Solving for Myself

Chapter 6: A bigger story

Stella looked at him and said, "The church is supporting this project? why would a church be donating and how could they if they're a nonprofit organization?". Carson said"Also if this is a government-sanctioned program then where are the federal funds that would also be allocated to the program by the government?" What was also confusing was why the CEO of Jungle; an online shopping platform as well as the governor's personal bank account and Jean Harlingsten; a well-known head member of the Neo Nazis located here in California, contributing to it. Of course, these bank accounts had cover names that made them look like organizations but thanks to a few friends at the treasury, it was able to be traced back to these individuals, with a little incentive.

They also were able to uncover that during the last 6 years, all this money in the file was donated was slowly removed, washed through a number of shell companies, and fed into the bank account Shirley Warstein; a false alias but the picture did match the "pastor" of the "church". It was a dizzying trail but it was absolutely clear that money was being sneakily given to the church which made no sense. It's not a felony to donate to a church directly, but the law does state they have to report the income if it comes in. Carson looked at Stella and said, "We definitely have something here but it's not concrete...we'll need to go with your plan".

She smiled and said, "How are we gonna bypass a private, home security system in order to plant bugs?"Carson said"Leave that to me as he went into his room and then came back after several minutes with a mask in his hand. He tossed it to Stella and said"The mayor's house has a legitimate bomb threat against it; me and you are going down there with SWAT to investigate". She looked at him and said"Did yo-" and he said, "that's not important, let's move quickly and bring your equipment".She put on the realistic face mask before grabbing her gear from under her desk and heading out.

When they arrived on scene at the mayor's 2-story mini-mansion where cops and swat were there. Before they got out of the car, Stella said"Keep your mouth shut and follow my lead". Carson followed her into the foyer, up the large staircase to the second floor, and all the way to the end of the cream-white hall that had red carpeting. The swat team had already broken the door lock and searched the room; leaving it relatively clean. Stella dug into her pocket pulled out these marble-sized microphones and dropped one in his fireplace, another in his closet behind boxes, and another underneath the couch.

After leaving his office, they went down to the other end of the house where his bedroom was and planted smaller microphones in there as well. Despite his bedroom having many spots, Stella planted only a few before finally leaving the room. The two detectives walked out of the house, got back into their car, and pulled off just as the mayor's limo was pulling up. As the pair drove home, Carson chuckled and said"I asked the chief to fake a bomb threat at the mayor's residence and he pulled through and the report will be sent to the mayor about it so that there's no suspicions". Stella grunted and said"Carson this is the last time I'm gonna tell you; think before you go running into things with a half-baked plan and an ill-informed partner!" Carson nodded and said, "I apologize, I felt the need was urgent so I acted without thinking...now that the heavy lifting is over, we'll do it your way now".

For two weeks, the detectives listened in and found nothing, and seemed like things were going to lead to a dead end until Stella heard something. The mayor received a phone call from what Stella figured to be "the church". She called for Carson but he didn't come out until the call was over and the look on his face was worried. He said, "Start packing up your stuff, we're not staying here anymore".Stella looked at him puzzled and said "What is happening?" and Carson sat a recorder box on the table and played it as he began to pack. The phone answered with a man on the line saying"Earl is this a secure line?" the mayor said"Yes, now what is it?" the man said, "Look when are we going to be able to restart our sacrificial ceremonies? they're holding an LGBT rights march tomorrow night and it's prime time for us to begin cleansing".

The mayor said"As soon as those two pesky detectives are eliminated; they've been snooping around, hindering our operations but that ends soon; I have a team of CIA members ready to take them out but since the march is tomorrow I'll send them right away". The man said"so we can resume tonight then?" and the mayor said"I don't care what you do just get it done...you people are doing a fine service for this town and I'll do my best to keep this going until we see a steady decrease in those sinners". The man said"excellent, I'll notify the members that we can resume now...thanks". After the call hung up, Stella's recording picked up the mayor saying"its a mission go boys, make it look like a tragic act off gang violence".

Carson threw Stella a vest before running to the back of the house and breaking a window. As he charged back up front, there was a vroom, followed by lights approaching and then a large crash. A car had crashed into the house and just as they thought it could get worse, it exploded, setting immediate fire to everything nearby. Despite seeing this, Carson charged in calling for Stella but all he heard was the crackling of the flames and the the sound of guns strafing the place. Assuming she was vaporized, he quickly abandoned his search for her and crawled out the back window, hopped the fence, and ran across the alley into a darkened backyard as the unidentified men shot at him.