Then Chita entertained with her interview with Phileas Phox. She showed off her necklace-based recording system, courtesy of UUI’s techie geniuses. They both agreed that Phileas was truly a weasel.
Still not allowed near the controls, Inspector Wallaroo had to content himself with sitting (actually, bouncing up and down) in the co-pilot seat up in the cockpit. Octavius would have had a major ursine eruption if he thought for one moment that Bruce was in charge of his aeronautical wonder.
Ninety minutes later, as they touched down at the Bear’s Lair heliport, the Bearoness and Octavius stood off to the side waiting for them. The Bearoness had allowed the Cubs to stay up, much to the chagrin of Mlle Woof who was convinced they would never get to sleep after the big arrival. She was probably right. True to form, they capered around the platform, coming too close for comfort to the whirling blades. Hearing that the travelers had only ingested some snacks, the Frau was busy in the kitchen whipping up something more substantial. And I resumed my role as your humble narrator.
“There they are, Uncle Maury! There they are!” Amid the juvenile outbursts, L. Condor, Ursula and Howard joined the reception committee, each waiting to start their respective tasks. Marlin, as usual, was hooked up from his tank. As soon as the ship settled in, the Flying Tigers emerged to take charge of the post flight activities. In short, “Hail, Hail! The Gangs All Here!”
Otto and Chita were first out followed by Bruce Wallaroo. The Colonel stayed on to work with the Tigers.
“Well,” said Octavius, “what do we know now that we didn’t know before?”
Otto handed over his thumb drives to L. Condor. “Here’s the Professor’s e-mail. It’s going to need some analysis and correlation.” He turned to Howard, “I think you have a problem with one of your Confidential Seven. Covington Cougar seems to have been a very active communicator with the Professor. I haven’t had a chance to research it and I hope L. Condor can, but it seems the two of them were engaged in a dialogue on your activities. We’ll get you the specifics.”
Needless to say, Howard was not pleased.
Inspector Wallaroo looked over at Octavius. “Ocko, sorry to say, you are still an ‘Animal of Interest’ for the Detroit Police Department but given the difference in the two tapes, they are becoming much more inclined to the theory that you are being set up by the law firm. I trust Captain Ford to be fair and objective. Remember, nobody up there is enamored of the Phoxes. The FBI seems to be on your side. We made some progress. The best current theory is that the Professor met his killer at the riverside for unknown reasons, was dispatched there and tossed overboard.”
“The Muskox did not drown, and it’s not likely he was killed elsewhere and transported to the river. If that was the case, the murderer could have dumped the body anywhere. The riverside was probably a convenient location for a face-to-face meeting. What the meeting was all about and who was involved besides the Professor is still a mystery. But that animal could have been anyone armed with a hefty weapon. That means it may not have taken a large, strong animal such as yourself to do him in. However, it may have been an effort to push him in the water. Small steps but in the right direction.”
Chita told her story about Phileas the Phoxy Weasel. She was waiting until tomorrow to tell him he had been set up by her to facilitate a case of customs fraud. Her recording was being sent to the Phox partners, the State Bar of Michigan, the Police and the FBI. Just another shot across the bow, so to speak. Everything we can do to keep Phileas cross footed is a help.
Octavius thanked the team, turned to Belinda and said, “Let’s get the twins to bed and maybe a little mead might be in order.”
L. Condor took the thumb drives from Otto and headed to his lab. No doubt he would spend the night with Ursula untangling the Professor’s e-mails, establishing incoming and outgoing patterns and sorting out relationships.
Howard and Marlin took up the correspondence and history of their Confidential Seven. Was there anything in the Professor’s e-mails that dealt with alternate universes? They’d soon see. The Multiverse Electron Pairing project has so far been a one-way trip. Several experiments have succeeded in coupling electrons in our universe with ones in an alternate planet. But no successful attempt had yet been made to set up a pairing that originates from another world. Soon! Soon! Watch this (outer) space.
The Colonel has had the most involvement in multiverse travel starting with experiments in the military and proceeding further under Octavius’ sponsorship. In Canada (Book 4 The Lower Case) the team encountered several denizens of an alternative world. In Egypt (Book 5 The Curse of the Mummy’s Case) they had established that the ancient Underworlds to which dead souls were transported had all the characteristics of multiverse domains. Other terrestrials were reporting similar experiences. Four of Howard’s Confidential Seven had deep expertise either in quantum physics or alternate universe studies. Howard and Marlin seemed to be the sole members of the group who played in both ballparks. Covington Cougar was primarily a project facilitator. As soon as L. Condor and Ursula sorted through the electronic tangles, Howard would be contacting each participant individually.
I wandered into Condo’s lab to check their progress just in time to hear my own voice say, “I think that should wrap it up. Oh, Hello Maury.”
Octavius responded, “Wonderful job, Senhor Condor!” followed by a giggle.
“Are you two playing speech games again?”
“Of course,” said the Condor in his baseline normal voice, “It keeps us from getting bored. We haven’t figured out yet how many variations we can produce but it must be in the thousands.”
“Millions!” said the AI’s soft, usual vocal sound.
“Showoffs!” I retorted to two peals of laughter.
Chapter Twelve
Sci-Fi stories have ferrets galore.
Antique paintings and statues show more.
In the future and past
Their appeal is quite vast.
In the present, They’re simply a bore.
Little did Phileas Phox know how much trouble was going rain down on him and his cohorts that morning. The opening salvo was fired by a Detroit PD-FBI combo. Captain Ford invited the senior partners to his office with a strong suggestion that failure to appear would not bode well. Felicity, the Ferret, wanted to push back and not show up but cooler heads prevailed. (the weasel, Phileas Phox and the skunk, Farrington Foxx.)
“We need to find out what this is all about,” said the skunk, his first contribution to the dialogue. At 10 AM, the three partners marched into the Police conference room, nodded to the Badger and staring at the Grizzly, Phileas asked, “What is this all about?”
“Fabricated evidence, which in the case of a murder can amount to a felony. You guys are too cute for your own good. Here is the meeting tape you sent us which strongly implies that Dr. Octavius Bear had motive, means and opportunity for killing the Professor. I suggest you watch and listen carefully.”
He ran the heavily edited tape. “Is that the recording you gave us?”
The skunk nodded. The weasel and ferret remained silent. “Now, let me run the original version that came from your files. Don’t bother protesting about how we got it. We got it. You’ll notice the Muskox’ attack on the Kodiak; the bear defending himself; the abusive language of the Professor and the need for him to be restrained. All of that and more was deleted from this original when you submitted the copy to us. You couldn’t leave well enough alone. The forensics labs of the FBI and our own department detected the rather clumsy editing. Whoever did it was a rank amateur.”
The skunk looked around anywhere but at the policeman or special agent.
“Now, I wouldn’t want to accuse three members of the legal community of trying to frame an ‘Animal of Interest’ but you can see how we might come to that conclusion. Counsellors, your credibility is shot.
We cannot use any of the so-called evidence you have provided. Dr. Bear’s lawyer is aware of the alterations and is prepared to sue your firm and each of you individually. We haven’t decided whether to file criminal charges or not. How you react will have a strong bearing on what we do.”
The ever-aggressive Felicity hissed. “You break into our files and consider filing charges against us? We’ll sue you both and your departments.”
The weasel glared at the ferret and said, “Shut up, Felicity. We don’t need that kind of problem. All right, Captain. We’ll withdraw the tape and any other material we sent you. We still believe Octavius Bear is the killer, but we’ll leave that for you to determine. We’ll contact Mr. Wolverine and try to avert any law suits he plans to bring forth.”
Special Agent Badger stared at him in disbelief. “You don’t get off that easy, Phileas. There is the small matter of the threatened extortion you have been carrying out on behalf of your now deceased client. Your letters need to be recalled and all efforts in that regard immediately brought to a close. We’ll want proof that you have rescinded your worldwide pressures and intimidations. That was a dumb stunt in the first place. The State Bar of Michigan is aware of your activities. What they plan to do is up to them. You might want to consider an alternate career.”
The Phox Partners rose and proceeded out of police headquarters. Phileas and Felicity turned on the skunk. “When you said the altered tape would be an airtight indictment of Octavius Bear, we believed you. Instead, your ineptitude has dumped us on the road to disbarment. If you didn’t know how to handle the technology, why didn’t you use someone who did?”
“Now wait a minute! It was you who wanted to keep knowledge of this set up to the fewest possible number of participants. You both know we don’t trust most of our associates and staff.”
The ferret hissed once again. “I swear, Farrington, I don’t know how you made partner. How can we possibly trust you to keep us from being hung out to dry? You’re an idiot.”
When they arrived back at their offices, there was a message waiting for Phileas. Madame Catt had called. She was not going to meet with him, but she wanted him to hear a recording which she had sent to his partners, the Detroit PD, the State Bar and the FBI. He listened to his own voice promising to set up a meeting with a dishonest jeweler who was willing to provide, for a significant fee, a fraudulent certified sales certificate for her diamond necklace. It would certainly stand up to British Customs scrutiny. He also heard himself telling her that the firm’s fee for such a transaction was ten percent of the jeweler’s charge.
Thunderstruck, he hung up the phone just in time for Felicity to come storming into his office. “I am surrounded by cretins. Isn’t it bad enough we got caught with our phony tape? Now, you have to get us set up with an entrapment situation. Cheating your partners is the crowning blow. I want you and Farrington to resign effectively immediately. It’s the only way we can save the firm, if you even care.”
“Now Felicity!”
“Don’t you ‘now Felicity’ me. I’m the only competent member of management left, and I swear I’ll go to the State Bar myself and see that the two of you go down in flames.”
And so, as we temporarily bid farewell to the rapidly disintegrating Phox Law Firm, we turn our attention back to the yet unsolved murder of Professor Hercules Ovibos.
Chapter Thirteen
Is he mountain lion, cougar or puma(r)?
Is he nasty or is that a rumor?
For he has this distinction.
He is facing extinction.
That can impact a cat’s sense of humor.
Condo had spent the night along with Ursula sorting through the Professor’s e-mails and confirmed Otto’s suppositions. One name kept showing up: Covington Cougar - Venture Capitalist with Space Enterprises LLC. Howard was not pleased, especially when it became clear that they could now almost create electron linkage from another world. They were nearing success. Professor Karl Shepherd of MIT and Doctor Susanna Shrike of Cal Tech were conducting experiments to confirm Howard’s and Marlin’s design.
The Cougar was passing on the team’s progress reports to the Muskox who in turn was publishing the work as his own. He then developed the idea of suing any and all organizations that were pursuing or thinking about pursuing work related to electron coupling. It only took a short elevator ride to the Phox firm to convince them that there was money to be made supporting the Professor’s crazy scheme. Greed conquered all until the Muskox ended up floating in the Detroit River.
When Marlin heard Condo’s news, after several flips in his tank, he said to Howard. “OK, whom do we trust? Ursula, were any of the other team members on the Professor’s e-mail?”
A soft, sultry, female voice responded. “No, Marlin. Just the Cougar.”
“Do we approach our other colleagues and tell them about the Cougar’s betrayal?”
Howard replied “I think we have to. We don’t want them innocently feeding Covington with more information.”
“But with the Muskox dead, what’s he going to do with the data?”
Ursula replied. “My research says there are plenty of other parties who might be interested. The Professor may not have been the only beneficiary of the Cougar’s slippery data transfers.”
Howard sulked, “For all we know, the whole project may be blown. So much for limiting the team. Can you imagine if General Turmoil got his hooves on our data?”
(General Turmoil is a Horse who heads up a Federal Government sponsored, semi-military, semi-spy organization called The Business. He has been actively pursuing alternative universes with conquest in mind. Octavius has been at odds with him for a long time and Colonel Where, while he was still in the Army, ended up as an experimental subject of the General’s. All told, a nasty equine piece of work.)
“Yes, I can, and I don’t like it one bit.
“All right! First stops: Karl Shepherd and Susanna Shrike. We need to tell them their experiments were probably compromised by the Cougar.”
They decided to use encrypted phones. No e-mail message trail, although the conversations could be recorded. They reached Karl and gave him the bad news. First reaction: String up Covington Cougar but only after recovering the data he stole and passed on. Second reaction: Change passwords and crypto algorithms. Third reaction: Hack into Covington’s systems and see who else has been communicating with him. Ursula was already hard at work on this last chore.
Susanna had similar suggestions although she had even fiercer thoughts on what to do with the Cougar. Tough lady, especially when her precious work was involved.
Howard and Marlin then took on the equally thankless tasks of updating Commander Cormorant and Alfred Armadillo. Had Covington contacted either of them recently? Not in the last few weeks and then it had been a joint progress report with all hands on deck. The Commander wondered where the Cougar would take his wares now that the Muskox was no more. General Turmoil was on the top of his list. But it’s not the General’s style to buy when he could snatch. Condo and Ursula were experiencing some difficulty hacking into the Cougar’s systems. A sure sign Covington was getting some sophisticated tech support. Not enough to stop Condo but it slowed him down a bit. Could that be the none too subtle hoof of General Turmoil at work?
Just where is Covington Cougar? Did he do in the Professor? If so, why?
Time to brief The Great Bear. I found him in his office and he was awake!
First things first. “Octavius, it seems one of the Confidential Group that Howard and Marlin have been working with has been double dealing. The Professor’s e-mail has been chock-full of progress reports from the scientists. The source of all this information is Covington Cougar, whose whereabouts is currently unknown. We have our suspicions but no proof that he may be the murderer. They may have had a falling out of some sort.”
“We
also suspect that General Turmoil may be involved with the Cougar but again, no definitive proof. The Professor may have been getting in the General’s way and was eliminated.”
The Great Bear snarled, “The Detroit Police and the FBI should know about this. We need to find Covington tout suite. I understand that the Cougar’s treachery doesn’t categorically prove he’s the killer, but it should certainly get him registered as an ‘Animal of Interest.’ What makes you think the General may be involved?”
“Primarily, the subject matter! He has devoted so much time and effort on alternative universes and has so many resources at his disposal that it would surprise me no end if he didn’t know about Howard and his cohorts. Whether he’s been able to penetrate the entire group is up for grabs. But now that we know there is at least one weak link, I’m willing to bet the Horse and possibly others have been on top of our group’s progress.”
“Maury, I’m half tempted to shut the project down. After all, it’s my money that’s supporting this effort.”
“Not entirely! The other members have also been using small parcels of unobtrusively sourced private funds to support some of their efforts. They wouldn’t be able to go on as freely if you yanked the rug, but you are not entirely in charge. Besides, you’d be playing right into the General’s hands, if he is indeed involved. Getting you out of the alternate universe entangled electron space would leave the field wide open for him. If he has much of the team’s research and progress materials in his hooves, he may be well on his way to taking charge. We also don’t know if any other groups are involved.”
“Aren’t you a ray of sunshine? OK, tell Howard his project is still a GO, but we need to get our paws around his group and upgrade personal and technical security. Meanwhile, let’s see if law enforcement can get a fix on Covington Cougar. What does Bruce Wallaroo have to say about all of this?”
“Bruce has been concentrating on the Phox Law Firm but I’m not sure the lawyers even know about the Cougar. The Professor, after all, has been claiming all of the intellectual property as his own inventions, theories and research. He certainly wouldn’t have admitted that it was all stolen if he was trying to make his lawsuits stick. I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of the Phoxes, but we may have the delightful privilege of watching them crash and burn.”
The Suit Case Page 7