chapter 6,7

Chapter 6 A movie star

I called Gershon on my cell phone.

'Susan Hunter,' I said. 'She seems to be very active in the fight against land development.'

'Yeah, she was,' he said. 'But she hasn't done anything for a while.'

'Where does she live?' I asked.

'Big house up on Hillside,' he said. Hillside was the part of Pine Crest where all the famous people lived.

'Good,' I said. 'I'll go to see her. Oh, and did you hear from the hospital?' 'Yes,' he said.

'And?' I asked. Working with Gershon was slow.

'Well, they are sure now that it was murder,' he said, 'and it was a man.'

'What time did she die?' I asked. 'Between ten-thirty and eleven,' he said.

Janine Anderson died minutes before Teresa Douglas went to the pool and found her body. And probably minutes after the waiters at the Columbine left.

I put my phone away and felt my gun in my inside pocket. At three o'clock that afternoon I parked my Chevy next to Susan Hunter's Jaguar, outside her beautiful big house. Movie stars, I thought. They don't like development, but they live in big houses!

I got out of my car and looked at the mountains. I saw that there were cameras everywhere around the house. A very tall man came to the door. I could see that he had a gun under his jacket.

 

I showed him my City of Denver police badge. 'Good afternoon, Detective Laine,' he said, smiling.

He took me into the star's living room. A few moments later, she walked in.

Susan Hunter was a beautiful woman in her thirties, with black hair and clear blue eyes. She was dressed in grey trousers and a red blouse with a high neck. We sat together in the very big living room, drinking tea. Around the room, there were photos of the star with other famous movie stars. There were also photos of her husband and three children.

'Yes, in the past it was gold and silver, Detective Laine,' she said, taking a drink of her tea. 'Now it's ski resorts. There's always some reason why we need land.'

I waited for more.

'But,' she said, 'it can't go on like this. The land is not ours.

It's for our children and our grandchildren to enjoy. This is such a beautiful place.'

'Yes, it's lovely,' I agreed. We looked out of the window.

The sun was starting to go down over the Rocky Mountains and the sky was pink and orange.

'But ski resorts mean big money,' she went on, 'and it's difficult to stop people buying and developing the land.' Her voice became very quiet. 'Look at Redridge,' she said.

'Oh yes,' I said. Redridge was a small town thirty miles away. It was an old silver town.

'Well,' she said, 'three years ago Redridge was a small, quiet town. Now it's a very big resort with hotels, expensive stores and restaurants, and ski runs everywhere. It has thousands of visitors every year.' 'So?' I asked. 'Isn't that good for the town?'

Susan Hunter laughed. 'Have you seen it?' she asked. 'Tell me more,' I said.

'The Government Land Office,' she said, 'bought the Redridge land fifty years ago. Then, in 1997, they- the GLO - wanted to sell the land. They knew they could sell it as a vacation resort and get a lot of money.'

I knew that this happened a lot. The government was always trying to find ways to make money. Susan Hunter went on: 'So they asked vacation resort companies to tell them about their plans for the town. There were five big companies that wanted to develop Redridge. The company that won was Alpine Resorts. Their boss is a guy called Ricky Klein.'

'Ricky Klein?' I asked.

'He's always in the newspapers,' she said. 'He's very rich and he has hundreds of businesses. Alpine Resorts was already famous for Alpine Resorts Oregon, which destroyed beautiful natural forests. Three of the other four companies all had good plans for Redridge. They wanted to save its natural beauty,' she went on.

'So why did the GLO choose the worst plan?' I asked. 'Ha! That's the big question, Detective Laine,' said Susan Hunter. 'I guess that Ricky Klein gave someone in the GLO a lot of money.'

'Money? A bribe?' I asked.

Susan Hunter nodded. 'A bribe,' she said. 'Millions of dollars, I guess.'

'And why wasn't it in the newspapers?' I asked. 'I mean, you knew about it ... who else?'

'The GLO kept everything quiet until the last minute,' she

said. 'Then it was too late. My group was called Save Colorado. We knew about the bribe from someone who worked for the GLO. But we don't know who took the bribe.'

I looked at her. 'Did you know Janine Anderson?' I asked. 'Yes, I did a little,' she said quietly. 'She came here to talk to me last year. I told her what I knew.'

That's it, I thought. Janine Anderson found out the name of the person in the Government Land Office who took the money.

It was quiet for a few moments.

And what about Pine Crest?' I asked.

'Well,' Susan Hunter said, 'the next Alpine Resorts development will be in Pine Crest, later this year. What happened to Redridge will happen here. They'll kill its natural beauty.' She smiled sadly. And no-one can save it.'

I stood up to go. At the door, I turned round. 'There's one thing I don't understand,' I said.

'You mean why don't I do something about this? Why didn't I tell the police before now?' she asked.

She pulled down the neck of her red blouse. On her neck, very near her throat, there was a big scar. From a knife. 'Detective Laine, I have three children, a wonderful husband and my work,' she said. 'I don't want to die.' 'What happened?' I asked.

'It was a year ago. Oh, I can't say who it was,' she said. 'It happened at night and I didn't see his face. But I'm sure it was because of all this. These are dangerous days. We must be very careful.'

Yeah, dangerous days, I thought. I felt my gun under my jacket and left the movie star's house.

 

 

Chapter 7

A visit to Redridge

 

I drove away from Susan Hunter's house and back to my hotel. 1 thought about my talk with the movie star. Ricky Klein of Alpine Resorts gave someone in the Government Land Office a bribe to take the worst plan for Redridge. And Janine Anderson knew all about it. But who was it, and how did Janine find out?

1 went back to my room and called Gershon.

'Bill, 1 want a full list of people in the Government Land Office since 1996. Can you ask one of your men to get it for me?'

'I guess so,' said Gershon.

Same old Gershon. What was wrong with the guy?

The next morning 1 woke up early. picked up my gun. 1 remembered Susan Hunter's question: about Redridge: 'Have you seen it?'

It was time to visit Redridge. 1 wanted to see it for myself. 1 got in the Chevy and drove the thirty miles to the town. 'Welcome to Redridge, home of Alpine Resorts Colorado'

said the sign as 1 drove in. The town was busy with people on vacation. Skiers, mostly. On Main Street there were some stores and restaurants. Then, at the end of the street, I found the beginning of Alpine Resorts Colorado. At the gate was a man in a blue uniform.

'Good morning, how can 1 help you?' he asked. He smiled and showed very white teeth. 'Well,' I said, 'I'm just visiting, you know, and I'd like to take a look.'

'Of course,' he smiled. 'I'll ask someone to show you around.'

I waited. He talked to someone on the phone. A few minutes later a young blonde woman walked up to me. She smiled a lot too.

'Good morning,' she said, shaking my hand. 'My name is Tina Nielson from Alpine Resorts. Let me show you around our beautiful resort.'

We started walking. Alpine Resorts Colorado was almost like a small city. When you went through the big gate there were a lot of different buildings. There were three swimming pools, four hotels, vacation homes, restaurants and ski rental. It was very, very big.

'We have the complete vacation here,' smiled Tina. 'You can do everything. You don't have to leave Alpine Resorts.'

I looked around. Many of the buildings were so big that you couldn't see the mountains.

'Yes,' she went on. 'It's a vacation for the whole family.

And the skiing is very good. We have all the ski runs in Redridge right here.'

'You mean,' I said, 'if! want to ski I have to stay here?' 'Well,' she said, 'of course you can ski just for the day. But the ski runs are ours. I mean Alpine Resorts'.' 'And how much is a ski pass?' I asked.

'It's three hundred dollars a day,' she said.

Three hundred dollars! That was double the cost of a ski pass in Pine Crest. Alpine Resorts was very expensive; someone was making a lot of money!

'But why don't you try it?' she said.

'Well, I'm a little busy ... ' I started.

'Come on,' she said. 'We'll be happy to give you a half­price ski pass for the morning. That will be just seventy-five dollars.'

'Well, OK,' I said. I could ski for an hour or two, I thought. I needed some time to think.

I went to the ski rental, and got some skis, boots and poles.

I went up the mountain on a ski lift and spent an hour or two skiing the lower runs. It was a beautiful day to be on the mountains. But from the top I could see how big Alpine Resorts really was.

At about eleven-thirty, I went into a cafe halfway up the mountain. There were a lot of other skiers there.. I drank my coffee, took my ski run map out of my pocket and looked at it. Up above the cafe there were some difficult, black runs with interesting names like Mad Dog and Killer Run. I wanted to try them. And I wanted to get away from the people. I needed to think.

I took the Mountain Tops ski lift up another 1,000 feet.

Here, at 10,500 feet, the world was white and quiet. It was very cold. There were almost no people, just a few figures far away. Most skiers stayed down below. I felt alone. I put my hand in the pocket on the inside of my coat and felt my gun.

I wanted to go up even higher, to 12,000 feet, almost to the top of the mountain. I started to walk slowly to the Summit ski lift. Suddenly, I heard somebody behind me. 'Detective Laine,' said a man's voice.

I turned around. The man was wearing a black ski mask. I couldn't see his face. Just his brown eyes.

I moved away from the man quickly. But the man came closer to me and said in my ear: 'Turn around, Detective. We're going to get on the ski lift together.' I felt something hard in my back. It felt like a gun. There were no people, anywhere. Just the man with the gun and me.

'And don't do anything stupid,' he said, 'or I'll kill you.'