Green Persimmons

About the Book

Green Persimmons is the account of the impact of a drug bust on a quiet southern backwater. Richard Cloud, Marine Police Officer, finds himself on the trail of friends and neighbors as well as the outsiders he at first assumed were the only ones at fault. This discovery shatters the calm of his quiet community as well as his own as the implications of what had seemed like a local crime lead him deeply into a sinister network with widely ranging connections outside of Caroline, Alabama, his once tranquil community. The evidence points to a source in Central America and a plot to finance a revolution there. The story opens in a jungle camp, center for militia training and the export of locally grown marijuana. Don Efrain, a local grower and refugee from South America, realizes in talking to Heinz, the camp commander, that his wild-eyed plans extend beyond the immediate area toward wider a revolutionary aim, and he decides, relluctantly, to re-enter the world of foreign policy and give notice of what he suspects is a far-ranging plot. Cloud discovers that a house, located at the far end of an inlet to Perdido Bay, sold by a pleasant old German retiree, has the appearance of a new base for drug shipments. Over his supervisor’s initial resistance, the local police stake out the house and arrest the group, including Gisele, the girl, and two retirees from Tupelo, Mississippi, who are actively involved in the trade.. It turns out that Josh, owner of a local boat repair shop, has been involved, not only with dealing what has been brought in, but with the girl, as Miss Annie, a local confidential informant, has made Cloud aware. A flashy, high powered lawyer appears from Miami, making it apparent that there is a connection there which implicates the illicit sale of arms to Heinz and his group. The danger he is in becomes apparent to Cloud when a big boat tries to run him down at night on the bay. He outmaneuvers the bigger boat onto a shoal area and escapes, just barely. Later he finds the wrecked boat abandoned and has it hauled to police dockage by an old man who runs a decrepit boat salvage operation. With the old man’s help, he is able to trace the origin of the boat in Florida, but the old man is killed as a result. The information leads him to one more implicated local, Herm, owner of the marina and bar, Smugglers’ Point, who has been informing his cohorts of police ativities, which led to the accident intended to kill Cloud. As he and Lever, a federal agent on the case, confront Herm in his boat, it starts up, driven by Lem, a fellow dealer and sidekick. Herm pulls an Uzi on them, explaining that he regrets having to kill Cloud, whom he had tried to warn away, but he has no regrets about Lever, whom he regards as a Yankee smartass. He tells them he is leaving the country with his loot and will not be back, prefering the freedom of Latin America to living with his iron-willed wife, when he collapses, having been stabbed in the back by Skipper, the old man’s son, in revenge for his dad’s death. The boat swings wildly, Lem, at the wheel, having been killed as well. Their testimony. But Skipper wants no further part of the U. S ., so Lever gives him the metal ID he has been wearing around his neck, admonishing him that he can find his way to him through it if need be, and Lever and Cloud are let off at Gulf Shores. They meet for one last time and Lever reveals to Cloud that U. S. Intellignece is aware of the camp and its activities, having heard from Don Efrain, but will leave it alone for the time being in order to pull in some bigger fish, and in the mean time, keeping the threat of a brushfire war from igniting a more enduring rebelion. Cloud goes home, by no means sure that the good guys versus the bad guys have triumphed, but glad he has a home and family to go to.

About the Author

Richard Bowers is a native of Opp, Alabama. He retired from state service as a marine police officer after he was injured on a federal drug case. Cited as a hero by governors, the U. S. Treasury Department, and U. S. attorneys for his part in the war on drugs, he is also acknowledged by the fact that some of his techniques are still being used as model case studies at several federal police academies. He is married to the former Teresa Blacksher of Monroe County, Alabama. They live near Gulf Shores, Alabama, with their children. Barbara Cortright, some time writer of art criticism and articles on art, recipient of an NEA critic’s fellowship, lives presently in Tempe, Arizona, but returns every summer to her beach house near Pensacola where her children and her children’s children join her. She was born in Oxford, Mississippi, but has lived in many other places. Having said what she had to say about art, she has turned to writing fiction.