Читать книгу Mysteries Unlimited Ltd. - Donald Ph.D. Ladew - Страница 8

When a plan begins to unravel few people have the self discipline to assess it coolly, give it up as a bad job, cut their losses and leave. This is especially true if the leaders are powerful and arrogant. If large sums of money are involved or the acquisition of even greater power is in question, common sense and logic haven’t a chance. Look at Watergate. A simple burglary becomes a national disaster.

Two minutes after Sydney left the Mojave Correctional Institute the Warden was on the phone to his FBI contact, Arthur Patterson. Patterson’s first thought was containment. It should have been to gather as much information about the situation as possible. The last thing he should have done was order any kind of confrontation.

One day after Sydney’s first visit with Miss Heely, Elleston passed the word through Major Pauley to the other members of the group to meet for golf at Pebble Beach.

There was another reason. Mr. Kinsai had called to tell him he was in town and wanted to talk business. Business with Mr. Kinsai could only mean a load of ‘clothing’ for the Laundromat.

Elleston couldn’t believe the man was so stupid he didn’t understand their arrangement was a one-time operation.

Elleston called Major Pauley to his office and told his secretary that he wasn’t to be disturbed for any reason. He liked to discuss things with Pauley because Pauley didn’t talk much and it helped him to align his own thoughts to discuss them with another.

“Do you want coffee, Major?”

“Yes, thank you, Mr. Howard.”

“Help yourself. When was the last time you swept this office, Major?”

“Two days ago, it was clean.”

People who commit certain kinds of crime are always worried the same sort of crime will be committed against them. If a man cheats of his wife he wonders what she’s doing when she goes to the supermarket.

“Who is this, Sydney Lee?”

“I haven’t been able to find much, yet. Some kind of investigator. A bit of a nut case. Runs an outfit called, Mysteries Unlimited Ltd down in Los Angeles. Mostly they’re a research bureau for writers, marketing groups, companies. Their promotion says they’ll find the answer to any question no matter how weird. They have done criminal investigation occasionally, but it isn’t their usual thing.”

“Hmmm, surprises me that there’d be any money in it.”

“We should know a lot more in a few days. Arthur is doing a background. It took this guy five minutes to find the bugs up there at the prison. He also heard about the attempts on Miss Heely’s life and went to the Warden before he left. He scared that man real bad, Mr. Howard, and scared men do stupid things.”

“Yes, I understand.” Elleston drank tea and took neat little bites from a lemon scone, after which he patted his lips prissily with a cloth napkin. “That is Patterson’s problem.”

“Yes, sir. However, we wouldn’t want Patterson’s problem to become our problem.”

“Major, your charter is to insure that lose ends do not come lose. It is also a wise man who knows when to do nothing. This may well be a case where activity of any kind would be a red flag. As soon as you have Patterson’s report make sure I have that data. Call the principals, tell them we are meeting at Pebble Beach tomorrow at noon. I will call Kinsai. He wishes to meet with us and this is a man that needs careful...management.”

“Beware of riding the Tiger.”

“Exactly!”

Harrison Culhane, Assistant Attorney General of the State of California, was in a much better mood than the last time the group met on the beautiful links course over-looking the Pacific Ocean on the Monterey Peninsula. Having taken one hundred and forty dollars from the others, particularly, George Petrie, who he detested, made his day indeed.

It was a relatively quiet group that entered the clubhouse to change from golf clothes to street wear. They had all been partially briefed on the activities of one Sydney Constant Lee, Mysteries Unlimited Ltd.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Assistant Attorney General George Petrie said.

“No, we’ll wait for Kinsai,” Elleston said.

“I don’t see why we should wait for that Nip cock sucker,” Harrison said. “This meeting should be to handle our own dirty laundry. It’s none of his business.”

“He will attend the meeting, Harrison.” Elleston made it a command.

This time Noboru Kinsai didn’t make them wait. Elleston greeted him politely and ordered him a whiskey, after which he informed the Japanese business man that there was a problem, and to please hold any questions until Patterson had made his report.

Elleston quickly brought the meeting to order.

“Arthur, do you have the file on this Sydney Lee?”

“Yes. It’s quite long so I have summarized.”

“Good. Read the summary, please, and the rest of us will listen without comment until you are finished,” Elleston ordered.

Patterson began without preamble.

“Sydney Constant Lee; born, Billings, Montana 1946. Father, Professor Charles Adler Lee - Anthropology, Yale and Princeton; Mother, Dr. Naomi Walking-Cloud, full-blooded Cree Indian. She was a doctor of medicine. Both Parents dead, killed by insurgents while the father was part of an archeological dig in Cambodia, 1955. Boy raised in Montana by his maternal grandfather, Chester Walking-Cloud.

“Let’s see, IQ tested 1956 by Department of Interior ethnological survey team: Benet system 193. There was a note saying he was accused of cheating by a survey team member; Grandfather and boy assaulted team member; broken arm, numerous broken teeth, Grandfather jailed. Grandfather sued and won!

“Boy in and out of trouble for fighting, malicious mischief; painted Bureau of Indian Affairs car international orange; also drinking; joined high school boxing team, by the time he’s fifteen, beat everyone in the state as a lightweight, Golden Gloves. In trouble again, got chief of neighboring tribe’s daughters pregnant.” Patterson snickered.

“Don’t know if this is accurate, but it did say daughters. Boy disappears for a year, next appears in New Orleans at Tulane University. Did I mention that he graduated from high school when he was fourteen. His teachers say he could have graduated sooner if he wanted. On the boxing and golf team at Tulane, undefeated in four years in both sports. At end of four years had completed baccalaureate, masters and Ph.D. in history and linguistics. No information on next three years.

“This is where it gets interesting. Joined army, age 21; Ranger trained, sent to Viet Nam 1965, Plieku, assigned to 7th Cavalry, Recon Platoon. Fought through first Ia Drang campaign - LZ X-Ray, LZ Albany, battles at Bong Song, others; wounded twice; did a second tour, 1966-67. Awards and commendations; I’ll only read the principle ones: DFC, Silver Star - two awards, Bronze Star with V device. three awards, many others.

“Left army 1967. Becomes professional boxer, 1969, begins moving through the field, first as a middleweight then switches to Light Heavy. He lost his second professional fight by TKO, no others. Wins twenty eight of his thirty one professional fights by knockout. Wins WBC Light Heavy weight championship 1971. Defends title four times then retires from boxing 1973 a winner. Lives very simple, even frugal. Money carefully invested, rode the real estate boom of the seventies, made an estimated fifteen million.

“Married 1973. Former Miss Jeanette Heyerdahl, Professor of Medicine, USC; one daughter, Charlotte-Lee Lee, 1974; Wife died, cancer, 1983.

“Formed business, Mysteries Unlimited Ltd., 1980. Operates at a profit, nets him eight or nine hundred thousand dollars a year. That’s pretty much it. Is said to be very good at what he does and has interesting friends all over the country, all over the world for that matter.”

The silence around the table was complete as they digested the data. Major Pauley was the first to speak. He seemed to be speaking to himself as much as to the others.

“7th Cavalry, LZ X-Ray, Albany, two tours. Shit!” His comment was heartfelt.

Kinsai broke in roughly. “It’s simple, eliminate, Lee. The investigation ends.”

Harrison exploded. “You zipper-head, slope cocksucker, you haven’t got brains enough to pour piss out of a boot.”

“Stop it! Now!” Elleston ordered. “You keep your dirty mouth shut, Harrison. Mr. Kinsai, I apologize for Harrison’s stupidity. He has a problem letting his dirty mouth get in the way of his brains. However, he’s right. There’ll be no talk of eliminating anyone. We’ll take whatever action is necessary, without drawing attention to ourselves.”

Kinsai stared at Harrison and there was no doubt where he wanted to start eliminating. After a moment he dragged his attention back to Elleston.

“My Oyabun wishes to send you another fifty million right away. How soon can you move it through your system.”

Elleston spoke with barely suppressed anger. “You weren’t listening, Mr. Kinsai. We have a problem here. Until it is resolved there won’t be any movement of funds through our so-called pipeline. You were told that this was a one-time operation. Any further activity would require other methods and it’s much too soon to even think about that.

“Let me remind you, I control the spigot and it will not be turned on until I am sure it is completely safe. If your boss wants to do business he is to contact me directly, not through you.”

“I am his agent in this matter. I have the authority to deal with you directly,” Kinsai said.

“I’ll tell you again. Listen carefully. I will only deal with your boss. I dislike repeating myself.”

“As you wish,” Kinsai said maliciously. “But, you had better handle this situation quickly. Business is business. If you can’t clean this up perhaps we will take care of it for you.”

“Mr. Kinsai, you are becoming a problem. If you interfere in any way, I can promise you, your organization will never have access to the system ever again.”

Kinsai got up. “And I can promise you, my Oyabun does not have endless patience.” He left without further comment or good bye.

“I am beginning to loose patience with that man,” Elleston said.

There was no one at the table who didn’t think Elleston would do a little eliminating of his own if it was necessary.