Chapter 4
The next morning Britt Reid sat at the large oak desk in his office at The Daily Sentinel. He was in a meeting which Axford had arranged with Vince Mercer, the city coroner.
"And you say, Mr. Mercer, that what happened to that family is an extremely rare case?"
"More than rare, Mr. Reid. It's next to impossible for most people. Before a rupture of stomach lining, generally there is either vomiting or swelling of the throat occurs to prevent any esophageal damage. But this can cause choking. In some cases nausea followed by loss of conciousness occurs as a result of excess insulin secretion and hormonal shifts." The overweight man adjusted himself in the comfortable leather chair, straightening his white suit as he did so. "While overeating is common, there has to be some kind of mental block or general eating disorder to avoid the built in instincts of satiety. Most of the time the human body is incapable of overeating in any extreme fashion that would pose an immediate health concern." The coroner sat back in the chair and smiled at Britt. "That's not to say that years of overeating isn't bad for us."
"Then what could have possessed these people to eat so much? I mean we put the story out last evening in an extra edition, but I'm afraid my reporter's details were scarce."
"The cause is a mystery, Mr. Reid. That family consumed a combined total of just over twenty-five pounds of food. We recorded the two boys at just over six pounds each, roughly four liters, and the parents ate nearly seven pounds or five liters each. No mean feat given that the stomach is designed to expand by an average of just one liter during any given meal. You see, when we eat, food is partially liquified in preparation for digestion. Our stomachs can normally hold around one to one and a half liters of food and drink comfortably. Most cases of a burst stomach or tearing of the lining come once we've eaten around four to five liters of food."
"So you have no theories then?" Britt was visibly frustrated.
"I don't have a real answer. For that you probably need a neurologist. Something was happening in their minds to trigger some kind of habitual consumption."
"One of my reporter's talked to the police and came in with news just before you came in. The police found that most of the food that was served at that dinner came from the Gray Street Grocery and Market. Could the food have been tampered with? Is there any known chemical or drug perhaps to impede the body's recognition of satiety?" Britt asked the man.
"Not to my knowledge, Mr. Reid. We don't really know what's in our food but food manufacturers aren't out to cause harm, I'm sure."
"Of course not, Mr. Mercer." Britt looked down at a copy of the coroner's report in front of him.
"Anything more I can help you with before I go, Mr. Reid?"
"Well, unfortunately I don't think so. You'll call my office won't you if you can think of anything more that I could use?"
"Sure. I'll do that."
"Thanks for meeting with me. You've been a great help."
"Thank you, Mr. Reid." The coroner rose up from the chair. "Goodbye." He walked to the door, put on his white fedora and left the office.
"Bye, Sir." Reid waved as the man closed the door.
Hours had passed and Britt Reid was at home with his faithful Philipino valet, Kato. They were eating an early dinner of steaks with roasted potatoes as Britt discussed the murder case with his friend.
"Are we going out tonight then, Mr. Britt? A visit by the Green Hornet to Gray Street Market?"
"I think so. The store closes at seven o'clock. If we show up thirty minutes after closing perhaps everyone but the owner will be gone. Now, the owner is Joe Greggors and according to Casey he is a friendly, generous and pleasant man. Perhaps he's unaware of the tainted food but I have my suspicions. I'll clean up dinner later. C'mon, Kato. It's time to pay a call to Mr. Greggors as The Green Hornet."
The two men got up from the dinner table and rushed from the dining room of the luxurious and expansive apartment house to Britt's bedroom. Slipping through a secret compartment in the rear of Britt's closet, Britt and Kato walked through a long but narrow passageway. This passageway lead to an adjoining building on a dead end side street. Though supposedly abandoned, this building served as the hideout of the notorious The Green Hornet. It stored costumes, equipment and the sleek, super-powered Black Beauty, streamlined car of The Green Hornet.
As the two men entered the hideout, Britt Reid adorned a dark suit, midnight green gloves and wrapped a golden-yellow scarf around his neck, tucking it into his suit. He slipped into a long, dark green overcoat and wrapped a black velvet mask, with a green hornet insignia on it, around his face like some sinister surgeon. He topped the ensemble with a green fedora, matching the color of his overcoat.
Kato dressed himself in a black chauffer's uniform, black gloves, a black domino mask and a chauffer's cap. He then moved to a table and loaded a glass cartridge filled with a mysterious green sleep-gas into a pecuilar looking gun. Handing the gun to Britt, the black-clad man stepped into the passenger seat of The Black Beauty.
Britt put the gun into a gun holster under his suit and entered the driver's seat and pressed a button. The great car roared into life. A photo-electric cell was activated. The wall in front raised automatically, then closed as the gleaming Black Beauty sped into the darkness.
A long black car with beaming green headlights slowly pulled into an alley near the Gray Street Grocery and Market. Two sinister figures ran from the dark alley to the back of the store. A sliding sheet metal door to the loading dock was partially opened at the bottom. The two figures slid under the dock door and crept inside.
"This must be the storage room, Kato. This is where they unload new shipments of of food," the sinister masked man turned on a small flashlight and pointed it around the room.
Giant freezers filled with meat and ice cream lined the room, along with crates of non-perishable foods and refrigerators filled to the brim with poultry and dairy products. As Kato moved towards a door that lead further into the place, he heard two men talking.
"Not a bad take so far, Joe. But what about that newspaper article?"
"Calm down, Doc. Those clowns at The Sentinel don't know nothin'."
"The additive. What it did to that family. It wasn't supposed to kill anyone. And now the cops are onto us."
"You're paranoid, Doc. They don't know nothin'. Besides, we're tripling our profits. Now do you want your cut or not?"
"I'll take my cut in advance," a deep voice cut through the darkness.
"Who? Who said that?" Joe Greggors eyes bugged out as an imposing figure stepped into the dimly lit room.
"That mask. Joe, that's the Green Hornet! I recognize him. He helped the Feds ruin my company."
"It's nice to see you too, Professor," The Hornet spoke, aiming his gas gun at Greggors. "You're looking well, for a traitor."
"Damn it, Hornet. That wasn't me. That was my assistant. I told you last year. I didn't sell out my country."
"Either way, Barton, that's not why I'm here."
"What gives Hornet? Just why did you come here?" Joe Greggors asked, putting his hands up in surrender.
"I heard about your little operation. Food additives to turn people into addicts. That would increase profits and possibly put other stores out of business. A brilliant plan, until someone died."
"How'd you hear about it? The papers only reported on the death of that family." Barton questioned.
"What does it matter? I know all about it. And if you want your little secret kept quiet you'll cut me in on the deal."
"C'mon, Hornet, how'd you find out? How'd you find us?"
"You really shouldn't leave your dock door unlocked, Greggors."
"So that's it. He was snoopin' around." Greggors looked at Doc Barton. "He didn't know nothin' and he just overheard our conversation. Well, he can't prove anything, Doc."
"You wanna take that chance, Greggors? Test me. See if I don't know where you keep your formula."
"Holy mackerel, Doc. He knows about the locker at your lab."
"I do now! Thanks, Joe." The Green Hornet smiled to himself.
"You stupid dope. He was bluffing. You just told him everything." Doc Barton spewed utter hatred toward his partner.
"So he knows about your lab, Doc. So what? He doesn't know where it is. Besides, the Hornet can't go to the police. He's a wanted man." Joe Greggors was now visibly sweating.
"But I know people. And I'm a real good talker," the Hornet's gun was still trained on Greggors. "Now can we do business, or—."
"Alright, Hornet, so you want a cut. How much to keep you quiet?"
"Forty percent."
"No way! Doc's already got thirty-five percent. I'll give you twenty-five and not a penny more."
"Twenty-five? Throw in the location of your formula and we have a deal."
"What do ya' say, Doc? Do we cut him in?"
"Fine by me, Joe. Okay, Hornet, the formula is in my lab at my estate. I manufacture it in the basement."
"See, that wasn't so hard." The Green Hornet aimed his gun to the floor.
"It's settled then. We're partners. But how do we know if we can we trust you?" Greggors put down his hands.
"You won't have to. Take a whiff of this." The Green Hornet once again aimed his gun at the crooked grocer and pulled the trigger.
"Argh, can't breathe. Gas!" Greggors managed to choke out before dropping like a lead weight to the floor.
"Already a double cross, Hornet? I—." Barton lunged to attack the Hornet but his words were cut off as Kato swiftly bunted the man's kneck from behind him. Barton fell to the floor unconcious.
"Good work, Kato. Tie these men up and use this office telephone to tip off the cops. I'll leave a seal in the front of the store and we can head for Barton's place. We need to destroy every trace of that formula before it taints any more food."
"The food here may already be tainted."
"Good thinking. We should trash this place. Open the freezers and crates. We should destroy or spoil as much food as we can before we leave."
"Right!" Kato went to the storage room and grabbed a large roll of packing tape. He began wrapping the unconcious men up in it.
The Green Hornet moved to the front of the store and left the Hornet seal, a three inch green plastic disk with the Hornet insignia on it, in the front window. He then overturned a nearby table displaying loaves of bread. After that the masked man raced through the small store and knocked pieces of produce to the floor, stepping on them. Grabbing a nearby pushbroom he began batting at baked goods on shelves, sending them crashing all over the place. He moved to the next aisle. Boxes of cereal, crackers, bags of baking flour and cans of soup were all tossed to the floor. The Hornet then grabbed a giant shelf and with a great heave, pushed it over. As it crashed loudly into another shelf, Kato suddenly appeared from the back.
"The men are tied up. I opened all the freezers and crates, leaving food to spoil. I called the police. They're on their way."
"Good. This place is a mess and I left a seal in the front window. It should send a message that The Green Hornet is involved in this racket. Let's get going, Kato, to the Barton place. We've got to get that formula." At those words, the two masked men exited from where they came and disappeared into the alley.
