“Yes.” She blew on her hot coffee. “Mayor is pissed that it’s as rampant as this. I mean, there’s less than sixty officers and in a quick review of them, four should have been investigated internally for domestic violence. That’s nearly ten percent of the department.”
“Yeah.” Douggie agreed as they both watched the chief be led out of the station. “He’s probably going to sue the city.”
“Yeah. That’s why the council is voting on his termination. Want there to be no questions from our end of it. But he’ll do something. It’s not the first time that he’s been suspended. His record supports him being terminated.”
Douggie nodded in understanding as another one of his officers approached to give him an update.
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