Deadly Diamonds

John Wilson

Description

Deadly Diamonds carries forward the adventures (and misadventures) of Massoud Anssari, formerly dean and now professor at a midwestern law school that attracts trouble like a magnet attracts iron filings.The registrar dies under mysterious circumstances; a stupendously rich foreign benefactor withdraws his promise to the school of several million dollars; and Ansari, attempting to rectify the problem, is drawn into major skullduggery at a remote diamond mine in a semi-arid region of West Africa. One heinous crime tops another. Finally, with the aid of revelations from Ansari, the enormously obese wife of the benefactor helps, in her own uniquely bumbling way, to reveal the culprit and the secretive theft of diamonds. Ansari returns to America, discovers who (or what)killed the registrar, and a sense of peace, albeit temporary, returns to the law school... Awell-crafted, descriptively written and fast-paced story of theft, intrigue and murder, interwoven throughout with humour, Deadly Diamonds will appeal to fans of John Wilson's former books, Badger,Boomer andBathroom Bob and Death by Duck, and Richard Wilson's former books, AmericanRedemption and The HardtackDiary, and is a must-read for fans of The Pink Panther, crime and suspense fiction.

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 28 juillet 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783066629
• Langue: English

Extrait

Deadly Diamonds
John and Richard Wilson

Copyright © 2014 John Wilson and Richard Wilson
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study,
or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the
publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with
the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries
concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
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ISBN 978 1783066 629
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To Sue and Harry Wilson,
our devoted, loving, generous
and long-suffering parents
Contents

Cover


Introduction


Chapter One A Voice From the Past


Chapter Two The Decision


Chapter Three A Close Call


Chapter Four The Body


Chapter Five An Assignment


Chapter Six To Catch a Thief


Chapter Seven Duxbury and The Duchess


Chapter Eight The Big Man (and Woman)


Chapter Nine Proof in the Pudding


Chapter Ten The Arrival


Chapter Eleven An Unusual Request


Chapter Twelve Fetherheft Takes Charge


Chapter Thirteen The Diamond Mine


Chapter Fourteen A Hasty Departure


Chapter Fifteen The Duplicates


Chapter Sixteen A Sneak Thief


Chapter Seventeen The Shed


Chapter Eighteen Ibrahim Devises a Plan


Chapter Nineteen A Misunderstanding


Chapter Twenty An Escape


Chapter Twenty-One No Honor Among Thieves


Chapter Twenty-Two A Thwarted Plan


Chapter Twenty-Three A Reprieve


Chapter Twenty-Four A Final Audience


Chapter Twenty-Five The Truth Will Out


Epilogue
Introduction
It all began with a letter.
All of it! All the misery, fear and heartache started with that damn letter. But I’m sure Duxbury didn’t care. In fact, it probably amused him to make Massoud Ansari miserable.
To be fair, though, the events I’m going to relate had their genesis long before the letter, but pretty much the same cast of characters was involved. Alhaji Baba Shoppa, an extraordinarily rich African known in the business world as ABS, had visited Crabshaw School of the Law and had subsequently made a huge pledge to the school of $20m; ostensibly, it was in return for the admission of his son, Adamu. Only that wasn’t the real reason for his gift. His mistress, Allison Fetherheft (previously known to legions of students as Dean Dreadnaught), had been provost of the university and had embezzled large sums from the law school’s financial aid account. And lest I forget, there was a small matter of homicide. She had tried to conceal her crime by murdering two students and attempting the murder of a third. Once her criminality was exposed, she fled to Africa to be with her sweetheart and, with his munificent donation, Alhaji Baba Shoppa had bought then Dean Massoud Ansari’s silence about Allison Fetherheft’s whereabouts.
At that particular law school, something was bound to happen again. Everyone thought it would be more shenanigans by the faculty, and in a peculiar and sinister way it was. After a couple of years of unnatural calm, a graduate was murdered in the dean’s office by an apparition wearing a Donald Duck mask. Most people thought the dean had done it and he fled to India where he met his current wife, Lin Fei. But it turned out that the real culprits were two members of the faculty; Edward Elliott and Jane Thompson (also known to the students as Duxbury and The Duchess), who were dealing drugs out of Duxbury’s hollowed-out umbrella. They, too, fled one step ahead of the law and, until the arrival of that letter, their whereabouts – indeed, their very existence – had been unknown.
I’d better say a word about Crabshaw School of the Law, but just a brief word. It was a relentlessly drab institution in the American Midwest, a school struggling to survive where, for idle amusement, students had conferred odd nicknames on their professors. As you might imagine, $20m radically changed the school’s image. A wing was added to the library, new scholarships were created, clinical programs were added to the curriculum, faculty salaries were raised, and, most importantly, the caliber of the student body improved along with morale. Everything seemed to be going well. And then Alhaji Baba Shoppa decided to withhold the last $5m of his pledge, and several important projects had to be put on hold. Throughout the school, but particularly in the dean’s office, consternation reigned.
Massoud Ansari, the only member of the faculty of Iranian descent, had been dean when Alhaji Baba Shoppa first visited the school and, at the benefactor’s insistence, he administered the terms of the gift. Known to the students as Badger, he was a tall, slightly stooped man with thinning, salt and pepper hair (increasingly thin, in recent years) and a drooping, handlebar mustache that he had first grown in India. It was after his return from India that he resigned his position as dean and resumed his role as a professor of law and member of the teaching faculty. Except in the summer, he invariably wore a brown, herringbone jacket with patches at the elbows, and perhaps it was this mode of dress or his beaky nose or his sad, brown eyes or his persistent, but kindly, questioning in class that had earned him his nickname.
Chapter One
A Voice From the Past

On a chilly May morning when flowering fruit trees, but not the temperature, promised a balmy spring day, Badger was sitting at his desk in his cramped office when the morning mail arrived. A letter in a plain envelope with three foreign stamps across the top and the word ‘C ONFIDENTIAL ’ in block letters at the bottom was hidden within a short stack of letters and memoranda. It seemed innocuous – probably, he surmised, a request from a graduate for a recommendation or a misdirected application for employment – and he put it aside while he pawed through the other items of seemingly greater interest. As it turned out, they were not of greater interest, nor could they have been, and he turned finally to the remaining item. With mild curiosity, he slit the thin envelope open with his brass letter opener and extracted its contents – in this case, a single sheet of flimsy paper that contained a brief message.
Badger scanned the letter quickly, then sat back abruptly in his swivel chair, a frown darkening his features. He removed his reading glasses and wiped the lenses with the bottom of his tie. Deliberately, he replaced the glasses carefully on the bridge of his nose. Holding the letter closer to his eyes, he read it slowly again, then dropped it onto his lap.
“Jesus Christ,” he exclaimed audibly to his empty room. “I don’t believe it.”
There were many things about the letter that caused this reaction: its general contents, its bold demand and the identity of the author. It read as follows:

My dear Massoud,
I trust this letter finds you well and prosperous. I advise you in the strongest terms to burn it after reading.
For some time, Jane and I have been living in Africa as the guests of Allison Fetherheft and Alhaji Baba Shoppa. There is no need to relate the long and complicated journey that brought us here. Our education and ability did not go unnoticed, and we have long been entrusted with managing many of their business affairs. In this capacity, we learned that you have faithfully kept silent about the whereabouts of Allison in return for Alhaji Baba Shoppa’s most generous donation to the school – and, I should add, his promise of a further gift of equal or greater magnitude. Your cooperation has been deeply appreciated, because we recognize it has not been without risk. Your silence might be seen by some at the law school as unethical and by the authorities as misprision of felony. I’m sure you would agree that it would be a dreadful shame if your behavior were exposed.
Be that as it may, it appears that Alhaji Baba Shoppa’s son, Adamu, may not graduate because of a failing grade in the course on Evidence. Under the circumstances, I have advised that further payments to the school be suspended until this situation is rectified. I am asking (demand is such a harsh word) that you take steps, using whatever means are necessary, to see that his grade is changed and that he graduates.
If you do not comply, any further donations to the school will come to an end. On the other hand, if you perform this trifling task satisfactorily, the pledge will be honored in full and a further, substantial donation will be made. Of course, it goes without saying that you must use the utmost discretion so that Alhaji Baba Shoppa’s name is in no way associated with your actions. Moreover, I can assure you in return that your secret endeavors on Adamu’s behalf will be kept in the strictest confidence.
I trust that you will see your way to the obviously correct course of action that you must take.
Awaiting a report from you detailing your compliance with my request (although of course the final proof will be Adamu’s graduation), I remain
Cordially yours,
Edward Elliott (sometimes known as Duxbury)

This is not-so-subtle blackmail, Badger thought . He’s asking me to violate the academic standards of the law school – me, a former dean, for God’s sake. I won’t knuckle under to it. If they disclose the fact that I was silent about Allison’s escape to Africa in return for an enormous donatio