The Blues of Portsmouth P.D.: A Series, Episode Two

By Robert Franklin Jackson

“The Case of the Connected Palindromes”

In the second episode, the PPD officers are joined by additional regular characters, which give a broader stage of interaction outside the station house: Hon. Judge Robert McLiams, who demands the officer follow the probable-cause rule; ADA Susan George, who insists the officers follow the book; Betty and Lou Wilkins, who operate a breakfast restaurant, where the officers start their day; and Rufus Malone, who provides the officers their favorite watering hole at the end of their shift. The adversaries are a quartet of sadists who are torturing and killing anyone who knows their identity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796016918

Robert Franklin Jackson

Your Author, Robert Franklin Jackon, following an enlistment as a U.S. Navy Seabee/deep-sea-diver, four years in elementary school teaching/administration, twenty-seven years as a high school geography teacher, the office of Historian General NSSAR, is not content unless he is working on a writing project. Projects include: Family Genealogy, Sons of the American Revolution - History Vol. III, plus several pamphlets, just completing a 3,200 page encyclopedia of his home town, Oroville, Oroville 1915 - A Place in Time, ninety acrylic paintings, and presently, The Blues of Portsmouth P.D. a Series of eight episode, four other novellas, The Truth Book, wewillfindyouamach.com, No Vacancy, and Pene-lope and Anti-gone, and the book of a musical comedy, Stoneface.

Book preview

The Blues of Portsmouth P.D.

A Series of Eight Episodes

Jeff Needed Killing

The Case of the

Connected Palindromes

Episode Two

A Murder Mystery

By

Robert Franklin Jackson

Edited by

Bobbi Jackson

One Night’s Reading Series

Copyright © 2019 by Robert Franklin Jackson.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2019901931

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-7960-1692-5

                 eBook           978-1-7960-1691-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 07/11/2019

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

Chapter One

Saturday, 11 August 2001

Portsmouth Country Club

Chapter Two

Saturday, 11 August 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Three

Saturday, 11 August 2001

Portsmouth Country Club

Chapter Four

Saturday, 11 August 2001

P.P.D. Station House

Chapter Five

Sunday, 12 August 2001

P.P.D. Station House

Chapter Six

Monday, 13 August 200

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Seven

Monday, 13 August, 2001

The Ledyard Estate

Chapter Eight

Monday, 13 August, 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Nine

Monday, 13 August 2001

Portsmout Station House

Chapter Ten

Monday, 13 August, 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Eleven

Monday, 13 August. 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Twelve

Tuesday, 14 August, 2001

Portsmouth Municipal Court

Chapter Thirteen

Tuesday, 14 August, 2001

Portsmouth Municipal Court

Chapter Fourteen

Tuesday, 14 August, 2001

Betty and Lou’s

Chapter Fifteen

Tuesday, 14 August 2001

Otto’s Home

Chapter Sixteen

Tuesday, 14 August 2001

Portsmouth Municipal Court

Chapter Seventeen

Wednesday, 15 August, 2001

Jeff Matson’s Apartment

Chapter Eighteen

Wednesday, 14 August, 2001

Portsmouth Phone Booth

Chapter Nineteen

Wednesday, 14 August 2001

Seaside Motel, Kittery, Maine

Chapter Twenty

Wednesday, 14 August, 2001

Betty & Lou’s Restaurant

Chapter Twenty-0ne

Wednesday, 14 August, 2001

Portsmouth P.D.

Chapter Twenty-two

Thursday, 15 August, 2001

Betty & Lou’s Restaurant

Chapter Twenty-three

Thursday, 15 August, 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Twenty-four

Thursday, 15 August 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Twenty-five

Thursday, 15 August, 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Twenty-six

Thursday, 15 August 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Twenty-seven

Thursday, 15 August 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Twenty-eight

Friday, 16 August, – 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Twenty-nine

Friday, 16 August, 2001

Exeter, NH

Chapter Thirty

Friday, 16 August, 2001

Kittery, Maine

Chapter Thirty-one

Friday, 16 August, 2001

Phillips Exeter Academy

Chapter Thirty-two

Friday, 16 August 2001

Naval Station - Kittery, Maine

Chapter Thirty-three

Friday, 16 August, 2001

Otto’s home

Chapter Thirty-four

Monday, 19 August, 2001

Phillips Exeter Academy

Chapter Thirty-five

Monday, 19 August, 2001

Naval Base - Kittery, Maine

Chapter Thirty-six

Monday, 19 August, 2001

Phillips Exeter Academy

Chapter Thirty-seven

Monday, 19 August, 2001

Manchester, New Hampshire

Chapter Thirty-eight

Wednesday, 21 August, 2001

Naval Base. Kittery, Maine

Chapter Thirty-nine

Thursday, 22 August 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Forty

Thursday, 22 August, 2001

Naval Base, Kittery Maine

Chapter Forty-one

Thursday, 22 August 2001

Betty & Lou’s Restaurant

Chapter Forty-two

Thursday, 22 August, 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Forty-three

Thursday, 22 August, 2001

Otto’s Home

Chapter Forty-four

Friday, 23 August 2001 -

Naval Base, Kittery, Maine.

Chapter Forty-five

Friday, 23 August, 2001

Portsmouth Municipal Court Building

Chapter Forty-six

Friday, 23 August, 2001

Mickey Pipes room.

Chapter Forty-seven

Friday, 23 August 2001

Hyatt Regency, Portsmouth

Chapter Forty-eight

Friday, 23 August, 2001

Municipal Court Building

Chapter Forty-nine

Friday, 23 August, 2001

Golly’s Restaurant

Chapter Fifty

Saturday, 24 August, 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Fifty-one

Sunday, 25 August, 2001

New Castle Island

Chapter Fifty-two

Monday, 26 August, 2001

The Ledyard Building

Chapter Fifty-three

Monday, 26 August, 2001

Sanford Ledyard’s Residence

Chapter Fifty-four

Tuesday, 27 August 2001

Betty & Lou’s Restaurant

Chapter Fifty-five

Tuesday, 27 August, 2001

Portsmouth, The Morgue

Chapter Fifty-six

Tuesday, 27 August, 2001

Portsmouth Station House

Chapter Fifty-seven

Wednesday, 28 August, 2001

Portsmouth Station House.

Chapter Fifty-eight

Monday, 3 September, 2001

Portsmouth Country Club

Chapter Fifty-nine

Tuesday 4 September, 2001

Court House Building

Chapter Sixty

Tuesday 4 September, 2001

Wetherell’s home

Chapter Sixty-one

Tuesday 4 September, 2001

A Victims thoughts

Chapter Sixty-two

Tuesday 4 September, 2001

Wetherell’s home

Chapter Sixty-three

Tuesday, 4 September, 2001

Ledyard’s home

Jeff Needed Killing

The Case of the

Connected Palindromes

The Second Book

of the

One Night’s Reading Series

Published by

Robert Franklin Jackson

Copyright © 2003

Published with the hope that the

reader can enjoy the entire story

in One Night’s Reading,

or possibly,

view the action in a

Two Hour T.V. Dramatization.

You should first have read

The First Book

Taking the Fifth

The Case of the

Misunderstood Homophone

DEDICATION

To my wife, Bobbi, Painstaking Editor,

Greatest Fan, and Constructive Critic,

Best Friend

Chapter One

Saturday, 11 August 2001

Portsmouth Country Club

It was a great morning for a round of golf. The temperature had dropped 20 clicks from the sweltering 90°+ readings of yesterday. The wind was cooperating, and a cloud cover was protecting the foursome from the usual glare of the sun which golfer on the first tee usually faced.

Jeff Matson, co-owner in an electronics surveillance firm, M. & L. Investigations, was teaming up with Chip Snyder, of Dalton and Snyder, building Contractors, against Al Edgerton, a Portsmouth C.P.A. and Ed Mitchell, a retired High School teacher.

Matson said to Mitchell, Ed, glad you could fill out the foursome. My partner, Sandy Ledyard, usually plays ‘skins’ with us on Saturday mornings. To Snyder he said. Sandy must have had a tough date last night. His short club, didn’t have enough length for such a long hole, he said with a wink.

The ex teacher, Ed Mitchel drove first, and drove it out about 200 yards, but hooked it slightly left into the tall grass. Damn, that grass is high over there, he said

Al Edgerton was next, and shanked his ball sharply to the right, and almost hit a guy on the driving range. Shit, I’m taking a Mulligan.

Bull crap, Edgerton, we’re playing for a dollar per skin. Play it from where it lies, Matson demanded. Then with a little one upmanship, Nice shank.

Go to hell, Matson, and don’t ever say the word shank out loud. You know that, Edgerton snapped back. Hitting a shank is a mental thing. If you get to thinking about it, it is a hard habit to break. So in polite golf, the word shank is never mentioned.

Matson wouldn’t leave it, saying. "Wassa matter? Got you thinking about it? You are just like the Yankee’s Knobloch fielding an easy grounder at second, and then he can’t find first base. They sent the poor bastard out to left field.

Chip Dalton was the third to hit. His drive was long and straight down the center of the fairway. The best shot of the three.

Matson was next. Great shot Chip, I’ll match that, and we will have our first skin. He selected his new driver, with a titanium shaft. He was in his back swing, when Sandy Ledyard, drove up fast in a golf cart and startled him. You are too late to join us, Sandy. Ed Mitchell is filling in for you. What the hell are you thinking about? I was just in the middle of my back swing!

I believe I’ll shoot through, Asshole, as he reached into his golf bag and pulled out a 12 gauge shot gun. Without a moments hesitation he shot Matson in the crotch.

The shot was aimed at his crotch, but it took out everything from his navel to his knees.

Chapter Two

Saturday, 11 August 2001

Portsmouth Station House

It was only minutes after the shooting of Jeff Matson, that Russ Walters, the golf pro at the Portsmouth Country Club made the 911 call. He had been only a few yards away from the first tee, acting as starter, when he actually saw the murder happen. It is the starters job to call the golfers from the driving range, or quite often from the Club House Bar, to keep their scheduled tee time. He carries both a walkie-talkie and a cell phone. He used the latter to call 911. Judy Johnson, the 911 dispatcher received the call. She immediately transferred the information to Portsmouth Hospital and the Portsmouth Police Department.

17923.png

The Hospital directed an ambulance team which was taking a coffee break at Betty and Lou’s, to hurry to the golf course. They arrived, but there was no need for speed. Jeff Matson’s life was history. The shot gun blast had blown him in half.

17912.png

The 911 transfer to the P.P.D. was taken by Sgt. Sally Thorne, who’s promotion to Sergeant, was due to her commendation for outstanding duty on the recent serial murder case in Portsmouth. Sgt. Thorne speaking, how may I help you?

Sergeant, this is Judy, 911 dispatcher. Get a team over to the Portsmouth Country Club in a hurry. Some guy shot and killed a golfer on the first tee. Make that two teams. One to investigate, the other to look for the shooter. The shooter is Sandy Ledyard. A whole bunch of people saw it happen, and they all know Ledyard, and swear that he did it.

Sally buzzed Chief Frey’s office and relayed the information.

Who’s in the squad room that is available, Frey asked?

Tim Skiv, Keeg and Tony, Sally reported.

Send Keeg and Skiv to canvas the witnesses at the golf course. Have Tim and Tony look for Sandy Ledyard. The first one who discovers something substantial will be the Primary, Chief Frey ordered.

Sally was not the only member of the Portsmouth P.D. to benefit from the ‘job well done’ commendations bestowed by Chief Frey. Tim Slone, Beth Skiv Van Dyke, Keegen O’Regan and Tony Brock were also honored. Tim remains as Frey’s right hand man. Beth moved from being a Computer Specialist to Detective. Keegen, who was only given his Gold Badge on a temporary basis, was given permanent status. Tony Brook, who was a member of the Manchester Police Department, opted for a transfer to Portsmouth.

Sally shouted, Hey Keeg and Skiv. There has been a shooting at the Portsmouth Country Club. Frey says for you to get over there and canvass the witnesses before they disappear. Tim, you and Tony, look up an address for Sandy Ledyard. Go fetch him, and bring him in. Witnesses say he was the shooter, so be careful. Frey says the first one who discovers something substantial will be the Primary.

Keeg and Skiv took off in a hurry. Tim and Tony went to the computer index to look for an address for Sandy Ledyard.

As Tim was busy looking at his computer screen, a ‘thirty something’ young man quietly walked up to Tony.

Tony said, Can I help you with something?

Are you a homicide detective? he asked.

Yes, I am. Do you have a homicide to report? Tony inquired.

Yes, I do. I’m Sandy Ledyard.

Both Tim and Sally overheard his statement.

Congratulations, Tony. Sally said.

"For what? Tony asked.

You’re the Primary on the Country Club Murder. Sally grinned.

Chapter Three

Saturday, 11 August 2001

Portsmouth Country Club

Keeg and Skiv had their siren screaming as they sped to the Portsmouth Country Club.

When they arrived, they found Russ Walters, the golf pro at the Portsmouth Country Club, and the three members of Jeff Matson’s final foursome, Chip Snyder, Al Edgerton, and Ed Mitchell.

Russ Walters suggested they use a small meeting room, usually used by the Golf Club Board of Directors, as a place where they could get away from a growing hoard of reporters. Keeg and Skiv agreed, since all four had been within 25 feet of Sandy Ledyard when he shot Jeff Matson, and there seemed to be no reason to interrogate them separately. The dynamics of the event might best be ascertained if they told their story as a group.

Once they were isolated from the press, Keeg said to Russ Walters, What did you see and hear, Mr. Walters?

Walters replied rather nervously, I was just about to announce the names of the next foursome to follow the Matson group, when I noticed a golf cart driven by Sandy Ledyard speed up much too close to the tee, and at a speed in excess of Golf Course regulations. Unlike a sport like basketball, where home town fans are encouraged to shout and wave streamers to break the concentration of the athletes, golf etiquette demands that a golfer must be allowed absolute quiet. Tiger Woods gets very upset if he hears a click of a camera while he is addressing the ball. I was just about to approach Ledyard to reprimand him for his actions, when he shot Jeff Matson.

Who arranged for the participants in this foursome? Skiv asked.

That would be me, Chip Snyder answered. "Every Saturday morning Jeff Matson, Sandy Ledyard, Al Edgerton and I have a regular tee time. Jeff and Sandy were business partners, but not golf partners. I usually teamed up with Jeff, against Al and Sandy. We would play $1 skins. Today, Sandy didn’t arrive to hit a few practice balls, so we asked Ed, here, to fill in for Sandy.

Keeg interrupted with, Did Sandy have a habit of not showing up for his tee time?

Al answered, Occasionally. Sandy would, not show if he ‘got lucky’ on a date. Excuse