"The only calls I've been getting are from [Al Suarez]," said [Michael Berwald]. "Al, Al, Al, Al, Al."

The tapes, hours of them, reveal a man feverishly trying to cover up what he knew could end his 20-year career.

Al Suarez was a respected veteran fire captain, a former union chief, a friend of Mayor Pam Iorio and the new husband of a top Hillsborough County public defender.

Behind the scenes, he was a frantic negotiator, determined to silence four other firefighters about what they had seen on Oct. 17.

On the tapes, his fellow firefighters say Suarez used his position as a high-ranking officer, threatening his subordinates with their jobs if they refused to lie about a photo session with two strippers that took place inside Station 21 in North Tampa.

The pictures, some merely provocative and some downright raunchy, found their way to numerous Web sites. An anonymous call, which Suarez called a "setup" perpetrated by "one of my enemies," sparked a six-week investigation that ended Wednesday.

The five men punished by Tampa Fire Rescue have been unwilling to speak publicly about the incident. But in a stack of audio tapes, made public this week, those involved told their stories in their own words.

On tape, Suarez swore he got roped into the episode. "Get the best lie detector in the world," he said. "I will gladly take it."

He claimed that Michael Berwald, a rookie firefighter who worked part-time at Thee Dollhouse strip club in South Tampa, had begged to have women at the station for a photo session.

Suarez said he felt uncomfortable with the idea but finally consented when Berwald said the men working at Station 21 agreed to allow the women to show up on a Sunday afternoon.

"I did not set this up," Suarez said. "Everything went through Berwald; that's a fact."

But Suarez agreed to meet the strippers and two men at a local Chili's restaurant and escort them to the station.

"I didn't think there was going to be any nudity. Maybe a bikini, something like that," he said. "It started out innocently. This thing just escalated."

He said that after the shoot was over, he and the other firefighters at the station that night talked often, "like a band of brothers," debating what to do. He said they all agreed to "keep our mouths shut."

They did just that. In early January, a succession of fire department employees was brought in one by one and asked what they knew about the pictures of strippers at Station 21. All denied knowing anything.

Why did they lie?

"We did not want to cause embarrassment to the department," Suarez said.

But the investigation pressed on, and more evidence leaked out. It was then, Suarez said, that he told the others it was time to come clean. And thus began the second round of interviews, in which no one denied having seen the strippers.

In fact, Suarez had seen them again weeks later, on Nov. 4, when they performed at his bachelor party in his house. None of the four other firefighters present at the photo shoot came that night.

The story Suarez told differs entirely from the picture painted by the four other men working at Station 21 on Oct. 17.

They said they had no idea what would transpire until Suarez called the station just before he arrived and told the two rookies to cover the windows with plastic. Berwald, who worked at Thee Dollhouse, said he didn't facilitate the event.

He said Suarez had hounded him for months after he found out Berwald worked at a strip club, asking for introductions to strippers. "I had to brush it off," Berwald said, until the night Suarez showed up at the club and asked for introductions.

"From then on I said, 'Al, I have nothing to do with it,' " Berwald said.

On the evening of the photo shoot, the men said, Suarez showed up with the women and two men with cameras. As clothes began to come off, they said, they grew more and more uncomfortable. Some went inside to watch the Yankees-Red Sox baseball game. Suarez came in periodically to eat their snacks. They said Steve Johnson, the acting chief that night, protested when one woman removed her shirt.

"I went to Al and I said, 'What are you doing? You know this isn't legal,' " Johnson said. "He goes, 'Relax, it's okay. I'll take full responsibility.' "

The other men recall Suarez saying things like, "Don't worry, Big Daddy's got it" and "Just chill out."

Later, when the investigation began, they said Suarez bristled at any suggestion to tell the truth. "He said, 'Hell no, I'm going on the offensive,' " Berwald said.

Each of the four men said Suarez, as well as two former union officials, called them numerous times, imploring them to lie about what they knew and threatening harsh consequences if they didn't.

"They told me, 'The guy that tells the truth gets fired,' " Johnson said.

Firefighter Michael Campbell got the same message.

"All (Suarez) ever said was, 'You don't know anything. You don't know anything. We'll all get fired if we talk,' " Campbell said.

As the investigation intensified, the men said, so did the calls from Suarez.

"The only calls I've been getting are from Al," said Berwald. "Al, Al, Al, Al, Al."

Johnson even got a call while investigators were interviewing him.

"He called me this morning and said if I take the hit, he'll pay all my bills until I get my job back," he said in one tape. "I've never been in a mess like this before in my life. This is not me."

All of the men said they felt "coerced" by a man who outranked them. "This guy is politically connected," Johnson said, "and I'm nobody. I let myself get bullied."

When the coverup finally unraveled, the audio tapes reveal, each man expressed remorse and said he felt terrible.

"This is my life," a tearful Johnson said. "The hardest thing I've ever done was trying to keep it in."

One after another, each of the four men who would be suspended said the same.

"I really apologize that I didn't come forward sooner," Campbell said. "There was a lot of pressure."

In his last interview with investigators, on Tuesday, Suarez admitted his mistakes and pleaded to keep his job.

"It's my first mistake in 20 years," he said. "I love this job to death. I hope the discipline will warrant that I continue to work here."

He called the incident "a stupid mistake."

"We weren't out to cause embarrassment. But we did, and I'm shameful of that," Suarez said. "I love this department. I've given it 20 years, and I'd like to give it a whole bunch more."

He was fired the next day.

Brady Dennis can be reached at dennis@sptimes.com or (813) 226- 3386.