by Eric Hodges
CHAPTER 13
BLACK GOLD
Wheeler drove the short distance out the gate of the Keefer farm over to the Carter farm. He needed that short time alone to bolster his demeanor into supporting the next ruse he had planned. It would not be an elaborate one but it would have to be just convincing enough to assure Walt that his troubles could be over.
He entered the driveway flanked by solid looking metal tubes that supported an over-sized double gate that would easily pass two big rig trucks at the same time. The drive itself was paved, unlike Alice and Bob’s, and ended in a circle at the base of two giant columns supporting the entry to the house. It was vaguely reminiscent of a porch but was there for impression value not function. Wheeler pulled halfway around the circle and stopped his VW and started to get when Walt came out one of the over-sized front doors.
“Good morning, Mr. Wheeler” he said, still wearing a predator’s smile.
Wheeler reached out his greeting and said “Good morning Mr. Carter.” Wheeler was already in the mode of blocking any energy that might get transferred because he was aware of Walt’s dark energy reaching out to gain a grip on him.
Wheeler began abruptly to minimize the exposure to the energy “I need to drive the property to get an idea where the most likely places are. I will have to drill and take several samples.”
Walt nodded “I would like to tag along, maybe I could help?”
“Sure, hop in” Wheeler replied agreeably. Walt directed him to the open land behind the house that again had some kind of crop that Wheeler didn’t recognize but he did see it was not in very good shape. It was pale green and brown looking wilted and tired. Wheeler paused to make a good show of surveying the land from inside the bus.
“How do we get over there?” Wheeler inquired. Walt directed them around and between the crops to the place Wheeler indicated. Wheeler stopped on the dirt path, got out of the bus and scraped the dirt with his toe looking for something soft to drill. He didn’t want this to be too hard to do, it was only a show after all.
“How does this work?” Walt asked. “I mean, if you find oil?”
“What Mr. Boone usually does” Wheeler began “is to sign a drilling contract with the owner. It gives him the right to set up drilling equipment and pumps and the land owner gets an agreed amount per barrel recovered.” Wheeler was apparently evaluating the dirt and location while speaking. He kept track of Walt out of the corner of his eye.
Wheeler continued “If it looks promising, Mr. Boone will set up several wells and take over a good sized plot.” Wheeler was still looking around not making a move to get the driller out of the bus yet. Walt was beside himself, anxious to get the samples taken and start the oil pumping. Wheeler finally opened the bus and pulled the driller out.
Wheeler drilled the first hole as far as he could go with the single pipe Bob attached to the motor. Wheeler pulled the drill out of the hole to attach the second pipe so he could go deeper. Walt was no help at all and looked on with wild eyes and sweat on his brow that was obviously not from labor. The drill went as far as it could and Wheeler pulled it up carefully to retain the ‘sample’ and gently laid it horizontally on the path. He separated the motor from the pipe, pushed the plunger Bob made down the pipe and spread the dirt out on the path in a neat column. Wheeler found a dark ring in the sample about three feet down and loudly exclaimed “Oh yeah, here we go!”
“What? Where? What did you find?” Walt said frantically. Wheeler hoped he did not have a stroke.
“Look right there” Wheeler calmly pointed at the dark earth.
“I see it” Walt said looking up and down the column not seeing what Wheeler was pointing at.
“That dark ring just below the surface hints at past oil that was much closer to the top. It might have been a leak from the lower pool. It might have been a spill that was covered by a natural process of moving earth, you know, wind, rain and runoff covering it over." Wheeler had no idea what processes were involved with soil geology but he impressed himself with his scholarly delivery.
“Okay, what do we do now?” Walt was shaking with excitement. “Who do you call?”
“Not so fast, I need to take enough samples to cover the entire area, and then send them to the lab for analysis.” Wheeler wanted to build the tension with Walt and buy himself some time. “Mr. Boone will not make any commitments without strong assurances there is something worth drilling. This is a costly business.”
“I can make it worth your while and I will do that to cover your expenses here.” Walt had to show his financial strength. It was his predator instinct.
Wheeler pointed to places back and forth across the property that he needed to get samples from for the next few hours and he dragged Walt through the process over and over again. Walt was not used to the exertion and was thoroughly tired when they got back to the house.
“Come on in, we’ll get some water” Walt said, leading Wheeler inside. Wheeler’s impression of the house was one of rustic elegance and opulence, if that was possible in a farmhouse. This was not a farmhouse anyway, it was a country estate. He shook his head.
Walt led them through the entry, stopping at the wet bar just beyond to pick up water and continued to Walt’s office. Walt sat behind a massive polished wood desk and motioned for Wheeler to sit in the visitor chair.
“How does it really look?” Walt began, wanting to hear it again. During the drilling exercise, Wheeler peppered Walt with ‘Oh wow’ and ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’ so many times that Walt was hyperventilating most of the time.
Wheeler took a sip of water “Mr. Boone will be well pleased when we get confirmation. This site has the earmarks of a really big find.” Walt reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a wrapped bundle. Wheeler reached for a sheet of paper from the stationary stack on the desk and whisked it into his pocket without Walt seeing anything. Walt turned back to Wheeler, opened the wrapping and put a stack of bills on the desk. The paper collar holding them tightly together had $10,000 printed on both sides.
“Take this to help speed the process” he said, pushing the stack over to Wheeler’s side of the desk. Now Walt looked a bit smug, certain that his money problems were over. “If you can expedite the tests and get back to Mr. Boone quickly I would be very grateful. Can I call Mr. Boone and get things going?”
“I’m sorry Mr. Carter, Mr. Boone does not respond to a new site until the entire package has been assembled. Even then, your first contact will probably be from the lawyers anyway.”
“I see” Walt said, getting up from the desk. The meeting was over. “Thank you for coming out, I’m really pleased with what you found.”
“You’re welcome, I’ll be in touch as soon as I know anything” Wheeler said, as he picked up the bundle and headed out to the VW.
He drove back to the Keefer place elated. He had a bonus package of money that he would use for the next phase and to subsidize his travels. He did need to replenish funds whenever he could and this was one of the largest and if he could figure out how to use it for the oil ruse, it might come in handy. He would certainly tell Alice and Bob about his trip next door and the plans. There were no cars in the driveway to the farm, so he just kept going, the diner was the best bet.
He did find Bob and Alice at the diner in the middle of lunch, pleased he was not too late. He was hungry.
“Wheeler” Alice squealed and got up to give him a firm hug. “I’m so glad you’re back!”
“What?” He said surprised “Did you think I’d leave town?”
“No” Alice said quietly, “I was afraid something might happen.” Her voice trailed off, not really finishing the thought.
“Ahh, not to worry” He said sitting down to join them. “It went perfectly.” Then he said a bit too loud “Walt’s tests look better than yours.” Several heads at the diner leaned over, craning to pick up information. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” He said as he leaned toward the table and whispered very lou
d. Both Alice and Bob choked back giggle fits and settled down to finish lunch.
“Alice, have you anything planned for this afternoon?” Wheeler asked so only they could hear. The rest of the diner had heard enough.
“No, what did you have in mind” Alice said as she batted her eyes and gave Wheeler a dreamy look. Bob smirked.
“How can I finish my lunch with this going on?” Bob said feigning disgust while holding back a laugh. He was pleased Alice had gotten her old humor back and Wheeler was turning out to be a good guy.
Wheeler blushed just a bit and was saved by the waitress. He studied the menu too hard, and then ordered a tuna melt and fries. He thought his level of fatty foods was getting low. “I’ll fill you in at Bob’s shop before we go” he said, gliding over Alice’s innuendo. He was not being aloof to make a point, he was just shy.
When they had seated themselves around Bob’s table at the shop, Wheeler began “There is black money coming into the casino and it’s getting distributed from the casino, to Davies and Wix and to Carter. There has to be a reason it was black in my vision, so let’s look at it to find out why.
“Walt gave me a big wad and we have to use some of it, but I want to make sure we don’t get blackened by the stuff.” He brought the bundle of money with him and put it down on the table so they could see it.
“That looks like a lot of money!” Bob exclaimed, reaching across the table to grasp the bundle.
“Don’t touch any of it” Wheeler grabbed Bob’s wrist to hold it away from the money. “We can’t leave any traces until we find out more about it. I don’t want us to put any fingerprints on it, because I have a suspicion we might be sending the White Collar Crime Unit a gift with a return address. Bob, do you have gloves here we can use?”
“Sure, right here” Bob said as he reached over to his supply cabinet to get latex gloves for all of them.
Wheeler donned gloves and broke open the package, spreading $100 bills across the table.
“We need to find out why it’s black, grab some gloves and let’s start looking” Wheeler said, and all three of them started spreading bills out on the table, holding them up to the light and comparing two at a time.
“This is a lot of money” Alice said, holding up bills to do her own comparing. “Is it phony or are we looking for something else?”
“It probably is but let's see if we can find something by looking” Wheeler said as he spread bills out and picked up random samples. “They may not know about it if the money is bad.”
“I’m not sure what a real one looks like” Bob said. “How can we tell?” He was doing his best to compare, though. “Hey, I have a stash here in the shop!” Bob hopped up, pushing his chair back with a scrape, and opened the drawer of the desk behind him. “Here, look at this” he said handing the bill over to Wheeler.
“We can’t mix this one in to the pile” Wheeler said, comparing it to one of the unknown bills. “Hum. The serial number looks different” he said handing a pair of bills to Alice. “Look here.” He pointed to the numbers.
Alice looked closely, and then said “It might be a different font.” She compared Bob’s bill to another and then another. Not all of them showed the subtle number differences. “Look at the one here and here” she said, holding the bills in front of Bob and pointing at the difference.
“I think you’re right, they do look different” Bob said. “It’s not a very good counterfeit if I can see it.” Alice showed them to Wheeler and they all agreed it was plain if you knew what to look for.
Bob put his bills back in the drawer and they started to separate the other bills into piles: good ones, phonies and unknowns. There were not that many phonies but the unknown pile was significant. They had $2900 in phony bills, $5200 in good bills and $1900 in the unknown pile. They sat back with ‘Now what’ expression on their faces as they admired the stacks of $100 bills.
Wheeler asked Bob for a pen and removed the stolen paper from his pocket. It was rumpled but not damaged and he spread it out on the table so Bob and Alice could read it. It was a blank letter with the following letterhead embossed across the top in elegant script: ‘Carter Agriculture, Walter Carter, Proprietor.’
“Let’s write out a letter and send it away” Wheeler said with a mischievous grin, “I feel like batting the hornet’s nest.”
Wheeler took three of the $100 bills, the letter and the pen and led Alice out to the VW. They were headed to the casino.
They entered the parking lot and pulled into a convenient parking space. “All we need is an envelope with the casino logo on it,” Wheeler said. “Got any ideas?”
Alice considered the challenge for a moment, and then responded “Why don’t we just ask them for one?”
Wheeler exhaled sharply, “Yeah, why didn’t I think of that?” He grinned, pleased that he had a competent accomplice.
They made their way to the gift shop and wandered the aisles for a moment to get the feel of the place. There were two customers at the register so they waited for a clear opening to the clerk, who was a young man, probably working his way through college. Alice stepped up to take the lead, pausing at the counter until she got noticed.
“May I help you?” the clerk asked.
“Yes, I hope so” Alice began. “I don’t see envelopes on the shelves out here, do you have any?”
“No ma’am, but we do have postcards, would that do?” He was trying to be helpful.
“It really won’t” she said, appearing very disappointed and a little bit stressed. “I wanted to send the program from last night’s show to my sister, she really wanted to come but couldn’t.” Alice looked away, apparently hiding tears. She really was good at this stuff.
The college kid behind the counter reached down low and said “I suppose it would be all right to give you this.” He put an envelope on the counter for her.
“Would you mind terribly” Alice said in a sticky sweet voice “giving me three of them? We will be here through the week.”
“Oh sure, I’m glad to help.” The kid would have emptied the cash register for her by that time. He placed two more envelopes on top of the first.
“Oh thank you” Alice gushed, “do you have stamps at the counter?” He retrieved a strip out of the same drawer and she paid.
“You have made our stay here wonderful,” she gushed. “Thank you so much.” They left the gift shop making their way out to the VW. Wheeler was as pleased as Alice was. She got the envelopes, they were making their escape, nobody was chasing them and Wheeler did not have say a thing.
“That was masterful” Wheeler said as they left the building. “We only needed one envelope, why did you get three?”
“You are silly” she said with a full width grin, “How was I supposed to get an envelope without touching it?”
“I am in the presence of greatness” he said, bowing as they walked. “I am humbled by your talents.”
In the privacy of the bus, they donned gloves, carefully printed the address on an envelope without touching it. They wrapped the bills they brought from the shop and put it all in the envelope, daubing water on the flap to make the seal.
“Done” Wheeler said. “Let’s mail it and get out of here. Did you see a post box or do we go back inside?”
“There’s a slot” Alice began but was interrupted when phone began to ring. “It’s Bob. The slot is at the front.” She pointed to the casino and answered the phone. She spoke with Bob as Wheeler pulled up to the entry to mail the letter.
He got back in and asked “Is he making sure I’m not doing anything with his little sister?” He drove away chuckling at his own joke.
Alice was somber. “Wix came by the shop. He said he wants to talk to you and said he will wait for you at his the office. He told Bob it’s urgent.”
“Wow, the rumor net sure is fast” Wheeler mused. “I wonder what he wants?”
