Fuzzy Ergo Sum by Wolfgang Diehr

Author:Wolfgang Diehr [Diehr, Wolfgang]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, adventure, General, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9780937912171
Publisher: Pequod Press
Published: 2011-08-15T06:26:25+00:00

XV

“Do you think there is anything to it?” Governor Riansford asked.

Colonial Marshal Max Fane took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I can’t be sure of anything at this point, Governor. It’s just a couple of rumors we picked up while doing the door to door.”

Ben Rainsford swore under his breath. “This is the sort of thing I would normally talk over with Gus. He understands all this cops and robbers stuff way better than I do. Actually, he would be talking with you, if . . .”

“I understand, sir.”

“Marshal, would you do me a favor?”

“Governor?”

“Take off that gun belt and join me on the terrace.” Before the Marshal could react, Rainsford got up and walked out to the terrace where he took a seat. Max Fane hung up his belt and joined him. He indicated a seat and Fane sat down. “Now we can talk like normal people, Max. I want your sincere opinion.”

Marshal Fane thought for a moment before speaking. “Well, as a cop I chased down a lot of leads based on rumor. Here we have it that Leo Thaxter knows something about Gus being grabbed up and that he is the target of a prison hit because of it. Before he was arrested and convicted nobody would have dared breathe a word about him or his activities. Now people feel safer to talk about him. That doesn’t prove anything.”

“What do you suggest, Max?”

The Colonial Marshal shrugged. “Normally, we would interrogate Thaxter in protective custody, under veridication, of course. If he knows something, we make a deal. Maybe add a few years to his sentence,” he chuckled. Any other convict would want less time on his sentence. More criminals should have a death sentence waiting for them at the end of their term of incarceration. “If it’s a wild goose chase, we dump him back at Prison House and move on to the next lead. Frankly, the leads have been few and far between. I’m ready to grab at some straws.”

“Why not question him at the prison?”

The Marshal let out a long breath. He had to remind himself that this was all new to the Governor. “If there is a hit out on him, it would be a guard or fellow inmate who would carry it out. For that matter the warden himself could be in on it.” Fane anticipated Ben’s next question. “We can’t question the warden under veridication without either just cause or his cooperation. If he refuses, that doesn’t even prove he’s up to something since most people would do the same. But if he is crooked and we ask him oh-so-politely to please sit down in the hot seat with the glowing globe on top and he refuses, we not only fail to prove anything, but we have now warned him that we think he may be dirty.

“In that case, Thaxter’s life expectancy could go way down. It’s just too big a risk. No, sir…we have to bring old Leo in and question him ourselves.

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