Dangerous Shadows

By Gerald Goble

Colonel Hand, a local psychiatrist after arguments with foreign military personnel, US Army personnel, and his ex-wife. Colonel Hand is killed in a car accident. Evidence on the body hints at kidnapping and torture. Deputy Sheriff, Liz Boor, probation officer and Dr. Hand's part time assistant is also killed. The two crimes lead the Bunko Club ladies on a quest for the killer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerald Goble
• Release date: Aug 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370231744

Gerald Goble

Gerald Goble has PhD in Theoretical Physics and has been a research scientist, teacher, federal employee, businessman, manager, and martial arts instructor. He is author of several scientific publications, U.S. Army Publications on Ammunition and Explosives, non fiction books "The Way of Two as One“, "The Bear Slayer – Women’s Self-Defense“; the fiction books, the Bunko Club Murder series, and the Jack Wellington UN Attaché Series, Westerns “Jacob’s Coat”, "Strays" and "Warrior Woman" and Science Fiction, "The Majestic Committee."

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Dangerous Shadows

A Bunko Club Mystery

by

Gerald Goble

Dangerous Shadows

A Bunko Club Mystery

by

Gerald Goble

Dangerous Shadows

A Bunko Club Mystery

Copyright © 2011 Gerald Goble

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical including photocopying, recording, taping by or by information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author with exception of brief quotations.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either, the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

For Joan,

my love, my friend

If you are new to the Bunko Club Series there is a list of Characters in the Appendix

There is also an Appendix on where the idea for the book emerged

Chapter 1

The Mayor of Esmeralda, Jose Herrera was on the porch of his office enjoying the nice day. The city government offices and the military barracks are in three long low buildings on the edge of town near the airfield. He was sitting at small table looking at the town budget wondering how he was going to do the needed things for the town to grow. He needed funds and here was a proposal that his assistant Miguel Rios had brought him. He read it and shoved it across the desk toward Miguel. He looked Miguel in the eye and asked, Who is BSM Corporation?

Miguel opened his hands palm to palm and shrugged.

Jose looked at him and shook his head. He said, I got two proposals from mining companies in Caracas. They wanted to tira humorística el mía er what they call strip mine the land south of town to get at some mineral used in computadoras. They were going to dig up the land contaminar the streams and go away and leave us with the mess. They would ruin Esmeralda. Now someone wants to excavar the same place for historical and religious artefactos.

He paused and continued, Miguel you are young, no puede confiar anyone. You go find out who these people are and if they están relacionados to the church, then maybe I will think about it. I know you would like a lot of people to come work here so your father’s store and restaurant makes money, but we have to be careful.

Esmeralda is a small farming community in the southern part of Venezuela on the shore of the Orinoco River. It is a good place to live. The children have a school, and many go on to college. There is an airfield with regular flights to Caracas, but the hustle and bustle of the capital has not infected Esmeralda. It is not far from the border with Brazil on Route Five, and the hundred or so homes are along arranged earthen streets.

Miguel picked up the report and went inside to the telephone. Jose looked up and saw his daughter walking toward him with a determined stride. He thought, Ut-oh this can’t be good. He turned his head down again to read his budget.

Roseria walked up and flung a piece of paper down on his desk. He looked up to say something then decided better of it and began to read the letter. Roseria tapped her foot impatiently waiting for her father to read the letter for the second time.

She said, Well? Jose started to speak but she interrupted him with, the impatient request, ‘Papa, English."

Jose started again having to translate his Spanish into English. He said, If you go to — to the Universidad in Caracas, where will you stay?

Roseria said, I can stay with Aunt Benita. She says I can help her take care of my cousins Carlos and Estela.

Jose said, I see this is a conspiración. My sister, my wife and you habe been arranging this behind my back. Caracas is a dangerous place for a young girl. Esmeralda is so much a better place to live and I try to keep it that way.

Roseria became agitated and said, Esmeralda doesn’t have a university. I’ve got a scholarship. Esmeralda is boring, everyone does the same thing everyday. Uncle Julian was ten minutes late getting to the coffee shop this morning, and that was the only thing different that happened here all month. I want to go.

Her father smiled and said, Julian was ten minutes late, is he sick?

Roseria rolled her eyes and was about to say more when her father continued, Ok, but I am going to call Benita and make sure she — entiende she is responsible for your — comportamiento. That means — viejo formado er a old-fashioned — comportamiento. No going out alone, no boys and no going out at night.

Roseria stamped her foot and said, Oh Papa. But, as she turned to go, she smiled. She knew she could manage her Aunt Benita.

Tonight with the moon full, the town was quiet. The three men met on the hill overlooking Esmeralda. Each carried a black colored box and was dressed in green fatigues with a green baseball hat. They said nothing as they sat their boxes down and squatted on the ground. The fourth man was late.

Each of the men had met each other just once. They looked each other over warily. One had a thin moustache that covered a scar on his lip. The second looked back and forth while chewing on a matchstick. The third man with his back to Esmeralda pulled some hard candy from his shirt pocket and offered some to the others, but each shook their heads from side to side. The one that was chewing on the matchstick looked at his watch then pulled down his arm abruptly and stood up.

The forth man arrived and was dressed as the others. He walked up the hill carrying a laptop and a long flat case. There were no greetings other than nods. Each of the three men who were already there smiled and appeared to know him. The fourth man nodded to each of the men and motioned for them to move their box so the wires from the box reached the back of the laptop. When the laptop screen appeared, the fourth man hit a key, and the three boxes began to make a whirring sound. On the screen of the laptop, three windows appeared in a row at the top. One of the windows was a digital movie of Esmeralda. Below the movie, display was a set of geometrical figures. As the characters in the movie moved, the geometrical figures changed. The second window was a set of pictures of individuals who appeared when a phone call was made. The third window alternated between an audio mike and a telephone connection. The sound appeared as a green line and periodically bounced up and down when someone spoke. Below this, window was also a display of geometrical figures that changed with the conversation that was intercepted. The material in the windows would move very fast, and then slow as someone moved into view of the screen, or when a conversation occurred. Periodically, the three windows would stop and the time sequence printed at the lower right had corner would sync with all three boxes. When the sync was achieved a bright line would outline the movements of the individual, and numbers appeared at the bottom of the window. The word Probability appeared next to the numbers.

The four men watched for a while, then again, squatted down. Each lit a cigarette and squatted there smoking still not talking. The man with the moustache started to speak, but was motioned not to speak. They watched each other, and it was apparent that the original three men did not know each other, but the fourth man knew each of the others. It was also apparent who was in charge, although no words indicated the fact.

The computer beeped and a picture on each of the three windows stopped frozen on one figure a man of about fifty with a straw hat. At the bottom of the screen, the word Probability was next to the number 0.99. The space below the picture indicated one word nucleus and the picture of the man with the straw had been placed next to the word. The four men looked at the picture for a long moment. Then the fourth man pushed a key on the computer the three boxes whirred and the three screens that had displayed the movies went blue, and the word erased appeared on each box. The forth man pulled out a map from this pocket and unfolded spreading it out on the ground. The man with the moustache disconnected the three camera boxes and placed them into a canvas pack, which he threw over his shoulder. The man that was chewing on the matchstick ejected a disk from the laptop handing it to the fourth man. When the laptop was off, the man chewing on the matchstick closed the laptop and slipped into a canvas pack, which he threw over his shoulder. The two men with the equipment each left the site heading off in different directions.

When they were out of sight, the fourth man handed a cell phone and a small telescope to the remaining one of the original three. It was the man with the candy. The fourth man indicated a place on the map on the far side of Esmeralda. The fourth man pointed to the flag flying over the Venezuelan Army Barracks. The fourth man said, We only have one this end.

The candy man looked around making sure they were alone. He looked up at the early-morning sky then at his watch, which read 04:45. The candy man looked through the telescope and said, From the south about four knots.

The Mayor of Esmeralda, Jose Herrera walked out into the morning sun after breakfast. He rubbed his stomach savoring the good feeling from breakfast. He started the short walk to his office. He greeted the residents of the town as he went with smiles and pleasant words. As he neared his office, his assistant Miguel waved to him that, he had a phone call. Jose heard a distant bang and had time to turn his head a bit in that direction before the round impacted the front of his head and the back of his head sprayed blood, brain matter, and bone out in the direction of the traveling projectile. Soldiers ran out of the barracks. Miguel ran to his side and looked around, but there was no indication from where the shot came.

A week later, it was a sunny day in Caracas. The Tamanaco InterContinental Hotel was full. There were tourists, businessmen, and people from around the country visiting the capital. The swimming pool had a group of people lying around in the sun, like seals on the beach. The bar and restaurant were full and waiters in white coats scurried back and forth. Groups of people gathered in the lobby for tours and listened as young women listed what they would be seeing today.

In room 423, phone rang and J.J. Jacobson answered, Hello.

The voice on the other end said, "The Mayor of Esmeralda, Miguel Rios is favorably disposed to your work permits for some excavation for religious artifacts at a mission that was there in the 1700s. As far as he knows, Big Star Mining is supporting the dig as a charity.

You should run two sites one on the old church and one at the old hacienda, which is your site for Coltan and tin deposits. You want to highlight your work at the mission and not at the hacienda. If you don’t find any artifacts, we know where there are some that you can find. Your permits are for two years, and by that time you should have the site developed and the central government is expected to become friendlier to business.

My suggestion is that fees to Miguel’s ‘Campaign Fund’ be increased over time, but for now, it is very reasonable. You will put a lot of people to work. Arrange it so he is the one that has the say on who gets the higher-paid jobs. When the town’s people figure that out, he will have a lot of power in the community. He will become addicted to the power and pliable to our needs.

We still have to go slow with the central government. If they sense how good, the deposit is they will want to control it, but now the mayor doesn’t know what is going on. The new mayor does not have all the contacts that the old mayor had with the central government. Eventually, they will find out, but it will take about two years, which is the time you will need to develop the deposit and by then there should be a new central government.

Chapter 2

Liz Boor entered the Find Medical Group lobby and went to the glass covered black board listing the offices. The bottom set of white plastic letters gave the listing she wanted. Searching the office doors, she headed down the back hallway to the end office. The door listed Mental Health Clinic, Dr. Joel Hand M.D. PhysD. A hand-written paper note taped under the name listed the hours 4:00PM to 8:00PM M – F and 9:00AM to 1:00PM Saturdays. She entered the office to find a man in an Army uniform sitting at the desk in the waiting room looking at the computer screen. She closed the door. She noticed that next to the door was another entrance, which said Parking Lot.

Liz was today wearing the light-brown Sheriff’s Department uniform with the yellow stripe down the pants. Her shirt was tight but not to the point where the space between the buttons on her bosom pulled outward. She had on the wide black belt but no weapon. She wore the weapon on special occasions but not for her day to day activities. She had a white Sheriff’s Department cowboy hat but it was in the car on the front seat.

The man at the computer did not look up but continued to stare at the computer screen and type in a two-finger method. He ask, May I help you?

Liz said, My name is Elizabeth Boor. I am looking for Doctor Hand.

The man answered, That’s me.