“If Roy knew Teddy was guilty, but kept it a secret because it played into his hands, insofar as a killer, a man-eating jaguar, and cannibals weren’t an open invitation for anyone to interfere until Kyle and Roy had their own well-protected work team in place, weren’t you taking a chance, Carolyne, when you confronted Kyle and him to enlist their help in catching Teddy? Neither Kyle nor Roy, by your own admission, had much to gain by Teddy behind bars.”
Galin was delighted to toot Carolyne’s horn for her: “She had me along as a witness to the confrontation. More to the point, the news out about the niobium discovery, via the letter Carolyne had mailed to the newsman in Rio, suddenly had Kyle and Roy needing to devote all of their efforts toward keeping a firm hand on a situation that would suck in undesirables like bees to honey. They didn’t want to have to waste time dealing with rumors they’d murdered Gordon to protect their investment. Suddenly, it behooved them to pluck at least one bothersome fly from the ointment.”
Galin did have one final question: “If Roy and Kyle used Gordon’s murder as a bonus, why was Rodrigo, their puppet, so upset when he got hold of the Rio newspaper? Publicity like that was bound to keep more people away than it invited in.”
Carolyne had the answer, albeit male-chauvinistic: “Rodrigo was simply angry because someone had put something over on him. It didn’t help that, at the time, not knowing it was Felix, he had it figured as Melanie—a woman.”
Not that much later, airborne over Brazil, Charles was still free with compliments: “You are a number-one amateur sleuth, Carolyne. No doubt about it.”
“And a big zero as a plant-hunter and environmentalist, this time around. There’s no way we access that area again until it’s mined clean and probably stripped bare of Lygodium cornelius, and all other flora and fauna, in the process.” She turned to the window and looked out. Although miles from the Georni ranch, there was no seeing the jungle below because of all the smoke from all the burning trees set afire by all those men seduced into exploitation of the environment by dreams of livelihood and profit.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
WILLIAM MALTESE, an international best-selling author of non-fiction and fiction articles, short stories, and novels, including his popular Wildside Mystery Double, Incident at Aberlene and Incident at Brimzinsky (Spies & Lies #1-#2), has published (under various pseudonyms) over 200 books in genres ranging from straight mainstream, to straight and gay erotica, as well as mystery, romance, western, adventure, espionage, cooking, wine, young adults and children, plus twenty-four science fiction/fantasy/horror novels, beginning with Five Roads to Tlen in 1969 (as “William J. Lambert III”) through Bond-Shattering (2007). He’s anything but a newcomer by way of writing fictionalized autobiographies and biographies, including his Diary of a Hustler (with “Joey”), Slovakian Boy (with “Pavel”), Amen’s Boy (his exposé on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, with Jacob Campbell), and his shocking Lambda-Award-nominated ARDENNIAN BOY (written with eminent gay scholar Professor Drewey Wayne Gunn) that raised more than a few eyebrows, while gleaning rave reviews, in its graphic portrayal of the scandalous literary and sexual relationship between the French poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud. For a comprehensive list of his literary output, see Draqualian Silk: A Collector’s and Bibliographical Guide to the Books of William Maltese, 1969-2010 (Borgo Press, 2010). Maltese enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he achieved and was honorably discharged with the rank of Sergeant (E-5).
You can email him at: [email protected]
You can locate him on the internet at:
http://www.williammaltese.com
http://www.facebook.com/williammaltese
http://www.theglutenfreewaymyway.com/
http://www.facebook.com/backoftheboatgourmetcooking
http://www.facebook.com/winetastersdiary
https://www.facebook.com/DinnerWithCecileAndWilliamACookbook?fref=ts
http://www.facebook.com/evengourmandshavetodiet
http://www.facebook.com/flickerwarriors
http://www.facebook.com/draqual
http://www.myspace.com/williammaltese
http://www.myspace.com/draqual
http://www.myspace.com/flickerwarriors
William’s Xocai® chocolate site:
http://www.mxi.myvoffice.com/williammaltese/
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