by Ron Finch
Robert Ament glared at Ezekiel and, in a voice close to shouting, said, “Don’t be ridiculous! The townspeople wouldn’t dare do that.”
“I hope not,” said George Manners. “That could result in the return of the Army.”
Bruce Cherry, the owner of Southwest Country Furniture, had sat quietly through the meeting but now he raised his hand and spoke. “I’m a businessman, and so I’m interested in making money; and I’m smart enough to know that if everybody hates me, they won’t buy my furniture. A man or woman has to be smart enough to know there are times when it’s more important to do the right thing than it is to be right. I know my esteemed competitor Robert Ament is a fine man and runs a great furniture factory; but after listening to him, I’m sure he’d rather be right, and out of business, than seen to be merciful.”
Robert Ament turned red and got to his feet, ready with an angry reply, but then just as suddenly sat down without saying anything.
After a brief pause, Ezekiel Pomfrey said, “That’s an excellent piece of advice, Bruce. I endorse everything you’ve said.”
Ezekiel then turned to Chief Petrovic. “I have a question for you chief: Am I right in assuming that each company will decide whether or not to pursue charges against the two men that stole from them?”
“That’s correct, Mr. Pomfrey,” answered Chief Petrovic. “You could elect not to press charges against the two young men who stole goods from you, while Mr. Ament could seek to punish the two men under his employ to the full extent of the law.”
“Thank you, Chief. That explains things very well to me,” said Mr. Pomfrey.
The four of us sitting at the back of the room were fascinated by the way the discussion had unfolded. Chief Petrovic was a master at clarifying a situation, we realized. He could present information in such a way that reasonable people quickly understood what the real issues were.
“I only have one further comment to make,” said the chief, “and that is that, while each of you can make your own decisions about how to punish these men, it would be far better for your businesses if everyone was treated the same way. I recommend that you meet together sometime tomorrow so that you can decide what your plan of action is going to be. I will hold off talking to the press until after I hear back from you.”
As they stood up to leave, Chief Petrovic said, “I can’t give you a full report from Inspector Simpson yet, but I can tell you that seven people have been arrested so far in London. All those people are known criminals. They are the instigators that convinced your young men to steal. They are the ones that profited far more from your losses than these local boys.”
Thursday, November 23rd
WHEN I WALKED INTO the police station the next morning, Chief Petrovic said, “You’re going to put the Chaseford Police Force on the map. It’s not often that a big city police force like Toronto wants to borrow a constable from a police force in a town our size.”
Now I was really excited. “You’re not teasing me are you, Chief?” I asked. The chief had a good sense of humour and this was just the kind of prank he might pull.
“No, this time I’m serious,” he said. “They want to borrow you for a week starting next Monday. Det. Fredericks has convinced his chief in Toronto that you might be helpful to them in this investigation because of the work you’ve done with Dr. Khryscoff. I told Fredericks I would talk to you and that we would let him know tomorrow morning.”
I didn’t know what to say. “I’d like to go, but I need to talk to Georgie first, and I’m not sure where I’d stay in Toronto.”
“I’m okay with their request,” said the chief. “We can manage without you for a week now that we have the furniture factory theft case almost wrapped up.”
AS WE WERE EATING, I told Georgie about the invitation I’d had from the Toronto Police Force. “That’s wonderful,” she said. “It would be a really good experience.”
“I don’t know whether they’ll pay for me to stay in a hotel or not,” I said.
“I don’t think they’ll spend that kind of money on you, Joel. But they might let you sleep in a cell overnight,” Georgie said, giggling.
Then she paused and looked at me and said, “I do have an idea. You could stay with my Aunt Muriel. Since my Uncle Elmer died four years ago, she has been taking in boarders. Do you remember her from the wedding?”
Just before I said yes, Georgie thought and said, “You wouldn’t. She couldn’t attend.
“Oh, she will really want to see you now. I should warn you, she’s a teetotaler and will not put up with any profanity in her house, so you’ll have to behave. She will probably phone my mother every day to let her know how you’re getting along.”
I thought about it. At this point, a jail cell wasn’t sounding that bad, but I suspected the food at Aunt Muriel’s house would be far superior. It was a difficult decision, but I reluctantly said, “That’s a good idea, Georgie. Maybe you or your mom can give your Aunt Muriel a call to see if she has room for me.”
Georgie washed and I dried. Once the dishes were away, we went into our small living room. It was still a few minutes before 7 o’clock, so we sat at the card table and worked on the jigsaw puzzle until Ma Perkins came on the radio. Georgie loved that kind widow woman; if Ma Perkins had lived anywhere near Chaseford, Georgie would have invited her to supper.
When the show ended, Georgie turned to me and said, “My Aunt Muriel is a lot like Ma Perkins.”
“Does she use a lot of Oxydol, too?” I quipped a little too quickly. I soon realized that my flippant remark wasn’t appreciated. “Sorry,” I said. “I guess your aunt must be a very nice person.”
The look I got from Georgie suggested she was questioning my sincerity. But she decided to let it go.
“If you’re going down to Toronto where that terrible phantom is,” she said, “I think you need to talk to Walter. Perhaps there is an essence in Toronto Walter can put you in touch with; in case you need help.”
I EASILY MADE CONTACT with Walter. “How are you, Joel? Any more dreams? Any more contacts from the hooded man in your nightmares?”
“Not in the last couple of days,” I responded. “When we talked before, you told me you could sense some kind of signal. How often do you receive it?”
“There’s always something there,” Walter sent back. “But it almost seems random. As we talked about before, it’s almost as if this entity doesn’t know that it’s broadcasting.”
“I think this hooded person is murdering people as sacrifices,” I sent. “And the horrible nature of his acts is creating new essences. The latest murder was in Toronto, just a few days ago. Because of my experience working with Dr. Khryscoff, the detective in charge of the investigation has invited me to go to Toronto. Can you help me get in contact with essences in the Toronto area? Contact with essences could be essential to tracking down the murderer. I’m certain they’re wondering about this new background signal they’re receiving.”
“I’ll contact you when I’ve made connections with essences in the Toronto area,” responded Walter. And then, as abruptly as it had started, our communication ended.
Friday, November 24th
IT WAS THE COLDEST morning we’d had in a while. It hadn’t snowed, but it had dropped down to about 20°F during the night, and when I’d left to go to the police station that morning, it still hadn’t reached 32°F. There hadn’t been any rain for a few days, so it was a pleasant walk, with no slippery patches. Most people had raked up the leaves and burned them a few weeks earlier. It was a brisk walk and I enjoyed it.
The chief was already at his desk when I arrived. He looked up from the report he was reading and said, “Good morning, Joel. Have you made a decision yet?”
“I’m excited about going,” I said. “Georgie and I talked about it and she’s checking with her Aunt Muriel today. Her aunt lives in Toronto and takes in boarders. I’ll probably stay there.”
“That’s what I like about Georgie,” said Chief Petrovic, smiling
. “She’s good at making decisions and telling you what to do.”
I went along with the chief and said, “I’m a good soldier. I just do what I’m told.”
“I’ll phone the Toronto police station today,” said Chief Petrovic, “and talk to the Toronto Chief of Police and make arrangements for Det. Fredericks to get in contact with you so you know where to meet him on Monday morning.”
“Thanks for being so helpful, Chief.”
As I turned to leave, the chief said, “I received a phone call this morning from George Manners. He wants me to attend a meeting with the four company representatives this afternoon at 2 o’clock at the Murphy Furniture factory. He told me that they have come up with a plan for dealing with the eight young men who were involved in the thefts from the furniture factories.
“The four of them have a lot of experience and are basically good men. I was really surprised at how well Bruce Cherry understood the situation. He usually doesn’t have much to say, but evidently when he speaks, he knows what he’s talking about. I’m concerned about Robert Ament. I hope he has cooled down and is ready to be reasonable.”
“Good luck at the meeting, sir.”
Just then, the chief’s secretary, Sherry Simpson, stuck her head in the door. “Geraldine Smithing is on the phone,” she said. “She sounds very upset. She says she needs a policeman over to their house at 27 Mulberry Ave. before her husband Tom and the neighbour get into a physical fight. Mrs. Smithing says it’s a silly argument about where to put a fence post.”
“I’m on it, Chief,” I said, heading for the door.
I ARRIVED JUST IN TIME to see Tom Smithing push Bob Jones forcefully away from him with two hands. Mr. Smithing was considerably larger than Mr. Jones, but I could see Mr. Jones didn’t really care how big Mr. Smithing was.
I spoke loudly, but in a non-threatening way. “Gentlemen, I’m Cst. Joel Franklin. I’m here to listen to your complaints. I want you to speak to me one at a time, as calmly as you can.”
The most important thing for me to do in this type of situation, I know, is to calm things down. That means I have to be calm. Chief Petrovic told me once, ‘Never meet anyone on anger mountain.’
They both started to shout at once.
“Stop,” I said firmly. “Mr. Smithing, I want you to do your best to remain quiet while I listen to Mr. Jones; then you will have a chance to speak about your concerns.”
Mr. Smithing was very upset, but from the beginning I saw that he was not as volatile as Mr. Jones. He nodded in agreement and took a step back.
Mr. Jones explained, “I would like to put up a fence. My daughter and her three kids are coming to live with us because my son-in-law was killed in an accident. My daughter doesn’t have any money and she can’t pay her rent anymore. The kids are a little bit of a handful, and without a fence they’ll be running all over the neighbours’ yards and will be into everything. It’s not fair to my neighbours no matter who they are.”
It was a lengthy story, and by the time he’d finished, Mr. Jones had calmed down a lot.
Mr. Smithing was no longer on anger mountain, either. He said, “I’m very sorry to hear about all the trouble that’s come to your daughter. I have no problem with the fence; as a matter fact, I’ll help you build it. I just want to make sure it’s in the right place.”
I suggested they find out where the property line was.
Mr. Jones said, “I think I have a survey somewhere.”
Five minutes later, Mr. Jones returned with the survey. I stayed with them until they both agreed where the fence should be.
When I left, they were talking together about where they might be able to get some old fence posts. They knew they had to get the fence posts in the ground sometime within the next week or two, before winter came to stay.
JUST AS I GOT BACK to the station, Chief Petrovic said, “You’re to call Det. Fredericks in Toronto. Here’s the number.”
I phoned and immediately got through to Det. Fredericks.
“I’m glad you got back to me so soon,” he said. “I was just on my way out the door.
“I want you to give me a call as soon as you get to Toronto, even if it’s late on Sunday. We can go out for a coffee and talk a little bit about the case. I can bring you up to date on what I’ve found out so far.
“I can also show you the easiest way to get to the police station from where you’re staying. Toronto’s getting bigger every day and the traffic makes it difficult to get around town. The population is already over 630,000. The chief said you’re staying at your wife’s aunt’s house. Do you know the address?”
I gave him the address and he said, “That’s great. You’re only half a mile from the police station. I advise you to walk to work.”
We said goodbye. I was even more excited to talk to him after he’d said the words, ‘on what I’ve found out so far.’
“WELCOME TO MURPHY FURNITURE again,” said George Manners to Chief Petrovic when he’d arrived for the meeting. “That was a shocking and interesting meeting we had on Wednesday. I think we’ve recovered. We’re not happy, but we have some thoughts we’d like to share with you about a possible solution to our dilemma.”
When the chief looked around, he noticed that Ezekiel Pomfrey and Bruce Cherry seemed comfortable, but Robert Ament refused to look Chief Petrovic in the eye.
“Before you explain your proposal to me,” said the chief, “I’d like you to answer one question, because the answer will certainly affect how I think about what you’re suggesting.”
They looked a little surprised, but George Manners said, “Fine, what is your question?”
“This solution that you’re going to propose: is it a solution that all four companies agree on?”
“Yes, it is,” said George Manners and the other three nodded their heads in agreement. Robert Ament’s nod was rather reluctant.
“What’s your proposal?” asked the chief.
“It took us many hours to come up with a proposal that we all could agree on,” said George Manners. “We understand that we are just discussing this with you, and that, of course, our proposal would have to be approved by the judge and other members of the legal community.
“Here’s the proposal: We’re suggesting that each of the eight young men who were arrested be offered a chance at a suspended sentence of two years in length. They would continue to be employed by us, and they would continue to receive their regular pay; however, they would be expected to work eight extra hours during the week. They would not be paid for these hours.
“We did a rough calculation, and over the past four months we know that the four companies in total lost in excess of $20,000 due to theft.”
“Let me do some calculations,” said Chief Petrovic. He picked up a pencil from the table, opened his notebook, and said, “Eight hours a week by eight people, which comes to 64 hours a week.” He wrote down the number 64. Then he said, “52 weeks a year for two years. So, I should multiply 64×52×2.” He wrote those figures on the page of his notebook and then did the multiplication. He wrote the answer down 6,656. Then he turned and looked at them and said, “That comes to almost 7,000 hours of unpaid labour over two years.”
“That does sound like we’re getting a huge amount of free time from those young men,” said Ezekiel Pomfrey. “But if you take into account that they’re currently being paid 50 cents an hour, you’ll see that total comes to considerably less than $20,000.”
Once again Chief Petrovic opened his notebook and multiplied 6,656 by 0.50. “Yes,” the chief said, “that total is only $3,328.”
“It’s obvious that those two numbers don’t match,” said Bruce Cherry. “But keep in mind that, with all those extra hours, those young men are helping to produce more furniture that we’re going to be able to sell. I’m not sure whether we can accurately predict how much value that totals up to, but I would think our proposal would likely enable us to break even and make up for the losses we sustained.”
; “You four have done a great deal of thinking about this. I congratulate you on coming up with this idea,” said Chief Petrovic. “So far, this sounds like a very good proposal on your part. You are being fair, but the guilty are not going unpunished.”
The four company representatives were obviously very pleased with the chief’s remarks.
“Are there any other parts to your proposal that I should be aware of?” asked the chief.
“No, I think you have the gist of it,” said George Manners. “If their behaviour is good, and they complete their overtime, then after two years all the charges will be dropped.”
“Oh, there is one other thing,” added George Manners. “As of today, I am dropping the charges against Barty Palmer.”
“So, just to sum up, to make certain I understand this correctly,” said Chief Petrovic, “all four furniture factory companies are willing to offer what you have proposed on a person-to-person basis.”
They all nodded agreement.
“Well, personally, I think anybody that didn’t accept it would be unwise,” the chief added. “I’m not sure how this is going to work out, because I know that for seven of them it should be an easy decision; but I’m not sure how easy the decision will be for Johnnie Smith.”
The company representatives all looked at the chief, trying to puzzle out why it would be a tough decision for Johnnie Smith.
“I can see you’re wondering why Johnnie’s case might be special,” said the chief. “Johnnie is the one who was approached by a criminal from London about the idea of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Johnnie’s the one who introduced the idea to the other seven young men.”
“Well, we certainly aren’t going to offer him this deal,” said Robert Ament. “He’s the instigator!”
“He’s very sorry for what he did,” said the chief, “and I think you should include him in your proposal even though you may now be quite angry after what you’ve just found out. If Johnnie cooperates with us, and with the London Police, there’s a good chance we can capture all the criminals that were involved in distributing the furniture. His testimony will be very important. You should also keep in mind that in testifying against those criminals, Johnnie may be in great danger of physical harm.”