The Case Of The Missing Pipe Part IV
-
Kevin Godbee - Nov 3, 2015
- 8 min read
Marshall "Butch" Armstrong
Once inside the house, Sam told Mary not to turn on the lights. He produced a flashlight from inside his coat. Along with this he carried his revolver in the shoulder holster and his 45 in a pocket. He was taking as few chances as possible. With just the small light source he could tell that the house was filled with expensive items. Statuary and paintings in the halls and plush furniture in the various rooms. Mary led them straight to Sylvester’s study. She said she had looked for the pipe when she found it missing, but they were going to look again.
Sam started with the desk drawers. Finding all the usual things one might find in a desk, paperwork and some files, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. One drawer had some tools like a screwdriver and pliers, a small piece of plumbing pipe and some wire. Mary searched the shelves. Pulling out books to look behind them, she found nothing. A couple of cabinets in the room also revealed nothing. "Is there a safe?" Sam asked.
"There is, but I don’t have a key." Mary walked to a large painting of a landscape on the wall and pulled on one side. The painting swung out to reveal a safe about two feet square. It had the usual lever style handle and a key hole. "I never saw him open it." Sam noticed that there were scratches around the key hole. Sam started thinking. "Your husband said the pipe was the key. The key to everything. A pipe isn’t big enough to hold a key and yet he said the pipe was the key." Turning this over in his mind, he suddenly had a thought. Turning to the desk he opened the drawer with the tools. Inside was a four inch piece of plumbing drain pipe about an inch and a half in diameter. Pulling it out revealed that both ends were capped. He shook it. It didn’t make any noise and trying to unscrew the caps he found they wouldn’t budge. Using the pliers and grasping the pipe firmly, one of the caps started to move. Finally getting it off he found paper stuffed inside. Pulling it out and unfolding it, he found a shiny silver key. "Well, the pipe is the key after all," he said. "Just not the pipe we were looking for."
The key slid neatly into the safe lock. Turning it to the right and pulling down on the handle, Sam opened the safe. There on the shelf of the otherwise empty safe sat a beautifully carved Meerschaum pipe on a black onyx pipe stand. He looked at it for a moment before reaching in and taking it out. Mary stood beside him marveling. "That’s it," she whispered. "That’s the pipe he had."
As Mary held the flashlight, Sam sat in the desk chair and looked it over. The bowl was black inside, like it had some kind of coating. The carving was of trees and little houses resembling a country scene. There was no writing on it, nothing to identify it in any way. Nothing in the bowl. The stem had been pushed in slightly crooked. "He said it was the key to everything, but it was locked. That’s what he said. It was locked. I don’t know what he meant." Sam thought about this. How could it be locked? Grasping the stem, he turned it back and forth to pull it out. It wouldn’t budge. So that’s how it’s locked, he thought. He couldn’t understand how the stem could turn around easy enough but wouldn’t pull out. It’s locked, he thought again. But how? "I suppose you could break it," said Mary. Sam looked at her for a moment. "Well, it’s just a thought."
"Were not breaking it." Sam said. "It’s locked, just like he said. I just don’t understand how. Maybe it’s…. maybe it’s like a lock." The pipe had a longer than usual shank and Sam suddenly envisioned a system of slots inside. Grasping the stem firmly, he pulled on it while turning it slowly around. Thinking it might be like a combination lock, he turned to the right. Three fourths of the way around it suddenly popped out an eighth of an inch. Mary watched intently. Continuing to pull on the stem he turned it the other way. Three fourths of the way back, it pulled out another eighth of an inch. Turning once more to the right, this time only half way around the stem came free. Mary let out a squeal. Sam peered down into the pipe shank and said, "How the hell did this thing get carved like that?"
"Oh who cares?" Mary exclaimed. "Is there anything in there?" Sam looked at her again. She’s practically salivating, he thought. He looked in the air hole of the stem and found that there was something in it.
"You have a tweezers?"
"I’ll get one!" Mary ran out of the room, leaving Sam in the dark. She seemed to be pretty excited about finding clues to this mystery. Sam wasn’t sure what to think. Quickly tapping the stem on the desk and feeling with his finger Sam pulled something out of the stem air hole. In his fingers in the dark, it felt like a flimsy piece of plastic, like film. Sam slipped this into an inside pocket just before the flashlight beam came bobbing back in the room followed by Mary. She handed him a tweezers. Poking around in the stem and shank, Sam found nothing.
"Well Mary, there doesn’t seem to be anything here. You seemed pretty excited to locate this pipe. What were you thinking we would find?" Sam twisted the stem back into the shank.
"I…uh…well I don’t know. It just seemed like these clues were adding up to something. These guys, these thugs are after this pipe. It seems like there must be something this thing would lead us too. Now it looks like a dead end."
"You never told me what they were after, Mary. How do you know they’re after this pipe?"
Suddenly the room was bathed in light. Sam’s eyes smarted and he closed them quickly. Blinking them open he found himself looking into the barrels of three pistols. The bad guys again, and he hadn’t heard them coming. How do they do that, he wondered? The thug nearest him stepped aside as another man walked into the room. This guy wasn’t wearing a mask like the other three. He was handsome, with salt and pepper hair. Wearing a tailored black three piece suit he walked into the room with ease.
"Well done, Mary." he said. He put his arm around her shoulder, leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. "You should have went into acting. You were very good." Salt and Pepper leaned forward and took the pipe from Sam’s hands.
"Sam looked in the pipe, Vince. he didn’t find anything."
"Don’t worry Mary. This pipe holds more secrets than you know."
"Someone mind telling me what’s going on here?" Sam asked.
"Well Mr. Barton, it seems you’ve been taken for a ride. I suppose I could tell you since you won’t live long enough for it to do you any good. You see, Sylvester Gialone was my business partner. It seems he grew a conscience over the years and decided to turn states evidence in return for immunity from the cops. Mary and I had been having an affair for some time and when she let me know this, we got rid of him. Unfortunately, he left some evidence behind. Mary let us know about the pipe, and we’ve been looking for it for quite awhile." Waving his hand toward the safe, he said, "This safe is super reinforced steel. Since we couldn’t get into it we decided to enlist some outside help. You were it. A man of your talents would surely find a way into it. And you did. But I’m afraid that’s all we need from you, Mr Barton."
The man turned and walked toward the door with Mary. She looked back at Sam over her shoulder and smiled. The man said, "Boys, you know what to do."
A moment later Sam heard them shutting the front door. As quick as he could he reached out and deftly snatched the gun from the hand of the closest thug. Sticking it right into the guy’s ribs, he pulled the trigger. The sound was deafening in the small office. The man let out a yell and fell to the floor. As he was falling, Sam pulled out his revolver and started blasting at the other two who were taking cover behind the desk. Sam slid down to the floor and shot under the desk, hitting another one in the leg. Screaming, the man rolled away. The third guy shot a couple more times at Sam, bullets hitting books behind the desk. As Sam waited, the thug with the leg wound peeked around the desk. Sam shot him, hitting him in the neck. Blood spilled and the man went quiet.
Sam edged over to the first guy he shot and caught site of the man’s shoes. Felt soles, he thought. So that’s how they did it. The last guy was on the other side of the desk. Time to make his play. Sam stood and rushed the guy, but he was waiting for him. The man held his pistol in both hands and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit Sam square in the chest, lifting him right off his feet. His body slammed against the book shelf on the wall. Books flew everywhere as Sam’s body collapsed to the floor. The bad guy got up and gave Sam a couple kicks in the leg. He heard sirens in the distance. This guys dead, he thought, and ran for the door.
To be continued….
|
Marshall Lee Armstrong enjoys camping, fly fishing, kayaking, painting, drumming and writing. He has published two books of poetry and writes a blog called "The Window". He is 58-years old, and has worked as a Rock Band Drummer, Electroplater, Chemical Process Technician, and Circuitry Manufacturing Supervisor. He is currently a Medical Lab Technician. He started smoking pipes in 1980. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
More Pipes and Tobaccos Articles
5 Responses
Recent Posts
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 640. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Ben Rapaport. Ben has been known internationally as an avid pipe smoker, antique pipe collector, and book author. His first book on pipes was published in 1972, and his latest book – his 10th – is out now in very limited quantities. The distribution has already sold out, but you can still get a copy of “The Wide World of Wood Tobacco Pipes. Two Centuries of Craftsmanship and Creativity” by contacting him directly at ben70gray@gmail.com. At the top of the show we’ll be turning the tables on our recurring Ask the Pipemaker segment. This time, Jeff Gracik will ask the questions, which Brian will answer as a pipe collector, and you can give your answers too.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 639. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Per Billhäll. Per is the owner of Scandinavian Pipes, which is an online retailer of high grade pipes. He started smoking pipes in the 1960s. His first high grade pipe was made by Hans “Former” Nielsen, who is one of the living legends from Denmark. That led to Per becoming a huge pipe and tobacco collector, and show attendee where he became well known. Along with pipe book author Jan Andersson, they started The Pipe Club of Sweden in 1991. Then in 1999, Per started “Scan Pipes”. He is now one of the pipe retailing legends from Sweden. At the top of the show Brian will talk about holiday blends, and other special pipe tobacco blends.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 638. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Fae “The Sassy Pipe Lady” Simmons. Fae is the owner of Tobacco Treasures, which sells new, vintage, & estate pipes, and smoking accessories on Etsy. She has been in business since 2017, and has been surrounded by pipes and tobacco most of her life. Her father and his brother smoked pipes, and so does Fae. Her husband is also a retired tobacconist that worked all over the industry from coast to coast for several different companies in the industry. She has a great story of how her business got started with a great inventory of unsmoked vintage pipes. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Ok, so it’s that time of year, as we all know. Family feasts, houses, yards, and big trees festooned with lights and dangling ornaments, just high enough to keep the cats from reaching a paw into the greenery. It’s also the time of year when your pipe-smoking-significant other makes vast hints about a new pipe. That’s to be expected since he or she was a good boy or girl during the year. Yes, ladies smoke pipes, too. Oh, you want an example? Okay, try Actress Greta Garbo, Millicent Fenwick, Mary Frith, and my late grandmother (who died when she was 93) dipped snuff and smoked a cob occasionally. So now that we have settled that the gentler side of life will puff a pipe too, let’s move on to the upcoming biggest holiday of all. Of course, that huge event is brought to us by the hefty fellow in a red suit, puffing his pipe all the way in a sled filled with presents, being led by a reindeer with a red nose. Or some such. That’s Santa Claus, of course. Becoming a bit more serious, Christmas is such a wonderful time for families and friends. It’s also quite special for pipe puffers. For many of us, this brings up a nostalgic look back to our pipe-smoking or cigar-smoking friends who have died during the current year. A great journalist pal whom I often joined in a local brick-and-mortar pipe and cigar shop. I puffed my pipe, and occasional cigar, as he enjoyed a cigar. He died in October and will be missed. On the happier side of things, Christmas is also a time when mind workers of the world renew their collections with fresh additions. Pundit included. A French passion has overtaken Pundit, from reading more Albert Camus, a heavy cigarette smoker, as were many French intellectuals of a certain time. Instead of cigarettes many of us prefer the more relaxed enjoyment of pipes for that “calm and objective judgment” in the comings and goings of the world. This brings me to French pipes. While visiting France once in the long ago, I happened by a “Tabac” shop in Paris, Tabac Des Vosges. I purchased a beauty of a Chacom bent. I also later bought a Ropp made from ancient briar. To learn more about the dawn of briar pipes and beginnings, take a peek at a well-done piece by Davin Hylton in Pipe Line on April 12, 2023, on Saint-Claude, France, the birthplace of briar. Also in the long back when, on a cold Christmas afternoon, Pundit wandered into an Atlanta bricks and mortar pipe shop to look around. There, resting in an enclosed glass counter was an exquisite Comoy. An older gent, smoking a beautiful bent, asked me if I wanted to look at that pipe. It had a $100 price tag. A college student working for a grocery store chain to help with college tuition at the time, Pundit didn’t have one hundred cents, let alone a C note! I declined and found a $5 basket pipe. A Christmas tradition had just begun. Since that early time, Pundit has made it a holiday ritual to either reward himself, or a special friend, with pipe or tobacco. A Claudio Cavicchi would be nice. Just sayin.’ And now for a couple of December-born Pipe Smokers of the Past: Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born on Dec. 30, 1865, and died on Jan. 18, 1936. I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble—Rudyard Kipling. Martin Van Buren, born Dec. 5, 1782, and died July 24, 1862, U.S. President, 1837-1841 As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it—Martin Van Buren. And one more note to recall a deceased World War II veteran who loved William Somerset Maugham, the author. Maugham, a pipe smoker, was born in Paris, France, on Jan. 25, 1874, and died on Dec. 16, 1965. One cool afternoon as the veteran and I talked while sitting in his backyard patio, he looked off into the distance as if studying something. Nothing in particular. Just looking. He turned to me and said if I wanted to learn about life, “read Somerset Maugham.” I did. It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know’ –W. Somerset Maugham And now a Parting Shot: Any day with an old friend with pipes and tobacco is a good day.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 637. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Nate King. Most people know of Nate as an excellent pipe artisan. He also has an honorary Master of Pipes degree from the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club, and is a member of the prestigious Confrérie des Maitres Pipiers de Saint-Claude. To be inducted into the Confrérie, this past May Nate travelled to Saint-Claude, France with master tobacco blender G.L. Pease, who was also inducted. It was quite a time in France, and at the ceremony. We’ll hear all about those adventures on the show. At the top of the show we’ll continue the virtual tour of Brian’s pipe collection with six of his Satou Dublin-shape pipes.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 636. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Barry Kane. Barry started smoking a pipe in 1961 when he was 14-years old. Back then it seemed like everybody smoked, and you could buy pipes and tobacco just about anywhere. Barry is a true old-school pipe smoker, sticking to just one blend. See if you can guess which one before listening. At the top of the show Brian will give his take on Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s purchase of Mac Baren and Sutliff Tobacco and their announcement that they will be shut down.
I’m really loving this series. Part 5 can’t come soon enough.
Great job.
Thanks Fitzy. Your comments help me know people are reading.
I am loving this! Great job.
Eagerly awaiting the next episode!
I, also, am enjoying this very much.