Salvation Colony

Chapter Twenty-Eight

169 Salvation Colony: Sequel to No Way to Die Chapter Twenty-Eight Istromo Ngiawa: Master Planner C osmas and myself worked indefatigably to link the Catholic Church scandal with that of ALCA. Our purpose, as before was to prove to Dennis that religion of any sort was not a thing in which to invest one’s emotional capital, or a venture for which one would sacrifice one’s family life. Sheer luck continued to convert us into miracle workers. While we were digging out more information on the O’Reilly saga, fresh material was received from our contacts in the U.S. which transformed Shrapnell into a wanted man, an outright criminal. Another fax sent to Dr. Essemo revealed that during the four years that Shrapnell was not officially employed he had set up a counterfeiting business. He printed bills which were said to be even better than the genuine ones. He had then set up a fake brokerage in the heart of Topeka, through which he put the money into circulation. That was how he came by so much money to travel with and then begin his God’s work in Africa. We stored up every vital and incriminating information, doling it out in bits in each new issue of THE NAKED TRUTH. We concluded that even if he had made very much money, he could not have made enough to enable him realise his gigantic project. We therefore set out to investigate the local source of his wealth. 170 Linus T. Asong It was just as scandalous. He was definitely secretly continuing with his counterfeiting business. He had two accounts at the People’s Bank. He personally deposited huge sums of new notes once in a while. But generally when he wanted money he sent somebody with a cheque or cheques. *** While we were tightening the noose and constricting Shrapnell more and more, we kept an ear on developments in the O’Reilly case. It was established soon after O’Reilly’s death that she had not been killed by a Catholic clique as originally intimated. She had killed herself because of shame. A strict investigation into her movements indicated an incident which had hitherto been taken for granted. On October 10th she had reported at ALL FOR LOVE CLINIC for an emergency: she had violent tooth ache. Why she had chosen the clinic was never to be known. But, that was the same clinic in which Shrapnell rendered free services in dental care and surgery. It was also established that on the day she visited the clinic, Shrapnell whom she had never seen before and whom she may never have heard of before, attended to her. Dr. Chopawuf had a consultation elsewhere in town. The nurses on duty recall that Shrapnell had spent a long time with her, that he had certainly administered anaesthesia. But they swore that they did not know if Shrapnell (who was used to such tricks!) did anything extraordinary to her while in the state of anaesthesia. At the time these details were dug up, Sister O’Reilly was three months pregnant. Three months back from that date put the pregnancy at just around the day she visited ALL FOR LOVE CLINIC. It was this recent disclosure which drove Sister Angela O’Reilly to kill herself with an overdose of nivaquine. 171 Salvation Colony: Sequel to No Way to Die *** Findings from the O’Reilly case which the Catholic Church fought a losing battle to kill, definitely helped in the annihilation of Shrapnell. As is usual with people in authority who have something to hide, Shrapnell began by calling the findings “tissues of absurdities, a senseless pack of lies” that will lead nobody anywhere. He and his die-hard followers denied every single charge, dismissing them as “lies fabricated to tarnish the image of a man who had done what the government itself could not do.” In the December 13th issue of THE NAKED TRUTH we suggested that Shrapnell summon a press conference to clear himself. We did very well in blowing up the scandals. We were glad to find that Shrapnell’s followers, especially the twelve Keepers who had all stood behind him in discounting all the allegations began to get so worried by the accusations that they too urged him to call a press conference to save the face of ALCA from further embarrassment. In the December 22nd issue...