"Ah'm pissed, boy! It's bad enough I gotta murder on my hands, but what's worse is that you KNEW about it before the fact, and didn't even tell me about it. Well, I got this island sealed tight now, and nobody leaves this rock till I've got his ass in this chair."
"Assuming, of course, he didn't leave before the body was found." It was Eppy. He seemed a lot less nervous than before the murder. Somehow, he seemed to calm the general down as well.
"Well, there is that possibility, I suppose. Peters? Did you find out who the hell bought lot 23?"
Peters jumped to attention. "I questioned each of the participants present at the auction. None of them claimed the lot - in fact, all of them had claims to the other lots, so it's impossible to tell if one of them is lying. Sir!"
Cumberline slammed his fist into his desk again. He now had a Nestle's Crunch Bar that was living up to its name.
"Blast, damn, and heck! Alright, so we don't know who did it, but we do know they want lot 23. So my thinkin' is, we make sure they don't get it. Peters - get on the phone, and make arrangements to have that gear shipped down to the Army supply depot in LA. Send it by rail, and make sure it's on its way out of here within the hour. Then get me Private Patton's private file, including the security clearance report. DISSSSMISSSED!"
"Well, I have to head on back to the office, General. I'll leave you to your little disaster."
"Wha.., oh yeah, you can go, Eppy. I'll call ya tonight. C'mon, Guts, let's see what we can find in this report..."
The General, Andrews, and I spent the next two hours going over everything the military had on Patton - and came up with absolutely nothing. There was no evidence what-so-ever that Patton had been anything but absolutely the perfect soldier (which was somewhat suspicious in itself, but still provided no clues). So we gave up, and I decided to pursue another course of action.
"Tell me, Sir, how exactly was he killed?"
"They tell me he was stabbed through the heart with a bayonet. From the front. He was probably meeting with one of the other conspirators when they offed 'im, as you suggested."
"Hmm. So it might have been another soldier. Oh, by the way, that friend of yours, Epson - have you been getting stock tips from him?"
"Oh, yeah, he's my broker. He's got me some real sweet deals in some hot commodities. Why, ya thinkin' of throwing your hat in the ring?"
"Maybe, maybe. Well, I gotta go. I'll be in touch."
"Oh, you bet son. Be seein' ya!"
On the way back to Berkeley, we stopped off to pick up the paper. Something in the back of my mind, something I'd heard on the news the other day, was gnawing at me. As I fumbled through the pages, a small headline on the business section caught my eye...
"Ivory Coast's Cocoa Crop Still A Mystery"
AP - London: Commodity brokers for the chocolate industry
are still scrambling for some hint of the cocoa yield
produced in the Ivory Coast this year. Rumors have it that
an end to last year's drought has resulted in a bumper crop
that has already resulted in drastic price reductions. The
Government of the Ivory Coast is remaining, as always,
pessimistic about its actual production, although this is
had been their traditional response in years past, regard-
less of actual output. Brokers have been advising caution
to potential speculators, although there have been strong
indications of heavy interest on the part of certain
West Coast brokerage houses, who may be attempting to
take advantage of the situation with the intention of
cornering the market.
In the meantime, shipments are already making
their way to the San Francisco Bay area from Columbia, which
is definitely having an excellent year...
"Let me put a hypothetical situation to ya, Chuck. Suppose you invested heavily in Ivory Coast cocoa. Then it turns out that Columbia is having a bumper crop that year, flooding the market, and thereby driving down the price of chocolate."
"Then, Guts, you've got yourself a lot of homeless cocoa beans."
"Right! But suppose something happens to those Columbian beans that keeps them from reaching the market?"
"Like what? A storm? A flood?"
"Like someone shooting them with a Tiger tank!"
Then we both noticed the news report coming over the car radio...
"...reports that an unknown terrorist group hijacked a Southern Pacific freight train bound for Los Angeles. There are also unconfirmed reports that the hijackers managed to make off with several pieces of surplus combat equipment on its way to cold storage at an Army depot in LA. Army spokesmen had no comment regarding rumors that some of this equipment including a helicopter and an Army tank, both of which are subjects of a massive search effort by the National Guard..."
TO BE CONTINUED...