Interlude Ch. 10

"One hundred percent." Laura said. "But you have plenty else to worry about around here. I wouldn't worry about any of that if I were you. I'm sure that if they haven't found that girl by now, they never will."

"I hope you're right." I said. "I hope you're right."

---

A few days later, Laura and I were invited to University President Wellman's home for a reception for the University Hospital's medical staff, of which my lovely wife was a member. I remembered some of the doctors from my stay at University Hospital months before after the ordeal Ned put me through at the Ward Harvester plant. Cpt. Britt Maxwell was also there, and I talked with her for awhile.

I remembered Dr. Richard Searles from his consultation with us in the Jefferson Jackson murder case. He introduced us to his wife Gloria, who had a private practice in the wealthiest part of the County, just northeast of Town.

Gloria was a stunningly beautiful woman. She was fairly short, her black hair cut very short, which suited her very well. Her face was simply drop-dead gorgeous, with sensuous eyes, a small but sexy mouth. Her body was slender and perfectly proportioned, her breasts relatively large and her ass scrumptious. But it was her legs that captivated me: they were perfect, shapely and sexy, and her feet looked luscious in the high heel pumps she was wearing.

Unfortunately, Dr. Gloria Searles was very religious and didn't seem to think much of Laura nor what my wife was a professor of at the University. I saw that she was conversing with people like Pastor Westboro and Kelly Carnes, both deeply religious Puritans as well. I didn't get to talk to Gloria too much, unfortunately.

But I did have a conversation with someone else, a conversation I was not seeking. As people were talking on the back lawn of President's home, Henry R. Wargrave and his wife approached Laura and myself. After the merest attention to the necessary niceties, Wargrave asked me if he could speak with me for a moment, and his wife was a little too quick to draw Laura away from me.

"Come this way." Wargrave said. About halfway down the grass alley between the President's Home and the guesthouse at the very end of the yard, there was a gate cut into the hedge on the left side. Wargrave led me through that gate and down a path towards the river. The sun was just setting but there was still some light.

There was a sundial at the end of the path, which was perched on a rise that sloped down from that point towards the river. As I looked over the pretty scene, I could see at the river's edge in the distance a burly man, who had a heavy beard under his fishing hat, casting a fishing line into the water.

Further to my left, which was South, I could see the lights of the BigPharmaCorp plant on the other side of the river, and further south from there I could make out the lights of Crown Chemicals, also on the other side of the river. To the north, the other side of the river was composed of carefully laid out rows of vegetable crops on the vast, flat farmlands. Way further north were lights from the Water Works as well as some homes on the finger of the ridge that cut northwest.

"Lovely view from here." Wargrave said. We were alone, unless one considered the fisherman at the river. I was armed, but I was very nervous; there were too many places where a sniper could be perched.

"Yes, it is." I said. "What can I do for you, Mr. Wargrave?" I asked, to get this meeting overwith as soon as possible.

"As you know," Wargrave said, looking out over the river as he spoke, "I'm on the board of Acme Consolidated. We recently purchased the majority portions of the unfortunate Tim Olivet's company."

"Yes, so I heard." I said. "I believe you once mentioned something about being 'just' an advisor to them."



"Yes, that's true." Wargrave said, not too happy of my reminding him of that. "What I need to discuss with you is that I know that the Police collected all the papers of the company as evidence when Mr. Olivet was murdered." Wargrave said. "It seems that we're missing some of the papers. Mrs. Olivet, who I believe recently married your nephew, says that she turned over all the papers to us, and I'm sure she turned over everything of which she was aware."

"I'm sure she did, though I understand she sold the company piecemeal, and some papers probably went to other companies to whom she licensed patents and processes." I replied.

"Yes, I'm sure." said Wargrave. "But what I'd like is to ask a favor of you, and you probably know that I can repay favors in huge ways. I'd like for your Police Department to allow a couple of my people to view the papers- the ones we're entitled to, of course- and check to see if some papers were lost."

It did not take much deduction for me to realize that Wargrave was going down a path of near-desperation to find out the secret for which Tim Olivet died... and a secret to which in my opinion Wargrave was not entitled. My response was easy:

"Mr. Wargrave," I said, "we gave all the papers we took as evidence back to Mrs. Olivet. I can check and see if any were accidentally held in our evidence rooms, but I'm pretty sure they all went back."

"Nothing digital we can look at?" Wargrave said. His directness was amazing, the bravado masking the desperation. I was extremely glad to be ahead of him and ahead of the game on this one.

"No sir, that would absolutely violate Police Department protocols and policies." I said. "It would probably require the consent of the entire Town & County Council -and- a Court order."

"I understand." Wargrave said. I wasn't too surprised that he didn't let that stop him. "Of course, I know your position in the Police Department is a very high one, and you're still overseeing the I.T. department. As I said before, I'd consider it an extraordinary favor to me, and one I'd remember to repay in big multiples in the future."

"As much as I'd like to help," I said, lying through my teeth on that one, "there really isn't much I can do. We gave back all the papers, and any little bit of data that might in our computers would need that Council consent and Court order for releasing evidence, especially in a murder case that remains open. We haven't caught the perp who murdered Olivet... yet... and until we do, it's still active evidence."

"I understand." said Wargrave, clearly irritated. I was looking up and down the river as the last of the light faded. The burly, bearded fisherman was still there, but it looked as if he was putting up his gear. I saw no one else.

"Well, thank you for your time, Lieutenant." Wargrave said. "We should head back to the party before President Wellman sends out a posse for us." He turned to go, and I followed him along the path back to the gate where we had entered.

Some minutes later, after I'd found my wife and rescued her from the extremely boring grandmother of one of the staff doctors, we spoke with Britt Maxwell.

"Did you see it all?" I asked.

"Sure did." Britt said. "I didn't see anyone else, except a fisherman by the river. I think you were safe."

"Thanks for watching my back." I told Britt. "One can never be too careful with that man."

"I totally agree." Britt said. "What did he want?"

"He actually had the brazenness to ask to see the Olivet company evidence we'd collected." I replied.

"Wow." said Laura. "Not like him to show his cards like that. They must be really desperate."

"Yep." I said... not reacting to the significance of Laura's use of the word 'they'. She had slipped.

Part 8 - Epilogue

On October 15th, Jeanine gave birth to a baby boy, both mother and baby doing extremely well. Jeanine named the baby 'Jack', after his biological father, and I hoped this 'Jack Burke' would be better than the last one was. Todd would begin the process of formally adopting the baby, which would not be complete until Todd was 21 years old the next May.

The Burkes seemed very happy with their new grandchild when I visited the hospital later that day. They were cordial enough to me, but I seemed to sense that they were eying me warily.

What I did not know was what had occurred just the day before.

---

"We really appreciate you seeing us today." said Michael Burke as their host handed him his drink. Eleanor Burke was given her drink and their host had them seated in front of the beautiful mahogany desk in his study.

"What can I do for you?" their host asked as he sat down behind the desk. The office was sparsely furnished, but what was there was of the very best quality, from the desk and chairs, to the bookcases built into the side walls and the paintings placed in the correct places. A large window dominated the wall behind the desk, and the Burkes could not know that it was the highest grade bulletproof glass, able to withstand a machine gun. The window also served to cast the host in shadow, and his guests in the light... a lesson learned from the master criminal of criminals, Professor Moriarty.

The office was next to the luxurious home in the wealthiest district of the County, but separated from it. It served as the host's workplace when he was in the County and not at his regular office high atop a skyscraper in the City.

"We're at the end of our rope, and we need your help." Michael Burke said. He told the story of his son being framed for rape while in college by a girl named 'Ivy', and of the futile efforts to find her.

"We just want to find out what happened to our son." Burke said. "We even talked to the Police Lieutenant, and we know he knew Jack in college, but Don doesn't seem interested in helping us find out anything."

"Oh, so Don is involved in this?" their host said. Their host was Henry R. Wargrave, and he was now very interested.

"Yes." Eleanor Burke said, becoming aware that Wargrave's interest in helping them, if such interest existed, would be because of Todd's uncle. "We're not sure exactly what their connection is, but our private investigators found out that Don and his ex-wife Melina may have known Jack during that time."

"From what you told me," said Wargrave, "apparently this girl cried 'rape', but the charges were dropped. And someone else was behind your son leaving school and disappearing."

"Yes, that's right." Eleanor said.

"And your investigators could find nothing on that?" Wargrave asked. "Sounds like they took your money for nothing. So... what do you want me to do if I find this girl? Or would you rather have me find out the entire story for you?"

"Mr. Wargrave-" started Michael Burke.

"Please, call me Henry." Wargrave said. "We're friends here."

"Thank you, Henry... Yes, if you could find out what happened, we'd be very grateful." Michael said. Wargrave noted his sincere interest, but saw something darker, much darker, in Eleanor's eyes as they bored into him. Wargrave felt that Eleanor was a dominant woman, and had long observed that she was dominant over her husband despite his outward actions. Despite his erectile dysfunction, he felt a slight stirring in his loins as he admired the beautiful mature woman in front of him... he could sense the dangerous edge to her.

"I'll tell you what." said Wargrave. "I'll look into the matter for you. To be honest, there might not be much to find, so I don't want you to get your hopes up too much... but I'll see what I can find out about your son."

After the Burkes had left, Wargrave sat at his desk, thinking. He had a sixth sense when big things would come his way, be it an arms deal going good or bad, or other business deals coming to him... and he was having that feeling now that there was something big about this... and it might be just what he needed to gain leverage over the one man in this world he'd come to be concerned about... the Iron Crowbar.

Finis.