Here is something that you can think about. On Sunday, December 17, Sergeant Gonzalez is going to have his world turned upside down. There is a good chance he is going to be thoroughly pissed off. I don't doubt Henry will catch a lot of flack. I don't think it would be advisable for Henry to tell the sergeant, "I told you so."
Even after Dirk gives him the unvarnished truth, all Dirk's claims will have to be verified. On top of everything else, it is a Sunday. Any records which need to be checked will not be immediately available.
You better believe the States Attorney will be over the roof when he finds he has been sucker punched. He was the one who went to the judge to remove the possible Fugitive charges. I don't doubt there will be an attempt made to rescind the agreement. Sergeant Gonzalez is not likely to be his favorite police officer.
Well maybe the authorities can figure out a way to proceed with the Murder Charge for killing Arnold.
Move out of Florida ASAP.
........I seem to lost my sunglasses!!
I don't think Gonzales will be to upset, after all what he is really after is justice. Now he will concentrate on Bridget and George maybe bring in the Feds on this.
He might call up Fowler and ask him if he could start a record search on Rachel Carlson, might get a surprise answer!
I doubt there will any pursuit of charges against Dirk, they really had nothing on him in regards to Arnold, it was all conjecture based that he was guilty of murdering Rachel. They just wanted to lump in other charges to get a airtight conviction.
Joel should be getting the word about Dirk shortly after the 17th. Then he and Lisa can pillowtalk in Bridget's guest house. When the Deadly Duo learn Dirk is free and clear regarding Rachel and learn the Ares was not destroyed, that is when things will get interesting.
I wonder how well Lisa will handle Bridget now that she is suspicious of her.
I doubt Basingstoke will have completed the hit on Trevor before the start of Chapter 98. I have no doubt that somewhere in Chapter 97 will be a humdinger of a Cliffhanger. The Goat has already said those two chapters, 98 and 99 are ready to go. This will create a three week CLIFFHANGER. Do you really think the Goat will pass up that kind of opportunity.
Good job summarizing the possibilities about Rachel. I think Lisa is in for a big letdown regarding the witch Bridget. I agree our esteemed Capricorn will be up to his ugly tail in cliffies because he fancies himself a mountain goat!
Your posting brings one question to mind. I wonder if some astute reader will comment, "No matter which end of The Goat you look at, he is ugly." Nah, that is not likely to happen.
Benji, I know he has said that. However think of all the man hours he has spent pursuing a phantom. It is highly probable he may say to himself, "Why didn't I think of that." It will really hit him hard if he did briefly consider the possibility and said to himself, "Nope, that ain't possible."
I don't doubt he will eventually do that.
My comment on the authorities pursuing a murder conviction for Arnold's murder was meant to be tongue in cheek.
I re-read ch96 as prep for 97. And something struck me: "the farm". The farm??!!! Since when has the silver-salvered immaculately-manicured Bridget ever had anything to do with farming? And since when has farming ever had anything to do with handbags? Never.
Unless it's a crocodile farm. Or an aligator farm. The evil crone is talking about Joel and Lisa, a "farm", "death" and a "new handbag", all in the same paragraph. That can only mean one thing - the witch is planning to kidnap Joel and Lisa and feed them to her hungry pets and the one that bites, crushes and eats them will then have to be shot, as evidence for the authorities of "a terrible accident - such a tragedy" - and she then gets her new handbag from the skin. Here we were, all worried about the possible violent and bloody deaths of Trev + Shane, and all along The Goat has been misdirecting us as to his evil plans for a blood-spurting double murder on the other side of the World.
Maybe she has a farm similar to the one featured in the movie, "Live and Let Die."
Leave my tail out of this!
And I'd never, ever use a cliffhanger, so no worries there.
I have that problem, from time to time.
Zombie... how could that be? You know that nothing bad ever happens in my stories, right?
Maybe Bridget was just thinking of taking Lisa and Joel out for a fun-filled day at a local farm, out of the goodness of her heart, thinking they'd enjoy it?
One thing I love abotu Florida is the gators. They are everywhere! Even in downtown Orlando, I had alligators in the pond behind the hotel, just a few feet from the breakfast patio.
One time at Everglades national park I had a great laugh. A group of tourists was right outside the visitor center door (maybe six feet from it, on the pavement) quite taken with the very lifelike "model" of a large alligator. Right up until it opened its eyes, and they understood that it wasn't a model at all. It was just a big gator, happy in a sunny spot.
There are million of them in Florida, and they don't kill many people each year, so they aren't as dangerous as most people think. Some common sense helps though. Here's a news story about a car burglar, who tried to evade police by jumping into a pond and swimming across. I find it interesting that the news site put it in the problem-solvers category.
There are an above-average number of missing-persons cases in Florida, where the person was last seen near on of the countless canals, ponds, waterways, etc, all over Florida.
I also remember another use for gators. I've seen them used as guard dogs! A scrapyard there was near a pond, and every night they'd leave a trail of meat to lure some of the gators into the yard itself, then lock up for the night. In the morning, they'd lure them out the same way. They said they hadn't had any problem with break-ins since.