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The chronological order of my stories is as follows:
Todd he was very comforting. Then I went to bed. Surely the Hotel's cameras will show I never left my room until the next morning.*quot; I made a note on my pad, as if to write a reminder to check out this alibi.
*quot;So what was the fight with your wife about?*quot; asked Nash.
*quot;Over her arrest.*quot; replied Clifford. *quot;I don't need your room full of Detectives to figure out that she has been having extramarital affairs.*quot;
*quot;What gives you that idea?*quot; asked Nash. *quot;We have not said why we arrested your wife. Officially, she's a material witness and tried to evade us.*quot;
*quot;True,*quot; said Clifford, *quot;but I've been suspecting something has been off for some time with her... with us. She's always leaving her cell phone at home, claims to forget it... but she's never forgotten it anywhere else, or lost it anywhere else. And that guy who actually grabbed her at the restaurant... he absolutely believed he knew her, and he must've felt some familiarity with her to grab her arm like he did. That suggests a comfort level between them.*quot;
*quot;So last night I asked my wife what the hell was going on.*quot; Clifford continued. *quot;She was arrested on the west side of town, why the hell was she there? Why was a guy so sure he knew her that he tried to grab her and hold on to her at a restaurant? What was it that Dr. Searles was so agitated about after her doctor visit? And so on...*quot;
*quot;What did she say?*quot; I asked.
*quot;She denied everything!*quot; Clifford almost yelled out. *quot;She must think I'm an idiot! She keeps saying that the restaurant incident was mistaken identity, and that she was on the west side of Town shopping. Shopping! Over there?!?!*quot;
Clifford took a moment to regain his composure, but he was also peering at me to gauge the effects of his words on me. I remained passive, as did Nash. Clifford missed the look on Cindy's face, and she regained her look of passivity in time.
*quot;Dr. Clifford,*quot; I asked, *quot;I noticed that your wife had bruising on her leg the other night. Do you have any idea where that bruising came from?*quot;
*quot;No, and that's another thing.*quot; Clifford said. *quot;She said she hit her leg against something, didn't hardly realize her leg was bruised. But she had a bruise on her leg like that a couple of months ago, too.*quot;
*quot;Any times previously?*quot; I asked. *quot;And how often?*quot;
That caused Clifford to sit back and think. *quot;Nothing before November... well, she did have a bruise on her leg once about four or five years ago, and it wouldn't heal up properly for a while. It finally went away, güvenilir bahis and didn't come back... until last November.*quot;
*quot;So of course I have to ask: have you and your wife gotten into physical altercations?*quot; I asked.
*quot;No.*quot; Clifford replied. *quot;I understand you need to ask that, but we had a good relationship, a good marriage, until...*quot; He let the sentence hang, unfinished.
*quot;Dr. Clifford,*quot; I said, *quot;I'm going to have to be blunt here: we are aware of the botched surgery, and what happened to you a couple of decades ago. How did that affect your marriage with your wife?*quot;
Clifford's face showed his shock that we knew, and also the pain and humiliation of it all. *quot;You know about that.*quot; he said. *quot;Damn. Well, to answer your question: I told Darla about it before we were married. She was accepting of it, accepting of the fact that we could not make children together. I never heard a word of complaint from her, and I can still... 'perform'... so it didn't seem to be a problem.*quot;
*quot;Doctor,*quot; I said, *quot;I would not ask this question if it were not necessary for my investigation: has the frequency of your sexual relations diminished over time, particularly the last few months and years?*quot;
Clifford answered *quot;It never was all that frequent after about a year into our marriage. I could perform, but my desire was affected by the... botched operation. Darla didn't seem to be overly interested in sex, either. We did a good bit of cuddling and kissing, and we still do... well, after last night, I'm not sure how that's going to go.*quot;
*quot;Detectives,*quot; I said, *quot;do you have any questions for Dr. Clifford before I let him out of here?*quot;
*quot;Yes sir, if I may.*quot; said Cindy Ross. *quot;Dr. Clifford, did you ask your wife what it was that Dr. Searles wanted to discuss with her? And what was your wife's response?*quot;
*quot;Yes, I asked.*quot; said Clifford. *quot;I asked after we left the party. She said it was nothing, and that she'd have to get back with Dr. Searles and let her know it was nothing. I brought it up again last night during our argument. She was yelling at me by then, and said it was none of my business.*quot;
*quot;And just to make sure,*quot; said Nash, *quot;your wife was home the entire night and morning that Dr. Searles was found dead?*quot;
*quot;I can't speak for the time after I left my house to go to work,*quot; said Clifford, *quot;but she was there all night while I was there...*quot;
Part 16 - Burners Burned
At 2:00pm on the same Wednesday, FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone was admitted into my office. Special Agent Sandra Speer was in türkçe bahis MCD, gossiping with my Detectives while Jack and I talked business.
*quot;This Paul Wicker is coming up roses for us.*quot; said Jack. *quot;The DEA has asked me to look into this. Wicker's 'patients', such as they are, are relatively wealthy women for the most part. He writes them prescriptions for all the fun Schedule II and III drugs: Percoset, which is oxycodone, barbitols, steroids, Fiorinal. We need to have a good conversation with him.*quot;
Just then Myron called me and said he had some information. I assembled a meeting... but in Classroom 'C', which was Vice's meeting room next door to MCD's Classroom 'E'. (Classroom 'D' was on the other side of the building, for Uniformed officers, in case you're wondering). Present at the meeting were Myron and myself, Jack, Sandra, Martin Nash, Diana Torres, Tanya Perlman and Cindy Ross, but also Lt. Teresa Croyle and Detectives Christopher Purvis and Julie Newton were in attendance.
*quot;Okay, Myron, whaddya got?*quot; I asked.
*quot;Two things, sir.*quot; said Myron. *quot;First, the videotapes do show some movements behind the prescription counter, but it's very dark. Special Agent Speer has offered to have the FBI try to enhance the tape and see if we can get anything out of it, though it looks like the perp made efforts to hide his facial features.*quot;
*quot;I appreciate the FBI's help in this.*quot; I said, nodding at the FBI agents in the room. *quot;So what's next?*quot;
Myron went into his narrative. *quot;Sir, I first looked up Natasha Norelle's number from the computer entry at Smith-Morra Pharmacy. The phone number was a burner phone, and it contacted several other burner phones, including Paul Wicker's phone that was found in the hidden desk compartment. And I also need to tell you that this phone number information was asked about from computers at the University Campus Police Department.*quot;
*quot;And those can be accessed via the University's full computer network, with which most professors and the medical staff are connected.*quot; I said. *quot;But they'd have to be Myron-and-Mary-class programmers to know what to do.*quot;
*quot;Or Commander-Troy-class.*quot; said Myron. *quot;I've got my alibi, sir, what about you?*quot; There was some laughter at Myron's effrontery.
*quot;Mine's pretty bad, everyone knows my mother and my baby daughter will say anything to give me an alibi.*quot; I said, to more tepid laughter. *quot;So, keep going with your report, Myron.*quot;
*quot;Yes sir. One of the burners is pinging now... at the Fillmore Pharmacy, which is south of Smith-Morra Pharmacy, and in a fairly sleazy güvenilir bahis siteleri area near the Tenderloin District.*quot; Myron said. *quot;They're well known for only having private appointments with certain people associated with gangs and drug pushers, and use that taxi service that came up in the dead bride case.*quot;
*quot;Geez, why didn't you tell me that when you first called, Myron?*quot; I asked, angry at the time delay even of a few minutes. *quot;Lt. Ross-*quot; I began, but Cindy already had her police cellphone out.
*quot;Calling ADA Washington for a warrant now.*quot; she replied. *quot;On what charge, by the way?*quot;
*quot;Having a burner phone that has been called by known illegal drug distributors, or some such.*quot; I said. *quot;Let Washington handle the correct law and terminology, and he might want to ask for a Federal warrant while he's at it.*quot; Cindy left the room.
*quot;Sorry sir,*quot; said Myron, *quot;but I thought you might need more evidence to get a warrant, so I collected as much data as I could before contacting you.*quot;
*quot;We'll talk about that later.*quot; I said, not wishing to berate Myron in front of my Detectives. *quot;So, what else did you find?*quot;
*quot;Natasha Norelle's burner phone made three phone calls in the early morning hours of last Tuesday, just hours before Dr. Searles's death.*quot; Myron said. *quot;Two were to Paul Wicker's burner. The third number has only a few calls, very sporadically... but one call from that third number was to our Duty Desk this morning... the call that gave us the tip about Lockhart being seen at Smith-Morra Pharmacy.*quot; That caused a buzz of conversation to start. I let it, because I was thinking hard, nearly in a reverie.
A moment later, I asked *quot;Myron, do you have any idea where that unknown person's phone was when the call was made... the tip to the Station, that is?*quot;
*quot;Yes sir.*quot; said Myron, going through some papers. *quot;Eastern Downtown District... the tower just west of First Baptist Church and just northeast of the Old Courthouse Building.*quot;
*quot;Courthouse, eh?*quot; I mused, then got back to business. *quot;Okay, guys, let's get going. Croyle, get with Ross and get ready to raid Fillmore Pharmacy. Heavy presence, SWAT is authorized if you see anything at all while casing the place before you go in. Nash, Torres, I'd like for you to hang around with me and Agent Muscone. We're going to help Myron analyze this data. After the raid, we're going to talk to Paul Wicker.*quot;
Part 17 - Wickety Wicker
At 3:30pm on Wednesday, I was informed that the Fillmore Pharmacy had been successfully raided. The burner phone in question was found on the pharmacist there, one Abel Fillmore. Plenty of evidence of potentially illegal drug transactions had been found, and Sandra Speer was working with my Vice team on that. Two DEA agents were also en route from the City.