Chasing a Blond Moon(86)

“What’s Kitella say?”

“He don’t know nuttin’ from nuttin’. Insists it’s a setup.”

“Any chance you guys can source the stuff?”

“Better. We have and you aren’t going to believe this. It’s aviation cable.”

“Aviation cable?”

“To be precise, cable used in choppers, including the Enstrom 480B light turbine helicopter. A guy who flies told her it looked like aviation cable. The only aviation manufacturer in the U.P. is Enstrom down in Menominee. Elza drove down there and the company told her that the cable was indeed from a helicopter, and, in fact, is used in their 480B and another model. Further, they announced that a spool of cable had been stolen from the factory in July. They reported it and somehow the report made its way to the FBI, who got on the case and narrowed it down to an employee named Fahrenheit—spelled just like the temperature. Charley Fahrenheit. He’s a former army chopper mechanic who served in Somalia and left the army honorably with the rank of staff sergeant. He joined Enstrom right out of the military and has always been a pretty solid employee, but there were a half-dozen thefts of various things over the past year and Fahrenheit was always the one with opportunity when stuff fell off the truck.”

“Was he charged?” What the hell was this Elza stuff? Nobody called Grinda anything but Sheena.

“The FBI said all their evidence is circumstantial, and weak circumstances at that—opportunity and some motive, which amounts to smoke but no gun. The company canned Fahrenheit for poor attendance. The Feebs say he has a bottle problem and some financial troubles too, but there’s no evidence of a sudden influx of cash to get him out of his situation. If he was ganking, either he’s not moving the goods, or he has the money stashed.”

Who fenced industrial goods? Service wondered. “In other words, that’s the end of it.”

“Not exactly. Enstrom has been served with a wrongful dismissal civil suit and MESC is involved.” MESC, the Michigan Employment Securities Commission, takes care of labor problems in the state. “What’s interesting is that Fahrenheit hired a big-ticket specialist from Midland. Even if he wins the case, he’s not going to win big, so why would a lawyer of that caliber take an if-come job with marginal payback potential? What’s even more intriguing is that the suit lists the name of an old friend of ours, Sandy Tavolacci. He’s the attorney of record.”

“Really,” Service said. Labor law was way outside Sandy’s usual browse. “Fahrenheit like the temperature, right?”

“You got it.”

“Where’s Fahrenheit live?”

“Marinette County, Wisconsin, a burg called Harmony. It’s one of those places where the sign going into town lists the population number as ‘sometimes.’”

“Sounds like home,” Service said.

“There’s no way for us to get into this one,” del Olmo said.

“There’s always a road in, Simon.”

“If you say so.”

“Thanks.”

“De nada.”

Newf nudged his leg. He’d forgotten to bring food for her. He gathered his notes, drove to Donovan’s Forest, bought two six-inch Italian meatball subs, and headed over to Harvey to the public boat launch on the Chocolay River to see if the salmon were in for the annual spawn yet. They were. Newf inhaled her sandwich and immediately splashed into the water chasing fish, whose minds were solely on sex, and easily avoided her clumsy lunges.

“You aren’t a bear,” he told her as she paddled around snapping at the fish and now and then looking up at him with water cascading off her snout.

While the dog splashed and barked, he ate and read the printouts he had downloaded at the office.

He had found a Web site called Legends and Species.Com. He had almost ignored the site, but was determined to dig until the lead went nowhere. Here he found a report by Tara Ferma, Ph.D., associate professor of cultural anthropology at Montana State University in Bozeman. The report dealt with parasites in Selenarctos thibetanus, the Asiatic black bear. The professor had written, “The incidence of parasites in Cambodian golden bears remains unknown, but given that the animal is a color phase of S. thibetanus, similar infestations seem predictable.”

Service thought: Cambodian golden bear, same as blond moon bear. The information leaped out at him, but in truth it had been the professor’s name that caught his attention. He liked unusual and nonsensical names. His favorite was Venus Dyke, a cop downstate somewhere, but Tara Ferma was right up there. His infatuation had paid off. He knew this find should have boosted his confidence in the Net as an investigational tool, but absent his interest in names he would never have gotten the lead. Serendipity was a piss-poor fuel for research, he told himself.