Scrabble Spells Murder
Chapter 10
10.1
Ed opened the passenger door of his Ford and Eve slipped in. He walked over to the driver side, got in and started the engine. Rather than pull the car out of the police garage, he sat there looking out the window.
Eve watched her friend and coworker. There was just enough light in the vehicle for her to see the worried look in his eyes. "What is it, Ed?"
"The chief," Ed replied, turning to look at Eve.
Eve smiled. "I know. He did look rather exhausted tonight."
"I do not know how he can keep this up. It is putting a terrible strain on him. We tend to forget that he is in a wheelchair. I worry about his health."
"He is pretty strong, Ed. We both know that," she said, trying to ease his concerns.
"I know that but he is a paraplegic. He needs rest to make sure his resistance is not lowered. The last thing we can afford is for him to get sick right now."
"We will keep an eye on him," she promised.
Ed snorted. "Like that will do any good," he complained. "He never listens to us when it is about his well-being."
Eve noticed that he still had not moved the car. Ed obviously was not ready to call it a night and go home. She sometimes had to play den mother and look after one of her "boys". This was one of those times.
"Do you want to stop off for a drink?"
Ed's face lit up. "I thought you would never ask!"
Eve chuckled. "Why didn't you just say so in the first place?"
Brown pulled the Ford out of the police garage. "You are supposed..."
"I am just supposed to know," Eve finished for him. "You have been hanging around the chief too long. I have not perfected his ESP so you are going to have to tell me next time."
"I will try to remember that," he promised as he headed for the bar that was frequented by police officers.
10.2
Fran Belding sipped her drink as she sat at the table in the bar. Sgt. Jim Stefas had just left her table. He had come over to inform her that Chief Ironside had assigned officers around the clock to keep an eye on her.
Fran knew about the attempt on Dr. Ben Stein at the University. She heard that the chief was able to figure out the Hacker had planted a bomb in the doctor's car. Ed and Mark had been successful in stopping the doctor from entering the car just before it blew up.
She had hoped the chief would involve her more in the investigation but to her disappointment she had heard nothing further from him. When she saw Ed and Eve enter, she waved them over to her table. She waited until they were seated and drinks were served.
"So what's going on with the Hacker case?" Fran asked them.
Ed and Eve had learned to be very close-mouthed regarding cases as the chief did not like what he called blabbermouths. "You know we can't talk about a case. The chief would kill us," Eve told her.
Fran was not willing to accept that. "I think I have a right to know what is going on. I would like to know why another officer has been assigned to tail me."
They remained silent as they understood why Fran was asking but she was asking the wrong people.
Sgt. Brown shook his head. "We cannot talk about the case, Fran, you know how the chief would feel about that. You need to stop by his office and talk to him."
The door opened and Lieutenant Carl Reese walked in. When he spotted Ed, Eve and Fran, he headed directly for them.
Carl grabbed a chair from the table next to them and joined his fellow detectives. "So I take it you did not catch the Hacker today? I am assuming he has threatened all of us since the chief has assigned us babysitters."
Fran looked over at Eve and Ed who said nothing. "So that's it, isn't it? We are all targets now?"
"We don't know that. The chief is just being cautious," Eve told her.
"But he did get away today, didn't he?" Fran asked.
"He got away," Ed confirmed.
The door to the bar opened again and Ironside wheeled in as Mark pushed him. He headed directly to their table.
As he arrived at the table, Ed sank in his chair. It did not go unnoticed by his boss.
"You should have slid under the table, Ed, before I came in," Ironside said gruffly. "I would like to know what my officers are doing in a bar drinking when their orders were to go home. You should all be sleeping."
"It was Ed's idea. I wanted to go home," Eve said, smiling at Ed.
"So you just had to tag along?" Ironside asked sarcastically.
"I was riding in his car," Eve explained.
"Have you ever heard of a taxi, Officer Whitfield?"
Ed looked at Eve and grinned. The chief had a habit of putting his officers in their place when they enjoyed the discomfort of one of the others too much.
"Can I interrupt this family squabble long enough to ask why I am being tailed by another officer?" Fran asked. Both Ed and Eve were relieved that she had just given the chief another target.
"To make sure you did not follow these two into a bar when you should be home sleeping," he answered her.
"First of all, Chief, I am not assigned to you and secondly I did not follow them in here. I was here first," Fran said as she smiled at Ironside.
"As of two hours ago, Officer Belding, you are assigned to me and being first to disobey my orders is nothing to smile about."
Ed noticed that Carl was grinning from ear to ear. "Wait a minute! How come he gets off the hook? He's in here too!" Ed pointed at Carl.
"Because I was sent here by the chief to keep an eye on you two until your tails are in place," Carl said and then grinned. "I am obeying orders."
"Not quite," Ironside quipped. "I said nothing about drinking."
"Ha, like you never take a drink and stay up when you should be sleeping," Mark pointed out. That drew a stern look from Ironside. Everyone attempted to keep from laughing at the chief's expense.
"And we all know he follows his own orders when it comes to getting rest," Commissioner Randall said as he stepped up to the table. "Since you are all together, I suggest, Bob, you let them relax and order them a round of drinks."
The chief called over the bartender and said, "Ernie, we need a round of drinks." He grinned as he told him, "Put it on the commissioner's tab."
This time Ironside's staff could not hide the smiles, chuckles and all-out laughter.
"Gee, that is very generous of you, Bob," Randall sulked.
Ironside pretended to be surprised. "No, that is very generous of you, Commissioner."
Randall shook his head to more chuckles. "Well, now that we are all together, you mind explaining why you have ordered police protection for police officers?"
Ironside's demeanor turned serious. "The Hacker considers my sending in Ed and Mark to save Ben as a breach of his rules." Everyone was silent as they waited for Randall to respond.
The commissioner blew out a breath. "There wasn't much else you could do. So does this mean he is not going to give a clue for the next victim?"
"I am afraid so, Dennis."
"So what's the plan?" Randall inquired.
"Ed ..." Ironside nodded at his sergeant.
Brown took his cue from his boss and began. "We believe that the Hacker is someone within the police department. We have run down a list of names of people that would be capable of hacking into the system. We are just beginning to check them out now."
"Good. What is being done to try to find out who the next victim is?" Randall asked Ironside.
"It is not going to be easy to find out who it is," Eve said.
"What we are going to do is protect the people closest to the chief," Carl added.
"So that's the reason for tailing cops. But why is it necessary?"
"So far, Dennis, he has gone after you and Ben... two people whom I am known to have friendships with and associated with for years. He is playing this insane game of Scrabble with me. There must be a reason for it."
"You think it is someone in the police department that has a grudge against you?" Randall surmised.
"Since we are pretty sure it is someone in the department, it is a fair assumption that it is a grudge against me."
Randall nodded. "Anyone on that list have a reason to hate you?"
Mark cleared his throat. "That's a loaded question if I ever heard one."
That brought out a smile from Commissioner Randall. "That list might be rather long."
"The chief can make or break a promotion for any officer in the department," Ed pointed out. "Maybe someone on that list did not get a promotion because of the chief."
"Let's divide the list and check each one out thoroughly as we have discussed," Ironside told his officers.
"What about the potential victim, Bob?"
"It's going to be extremely difficult to figure out who that person is. I am not sure you are going to like what I want to do."
Apprehensive, Randall questioned, "I think you better tell me what it is I'm not going to like."
"First of all, we have brought somebody in from the outside to hack into my computer."
"I don't know, Bob. He made it clear that we are not to mess with that computer."
"Dennis, there is no way we are going to find him unless we start trying. He said we could not attempt to track him by looking into that computer. We are not going to do that. But what we are going to do is try to track him breaking into the computer the same way he has done."
"You are hoping that it will look to him as if someone else is hacking into the computer?" Randall guessed.
"Actually, we are hoping that he won't even notice that the computer is being hacked into from the outside," Eve told him.
"Don't you think you were taking quite a chance? What if he figures that you are responsible? He might consider it another breach of his rules," Randall questioned.
"I have no doubt he will consider it a breach of his rules," Ironside responded.
"Well then, why would you even consider it?"
"Dennis, his rule is if we cheat, he will not give us a clue to the next victim."
"All the more reason why you should not try to hack into that computer," Randall said.
Ironside shook his head. "We cannot just sit back and do nothing forever. We have got to do something about finding out who this man is. As far as he is concerned, we have already broken his rules; he is not giving us a clue for the next potential murder. What's to say that we can't continue to break his rule for this particular victim?"
Randall blew out a breath. "No, Bob. You could be taking quite a chance. What if he considers it a totally different breach of his rules? What if he murders somebody this time and decides that next time he doesn't have to give you a clue for that victim either?"
"I intend to push him on that rule. We are not breaking the rules for the next victim. We are continuing to break the rules for this victim."
"I still say you are taking quite a chance. But this is your investigation and I will not tell you how to run it." Randall reached into his back pocket and removed his wallet. He pulled out a few bills and placed them on the table. "That should cover the first round of drinks. I would suggest that you good people get your boss to buy the next round. I have to go home. My wife has been complaining about the time I have been spending in the office since this case came up."
Commissioner Randall headed for the door and then turned around. "I hate to think what might happen, if you are wrong, Bob." He left the bar.
"The commissioner is right, you know," Eve said quietly. "We're taking a chance that he will consider it a breach of his rules for the next victim as well."
Ironside was silent for a moment. "Of course, it is possible. But I don't think so. I think he will accept that it is cheating for this victim only. I intend to convince him of that."
"Well, I am ready for another drink. What do you say, Chief?" Carl asked. "The commissioner said we should get you to buy the next round."
"There is no next around," Ironside snarled. "I want all of you to go home and get some rest. Be in my office at eight o'clock... sharp!"
"Wouldn't you know he would find a way of getting out of buying the next round?" Mark complained.
"I am doing you a favor," Ironside told his aide. "You drink too much now." He turned his chair around and headed for the door. Before he reached the door, he stopped and turned back toward his staff. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go home!"
"And to think I was hoping he would let me help with this investigation," Fran whispered.
Eve smiled as Ed helped her from her chair. "Be careful what you wish for."
10.3
The Hacker sat outside the bar in his car. He had watched as one by one all of Ironside's staff had entered the bar. He even saw the police commissioner go in. What were they all up to? He could imagine that after the day they had, they all needed a drink. Especially Robert T. Ironside. Two people had died today at his hand. Ironside was directly responsible. The campus guards would still be alive if Ironside had not used them to protect the doctor and himself.
Ironside had broken the rules. The Hacker could not say that he was unhappy about that. So far Ironside had interfered with two murder attempts. Now, this time he did not have to provide him with a clue.
The Hacker honestly could not believe that Ironside had been able to figure out who the victims were with the very vague clues he had provided him. Yet he knew that the man had a brilliant mind. He should have known and made the clues more difficult. More difficult? That was a joke. He gave him three words. Ironside was able to figure it out with only three simple words.
The Hacker knew no one else who could have solved those clues. He wished he could get inside the man's mind and see how it worked. He certainly was a worthy adversary. More importantly he was a dangerous adversary.
But Robert Ironside had broken the rules. There would be no clue for this victim. He had not decided who that victim would be. However, it had to be someone that would hurt Ironside. He would not pick someone off the street. Although Ironside cared for the people of the city of San Francisco, a stranger would not have the effect that a close friend or family member would have.
It was too bad that Ironside did not have more family members. The Hacker knew that he had one living aunt in San Francisco. He also knew he had a son in Montréal and a brother in Los Angeles. The son and the brother were out of the question. The victims had to be from San Francisco.
That meant that if he were to choose a relative of Ironside, it had to be the aunt. The question was... could he get close enough to Ironside's aunt to kill her? He had already noticed that Ironside's people had other cops following them. The detective must have figured out that he wanted to kill people close to him.
If he had his own staff protected by other police officers, then he certainly would have had someone assigned to his aunt. He wondered whether it was one isolated police officer or several.
How big a chance would he be taking if he decided to make Ironside's aunt the next victim? If he were successful, it would be a major blow to San Francisco's finest.
The door to the bar opened and Ironside wheeled himself out onto the sidewalk. He was followed by the young aide who was constantly with him. The sergeant and the policewoman came out behind him. The Hacker noticed an older detective whom he recognized as Lieutenant Carl Reese. He quite often worked with Ironside's office to help solve different cases.
A young brunette was the last to come out of the bar. The Hacker did not recognize her, or did he? She looked familiar to him. Where had he seen her? Why was she with Ironside and his people? Who was she to the crippled detective?
The Hacker looked around and saw several plainclothes officers in vehicles. He realized that all of these people might be difficult to get to. But that is exactly what Ironside had planned. He obviously knew that the Hacker might go after one of them.
His attention was drawn back to the brunette. She was walking toward his vehicle. He pulled the baseball cap that he was wearing down further over his eyes. As she passed by his vehicle, he looked directly into her face. Still, she had not even noticed him. In her defense, his car was parked in an extremely dark area.
He was fascinated by her. She was a beautiful woman. Every bit as beautiful as Ironside's policewoman. Just different. He had to find out who she was. She would make the perfect victim but only if she meant something to Ironside and he was betting that she did. And it hit him. She was the one that came into the Wharf and got Commissioner Randall and his wife out of the restaurant before the bomb blew up. She had to mean something to Ironside.
Yes, he believed he had found his next victim. Ironside would not be able to prevent this one by solving a clue.
TBC…