12th Precinct, Present Time

To Serve and Protect

Chapter 9 - Out of Sight

Subway Mole People of NYC

In the 1970's to the 1990's there was a substantial secretive community of homeless people living in what were the abandoned subway lines below the city streets. These people lived underneath the population on the surface who went about their days, working, entertaining, and enjoying the big city life that NYC had to offer. But below their expensive apartments were people who lived rent free and did not have the troubles of making a living. But as the new century came about, the city made a push to clean out the subways and to evict these mole people. Now in present days, the numbers of subway residents had been greatly reduced. Those that had remained behind were more clandestine, trying not to call attention to their existence in this underground world, lest they be evicted.

Before the city made an effort to get rid of them, there had been significant communities living in the abandoned lines of the New York subway system. Many had set up elaborate abodes some with electricity and water, furnished with items thrown out on the streets to be taken by people who could use them, before they were picked up for disposal by City Sanitation crews. There were urban legends of people living there for years; some with complete fully furnished homes, with utilities that were tapped off existing such lines found in their abandoned lines. Many fed themselves by going around to the different grocery stores and restaurants taking the food that was to be thrown out as city laws prevented them from being consumed past a set time or expiration date. There was something almost romantic about living in New York City, rent free, utilities free, and food free, yet still enjoying what the city had to offer. Their lifestyles seemingly appealing to many who knew of them.

There had even been a story printed in the NY Times of a person who had lived in this manner for years. The story went that unable to find an affordable apartment the person had sought residence in the subways. He had a regular job, but just could not find an apartment that fit his budget. He chose to live in the abandoned subway. For an address he had gotten a Postal Box in the local Post Office and used that address for his mail and to create a city residence. Rather than give his address as a Post Office Box, he simply listed the street address of the Post Office with B45 designating PO Box 45 as his. It had worked. People saw the address and assumed B45 was his apartment number, while the Postal Staff saw it as Post Box 45. So not only was he living for free in NYC, but his scam also gave him a Bonafide address, even his seldom used driver's license had his Postal Address. The story goes that he continued to work and bank his full pay minus whatever expenses the man chose to spend. He also fed himself with the food tossed out by the many stores and restaurants of the city. He managed to do this for some twenty years and then retired on the money he had banked; moved back to his hometown in the state Delaware.

Whether the story was true or urban legend, it served as an example to potential mole people as to what could be achieved by living underground, expenses free!

Gregg Fletcher had been ignorant of these mole people. He had found out about them by accident. Shortly after his wife's death and still reeling from her loss, he had decide to see a movie to forget his sorrow if only for a short while. He set up to see the 9PM showing as was his custom when he went to see a movie. The motion picture theatre was just a short subway ride away and he had planned to take the route as he normally did. The subway at this hour tended to be pretty empty, since it was a Wednesday night and most people had already made it home. He and his wife had often did this mid-week show to avoid large movie crowds. As he waited for his ride on the subway platform, he noticed the only other person on the platform step onto the track and head down it.

Thinking the man might be mentally ill and not of the right mind to realize the danger he had put himself in; Gregg pursued the man and called out to him to come back. It was dark down that track and he used the light from his cell phone to show him the way. He was just several feet behind the man as he went after him and then suddenly, the man disappeared. After some time heading down the track and not seeing the man, he turned back. As he started his return, he heard the sound of the subway train heading his way. He panicked thinking he might be run over and started to run. Then he saw it, another opening in the tunnel, off to his right. He took it to let the train pass him, but he sooned realized it was not just a small niche, but a whole rail track tunnel. Intrigued, he explored the track and found a number of persons who were apparently living there, including the man he had been following.

"Leave us.", said the man he had pursued, "This is our home and you are unwelcomed here."

"I am sorry. I followed you concerned that you did not know the danger you were in. I called out to you to return to the platform."

"I thank you for your concern but as you can see, we live here. The Transit Authority is always looking for people like us to evict us from where we choose to settle. Please, go on your way and tell no one about us."

Gregg did as the man had asked. Since Gregg had missed his ride to the movie, he decided to head back to his apartment thinking about what he had discovered. He returned to that place and actually made friends with the man he had followed. The man's name was George Cummings, who, as Gregg learned, had lost his job and was unable to keep his apartment. The man had availed of the many rescue shelters run by the city for homeless people, but they could be bad. Many people who used them were often victimized by the same people whom they shared the facility with. Then one day, another man who he had gotten acquainted with while at the shelter, told him about the mole people and that he was going to try to use the subway for a home. He asked if George wanted to accompany him and see if this was a way to avoid the city shelters. That is how George came to be a mole person.

George told Gregg of the other abandoned lines, now mostly cleaned out, thanks to the efforts of the Transit Authority. Intrigued, Gregg did research on the phenomena of the Subway People. He had even found maps of the old, abandoned lines in his research. He started spending his weekends exploring these abandoned tunnels. On one weekend he found a line that was not only abandoned but had three subway rail cars left in place there. Two had been previously used as shelters as evidenced by old blankets, sleeping bags, clothes and the like left there. The third car was, however, still relatively untouched. Then it came to Gregg, he could set up a secret sanctum for himself here in this tunnel. Thus began the creation of his own hidden underground place for his own sinister purposes. He furnished this third car with discarded furniture left on the streets. He had even found an old electric box in the tunnel which was still energized. Gregg ran a cable from it to the car which had gave him electricity to run laptop computers, camera gear, and other items he needed to stalk and abduct his victims.

Gregg used the old subway car as his secret place to plot the abduction of his victims and had even held them there, captive, until he killed them. He had managed to devise a lock system for the doors to the rail car and placed his own pad lock on it, should someone stumble on to his secret sanctum. The car had all the equipment and disguises he used on his vics to capture them then for his own perverted desires. It also had there all his keepsake items that he had collected to remind him of his victims. His apartment was clean of any of these articles so if for some reason it was searched, it would yield no clues to his horrific activities.

Gregg had been reasonably certain about the privacy afforded by his secret place. Also, he had secured it from break-in with his padlock which was substantial and could be breached by bolt cutters, but only with much difficulty. He used a padlock that had a short tang that was hard to grip with a bolt cutter and would require considerable efforts to cut it off so as to compromise his very secret man cave.

Gregg had created the ideal location to plot his killings and it afforded him secrecy from the police and the public.

From An Hidden Ukraine Observation Post

"This is Alexis Castle, Editor-in-Chief of The Scroll. I am vlogging our second podcast in this ongoing series. Today we report once again from the Ukraine-Russian border where we have been revealing the significant buildup of Russian forces here that has been happening in the past days and weeks. This is a forecasting of an invasion by Russian forces, similar to their invasion of Crimea years back. Shown here are drone shots I took days ago of that build up and you can see the troop increase from our first podcast. Here is a more recent drone shot taken just this morning showing the buildup that continues with each passing day. All these video shots were taken from hidden locations along the border which I vary to avoid detection from the Russian forces who would shut me down. One can see from these video shots, the buildup of Russian Forces, which our government is ignoring and our press is not covering. I call on our media to inform the public and our elected officials to act immediately on this matter to prevent any future invasion of this country. Signing off, this is Alexis Castle reporting from an undisclosed location on the Ukraine-Russian border. This post is an exclusive brought to you, yet again, by The Scroll; informing our followers of this important matter of global impact. Stay tuned to our site in coming days for more such posts."

Alexis had posted the podcast from her grandfather's safe house in Kyiv. He had suggested she stay there instead of her hotel as the safehouse was more secure than her hotel. So after two days at her hotel she had checked out and was now at the safehouse. The facility not only had physical security, but also had electronic security so that Alexis' downloads and uploads on the Ukraine situation was hidden from prying forces. These were precautions that her paternal grandfather had told her about and was not available at her hotel. The safehouse also had a escape door leading to a garage with a car prepared for a quick escape to Poland if circumstances came to that. It was a two bedroom safehouse that she now shared with her grandfather.

The 12th

Rick Castle closed the link to the recent Podcast his daughter had done on the Ukrainian situation. She had informed him of this latest posting via message on his cell phone. He was concerned that his daughter might get caught up with any invasion of the country. Many of his fears, however, had been lessen, knowing that his now retired operative father, Jackson Hunt, was there to protect his eldest grandchild. Also Alexis had informed him that she was now staying at her grandfather's safehouse. This gave her concealment from any Russian operatives working in the city trying to stop her information from going out on the internet on the current and growing situation.

Finished with the podcast, Rick gets up from his desk and heads to his wife's office. He sees her on her computer.

"Did you see the post?"

"Yes I got the same message notice as you and just now finish viewing the post."

"Looks bad! I am concerned she might be trapped in the Ukraine should a military invasion happen."

"That is a natural reaction. As parents we are concerned for the safety of our eldest, but Jackson is there also and gives me much confidence she is in good hands."

"Yes, but dad is retired and older now. He is not as quick and able as he used to be."

"Still, in retirement, Jackson is far more capable than any other younger operative. Your father is a legend in the covert world. So, ease your concern a bit for our daughter, she would not want you worrying so much."

"You're right, let me get back to our current and only case right now."

"So are we at a standstill?"

"Not at a dead end as such, more like a slowdown. The perp is keeping very low key and the surveillance on him is taking longer than we would want."

"Keep in mind we are dealing with a highly intelligent serial killer. But like all such perps his hubris will be his downfall. Remember how we caught Scott Dunn. It was his need to be sure that his plans succeeded that ultimately led to his capture. It will be the same with Fletcher. We just need to be patient until he makes an error."

"You're right, but remember Dunn had us going for a while. He would lead us down false trails to pursue, always keeping one step ahead of us all the time. His one mistake was thinking you died when he blew up your apartment. When he found out you were still alive, he broke his usual protocol and kidnapped Jordan."

"That was his fatal mistake. But it was your hunch that Dunn was leading us to the wrong building where we thought he was holding Agent Shaw. Instead Dunn had rigged another bomb to take out the FBI task force pursuing him. You convinced me it was another deception by Dunn. If you were Dunn, you said, the building across from our target building was where you would keep Jordan. Then from there you could observe the FBI pursuit team being blown away thus confirming the success of the plan."

"To your credit you followed my hunch and even used me for backup."

"If you recall you were the only backup I had at the time. And afterwards we both had to explain to Montgomery how you got hold of my backup gun. That was the best shot you took, hitting the gun out from Dunn's hand."

"Well if you remember, I said I was aiming for his head at the time."

"Yes, despite, it all turned out well. We got him and locked him away, as we will with this serial killer. Fletcher's pride will be his down fall. My detective sense tells me that."

Ending his discussion with Kate, Rick returned to his desk to continue working the case which was fast becoming one of the more difficult cases that Alpha had undertaken. He prayed to the Universe for a good outcome, not just for the Covid case, but for his daughter now in the Ukraine.