BOMBS, BULLETS, & BRIBES by Porrello Rick

Author:Porrello, Rick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Next Hat Press
Published: 2019-10-21T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Monday, July 8, 1963

On Monday morning, Judge Battisti issued a bench warrant for Mervin Gold for fleeing the court's jurisdiction. It was now four days since Lily had reported Mervin missing. At the Gold residence, Lily retrieved the envelope Mervin had left for her months earlier. She then telephoned the office of Merle McCurdy. Ninety minutes later, two FBI agents arrived at her front door. Lily told them she was afraid Mervin had been harmed. She left the room and returned with four large manila envelopes neatly sealed with scotch tape. Then she started crying.

"Mervin is the victim of politicians regarding his financial handlings," she told the agents. "He's been taken of advantage of by them. And some of his own business partners have property that was taken from our house while we were in Israel."

The agents asked what persons Lily meant, but she declined to name anyone. She handed them the envelopes. "I don't want you to open them here. I think there might be something in them that explains what happened to Mervin."

The agents gave Lily a receipt and left.

That afternoon, Bentleyville Village police received a complaint about an abandoned car that had been parked for two days near the Chagrin River. The rural location was in Solon Village, just inside Cuyahoga County on the border with Geauga County. A patrol officer checked the license plate against the latest bulletin of stolen cars. It was not listed. He assumed the car belonged to a fisherman working the nearby river for trout. Reaching inside the open driver's window, he turned on the parking lights. It was something the officer had done before as a courtesy to make it easier for fishermen to find their way back after dark.

Late in the afternoon, Solon police received a complaint about the same car. It was described as a pink-orange and white Mercury. Chief John Vondracek went to check the car personally and recognized the license plate as a match for a missing person alert. He peered in the passenger side window. No key in the ignition. An infant seat with a toy steering wheel on the front passenger side. Children's clothing on the back seat. A spare tire was lying on the rear passenger seat. A pile of papers strewn about the back driver's side floor and covered with cigarette ashes.

Another police officer had been following the newspaper coverage. He told Vondracek he believed Gold would be found by the water, the victim of a suicide. Chief Vondracek organized a search party of eleven police officers and firefighters. Spreading out about a quarter of a mile, they started walking slowly through the woods and brush down toward the river. When they reached the riverbank, they found nothing.

The chief and another Solon police officer returned to the car and looked through the window at the tire sitting on the back seat.

"An odd place for a spare tire," the chief said.

He pulled up on the trunk. It was locked.

Vondracek went to a nearby house and asked to use the telephone.

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