ambulance to deliver your replacement at the resort's front door. You then returned to Boston to impersonate Brad Barker and earn him a doctorate degree. Since Barker was transferring to that university, no one there had seen him prior to your arrival. When the fake Adam arrived in Pinewhittle, he continued to convalesce until the surgery to his nose and chin fully healed. Adam never left his house during that time. He ordered Shirley Teller to bring him supplies as well as bank documents to examine. Shirley would then stamp Adam's signature on those documents. The stamp, of course, would ensure that Adam's signatures would never be detected as a forgery. The day of the explosion, the bank's front doors were unlocked. They were thrown open by the blast and hung askew on their hinges. The grenade did not come into the bank from the exterior portal. You pulled the pin and deposited it in the heavy drawer before sending that grenade through the outgoing function of the conveyance system. Propelling such a weighty object through the tube, in either direction, would have caused the cylinder to lodge above the loan officer's desk. You sent the explosive device and then ran out the front door, probably faster than you have ever run in your life. Then you took the shortcut across the woods and meadows back to the house. No one saw you because of Pinewhittle's unique custom of shutting their stores for a communal lunch period."
King suddenly interceded, "Come now, Detective, how could he have known he wouldn't be seen?"
Loneshark answered, "I suppose that part of his plan was a calculated risk, sir; however, there was no real risk involved. If he had been seen, all he had to do was remove this brown contact lens . . ." Mick opened his hand, showing King the lens he had deftly plucked from Adam's left eye. ". . . and be Adam Midas. He could have easily claimed he had miraculously . . . or heroically . . . escaped from an unknown assailant with a bomb. No one would have doubted his story.
At the cabin Bufford mentioned that Brad had injured hand in an automobile accident and was absent from work the Thursday before and the Friday of the explosion. There was no report of an automobile accident involving a Dr. Brad Barker that week anywhere in the nation. My former partner checked."
"If everything you have told me is true, Mr. Loneshark, how did Adam get out of Pinewhittle after the explosion?"
"The Colorado State Trooper who was in charge of sealing off the valley told me no one passed through their checkpoints except official, emergency vehicles. Geek's research verified
