JC: Ed Biggers
Part 4: Adjournment
Chapter 3
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004

When Ed entered the library, Leroy closed the book he had been 
reading with reverence and sat back in the chair of the library 
looking over at Ed with a thoughtful expression on his face. The 
material in the book was very inspiring and made him wonder 
what he was doing with his life. Noticing the expression on Ed's 
face, he said, "I've been reading the biography of Beth."

"There is a biography about Beth?" asked Ed unaware that one 
existed.

Looking at the book in front of him, Leroy nodded as he said, 
"Yes. Kelly and Linda wrote a biography about Beth."

"I wonder why I didn't hear about it," replied Ed. He thought he 
had been spending more time around the family and thought that if 
two of his wives were involved in such a major project that he 
would have known. 

Shaking his head, Leroy replied, "They just kind of did it and put a 
couple of copies here in the library. I was in here when Linda 
brought them in, otherwise I wouldn't have known about it."

Remembering the words of the doctor that had treated him when 
the College Killers had cut him, Ed said, "I'll ask her about them. 
There's a doctor that followed the career of Beth quite closely and I 
bet he would love a copy."

"I bet he would be pleased," remarked Leroy. 

He looked for a minute at Leroy while he considered his words, an 
action that made the other man uncomfortable. He didn't know of a 
good way to express the reason why he had come in the room, but 
it wasn't because of the book. Giving up on finding a good way to 
say it, he said, "I had an urge to come in here to talk to you for a 
reason that appears to be inspired by the Gods and Goddess. I don't 
think it had anything to do with the biography. It has a feeling of a 
strong hate component."

"Are you saying that you think I hate someone?"

"No, I think that you know about something that is happening that 
has a hate component to it," replied Ed. He wished that he knew 
better the source of his urge because that would allow him to better 
explain what he felt.

Leroy was trying to think of anything that might help Ed, but was 
drawing a blank. Finally, he said, "I don't know anything about 
something like that, but my father is having problems back home. 
To be honest, he hasn't told me much about them."

Ed smiled as he felt the rightness of the statement. He asked, "How 
about we visit your family for a week or so?"

Leroy considered the status of his research and decided that he 
could take a week away from it. The field mice were in the early 
stages of dealing with the onset of colder weather. In the worst 
case, it would be nice to visit his parents. He replied, "That sounds 
good to me."

An hour later, the two men were headed to the airport. Ed was 
excited about being on the trail of another set of bad guys while 
Leroy was worried about whether he could help in anyway that 
would be significant. The jet was ready for them when they arrived 
at the airport and there wasn't any delay before they were in the air. 
The flight was uneventful, but it only got them part of the way to 
their destination. There was still a two-hour drive to his parents' 
house.

After renting a compact car when they had arrived at the airport, 
Leroy drove the two hours to his parent's house in a small town 
outside of Atlanta. The drive was uneventful until they were within 
a block of their destination. A car was parked in the middle of the 
street, preventing them from driving to the house. Concerned, 
Leroy turned to Ed and said, "Maybe we should park here and 
walk the rest of the way."

Tilting his head to his side of the car, Ed said, "We might ask the 
guy with the shotgun to move the car."

There was a rap on the car window and Ed lowered the window. 
This would allow him to talk to the man with the gun. The man 
looked well over six feet tall and was very muscular. A rough 
estimate by Ed put his weight at a two hundred and twenty pounds 
with all of it muscular. Ed suspected that he had once played 
college football by his general build and continued working in a 
very physical field. In a pleasant voice, Ed said, "Hello. Could you 
move the car?"

In a strong Georgian accent, the man asked, "What's your business 
here?"

"We're here to visit his parents." Ed gestured to Leroy sitting in the 
driver's seat with a negligent wave of his hand.

The man bent down and saw Leroy. For the first time since the car 
had pulled up, he relaxed his stance and said, "Hello, Leroy. Didn't 
know you were coming. We'd have welcomed you a little better 
than this."

Leroy asked, "Hello, Henry. What's going on?"

Shaking his head, Henry answered, "Let me move the car so that 
you can get down the street. It's a little dangerous to be out here at 
the moment."

As Henry was about to leave, Ed grabbed the hand that had been 
resting on the car door. Henry looked down at Ed for a minute 
trying to decide what to do about this man that dared to grab him 
like that. With a serious expression, Ed said, "I'm expecting some 
other people to show up here over the next day or so."

"Will they be white?"

"Probably."

Henry said, "We're not letting anyone in except people that live in 
the area."

"I'm expecting Druids. You should let them in."

Not knowing anything about Druids, Henry's suspicions returned. 
It made him wonder if Leroy was here against his will. No one in 
the neighborhood knew who was responsible for the recent 
troubles. For all he knew, these Druids could be behind it all. He 
asked, "How will I know these guys?"

"If you ask them if they are Druids, they will answer yes. To be 
sure, ask to see their medallion. If they have one, then you'll know 
they can be trusted," replied Ed as he fished his medallion out from 
under his shirt.

The black man looked at the medallion with doubt. Leroy said, 
"Henry, you can trust these guys. If you doubt me, you can ask my 
father. I know he'll vouch for them."

Grunting at the mention of the Deacon, Henry said, "So if they 
admit to being a Druid and have one of those medallions, I should 
let them through?"

"Yes," answered Ed.

Henry waved to someone in the house across the street. A young 
black man came out of the house and went over to the car. Under 
the watchful eye of Henry, the guy moved it out of the way. Once 
the car was out of the way, Henry patted the top of the car and 
said, "Move on out."

Leroy drove down the road to his father's house considerably 
slower than he had ever driven down that street. Along the route, 
three houses had been burned down to the ground. Curious, Ed 
looked at the houses and finally requested, "Leroy, pull over here. I 
want to take a look at the houses."

Leroy stopped the car and the two men got out. Ed walked to 
within ten feet of the house and squatted to examine the ruins. His 
eyes roamed over the burnt supports taking in features that 
suggested how the fire had started. Shaking his head, he said, "It 
looks like somebody threw a Molotov Cocktail in it."

The comment caused Leroy's stomach to perform a flip. Just to 
make sure that he understood the situation, he asked, "You mean 
someone burned them out?"

"Might be worse than that. Someone may have been killed in the 
fire," replied Ed as he examined the structure. Like most of the 
houses here, this was probably a two-story building with the 
bedrooms upstairs. The wood framed house would have gone up in 
flames in minutes. If this happened at night, Ed doubted that 
anyone would have escaped. 

Paling, Leroy said, "Let's get to my Dad's place. He'll tell us 
everything he knows about what is going on."

Looking closer at the house, Ed realized that there was no sign of 
furniture. He said, "I just noticed something strange about this. 
There's no furniture in the house. It was empty when this 
happened."

Looking around, Leroy noticed a number of neighbors moving out 
onto their porches. Almost all of them had guns, even the old 
women had small caliber rifles. He said, "Ed, we've attracted some 
attention."

Ed stood up and turned to look at the houses lining the street. 
There were a lot of scared people watching them and he hoped that 
none of them had an itchy trigger finger. He yelled, "Can anyone 
tell me what happened here?"

Looking around at the faces of his old neighbors, Leroy knew that 
if the shooting started that Ed would be the first target. Moving 
carefully, he positioned himself to shield Ed as much as he could. 
He shouted, "I'm Leroy Jones, Junior. Can anyone tell us about 
what happened here?"

One of the old women came across the street walking with the 
slowness of old age. Grey hair, bent back, and swollen joints gave 
testimony to a hard life. Her thick glasses suggested that she 
couldn't have made out their identity from across the street. About 
half of the way across the street, she asked, "Is that you Leroy?"

"Yes, ma'am," replied Leroy as he moved towards the old woman. 
He recognized her from his youth. With a smile, he asked, "How 
are you doing, Mrs. Whitt?"

"Are you still stealing strawberries?" asked the woman with a 
smile.

"No ma'am, I learned my lesson a long time ago." She had caught 
him stealing her strawberries when he was about nine years old. 
Dragging him by his ear, she had taken him straight to his dad. He 
had gotten a major whipping from his dad that time.

Now that she was closer, she could see Ed. Looking from Leroy to 
Ed, she asked, "You takin' up with a white boy?"

"Yes ma'am. I've got two husbands and three wives. He's one of 
my husbands," answered Leroy not sure how the old woman would 
react to that news.

"I'm not sure if I like that, boy." She frowned in the direction of 
Ed. It was clear that she didn't approve of the cowboy.

Watching the exchange, Ed knew that it was time to get the topic 
back on track. He said, "Deacon Jones mentioned to Leroy that 
there was some trouble here. I've come to help."

She looked at him and asked, "Why would you do that?"

"He's family."

That answer actually impressed the old woman as she came from a 
generation where family was very important. She asked, "You 
came alone?"

"Others shall be coming, ma'am," answered Ed. He pointed back to 
the house and asked, "Can you tell me what happened over there?"

"The old man that lived there died. His son had an estate sale and 
was going to sell the house. My grandson was going to buy it, but 
someone burned it down before the sale. The house down the street 
was for sale, but after someone made an offer it was burned 
down," replied the old woman. She pointed to the other burned 
house and said, "Then that one burned in the middle of the night. A 
family died in that fire. There was another fire on the block over. 
The people inside were hurt, but they lived."

Quiet for a moment, Ed asked, "Any letters or threats?"

"No. Folks are scared that their house is going to be next."

Ed looked around and said, "That's real odd. It's hard to say what 
the motive is, but something is definitely wrong."

After a little more polite conversation, Ed and Leroy returned to 
the car and drove the half block to the deacon's house. Getting out 
of the car, Deacon Jones and his wife, Cleo, came out of the house 
to greet their son and son-in-law. Smiling, Deacon Jones asked, 
"So why are you here?"

Leroy pointed over to Ed and said, "He had a feeling that 
something was wrong over here and suggested that we come out to 
lend a hand."

Looking around, Ed added, "More Druids are coming."

At that, Deacon Jones reached to his chest and caressed the small 
wooden cross that hung around his neck. It was a present from 
Jesus Christ, given to him in a small church in New Mexico. The 
Goddess had sent him there, to meet with his savior on Easter 
Morning at sunrise. There, he had been charged with the sacred 
duty to help bring about peace among the various religions. 
Deacon Jones replied, "I'm glad to hear that."

The group went into the house to talk about recent events. The 
deacon went through the activities of the past two months and 
answered Ed's questions with care not to speculate. After they had 
talked for about two hours, the Deacon said, "Let me go talk to the 
neighbors and spread the word that you are here. I'd hate for 
something to happen to you."

Laughing, Ed said, "That would be a good idea. I think I'll wear 
my robes while I'm here so that people will know that I'm 
supposed to be here."

Ed put on his robe and went outside to sit on the porch as the 
deacon went through the neighborhood. Several neighbors came 
over to talk to Leroy to find out how the young man was doing in 
college. There were a number of comments about his unusual 
marriage arrangements, but Leroy was able to handle them with 
ease. More difficult to handle were the racist comments about 
being married to a bunch of whites. 

Without responding to the blatant racial slurs against whites, Ed 
just sat there and watched the street. When the newspaper came, 
Ed opened it and read the newspaper very carefully. One item in 
the news caught his attention. Frowning, he read the article about a 
number of housing developments that were going up in the area 
and how the man in charge was a financial wizard. The article 
struck him as a lie, but he couldn't put his finger on it. 

Looking up from the newspaper, Ed said, "Leroy, tomorrow I'm 
going to the IRS. I think I have an idea and need to verify it."

The next morning, Ed sat at the table drinking his coffee struggling 
to wake up. Leroy was joking with his parents about Ed's normal 
early morning behavior. Their discussion was interrupted by a 
knock on the door. When Cleo went to answer the door, she was 
surprised to find that a very large white man stood at the door. The 
man was built like Henry and carried a small bag in his hand. In a 
deep voice, he said, "I heard that a Druid was here."

Rather afraid of the man, Cleo replied, "Ed Biggers is here if that is 
who you mean."

With a deep rolling laugh, he said, "Ed is here. That's very good. 
Do you want to let him know that Ted Harper is here?"

Knowing that Ed was still waking up, Cleo was at a loss about 
what she should do. Taking a chance, she said, "Would you come 
with me?"

At his nod, she led him to the table where Ed was still nursing his 
second cup of coffee. Looking down at Ed, Ted noticed the black 
robe. Knowing that the man was a Druid, Ed asked, "Who are 
you?"

Ted answered, "I'm Ted Harper."

With a practiced maneuver, Ted whipped out his badge and added, 
"I'm a Federal Marshall. I understand there are some bad guys in 
the area."

Looking over at Ed, Leroy answered, "It appears so. Ed is going to 
the IRS office to follow up on an idea that he had about who might 
be behind this."

As Ed poured himself another cup of coffee, he said, "More Druids 
are coming. I'll brief everyone on the matter when I get back from 
the IRS."

Ted had figured that two Druids were enough to handle most 
problems. The news that other Druids were expected to come here 
was bad. It was bad enough that it made the smile on his face 
disappear. He was silent for a long time before he asked, "How big 
do you think this is?"

"Big. The things going on here is just the tip of the iceberg," 
answered Ed. So far, the only motive that he had been able to 
identify was money, but that didn't explain the sense of pure hatred 
that he was also feeling. 

Turning to face the deacon, Ted asked, "Which entry into the area 
has the smallest person?"

Deacon Jones answered, "There is a Terry down the way. He's not 
too big, but he's also kind of old."

"How about I sit over there with him and watch the road? I don't 
think that Henry fellow needs any help," replied the big man with a 
smile. His comment brought a smile to a number of people around 
the table. 

Ed commented, "Wear your robe when you are working around 
here. It will let the people know that you belong."

"Good thinking," replied Ted. 

As Ed and Leroy went to leave for the IRS, Jerry Smith wandered 
up to the house. Spotting Ed, he moved to intercept him before he 
reached the car. When he was close enough, he said, "Hello Ed. I 
didn't expect to see you here."

Ed stared at Jerry amazed at how old the man looked. It was easy 
to forget that Jerry had served the God longer than any other 
servant of the God. He answered, "Hello Jerry. I see you are 
wearing your robe."

Jerry laughed at the comment and said, "That mountain guarding 
the road suggested that I wear it."

Ed asked, "Would you mind providing back up for him until I 
return?"

With a wink, he said, "No problem."

Ed nodded, "Good. I don't want these folks getting into trouble for 
trying to defend their homes."

Jerry turned and headed towards the roadblock that Henry was 
guarding. Watching him leave, Ed hoped that Henry would take 
care of him if anything happened. It was an unfair characterization, 
but Ed was worried about the elderly man. It was beginning to get 
late when Ed and Leroy got into the car. As they drove out, they 
stopped to warn Henry that Jerry was coming to work with him. 

The trip to the Atlanta IRS office was as uncomfortable for Ed as 
all trips to the offices in large cities. His surprise visit generated 
significant excitement on the part of the agents of the office. The 
agents first wanted him to examine all of their cases. Unable to 
even make a dent in the number of cases that were in their offices, 
he asked them to bring the twenty largest dollar cases to him. Of 
the twenty, sixteen were clear cases of fraud and left his hands 
with many of the entries marked with an 'x'.

Once that was done, Ed went and viewed the records that 
interested him. After an hour of looking though the records, he sat 
back confused. The records showed that the man he suspected 
reported his personal income accurately and also the income for his 
companies. The amounts were staggering. His declared 
expenditures were lies, but not the kind of lies that he expected. 
The figures were way lower than he could possibly justify as 
reasonable expenditures. It made him wonder why the man was 
paying more taxes than necessary. Of course, that wasn't against 
the law. 

Disturbed by a lie that didn't seem to yield a truth, Ed found an IRS 
agent entering the office. Stopping him, Ed asked, "I need someone 
to do a background check on someone. Are you available?"

Having been out of the office most of the day, the man asked, 
"Who are you?"

"I'm Ed Biggers."

"Yes, sir. I'm available for you," replied the man snapping to 
attention. He added, "I'm Bill Turner."

Ed nodded and said, "I need to have a local businessman 
investigated. I need to know everything about how he made his 
money. I want to know what developments he built, what were 
they before he took on the project, and how much they made. You 
are going to have to go to the library and search through at least 
three years of newspapers. I'd be satisfied with photocopies of all 
articles. I would like to know this by tomorrow afternoon."

"Yes, sir," replied Bill. He waited for a minute and then asked, 
"Who is this businessman?"

"Devin Renzy."

"Oh my, he's a big one." 

"You don't have a problem investigating him, do you?"

"Not at all. I've been convinced that he's been doing something 
dishonest, but I haven't been able to show anything. As far as I can 
tell, he understates his expenses." Bill shook his head as he thought 
about the number of hours that he had spent on those tax forms. 

The men returned to the house of Deacon Jones. The visit in town 
had lasted much longer than Ed had expected. On their arrival, the 
Druids that had come in response to inner calls gathered at the 
house. Ed looked around at the number of Druids present. Ted 
Harper, Jerry Smith, Annette Baker, and Victor Markovich sat 
around the table waiting for Ed. Also present were Harry and 
Deacon Jones.

Annette, the Druid with far-seeing abilities, had come by 
helicopter. Having a helicopter land on the street in front of the 
house of Deacon Jones had surprised everyone and caused a near 
panic among the neighbors. When they had seen the young woman 
step out wearing her robe and head towards the house, they had 
decided she was basically harmless.  

This was the first time that Ed had met Victor Markovich, a Druid 
that consulted for the ATF. Physically small in stature, he exuded 
an energy that manifested itself as an inability to sit still. Half the 
time, he was bouncing a leg and twiddling his thumbs. Despite his 
energy, when he concentrated on something his mind was totally 
focused.

Sitting down at the head of the table, Ed looked around at the 
people gathered there. After Leroy had taken his place at the table, 
Ed said, "I have a suspect, but nothing firm yet. This is a very 
successful businessman that under reports his expenses when filing 
his taxes. There is no way that he should be that successful, yet he 
is. I suspect foul play and I believe that he is behind what is going 
on here."

Leaning forward with a very intense look on his face, Victor asked, 
"Do you have any proof?"

"No, I don't," replied Ed.

Clearing his throat, Ted said, "I can do a criminal background 
check on this individual."

Ed replied, "Good."

Annette started making her weaving action and then said, "A car 
full of men is headed this way. They have guns in the trunk and it 
looks like Malotov Cocktails in the car with them. They should 
reach here in about ten minutes."

Henry stared at the woman wondering how she knew all of that. Ed 
asked, "What direction are they coming from?"

Pointing in the direction in which Henry had the roadblock, she 
said, "From there."

The Druids in Red Robes leaned forward and started discussing 
tactics for taking out the men. The goal was to capture them 
without gunfire. They didn't have much time to make their plans, 
but one was quickly agreed upon. Everyone except Deacon Jones 
stood up and left the house. 

The car blocking the street was moved into a driveway with Victor 
behind the wheel. Annette stood at the door weaving as she 
watched the car approach. It was her job to signal when Victor was 
to pull out of the driveway. Ed, Ted, Jerry, and Henry waited 
behind a parked car. They too were watching Annette who would 
signal when they were to make their move.

Two minutes after everyone had gotten into position, a gray car 
pulled into the street. Annette raised her hand and Victor backed 
out of the driveway without looking behind him. The gray car had 
to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the car. One of the men 
leaned out of the window and shouted, "Watch where you're 
going!"

Seconds later, Annette dropped her hand and the men emerged 
from hiding. It wasn't long before they had the car surrounded. At 
the doors of the car, Ted and Jerry had their pistols drawn and 
pointed at the men inside. Victor joined them at the rear of the car 
with his pistol drawn. The four men in the car stared in shock at 
the men surrounding them. Ed said, "Get out of the car and keep 
your hands up in the air."

"Who are you to tell us that?"

Smiling, Ed answered, "You are surrounded by an ATF agent, a 
Federal Marshal, a Postal Inspector, and a special agent of the 
IRS."

At that announcement, the men slowly climbed out of the car. One 
of the men asked, "Why are you working for the niggers?"

Ed gestured to Leroy to answer that question. With a smile, Leroy 
answered, "Oh, they are working for you. Look at all of the 
windows around you."

The man looked around and noticed a huge number of rifle barrels 
aimed in his general direction. Approaching the men, Henry said, 
"I suggest that you boys lie spread eagle on the ground until the 
police show up."

"We haven't done anything wrong. You can't hold us."

Annette came over and said, "They have Molotov Cocktails under 
the passenger side front seat. There is a rifle that has been 
converted into a fully automatic."

Henry said, "Sounds like arson and illegal weapons. We'll let the 
police straighten this mess out."

"Are we under arrest?"

Leroy answered, "You are in protective custody. If we were to 
leave here, you'd be dead before you could get to the end of the 
block. The only reason people aren't shooting at you is because we 
are here."

The Druids backed away so that they wouldn't be the ones making 
the arrest. It was important that none of them made any comments 
that could be used to get them off any charges. Henry asked, "Why 
are you doing this?"

"We've done nothing wrong," retorted one of the men on the 
ground.

The words sounded like a chainsaw to Ed. He knew that they had 
done things wrong, the question would be finding out what they 
had done. Stepping over to Leroy, he whispered, "Ask him if 
someone is paying him to do this."

"Is someone paying you to do this?"

"No," replied the man on the ground. 

Smiling, Ed knew that they were being paid to set fires in the 
neighborhood. The lie had told him a truth. The other Druids 
noticed the smile on his face and nodded their heads. Annette said, 
"The police will be here in three minutes."

Henry walked over to the car as the police pulled up. When the 
police emerged from the car, one of the policemen asked Henry, 
"What's going on here?"

"I think we may have caught the arsonists that set fires here over 
the past two months. According to the information that we have, 
they have some Molotov Cocktails under the front seat."

The other cop looked around and saw the men in robes. He was 
about to call for backup when they all pulled out their badges. He 
froze and then approached to check out their identification. 
Shocked at the affiliations, he called over to his partner, "We've 
got four feds here."

On that note, the other cop got out his plastic cuffs and quickly put 
them on the four suspects on the ground. His partner helped him 
take care of the suspects. Once they were all cuffed, he called for 
backup to help transport the men to the local jail. That released the 
tension in the air and people came pouring out of the houses to see 
what was happening. 

An hour later, the group all met back at the house of Deacon Jones. 
Henry said, "I guess that is the end of it."

Shaking his head, Ed said, "No. This is only the beginning. They 
were being paid to start the fires."

Henry asked, "How do you know that?"

"He was lying when Leroy asked him if they were getting money. 
Now we have to find out who is paying them to destroy your 
community," answered Ed thoughtfully. 

