The Fox and the Bantam Hen

By DELOS DALE FIDLER

Many of the events described in this book (except for the murder and subsequent police investigation) have their parallels in this life. The writing of this book is

something of a catharsis in dealing with our pain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: Oct 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9781684865444

DELOS DALE FIDLER

Mr. Fidler was born in the quiet farming community of Rensselaer, Indiana, Jasper County, 70 miles south, southeast of Chicago, IL on August 8, 1938. He was raised in the bustling metropolis (of the time) of the steel mills and oil refineries of Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago, Indiana. Mr. Fidler graduated from Hammond Technical Vocational High School, proceeding on and graduating from Purdue University. This is the education that qualified him for a 51 plus year career as an outstanding engineer.Why this story of the (Grey Foxes) (The Fox and the Bantam Hen)? Mr. and Mrs. Fidler are the parents of a very successful daughter in a career of sales where men dominate. We also had a mentally ill son of whom we are very proud. He was very much like Jason in the story. He championed other mentally ill patients in support groups.

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The Fox and the Bantam Hen

Copyright © 2023 by Delos Dale Fidler. All rights reserved.

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The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of URLink Print and Media.

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Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023918769

ISBN 978-1-68486-541-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68486-542-0 (Hardback)

ISBN 978-1-68486-544-4 (Digital)

22.09.23

CONTENTS

Preface

The Crime

The Initial Investigation

Five Years Earlier: A New Company In Town 1992

How To Buy A Business

The Tractor 1982

The News August 1984

The Agreement September 1986

State Of Washington Pre-Qualification For Architectural Services

The Boar’s Head Inn

Professor Folsum

Office Conversations

The Mole

The Deception

The Intrigue

The Meeting Of All Meetings

The Conversation

The Service Club Meeting

The Quandry

The Betrayal

The Grant

Janet Anderson

ANBI September 1996

The Steering Committee

The Crucible

The Lie

Robinson Robinson And Ashworth

The Contractor November 1996

The Transition

The Community Hospital

The Graduate Students

The Contest

The Medical University Responds

Board Of Regents

The Convention

The Graduate Students

The Convention

Convention Committee Meeting

The Display Booth

The Accusation, Day Three

Tom, Doug And Mary

Monday Morning

Epilogue

PREFACE

This is a fictional account of dishonesty, malfeasance of duty by trusted public officials, hardships placed on honest people by dishonest officials and the subsequent consequences suffered not by those officials but by the people they serve. Although this is a fictional account, the reader will recognize the traits illustrated in this novel by officials both foreign and domestic.

This is not a book to give legal advice, accounting procedures, business decisions nor how to run a hotel.

The opinions expressed in this work of fiction are solely those of the characters expressing them.

THE CRIME

Friday, July 11, 1997

Hotels are all very much the same. Like airports and doctor’s offices, there is a distinctive architecture and aroma. Put yourself blindfolded in anyone, and you can tell within seconds what kind of building it is. New hotel or old hotel and you can recognize the long hallways interspersed with regular doorways. The elevators have the same chimes and rattles of the doors as they open and close. Hotel guests walk with a different stride and purpose than say airport passengers or medical office patients. In an airport, people are rushing to catch their next appointment with destiny. Perhaps their rush is to find a flight out, or they are on their final leg home.

In a doctor’s office, they have a purpose but are not in any hurry. They are not conversational but somber.

Now a hotel with a convention in progress is a different animal altogether. People gather like longtime friends, whether they have known each other before or not. A conference gives people purpose and commonality. Greetings, even among strangers are non-threatening. Issues that divide on a convention floor are forgotten once outside the convention hall. Opponents will dine in pleasant conversation with those who just a few minutes or hours before were locked in a fierce debate. Groups that were once strangers will gather for polite conversation once off the convention floor. Even those who a few hours before were locked in mortal verbal and emotional combat will converse in peace.

This was just such a convention with many remarkable differences. This one had issues that are larger than life. Another difference is that the president pro temp of the conference has just been found dead in her room. It just so happens that she is found with another person of the opposite sex and both are stark naked. He is on the floor face up, and she is face down on the bed. He is lying at the foot of a disheveled bed, and she is lying on the white cotton bed sheets.

It is the hotel housekeeper, Delora, who discovers the bodies on her routine morning cleaning rounds. Delora is older than she should be for the work of a housekeeper, but she needs the income it provided, meager as it is. The income is more than the social security it provides, and she is, for the most part, able to perform her duties adequately.

The hotel finds her useful and keeps her employed because in her tenure she is honest and dependable. Dependable is the operative word. A downtown hotel such as the REMORA finds good, honest reliable help impossible to keep for the wages they are paying, and turnover cost them more than the salaries they don’t pay. Benefits do not enter into the equation because there are none. There is no employee medical leave, no vacations, and no medical, dental or life insurance benefits.

Delora grasped the significance of what she saw when she opened the door to Room 825. Both bodies are in plain sight from the open room door. In her six-plus years as a housekeeper, she has never dealt with such an event. Her reaction is to cover her mouth and stand there in severe shock as the enormity of the situation takes hold. It was her scream and running down the hallway for the protection and comfort of another housekeeper on the floor that brought attention to the problem.

Anna, who had just entered another room to start the cleaning process reacted with a curious mixture of alarm and curiosity when Delora’s screams came echoing down the corridor. Anna is much younger than Delora and more physically attuned to the demanding work of housekeeping services in the hotel. Anna’s reasons for working are not much different than those of Delora’s.

Anna’s work added to the limited income her husband could earn as a cab driver in the city. Neither Anna nor Delora have any benefits, and they can’t afford the premiums demanded by the health and life insurance companies for individual health coverage. When they got sick, they take their chances or go to the University community hospital hoping they can get medical help. Most times it seems better to go without medical help than to submit to the humiliation of waiting in long lines at the hospital. The constant filling out of income and asset statements is also an embarrassment for the ladies.

Anna also deplores the assortment of poor patients that were always crowding the hospital waiting room.

Delora hobbled more than ran in the direction of Anna’s cleaning cart. She is still many feet away from Anna when Anna pokes her head out of the door to see why there is such a panic. Delora, bilingual, reverts to her Spanish heritage when excited and Anna, also bilingual, also responds in Spanish.

Delora’s scream brings the heads of three hotel guests poking into the corridor and looking first one way and then another for the source of the commotion. Delora’s Spanish is incomprehensible to them. The agitation in the conversation between the two housekeepers and the gesturing toward the room just abandon by Delora conveys that something is drastically wrong.

Curiosity is a natural instinct in people. Two hotel guests immediately walk toward the hotel room in question with its door still open and the two housekeepers still in agitated conversation at the other end of the hall. The third guest pulls his head back into the hotel room and closes the door.

Walking back down the hotel corridor, Anna looks into Room 825 without entering. She gasps and covers her mouth with one hand while pushing the door fully open with the other says everything. Knowing something was very wrong, the guest moved to take a closer look inside the room and they too saw what brought about Delora’s scream. Anna immediately walked inside the room followed by the two guests. Anna went to the room telephone and called her supervisor. The conversation was brief, agitated, and in Spanish.

The corridor was initially empty at the time of Delora’s scream. Most of the guests in the hotel were there for the convention. The other guests were a dozen or so business travelers presently checking out and on their way home as the weekend approached. A few of the convention delegates were making final preparations and last-minute coordination with the hotel.

The arrival of the rest of the delegates and attendees for the convention was imminent. This was a convention that would decide the destiny of community control of a support program that benefited the neuro-biological impaired citizens of the community.

Those who had already registered were milling around the meeting rooms or sampling the wares of booths that were set up the day before. The promoters of the display booths were eager to showcase their wares and contributions to the variety of needs the convention would bring together. Large numbers of neuro-biologically-impaired clients (as they preferred to be known) are expected to be registered. Thirty percent of the total convention attendance is expected to be clients.

John Malcolm was one such neuro-biologically-impaired client in attendance at the convention. At this time he was presently browsing through the booths that had been set up the day before. There are other booths in various stages of setting up and arranging their display products and services on the display floor. Most are un-staffed at this time, but that will change very shortly.

In about four hours busloads of people will disembark to overwhelm the hotel desk for check-in and room assignments. Keys will be dispensed, and the hotel staff will be accommodating the request for extra services. The hotel‘s marching orders are that every effort will be extended to provide for their guests. The hotel hosts this convention every four years and wants to keep that business.

The first item of business on the part of each guest would be to set their luggage into their room. With their bags behind locked doors, they could head downstairs to greet friends, look at the meeting rooms and relax before the serious business of attendance and voting at this convention.

John is far ahead of this process. He is totally entangled in his own thoughts and is totally ignorant of what is happening on the eighth floor. Just overhead of where he is sitting in his wheelchair, events will decide the course of this convention. For that matter, he is ignorant of what is happening on the second through twelfth floors that will also impact him.

What today will bring in the bylaws committee and whether or not he could afford that new electric wheelchair displayed in the booth ahead of him will consumed his thoughts. All he could hope for now was that sometime during the convention he will have an opportunity to get a donated motorized wheelchair. Even an old one will do for him or the recreation center frequented by the clients of the community. The thought of finding a donor is always ongoing.

John is also mindful that Mindy, a close and intimate friend of his would not arrive for another six hours. Her arrival being delayed by her work schedule that keeps her till 4:00 PM, and then a two-hour drive (assuming light traffic) from a neighboring town. The siren of a paramedic ambulance arriving at the hotel breaks John’s spell of thought. Two paramedics spill out of the front doors of the ambulance and proceeded to the rear to retrieve boxes filled with items of their trade. The hotel doorkeeper holds the front door open for them as they run in lockstep into the lobby. From there they are guided by a second bellhop holding an elevator for them. Eighth floor, he yelled as the paramedics run past without looking either to the right or left. The elevator doors close as people are milling aimlessly about the lobby. Isolated pockets of guests are distracted for only a few minutes between the ambulance’s arrival and the disappearance of the paramedics into the elevator.

One isolated convention guest turns toward the desk after the paramedics disappeared into the elevator. He was about to ask the desk clerk what was happening when a police car arrives and stops behind the paramedic’s truck. Its bubble gum machine flashing red, blue, and white. One uniformed police officer quietly steps out of the car and walks toward the hotel lobby. Again, the doorkeeper holds the door open for him and the second bellhop directs him toward the elevator lobby. This time the police officer must wait for an elevator to return from an upper floor. He displays calm and a seemingly reserved demeanor. As he waits the doors of the second elevator opened and disgorged passengers from upper floors. All of the passengers were talking and oblivious to the excitement in the lobby caused by the arrival and disappearance of the paramedics. As they exited the elevator, conversation ceased as the police officer and the crowd of onlookers comes into view.

The police officer immediately takes command of the elevator and does not allow any other passengers to share his ride to the eighth floor.

At the same time as the policeman starts his journey toward the eighth floor the paramedics arrive on the eighth floor. Looking first one way and then the other, they follow the cleaning lady toward the only activity on the floor. A full 23 minutes have elapsed since the telephone call alerting the hotel staff of the crises and the arrival on the floor of the paramedics. In that time two hotel guests have walked through the room, squatting, staring at the bodies, sitting on the bed and fingering objects on the dresser. Three other hotel guests have walked by in the corridor stopping to stare at the bodies and then assembling to talk about what they had just seen.

Anna, trying to comfort Delora, was trying to get her to take a drink of water. Delora was understandably agitated and needed to settle down from the excitement.

Meanwhile, the two original hotel guests to visit Room 825 have wandered back to their rooms. The Housekeeper service supervisor finally arrives and immediately joins Anna in an attempt to calm Delora down to where she could stop shaking. Delora’s supervisor has determined that Delora was not fit to continue working that day and she was sent home. The supervisor would have to have another housekeeper currently assigned to another floor help Anna clean the rest of the eighth floor. The supervisor comforted Delora on her way to the elevator and homeward bound.

Roger, the largest of the paramedics immediately ordered the room cleared of everyone. He also allowed the room door to close behind him. Gene, the younger of the two, immediately set to work without a word being exchanged. Their medical cases are placed on the floor next to the body of the man and thrown open. The man’s eyes, open in death were unresponsive to the bright penlight flashed back and forth across his pupils. His quick check of the ascending aorta was unable to detect a pulse. A stiffing of the arms indicated that death had occurred hours before. Lab test would determine a more likely time. But, for now, this was a dead body. All the paramedics could do now was to attend to the woman. It would be the arrival of the coroner’s ambulance that would transport the bodies to the forensic lab. The paramedics immediately moved to the body of the woman. Gene again did all the work without a word from Roger. An occasional shake of the head by Gene and an occasional nod by Roger confirmed that the woman’s body was also beyond their help. Her body was young and full-figured.

A sharp rap on the door announced the arrival of the uniformed police officer and his entry into the room. Anna who had waited inside the room let him in. Bill Walter instructed Anna to wait outside in the corridor until he and the paramedics were finished. What’s wrong, Roger? the officer asked in a low matter-of-fact tone of voice. The question was unnecessary since Bill could now plainly see both bodies.

Roger finally dropped his eyes to the floor and shaking his head spoke, There aren’t any obvious trauma marks to the bodies with the exception of the five small punctures on each of their necks. But I doubt if that is what killed her if she was killed. Roger sighed and shook his head slowly as if he could not bring his thoughts into focus on what he is just now seeing. By the way, Bill, haven’t seen you for at least two weeks, what have you been up to, vacation? This was Roger’s way of returning to a reasonable frame of reference and acknowledging their friendship.

No, I’ve been on the swing shift since I last saw you on that Brenton Hills case. Bill was speaking as he knelt beside the body of the man. Not much to see here, Bill’s words were quiet and matter of fact, we’ll have to let the lab boys see what they can come up with. Are there any witnesses? We found two hotel guest and of course the two housekeepers in the room. Roger is matter of fact. Gene had already left with the medical case and would wait in the ambulance downstairs until Roger arrived. There wasn’t any need for the two of them to answer Bill’s questions. The information they possessed was routine and meager. I don’t see them anymore, but, the housekeepers will know them or where to find them.

Bill immediately turned his attention to Anna, who was standing outside the door. Her butt, propped up against the wall, and she was looking intently at the floor. There was nothing in particular to look at on the carpet, this was by default since she did not want to look at anything else, especially the police officer or the paramedics. Ma’am, wait here while I call the lab boys in. And I must tell you that until further notice, this must be treated as a crime scene. Bill immediately walked to the telephone and dialed a number he was using more frequently these days, the homicide department.

The voice on the other end was all business, Homicide!

This is Sergeant Bill Walter, 3rd precinct. We have two dead bodies at the Remora hotel, eighth floor, Room 825. We’ll need a squad and the lab boys here now. His voice was a command, not a request. Pleasantries and socialization would come later. It was now that Bill set about securing the hotel room. There wasn’t much he could do but stand close by until the homicide crew arrived. That could be up to an hour. Bill then turned to Anna, And Ma’am, I will need your name and address.

Anna Torres, A-N-N-A -T-O-R-R-E-S, Anna responded as fear now settled within her. This was the part Anna did not want, and she desired to return to her duties as a hotel housekeeper, the familiar, and the routine. I did not find them, my friend, Delora, found them and brought me here.

Please Ma’am, your address and phone number, please write it here for me, Bill responded, his little notebook in hand by now and a pen poised to write. 5918 South Ridgway, Apt 932, responded Anna. City, zip code and telephone numbers were pried out of her one by one. Anna now felt very uncomfortable and wanted to return to her duties as a housekeeper. However, she had no choice. This police officer, as friendly as he appeared, demanded attention and she could not ignore him. The uniform, the L E ED badge or was it Bill’s demeanor that required attention. In any event, she would now have to answer his questions.

And where is your friend now? What was her name, what did you call her?

Delora, but, she went home. The housekeeper sent - sent her home.

Why did the housekeeper send her home?

She was upset and, and was so upset that she couldn’t finish her work."

Have you known her long?

Only six months. I like Delora.

It was at this time that Ted Hawkins, the hotel manager, arrived. What’s going on here? He knew what to do when the guests of the hotel were robbed or when they became unruly. He dealt with those occasions weekly and had become well-seasoned in placing phone calls to the police and then completing the reports the police required. Ted glanced into the room and he became immediately aware of the problem. The question was not designed to gain information, but to give his mind an instant to adjust to the reality of what happened here.

Sir, will you please step outside the room? And ma’am, will you leave the room also? This was Bill’s way to regain command after the interruption. Bill followed Ted and Anna into the corridor and allowed the door to close behind them. Sir, can I have your name and what your purpose is here? Bill’s voice was again firm but pleasant.

I’m sorry, I’m Ted Hawkins, the hotel manager. The housekeeper just now told me there was a problem here on the eighth floor. She didn’t elaborate since she was caring for one of the day housekeepers. I came as soon as I could break away from the front desk. Ted’s mind was racing on the impact this would have inside the hotel. Two dead bodies were here, and the convention was just eight hours from the opening gavel and banquet. Officer, I need to get to the front desk and keep things there stable. The staff needs to be instructed on how to handle this type of event. I guarantee we will cooperate fully. You’ll find me at the front desk, or my staff will know where I am.

Bill nodded affirmatively. We will need the name and registration of who is registered for this room.

Ted nodded. I will personally get it for you right away.

Bill now returned his attention back to Anna. She was unable to give Bill any information about Delora except her name and that they were good friends. Anything else would be gleaned from the hotel personnel records. Who were the two hotel guest the paramedics found in the room?

I don’t know, Anna said with an admixture of fear and confusion. The confusion is stemming from the implication she should now know who they were. I have not seen them before.

How about the guests who were inside the room and outside in the corridor? Frustration and anxiety were now taking their toll on Bill.

No, I never see them before.

Bill asked Anna for the room key and Anna obeyed immediately. Bill could see the anxiety in Anna and allowed her to return to work. Now the only thing Bill could do was to secure the room and wait for the lab boys and the homicide unit to arrive. The lab was easy to deal with even though they took their time arriving at the scene. The homicide unit was another matter. It could be a very professional experience if the new detective arrived. Or, it could be amicable if it was his friend Tully Wilson. Or, it could be strained with the constant barbs and criticism threw his way by Jack Archer. Jack had the disposition to blame all shortcomings of his investigations on whoever was close by. But, for now, it was a waiting game.

The lab unit arrived at least forty-five minutes after Bill’s call to homicide. The lab team leader was Tom Farrell, a short, balding man, Bill estimated him to be forty-two. The other members of the team were Frank and Allen. The team members followed Tom down the corridor to where Bill was completing his notes and filling in details of his questions with Anna. Bill turned toward the approaching team as they turned into the hallway from the elevator landing. Bill recognized Tom immediately from previous encounters. Bill’s impressions of Tom were favorable and Tom was known as a very competent homicide investigator. How goes it, Tom?

I am terribly busy lately. What do you have for us here? Tom’s voice was all business. The realities of unpleasant business ahead did not allow Tom to engage in pleasantries.

There are two nude bodies that are very dead. Bill’s voice was all business.

A long deep sigh from Tom signaled that this would not be a straightforward investigation. Bill, are there any thoughts?

None, you’ll have to tell the detectives when they arrive. I can speculate all day long, but, you are the boys that will have to come up with the cause of two people dying in the same hotel room.

Frank and Allen were slipping on their shoe covers and breaking out the cameras. Lab coats were worn from the time they left the forensics lab. It was now all business. The cameras were being adjusted for focus and film was being loaded. Frank stepped into the room to flash photo after photo. First, there were the long shots. The close-ups would come later in all their intimate detail.

Tom started the fingerprinting first with the obvious places. Allen scanned the room for visible debris. Like a well-lubricated machine, they moved through the room recording and documenting as they went. Dust and debris samples were vacuumed from the floor, bed linens and dressers, placed in small plastic bags, noted and sealed for future analysis. Minimal conversation took place. The bodies would not be moved until the photographs, fingerprinting and samplings were complete.

In the meantime, Bill stood quietly at the door waiting for the detectives to arrive. Once they came, Bill knew that the quiet he was enjoying would be gone. In the meantime he watched quietly from the door. It was another 45 minutes before the detective arrived. It was Jack Archer, otherwise known as Inspector Clouseau, not because he bungled his cases, but because he was so colorful. Jack was anything but conservative. With a yellow sports coat, ecru dress shirt, a cartooned tie, gray slacks, black and white wingtip shoes, dark wavy hair and swagger it could only be Jack. Bill detested Jack. But, his professionalism commanded him to maintain civility toward him. He watched as Jack approached in a leisurely manner.

Well, hello Bill. Haven’t seen you for…How long has it been?… three months? Jack’s address could only be described as condescending.

For Bill it wasn’t long enough. About that, what case was that? ... the Rohaan burglary? ...did we ever solve that one? Bill knew that the case had reached a dead end but a little barb thrown out for openers would tell Jack that he was not defenseless.

Where are the uniforms today? ...sleeping? They should be here by now. A little more sarcasm than usual from Jack but the conflict had been joined.

You’re in charge of the uniforms. You tell me. Bill’s response was firm and direct.

Okay, Okay, let’s see what happened here. Fill me in on the events. The sarcasm was now gone, at least temporally from Jack’s voice because he now had to depend on Bill to initiate him into the case.

Bill summarized the events since his arrival, including the presence of the two-hotel guest.

And do we know WHO these guest were?

No, came Bill’s firm and direct reply. We have asked the manager of the hotel to whom the room was registered, but as of yet we have no reply. Any waffling on Bill’s part now and Jack would eat him for breakfast. Pick his teeth with Bill’s bones and hang what was left out to dry.

Oh, that’s just great. When the uniforms arrive, send one of them down to the desk and get the name on the register for this room. Jack reverted to his sarcastic self. People are running all over a crime scene, witnesses that have gone home and guests that can’t be found. Jack exhaled a sudden but brief burst of air.

I suppose if you had been here before the bodies were discovered by the housekeeper, you could have a pristine crime scene, was Bills retort.

Jack was not impressed with the answer. However, there was an investigation to begin. What’s the cause of death?

The paramedics didn’t say, there wasn’t anything obvious. Bill’s voice was immediately more professional and even had a touch of friendliness. Even if Jack was not his best friend, there was a case to be solved.

It was at this time that the morgue attendants came down the corridor with a gurney alongside. Three uniformed officers followed along behind. One officer carried a plastic bag. The morgue attendants looked first at Jack and then at Bill. When will the bodies be ready for transport? It was a logical question, and it was a question that was always asked.

Bill did not wish to challenge Jack’s authority or usurp control over what clearly was Jack’s domain. Bill turned his glance away from the morgue attendants.

Jack immediately turned toward the forensic lab boys, ignoring the morgue attendants. What have we found so far, fellows?

Tom Farrell replied, Nothing yet, we’ll be done in another 30 minutes. Tom’s reply was professional. Although he did not like Jack any better than Bill did, he chose not to trade barbs with Jack.

Tom could afford to be more independent since they worked in different departments. He was under the district attorney’s office. Jack and Bill are obviously in the police department.

Tom’s exposure to Jack was kept to a minimum. When Jack became irritating, Tom could hide behind the bureaucracy. Jack was all too painfully aware of this and was careful to be somewhat tactful.

THE INITIAL INVESTIGATION

She was sent home before I arrived. Bill Walter’s voice was more professional this time, But, there is a second housekeeper we could talk to. Her name is Anna, A-N-N-A. It was at this time that Bill shared the notes he had written down.

I’ll talk to her. Where is she? Jack’s voice now reverted to his authoritative tone. Bill automatically replied, She was down at the other end of the hall earlier this morning; but she’s not there now, probably on break.

It was two hours since the first call went out to the police station and the paramedics glanced down the corridor to where Anna’s cart had been just an hour ago. At 11:30 Anna had pushed her cart back to the linen closet and headed for the break room. The room is nothing more than an enlarged linen closet where they all gathered away from the work and the hotel guest for a quick lunch. They enjoyed a small sandwich, some fruit and a half-cup of coffee along with talk of the day, whatever that happened to be.

It was getting to be 11:34 am, a few more minutes and the lunch hour would be in full swing.

Jack now turned and asked a few pointed questions of Tom concerning cause and time of death.

For all of Jack’s questions, Tom’s answers were always, No, or, We don’t know. His answers to Jack’s problems were still short and not very informative. He was aware of Jack’s caustic personality and avoided direct conversations with him.

Jack immediately turned his attention to the uniforms that arrived with the gurney. He could more easily intimidate these men since they were rookies and were not aware that his personality was more bluff than bite. But, they had to endure his caustic remarks, the affronts to their manhood, the unprofessional accusations, the snide comments on their performance and ‘lowly’ status in the order of things.

As Jack directed his