Chester chuckled. “I’m pleased to meet an amateur agrarian,” he said. “Some kinds of corn still make one ear per stalk, but many others are hybridized and produce two and even three. Still, our corn is special. I’ll show you why.” Chester led them over to a row of baskets filled with flowers of a stunningly iridescent blue. “We’ve been experimenting with a new type of fertilizer in our fields. It’s the same formula that I’ve used to help grow these magnificent blue Phalaenopses. This type of orchid is often extremely difficult to grow, especially with color this brilliant. But thanks to our breakthrough fertilizer, the task has been made remarkably easy. I’d tell you more about it sometime after our patent issues are dealt with, but for now, I must pay homage to a busy day ahead by getting some sleep.”

At that moment, the greenhouse door flew open, and in stepped a well-groomed, nattily dressed man of slight stature, perhaps five-foot-seven. In his early forties, he was quite handsome, with chiseled features, raven hair gelled straight back, and dark, piercing eyes.

“What’s going on here?” the new arrival asked sharply, moving so that he stood shoulder to shoulder next to Chester, and eyeing Lou, Cap, and George as if they had dropped in from Mars.

“Ah, Edwin,” Chester said. “It appears we have had a disturbance in one of our fields.”

“Then what are you doing even talking to these people without our attorney?”

Chester actually seemed somewhat cowed next to the man. “I just didn’t feel it was necessary,” he said.

“Sometimes I wonder how you’ve made it this far, Father.”

“Gentlemen,” William Chester said, “I’d like you to meet Edwin Chester, my son.”

Chapter 32

CHAPTER 32

Edwin Chester stood motionless beside his father, at the center of the magnificent greenhouse. Lou introduced himself by name, but the scion made no attempt to shake his hand. Cap and George received the same chilly greeting.

Edwin’s gaze turned first to Stone, then back to Chester. “What sort of disturbance?” he asked, gesturing toward Lou and the other two. “What happened to these men?”

“We were attacked,” Cap said. “Ambushed. That’s what happened. And in your father’s cornfield.”

“What’s my father’s is mine,” Edwin said. “Ambushed by whom? What are you talking about?”

Lou paid close attention to Edwin’s reaction. His surprise appeared to be genuine, as did his indignation about having to deal with this situation at all.

“These three are from D.C.,” Chester said. “They say they followed two men out here whom they believed were following them. They claim there was an ambush and gunfire, and that at least two men were killed. One of them was their friend.”

“My cousin,” George corrected.

“Chief Stone is here to investigate, and I’ve offered our complete cooperation.”