JC: Ed Biggers
Part 5: Stasis
Chapter 6
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004

It seemed like forever before the shooting stopped and the state 
police moved in to make the arrests. Standing up after the action 
was over, Ed said, "I wonder where our two FBI agents are?"

Howard pointed down the road to where the two agents were 
standing up from behind their car. With a grin, he said, "They were 
out of their car before we were."

About to say something to Albert, Ed turned to where he thought 
the Ranger was standing only to find the spot empty. Across the 
road, Albert was squatting examining a sorry specimen of grass by 
the side of the road. Frowning, he looked back at Ed and said, 
"There's got to be some more of this around here somewhere. I 
guess I'll have to come back later and search for it."

"You can stay here while we find out what was behind all of this," 
replied Ed.

"Oh no you don't. I've got to hear this for myself," said Albert 
more forcefully than he had intended. Learning the reason for the 
death of his friend was far more important at the moment then the 
plant he had found.

As a group, they went up to the porch where the troopers were 
holding the two brothers. When they went to question them, one of 
the troopers held up and hand as he said, "There's something you 
need to see before you talk to them."

Albert, Ed, and Howard followed the officer to one of the green 
houses. Entering the green house, the temperature was suddenly 
ten degrees hotter than outside with a humidity that caused the 
shirt to stick to the skin. Howard, holding his nose, said, "It smells 
like shit in here."

"Right. All of these boxes are filled with mushrooms. This whole 
green house is a mushroom factory. We've got an expert coming to 
examine them to determine what kind they are."

Looking at one example, Albert shook his head and said, "That is 
Psilocybe Cubensis. It is a hallucinogenic mushroom."

The trooper asked, "How can you be so sure?"

"When you spot a daisy are you sure that it is a daisy?"

"Yes."

"Same here," replied Albert. Looking through the glass walls of the 
hothouse, he could see that there were two other hothouses. He 
asked, "What's in the other hothouses?"

The trooper answered, "Cactus."

Saddened by the answer, Albert said, "Let's go visit the other two 
hothouses."

In the next one, there were rows of cactus growing on shelves. The 
trooper asked, "Do you know what kind they are?"

"Yes, they are Peyote. Another hallucinogenic plant."

Howard looked around at the plants in the room and asked, "So 
how much is all of this stuff worth on the street?"

"Not that much, I'm afraid. I doubt they pull in more than a 
hundred thousand a year," answered Albert. The fact of the matter 
was that these crops weren't that highly sought after. In the sixties, 
they might have made some money, but today with drugs like 
Ecstasy on the market their street value was pretty low.

The state trooper led them to the third greenhouse, which was 
filled with Cannabis. Ed looked around the greenhouse puzzled. 
What they had found wasn't worth killing anyone over. There had 
to be more to the story than what was here. He asked, "Is there 
another building around here?"

"Just the house," replied the trooper. 

Recalling the time when they had visited here previously, the 
brothers had both come out of the house. Confused, he said, "Let's 
check out the house."

In the house, Ed noticed that one of the walls looked odd. Going 
over to it, he found that it opened to a basement. Searching near 
the door, he found a light switch and flipped it. Warm light came 
shining up from the basement. Signaling for the others to follow 
him, he went down the stairs. At the bottom step, he stopped and 
looked around at the basement. It reminded him of the chemistry 
lab back at the College. Stepping into the basement, he said, "This 
explains everything."

Howard looked around the room and said, "This is better equipped 
than the Intro to Chemistry lab back at the school."

The state trooper ran back up the stairs and returned with the 
Captain in tow. The Captain looked around the basement and said, 
"I guess we know why they were shooting at us."

Turning to look at Ed, the Captain saw the Druid Robe and 
nodded. In a quiet voice, he said, "It looks like you guys get credit 
for another one."

Shaking his head, Ed replied, "Not so. This was because of Albert 
Mandel, a Ranger."

"I don't know anything about Rangers. Are you a Ranger as in 
Texas Ranger?"

Albert laughed and replied, "No, I'm afraid not. I'm a Ranger in 
terms of being a naturalist. I belong to a private group that 
performs work under funding by the State Game and Wildlife 
Department and the Department of the Interior. We help establish 
hunting limits, identify rare species of wildlife, and monitor 
ecological infractions."

"Then you are not with any law enforcement agency."

"Right," replied Albert. 

"If I may ask, why are you here?"

"They killed a Ranger and dumped the body fifty miles from here," 
replied Albert.

The Captain nodded as he considered the information. They had 
not been told that the man killed was a Ranger, only that he was a 
hiker. It went far to explain why he had heard from just about 
every Game Warden in the state about this case. The Druid 
explained why the FBI was here. He said, "I guess your job here is 
done then."

Clearing his throat, Ed said, "He tracked them down and has 
provided all of the evidence that ties those two up there to the 
murder. He has a right to know why they did it."

"He'll find that out when they get to trial," replied the Captain.

Looking at the badge and nametag pinned to the shirt of the 
Captain, Ed rubbed his chin with his right hand as he replied, "You 
might want to rethink that answer, Captain Edwards."

"Are you threatening me?" asked the Captain getting ready to call 
some troopers in to throw the guy out. He added, "If you are, I'll 
throw your asses out of here in a minute."

Shaking his head, Ed pulled out his cell-phone and dialed a number 
on it. A few seconds later, the other end answered, "Governor's 
Office."

"This is Ed Biggers. May I speak to the Governor?" As Ed spoke, 
the Captain's eyes narrowed.

"Governor, it's nice to talk to you again," Ed paused and then 
continued, "Yes, we caught the guys. Albert and Leroy are hoping 
they will get a chance to question them a bit."

Captain Edwards realized that he had gotten into a pissing contest 
with the wrong man. Getting noticed by the Governor was the kind 
of thing that could easily kill a career. Regretting his hasty words, 
he wondered what he could do. He listened in amazement as Ed 
said, "There's no real problem here, I was just hoping that you 
could reassure Captain Edwards that we could talk to the prisoner 
and that we would obey all of the appropriate laws."

Smiling at the Captain, Ed handed the phone to him. It was a very 
quiet conversation on the part of the Captain. He kept glancing up 
at Ed and then over at Albert. When the conversation was over, he 
handed the phone back to Ed and said, "The Governor wants to 
talk to you again."

Surprised, Ed spoke into the phone, "You had something to say to 
me?"

Laughing, Ed said, "No sir. I think that he was doing his job as he 
saw it. I'd commend him if I were you. The last thing you want are 
outsiders coming in and messing up evidence."

"Sure," Ed said, "Nice talking to you."

Putting up the phone, Ed looked over at the Captain. With a shrug 
of his shoulders, he said, "Sorry about that. I hate going over 
someone's head in that fashion, but it does tend to cut out a bunch 
of red tape."

Gruffly, the Captain said, "Tends to cut off balls at the same time."

Howard broke out in laughter at that and was half tempted to reach 
between the man's legs to see if he still had a pair of balls. Albert 
gently nudged him in the side and said, "Sorry Captain Edwards. 
John Wilkins was a personal friend of the Governor as am I. 
Before we started the Rangers, we used to belong to the same 
Ecology Activist Group."

All of a sudden, things made a lot more sense for the trooper. He 
said, "We're holding them upstairs on the porch."

The Captain led the way going up the stairs from the basement, 
followed closely by Albert. The Ranger knew not to ask any 
questions until Ed was present. Ed held back a little and told 
Howard, "When it comes to a confrontation such as between the 
Captain and myself, you leave the man his dignity. You clear up 
the issues and you don't point fingers. He was doing the best job 
that he could. I wasn't lying when I told the Governor that he 
needed reassurance that we could question the suspects." 

Howard realized that his laughter had been misinterpreted as 
laughing at the man. Nodding, he said, "It's just that the remark 
about cutting red tape also cut balls was funny."

Ed smiled and said, "Yes it was. Now get upstairs before people 
get worried."

The two went up the stairs followed by the trooper that had shown 
them around the place. He was very thoughtful as he walked 
behind them. It was only at that point that he realized that the 
Captain had stood a very good chance of getting into serious 
trouble with the Governor. State Troopers that irritated Governors 
tended to end up as security guards in malls.

On the porch, Albert stood studying the two brothers allowing his 
real feelings to be seen. The time when he interviewed them for the 
magazine article he had to act pleasant. Now he didn't. When Ed 
arrived, Albert said, "Can I question them now?"

Albert turned to the brothers and said, "We have you dead to rights 
on the murder of John Wilkins. You know that don't you?"

"Maybe or maybe not," replied Jake.

"Wise up, you're smarter than that. We have a recording where you 
conclusively put yourself at the place and time where you dumped 
his body. We have an eyewitness that can identify your truck and 
can testify to the actual time when you were there. We have your 
fingerprints on beer cans found at the scene," replied Leroy.

The two brothers looked at each other and Jake shrugged while 
trying to put forth as blank a look as possible under the 
circumstances. Albert asked, "Why did you do it?"

Irritated at his situation, Jack answered, "We caught him looking in 
the greenhouse."

Ed nodded his head letting the others know that Jack was telling 
the truth. Disturbed by the lack of remorse demonstrated by either 
man, Ed said, "Albert, you know the truth now. It's time to drop it 
and get on with your work."

A very quiet Albert walked down the drive with Ed, Leroy, and 
Howard. They met up with Ling who was sitting on the hood of the 
car watching everything going on around her. When they arrived 
there, Ling asked, "Can I talk to you alone for a minute Leroy?"

"Sure, Ling," answered Leroy.

As the others, in a discreet fashion, stepped away from the couple 
Ed remarked, "I wonder how we are going to get back to town."

Albert replied, "Well, I have a car and the two FBI agents have a 
car. Shouldn't be a problem. When we get back to town, you call a 
tow truck to pick up the car and I'll come back out here to look at 
plants."

It sounded like a reasonable plan to Ed. He looked back at his wife 
and husband. It appeared to him that Leroy was looking very 
depressed and Ling was sad. He didn't know what they were 
saying to each other, but figured that they would want to ride back 
in separate cars. Turning to Albert, he said, "Maybe you can take 
Howard and Leroy back as soon as Leroy is done talking to Ling."

Looking around, Ed spotted the two FBI agents talking to the 
Captain. Not wanting to interfere more than was required, he went 
over to them none-the-less. Chuck Abrams, one of the FBI agents, 
came over to him and asked, "Is there anything we can do for 
you?"

"I'm afraid that we are going to need a ride back to town," 
answered Ed as he pointed over to the bullet-riddled car.

Shaking his head Chuck pointed over to his car and said, "They got 
ours, too."

"It's dead?"

"No, just the windshield has been shot up," replied the agent. He 
pointed up to the house and said, "We are entering a joint 
investigation on this case. From what you found, it looks like they 
were running a major factory of designer drugs. We might be able 
to bring down a major drug ring."

"That's good news."

"We'll be ready to leave in about an hour. You might want to ask 
the Captain if he is going to have any of his men returning to town 
before then," replied the agent. 

That was a good suggestion and Ed walked over to the Captain 
who noticed him arrive. Turning to Ed, he asked, "Do you need 
anything?"

"Just wondering if you were sending any of your officers back to 
town," answered Ed.

"Yeah. In about fifteen minutes we'll transport the prisoners back 
to town. We'll have a car in front and behind of them," replied the 
Captain.

"Any chance of getting a ride?"

"Sure. I'll have them pick you and your party up before they 
leave."

"Thanks," replied Ed. Handing one of his family cards to the 
Captain, he said, "You've been a real help. If you ever need 
anything, give me a call."

Glancing down at the card, the Captain recognized the name of 
John Carter on it. Suddenly, it dawned on him who this guy was 
and why there were two FBI agents watching over him like hawks. 
Any member of that family could pick up a telephone and talk to 
the president. He realized that the Black guy was listed on the card 
as well as the Oriental woman. Putting the card in his pocket, he 
refrained from whistling. Instead, he said, "Thank you very much."

Returning to the car, he found Ling sitting on the hood watching 
Albert walk along the road. Sitting next to her, he said, "Why the 
sad face?"

"I'm going home with you. Leroy is going back into the 
wilderness." She wasn't angry or upset, just sad that the past few 
months had not given her the desired result. Shrugging her 
shoulders, she said, "I miss Little John and Beth so much that it 
hurts."

Giving her a crooked smile, he asked, "Ah, the adults will be 
wounded to learn that you don't miss them."

She rounded on him ready to unload in his direction and realized 
that he was teasing her. Grinning, she said, "The only one I didn't 
miss was you. You're so unbearable that nobody would miss you."

"Oh yeah? Can you prove it?" asked Ed happy to see that she was 
cheering up. 

"Talk to Marguerite," replied Ling with a grin.

"Oh, that's so mean." Ed put his hand over his heart and fell back 
on the hood of the car as if he were wounded.

Giggling at his antics, Ling said, "Okay. I give up. You won't let 
me be unhappy."

Sitting up, he looked at her out of the corner of his eye and asked, 
"Are you ready to tell me about it?"

"I guess so," Ling said with a sigh. As her shoulders slumped, she 
said, "I wanted to get pregnant so bad that I could taste it, but 
living out in the field isn't the place where it is going to happen."

"So ask him to meet you somewhere at a time that is appropriate 
for you," replied Ed.

"That's what we are going to do," said Ling, "but it will be a couple 
months before we can do that."

Listening carefully for what she wasn't saying, Ed asked, "You 
think that he should stop what he's doing and take care of your 
desires."

"I guess so. Am I asking that much of him?"

It was a tough question to answer. It had taken two months for him 
to get her pregnant, but that didn't impact his work at all. The up 
side was that it was also a lot of fun, but that probably wasn't true 
out in the wilderness. Her screams would chase off the deer and 
elk, something that would set back Leroy's research for weeks. He 
replied, "I don't know. That's a far tougher question than I am 
competent to answer. I know both of you desire a baby."

"I know that I'm being a little unreasonable," replied Ling.

"No you're not. Let me talk to Leroy," said Ed as he looked over at 
his husband.

After wandering over to where his husband was waiting with 
Howard, he said, "Howard, why don't you go give Albert a hand 
looking for plants?"

Relieved at having something to do, Howard walked off to chase 
down Albert. He wasn't really all that interested in plants, but 
searching for a plant was better than standing around doing 
nothing. Watching Howard walk off, the pair started to stroll up 
the dirt road in the opposite direction. Ed said, "Rough times for 
you and Ling."

"Tell me about it," replied Leroy shaking his head. He didn't know 
what to say about the matter. He really wanted a child, but didn't 
feel that stopping his research for two or three months was a fair 
price to pay. He added, "I guess my priorities are all screwed up."

"Your priorities? I'm not sure that is the problem," remarked Ed as 
he glanced over at his husband. Clearing his throat, he suggested, 
"Did you ever think that maybe your approach to this problem 
might be at fault?"

"Which problem?" asked Albert not sure whether his husband was 
talking about getting Ling pregnant or his research problem.

"Both, actually."

The statement caused Leroy to stop and turn to Ed. Confused, he 
asked, "Explain yourself."

"Well, you really should spend a little time with Ling in a 
circumstance where she stands a better chance of getting pregnant. 
I know that her screams will chase off wildlife for miles around, so 
you'll have to go someplace where that isn't a problem," replied 
Ed. 

"What about my research?"

"Isn't it about time that you write up your observations and perhaps 
plan a different way to collect data?" asked Ed. 

"I need to collect more data before that."

"So put a limit on how long you'll collect data and make 
arrangements with Ling for the time when you are analyzing it," 
suggested Ed. 

Squatting by the side of the road, Leroy examined the grass 
growing beside the road. There was a bit more of a problem that he 
wanted to address than just the situation with Ling. Shaking his 
head, he asked, "Do you think the family is falling apart?"

"Falling apart? I wouldn't say that. We are all so busy that we very 
seldom get together to do things as a whole family. I think the last 
thing we did as a full family group was go camping on my 
property. One of the strengths of this family is that there is always 
someone available when you need a little help, even if everyone 
else is busy," replied Ed as he thought about the question. 

"That's true."

"You've been away so long that I bet you feel a little isolated," 
remarked Ed.

"I guess," replied Leroy as he recognized more examples of the 
grass that Albert was seeking. 

Noticing Leroy's sudden interest in the grass, Ed said, "Tell me 
what is so blasted important about this grass."

Laughing in a more relaxed fashion, Leroy answered, "You have to 
understand that a major change in the ecological basis of this 
country has occurred over the past two hundred years. This grass is 
the grass that the buffaloes ate when they ran over the country in 
great herds, but exotic grasses have replaced it. The problem is that 
in terms of protecting the land, exotic grasses just aren't as good as 
this grass."

Looking over at the rather ragged looking grass, Ed just didn't see 
why it would be so important. It was just barely surviving. "It 
doesn't look all that great to me."

"That's because it is surround by a bunch of exotic weeds. The 
grass starts growing with greater space between root bundles 
because they forced apart by the weeds. The soil around the grass 
gets eroded and the ecology goes into a great spiral of soil loss," 
answered Leroy. The whole process was much more complex than 
he explained, but he covered the gist of the issue. 

Standing beside his husband, Ed gave the answer considerable 
thought. He knew that they didn't understand the disease that was 
affecting the deer and elk populations. That a virus or bacteria 
didn't cause the disease was the only thing that they did know. 
Stretching, he said, "Maybe the answer to your research lies in the 
plants."

Looking up at his husband, Leroy said, "Maybe, but I doubt it."

"We had better get back to Ling. The troopers will be leaving in a 
few minutes. If we want a ride back to town, we better be there."

"Oh, I didn't think about that."

"Would you mind riding back with Howard and Albert?" asked Ed 
knowing that it would give him time to talk some more with his 
wife. 

"No. It will give me a chance to talk a little more with Albert. He's 
a pretty amazing individual."

"Yes, you'd almost think he was a Druid," remarked Ed. He added 
with a laugh, "or a member of the Carter Clan."

Walking beside his husband, Leroy was quiet as he thought about 
the remark. There were times when he wondered if Ed wanted him 
to become a Druid. Curious, he asked, "Do you think I should 
become a Druid?"

"Goodness no. We want you to be the best that you can be," 
answered Ed. Seeing the relief on his husband's face, he added, 
"Besides, we love you even if you aren't a Druid."

The ringing of a cell phone interrupted the discussion. Ed fished 
his phone out of his pocket and answered it, "Ed here."

Cathy said, "Sorry Ed. They don't cover bullet holes when you 
know beforehand that there is liable to be shooting."

That was not what Ed wanted to hear. He answered, "I guess we'll 
have to buy the car from them. Have them put the title in Howard's 
name."

There was a long moment of silence on the other end of the phone, 
Cathy replied, "Okay, I'll put the title in your intern's name. He'll 
need insurance before he can use it though."

"Take care of that for the next two years," replied Ed. 

"If you say so."

Laughing at her doubts, Ed said, "I say so. He's going to have to 
stay here while it gets repaired and then drive it back to the 
college."

Hanging up, Ed and Leroy joined the others back at the car to wait 
for the police. The state police pulled up in three cars. Ed and Ling 
got into the first car while Albert, Howard and Leroy got into the 
third car. 

Ed turned to examine Ling as the car made its way down the 
country road. After a moment, he said, "You look good dressed 
like that."

"You men are all the same. Leroy said exactly the same thing."

"Well, it is true. You look great dressed like that," remarked Ed.

"I'd never allow myself to be seen dressed like this in a city," 
replied Ling with a shudder. She didn't like the look of khaki pants 
and utilitarian shirts. Her normal clothes were conservative 
dresses. When she really wanted to treat herself nicely, she would 
get dressed up in a Victorian dress, drink hot tea, and read a 
Victorian novel. She sighed as she cried, "I just want to get back to 
my room and pamper myself for a week."

Holding her tightly to his body, Ed allowed Ling to cry out her 
frustration. She had sacrificed a lot to travel with Leroy in order to 
have a baby and that it hadn't come to anything hurt. It was easy to 
discount her sacrifices, but she was not an outdoorswoman and the 
past few months must have been hell for her. 

When she had finally calmed down, Ed said, "I think that taking a 
week at home would be great."

She knew he would understand her needs. The time at the College 
was killing him slowly and if he didn't take as many trips back to 
Arizona as he could, he would really be miserable. "I knew that 
you would understand."

"Hey, we all have needs that we must satisfy on occasion. I'm sorry 
that you didn't manage to get pregnant after putting up with the 
wilderness for all that time."

"I guess that is what is bothering me the most. I figured I would 
only be out here a couple of weeks. Now, I'm actually used to 
tramping around in the woods," remarked Ling shaking her head. 
"Can you imagine that I can track deer through the deepest 
woods?"

Hugging her tightly, he said, "Ling, there is nothing that you can 
do that would surprise me. You are a most remarkable woman. 
You are intelligent, witty, capable, and strong."

The praise melted Ling's heart. She laid her head across his chest 
taking pleasure in the protection that his strong arms provided. The 
two state troopers had driven along without saying a word. Ling 
looked at the two men and said, "Ed, you forgot dangerous."

"I also forgot scary," he replied with a chuckle.

Feeling better, Ling sat up and said, "I'm going to return to Arizona 
for a week. I will take a day of baths, hot tea, and massages. After 
that, I'm going to return to my training for a couple of days. I've 
been away from the dojo for too long."

"I guess you feel a need to beat up someone." Ed joked although 
from the look on her face, it was a fairly accurate assessment of 
how she felt.

One of the officers turned and asked, "You are in the martial arts?"

"Yes, I am," replied Ling.

"So am I. Would you like to spar a little this afternoon?" asked the 
trooper. 

Knowing that they both wanted to leave that afternoon, Ed replied, 
"I don't think that would be possible considering our schedule."

Ling said, "Besides, I'm nationally ranked and I don't think that it 
would be fair."

Smiling, the trooper said, "I'm at the top of the state and compete 
occasionally at the national level."

After years of competing at the national level, Ling knew everyone 
that was at the top of their discipline. She said, "If I see you at the 
nationals, I'll be more than happy to spar with you. As it is, I'm 
afraid that Ed is right. We have to fly out this afternoon and there 
just wouldn't be time."

The trooper nodded and said, "I'll see you there."

His comment surprised Ed as he heard the truth in his words. To let 
Ling know, he said, "I'm sure Ling will enjoy sparring with you 
then."


