SILENT MAJORITY (Anonymous Justice Book 2)

by Boyd Craven Jr

  “James, hey man,” I hear Wayne say, and feel him nudge me.

  “I’m up,” I lie, keeping my eyes closed for another half a blessed minute.

  “The brass is here man, wake up.”

  That works like a jolt of cold water to the face and I lurch into a more or less upright position. The drive from Hamtramck to Dearborn wasn’t that bad, but with traffic, I’ve managed to nap a good half hour. Every little bit at this point. Somebody knocks on my window, and I consider just leaving it up and keeping all the cold air outside until we absolutely have to get out.

  The suit knocks on the window again and flashes a badge. Homeland Security. Great… I knew the feds were involved, but now that a second big weapons cache has been found, the ATF, DHS, and the FBI are all already here, judging by the number of people coming and going.

  ATF wore slickers that all but SCREAMED ‘Federal Agents’, whereas Homeland Security are younger, fresh-faced guys in their 20s and 30s. The quick way to tell the difference between FBI and DHS is that FBI agents usually have a better suit and haircut. It’s like the law enforcement fashion show on parade.

  I roll down my window to see what he wants.

  “Who are you guys with?” he asks.

  “Hamtramck PD, Detective Miller, this is Detective Wayne Johnson,” I say, pointing to my left.

  Beyond the man who’d stopped us is an assortment of flashing lights and government vehicles gathered at the front of the mosque. Yellow crime scene tape flutters in the cold winter air as the breeze picks up.

  “Little far from home, aren’t you?” he asks.

  “Hey man, you guys called me in. If you don’t want me here, I’m gone. I have no problem side-stepping this clusterfuck,” I tell him.

  I feel about a thousand times grumpier than I sound. In truth, I hate the posturing that the feds always do. The chest thumping and the whole nine yards. Always wanting full control of information coming in and going out. Evidence? Their labs versus the city lab, a full out peeing for distance kinda thing. I’m already sick of their bullshit, and this guy is only the first one I’ve run into.

  “Hey man, just making conversation. Who’re you here to see?” he asks.

  “Not you,” I say, rolling up my window and motioning for Wayne to drive.

  “Shit James, what’s up with that?” Wayne asks me.

  “This whole thing is way over our heads. The feds want it, they can have it. But if I’m gonna run myself into the ground to help them out, they can at least shelve the attitude. We’re here as a courtesy.”

  He falls silent and parks the unmarked. I’m the first to exit, and I start to walk towards the front door, flashing my badge as I step under the yellow tape. I just get nodded through and Wayne is only half a step behind. We grab shoe covers from the crime scene tech by the door, rubber band them, and step inside.

  “Smells like shit,” Wayne says, almost gagging.

  “Probably is. See, the bodies are still here,” I point.

  The pictures have already been taken, and they’re starting the process of putting the bodies in bags. I’m only mildly interested in that, but more interested with what had happened. I go back to the front door, and look back towards the heart of the mosque.

  Two sets of doors separate the entrance from the rest of the mosque, just like yesterday. Must be a thing. It appears that five bodies fell just inside the second doors, and quite a few further inside. More than yesterday. They’d been armed, but the firearms had already been removed. I’ll have to rely on pictures.

  “What are you looking at?” Wayne asks.

  Give Wayne a gangbanger popping off at another car or house and he’s fine. Somebody gets drunk and smacks his old lady too hard; it’s not that difficult to figure out. What I’m doing is different.

  “I want to see the pictures,” I tell him, “then I’ll show you.”

  I walk in and, as I approach the bodies outside the door that were being bagged, a tall dark haired agent sees us moving closer and stands.

  “Gentleman, Special Agent Mark Clay,” he says, holding out his hand.

  Shit.

  “Not quite so special Detective James Miller,” I say, trying to grouch as I hold out my hand, but fail.

  Mark Clay is almost my age, and his smile isn’t canned, it’s genuine.

  “You sound like you’ve had a rough week,” he says, without a trace of sarcasm.

  “Yeah, it’s been pretty bad,” I admit.

  “Thanks for stopping in. It’s my fault you got dragged out here,” Clay tells me sheepishly, almost apologetically.

  “Oh? How come?” I ask him, curious who he is, and how he has the pull to do that.

  “I went to Quantico with the chief’s nephew. He’s been a friend for a few years. I just got transferred to Michigan… and this is my first case in the new office.”

  “Surprise,” I say dryly, but crack up into a short laugh after Agent Clay does as well.

  “No, I asked the chief if he had anybody with military experience, and knew anything about the case in your neck of the woods. I didn’t expect it to be you. So… It’s my fault, but I’m hoping you can look at this, and tell me what you see. I already have an idea, but I want to hear your take on it before I share.”

  That makes sense, and I nod. At least he’s honest about why he asked me out here, now if I can only see those pictures--

  “Military experience? How would that help?” Wayne asks.

  “War gaming, I’ll bet,” I say, and see Clay nodding.

  “What’s that?” Wayne asks me.

  I know we’re wasting time, but it’s the veteran’s job to train the rookie and pass the baton over, so I humor him.

  “Looking at a building, getting intelligence. Seeing how to take it down. Figure out how many men it would take to overwhelm and kill this number of men, and then get out of here, without alerting anybody.

  “So you can do that?” Wayne asks, and I look up to see Clay, who’s also waiting for my response.

  “Yes,” I tell them. “Can I see the pictures, of before the bodies or guns were moved?”

  Clay waves his hand, and a CSI tech comes over with a digital camera. I flip through the images and curse my vision. I have to hold the damned camera almost a foot away from my eyes so I can make out the images. I’ve been planning laser surgery next month for when I have two weeks’ vacation set, but that’s not going to do shit for me now.

  The bodies were in basically the same spots as I’d thought they’d be, their guns fallen at their feet. Brass and shotgun shells are everywhere. I flip through the rest, and see the back room. I hand the camera back to the tech, turn and walk towards the building to inspect the wall and wooden doors. No bullet holes.

  “They never got a shot off? No 7.62x39 brass?” I ask, and Clay shakes his head.

  I walk to the rear wall, the way the attackers were shooting. Bullet holes everywhere.

  “How many guys would it take to overwhelm 21 men in this situation?” Johnson asks me.

  “Three to five, tops,” I tell him.

  The rookie sputters, and Clay looks at me with his eyebrows raised.

  The bodies had been shot more than three times each. All different calibers, even shotgun wounds.

  If it were the same guys, they’d all be 9mm.

  “Doors swung open together, they fan out, overlapping fields of fire, but they each had their own quadrants they had to hit first. They advanced steadily, taking everyone down before letting up.”

  “How can you know that?” Detective Wayne Johnson asks me.

  Little bugger is full of questions today.

  “That’s how you clear a house in a CQB, when the rules of engagement are clear,” Agent Clay says.

  Wayne looks at me, the realization seeping into his eyes. I won’t ever tell him, he doesn’t need the same sleepless nights I’ve suffered, once the nightmares had kicked in.

  “Three to five people. Special forces?” Clay asks me.

&n
bsp; “Yeah, at least one of them, to plan this. Or maybe law enforcement, like SWAT,” I say.

  “Wait, you’re saying cops did this?” the CSI Tech says loudly, and the rest of the room suddenly falls quiet.

  “Just stating who’d be trained to do this. Granted, cops probably wouldn’t use this large a caliber, but maybe the shotguns, in a situation like this. Cops prefer the big black scary guns that everyone is afraid of, but shoot smaller rounds.

  “Special forces would’ve used suppressed fire. This was very loud, since multiple civilians called it to 911. This was a well planned, but amateur strike force, that took down five overconfident, untrained armed guards. The others weren’t even armed. That was shooting fish in a barrel.”

  “This fact or guess?” Wayne asks me.

  “How did I do compared to your theory?” I ask Clay.

  “I was guessing there would be quite a few more men than your three to five guess,” Clay tells me.

  “No, any more, they’d get in each other's way. They may have had backups or guards outside, though. If these guys were any good, three would’ve done it. They had five for sure.”

  “How can you be sure?” Wayne asks.

  “From the pictures. Only from the pictures. There were 12 gauge shells in two places, the other three used rifles of different calibers, and left their brass on the floor,” I tell him, feeling quite good about myself.

  “Looks like your captain sent the right man for this,” Clay says. “Listen, I need eyes like yours. People that aren’t gonna try blowing smoke up my ass. Like you. We’re putting together a Joint Task force with the various agencies and police departments. You interested?”

  I don’t want to be on any damn task force. I just want a warm cot, a pizza and a six pack of beer.

  “I have a ton on my plate right now. I don’t think I can add anything else to my workload without--”

  “I’ll have you temporarily reassigned. I’ll clear it with your captain and your chief,” he says.

  “You’ve got that much cheese?” I ask him, smiling despite the shit sandwich.

  I mean, feds are usually salary, and they like to get their sleep, showers, clean clothing, and hot food. It might feel like a vacation to work with them.

  “I got the cheddar,” he says, with a grin.

  Wayne snorts behind me. “What about me? I’m his partner.”

  “I’ll talk to the chief. It looks like you’ve been up since this started?” It sounded more statement than question, but I nodded affirmative.

  “Pretty much,” I say.

  “Go ahead and head back then. Get some sleep. I’ll get it figured out with your chief. Other than calling you to coordinate where to meet you, I won’t bother you for 24. Get some rest, Detective Miller.”

  “Thanks, I think,” I say, putting my hand out to shake again.

  He shakes with Wayne, and we turn and head back to the car.

  “You want to drive back?” Wayne asks, a hopeful note in his voice.

  “Knock yourself out,” I tell him, as I get in the passenger side again.

  11

  Dharma Bednarski:

  Home in Hamtramck, MI

  1:00 a.m. Wednesday, Dec 30th, 2015

  “Hey, check this out, Jade. I’ve never seen this guy post yet. He seems to be pretty strongly opinionated. Let’s see if he knows what he’s talking about. This is an interesting topic.”

  [RU American] I wasn’t surprised by what the ‘FBI’ found inside those two mosques, once they got in them. What I don’t understand though, is why mosques are off-limits to government officials of all kinds, yet Christian or Jewish places of worship are not. If they have nothing to hide, then why hide? Any other kind of church welcomes ‘walk-ins’, why don’t they?

  [Greg Connelly] What do you mean they’re off-limits, RU American? Says who?

  [RU American] Says the Muslim-In-Chief, in the Whitehouse, and his six appointed Muslim staff members. All Christian churches have to report their financial information, their membership information, and even transcripts of their sermons via 501C3’s to the government. Mosques are immune to having to do so. Why?

  [Anna Smith] That hardly seems fair! Since when did this happen?

  [RU American] Since October, 2011 when the President made mosques off-limits for FBI investigations without special permission from what the Justice Department calls the Sensitive Operations Review Committee. There are over 2,500 mosques in America, and growing, and we have no idea what they’re preaching inside of their walls. I personally think that there’s a great possibility that each and every one of them is a jihadist factory, until proven otherwise. This is just too suspicious to me. You know that in any crowd there are weak-minded people who are easily influenced. They’re sitting ducks for being radicalized. Look at the sermon that was recorded by some brave person somehow, at the mosque in Hamtramck. The one that AJ translated. Pure anti-American, that’s what that was. That kind of shit should be considered treasonous, at the very least. There’s no doubt that the Imam was talking about overthrowing the American people and the American government.

  [Greg Connelly] There are 2,500 mosques in this country? I’ve barely ever seen one anywhere. Where’re most of them at? Any particular areas?

  [RU American] Well you can Google lists of mosque locations easily enough. I suggest you do that, rather than me trying to remember, ‘cause I couldn’t, but I remember that the largest number of them by state, was #1 New York, and #2 Texas. By far! I’ll bet most Texans don’t even realize that.

  [Anna Smith] Well I know someone said that the Sunnis and the Shiites in America share mosques, but is there any way to tell who is who? I mean, that professor said that the Shiites are for elected governments, and the six appointed Presidential staff members in place right now, are all self-proclaimed Shiites. Doesn’t that mean they’re the peaceful ones?

  [Professor Langston] Greetings Anna Smith. I’m that professor guy you’re talking about. I have to be careful to remain neutral publicly, because of my job, but conveying facts as I see them is fine. I will remind you that part of those seven steps I explained before included Sunni infiltration of all Muslim groups and activities in America, to begin swaying the sentiments to align with the caliphate already in place in the Middle East. There will be Sunnis in every Mosque, in short.

  [AJ] Hello Professor, nice of you to step in and explain that. While you’re here, there has been much discussion of, say, ‘current events’ on Al-Jazeera America. Have you seen that?

  [Professor Langston] Yes, of course.

  [AJ] Would you say, in your opinion then, that the reporting of said events has been slightly slanted to portray Sunni sentiment?

  [Professor Langston] Hmmm… Yes, it seems so, but we must remember that all Muslims use the same Qur'an which, the same as the Christian Bible, instructs its believers to migrate to every corner of the Earth, and convert non-believers to their faith. It’s my opinion that the news network you ask about is nothing more than a part of that ministry to Muslims. That said, just like I mentioned a moment ago, that news network will be infiltrated by Sunni influence, you can count on that.

  [RU American] Professor, would you say that all of the protesters killed at Thor’s Gun Shop were jihadists?

  [Professor Langston] No. Absolutely not. Remember what I mentioned earlier: the majority of the faction of Islam that brought this caliphate to power, will be purists, and will not get involved in politics at all. Then, the next largest group are the activists. Most of those killed at the gun shop were undoubtedly Muslims, who personally identified with the activists group, and were ‘proving’ their allegiance to the new caliphate as directed. I doubt, though, that they thought they would actually be martyred for doing so, here in America. That surprised everyone. That may have an effect on others in the future. These activists were following the lead of, and showing support for, the few jihadists among them. The ones who threw the firebombs would be the jihadists.

  [RU Ameri
can] Then, can we count on all Muslims in America to be supporters of the jihadists when it comes down to it?

  [Professor Langston] No. Just like Christians, which you’re probably more familiar with, there are some Muslims that are more devout than others. Muslims, however, face much higher consequences for public refusal to follow the directions of the caliph. Here, we label people, and call them names. We think that’s severe, and bullying. Sunni Muslims would consider that person an apostate, and would be required to behead the men, make personal sex slaves (concubines) of their wives, and slaves of their children. That’s much different than name calling!

  [AJ] Professor, to be clear, you said that all Muslims recognize the Prophet Muhammad as the last great messenger of God, and strive to be like him. Did Muhammad have concubines and own slaves?

  [Professor Langston] Absolutely. The Qur’an allows for a man to have multiple wives, and non-Muslim slaves. It’s fine for a man to have sex with any of his wives, or any of his female slaves, at any time. It’s not ok for him to have sex with any other female though. For crimes such as that, the ‘punishment’ is that the man must ‘give up’ some of his female slaves as atonement. That proves that his slaves are considered in the Qur’an to be some of his most valuable possessions. That’s a ‘fine’, so to speak. Those who say that peaceful Muslims are ‘just like us’, referring to other Christians, are very wrong. Muhammad bought and sold slaves often. Records show that he bought more than he sold, though.

  [Shaneen Smith] We don’t do slaves here in America. That shit been gone for a long time!

  [Professor Langston] I assure you young lady; there are many Muslim men here in America that practice this today. They aren’t required to advertise it, but they are allowed to do it.

  [Shaneen Smith] Well fuck a Muslim then! We don’t need them here in America! Abraham Lincoln settled that shit, and we don’t need nobody here trying to bring dat back!

  [RU American] Exactly, Shaneen. We don’t want any of them in America if that’s how they are!

  [AJ] Let me remind everyone to use caution with what we say and write in public.