A Mission - pt 13 Coale.

If you had been standing outside the morning after Coale was found, looking in at the hall window of Mr. Macabee's house, you would have been able to see the door of Coale's room.  Presently, you would have seen two grave looking men enter the room where he was sitting.  A moment later you would have seen a middle aged woman come bustling out of the room carrying a tray, she would have been looking slightly perplexed and a little annoyed.  Wondering at this string of events, you would have gone around to the window of the room into which the two men had gone.  Peeking in through the window there, you would have seen them standing about a pace from the bed conversing with Coale.  The older and shorter looking one was doing most of the talking, while the taller but younger man remained for the most part silent, except now and then he spoke in ascent.  The conversation would have been quite inaudible as the window was closed and the gardener was busy mowing the lawns.  But from the overall tone of the conversation, you would have been able to tell that Coale was being accused of some crime, and from the attitude of Coale, it would have appeared that he was trying to acquit himself.

After a quarter of an hour, the scene would have suddenly changed.  You would have seen the younger accuser grasp the hand of Coale, and exchange warm tones of greetings.  You would then see an earnest conversation tacking place, and at the end of that, you would have seen the older and shorter man shake Coale's hand and express a deep apology for his treatment of Coale.

An explanation?  Sure thing!  First off, for your information; Coale is not a bad guy, he is a private investigator.  He has access to the information vaults of Meltolot, and, as a sort of memoir of his favorite cases he keeps a copy of an ID card from the person(s) most prominently involved, he stores these in his wallet.  But you might still have your doubts, didn't Coale use Sam Mintrent's name at the Lonely Motel?  My answer to this question is simple.  Coale Janterbel is a detective, and when detectives go undercover they use a different name.  Sam Mintrent is just Coale's undercover name, nobody else in Meltolot (that the Information Vaults knows about) is named Sam Mintrent.  Coale Janterbel had worked for Clack Henderson some years before.  Clack had been accused of smuggling arms and ammunitions across the Pamonian border and in the end, Coale had saved Clack from lifelong dishonor and a heavy fine.  Circumstances had caused the two to lose touch, and until that day in the house of Tom Mac', they had never seen each other again.  Time had changed both, and at first they were unrecognizable to each other.  It was not until Tom Macabee had mentioned C. Henderson's I.D. that Coale recognized Clack, but when he got Clack to remember him, the two easily explained matters to Tom.  Coale was immediately restored to his possessions and trust in the Macabee household.