Insideviews

By F. H. Anthony

Matt is still recovering from revelations about Mega-Low Bank's market manipulation and his father's murder. Matt is now a regular employee at Elysian and will be visiting residents by himself now, with a service dog assigned to him as his regular companion.
Matt liked that he was now a trusted regular, albeit part-time employee, and that he could now sometimes speak more freely with the residents when he was by himself.
His father's false friend at the bank, Thomas Ranke, would be tried for murder. The prosecutor realized what a strong case he had, and how it might help him in his political career to convict Ranke and possibly several other high level bank executives. The bank might be capable of silencing Ranke.
Matt learned that during the night two men had tried to forcibly take Joanne D'Arcy from Elysian. After entering her room they drugged her to take her away wrapped in a blanket. What those men did not anticipate was that Jeff Jeffers, an insomniac resident, had watched them skulking in the hallway. He followed them stealthily. If they had been alert they might have noticed he was carrying a Colt 45 caliber pistol. Jeffers learned that the two intruders worked for the interests who wanted to buy and develop the land D'Arcy owned. Jeffers caught the two intruders in D'Arcy's room, just as they were wrapping her body in a blanket. One of them had the bad judgment to pull a gun on him. That was the last thing he would regret as Jeffers put a .45 bullet just above and between the intruder's eyes. Messy, but it instantly took all the fight out of the intruder. Morticians have ways to cover up such damage. The one who took care of this one would earn his pay.

• Language: English
• Publisher: F. H. Anthony
• Release date: May 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311504425

Book preview

Insideviews

Screwed Dude, Book Two

By

F. H. Anthony

Smashwords Edition

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Insideviews: Screwed Dude, Book Two

Copyright © 2016 by F. H. Anthony

ISBN 9781311504425

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or to places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters, companies, and locations are productions of the author's imagination and are used fictitiously.

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Or tell them where to buy a copy. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Table of Contents

1 Prologue

2 Matt's Second Month at Elysian

3 Night Stalkers Strike

4 Behind the Intruders

5 Ted Has a Theory

6 Infatuation At First Sight

7 Two New, One Old

8 Roger That

9 New Challenges

10 Matt's Go To Meeting

11 Field Trip

12 Roger Warns

13 Some Overhead for the Trip

14 ARMed Meeting, Elections

15 Tripping Out to Sherwood

16 Trapping Out at Sherwood

17 Ranke Trial

18 Banking on it. Ted's Take

19 Saving Sherwood, A Plan

20 Emptying the Trap

21 Paris & Ranke Wrap

22 Moving on with ARM

23 ARMed & Dangerous

24 Ranke-eld

Insideviews

Prologue

In Innerviews, Screwed Dude Book 1, Matt Sansoma's dad was fired from his executive job at one of the nation's largest banks, Mega-Low. He died the next day in a suspicious car crash. Matt could not believe it was an accident. And despite warnings to not investigate, he did. With the help of several residents at the Elysian Hills Assisted Living Home he found the truth. His father had been murdered.

The work Matt's dad did for the bank interested Ted, an investigative reporter. Matt's dad met with Ted shortly before his firing. That led to his termination and murder. A government investigation of the bank's presumptive illegal market manipulation was suddenly dropped, without explanation. But that is not end of it. In this sequel Matt and Ted construct evidence of a conspiracy that surely goes beyond a theory. It leads to the highest levels of the US and some foreign governments. Ted and Matt connect the dots. That puts them in grave danger. Shady figures involved with the bank's conspiracy are watching, with keen interest. But Elysian residents, some with special talents, are watching out for them.

Matt's Second Month at Elysian

Matt is still recovering from revelations at Mega-Low Bank about market manipulation and his father's murder. Now things are beginning to unravel for the bank. Ted is coming to town again. He had sent a message to Tom Bureen asking Matt to meet with him again in a few days.

Matt was now a regular employee at Elysian and would be visiting residents by himself, with a service dog assigned to him as his regular companion. The exception would be for his first visit to a resident, when Shelly would again accompany him. On occasion he would have a different service dog assigned to him for the day so that he and they would be acquainted. That was fine. Matt liked that he was now a trusted regular, albeit part-time employee, and that he could now sometimes speak more freely with the residents when he was by himself.

His father's false friend at the bank, Thomas Ranke, would be tried for murder, and conspiracy, and maybe some additional crimes. His attorneys attempted to have him declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, but it did not work. The prosecutor realized what a strong case he had, and how it might help him in his political career to convict Ranke and possibly several other high level bank executives.

Bureen said that Ted thought the bank might be capable of silencing Ranke. So it was important that he be held in protective custody while awaiting indictment and trial. The bank fought, unsuccessfully, to get him released on bail. They tried several times, each time being rebuffed. But the high stakes and the large legal budget of the bank would mean that more attempts to get him released would be made. Ranke was intelligent and knew the risk to his life if he were released. He was resigned to stay in jail until after his trial. Given his testimony he would have company in court, other executives from the bank. He wondered how many of them would try to skip the country to avoid arrest and trial. Ranke knew that some had purchased ranches in South America, in countries that would not be likely to extradite them. Of course any assets they had in the US might be blocked if they had not already moved them to other countries.

Night Stalkers Strike

Matt learned that during the night two men had tried to forcibly take Joanne D'Arcy from Elysian. After entering her room they drugged her to take her away wrapped in a blanket. What those men did not anticipate was that Jeff Jeffers, an insomniac, had watched them skulking in the hallway. He followed them stealthily. If they had they probably would not have noticed he was carrying a Colt 1911 .45 caliber pistol. No, it was against Elysian rules for residents to have firearms, so Jeffers carried his pistol well concealed. He was no threat to anyone who was not a threat to him or others. But his wartime experiences taught him very well the value of being prepared in case any of the world's bad characters were to attempt to harm him or others whom he cared about. You never knew when bad persons would attack. If you did you would stay away from places where they lurked. Attacks usually occur when people do not expect them.

Jeffers caught the two intruders in D'Arcy's room, just as they were wrapping her body in a blanket. One of them had the bad judgment to pull a gun on him. That was the last thing he would regret as Jeffers put a .45 bullet just above and between the intruder's eyes. Messy, but it instantly took all the fight out of the intruder. Morticians have ways to cover up such damage. The one who took care of this one would earn his pay.

The other intruder had better judgment and put his hands up, pleading to not be shot. That intruder had conveniently brought handcuffs. Those would be used on him, instead of Ms. D'Arcy. Jeffers worked a quick interrogation on the man, wanting to get information out of him before the police arrived. Jeffers' Colt was not suppressed, what some call silenced, so the single gunshot reverberated through the hall outside D'Arcy's room, Suppressed firearms still make a lot of noise, but much less than Jeffers' Colt had.

Jeffers could be very persuasive. His knowledge of anatomy and pressure points in the nervous system added to his pleasant demeanor when he needed to get quick answers. Any indication of a lie led to quick and memorable pain for those he questioned. He learned that the two intruders worked for those interests who wanted to buy and develop the land D'Arcy owned. He even got a couple of names that he could follow up on. The intruder could not guess that the man who extracted the information was in his nineties. Jeffers did not look a day over sixty. Good heredity and nutrition, and having avoided enemy bullets during his war years.

For his rescue of Joanne D'Arcy the management of Elysian had a conniption fit. The company's lawyers loaded up a barrage of 'what ifs' about Jeffers having a firearm in the residence. What if he killed or hurt someone with a stray shot? What if his gun were found by another resident who was despondent and he or she shot themself? What if the person he killed was just a visitor? The Elysian management officially banned residents from having any weapons. Jeffers would have to leave, or give up his pistol and officially apologize for breaking the rules.

However, the Elysian management did not understand how the residents viewed Jeffers' actions. The residents considered him a hero. They wanted him to keep his pistol! And Joanne D'Arcy's lawyers took on the management. And the country sheriff deputized Jeffers. A law enforcement officer could have a firearm, and powers of arrest. Not only that but pressure was applied on the management to allow any resident who was physically fit and of sound mind to have a firearm, provided they took training to qualify for a concealed weapon license and kept the weapon secured from others. That ensured that they had no criminal record and most importantly knew the law regarding use of deadly force, and practiced no-compromise gun safety. The sheriff was reluctant to say whether or not he would deputize anyone other than Jeffers, but several other residents certainly had experience that would qualify them.

The management did not like it. Of course they wouldn't. Mostly their lawyers and insurers did not like it, but Jeffers could keep his pistol. Another insurance company was consulted and that company said it would gladly write a policy if the current company wanted out. Guns, with certain requirements for training and safekeeping would be allowed under their policy. The current insurer grumbled and threatened, but capitulated with the understanding that if they kept up their bitching and carping they would lose the insurance policy for Elysian to the other company. The influence of several of the residents, including a former federal judge and a prosecutor helped to sway them, as well as the management.

The surviving erstwhile kidnapper was booked for trespass, attempted kidnapping, carrying a weapon illegally, and murder. This state's law considered a criminal to be guilty of murder if, in commission of a felony, a fellow criminal was killed. The sheriff resolved to ensure the survivor was held in secure custody, without bail, to protect him from those who might try to silence him before he was fully questioned and the case brought to the grand jury.

Behind the Intruders

There should have been little doubt that the attempted kidnapping of Joanne D'Arcy had been set up by the Paris Estates developers. But she had a lot of wealth, and it might be hard to prove it was Paris Estates who were behind the attempt. It might have been some others who wanted to ransom her, or extort money or property. The key to getting to the P.E. Developers was the surviving intruder. Surely the developers were keenly aware of that. They would have to be brain-dead not to know. So if the intruder were to be removed, terminated in the most extreme way, the developers would escape justice. The sheriff would try to protect him, as long as he could. He hoped to have the felon questioned by the district attorney, who would take a deposition. The problem was that the felon did not want to talk.

The prisoner had a dilemma: Help the prosecutor and be kept in protective custody, or else refuse to help, risking being put into the general prison population. If that were to happen he would surely be exposed to risk of sudden, violent death. The developers would not want to risk that he would change his mind later and testify to their having hired him and his dead partner. By confessing and testifying to the role of the P.E. developers he would still risk their vengeance, but that would be less probable than what he faced by staying silent. The sheriff waited.

Several days later an order was submitted to the sheriff. It ordered him to release the prisoner to the custody of another jurisdiction. The sheriff was outraged. He suspected that some political favors were being called. But after consulting with the county attorneys he submitted to the order. No deposition had been taken from the prisoner. He was led from the jail in restraints by two burly guards, who put him into a black SUV, with government license plates on it. No media were there to record the scene. No media reported the prisoner transfer. No surprise, the prisoner was found hanged in his new cell two days later. Unsurprisingly it was ruled a suicide before the coroner was allowed to examine the body.

A few days after the prisoner died, the sheriff had a visitor. It was the county coroner. He suggested they go to a nearby restaurant for lunch, and to talk. The subject of that talk was left until they were seated at a corner table, away from other diners.

Sheriff, as you may know, I performed an autopsy on the prisoner you transferred a few days ago. In the body I found a piece of paper sealed in a condom. It was in the body's mouth between the upper teeth and the cheek. The paper has his confession, with the names of those at Paris Estates who hired him and the other kidnapper to take Ms. D'Arcy. Here it is. I have made copies. Here is my statement about where and how I found the confession. I suggest you use this with caution. Those who were behind the kidnap attempt and the murder . . . not a suicide, I am certain . . . are obviously dangerous. And they have demonstrated they have friends and allies is government. Talk only to those you know personally, persons of integrity and honesty. Let them take it forward. If they can.

After the luncheon meeting the sheriff paid a visit to Joanne D'Arcy. After she assured him that she would not spread the information he told her what had been discovered. The coroner is convinced it was murder, not suicide. I spoke with our prosecuting attorneys, but they don't think it will be possible to arrest and prosecute the persons who were behind the attempted kidnapping and this murder.

Okay sheriff. Thank you for informing me. I will keep my guard up. Those people may try again to get me to release my land to them. They might even try to grab more than that.

Soon after the sheriff left, D'Arcy visited Lois Porter. Porter agreed to keep their discussion confidential. Porter shared her sense of outrage at the prospect of the criminals behind the kidnap attempt escaping justice. Those persons have to be stopped, but with their friends in government it's not likely to happen. In the long run their bad karma will get to them. But the long run is a long time to wait, isn't it?

Ted Has a Theory

When Matt got to Elysian a few mornings later Tom Bureen met him as he entered the lobby. Ted wanted him to call. Ted was in town again, and wanted to meet as soon as possible.

When Matt called from Bureen's room, Ted said Matt, since we last communicated some new things have come to the surface. The revelations made by your father's presumptive friend, Thomas Ranke, confirmed much of what I suspected based on my investigation and analysis of the markets that were manipulated.

Matt and Ted agreed to meet again, at the same restaurant they had met before.

When they were seated, Ted began, "Matt, just a few days ago, the gold and silver futures markets were jolted by a huge trade. One trader put in a sell order, an order to sell 5,000 futures contracts, at market. What that means, as you might know, is that the seller would take whatever price the buyer offered. Such a large order would crash the market, at least momentarily. It can only be explained as a 'mistake' . . . or an effort to crash the prices of gold and silver. It