{"id":2380,"date":"2023-11-02T01:06:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T01:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=2380"},"modified":"2023-10-05T12:58:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T12:58:05","slug":"book-two-the-dots-start-connecting-chap-37","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=2380","title":{"rendered":"BOOK TWO: The Dots Start Connecting -Chap. 37"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

*************BOOK  II************<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

**********THE DOTS START CONNECTING********<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 37<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlie Furbush\u2019s Other Business<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     <\/em>By Monday, November 22, the Rumpkins were in Sarasota, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Along the way they had an enjoyable, humorous stop in St. Mark\u2019s on Florida\u2019s panhandle (population 293) to visit another of Max\u2019s Peace Corps friends.  This time Carl, who for years now was the Park Ranger in charge of protecting the few remaining Black Panthers in existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Although it didn\u2019t look like it on the map, it was a longways to Carl\u2019s house.  Making good speed on U.S. 98, the most southern U.S. highway, Max said, \u201cThis is it \u2013 turn right.\u201d  Now on Port Leon Drive, the going got slow. The road was built-up out of a swamp, a murky green dense swamp.  You couldn\u2019t see more than fifteen feet into the swamp through all the tangled mangrove trees.  Finally, we got to Carl\u2019s.  He lived in a house on<\/em> stilts<\/em>, a house barely big enough for one person.  No one else lived within miles.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     We were there less than 5 minutes, when Rocky joked, \u201cSo this is the Everglades?  Just you, the alligators, and some Black<\/em> Panthers<\/em>?  Like being back in L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cAny Black Panthers really live around here?\u201d Sally asked, not laughing at Rocky\u2019s joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     First pointing out to Rocky that the Everglades are in South Florida, and we were in \u201cSpanish Florida,\u201d Carl goes on, \u201cThere are only 26 known Black Panthers in the Northern Hemisphere, none<\/em> in<\/em> L<\/em>.A<\/em>.\u201d  He added he has names for the seven he knows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cAhhh, so these seven with names, like  . . . \u2018Gertrude\u2019 I suppose, or maybe \u2018Big Paw\u2019 . . .  Good chance we could<\/em> meet them?”  Rocky asked in a way intended to scare Sally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWell,\u201d Carl said, \u201cjust yesterday I think I saw \u2018Newt\u2019<\/em> streak across the road right behind me \u2013 he\u2019s my closest neighbor.   Let\u2019s take a drive into the fishing village of St. Marks, and maybe Newt\u2019ll say \u2018Hi.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cIs St. Marks on the way out of here?  Then let\u2019s go,\u201d Sally said in a way that sounded more like \u2018Let\u2019s Get Out of Here!\u2019   Sally added, turning serious, \u201cWhat kind of fishing is there in St. Marks?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cBass, and if you like six<\/em>–foot<\/em> long<\/em> armored fish,\u201d Carl said, \u201cthen garpikes too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     After a quick oyster lunch in St. Mark\u2019s, and a Sally decision to skip fishing, we were back on the road to Sarasota, hoping to arrive around daybreak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Meanwhile, Skip had gotten a call from Susie back in Boulder; said he\u2019d call her back; and offered, once again, to drive the Rover and let Jack and Sally get some sleep in the Yacht.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Riding in the Rover, just Rocky and Skip, Rocky called Susie, who couldn\u2019t wait to share what she had learned:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cGuess what you guys, when you hire Charlie you get more than a hunting guide \u2013 You get girls!  That\u2019s right, I sleuthed it out!  First, I overheard some guys talking at the restaurant, wondering if Charlie was still laying low or back in business.  They never said what this \u201cother business\u201d was, so I called Joey, hoping he\u2019d clue me in, but he told me to back off or I could be the next person killed.  Great!  But I used some old-fashioned feminine charm on one of the restaurant\u2019s old-timers and he told me Charlie runs a brothel, a whorehouse, out of the hunting lodge!  That\u2019s right \u2013 he\u2019s pimping sex!  So I called Joey back again to say I sure hope that isn\u2019t why he knew Charlie, or why he had been out to the hunting lodge.  He told me he wasn\u2019t happy I couldn\u2019t leave this Charlie Furbush thing alone, and then told me the whole story hoping that would convince me to back-off.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe told me:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It\u2019s worse than that, mom.  Furbush is part of a human trafficking ring bringing young girls from Thailand through Vancouver and into Canada with fraudulent visas and promising them the good life here in the states.  I don\u2019t know what that guy Abdul had to do with anything, but some of Charlie\u2019s friends are into the militia thing, you know The Proud Boys.’ <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susie continued:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJoey also told me one of the names he had been given to look up in Vancouver was another Muslim sounding name, like Abdul\u2019s \u2013 the guy who got murdered.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd there\u2019s more, I know Joey well enough to know that he wouldn\u2019t cross the line to be involved in that kind of thing, sex trafficking, but he did follow the Bundy stand-off deal and talked about how the federal government should butt out of local land use issues, so that fits with him being out to the hunting lodge \u2013 if that\u2019s what those guys were up to.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWowww!!!\u201d Rocky shouted-out, \u201cAmazing!  Holy Shit!  Really great work!  What was the other Muslim name, did he tell you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cI asked, but he said, \u2018Mom, I\u2019ve told you enough.  You\u2019ve got to back-off.\u2019  Then I remembered what you had said, so I told him, \u2018I overheard talk at the restaurant that there were other people in danger, not me, others right here in Boulder, who knew too much – so we got to put a stop to all this before someone else gets killed.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cThen Joey exclaimed, \u2018Don\u2019t be one of those, mom \u2013 drop it!\u2019  But I said \u2018Not on your life!  I\u2019m 66-years-old and I\u2019m finally going to do something important with my life.  Are you going to help me or not?\u2019  That\u2019s pretty much how we left it.  So now what do I do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWell, for starters,\u201d Skip said, having heard everything on speaker phone, \u201cwe need to bring that human sex trafficking to a stop.  How the heck have the local cops missed all that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cOh, that\u2019s another thing,\u201d Susie said.  \u201cThe word on the street is that our local sheriff is corrupt, and people have been asking me and Eloise to help them run somebody new in the next sheriff election.  Do you think a Forward could ever be elected sheriff?  I know we elected a county clerk and a county board member a couple weeks ago . . . \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cOh Geez,\u201d Rocky said.  \u201cNow we have another front \u2013 a friggin\u2019 sheriff in on sex trafficking!  Listen, we\u2019re on our way to sunny Sarasota, Florida.  You wanna buy a plane ticket and come down and see Huck some more?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWish I could, but I don\u2019t have the money.  I\u2019ll keep after Joey to get on board with helping me out.  Let me know what you guys think,\u201d Susie ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     After they hung up, Rocky told Skip he was becoming convinced that there was a tie-in somehow between the jihadi hint of responsibility for the Dodgers Stadium bombing and the posse, now being called Proud Boys, in Boulder. \u201cRemember back a few years ago when the Somali population in Minneapolis was being heavily recruited by the Islamic State? We need to find out if there is any sized Somali population in Vancouver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cSo here’s a theory to ponder: We know Furbush is connected to Abdul some way – after all he allegedly shot him. We know Furbush is connected to Vancouver – he gave Joey some names to look up in Vancouver. Now we know Furbush and the mountain camp are connected to a sex-trafficking ring operating out of Vancouver. I think the next step maybe should be getting Max in on all this,” Skip suggested. “See if he can get his ex, Lisa, to tell us more about her brother Ken – and what Ken knows about Vancouver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*************BOOK  II************ **********THE DOTS START CONNECTING******** Chapter 37 Charlie Furbush\u2019s Other Business      By Monday, November 22, the Rumpkins were in Sarasota, Florida.      Along the way they had an enjoyable, humorous stop in St. Mark\u2019s on Florida\u2019s panhandle (population … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2380"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2792,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380\/revisions\/2792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}