CHAPTER 219: Sideshow

 "Ah, Action...sit down.  Have you heard the news?" asked Captain Amos when Action arrived for work that morning.

"About Geoffrey Landgraab?  Sure, who hasn't?  The news can talk about little else right now." Action replied.

"And how are you about it?  I know you have history with that family"

"I'm a professional, Chief.  I was lead on the Malcolm Landgraab drug bust but I think I did a pretty good job on that one."

"You did.  I need to know where your head is right now.  Geoffrey's death is a whole new level."

"I know, Chief.  So what's happening with the case load?  I take it there's the fraud case and now Landgraab's inquest."

"FBI and the IRS are handling the fraud, it's out of our hands now.  Yes, his death will be investigated but preliminary reports suggest Landgraab died of a heart attack."

"Do you want me on that one, Chief?"

Captain Amos leant back in his chair and didn't respond immediately.  After taking a breath he just said "No, I've got other cases for you, Action.  Schuster's lead on the Landgraab death."

"But sir, I just said I'm a professional...my feelings about the Landgraabs don't..."

Amos cut him off "I know.  You're not being assigned to Geoffrey's death not because I don't trust you; it's because you already have an ongoing murder investigation with the Tom Green case and some loose ends of the Goth burglary.  Schuster's next senior in the detective division."

Action returned to the squad room where he put the latest bits of evidence and clues on the crime map.  Witnesses on the day saw a woman, wearing a blouse and jeans, cute, red head...Action instinctively knew who the killer was:  Leanne McGregor.  She had gone to ground though and no one knew where she was.

He turned to the other detectives in the room.  "Hey, any of you got any leads on McGregor?"

"If we had you'd be in the loop, Action" said Cole Michaels.

"Yeah, she's public enemy #1 right now so it's not like any of us are slacking" added Schuster.

"You've got the street contacts, Action, aren't any of them coughing up info about her?" asked Michaels.

Action sighed.  "No..."

A uniformed officer came into the squad room.  "We've got an incident down at Britechester U.  It's kicking off and they need anyone not busy down there, now"

Action got up and holstered his .38 service revolver.  "I can't act on anything until we get some information about the whereabouts of McGregor.  OK, I'll bite...give me the details, officer."

Action wasted no time in getting to the campus.  Apparently there was some kind of disturbance, a clash between students.  "Hippies and radicals vs the John Birch society, no doubt" Action thought as he sped through the city to the university.

When he got there he found a fight in progress.

"Alright!  Break it up!" he said, brandishing his badge.  The two young men at the centre of the fight ignored him so Action grabbed one of them by the shoulders and physically flung him to one side before pushing the other combatant away before he could put the boot in.

"The name's Action...Sim City PD...and I haven't had my mid-morning coffee yet so don't make me even angrier.  Calm it right down, keep your distance and tell me what's going on."

He noticed a young, fair haired man standing on the sidelines and scowling.  "What are you looking at?  Are you involved in all this?"

The man shook his head and stepped back from Action.

Action pointed to a young man who was wearing red shirt and had a black, rockabilly hairstyle and sideburns.

"You, Elvis...what's your name?" asked Action, forcibly.

"Frederick Mouser" replied the man in a haughty tone.  Action wrote that down in his notebook.

"What's the beef you've got going with Beach Boy here?"

"It's Julian, officer" interjected the other combatant, who had long blonde hair.

"Ooh, Julian.  Julian what!"

"Julian Lydon...with a y"

"With a y...OK, Julian with a y, you wait here whilst Frederick explains why you two are creating a public disturbance."

"He's a dirty liar, a con artist and a thief!" said Mouser.

"Wow, that's a list of crimes..." Action replied.

"He's hyping it up, officer!" interjected Lydon.  "I never said I was taken, Freddie.  You chose to believe that...I just didn't deny it, that's all.  And unless we've re-introduced chattel slavery without me knowing you can't steal a person."

The penny dropped with Action.  "Ah, you're fighting over a girl!  Presumably you, Miss?"

"Anahi Loh" said the pretty Asian girl standing with the group.

"Are you going to book them, officer?" asked the fair haired bystander.

"You still here?  Buzz off, no onlookers"

The man sulked off, grumbling all the way.  Action looked at Miss Loh and there was a hint of recognition there.  Where had he seen her before?

"OK, Elvis and Beach Boy..." began Action.  "I'm letting you off with a caution; but in future keep your fists to yourself when squabbling over a woman."

"Is that all, officer?" asked Mouser.

"That's all" Action replied.  Mouser walked off but Lydon couldn't help himself.  

"That's right, Freddie!  You run!  You run away!" he called out.

"Knock it off, bucko!" said Action, tersely.  

Lydon left as well and that just left Miss Loh.  "Are you alright, ma'am?" he asked.  It bugged him that he knew her from somewhere but couldn't place her.

"Thanks officer...those two are just college jerks.  I find each one amusing in their own way but they take these things way more seriously than I do."

"Both of them think they're alpha males.  You know, I never forget a face and I'm sure we've met before." 

"Yeah, I get that sense as well." she giggled.  "I've never fallen foul of the law before so you can't have hauled me in to police headquarters."

"Maybe it's social.  Where do you work?"

"At the Landgraab Corporation.  I'm a secretary there."

And that's when the penny dropped:  Action had met her before, but at the time he was in disguise as a maintenance worker.  Now this was awkward..."

"Ah, maybe it was at one of Mrs Landgraab's police fundraising events" he said, hoping that would suffice as a cover story.

"That must be it then"

Action saw an opportunity to get some information about the Miss Loh on the sly.  "Terrible news about your boss.  What's the mood amongst the staff?"

"It's hit us all hard, officer.  First the fraud allegations and now Mr Landgraab dead.  He took fitness very seriously, you know?  Often went for runs during office hours, worked out, a perennial at the health spa and he always ate sensibly.  He must have had a congenital heart problem."

"Must be.  Anyway, thanks for remaining calm whilst those loudmouths were sizing each other up.  Stay safe." he said, with a wink, before walking off.

On the drive back to Precinct 13 he thought about what Anahi Loh mentioned.  Must have been a congenital heart defect.  Only Geoffrey Landgraab had access to the best doctors in Sim City...in America.  Surely they would have warned him about overdoing the exercise?  He'd seen Geoffrey many times running around the city, working out at the gym and yes, you can overdo things but then again, you can manufacture the circumstances to overdo things as well...

Back at headquarters, he went straight to see the Chief.  

"Have we got the coroner's report on Landgraab's death yet?" he asked, pointedly.

"Action, I told you you're not on that case."

"Have we or have we not?"

"Yes, it's in.  Died of heart failure, probably brought on by spending too much time in the sauna."

"Pretty strange for someone who's health conscious, don't you think?" said Action.

Chief Amos drew a deep breath before answering "This case has nothing to do with you, Action.  Now get back to your existing case load!" he snapped.

Action went back to his desk feeling frustrated but he got through to the end of the shift.  He had an idea though:  Go to the Perfect Balance Spa, where Geoffrey died, and do a bit of investigation himself.  But he would require some assistance and he knew exactly who to enlist.

"Bibi, what are you doing for the next couple of hours?" she asked his forensics colleague with a broad, warm smile as if he was giving her an offer she couldn't refuse.

"But you're not on this case, Action" said Bibi.

"I know that but Schuster needs all the help he can get." Action replied.  "Besides, don't you feel a bit put out that you're not involved in such a high profile case either?"

"I work on whatever cases the Chief deems necessary.  I do not let emotion get in the way" she said, haughtily.

"Anyway, you're here.  Let's go and check out the sauna....in a professional capacity!" said Action.

They went upstairs to the sauna; any members of staff who were puzzled by the sight of Action and Bibi looking around in great detail were shown his police badge.  He had managed to bluff his way into access of whatever he wanted to see there, even though this wasn't his case.

"Well, Bibi, this was where Landgraab fell and died.  What did the crime scene report say?" 

"A Miss Judith Ward noticed the door to the sauna rattling and she went over to investigate closer.  She thought someone might have been inside so she summoned an attendant who tried to open the door but found it was locked...."

"From the outside?" interjected Action.

"Ja.  There is no way to lock or unlock this door from the inside of the sauna.  The attendant went to fetch the key and on his return unlocked it and Geoffrey Landgraab staggered out and collapsed right there."

"Where's the thermostat?" asked Action.

"Here, inside this control box..."

"Which is also on the outside of the sauna, not the inside."

"But you need another key to access the box.  You suspect foul play?" she asked.

"He was a man with a thousand or more secrets about to go to prison, it would be worth someone's time to silence him." Action replied.

"But whom?"

"Take your pick from at least a dozen suspects.  But whoever it was they had access to the keys to this sauna and the thermostat."

"But, Action, you're not working on this case, right?"

"But...you're not working on this case....RIGHT?"

CHAPTER 218: Geoffrey Must Go

 

In the early hours of the morning of the 18th August 1966, Geoffrey Landgraab snuck out of Affluista Mansion and headed on in to the city to the Perfect Balance Spa.  He knew that in a couple of hours he would be in a meeting with his legal team and they were going to recommend he hand himself over to the police before they came and got him.  The reasoning was that he would appear to be cooperating with the hope of a reduced sentence.  They would even give him a script to say, one that was prepared by his lawyers operating under Mal Landgraab's authority.

In an act of symbolism, which felt right to Geoffrey, he headed for the sauna; there to purge out of his system all the contaminants.  They would be forced out of his pores and he could begin again, fresh, clean, pure.  Ever since he was a boy he had dreamed of making it to the top and he had genuinely achieved that but all the poisons, the vices and greed had seeped into his body and soul.

He sat there, pondering his life's journey:  Born to an impoverished minor branch of the Landgraab family, he remembered when he was a boy on a hot, sunny day in 1928 and his first visit to Affluista Mansion; the family home of his richer cousins.  He was awed by its opulence and splendour as well as being bowled over by a precocious little girl who teased him and fawned over him in equal measures.  His wealthy, pampered and pretty little cousin; Nancy.  That was the life he wanted.  He latched on to Big Mal Landgraab, his wife and Nancy and as soon as he was old enough he got a job in the mail room at the company, had his education paid for by Big Mal before the war came.  Then it was off to the War Department (Mal had made sure Geoffrey avoided the draft) for "vital work" before coming back, settling down, taking a management role at Landgraabs and marrying Nancy.

"Well, I suppose you had a good run there...more than you could have expected" he mused to himself as he basked in the warm memories.  Two sons...maybe Johnny will come around one day when he inevitably fails as a comedian, he thought.  And Malcolm; yes he's taken some wrong turns but he's smart, he's charming (when he wants to be) and he knows what he wants in life.  He'll do well, he'll be a great CEO in 15 to 20 years.  Geoffrey would be out of prison by then...1981...we'll probably be flying around in jet packs on Mars and living on pill food by then.  A Landgraab owned colony on Mars...what a dream!  He thought about all the acts of revenge he could take whilst in prison on everyone but he thought of the longer term picture.  Just another link in the great chain:  Dirk, Malcolm I, Gordon, Gregory, Big Mal and now him and, eventually, Nancy and Malcolm IV.  "I did my bit; took success and made it more successful." he muttered.

But as Geoffrey finally made peace with his fate, other forces were in action.  Geoffrey knew too much, he was now a liability.  Whether it was Big Mal's bribery, Nancy's criminal activities, Malcolm's little drug empire, Johnny's romantic entanglements, George's crossdressing, trying to undermine Victor Feng's election campaign or his links to The Visitors...it was decided by one, or more, of them that Geoffrey had to go.  They had followed him, discretely to the spa, and watched him go in to the sauna room.  Without anyone noticing, the door was locked from the outside and the thermostat turned up to full...

Very soon Geoffrey started to notice that the sauna was getting too hot and unbearable to be in.

He was feeling very woozy so he got up and went to leave but found the door was locked!  He pulled it hard a few times but it wouldn't budge.  All the while the exertions made him feel worse and his breathing became laboured.  He tried again to wrench the door open but it still wouldn't give so he gave up and started pounding on it and crying out for help.  The room was so well insulated with its thick wooden walls that no one could hear him and whoever tampered with the door and thermostat had also put a "CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE" sign on the outside of the sauna as well.

Geoffrey was about to pass out, his breathing now very laboured and his heart muscles were tightening.  "HELP....HELP...ugh...no...not...this...way..." he said, still shaking the door as he slumped to his knees.  

Even though his cries for help weren't heard on the outside, one of the patrons of the spa had noticed that the door was rattling.  It wasn't often that the famous movie star, Judith Ward, noticed anything that wasn't about her but on this occasion she had, as she was trying to avoid a paparazzi photographer and had darted down the corridor that led to the sauna to give them the slip.  She saw the door rattling violently and went to fetch a spa employee who could see what was going on. 

"What's that sign doing there?  There's no scheduled maintenance of the sauna today!" said the employee.  He took it down, and called out "is there anyone in there?" but got no response.  Finally he took out a pass key and unlocked the doors to the sauna.  The moment he did that, Geoffrey staggered out, went a few paces and then collapsed to the ground in front of Judith Ward.

The spa employee was a qualified first aider and bent down to help Geoffrey.  "Sir, sir!  Can you hear me?"

"You...win..." gasped Geoffrey before giving out his last breath.

More people had gathered to see what was going on.  It was Liberty Lee who was first to ask the question "Is he dead?"

"I'm afraid so, Miss.  Geoffrey Landgraab is....DEAD"