CHAPTER NINE

"R&D, Cameron talkin' to ya."

Brodie was momentarily startled by the cheery voice on the other end of the phone. "Dr. Grimes?"

"That's me! Just call me Cameron." Cameron Grimes leaned back in his chair and placed both feet on the edge of his desk.

"Thank you. I'm Mayor Brodie Lee of Davenport, Iowa," Brodie explained. "Our Chief of Police, Dean Malenko, attended a conference in Seattle earlier this year and was very impressed with the CSI technology demonstrated there."

Cameron hummed under his breath for a few seconds. "I remember him! He admitted it wasn't all that familiar with the CSI part of law enforcement, but he still asked some pretty darn good questions."

"Chief Malenko gave me your card to contact your company," Brodie continued. "Our contract for equipment will be up for renewal in six months. I would like to discuss getting a demonstration of some items and including 3C in the bidding process."

"Whew-wee! Well, that's outta my ballpark," Cameron admitted. "You'd need to speak with the CEO, Paul Wight. I'm not sure he's in the building today; but if you'll give me your number, I'll make sure he calls you back as soon as he can."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Anything else, Mr. Lashley?"

Lashley pushed a folder across the table to Hunter. "Information on the two Des Moines detectives, Dolph Ziggler and Gail Kim."

Hunter flipped through the pages then closed the folder. "Anything of interest?"

Lashley leaned back in his chair. "We've confirmed there are no open IAD investigations. However, there have been quite a few in the past." When Hunter raised his eyebrows, he continued. "Most of them have been procedural complaints. Ziggler, however, has a few civilian complaints of excessive force from his early years on the force."

"What sort of procedural complaints?"

"Almost all of them from defense attorneys claiming one or the other stepped over the line or violated their clients' civil rights." Lashley permitted himself a slight smile. "All were investigated and were dismissed with actions deemed within department policy guidelines."

"Were they or did the department cover up for them?" Hunter smirked.

"That would depend on who you talk with," Lashley answered. "There were two additional complaints filed by the District Attorney's office when two separate cases were dismissed by judges. The DA's office claimed the reason for the dismissals was because of actions by Kim and/or Ziggler. In one case, the chain of evidence was not preserved. That resulted in a verbal warning to both of them. In the other case, the claim was the detectives had withheld evidence from their files once the order came through to provide copies to the defense team. The PD and DA's offices pointed fingers at each other for that…error. It was resolved in a high-level meeting, and both sides walked away unsatisfied. However, the order was the matter was closed."

Hunter frowned for a few seconds. "It sounds like either detective, or both, have some powerful friends."

Lashley nodded. "They have very good convictions rates. So, it's possible the department doesn't want to either lose them or taint their credibility." When Hunter looked at him, he added, "Or they know where some bodies are buried."

Hunter smiled in agreement. "Keep an eye on their investigation into Leah Moxley's murder. If they start looking at the Bloodline, I want to be ready to take advantage."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Mayor Lee, a Mr. Paul Wight is on line 1 returning your call."

"Thank you." Brodie took a deep breath then picked up the phone receiver and pressed the blinking button. "Good afternoon, Mr. Wight. Thank you for returning my call."

"Not a problem." A cheerful booming voice replied. "Sorry for the delay, however. I was on approach to Sea-Tac when I got Cameron's message."

"I understand. I'm not sure what Dr. Gr…Cameron told you, but there's some backstory involved."

Wight leaned back in his chair and smiled at the man sitting on the other side of the table. He'd already been briefed by the head of the Legal Department, Dante Martin, about the status of Davenport. "If it's okay with you, I'd like to put you on speaker. My shoulders are killing me from that long plane ride."

"Of course. Well, to put a long and somewhat sordid story short, in the last two years, there has been quite a turnover in the city administration," Brodie explained. "The former Chief of Police retired and is under investigation. The former District Attorney resigned and will most likely be indicted on various charges. The former head of our CSI unit and a homicide detective were arrested when it was discovered that the head of the CSI unit had falsified his credentials and was unqualified for the position. He and the detective had been falsifying evidence in a number of trials. In addition, the former Mayor and Chief Financial Officer for Davenport were assassinated just before the recent election." Brodie paused, then continued, "Our new Chief of Police has completed a thorough review of all personnel in his department and made some changes for the betterment to restore public confidence in the police department. We have a new District Attorney who is moving forward with both the necessary investigations into his predecessor and the former Chief of Police. In addition, all evidence in cases where the former detective and head of the CSI touched have been sent to the state crime lab for independent review. So far, two men who were convicted of murder have been found to be not guilty. Unfortunately, one of those men was murdered while in prison. The other has been released. Our District Attorney has been extremely supportive of expediting the process of restitutions for those men."

Dante and Wight exchanged smiles. The Mayor was being extremely truthful with them.

"I'm sure there's more to the story, but I get the picture," Wight sighed. "Sir, my congratulations to you and your administration for your actions in these matters. It seems you have your hands full."

"To be blunt, yes. However, I'm committed to these restitutions and further restitutions, if necessary, without cutting services to the public. In doing so, it presents another problem."

"Money, I'm guessing," Wight chuckled.

"Exactly," Brodie agreed. "Our city insurance is covering the restitutions. However, when that contract expires next year, my current CFO confirms that premiums are going to skyrocket no matter who gets the contract." He took another deep breath. "Chief Malenko, our current Chief of Police, attended a conference in Seattle earlier this year and was present at a demonstration of some CSI technology by your company. He's the one who gave me Dr. Gr…Cameron's card. Both he and our DA were very impressed and complimentary of your company and products. Our contract for our current supplier expires in six months and contracts go out for bid in three months."

"Are we talking about CSI equipment or something else?"

"Any and all depending on the cost."

Wight almost laughed at the brutal honesty. "How about this? Talk with Chief Malenko and come up with five items. I'll give you my email address, and you send the list to me. We'll set up a date, and I'll bring the equipment and our team to Davenport for a demonstration. Then we can talk about money and priorities."

"That's most agreeable!" Brodie exclaimed. "I'll try to have that information to you today."

Wight provided his email address then terminated the call. He settled back in his chair and smiled. "Did he leave anything out?"

Dante shook his head. "He was incredibly honest, in my opinion. I don't know the amounts of restitution but I'm sure it's probably over ten million."

Wight sighed. "Sounds like he's between a rock and a hard place."

"I like that he's committed to providing the restitutions without sacrificing public services," Dante pointed out.

Wight shot him a level look. "And that's not possible unless he saves money elsewhere."

"It doesn't appear he's looking to go cheap on equipment," Dante smiled.

"I know that smile," Wight laughed. "He's probably heard we'll work within lean budgets." When Dante cheerfully nodded, he added, "I'll forward his list to you. See what we can do legally and work up some specifications to be used in a bid." He thought for a moment. "I'll also send it to Layla E. and get her imput on costs."

Dante nodded and stood. "Why don't you email him a PDF of our catalog? Might give him some idea for alternatives if we can't do something on his top five."

"Good idea," Wight nodded. "Give us some room on the legal end for negotiating."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Brodie studied the PDF catalog that had been emailed to him and sighed. 'If this job was easy, you wouldn't have taken it,' he wryly told himself. He picked up his phone and contacted his assistant. "Ms. Collins, please contact Chief Malenko and Chief Shamrock and ask them for a convenient time to meet with me this afternoon." He knew the Chief of the Fire Department would want in on this as well. "I'm gong to forward an email to you. Please have three copies printed out for that meeting."