Chewing Rocks (30 page)

Cleasemount shook her head. “Mister Wright,
not everyone knows those warrants are sewage. I have yet to issue my findings.”

Wright laughed again. “You know they are full of
sewage. You just aren’t willing to say so yet.”

Chapter 25.3

Cleasemount grunted and shook her head, “What do you mean no one knows where this Mister Wallace is at the present time? Miss Queene, do you know the location of your assistant?”

Queene stood and shook her head, “No, Miss Cleasemount. I believe he
went insane some time ago. He has been doing all sorts of odd things without my instructions or approval. But, I haven’t seen him in quite some time and I have absolutely no knowledge of his whereabouts.”

Cleasemount said, “Mister Abramsohn, do you have something to add?”

Abramsohn stood. “Yes, Miss Cleasemount, he was last seen in the jail compound before these proceedings began, but so far he has eluded our pursuit.”

Chapter 25.4

Abramsohn said, “At the request of our clients my company has downloaded hundreds of hours of video feed from the Queene Mining Ship number 10123 occupied by Cooper, Hunter, Franklin and McNally. That footage is available to anyone who wants it, but the following sections are conversations that clearly show intentions and planning by three of these four men.”

Chapter 25.5

Cleasemount turned to Miss Queene, “Are you really going to tell me that you had a camera malfunction on your docks? That makes a half a dozen strange camera malfunctions so far. If you don’t want to show your own videos then don’t show them. You can just say so. Please do not expect me to believe Queene Mines is so badly run your security cameras don’t work.”

Queene said, “I am not in maintenance or in security. I am sure I don’t understand the technical details of these matters.
”

Cleasemount shook her head. “These are your warrants whether
Sheriff Gutierrez illegally signed them by proxy or not. Which of the two of you is planning on supporting the theory that these four men stole the ship or as Mister Hunter contends you gave it to them?”

Chapter 25.6

Joey said, “I was playing Zombies in Space. Do you know that one? It is really cool with the undead trying to get at you and their flesh is falling off their bodies and you get to hack them to pieces with your machete, but you can’t let them bite you ‘cause you die and you can play it multi-player with special attachments and the zombies won’t even die if you let all of the air out of the ship cause they are already dead…”

Chapter 2
5.7

Cleasemount looked a bit stunned, “McNally
and Franklin sent a spaceship off into the sun? It was a viable working spacecraft? Where are these two morons anyway? How come I have only heard from Mister Hunter so far in all these matters?”

Doc Savage
, the earther miner halted his reading of the warrant. “Um, it is my understanding that they are both dead.”

Cleasemount shouted, “Dead? What do you mean dead? Did Mister
Hunter kill these two as well as Mr. Cooper?”

Doc
shook his head. “No. I was told McNally was killed by Evelyn Queene’s assistant Wallace-”

Sheriff Bob interrupted. “
He was allegedly killed by Wallace. We haven’t had time to review the videos or even get Doctor Brown’s findings of death.”

Sno laughed
and called out, “Findings of death? Come on, Sheriff Bob. He had his throat cut from ear to ear and down to the bone. I saw that cut myself. And Hunter saw who did it.”

Cleasemount banged her revolver on the table, “Eno
ugh squabbling. Mister McNally is dead. We do not have an official ruling on his death.” She scratched a few notes in her desk pad. “We just have to add his death to this ever lengthening list of things to discuss and resolve.”

Cleasemount
stared at Sheriff Bob. “Then how did Franklin die?”

Chapter 2
5.8

Cleasemount looked at Sheriff Bob with a wide
smile. “Sheriff Gutierrez, I can honestly say I am not surprised about your relationship with Miss Queene. I am just amazed you didn’t bother to cover your video trail.”

Queene jumped to her feet. “I renew my objection to
showing any part of these video clips. I didn’t give anyone permission to video me or to release such videos for viewing. You said I could refuse to show my own videos.”

Cleasemount said patiently, “It is a good thing I just had a quick sandwich and that I am in a good mood. Let me explain this again Miss Queene. None of the
videos shown as evidence are from recorders that you own. The video in question was taken by one of Sheriff Gutierrez’ office cameras. I can officially assume he either forgot to encode a secure password on these videos or he was too lazy to keep it off the public nets. Personally, I believe he let this one leak out for bragging rights.”

Queene shouted, “But it is an invasion of my privacy.”

Cleasemount shook her head. “It is his office, Miss Queene. That is a public building open to everyone so there is no expectation of privacy even if he had locks on the door. By the way, that was a very attractive matching set of bra and panties you were wearing.” She turned to Sheriff Bob as he had stopped halfway to standing up with his hand up and his mouth open to speak. “No, Bob. I am still going to turn down your request to replay that part of the video.”

Chapter 2
5.9

Cleasemount looked startled, “They had you
tied naked to a table? I think you have said enough, Miss Whyte. We get the picture. Please feel free to sit down.”

Sno started to sit, but Abramsohn caught her eye as he shook his head, “Oh, sorry Miss Cleasemount, but I want to make sure we get into the record a video statement from Captain Prentiss Chalmers
from GD Mining about his involvement in my rescue from kidnapping and piracy.”

Cleasemount shook her head. “I suppose he got to see you strapped naked to a table too
?”

Sno tried but could
not keep her face from turning bright red.

Cleasemount said, “I am sorry,
Miss Whyte. I didn’t realize he really must have. And no, Bob sit back down. We are not playing that whole video either.”

Chapter 2
5.10

Hunter
shook his head, “No, Miss Cleasemount. Miss Whyte only put them in the rock chamber. I was responsible for taking care of them for the whole trip back. She watched me to make sure I did it, but if any of them were mistreated it was by me.”

Cleasemount looked over at Sheriff Bob. “Well, Sheriff Gutierrez. It seems three of
four complainants on this warrant are dead. And we have a statement from the fourth member of this warrant stating he is guilty of abusing the other men while he himself was being held prisoner. He has so sworn that it was not Miss Whyte who abused any of these men in custody. Do you wish to pursue this warrant by proxy for the dead men?”

Sheriff Bob shook his head. “No
t me.”

Evelyn Queene jumped to her feet. “Well, I do. They were my employees and I want their rights protected.”

Chapter 25.11

Cleasemount said, “Al
right, everyone stay seated until I have left the room. I need a toilet break and I get to go first.”

Chapter 26.0

Cleasemount
was banging her revolver on the table. “Settle down, ladies and gentlemen. That was not our first break. You should be used to getting back quickly and settling into your seats quietly. However, if we work at this hard and quick enough we just might be able to finish these hearings before we need another break. We have been at this for far too long. I need to go home and take a shower. So, either find a seat or get out.”

Most of the audience was settling back in for what was beginning to look like the last session before closing the hearings. Warrant after warrant had been read and everyone who had anything to say had been heard.

Cleasemount was just about to bang her ‘gavel’ on the table again when a human screech halted her old revolver in mid-air. She looked up to see Hunter flying across the room at Sno.

Hunter
shouted, “Look out! It’s him.” He threw himself at Sno.

Sno grabbed the flying man by the shoulders, twisted and dropped him to the floor. She put her knee
onto his throat and raised a naked fist, preparing to strike.

Sno’s blow to
Hunter’ face was interrupted by the loud snap of a gunshot echoing across the room. Instead of punching Hunter, she grabbed his shirt lapels and rolled as a duo into Willem and Vittie, knocking them to the floor in a tangled pile.

Ben fell on top of the heap
just as Sno, continuing her tumble, rolled out of the way. She expected Ben to follow behind her, but instead he slid his gun across the floor to her.

Ben croaked out, “Brown coat. Grey hat.”

Sno snatched up Ben’s gun and jumped to her feet. Almost everyone in the room was on the floor. Guns were drawn and held at the ready, but no one knew where to point much less where to shoot.

All of the doors to the meeting room slammed shut.
Carl Wyckoff had hit the panic button throwing the electric locks to seal the room. The automatic locking doors had been put into place as a protection against failure of the city’s dome and in this situation they worked perfectly locking everyone inside the room.

Cleasemount started to stand up
, shouting, “No one panic. I am sure it was just an accident-”

Sno shouted her down, “Shut up, Terri. We got a shooter in the room. Ben Abramsohn has been shot and it wasn’t an accident. I don’t know whether they meant to hit him or me or someone else, but no one is leaving city hall until I find this
s.o.b. So nobody move and I mean nobody. Everyone stay put unless I say otherwise.”

Cleasemount said, “Miss Whyte, I know you are used to getting your own way, but this is my hearing and you can’t
-”

Sno interrupted. “I told you to shut up and I mean it. You can have this meeting back when I find th
e shooter.”

She looked down at Ben
. Hunter was lying under the man, but still trying to put pressure on the other man’s wound.

“Thank you for the warning, Mister
Hunter,” Sno said. “Mister Abramsohn, please go to your son and help Mister Hunter with him. Mister Hunter, who did you see?”

Hunter
all but shouted in fear, “It was him. It’s that Wallace guy. He is in the room right now.”

Sno nodded and pointed at Sheriff Bob’s side arm
that he had taken from Deputy Kramer. “You’ve seen this man before. Where is he?”

Sheriff Bob shrugged from his position on the floor next to Evelyn Queene. “I am not really sure. I might
or might not be able to pick him out of a lineup, but I guess I wasn’t paying much attention to him. I mean, I never saw him without Evelyn around and I guess I wasn’t looking at him at those times. Sorry. Let me up and we can start to clear the room one person at a time.”

Sno shook her head. “Maybe
we could and maybe we couldn’t. He has vanished on us too many times. I don’t want to unseal this room until we have to.” She looked at Hunter on the floor. “Will you point him out to me, Hunter?”

“No. I don’t know. I mean, yeah I know what he looks like, but I don’t want him to shoot me when I get up to look for him.”

Sno nodded. “Miss Queene, I suggest you ask your employee to put down his weapon and raise his hands.”

Queene laughed, “He
probably has you in his crosshairs right now. Why should he listen to me? Wallace does what he does.”

Sno nodded, “
Well, I am still standing. He hasn’t shot me yet. I expect he has a plan to get you and him out of this room alive. Killing me was probably a distraction to get you out. However, he may have underestimated the number of guns that came unholstered at his shot. You don’t allow guns in your court rooms, do you?”

Queene sneered, “Of course not. We are not savages.”

Someone shouted back, “I hear in the news all the time about people getting shot in court rooms on Earth. At least this way I can shoot back and he isn’t going to get more than one or two of us before someone takes him down.”

There was a chorus of agreement, but no one so much as moved more than their eyeballs and teeth.

Sno said, “I am sure if Mister Wallace were to so much as change the aim on his gun, he would be dead before he could squeeze the trigger. There are enough guns out to spot him quick. But, this is for everyone in this room; any shooting at all would be unfortunate. Any shots in this room might hurt more than him. Tell me, Miss Queene, don’t you think some innocent person might get hurt if Wallace starts shooting?”

Queene laughed almost hysterically, “Why should I care about any of you backwards yokels, goobers and gomers
?

Sno said, “I expected as much from you. But, many of these people are my friends and neighbors. I don’t want to see any of them hurt.”