Part 133, Chapter 2279
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Seventy-Nine
18th February 1974
Los Angeles
Being in the Courthouse was odd. Of course, this entire case was odd. Over the last couple months, the arrangements had been carefully negotiated for a clip of video no more than a few seconds in length to be shown to a Judge with the State Attorney present. The issue was that the tape would need to be entered as evidence in an ongoing murder investigation. The State was taking no chances regarding mistakes that a Defense Attorney could exploit. The last thing they needed was to have the tape tossed at trial if this led to an arrest. As a newly minted Police Officer 3, Ritchie was able to elbow his way up to the front row. He had known that having stripes on his sleeve was to his advantage in the Army, that proved doubly so with the Los Angeles Police. Of course, having the looming presence of Big Mike right next to him didn’t hurt.
It was a complicated matter, especially considering the witness who could authenticate the tape. They were listening to Malcolm von Mischner-Blackwood give his statement on just how the video had been produced as well as how he was a Reserve Officer Aspirant in the German Air Force when he wasn’t a student in the Computer Science Department at a Major Research University in Berlin. It had been in that capacity that he supervised a team of Analysts who watched feed from orbiting satellites so that they could provide up to date information to policymakers in Reichstag as well as the advisors to the Kaiser.
The odd part for Ritchie was that he had a hard time working out in his head how Malcolm could be the cousin of Manny von Mischner. Where Manny was bigger than life, Malcolm simply wasn’t. Thin, of medium height and wearing a grey wool suit, he looked exactly what Ritchie would have pictured when he imagined someone who worked with computers. The other odd observation was that while Manny spoke with what Ritchie had come to learn was a Berliner accent, sort of like a Boston accent in the United States. When Malcolm spoke, he sounded like one that Ritchie had heard in parts of New England. His friend Jules Mullins from Maine had an accent that sounded very similar. Ritchie was also aware that Malcolm wasn’t a German name and his hyphenated surname included Blackwood as a part of it. That meant that there was probably an interesting story behind it.
Finally, the entire Courtroom was watching the video that was in odd colors due to the filters in place to see what was happening at night. Everything was exaggerated shades that reflected surface temperatures. Watching, Ritchie saw the beaches of Malibu, the houses, and the curve of the coastline before it turned sharply south. The camera was focused right on the beach where the body was found when murder happened, and everyone watched it play out. Almost everyone in the room was inured to street violence, but this felt different. They knew that the victim was the sort of person who the system was supposed to protect. This wasn’t the murder of prostitute on the Sunset Strip or a gang leader in South-Central which would probably hardly get noticed. This was a Co-Ed attended College in Santa Monica from an Upper-Middle Class family and that didn’t sit well with them.
“They got all of this from outer space?” Mike said in a low voice so that only Ritchie could hear. “This is like science fiction.”
There were murmurs around the Courtroom as others reached the same conclusion.
“I guess” Ritchie replied. He also kept his voice down. There was a lot of Department Brass in the room and pissing off the Judge was never a good idea.
It was then that they got to the part that everyone was waiting for. In the video, the perpetrator got into his car and drove off. This was important for two reasons. The first was that the car was a VW Rabbit, the color was hard to discern from the video, but they had been hunting for that car in connection to this guy for months. The other was that the license plate was clearly visible, so now they had a name and an address. That was enough for the Judge to sign off a set of warrants to search the suspects home, car, and whatever else happened to be in his name after they made the arrest.
After that it was a mad scramble for the door as everyone rushed off for what was going to probably be the one of the higher profile arrests this year. Ritchie didn’t bother, he had already played a major role in that he had been the one who Manny had contacted months earlier to tell him about the video tape and what was on it.
“I would say that it is going to be about thirty seconds before the newspapers run with this story, then every television and radio station will pick it up within minutes” Mike said looking at his watch. They both had seen reporters from the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other West Coast newspapers on the way in this afternoon. “So, everybody on the planet will know who this scumbag is in about half an hour or so.”
“So, it will be a race between the Department and the people in this guy’s neighborhood” Ritchie replied, “And they will be trying to get up the 101 at this hour. Good luck with that.”
That was when Ritchie noticed that Malcolm was standing there looking lost. He had come all the way from Europe for one purpose and now that was done.
“Want to come with us and watch the bad guy get busted?” Mike asked Malcolm who just stared at them.
“You can do that?” Malcolm asked.
Ritchie figured that no one would care if they did.
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They had taken the long way around to avoid the traffic that snarled the Los Angeles freeways every afternoon. Even so, they got there before most of the action had taken place. Malcolm was riding in the back of Frankenstein as they had driven across town, hardly seeming to notice the frequently violent maneuvers that Ritchie threw the car into. As they arrived at the perimeter it was obvious that the three-ring circus was just getting started.
Ritchie had seen these things before, the News helicopters had arrived just about the time that the first squad cars had rolled in. Everyone who lived on the street was out trying to figure out what was going on and every opportunist in the neighborhood seemed to be making the most of it, whether it was picking pockets, running a short con, or telling a camera crew a bunch of nonsense. The fact that this was actually in Hollywood made the entire scene even more exaggerated, which he might have thought impossible.
Inside the perimeter, Ritchie saw that Captain Evans and the rest of the Tactical Division had set up and were getting ready to storm the apartment building where the suspect lived. To his eye it looked that what was about to happen was profound overkill with the element of surprise completely lost, and they would be doing it with the entire world watching…
18th February 1974
Los Angeles
Being in the Courthouse was odd. Of course, this entire case was odd. Over the last couple months, the arrangements had been carefully negotiated for a clip of video no more than a few seconds in length to be shown to a Judge with the State Attorney present. The issue was that the tape would need to be entered as evidence in an ongoing murder investigation. The State was taking no chances regarding mistakes that a Defense Attorney could exploit. The last thing they needed was to have the tape tossed at trial if this led to an arrest. As a newly minted Police Officer 3, Ritchie was able to elbow his way up to the front row. He had known that having stripes on his sleeve was to his advantage in the Army, that proved doubly so with the Los Angeles Police. Of course, having the looming presence of Big Mike right next to him didn’t hurt.
It was a complicated matter, especially considering the witness who could authenticate the tape. They were listening to Malcolm von Mischner-Blackwood give his statement on just how the video had been produced as well as how he was a Reserve Officer Aspirant in the German Air Force when he wasn’t a student in the Computer Science Department at a Major Research University in Berlin. It had been in that capacity that he supervised a team of Analysts who watched feed from orbiting satellites so that they could provide up to date information to policymakers in Reichstag as well as the advisors to the Kaiser.
The odd part for Ritchie was that he had a hard time working out in his head how Malcolm could be the cousin of Manny von Mischner. Where Manny was bigger than life, Malcolm simply wasn’t. Thin, of medium height and wearing a grey wool suit, he looked exactly what Ritchie would have pictured when he imagined someone who worked with computers. The other odd observation was that while Manny spoke with what Ritchie had come to learn was a Berliner accent, sort of like a Boston accent in the United States. When Malcolm spoke, he sounded like one that Ritchie had heard in parts of New England. His friend Jules Mullins from Maine had an accent that sounded very similar. Ritchie was also aware that Malcolm wasn’t a German name and his hyphenated surname included Blackwood as a part of it. That meant that there was probably an interesting story behind it.
Finally, the entire Courtroom was watching the video that was in odd colors due to the filters in place to see what was happening at night. Everything was exaggerated shades that reflected surface temperatures. Watching, Ritchie saw the beaches of Malibu, the houses, and the curve of the coastline before it turned sharply south. The camera was focused right on the beach where the body was found when murder happened, and everyone watched it play out. Almost everyone in the room was inured to street violence, but this felt different. They knew that the victim was the sort of person who the system was supposed to protect. This wasn’t the murder of prostitute on the Sunset Strip or a gang leader in South-Central which would probably hardly get noticed. This was a Co-Ed attended College in Santa Monica from an Upper-Middle Class family and that didn’t sit well with them.
“They got all of this from outer space?” Mike said in a low voice so that only Ritchie could hear. “This is like science fiction.”
There were murmurs around the Courtroom as others reached the same conclusion.
“I guess” Ritchie replied. He also kept his voice down. There was a lot of Department Brass in the room and pissing off the Judge was never a good idea.
It was then that they got to the part that everyone was waiting for. In the video, the perpetrator got into his car and drove off. This was important for two reasons. The first was that the car was a VW Rabbit, the color was hard to discern from the video, but they had been hunting for that car in connection to this guy for months. The other was that the license plate was clearly visible, so now they had a name and an address. That was enough for the Judge to sign off a set of warrants to search the suspects home, car, and whatever else happened to be in his name after they made the arrest.
After that it was a mad scramble for the door as everyone rushed off for what was going to probably be the one of the higher profile arrests this year. Ritchie didn’t bother, he had already played a major role in that he had been the one who Manny had contacted months earlier to tell him about the video tape and what was on it.
“I would say that it is going to be about thirty seconds before the newspapers run with this story, then every television and radio station will pick it up within minutes” Mike said looking at his watch. They both had seen reporters from the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other West Coast newspapers on the way in this afternoon. “So, everybody on the planet will know who this scumbag is in about half an hour or so.”
“So, it will be a race between the Department and the people in this guy’s neighborhood” Ritchie replied, “And they will be trying to get up the 101 at this hour. Good luck with that.”
That was when Ritchie noticed that Malcolm was standing there looking lost. He had come all the way from Europe for one purpose and now that was done.
“Want to come with us and watch the bad guy get busted?” Mike asked Malcolm who just stared at them.
“You can do that?” Malcolm asked.
Ritchie figured that no one would care if they did.
----------------------------------------------------------------
They had taken the long way around to avoid the traffic that snarled the Los Angeles freeways every afternoon. Even so, they got there before most of the action had taken place. Malcolm was riding in the back of Frankenstein as they had driven across town, hardly seeming to notice the frequently violent maneuvers that Ritchie threw the car into. As they arrived at the perimeter it was obvious that the three-ring circus was just getting started.
Ritchie had seen these things before, the News helicopters had arrived just about the time that the first squad cars had rolled in. Everyone who lived on the street was out trying to figure out what was going on and every opportunist in the neighborhood seemed to be making the most of it, whether it was picking pockets, running a short con, or telling a camera crew a bunch of nonsense. The fact that this was actually in Hollywood made the entire scene even more exaggerated, which he might have thought impossible.
Inside the perimeter, Ritchie saw that Captain Evans and the rest of the Tactical Division had set up and were getting ready to storm the apartment building where the suspect lived. To his eye it looked that what was about to happen was profound overkill with the element of surprise completely lost, and they would be doing it with the entire world watching…
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