The Case of the Mysterious Fires!

[telerib]

Sailing into Charlette Amalie on his yacht, Reg noticed some familiar boats already present. One was owned by the nearby St. Croix electric company - he recalled that from the research he'd done for the "business trip" cover on this jaunt. Another belonged to Herr Fritz Gerhardt, a German involved in the weapons industry. But the last was the most heartening: the Elettra, which most probably housed Signora Elettra Bezzi-Scali, a rich young Italian lady of Reg's acquaintance. He had a letter delievered to the ship, letting her know he was in the area, and the party disembarked for the posher accomodations of Hotel 1829.

The atmosphere was overall festive, since Carnival was in full swing. Calypso music rang through the streets, the scent of fried johnny cakes was in the air, and people did their best to forget the strange fires plaguing the city.

After checking in, the group settled down with some old papers Phineas procured from the concierge. Before long, Adam had a clipping collection going that would have put Max Carnent to shame! Among the patterns he discerned:

• There had been a fire every day for the past week, except Sunday.
  
• All the fires took place within an hour of noon.
  
• There was no pattern to the victims detectable
  
• Popular opinion put the West Indian Company, which supplied electric power to the island, at fault
  
• Someone thought that the fires were supernatural, and had summoned an exorcist from Rome.
  

Phineas Long found something of interest on Page 3; her name was Erza, and she was Miss Tuesday.

Dr. Olsson monitored the electric flow to the room around noon, but found no odd spikes in current or voltage. She also searched the junk shops for one of the devices which had caught fire, but didn't find one.

Adam and Dr. Olsson decided to go to the different fire sites to investigate; Reg and Phineas took in the exorcism.

The "insurance investigators" heard a lot of the same stories over and over; people sitting around when suddenly something caught fire! In at least one case, it was a sofa, and no sparks were seen coming from any of the lights or the wireless radio in the same room. The big coup was acquiring a lamp which had caused a fire. As Dr. Olsson examined the shattered bulb, Adam pointed to something with his fountain pen - and was amazed when the pen was drawn down into contact with the lamp body. It was magnetic! Dr. Olsson deduced that the lamp must have been exposed to a strong electromagnetic field for this to have happened.

Meanwhile, at the exorcism, Phineas made a smart-alec comment that "This will never work!" Reg shushed him, but not before a local could agree with him! They asked the fellow what he meant, and he tried to shuffle away, but Reg turned up the charm. Somewhat hestitantly, as if he feared that his words would get a bad reaction, he said that some of the local elders thought that the fires were being caused by angry island spirits. The spirits weren't demons, so the exorcism would have no effect. Reg and Phineas speculated that the spirits were angry about the encroaching technology and electricity, but the fellow shook his head - rather, the spirits were angry that the electric company wasn't giving them proper respect.

So with two very different leads, the party reformed at the Hotel 1829 - to be met by Elettra Bezzi-Scali! She and her Papi were in town for Carnival, she said, and she was ever so glad to see Reggie again! And Adam, the gentleman with the briefcase who loomed at the party. And she was *very* glad to make the acquaintance of Dr. Phineas Long, who had turned up his own charm when he'd seen Elettra walk through the door.

Dr. Olsson, for her part, tried to remember why "Bezzi-Scali" kept ringing bells... of course! Dr. Antonio Bezzi-Scali! The eccentric inventor who'd teamed with Marconi on wireless radio a few years back. His inventions were Inspired, but his success rate was spotty. He was an older man, and could easily be Elettra's father. That a genius in the field of wireless energy transmission should be in port at the very time that fires were starting with no apparent cause seemed a little too coincidental to Dr. Olsson. When she asked how long the Bezzi-Scalis had been in port, Elettra cheerfully confirmed that it had been about a week, now.

At that, Adam asked her to join him away from the table to speculate on this point. Dr. Olsson thought this was a little obvious, and back at the table, Adam and Phineas were spinning the yarn that the two had been "dancing around each other." Eletrra opined that they'd be a cute couple. Adam, overhearing this and wanting to reinforce the impression, asked her to slap him, which she did. He used that as a good reason to exit the room gracefully.

At the table, dinner wound down. Dr. Olsson asked to meet Elettra's father, and she said she'd ask him about it. Dr. Long volunteered to escort the lady back to her ship, which seemed to suit her just fine.

Adam, up in the room, managed to contact several officials of the West Indian Company and set them to work looking up Dr. Bezzi-Scali, to see if he'd had any contact with them in the past. Similarly, he called up the NY Times to ask his contact there, the editor, to have past issues searched for any connection between the two. The idea that Bezzi-Scali had a grudge against the company and was seeking revenge by ruining their business had occurred to him.

But Elettra Bezzi-Scali never made it back to her ship! En route, Phineas was cowardly attacked from behind and left unconscious all night. In the morning, he found himself with a bloody bump on his head and Elettra gone! He hurried back to the hotel.

He wasn't there long when a roaring stream of Italian floated up from the lobby. Dr. Bezzi-Scali was raising holy hell, waving Reg's note to Elettra in the air and demanding to know where his daughter was. Adam went down to intercept the gentleman and calm him down, and Phineas left via the back door to report the incident to the US Marines, who served as the local police force. (St. Thomas was under the administration of the Navy at the time, and Marines are cool).

Adam and Reg went off to collect Phineas from the Marines and go see where he'd been waylaid. Dr. Olsson stayed behind to talk to Dr. Bezzi-Scali about his work.

It was a good thing the men left when they did. Adam found the crime scene mostly untouched, which would not have been the case had the Marines gotten there first. Six men, he deduced, had lurked here. Two had attacked Phineas, two had grabbed the girl, and two had stood in front of the affair to try and obscure it from any passers-by. Their trail clearly lead inland. A collection of burned items - matches, cigarette butts, and a strange carved lump of charcoal - was also present. He thought that they had some occult significance, but could not figure out just what. He sent for Dr. Olsson to join them.

Dr. Olsson, meanwhile, learned that Dr. Bezzi-Scali was working on an emergency beacon. It worked similarly to wireless radio, but on a different electromagnetic wavelength. By focussing the power of the transmission in only one direction, and then rotating it, he hoped to create a "lighthouse" effect by which an SOS could be projected from a troubled ship much farther for the same power. A lot of power was involved! By itself, it shouldn't have caused the fires, but Dr. Olsson was sure that this was somehow responsible. Before she could get much further, one of Adam's legal aides came to bring her to the rest of the group. She invited Antonio to go with them.

Who kidnapped the fair Elettra? To what evil ends? What will they find at the other end of that trail, in the tropical jungle?

Tune In Next Week!