Black, White, and RED All Over, part 8-- Ironwood Hamilton from #freewrite in an extended story!
Okay, so this was supposed to be done in seven days, but the story just wouldn't wrap down that easily ... so thank you, thank you, thank you, @freewritehouse for adopting me, and here is the second day of week TWO of extra content for you to enjoy: Part 8 of "Black, White, and RED All Over"!
Here are parts one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven -- if you are just jumping in, Captain Hamilton and Lieutenant O'Reilly are out house-hunting for clues to why the crime heralded in the latter part of part 5 is soon to be committed!
A quick summary: Lofton County, VA has been upended by the coming of the Lofton County Free Voice, the new and highly confrontational Black newspaper that also has earned the ire of law enforcement by demanding records of every police department in the county. By part 8, the decision has been made across the county to release the records, but all motives are not the same, as young Lieutenant O'Reilly learns to his shock and sorrow, just after my dividing graphic...
Mrs. Hamilton was pleasantly surprised to see her husband's pickup truck pull up in the front yard in the middle of the day.
“Adella! Agnes! Iris! Get some snacks together for your dad and his lieutenant!”
Lieutenant O'Reilly knew everyone in the family already. “Hey, Brother Pat!” Addison yelled across the house, thereby leading to him being gently reprimanded for yelling across the house. Brother Pat was glad for the refreshments and to sit for several minutes with the captain's eldest daughter, Adella, who had inherited her mother's auburn hair, warm amber eyes, and generous figure, with her father's marble coloring and tautness of frame.
Not that Lieutenant O'Reilly even thought about asking Miss Hamilton out. To him, that would have been like asking a daughter of General Robert E. Lee out – and no one had ever been successful in the end in doing that, history shows. It was just nice to be allowed to sit in Miss Hamilton's presence for several minutes, owing to her father's generosity to his other children: his four youngest children had jumped on him and were asking him to stay and play.
“I'm still on duty, sweethearts, but that includes duty to you... .”
Thus he spent ten minutes playing with his children before coming to show the lieutenant the house and to say what he had wanted to say.
“Take this as a baseline, Lieutenant, for what we are about to see. I bought this overgrown farmhouse at a short sale – that is, the owners wanted to get out from under it for just enough to pay off the mortgage. I was able to do one better than that; the couple were happy to take over my apartment lease in Big Loft, so they had their new place to stay and I had somewhere to bring my family! But it would still take $20,000 more to get the whole house presentable to my 12!
“This farmhouse, the land it sits on, and the renovations are worth a total of $110,000 – short sale plus renovations. Compare that to my family's yearly take-home income through last year: $210,000 yearly. Obviously, a lot of that comes from investments, Reserve checks, and Ham It Up; my Tinyville check was not even cut when the Lord brought me to this house. Yet bear in mind: with $210,000 to work with per year, this house still represents more than 50 percent of our total income per year.
“Now everybody has not been blessed with 11 children; a couple with just a few children making $210,000 could have taken this on more easily, but then again, if they had any sense, they wouldn't be bothered because of the cost of upkeep on a house this old and this large. On the other hand, how many couples who live and work in Lofton County have a combined income of $210,000?”
“Not many,” said Lieutenant O'Reilly. “Very few people own businesses that get beyond the local niche, and still fewer people that have that kind of money are working at all.”
“Right. Certainly those aren't law enforcement wages around here. You're a freshly minted lieutenant, just out of the academy. You're pulling $17,500. Tinyville had to do a little better to convince me to move from JAG to police captain; I'm pulling $36,500. If Mrs. Hamilton were making the same, we couldn't do this, not even if we only had two or three children.
“Captain Lee is in Big Loft. They really had to work hard to convince him to come home, and they have more to work with. He's pulling $48,500. If he were married to a wife making what he was, this house would still hurt the Lees badly, and so would anything else in the $100,000 price range. Keep this in mind as we now hit the road and see how our other colleagues live.”
Once back in the car, Captain Hamilton pulled a big folder from under his seat, and handed it to Lieutenant O'Reilly, who scanned it.
“That's a lot of real estate and business data – when did you have time to do all that, sir?”
“I didn't. That was Captain Lee's doing. He is a meticulous and incurable overachiever unless God mellow him out in later years. You tell me to go find you a good car, I will find you an excellent car and wave at you as you drive off. Captain Lee would get you offers on 10 excellent cars, apologize for not having time to find 15, and then compensate by including his analysis on which one has the most gas mileage, the most durability, the best warranty – and of course none of them would vary more than 1-2 percent either way, but by the time he finished with you, you would know the percentages down to the thousandth place.”
“Remind me not to ever do that,” Lieutenant O'Reilly said. “We're going to see three houses, just from this, aren't we?”
“You're catching on, Lieutenant. Yet you will be glad for the detail, and how Captain Lee has arranged it, because in just a little while, what is about to happen in Lofton County, and why, will be much clearer to you.”
Captain Hamilton looked both ways and then did what people did with four-wheel drive in Lofton County – he headed off the main roads into the informal country road network. Thus a country ride, bumpy and rough, to end up pulling through a field and then onto a more serviced road with a view to the backside of a large mansion that resembled a more modern take on the antebellum plantation houses in their heyday.
“How much is that worth?” Captain Hamilton said, and Lieutenant O'Reilly checked the data.
“Wow. $480,000,” he said. “Kind of new for a Lofton manse, though, and not in the right place in the county.”
“It's not a Lofton manse; when they do buy something new, they buy in cash,” Captain Hamilton said. “Look at the type of mortgage on that thing.”
“Oh, no, a Lofton or Slocum or Slocum-Lofton would never get into a mess like this. Their credit is too good even if they didn't buy in cash. Whoever is in there is on borrowed time.”
“Look at the salary line for the people who own it,” Captain Hamilton said. “Look at the businesses and investments they own – or do they own any?”
“Okay … wait, what?” Lieutenant O'Reilly said.
“Read it all again until you understand the problem,” Captain Hamilton said. “Captain Lee is as accurate as he is meticulous; if his data shows the numbers don't add up, you may be sure they don't.”
“But, sir, there's no way – you can't get a $480,000 house on a combined $75,000 before-tax income, especially not if you have five children! There's no way!”
“There's no legal way,” Captain Hamilton said. “Either the mortgage companies have gone back to their old tricks, or the couple in question has some extra-legal sources. Keep reading. You'll find out which.”
Lieutenant O'Reilly kept reading.
“The mortgage company is either lying or thinks the couple is beginning in twice what they are bringing in.”
“Okay, but, how long has this couple been able to make those payments?”
“Let's see – they haven't missed a payment in the life of the mortgage, which means they do have the money – but how?”
“Now that is the question, Lieutenant. Have a look now at the next page.”
“Okay, wait, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?”
“Yep. That's a local police captain and his wife.”
“With $112,500 a year income. Making more than twice as much as Captain Lee in a town a twentieth the size of Big Loft. How is that?”
Lieutenant O'Reilly shook his head.
“I don't know, sir. Inheritance?”
“Check it out. The information is there.”
“Okay … no. No inheritance.”
“Bear in mind: he, like me, is captain, chief, and commissioner. His salary and benefits reflect his seven years in the position.”
“That's still nowhere near enough.”
“Not legally, Lieutenant. Remember all that we read on Friday, at 6:30 in the morning, walking through Tinyville?”
Lieutenant O'Reilly jumped so high he would have hit his head on the roof of the cab of the truck had not Captain Hamilton put a hand on his shoulder to hold him down a little.
“Oh, no, sir – oh, no!”
“Hold your horses, Lieutenant. That's not even the worst case,” Captain Hamilton said. “Marinate on all of that, and go to the green colored divider page, two thirds of the way to the back of the folder. We're skipping the second case because it is similar to this, but, just understood; as Captain Lee once said, there's no bottom to it.”
Lieutenant O'Reilly had been impressed by the $480,000 take on a plantation house with modern touches. He was overwhelmed by the super-sized McMansion – gaudy blue and gold, at least twenty bedrooms on a single level, swimming pool almost Olympic-sized – that Captain Hamilton pulled his truck out of the woods to see, just from the edge of the property.
“Oh, no – no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!”
“That was more or less my reaction when I read through the thing this morning too,” Captain Hamilton said. “That thing is the most bombastic use of a million-dollar mortgage I have ever seen, purchased by a man with no known investments, no known businesses, making $45,000 a year. Wife makes $35,000, no known investments, no known businesses. Go to the last page, look at the name, and you'll truly understand Friday.”
Lieutenant O'Reilly looked, closed the folder, and put his head in his hands.
“Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no.”
“Remember, Lieutenant: racism is never just about looking down on people different from us because of ethnic characteristics. Racism is about profit, always. There is a good reason that the Lofton County Free Voice asked for exactly ten years of data, and you're looking at the worst of 25 reasons.
“Not everyone is this open about it – some people are smart enough to plow their ill-gotten gains into things that people can't see driving around the county. Yet the fact that there are 25 cases that everyone can see means that the anger of the Free Voice is understandable. Anyone who can see knows the people that own these 25 residences are not bringing home the median wage for the county – and yet they are working in law enforcement, and somehow pulling that kind of money out while innocent people –.”
“I will never – Lord God, I will never complain about my honestly made $17,500 again. I will never complain about any honestly made money again – oh, God, forgive me, keep me off the first step down the path that leads to this! Oh, God, keep me!” Lieutenant O'Reilly said.
“The fact that you realize that at 25,” Captain Hamilton said, “means that the Lord is already doing what you have asked of Him. Now, when you see the rest of what I have at the office, it will make perfect sense to you.”
The captain and his lieutenant could not go right back to the office, as a county call involving the end of a rash of home invasions came out. Since there were dead bodies, Captain Hamilton got the call. After officially determining that the would-be home invaders had died in the commission of their crime (see the “Frayed Power Cord freewrite for details about that determination), Captain Hamilton and Lieutenant O'Reilly returned to the office to do their reports and review more data related to what they had been on the road seeing.
“I know I look and feel like Captain Lee now,” Lieutenant O'Reilly said glumly, at the end.
“Just a little,” Captain Hamilton said. “Yet I find joy in knowing that God has us here to do some good. I try to keep my eyes fixed on that, Lieutenant. It is a privilege to be alive in troubled times, to do right.”
The phone rang.
“Hello?” said Captain Hamilton. “Good afternoon, Mr. Stepforth. Yes … Friday? Really? They are all giving in? Well, that's good, isn't it? … No? … The Gilligan House for the weekend … Well, it's a public building, so plenty of transparency … actually, I had thought about that too … it's a possibility … you just need backup … that's good because we are a two-man department … well, thank you, sir, we do emphasize brain over brawn, but you had better find some brawn, because in all of the county I can only think of one other officer for sure that I could trust … look, Mr. Stepforth, Captain Lee no more chose his name or face than you chose your color, so I expect you and yours to check your prejudices like I have to check mine … he has uncovered more information that will allow us both to exonerate many of the innocent and grab hold of the guilty, perhaps in one weekend, of his own accord … content of character, sir, as Dr. King taught us … .
“All right … well, I can do that much … I'll set up a free conference call for us since I can understand, with all that has happened, why y'all don't want an official law enforcement officer to know your conference call number … I'll call you back in 20 minutes with some times and a number … the pickup is Friday afternoon? … okay, we should talk no later than tomorrow night … yes, after prayer meeting, because we all are going to need to get prayed up for real … all right. I'll call you back. Goodbye.”
Captain Hamilton got off the phone and shook his head.
“Working Wednesday night?”
“No – free for whatever we need to do,” Lieutenant O'Reilly said.
“Excellent. Let me call –.”
The phone rang.
“Hello? Captain Lee, how did you know I was thinking of talking with you? Hold on a moment so Lieutenant O'Reilly can hear you.”
Captain Hamilton put the phone on speaker, and the soft but full tenor of Captain Lee filled the office, in all its grim gravity.
“I thought that you should know this detail – I am in the parking lot here at Big Discounts For Your Loft, the largest purveyor of household furnishings in the county, including bedroom sets and furnishings. I was told by the desk clerk that I was at least the 15th officer he had seen coming in since yesterday. I asked what my counterparts were finding so interesting.”
Captain Hamilton put his head on his hand and started laughing.
“Oh, no, Captain Lee, no! No, they didn't!”
“Of course they did, Captain Hamilton. You know that no one has had a new idea for 150 years – or 400, depending on who you ask.”
“I don't get it,” Lieutenant O'Reilly said.
“Your captain has an ability to laugh in order to keep from crying that I wish I possessed,” Captain Lee said. “At the time of his choosing, he will apprise you of the causes of his reaction.”
“I'm all right now, Captain Lee,” Captain Hamilton said. “I just had to do that or just have a real fit. Continue your statement.”
“I am still sitting in the lot, and three more of our colleagues have gone in. I have photographs of them, and have in hand a list of the previous purchases – 17 men, mostly from county and Big Loft. I will send you the complete list when I have it.”
“How did you get a warrant for all that so soon?”
“I didn't need it. No crime has yet been committed except against good sense, and as for the rest, the genetic advantage I have in returning to Virginia is that generally speaking, I can get what I want with a smile, especially if the person I am speaking with is a pretty young Southern belle who grew up unfortunately idolizing my face in stone.”
“Oh, that smile in Virginia could open just about every door and vault there is,” Captain Hamilton said.
“I'll be looking for your scan. Meanwhile, I have just been in contact with the folks from the Lofton County Free Voice, and they are on the same line that we are. Are you available for a conference call on Wednesday night, let's say at eight?”
“Yes, Captain, I am.”
“I'll send you the number in 15 minutes.”
“Very well.”
Captain Hamilton hung up the phone and turned to his computer, and put in ten minutes getting the conference call line set up. Then he called Mr. Stepforth back.
“I'm sending you the conference call number and the code by text, but I wanted to tell you that the possibility we discussed based on history is rapidly becoming a high probability based on actual events. There is a run on bedroom furnishings at Big Discounts for Your Loft --.”
Lieutenant O'Reilly heard Mr. Stepforth break out laughing and shout – “Oh, no, Captain, no they are not that backwards!”
“It appears that they might well be,” Captain Hamilton said. “I'll have full evidence about it in hand by tonight. Meanwhile, expect the conference call info imminently … right … right … I'll check in with you tomorrow afternoon.”
Captain Hamilton hung up the phone, and spent several moments texting. The phone rung again –.
“Confirming receipt,” Captain Lee said, “and the call has been calendared. I will report to you tonight with the rest of the information.”
“Very good; I'll speak with you later.”
Captain Hamilton hung up the phone and sighed.
“I still don't get it,” Lieutenant O'Reilly said.
“Regular domestic terrorists keep their uniforms and outfits ready, but even weekend race warriors want a nice crisp appearance in their white, so of course they didn't take their old pillowcases and bedsheets off their beds to use.”
Lieutenant O'Reilly thought about that for a moment, and then jumped.
“ That's what they were buying at – oh, no, no, no, no, no, no!”
Lieutenant O'Reilly jumped up, his hands to his head, and began pacing the room.
“It's 2019 – when are they going to at least modernize their racism?”
“Hang on to outmoded lies, and this is how you end up – for real. Meanwhile, Lieutenant, I told you when we met that if you haven't done your will, you need to. Today is Tuesday. You have only three days to get it done.”