Love Story: In The Web of Life by Ken Renshaw (snow like ashes TXT) 📕

I explained.

Elizabeth, looking shocked and worried, peekeddisdainfully into her lunch sack. "All this and we also get freesack lunches."

The door opened and Buster walked in a with apicnic hamper.

"No sack lunches today. Since you can't leavewith all the media out there, Sofia made you somethingspecial."

Elizabeth grabbed the hamper and startedunpacking it with little exclamations of delight.

Buster cheerily announced, "We have some reallygood news. Didn't you notice that Mr. S was not in court today? Heis staying with our friends at the FBI. He will probably be undertheir care for a long time."

"Last night Cody was awakened about threeo'clock when the infrared perimeter alarm went off, the one weinstalled around the whole Williams' place, He checked thesurveillance video cameras and saw somebody, he didn't know who,entering the parking area in front of the house. The Camaro wasparked a distance from the house to allow better videosurveillance. The person, it later turned out to Mr. S., quicklyjimmied the car door open, reached in and popped the hood. Codywoke up Billie, our second man staying at the Williams' house. Wefound out later that Curt, our man tailing Mr. S that night, was inthe woods behind Mr. S. They all watched as Mr. S. placed a bombunder the hood connected to the ignition and then placed anotherdevice at the front of the hood. Mr. S. very gingerly closed thehood. He then went around and taped another device to the bottom ofthe gas tank. He did a little dance of apparent delight and thenwent into the woods.

"Curt was waiting for him and took him downwithout much of a fight. Billie was right there to help. Theyhandcuffed S. and went through his pockets and found the detonatortransmitter. Cody called his FBI contact in Sacramento. An FBI bombspecialist and investigative team got to the Williams' place bynine this morning. I joined them there after I dropped you off atthe courthouse.

"The FBI bomb specialist, Eileen Wolf, is ashort, stocky, determined looking lady. Good casting for a bombspecialist. She reviewed the surveillance tape, and then spent ahalf hour in Mr. S's van workshop studying his tools and bombplans.

"When she returned to where everyone wasgathered at a safe distance from the car, she said. "I can removethe gas tank bomb safely. In the van workshop, I found out that theperp used C-4 instead of dynamite in making his bombs. He left aspare bomb like that used under the gas tank in the van so I knowwhat were up against there. I can remove that one safely with myrobot. I found a block of C-4 in the van. I can tell that he usedenough under the hood to be lethal to a driver, but not enough tomake a big crater or do much damage to the house or knock treesdown. I recommend we remove the gas tank bomb to preserve forensicevidence as much as possible and then blow the two othercharges."

"I volunteered that it was a movie car and hadmany custom features, including a remote control starter. When thetime came, and we were all safely in the woods, I pressed theremote control and blew the car. It didn't blow up like the ones inthe movies in a ball of flame, it just sat there and made adisappointingly small noise, convulsed, and spit out thewindows."

"The FBI took both the van and what remained ofthe Camaro away to their evidence lab. Cody's left, taking a fewdays on a fishing vacation. That part of the operation is over, andso is Mr. S.

"Now, let's celebrate" He produced four cannedmartinis and a six-pack of beer from the picnic basket. "You canhave a two martini lunch, like attorneys in Beverly Hills attorneyare supposed to have."

I smiled and said. "Only beer for me, thanks.Martinis are a wonderful idea, but I have some emails and readingto catch up on."

Elizabeth smiled and scooped up all four cansinto her arms and said, "I'm through for the day, aren't I,boss?"

I smiled in approval.

Later, Buster drove us back to the ranch. Whenwe went by the old Williams' place, the van was gone and all cars,including the Camaro, were missing from the driveway. As Elizabethand I strained our necks to look back, Buster volunteered, "Someonewill be up to brief us tomorrow, after they put the whole situationtogether."

"When we arrived at the ranch Tina and Sofiawere again sitting on the porch in rocking chairs, wearing primgingham dresses, apparently knitting. They demurely nodded andsaid, "Welcome home," without getting up.

"Actors!" said Buster as we went in and thescreen door slammed behind us. "I'm sorry, Tina may never be thesame after Rocky Butte."

I went upstairs and changed into my westernclothes. When I came down, Tina greeted me with a small curtsy andhanded me tall drink. In a Texas accent she said, "A mint julep foryou sir, after your hard days work." Everyone else was standing,laughing, with juleps in hand.

Elizabeth, looking a little bleary-eyed,interrupted. She opened her laptop and said, "Here is the closingstatement as transcribed by the reporter in her report to Dore ifanyone wants to read it.

Sofia took the laptop and sat down on a couch,joined by Tina.

They read:

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,

We have seen that Lucy wandered from thevicinity of the cafe, walked down Bear Creek, and sought refuge ina log hut in a fishing camp. The coroner testified that she died ofexposure between 11:00PM and 1:00 AM. She was not found until 2:00AM.

We have heard Search and Rescue team memberstestify that they waited around in the parking lot of the cafe forseveral hours before they were deployed in the search. Theycharacterized the management of the search effort asdisorganized.

We have heard the testimony of Mr. Holtz thathis bloodhounds had started tracking down the Bear Creek trailbefore he was called back, severely reprimanded and consigned towait in the parking lot until he went home. Sheriff Bogend did notact on this critical indication of where Lucy could be found. Hestated that he didn't want to employ Mr. Holtz in the searchbecause he was not a contracted County resource, and his employmentwould require undesirable paperwork later.

We have