Love Story: In The Web of Life Ken Renshaw (the best novels to read TXT) 📖

heard Mr. Manteo's testimony thatSheriff Bogend refused to act in examining or considering hiscredentials as a person who could assist in the search. Aftermarking the exact spot where Lucy would be later found on theSheriff's map about 8:45PM, the Sheriff, at gunpoint, and with athreat of arrest, ordered Mr. Manteo off the premises and to not tomake his own search.

The Sheriff decides not to act on these twocorroborating indications on where Lucy was.

You have seen the folder containing Mr. Manteocredentials, including letters of commendation from law enforcementagencies, citing his success in locating people and crime scenes,and the Presidential citation awarding him a medal for his twentyyears of psychic spy work for the US Government. This folder waspresented to Sheriff Bogend on the night in question. If you hadseen these credentials, would you, as reasonable people, refusedMr. Manteo's offer to help

You have hard testimony by MathematicsProfessor from LA College and a Physics Professor from UCLA thatthe psychic things that Mr. Manteo does can be explained withmodern university level mathematics and physics.

You have seen him demonstrate his abilities inthis courtroom, locating classmates of Lucy's who were hidingsomewhere in Rocky Butte.

Sheriff Bogend's failure to act on Mr. Manteo'sinformation, and the bloodhound’s identification of a track,resulted in Lucy not being found until after he had died ofexposure. We should expect a person in charge of a search andrescue effort to uphold the standards of conduct that require themto do everything in their power to find the lost person.

Mr. Manteo has testified that he has beenemployed or used by ten law enforcement agencies in the search formissing persons. Using psychics is within the standards of conductof law enforcement agencies.

Sheriff Bogend should have acted on Mr.Manteo's information and sent a couple of the qualified searchpeople standing idly in the parking lot on a half-hour walk downBear Creek to check out the tip. Any reasonable man would have donethat. It would not have been a strain on Sheriff Bogend's time orresources.

Sheriff Bogend failed to act according to theaccepted standards of conduct to do what any reasonable man shoulddo and use his excess personnel to perform an early search downBear Creek and find Lucy alive. He was negligent.

Your verdict will be Rocky Butte telling allmembers of the California State Association of Counties that it canbe negligent to ignore qualified psychics in emergency situations.Let Lucy be remembered. I urge you to speak loudly.

I thank you for your kind attention during thetrial.

****

The next morning, as I went down for breakfast,Buster asked whether I could stay at the ranch for a couple ofhours. He said someone was coming about ten o'clock to brief meabout Mr. S.

Elizabeth volunteered to go to court to beavailable for jury questions.

I happily agreed to delay going to court andwent back to bed.

At breakfast, Tina said, "Do you have theletter predicting the outcome of the trial that Steve sent you? Yousaid you were not going to open it before the trial. Can't you openit now?"

I thought for a minute and then said, "I don'tsee why not. Seeing the letter can't change anything I did or mightdo in the trial." I went upstairs and got the unopened letter frommy bag.

I came back to the table and theatricallypaused, opening the letter and holding it to my forehead. I startedto say, "I predict this letter says...."

Tina blurted, "Open the damn thing!"

I opened it and read, "I saw apick."

I handed the letter to Tina.

"What does that mean, 'a pick'" Tinademanded.

"It means Steve foretold us winning thecase."

Tina bounced up and down a shouted,"Whoopee!"

When I hadn't joined in, Tina scolded, "Afterconvincing the jury of the validity of Steve's abilities, do Isense disbelief? You hypocrite!"

"Yippee!" I shouted. Tina and I danced aroundhugging each other.

"What's going on here?" Sofia asked as she ranout from the kitchen. "Everything OK? Tina, Is this man botheringyou?"

"We won! Dave Willard won the case," AnsweredTina.

"The jury is back so soon?"

"No, we were celebrating Steve'sprediction."

Sofia didn't respond. I heard the front doorscreen bang and looked to see Buster come in.

"Dave, let's take a ride to the airstrip. Wehave a visitor coming in. Excuse us ladies?'

As we drove to the airstrip, Buster listened tohis iPod and didn't volunteer any information on thevisitor.

Soon after we arrived at the strip, we heard anairplane in the distance. When it circled over the strip to checkthe windsock, I noticed it was not the twin-engine Cessna that Iand the other visitors had flown in on. It was a black, highwinged, twin turbine jet. When it taxied up to us I saw, a companylogo painted on the side and words that said, California EnergyTransmission. I was puzzled until it stopped, the door opened, andI saw Mr. Burton get out. He was wearing a black suit, hisreflecting aviator sunglasses, and his professional inscrutableexpression.

He shook my hand and acknowledged Buster with anod.

He said mechanically, "Mr. Willard, we trustyou have had a pleasant and successful stay and that thearrangements were convenient."

"Yes, to all three questions." Ireplied.

"The FBI has our Mr. S in custody. On Wednesdaynight, the man you know as Cody was awakened by the peripheralalarm system we installed at the decoy house. He watched on thesurveillance camera as Mr. S proceeded to open the door of theblack sedan. He then opened the hood and installed three bombs inthe car, one in the vicinity of the driver’s position. The bomb wasrigged to go off when the car was started.

"Cody and two other men who work for me tookMr. S. into custody before he reached his white van parked hiddenin the woods. They held him until the FBI arrived from theSacramento office and took him to Sacramento detentionfacilities.

"The sedan you were using and the white van arein the custody of the FBI."

"Mr. S is being held and will be tried inFederal Court for his activity here and other places. All evidencepoints to him working alone. You need not worry about himanymore.

"With your permission, and the knowledge ofDan, your associate at CrystalAire, we placed your sailplane undersurveillance. Surveillance video revealed that Mr. S