Grain Journal - November/December 2008 - (Page 21)

Northern Star II FICTION SERIES – PART 24 The return of Gil Maier’s pickup truck, which had beenimpounded by the Chicago police shortly after his arrival in the city, has given the Northern Star manager freedom to continue his investigation into the murder of Detective Sgt. Russ Engle on his own. He’s driven over to Russ Engle’s house in the South Side neighborhood of Bridgeport, climbed over some police tape, used his own key to Russ’ house, and found that Russ’ in-home office has been ransacked. Gil looked through the desk and filing cabinet drawers, but they had been emptied completely. Not even any typical office supplies such as pencils or paper clips were left. Oddly, a plain, round clock still hung on the wall and was operating, a second hand ticking its way around, but it hung slightly askew, as if someone had looked behind it then put it back. A door on one side of the office led into a small closet, but it was empty except for some clothes hangers dangling from a rack – whoever had ransacked the office had even taken whatever clothing had been there. Whoever had been here had done a professional job of emptying the office, Gil thought. His first thought went to the Chicago police. They would be searching for evidence in the murder case, but impounding absolutely everything in the office would be unusual, he knew from his own military police background. He tried to think of who else would do such a professional job. An organized crime syndicate would have people capable of this, and not your average up-andcoming street gang, either. This would have to be a mob that had been around for a while. There were other government agencies, and after all he’d been through on this trip, Gil was beginning to feel a little paranoid about it. But most of the agencies he could think of being involved with this had people present at the meeting Friday at the Chicago Board of Trade, and they likely would have told him about anything taken from Russ’ office and may even have given him access to it. The only other possibility Gil could think of was someone rich enough to hire out the job to be done, whether an individual or a company such as Goldberg Smith. The possibilities here were wide open. Gil noticed some paper scattered around the floor of the closet. He looked it over. There were some dry cleaning receipts, a candy wrapper, and what appeared to be a larger brochure. The brochure turned out to be a four-page church bulletin from Word of God Baptist Church on East 79th Street. Gil wondered why Russ would have this in his house – Russ had never discussed religion much with Gil, and Gil didn’t think the detective was a Baptist. He looked over the bulletin and saw photos of various church members, one of the choir. Virtually everyon in the photos was a black person. Russ almost certainly hadn’t been a member of this church. But something nagged at Gil about this until he remembered. On his first day in Chicago, Detective Hal Washington told Gil that he was a member of Word of God Baptist. Gil looked at the back of the bulletin and saw that Sunday worship service was at 10 a.m., less than 12 hours away. He was baptised Catholic himself, but Gil decided that God might excuse a visit to some Baptist services. He pocketed the church bulletin and let himself out of the house, being careful not to add to any inventory of fingerprints on the way out. Then he drove back to the Hyatt, went up to his room, and ordered a beer from room service. It had been more than 36 hours since the last time someone had attacked him physically, but there was no sense being too public in a hotel lounge. He fell asleep watching something forgettable on HBO, woke in the wee hours of the morning, and dragged himself into bed. Once a farmer’s schedule gets into your bones, there’s no getting rid of it. Gil was awake by 5:30 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep, so he went down to the hotel’s exercise room and did an aerobic workout – it had been several days since he’d exercised, at least voluntarily, and N/D GJ 21 http://www.grainnet.com/nsblog

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Grain Journal - November/December 2008

Grain Journal - November/December 2008 Contents Mark Daniels Interview GEAPS 2009 Exchange Preview Kathy Reading Interview Wheat Contract Futures Revision Surviving Today's Economy Northern Star II Fiction Series SAFETY: Aurora Cooperative Elevator Co., Central City, NE OSHA SMART Program Innovative Ag Services, Central City, IA The Scoular Co., Holdrege, NE Olsen's Mill Inc., Viroqua, WI Farmers Coop Union, Claflin, KS Old Time Elevator Jeff Broin Interview Cress Hizer Interview Grain Bin Safety Entry in Grain Storage Structures Compelled Wheat Loadout Aerating the Corn Crop Grain News Grain Notes Merchandiser Profiles Manager Profiles NGFA Conference Preview GEAPS Mini-Convention Facility Security Ideas Bucket Elevator Safety Safety, Adam Schupp Food Defense Safety Insights, Lynn Larsen NGFA/GEAPS Safety DVD Stored Grain Management, Linda Mason Corn/Soybean Merchandising, John Beurskens Wheat Merchandising, Kyle Smith Hedging, Philip Luce GIPSA News GIPSA 2009 Priorities New GIPSA Administrator OSHA Form 300A OSHA News Safety Committee Report Futures Markets Ethanol Lifecycle Analysis Florida Ethanol Pipeline Bob Starkey Interview Security, Curtis Haugen GEAPS 2009 Idea Exchange Seed News Transportation News The States' Big Issues Feed News

Grain Journal - November/December 2008

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