Murder in Coho County

Winter is theater season in the WestBranch (of thesouth fork of the Eel) I have been visiting the coastal retreat of the Holy No Petrols since the seventies. This anti-petroleum cult has been boycotting all the derivitives of that ghastly chemical, living the simple life among a native culture of the West Branch of the South Fork of the Eel. In winter they have traditionally staged various of Plato's Dialogues - with suitable music. This year they have added plays of Camus - the Possessed, Caligula and the Just Assassins, done as puppet theatre with voices.
There is a legitimate California County that the Petrols fringe with its inland capital at Bunyana. My explorations of Coho County - if I am not hunkering down among the denizens of the Petrol Ranchero, the International Settlement on the facing bluffs built around the Lolita Arms Motel and Trailer Park, or the infamous White House of the Marxist-Grouchoists - involves mostly meandering about on the upper reaches of the coast, visiting my sister's eeyrie, her ex-boyfiriend Conrad Lee, or my cousin Donnie who manages my sister's little horse ranch.
However on this day I wanted to check in first with my old buddy, Aloysius West Whitehead, the famous hippie detective. He is another writing hobby horse I ride occasionally for a story whenever I need one. Like a veritable Dr. Witless I have been collecting his casebooks for some time. This includes classics of the 60s (The death of Allard Lowenstein), or the 80s apprehension of the serial killer Jimmie Jansen, the murder of nuke activist Klaus Kirkendorf,or more modern cases like scandalous case of Nan Black (better known locally as the Petrol Napdam Madpan, and several Venice, California murder cases when he was just getting started.
Wishy, as family called him, was currently immersed in a complex set of local murders, a linkage of deaths rooted in genocide and slavery of the mid-19th century right up to a murder committed at the end of 2008.
"Maybe I'll be next," Wishy said to me as I settled down onto an uncomfortable metal folding chair across from his cluttered desk. His office was in the historic building that dominated downtown Coho, once the capital before the Bunyans insisted on Bunyana. An adjoining glass door led to a plusher office inhabited by lawyer Albion MacMoon with whom he had aloose partnership.
MacMoon was a local celebrity, well known for his morning Wake Up show on his Aunt and Uncles radio station. MacMoon did his version of the news, took phone calls and played classic pop vocalists from Billie Holiday to Doris Day. He was doing a Peggy Lee special as I was driving over the hump to get here.