by Bill Russo
"There, there, calm yourselves," the Chief kindly interrupted. Rick Bates had a happy, calm looking face framed by a montage of thick, black curly hair. His eyes were so green it looked like they were ladled out of the YMCA pool. He was well liked in town and trusted by all - even the selectmen though they were always after him to cut down on expenses such as overtime pay and traffic details.
"There's nothing to be afraid of. Where did you see the man? What sort of a man was he?"
"Freaky, scary!" Lisa Venner repeated. "He came through the shrubbery over
there and stood staring at us. We were afraid he was going to attack us. His
eyes were like balls of fire. He was as green as grass."
"Green !" the Chief echoed. "When you say green. Do you mean inexperienced, like a newcomer?"
"No, no, not at all," Lisa exclaimed. "I mean his color. He was bright green
from head to foot."
"Who ever heard of a green man? You aren't color blind, are you Mary?"
"We aren't both color blind," said Lisa, jumping in to back up her sister. "The man was green, Chief , nearly as green as grass. I saw him plainly. He was horrible. The creature was gigantic....."
"No, no, Lisa, not gigantic," Mary interrupted more calmly. "Don't exaggerate. He was appalling enough without that. He was tall, Chief, but not basketball player big. We were both scared 'bleepless'. Lisa was so frightened that to her, he looked like a giant."
"How was he dressed?"
"He wore shabby dungarees and a red and black checked
flannel shirt, both very dirty, and a tattered Red Sox hat. He had no
coat. His shirt was partly unbuttoned, exposing his neck and part of his chest. They were a striking shade of green, like his hands and face.
I think he must be that color from head to foot. This sounds incredible, I know, but it's absolutely true," Lisa Venner earnestly insisted. "He looked like a crazy man, a maniac. I never saw such a bizarre..........."
"Stop a moment," the Chief interrupted, "somebody on a horse is galloping towards us. I think it's Dr. O'Kelly. His mansion is just a mile or so from here, over by West Encounter Beach.
Doctor Larry O'Kelly was a wealthy Cape Cod surgeon, philanthropist and medical researcher. He was known over the entire United States and Canada for his O'Kelly Medical Research Foundation.
His group was pioneering a process of dissolving blood clots using an ultrasound device he had patented. O'Kelly was convinced that he would be able to eliminate blood clots in the brain or anywhere else, without surgery.
He also had several patents on devices that he called "Frequency Healers". They were machines designed to treat various illnesses using electricity. The research had far to go, but looked as though it might have many practical applications.
O'Kelly had offices on Cape, in Boston, and in New York City. He also had a high tech laboratory in the grounds of his estate. He was a well-built,
impressive man of forty-five, with a strong and somewhat austere face. An avid horseman, he often played Polo at the Myopia Hunt Club, North of Boston.
At the moment, he approached the Chief and the girls, astride an all white horse, in a cloud of dust through the woodland road. He reined his stallion in, just a few yards away.
"What's wrong, Chief" he inquired familiarly, evidently somewhat excited. "Hello girls. What's the trouble?"
"The Venner sisters saw a kind of a wild man and they were afraid they were going to be attacked."
"I heard screams and cries for help, or thought I did," said the physician. "I came to find out what caused them."
"You heard them all right, These girls were badly frightened by some guy dressed up for a Halloween party. He was painted green all over."
"It was probably some kind of a prank," offered Dr. O'Kelly. "Where did you see him, Mary?" He turned abruptly to the elder girl. "What was he doing? Where did he go? "
"He ran in that direction when we began to scream," said Lisa, pointing into
the woods. "He was like a wildman, Doctor, and vanished as quickly as he came."
"I am going to look for his footprints," the Chief said. "Solving a case is just like one of those kid's puzzles. You know what I mean Doc? It's just like connecting the dots. So the dot that I have to look for now is a footprint. And that dot will hopefully take me to the next dot."
Doctor O'Kelly dismounted and followed him, while the girls remained by
the side of the road. The Chief soon found several footprints in the damp
soil under the shrubbery, one of which he carefully measured while telling the physician more precisely what the two girls had stated.
"I don't know what to think Doc," he quietly added. "There was a man here,
no doubt, but I guess him being green was an optical illusion. They were
deceived in the dusk, or got the impression that he was green from the surrounding foliage. Well, I guess we all have heard of little green men. But this was a big verdant man. What do you think Doc? Are there green people"
"Probably not Chief. Probably not. In any case I'11 ride on a bit, and try to find the guy, and if I do...."
"Grab him and bring him to me."
The Chief thought that this was an isolated incident. He knew that the Venner girls were very impressionable and believed that they were mistaken about the man being green.
But Rick Bates soon changed his mind. Other persons saw the mysterious green man. They confirmed the statements of the Venner girls. None
had more than a brief glimpse of him, however, always in some part of the
woods, into the depths of which he fled when discovered, uttering wild, discordant cries and making fierce gesticulations. Children playing in the woods caught sight of him and ran home in frantic terror. Petty thefts soon were reported. Footprints identical with that measured by the sheriff were found in back yards and alleys. The marauder was prowling into the town by night. Women became alarmed and dared not venture out. Doors and windows were kept securely locked. Men who never had owned a weapon, and who scarcely dared to fire one, bought guns, revolvers, and pistols. All efforts to trace and capture the "Verdant Man" were proving futile.
Cape Cod was becoming terrorized. The Boston and New York media were reporting that in the woods of Cape Cod was a dangerous madman, a green
maniac, whom the police could not capture. Chief Rick Bates found himself with his reputation at stake and his official head in danger.
"It's got to be done! I've got to connect the dots and get this guy and I have
got to do it quickly."
The Chief was alone late that evening in his office on the ground floor
of the police station. He had been detained by a storm, which still
was raging. Vivid lightning flashes illuminated the two windows
behind him, while he sat at his desk and tried to connect his dots.
"This alleged green man can't be any different from other men," he grimly reasoned, The Chief did not pretend to be an expert detective, but he had plenty of good common sense. "There must be some natural cause for his extraordinary color."
The Chief remembered a case from more than 15 years back - he published a
story about it called, 'The Little Guy Who Couldn't, Actually could'. It was a report about a gutty jockey who solved a mystery involving a Marine whose skin had turned bright yellow from taking malaria medicine. He made a mental note to ask that doctor if there was a medicine that would turn a man's skin green.
The Chief felt that the 'Verdant Man' couldn't simply be pranking. He wouldn't prolong it day and night for two weeks. Furthermore, he could not have come from any great distance, or he would have been seen in other areas. He must be a local man, familiar with the town and neighboring woods."
The Chief's frowning gaze rose a little. It rested on a mirror on a wall
back of his desk. He felt a sudden chill. A vivid lightning flash i
llumined
the window directly behind him, and he saw a man gazing through the window, his eyes were abnormally bright, and he had a round, repulsive face, drawn and tense, but void of any definite expression and of a peculiar shade of green.
The Chief stood as still as a block of ice. He saw that his discovery was not suspected. He watched the uncanny figure in the feeble light. Then he got up deliberately and took off his coat, as if the room were too warm and he had no intention of going out. He walked slowly to the adjoining corridor. Then he moved quickly to the front door, and dashed around the building, his S&W 38 in his hand, and made his way to his office window - where he found... nothing. The Green Man had figured out what Bates was up to and he had disappeared.
The Chief did not catch "The Verdant Man", but was pretty sure that he had just connected a dot.
The next afternoon he made an appointment with Mrs. Dudley
Carroll, a wealthy widow, prominent in local society, and whose home was among the most beautiful on Cape Cod. Her house rivaled anything that the Kennedy clan owned. She was a very attractive woman of middle age
and was well acquainted with Rick Bates.
"What have I done, Chief?" she joked, laughing when she received
him in her library. "Are you after me for something?"
"I would be, Mrs. Carroll, if my bank account was about 500 times bigger than it is!"
"Rick, we don't have 'bankrolls'. In polite society, one has a 'portfolio'."
"Pardon my error," Rick smiled. "No, I'm not after you," he said more seriously when seated in a lush chair next to one occupied by his hostess. "I've heard that your chauffeur, Sam White, has been away
for a month or more."
"Sam?" Mrs. Carroll queried. "Yes he has. You surely don't want
him for any offense. He has grown up in my employ. He's as honest as the
day is long. He's the best-natured man in the world."
"I agree with you." I merely want to learn where he has gone."
The sheriff was acquainted with Sam White. He had often seen him going
to church on a Sunday with Liz Black, a young woman who worked for Mrs. Carroll as a maid. Eliza was a beautiful girl of mixed ancestry. Her dad was a sailor from Cape Verde and her mother was a local girl. A few eyebrows were raised when they were married, but for the most part Cape Cod, even in the 1950s, had a liberal attitude about such things. Liz had the fair skin of her mother, but darkened up in Summer.
Miss Black and Mr. White were in love and had been for some time. Since they both worked for Mrs. Carroll, most everyone on the island knew them and liked them. People made good natured jokes about the dark skinned Mr. White possibly marrying the white tinted Miss Black.
"Well, to tell the truth, sheriff, I don't know where Sam has gone," Mrs. Car-
roll admitted. "He asked for some time off. He said he'd need a week or two; and that was about a month ago," she explained. "I gave him some money and told him to go ahead and enjoy himself as it was his first holiday."
"Did he say where he was going?"
"He did not, he was very reticent about it."
"What did he say?"
"He stated that he had an idea that he had to investigate. He did not
tell Eliza about it, either."
"Did he say when he would return?"
"Probably in a week or ten days was the way he put it. He admitted,
however, that it might take a little longer."
"Have you heard from him during his absence?" The Chief's calm green
eyes had narrowed slightly.
"Only once," said Mrs. Carroll. "Eliza received a letter from him three
days after he left. She's worried about him. Perhaps he has been killed by that terrible madman we are hearing so much about. She made herself so ill over it that I called Doctor O'Kelly yesterday. He gave her some medicine and said he thinks the madman will soon be caught. In fact, he is spending much of his own time trying to catch him."
"I heard that this morning, Did he say why he was specially anxious to catch the Green Man?"
"He did not."
"He may want to diagnose the extraordinary case," the Chief speculated,
"experiment to learn the cause and cure of what may be a rare disease. He certainly is a fine medical researcher."
"Very true; that has made him both rich and quite famous," Mrs. Carroll
reminded him. "Would you like to talk to Liz? She may remember something that I have forgotten to tell you."
"I don't think so. Do you know what he wrote to her?"
"Not a word relating to his 'idea', or regarding his whereabouts. He did say, however, that he was with a friend, that he was feeling fine, and that she wouldn't know him when he came back home."
"Do you know where the letter was mailed?"
"Just off Cape Cod, in the Town of Plymouth'' Mrs. Carroll
quickly informed him. "Liz called my attention to the postmark. So you see,
Sam has not gone very far away."
"Yes, I see." Rick Bates smiled a bit oddly. "No, I won't question Liz right now" he added as he rose to go. "You know, Mrs. Carroll, I've always liked Sam. I would have put him on the force if he weren't so devoted to you."
"Yes. Sam's like family. He's been working for me since he was about eleven years old. But to tell the truth, I suspect he likes my cars a little more than me."
"Who doesn't?" Your late husband's car collection was known from Cape Cod to New York City."
"Yes and Sam has the use of every one of them when he's not on duty. I hope I have helped you Chief. Have you got any clues in this case?"
"No, I don't get clues Mrs. Carroll. I'm no Sherlock Homes. I am just a connect the dots guy. I find a dot and connect it to the next one and I think you have just shown me where the next dot is."
"Really? I am glad to have helped. And where is the next dot?"
"A few miles from here, in that massive estate by West Encounter Beach, that is home to the famous doctor, Larry O'Kelly.
The Chief freely admits that his methods never would work today in the world of 'proper procedure', but the plain truth is, that he had little regard for what he considered legal technicalities that prevent police officials from doing their job.
Search Warrants were one of the things that he often disdained. And so it was that he set off at six P.M.; knowing that the Doctor would be at dinner and he could explore the laboratory in secret.
Rick Bates parked his car more than a mile from the estate, jogged rapidly until he came to a low wall in the rear of the physician's extensive mansion. He was a few hundred yards from the choppy waters of Nantucket Sound and less than a quarter of a mile from the woodland road where the 'Verdant Man' first had been seen.
Hidden from observation by the orchard, the stables, a garage, and a large
cement laboratory, all of which occupied the rear grounds, he began an inspection of the area on both sides of the wall.
He soon discovered what he was seeking - several footprints corresponding with that of the wanted man. He found them on both sides of the wall, and he soon noticed that all of them pointed away from the grounds and toward the distant woods.
"Not one points toward the place," he muttered. "Plainly, then, he did not come this way and leave afterwards. Instead, he only left in this direction and
escaped toward the woods. The space between the tracks shows that
he was running directly in a line from the laboratory.
He jumped over the low wall and creeped through the orchard, where apple and peach trees were in blossom, sweet and beautiful in the softened light of the setting sun.
He paused at the rear wall of the laboratory, where he briefly inspected two windows and peered through a small hole where a piece of glass had been broken from one of the panes. He could see indistinctly that slats appeared to be nailed across the window, and that the room contai
ned a cot on which a wrinkled blanket and pillow were lying.
He stole around to the front door to be sure it was locked and that the building was unoccupied. Then he returned to the rear and quickly broke the other window sufficiently for him to open it and enter.
He climbed over the sill into a shelved closet, where there were countless bottles, vials and jars, each labeled with a red sticker. It obviously was
a closet in which poisons were stored for safe keeping.
He found the door unlocked, however, and he entered the adjoining room, a spacious, finely equipped laboratory. He was not interested in the lab, but went to a small rear room, instead, where he soon confirmed his suspicions. Stout slats were nailed across the window casing. The cot and the room itself were in some disorder. In one corner was a suitcase containing a quantity of clothing. Most of it had not been worn since it was laundered.
He crouched in the corner to examine the garments. The sun had set
and the light in the room was waning, but after a brief search he found what
he was looking for , the man's initials on one of the shirts. He was so wrapped up in examining the clothes that he didn't hear a thing until.......
"What are you doing? Here? Get up!"
The sheriff jumped up as if hit with a thumbtack in the rear end. He turned sharply toward the door, and saw Doctor Larry O'Kelly.
"What are you doing ?" O'Kelly demanded.
"Put down that gun." the Chief said calmly. His green eyes focusing on the doctor without moving. "It may go off accidentally. You could possibly end up killing me."
"You broke in here like a thief," If I killed you Chief, it would be just like shooting any burglar that broke into my home."
"Slow down Doc. You are not a killer. What's the deal? What are you so jumpy about?"
"Chief. I have spent twenty years in research. Helping the sick. Investing in and inventing new technologies to make life better for people. And now I might lose everything. My family, my home, my foundation, my medical licenses. You alone, are standing between me and the loss of everything."
The Doctor's voice trembled slightly, but still he held the revolver which was pointed at the Chief's heart.
"Put down the gun, You don't intend to shoot me, or you would already have done it," said the Chief who was as calm as a tiny fish pond on a lazy summer afternoon.
"What are you doing here?" the Doctor again demanded.