Free The Wrangler: The only thing standing between the beautiful kidnapped heiress and death was -- The Wrangler. by Pat Powers

look at one of the condos, and walked over to the door and looked inside and said, "Excuse me." And two of the men whirled around and pointed guns at me. Then there was an explosion. You know the rest."
    "What made you report what you thought was a jest to the Corpsman?" asked Culpepper.
    "Well, it was the weirdest thing," said the Wrangler. "I came to for a time after the explosion. I could hear and see but I couldn't move. And I figured the apartment must have blown up. And out of nowhere the thought comes, "If those guys were blown up, they're probably the sort of guys who really WOULD travel around with a 'hottie' locked in their trunk. And even though I knew I'd probably been seriously injured, I was worried about that ... a lot. That's why I reported it to the Corpsman."
    "Where did you walk to the condos from?" asked Culpepper.
    "My car," said the Wrangler. "I had it parked in that public beach parking area across from the condos."
    "Really?" asked Culpepper. "We've received no reports of an unknown car parked in the Sandpiper Beach lot."
    "I don't remember the name of the lot," said the Wrangler. "But it's a green Camaletto I rented in Boston."
    "Which agency in Boston did you rent it from?" asked Culpepper.
    "Brahmin Rentals," said the Wrangler. "The one on Walfort Avenue." (The Wrangler had made some calls over the last week, to a friend. The Walfort Avenue Brahmin Rentals was owned by a wise guy. They'd back the Wrangler's story.)
    "What were you doing on St. Simon's?" Culpepper asked.
    "Vacationing," repeated the Wrangler.
    "Do you normally carry ID cards identifying you as three different people, with matching credit cards, when you're on vacation?" asked Culpepper.
    "You don't have to answer that question," said Tollner, the Wrangler's court-appointed attorney.
    "It's OK," said the Wrangler. He understood what his counsel was up to, but he also knew it was unnecessary. They'd found the damn ID cards on him, there was no way he could credibly deny owning them. Best to use his backup story and take the hit for them and avoid being linked with the kidnappers. "Yes, I always carry three sets of ID cards with me, especially when I'm traveling. I am a former Scientologist. I've been involved with exposing Scientology and that has gotten me on their official shit list. On several occasions, I've been reported as an AIDS carrier, a terrorist, all my credit cards have been invalidated, etc., etc. I've learned to carry several sets of ID and credit cards so that if they play their dirty tricks on one of my identities, I can get by with the others until I get things straightened out."
    The disbelief in the room was almost palpable. The Wrangler even sensed his own attorney's distrust of his words.
    "I'm sure the Scientologist will have records then," said Culpepper.
    "Of course not," said the Wrangler. "They don't keep records of those activities. They just do them. They're a cult, you know."
    This was the point of the Wrangler's claims. He didn't have to have a story that was believable -- just one that could not easily be disproved.
    "We'll definitely investigate your claims, Mr. Tottenham," said Culpepper, pointedly using another of the Wrangler's aliases, "Now, we've only got one body other than yours. How many men were in the group?"
    "Three," said the Wrangler. That was interesting. Either the Agent or the Cleaner had survived the blast. The Wrangler put his money on the Agent -- he had been out on the balcony when the blast went off, he might have gotten out pretty much unscathed.
    "Could you describe them?" asked Culpepper.
    "Sure," said the Wrangler. He gave detailed, accurate physical descriptions of the Cleaner (who he figured was beyond help, being the one nearest the bomb when it went off) and the Man (whom he wasn't at all concerned with -- he wouldn't mind if they caught him, but he didn't think they would) and gave a superficially accurate but misleading description of the Agent, whom he hoped would get