Chapter 3: Meeting a new partner

Daphne huffed as she made her way back to the Coolsville Gazette building, thinking about her encounter with Shaggy at the radio station.

They are both students at Coolsville Central High School, though she never had any classes with the guy she knew to be a slacker.

Needless to say, the redhead has heard rumours floating around school regarding Shaggy, particularly on how he never stood out in classes and has made a habit of slacking off, not to mention his apparent drug use.

Daphne shook her head, still not sure how to make the fact that Shaggy seemed to be doing more at the radio station compared to what she does at the paper.

Heck, he's already did a couple of radio broadcasts solo, not to mention providing sound and vocal effects in programs, whereas she just finished conducting her first solo interview.

She will never forget the double take she came close to making when she first saw him at the broadcast booth with Mr. Kasem, and she wondered how did he get to where he got when he never achieved much at school.

Naturally, she would be skeptical about Shaggy's claim that a chance encounter with Mr. Kasem at the park pond led to his opportunity to volunteer at the radio station, though she also knew that many others would've (rightfully) point out that she got her internship at the Coolsville Gazette as a result of her father's connections.

Well, even then, Daphne has never taken her family's reputation for granted. If anything, she felt the need to work twice as hard as the average person in order to prove that she is capable of making achievements, connections or no connections.

Either way, on her way out of the radio station, Daphne noticed Barty Daggett's campaign brochure in the trash can, and she scoffed at the thought of the State Senator.

Barty has always been a major figure in the Blake social circles, even after he made the move from business to politics.

Born Bartemus Daggett in 1905 in Wichita, Kansas, Barty joined Blake Financial shortly after receiving his bachelor's degree in finance and law from Kansas State University in 1926, and subsequently an MBA two years later.

He was appointed to the company board in 1935, and his financial and investment decisions allowed Blake Enterprises to weather the storm from the Great Depression, which subsequently cumulated into his appointment as the company executive vice president for finance in 1939.

Barty was named as the company's chief financial officer a year later in 1940, and he carried on with the role by the time George took over as company president and chief executive officer in 1947 while Nathanial remained as the company chairman.

Although Barty eventually stepped down as the company CFO and executive vice president for finance in 1957 and entered politics, not long after Nathanial passed on, he continued to socialize with George and meet for business and financial matters.

To top it all off, Barty was also named as Daphne's godfather following her birth in 1953 and as the youngest of the Blake daughters and also the most favourite of Barty's, she often receives generous Christmas gifts from him every year.

Thinking back to her encounter with Shaggy, Daphne scoffed and shook her head.

He certainly look like the type that probably wouldn't mind living off welfare, and it didn't take much for the redhead to figure that Shaggy was the one who threw Barty's campaign brochures into the garbage.

Knowing how much Shaggy looked to be quite the slacker and her suspicion on him being the one who threw away Barty's campaign brochure, Daphne figured she won't be surprised one bit if he fits the profile of those anti-Vietnam War protesters.

Of course, Daphne herself has personally questioned Barty's leanings, especially given her role as a journalist questioning narratives set by politicians, though she can't wrap her head around exactly why so many people in Coolsville, especially young ones, disliked the state senator deeply.

After all, the current mayor of Coolsville, Francis Jones, shares Barty's support for increased involvement in the ongoing war in Vietnam, lowering taxes and shrinking the size of government, yet he doesn't seem to be receiving as much negative attention or publicity as the state senator.

(Note: Francis Jones is a retcon of Fred Jones, Sr. from SDMI)

Shrugging those thoughts off as she arrived at the Coolsville Gazette building, Daphne walked past the front desk, during which the scene shifted to the afternoon edition of the newspaper resting on the desk.

The headline of the newspaper simply read, "NOT AGAIN!

Nineteenth girl snatched from home with claw marks on wall, police still investigating"

It was a stormy afternoon at the cemetery as Lieutenant Samuel Chastain Rogers watched the funeral proceedings of a murder victim.

From a distance, the former Marine Raider can see that the victim's family was crying softly as they watched their beloved daughter getting buried.

Although Sam was used to scenes like this, scenes that comes with his work as a homicide detective, deep down he can't help but deeply sympathize with what the loved ones of the victim were thinking.

After all, he was in their position a several years ago when he had to bury his wife Wendy not long after he and the family moved from New York to Coolsville.

Thinking back to that moment, Sam simply lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes gently, during which a voice asked, "You got something to add, Lieutenant Rogers?"

Almost immediately, the scene shifted from the cemetery to the noisy detective squad room in the Coolsville Central building.

Sam was still rubbing his eyes from the exhaustion of the days events, which was dominated by him and his two-person task force chasing down leads in the latest development of the "Killer Wolf" case.

The latest development in question was the disappearance of 17-year old Amanda Smythe, who disappeared from her home shortly after she returned from school.

When her parents returned home, they were puzzled by how empty the house was, and then they became alarmed when several claw marks were seen on the living room coffee table.

Sam led his task force in combing through the scene when they received the call, and the lieutenant could only sigh in frustration as he can hear his two men discussing aspects of the case.

"I really don't like this at all, Walt." One of his two investigators, who he knew was Detective Beau Neville, can be heard saying. "Not at all."

"No need to remind me, Beau." The second investigator, who he knew was Detective Walter Claphammer, replied. "How long do you suppose it's gonna take forensics to process those claws from the scene in the lab?"

"Two days, Walt." Neville replied, and Sam can hear the frustration in his voice and imagine him holding up two fingers with his hand as he continued, "Two f**king days, which is too d*mn long for Ch**st's sake!"

"That's an understatement, Beau." Claphammer agreed. "We don't have two days to wait for the f**king forensic analysis to be complete. During those two f**king days, who's gonna be next?"

Sam only frowned as Claphammer continued, "Who, who, who?"

"You don't need to sound like an owl, Walt." Neville quipped, though he certainly agreed with Claphammer's sentiment.

Sam can only groan as he heard Neville's remark and glanced around the squad room. With the other detectives busy work on cases of their own, he can sure feel the squeeze on his eight homicide guys.

Being a supervisor of 27 detectives at the Central Division of the Coolsville Police Department, Sam has find himself having to juggle between his managerial and supervisory duties, on top of personally leading the task force in investigating the Killer Wolf case.

He knew that having him and two guys dedicated to the high profile case won't be enough, considering his other duties, and he figured that he could use a third investigator on his task force.

However, with the division's detective bureau short-staffed due to court appearances or sick leave, Sam understood that unless he gets a new detective, either through an officer passing his detective's test and getting promoted from patrol or a new transfer from another division or outside the police department, his task force won't be making further progress in the case at this pace.

Given the high profile of the serial disappearances, the FBI field office in San Francisco had offered to take over the case, also on account of the fact that one of the disappearances took place on federal land in Coolsville.

In spite of that, Chief of Police Louis "Lou" Strickland, who is a twenty five-year veteran of the force, have refused to authorize the transfer of the case to the feds, likely on account of the potential for the department becoming a laughing stock of other police departments in the country for giving up jurisdiction of a local case to the feds.

Although Sam agreed with the chief's reasoning for insisting in keeping the case and not turn it over to the feds, the lieutenant was personally suspicious of the chief's motives for his actions, especially when one of the disappearances taking place on federal land being a clear cut warrant for the feds taking over the case.

While Strickland has a relatively good relationship with the rank and file three years into his tenure as chief of police, many have increasingly came to see him as a politician more interested in appearing on the six o'clock news and dining with city officials instead of attending roll calls and be with his men.

The thought of the police chief reminded Sam of the first time he met then-Deputy Chief Strickland, who was the department's Chief of Detectives at the time of his transfer from New York seven years ago.

While their first meeting was cordial and all the usual, there was something about Strickland that sort of rubbed Sam the wrong way.

Sam couldn't quite put his finger in what was it about Strickland that rubbed him the wrong way, for it was barely two months after the transfer to Coolsville that the tragic car crash that took his wife Wendy's life away occurred, and...he wasn't quite sure what it was, but something felt very different in the aftermath of the crash.

It was then that a familiar voice shattered his thoughts. "Hey Dad!"

Sam put his glasses back on as he turned around, pausing when he spotted his daughter Maggie standing by his desk with a lunch bag in hand.

"Margaret?" Sam faced his daughter and frowned as she approached him. "What the h*ll are you doing here? I thought I told you to never come to the station after dark on a school night."

"Sorry, Dad." Maggie replied as she handed him the lunch bag and added, "You forgot your dinner."

"I wasn't hungry." Sam said.

"It's lasagna, made using Mom's recipe." Maggie said.

The mood on Sam's face brightened slightly at the last remark, and he silently watched his daughter place the lunch box on his desk.

"I'll drive you home." Sam said to his daughter, but before she could reply, someone called him.

"Lieutenant!" One of the detectives called, and Sam turned around.

"What is it, Wilkinson?" He asked.

"Captain wants to see you, ASAP." Wilkinson replied.

At that, Sam turned around towards his daughter and said, "I'm driving you home."

"You don't need to, Dad." Maggie said. "I'm taking the bus."

"No, you're not, Margaret." Sam said sternly. "I'm-"

"I can take care of myself, Dad." Maggie cut in before the lieutenant can finish. "It's not like I didn't grow up here in Coolsville."

Sam sighed before raising his index finger and said sternly, "Make this the last time you come here, Margaret, do you understand?"

"Of course, Dad." Maggie nodded understandingly as she leaned forward to kiss her father in the forehead.

As his daughter turned and made her way out of the station, Sam paused briefly to watch her leave before he got out of his office and made his way towards the office of Captain Bucky Clapton, the division's commanding officer.

When he arrived at the office, he knocked on the door, and Bucky looked up from his paperwork.

"You need to see me, Captain?" Sam asked in greeting.

Bucky immediately beckoned him in as he took off his reading glasses, and as Sam entered the office, he saw that Bucky was accompanied by an East Asian man dressed in a suit.

"Lieutenant, I'm sure you know much the stakes has risen in the Killer Wolf case recently." Bucky began. "Stakes that I'm sure you and your task force wouldn't be able to handle well at your current staffing level."

"Of course not, Cap." Sam nodded.

"Then, you will be pleased to know that I've decided to add an extra man into your task force, and a guy with his experience will sure as h*ll be able to provide the much-needed relief you need." Bucky continued before gesturing at the man and added, "May I introduce you Detective Charles 'Charlie' Chan."

Sam raised his eyebrows briefly as he turned towards Chan, during which Bucky continued, "Detective Chan is a twenty-year veteran of the Honolulu Police Department, and his fifteen years of experience at the homicide table with a brief stint in Five-O sums up a very impressive record."

Sam nodded thoughtfully before he extended his hand towards Chan and said, "A pleasure to be of acquaintance with you, Detective."

"Likewise, Lieutenant." Chan nodded as he shook Sam's offered hand, and the lieutenant can detect a trace of a Cantonese accent in his voice.

As the two men finished their handshake, Bucky continued, "With Detective Chan's record, I'm positive that he can provide a fresh view on your ongoing Killer Werewolf case and much-needed relief on you, Claphammer and Neville."

"That's right." Chan said. "I was born and grew up in Hong Kong before my family and I moved to Honolulu to escape the invasion in Far East. After getting demobilized, I joined the Honolulu Police Department, and as the captain said, I spent fifteen years working homicide in a place with all of the beautiful beaches, paradise and beautiful girls."

For a moment, Sam didn't respond to Chan's introduction as he muttered under his breath, "Who the h*ll in their right mind would want to transfer to a h*llhole like Coolsville?"

"I figured that I was getting bored with my life at Honolulu, and seeing that Coolsville is in serious need for homicide detectives, I grabbed my chance for a challenge and made the transfer, Lieutenant." Chan continued. "In fact, there's one major case I would like to get my hands onto and solve here in Coolsville."

"And what's the case?" Sam prompted.

"The unsolved murders of Vincent and Rebecca Crown." Chan replied, and Sam and Clapton both arched their eyebrows as they exchanged glances.

Chan was referring to the unsolved 1952 murders of Vincent and Rebecca Crown, a wealthy couple who were shot dead one fateful night while accompanying their seven-year old son Radley on their way home from the movies in an apparent mugging gone wrong.

Police response was swift, and considering the fact that Vincent Crown was a high profile candidate running for mayor at the time, there was high publicity surrounding the investigation itself.

In spite of that, no one was arrested for the terrible crime, and in the years since then, Crystal Dale, the neighbourhood in which the fateful mugging took place at, became widely-known as Mugging Dale.

The new name christened to Crystal Dale also coincided with the white flight that followed the state forcefully ordering Crystal Cove County, which saw a massive influx of former Confederates after the Civil War, to deregulate where members of certain races could live and work and desegregate the public services offered.

It didn't help that the then-predominantly white neighbourhood had fallen for the real estate speculation and fear-mongering from unfounded claims that the increase in black residents in the surrounding neighbourhoods could lead to a sharp decrease in property values, and as the new suburbs were developed in the 1950s, many of the white residents opted to move out to the new suburbs rather than be neighbours with the increasing number of non-whites moving into the neighbourhood.

And while the law had de jure desegregated public services in the county, a legacy of the racial segregation by law has saw the county administration paying more attention to the rapidly-growing, white-dominated suburbs.

Combined with the major factories in the area decided that moving to the suburbs closer to where the highways were was more profitable and efficient for their businesses, Crystal Dale was left with no source of jobs and industry, contributing to the sharp drop in the average income of the neighbourhood.

Anyways, in the days that followed the murder of the Crowns, there was massive speculation that Vincent's opponent in the mayoral race, the then-incumbent Mayor Jefferson Dudley, may have had a hand in arranging the fatal mugging that claimed the lives of the Crowns.

The differences between Vincent Crown and Jefferson Dudley couldn't have been more different, even though they shared the same party affiliation.

For one, Vincent Crown was a supporter of the more moderate-progressive wing of the party, having had endorsed Thomas Dewey to run for the party's presidential nomination, plus the businessman was a vocal critic of segregation laws and deeply sympathized with racial equality movements.

Crown was also very humble, his family continued to live in their modest house in spite of their great wealth, and his wife Rebecca was deeply involved in causes to advance education and opportunities to those that are not well off.

By contrast, Dudley was in line with his eventual successor Francis Jones and State Senator Barty Daggett, and while he wasn't necessarily a proponent of racial segregation, he considered government-enforced desegregation to be part of a "communist plot", not to mention a hassle to free enterprise by forcing businesses turning away non-whites to cater to them over their objections.

On top of all of that, Dudley has faced accusations of unfairly allowing business interests closely aligned with him to benefit on municipal contracts, particularly on public housing.

Many of Dudley's wrongs as mayor were pointed out by Vincent Crown in his election campaign, wrongs which Vincent have promised to right when he gets elected as mayor.

Vincent was deeply popular with voters, and dozens of polls have suggested that he would've won the election in a landslide.

Needless to say, following Dudley's successful re-election, speculation on his involvement in arrange the murders of the Crowns only increased.

Of course, in spite of the mounting speculation, Dudley was able to weather a lot of the storm, owing to the lack of evidence supporting the speculation, not to mention that he was a skilled speaker and was always successful in persuading voters with his speeches.

Dudley will eventually went on to serve a few more terms in office before forcing to withdraw from the 1960 race owing to poor health, where he was subsequently succeeded by his ally in the City Council, then-Councilman Francis Jones, who has stayed on the role to this day.

"Huh." Sam only grunted as he and Chan left the captain's office.

Claphammer and Neville were at their desks pondering what to do next when they spotted the lieutenant returning to his office accompanied by Chan.

Upon seeing the two detectives, Sam beckoned them to his office, and the duo immediately got up from their seats and joined them.

Shortly after he introduced Chan to Claphammer and Neville, Sam asked the duo to bring Chan up to speed on the case before dismissing them.

As he watched Chan, Claphammer and Neville heading towards the latter's desk through the glass window, Sam grunted before he turned around, stopping as he spotted a black and white photo on his desk.

It was a photo of him and Wendy, both in their service dress uniforms, posing at the "Welcome to Coolsville" sign.

Sam remembered the occasion the photo was captured. He and Wendy were on shore leave from Korea in 1952 when they happened upon Coolsville, which is also where he proposed to her and she said yes.

The lieutenant felt his heart pounding at its usual rhythm as he saw the date June 29th, 1952 on the back of the photo.

Not only was that photo captured that on June 29th, 1952, it was also that day that left him a deep impression of the true character of Coolsville: A true character that hides behind the wealthy and prosperous growing 1950s façade of the city.

Because June 29th, 1952 was also the day that Vincent and Rebecca Crown were murdered.

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