THE GOLD
WATCH
By Forrest
Wayne Schultz
I had always wanted a gold watch – a watch
with a beautiful face and hands and numbers enclosed in a gold case that opened
when you pressed that special button at the top – a watch like my father had
when I was a boy. This fond childhood
memory suddenly surfaced when the lawyer placed such a gold watch before me,
informing me I was inheriting it from a benefactor who had died a few minutes
ago. I was also inheriting all of this
man’s other wealth – his magnificent house and land, his BMW, his stock
portfolio, and his bank account. In
fact, all of these had been put into my name a number of years ago. As per his instructions, I was just now
finding out about this. In return for
his largesse, this man asked me – but did not require me – to undertake a
certain task, namely, that I prevent a woman from being murdered!
The matter became even weirder as the
lawyer unfolded the details. The
benefactor does NOT know who the woman is or any facts about her except that
she will soon be murdered unless I prevent it!
And, one more thing – somehow (he knew not how) the Gold Watch will help
me to prevent this murder. After signing
the pertinent legal documents and receiving the keys to the house and BMW, I
thanked the lawyer, told him I would try to prevent this murder, although I do
not see how I could do so if I did not even know who the intended victim was,
plus I have no experience in criminology.
As soon as I left the lawyer’s office, I went to check out my new house
and the ten acres of land surrounding it.
-1-
My adventure began after I sat down in one
of the chairs in the yard behind the house.
It was a beautiful sunny day. I
pulled out my gold watch, which looked especially gorgeous in the bright
sunlight. After I closed the case and
was about to put it back into my pocket, I suddenly heard, emanating from the
top of the hill adjacent to the back yard, a shriek followed by a thump as a
man standing there placed his hands over his eyes, and then fell and rolled
down the opposite side of the hill into the river at its base. By the time I ran up the hill and looked
down the other side I saw him being devoured by an enormous crocodile. Noting the position and brightness of the sun
and where I was sitting holding the watch, I concluded that the sunlight must
have bounced off of the case of my gold watch into the man’s eyes, temporarily
blinding him and causing him to fall. I
then noticed that near where he had been standing there was a picnic table on
which there was a briefcase. When I
opened the briefcase I found in it a document containing information about a
woman: her name and address, photos, and
a biographical sketch. Was the woman
referred to in the document in the briefcase the woman who was to be the victim
of the planned assassination? That is
what it looked like.
If so, this answered the question of the
identity of the woman who was the intended victim of the murder, and the role
of the gold watch in helping to prevent her murder. But I did not know if the man who had died
was the assassin or the man who was on his way to deliver the information to
the assassin. (And I did not know who
the party was who had hired the assassin.)
And, why was the man standing on the hill behind my house? If he was the assassin, why was he not
proceeding on his way to the house of his intended victim (which was several
miles north of here)? And, if he was the
info delivery man, why was he not going to meet the assassin? Had this man been placing me or my house
under surveillance? (And, if so, why was
he standing there is broad daylight where anyone could see him?) I was getting hot standing here in the sun,
so I took the briefcase with its document with me and walked down to my house
and sat down in the study there to ponder the situation and to try to determine
my next move.
-2-
My pondering was unproductive. I was reminded of an expression which was
popular back in the sixties: “I am
getting nowhere fast!”. Immediately
after I gave up, I received a phone call from my old friend Jenna, whose voice
brightened my day. Jenna is an excellent
FBI agent whose fine qualities were exhibited in the episode I recounted right
after it occurred in 2008 (see The
Strange Old Man and The Purple Ring).
She began her conversation by quickly telling me that our mutual friend,
Corrie Belle Adams, would be receiving her Ph. D. degree in June. Then she got to the main reason for her call.
I was utterly astonished when she told me
that the FBI had uncovered a plot to assassinate a woman here on my property
this afternoon, namely the Welcome Wagon lady who would be visiting then. AND, when she told me the name of this woman,
I almost had a heart attack: it was the
SAME woman named on the document I found in the briefcase!! I was so stunned I could not speak, which was
good, I guess, because Jenna continued non-stop telling me the details of the
op planned by the FBI which would be put into place as soon as they arrived
here, which would be in about ten minutes.
Then she hurriedly said “goodbye” to which I replied with my own
“goodbye”.
I was so nervous I could not relax so I
went into the back yard and sat down again in the same chair I had earlier and
decided to calm myself and get my mind off of this latest revelation by getting
out my watch and enjoying its splendor and beauty. AND THEN – I know you will NOT believe this,
but I swear it really happened: the same thing that happened before – the
sunlight bounced off of my watch blinding the eyes of a tough looking man
standing on the hill (who looked like the other one), after which he shrieked,
fell down the hill on the other side into the river and was devoured by another
crocodile!! Then I remembered one thing
Jenna had said in her conversation: the
leaders of the bad guy assassin gang were called THE TWIN TOUGHIES. I calmed myself quickly and did solve part of
the puzzle of all this – from where each of them stood they could not be seen
from the house, and from where I was sitting in my back yard they could not see
me or my chair.
-3-
From this I concluded that each of these
two “toughies” had been surveilling my property from the spot where I was
standing, which is the ideal vantage point for this purpose. And then, using my binoculars, I saw a
surprising thing. Near the top of the
tallest tree in the front yard was an old tree house which appeared to still be
in good shape. Immediately thereafter I
saw a man climbing the tree and entering this tree house in a prone position,
which was necessary because (although the tree house was quite wide and long)
it was not high, which is to be expected since it was made for very small
children. The man then, from the case he
was carrying, withdrew the parts of a sniper rifle which he rapidly
assembled. He positioned himself so that
the rifle was aimed toward the walkway leading to the front of the house.
Fortunately, I could not be seen by this
man, but, nevertheless, I walked very slowly and quietly toward and then into the
back of the house. I was so nervous I
was having trouble holding my phone steady enough to call Jenna. I finally calmed down enough to try to make
the call, but then she called me. My
voice was shaking as I told her of the sniper.
She was very excited and super-happy, exclaiming, “You just did the
first part of our job for us: we do not
need to look for the sniper!”. She was
profuse with thanks, which I greatly appreciated but was still very nervous.
Based on what I had told her, she decided
to keep all of the agents off the property except for herself and one other
agent, who entered the property from the footpath at the peak of the hill, so
as not to be observable by the sniper.
They then each positioned themselves where they could easily aim their
rifles to take out the sniper. They
decided to fire simultaneously at exactly 12 Noon (a few minutes hence) when
the nearby camponile would begin its loud chiming. And, thus it was. Both shots were “spot on”, and the sniper was
taken out. And the sound of the rifles’
firing was masked by the camponile.
-4-
Jenna then divided her crew into two
teams: one team to recover the body of
the sniper and his rifle, and to take them to headquarters; and the second team
to search the house and property to be certain no criminals were present. (None were found.) This team then was organized and posted
around the perimeter of the property to prevent any criminals from
entering. None did. And, the Welcome Wagon lady’s visit at 3 PM
went off without a hitch.
In the meantime the FBI learned the location
of the criminals hideout but when they
arrived they found that the four remaining criminals in the gang had committed
suicide when they learned that the sniper had been taken out. And someone, it is not clear who, spread a
rumor that the Toughie Twins had fled the country – I have no idea how that was
done, but ANYWAY there was no more threat to the lady.
I never told anyone about the Gold Watch,
so it did not get any credit but it told me it did not care – it had
satisfaction in knowing it had done right and accomplished a great feat. And, of course, it must not be forgotten that
silence is golden, right??!!
And, of course, it was so good to see
Jenna again, and to learn the good news about Corrie Belle, so I was rewarded
in that way as well as from the property I inherited.
Grantville,
Georgia, USA, Earth, Solar System, Galaxy, Universe
April 18,
2015
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