An all-new Ironside Episode: Scrabble Spells Murder!
A Scrabble game is planted into Chief Robert T. Ironside's Computer. It is not long before the former Chief of Detectives realizes the words are clues to murders that are about to be committed
I did not create Ironside or its characters. They are the creation of Collier Young. I did create the rest of the characters in order to tell this story.
All my Ironside fiction is written in the present rather than when the show was on the air. Each story follows a timeline. However, it does not necessarily follow the timeline of the show. They are written to stand-alone but will occasionally refer back to other stories.
Since IRONSIDE, expertly portrayed by the great Raymond Burr, was the name of the show, all my stories will feature Robert T. Ironside with the other characters supporting him as they did in the show.
I hope you enjoy this episode of Ironside. Please feel free to review. It is a writer's only pay for entertaining you.
Scrabble Spells Murder!
Chapter 01
Robert T. Ironside woke up on a Monday morning to a brightly lit bedroom. He looked out the window, noting that the sun was high in the sky. No doubt, it was nearly noon. He never slept much past six o'clock in the morning. He reached his right arm acrossed his body, picked up the alarm clock… eleven-forty five! He had set the alarm for six as he usually did.
Sleep had come quickly. It had been a long time since he had been as exhausted as he was after arriving home from a vacation in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho with his brother from Los Angeles.* Vacations were supposed to be relaxing. A man was supposed to vacate his fast-pace work life, go somewhere serene, forget his troubles and leave all the office problems behind… except if the man's name was Robert T. Ironside.
It seemed every time Ironside took a vacation that hobgoblin known as the criminal element, followed him to make sure he could never experience the textbook meaning of serene.
The vacation to the Sawtooth Mountains had been no different. After four thousand years of serenity, the mountain turned angry in the form of an earthquake. If that had not been bad enough, Ironside and Mason were stalked through the woods by a maniac.
Chief Ironside had been torn up by a vicious wolverine and his brother suffered serious damage to his knee. So much for serene vacations, Ironside thought.
Still one important thing had come out of what was nearly the most disastrous vacation he had ever spent and he had experienced some disastrous vacations. He had gotten to know Katherine Denuerve better. After the trial ended, he had spent every waking hour with her for two weeks. He never dreamed he could feel so much for a woman again after his relationship with Barbara had ended… but he did. He supposed the attraction had been there long before he admitted or should he say before Katherine forced him to take notice. He once again looked forward to that part of his life outside the job.
Ironside looked around for his wheelchair. Mark had done it again. The chair had been pushed out of his reach. Ironside pulled himself into a sitting position. "Mark!" He listened for some movement in the main part of his office. He did not hear any.
A while back, his staff had talked him into moving his bedroom into one of the rooms they had not been using. Although he did not regret doing it as it had given him more privacy, especially as his relationship with Barbara had advanced. Yet, it was times such as this when it came as a disadvantage. When his bed was in the office, he got Mark's attention immediately as he was in the next room. Now, when Mark closed his bedroom door, Ironside sometimes had trouble getting his attention. This seemed to be one of them.
"Mark!" he bellowed. Where in the blazes was he? "Mark!"
The door to his bedroom opened and Eve walked into the room. "Mark is not here, Chief."
"Where is he?" Ironside demanded.
"He went down stairs to find our local computer whiz."
"Why in the hell didn't he move my chair closer to the bed before he left? How does he expect me to get out of this flaming bed?" he continued to roar.
"Chief, catching up on your sleep is supposed to put you in a better mood."
"I don't need to catch up on sleep. I just got back from vacation," he grumbled.
"Where you were torn up by a wolverine, I might add. If you had not needed the sleep then you would have awaken at six."
He did not want to get into a debate with his policewoman about his well-being. He had already wasted the entire morning sleeping while criminals still roamed the streets of his city. "Eve, just move my chair over here where I can get into it and then get out of my room."
She sighed. "So much for rest putting you in a better mood." She pushed his chair up to the side of his bed and left the bedroom.
Eve re-entered the office just as Ed was coming down the ramp. He looked around. "Where's the chief? Isn't he up yet?"
"Oh, he's up alright."
"Oh boy! Is his mood that bad?"
"Worse. Mark shut off his alarm and moved his chair out of his reach."
Ed chuckled. "The chief hates it when we, as he calls it, mother him."
That brought a smile from Eve. "You know, I think the only one that doesn't realize he is a cripple is the chief, himself."
"He's a proud man. It is hard for him to accept help from others. He appreciates it… even expects us to do it regardless of what he tries to make us believe."
"You weren't in his bedroom a few minutes ago."
Ed grinned. "Better you than me."
Smiling back at him, she said, "Coward." They both laughed.
Ironside wheeled out of his bedroom dressed in pajamas and a robe. He cringed as pain shot through his shoulder. He had taken a dose of pain medication the previous night and it and exhaustion had put him out almost immediately. "I am going to get into the shower. Since Mark doesn't seem to be working today, Eve, will you set out a suit for me?"
"Of course, Chief," she said walking toward his bedroom.
Ironside wheeled toward the bathroom when the door to his office opened. Commissioner Randall came in. "Dennis, whatever it is can wait. I need to get into the shower."
Randall looked at his watch. "Are you sick, Bob?"
"I feel fine. Mark shut off my alarm. Now if you will excuse me?"
"Wait a minute, Bob. I need to talk to you."
"Can't it at least wait until I have shaved and showered?" Ironside continued wheeling towards the bathroom.
Randall stepped in front of him. "No, Bob it cannot wait. I need to talk to you now."
"Ed, put on some coffee. If I can't get out of my pajamas, I would at least like my morning cup of coffee." He wheeled his chair down the ramp, slowing it as he went.
Randall checked his watch again. "You can't do that."
"You won't let me shower and dress and now I can't have coffee?"
"I didn't say you couldn't have coffee. It just cannot be morning coffee since it is now five minutes after twelve. If you want morning coffee, you have to get out of bed before noon." Randall looked at Ironside and grinned.
"I suggest you take it up with Mark," Ironside growled.
The door opened behind them. Mark came in with Vincent Mortimer, Headquarters' resident computer whiz. "Take what up with me?"
"Chief Ironside sleeping on company time," Randall said.
"He needed the rest," Mark told him.
"I wish you good people would stop trying to decide what I need or don't need." He looked at his aide and frowned. "And stop shutting off my alarm, Mr. Sanger!"
"Alright, the next time I leave your alarm on but your chair will still be across the room. You can wake up and still have to stay in bed."
The chief opened his mouth to speak again when Randall interrupted. "This is all very entertaining gentlemen but it will have to wait. There is more important business to attend to."
"Not before coffee," Ironside insisted. "Ed!"
"Coming right up, Chief." Ed brought the coffee pot with several mugs on a tray and set it in the middle of the table. He poured coffee for everyone and placed the mugs in front of them.
Ironside sipped Ed's coffee and frowned. "This is worse than Mark's. Is Eve the only one that can make a decent cup of coffee in this office?"
Eve came into the room and took a seat at the table. "Maybe you should start making the morning pot so we can critique your coffee."
"Maybe you should start a meter maid detail," Ironside countered.
Randall shook his head. "It is hard to believe that this is considered the best unit in the entire police force."
Ironside looked at Randall and snarled. "This is the best unit in the department because despite disagreeing with each other on occasion, we are a family… dysfunctional; mind you… but a family none the less. Besides how many families do you know that are not dysfunctional?"
A smile appeared on Randall's face. "Not a one."
"There you go," Ironside replied, nodding.
"Sir, Mark said you needed help with your computer. Can you tell me what the problem is?" Vincent Mortimer asked. They all looked back at the young man who was standing by the computer at the chief's desk. Through all the chief's roaring, they had forgotten he was even in the office.
"Someone has hacked into the chief's computer. It has…"
"Just a minute Mark," Randall interrupted. "Vince, would you step out of the office for a minute. I will send for you in a few minutes."
Mortimer shrugged and left the office.
Ironside stared at his boss. "What is going on Dennis?"
"You would already know if you hadn't been snarling at everyone like a grizzly bear," Randall said.
Eve, Mark, and Ed started smiling. "Sister Agatha says he's a big teddy bear," Eve said with a grin.
"It must be that bump on the head she received from Morgan Haynes when he attacked her in the hospital," Randall replied. ** "From now on Mark, I don't care how much sleep he has had, leave his alarm clock alone. He's uglier when he gets to sleep."
"Did everyone in this room get out of bed with the intention of getting on my nerves today?" Ironside snarled back at Randall.
"What side of the bed did you get off, anyway?" Randall asked.
"The same side I get off every day…the RIGHT side."
"Maybe you out to try the WRONG side."
"Dennis, are you going to continue to irritate me or are you going to tell me why I have to stay in my pajamas?"
"I not sure I even remember why I came in here in the first place."
Ironside slammed his coffee mug down on the table. "Dennis…"
"Alright, Bob, but when you are done with this case, you are taking another vacation, locked away somewhere where no one can find you. Maybe you will come back in a bearable mood."
"This case? What case? We already have a full load. Is that why you came in here? To dump another case in my lap?"
Randall turned his attention to Mark. "Did you bring Vincent up here to fix the chief's computer?"
"Yea, there is a…"
"Scrabble game on the screen and you can't access anything else on the computer. Is that an accurate description of your problem?"
Surprised at the commissioner's correct assessment of the problem, Mark asked, "How did you know?"
Ironside wheeled over to his computer and looked at the screen. Sure enough, there was the board of a Scrabble game. He hit the escape button, a message came up... You are invited to play Scrabble Spells Murder. He tried to exit out of the application by clicking on the 'X' at the top right-hand side of the screen, another message came up on the screen… Tisk, tisk, Ironside. I insist you play Scrabble Spells Murder. He then tried pressing control, alt, delete to bring up the task manager. When it came up, he tried forcing the application closed… a message came up on the screen. It's not that easy, Ironside. Finally, he attempted to reboot the computer and another message came up. That won't work either, Ironside.
"What in the flaming hell is going on?" He roared. He turned to see everyone looking over his shoulder.
"It is possible that someone has hacked into the computer," Eve said.
Ironside glared at his officer and growled, "That is a brilliant deduction, Officer Whitfield. Did you ever think of becoming a detective?"
"Dennis, how did you know about this?" Chief Ironside demanded.
"Because I got a message on my computer this morning. Hit the control and the right shift key on your computer."
Ironside did as Randall instructed. Another message popped up on the screen. Listen to Randall, Ironside. You will play Scrabble Spells Murder if you want to stop the killings.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Finally, Ironside broke the silence. "Can Vincent find out the location of the hacker?"
"He already tried. Whoever is doing this is very good. Vincent has been working night and day on this. He has not been able to find out the location of the hacker who hacked into my computer. Although Mark did not know anything about this… Scrabble game, Vincent knew he would not be looking into your computer," Randall announced.
Ed looked at the commissioner in disbelief. "What do you mean? If we cannot trace the hacker from the chief's computer, it will be virtually impossible to find him. He could be hacking it from anywhere in the world. How could we ever find him?"
"I am aware of that, Sergeant. We will have to find another way. Time must be spent on figuring out who he is going to kill from the clues he puts up on the Scrabble board," Randall replied.
"I see no reason we cannot do both," Ironside disagreed. "Mark, we have a Scrabble Board around here somewhere. Find it. We will set it up and match what our potential killer puts on the computer screen. That way Vincent can work on locating the hacker."
"I am afraid not," Randall shook his head.
"And why not?" Ironside knew Randall was about to tell him the safeguards their hacker had taken to prevent it.
"Type in the word hacker," Randall instructed him.
Ironside did exactly that. One final message came up on the screen.
If you attempt to locate me by messing with this computer (such as Randall did); first it will be blocked and second your clues will come AFTER the murder has been committed. If you follow the rules and don't cheat, you will receive the clues BEFORE the murder is committed. You will at least have a chance to stop them, Ironside. Let's find out how good the great Robert T. Ironside is at playing Scrabble Spells Murder. You will receive your first clue tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, that is unless you decide to cheat. Good luck, Ironside. I look forward to the challenge of playing Scrabble with you.
Hacker
"This guy is a lunatic," Mark said.
"We can't be sure it is a man, Mark," Eve said. "There are women out there that are just as good as men at hacking computers.
"What are the chances this is just a hoax by some talented kid sitting in his parent's basement in his pajamas in front of a keyboard?" Mark inquired.
"We cannot take that chance. We have to go on the assumption that it is a credible threat," Ironside said.
"We must make an attempt at finding him," Ed insisted.
"If we do, you read what will happen," the commissioner reminded him.
"Ed is right, Dennis. We just cannot play his game indefinitely," Ironside agreed with Ed. "If we figure out the clues, we will be able to stop some of the murders but if we don't figure out all of them, someone is going to die. We just cannot keep playing this man's game forever. We have to find him and stop him."
"I did not mean we do nothing, Bob. We are not going to be able to touch that computer to find him. You will have to find another way," Randall clarified.
Eve groaned. "Without narrowing it down by tracing the hacker, he or she could be anywhere in the world."
"No, I don't think so," Ironside disagreed. "If he is to commit murder of someone in San Francisco then he must be here."
"Well then, that narrows it down to the entire population of San Francisco," Ed said sarcastically.
"No, it doesn't," the chief disagreed one more time. "Not everyone in this city has the means or the know-how to hack a computer and be able to know what we are doing with it at this end."
"Well, at any rate, Bob, it goes without saying. Drop everything you are doing and make this the top priority. Find this maniac before he kills anyone."
"Dennis, the odds are we won't be able to stop all of the killings."
Randall blew out a breath. "I know. Find him as fast as you can. I had to inform the city council this morning. They are already on edge and demanded this be handed to you and your staff."
"So what's new?" Ironside said in resignation.
"Good luck to all of you," Randall told them. "Thanks for the coffee, Ed. Goodbye, Bob. Keep me informed." With that, Randall left his top detective to begin playing Scrabble Spells Murder.
*Refers to my Ironside/Perry Mason Crossover, "The Case of the Angry Mountain."
**Refers to my Ironside fan fiction, "Murder at Saint Mary's"