Lone Star 03 by Wesley Ellis Read Free Book Online

out. And being given such rude treatment by the army must have been the last straw. Which reminds me —
    Jessie stood up and went into the big square room that had been Alex Starbuck’s office and den. She sat down in the oversized leather chair in front of the huge oak rolltop desk that had been her father’s. Alex had bought the desk when he began his first business venture in San Francisco, a small importing firm dealing in goods from the Orient.
    At that time the Circle Star had been a small specialized spread, breeding fine horses as a sideline to catching the wild mustangs that roamed the prairie, breaking them and training them as cattle ponies. The first expansion of his interests had been almost accidental. To tide the Circle Star over a long period of drought that had brought ranching to a standstill, Starbuck had taken a shipload of fine horses to the Far East. Unable to sell them for cash, Alex had taken merchandise in trade, and to dispose of the goods he had been forced to open an Oriental merchandise store in San Francisco.
    It was on this base that Starbuck had built his business empire, which by the time of his death had grown to span the globe. The success of the little store led to his first major expansion from Oriental goods to general merchandise, and from that point the growth that multiplied the Starbuck enterprises had begun. Other retail stores had followed the first one, and led him into dealing as a wholesaler. Then, securing transportation for his goods had gotten him involved in railroads and ocean shipping.
    When he saw that he’d need financing for his railroads and shipping lines, Alex had bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and later added banking to his other enterprises. To secure the raw materials needed to build tracks and coaches, locomotives and steel-hulled steamships; he’d moved into mining and foundries.
    Soon the Starbuck enterprises spilled into Europe, and his expansion there resulted in a series of collisions with a tight, unscrupulous international cartel, which Alex out-maneuvered in deal after deal. As the cartel’s losses from the competition of the aggressive American increased, its masters set out to eliminate Alex, and ultimately succeeded in bringing about his assassination.
    After the death of Jessica’s mother, Alex Starbuck had never considered remarriage. He’d brought up Jessie himself, training her as he would have trained a son to take over the Starbuck enterprises after his death. Neither of them had anticipated that death would take Alex so early, nor that it would be at the hands of a team of killers hired by the international cabal.
    Sitting in her father’s deep leather-upholstered chair, the fragrance of his cherry-flavored pipe tobacco still clinging to the well-worn cushions, Jessie closed her eyes and leaned back for a moment as memories, glad and sad, flowed through her mind. Then she straightened up and rolled the top of the desk open. Reaching into the pigeonhole that only she and Ki knew held the latch of the secret drawer built into the desk, Jessie opened the concealed drawer. Lying on top of a small stack of confidential reports and notes was Alex’s small black notebook containing the data his agents had uncovered regarding the histories and habits of the cartel’s top members.
    Jessie thumbed through the dog-eared pages until she found the entry she was seeking. Her memory had been correct. There, in a condensed version of her father’s flowing script, she read:
    Farnam, Joseph John, Sr.
    Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
    Res: Commonwealth Ave.; summer home Marblehead
    Wife Deborah decsd. ; Farnam never remarried but mntns mistresses Birdie Ostrow, N.Y. actress; Mabel Cross, former secy, Boston
    Chldn: Joseph John, Jr., Leicstr Acad., USMilAcad.; Constance, m. Rbt. Higham; Lynn, m. Ward Peabody
    Bus. offcs Mayflower Ntl Bnk Bldg, State St.; clubs, Somerset, City, Union
    Pol: R
    Textiles,felting, shoes,