Death Under the Deluge (Spirit Road Mystery Book 6) by C. M. Wendelboe

Author:C. M. Wendelboe [Wendelboe, C. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FBI agent police procedural cop mysteries, thriller and suspense, Native American life history reservation reservations, small town crime, flashback cold case, series murder mystery crime fiction, tradition traditional
Publisher: Encircle Publications
Published: 2023-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

The drive from Chamberlain to his office in Rapid City had been a long one, and all Manny could think about was the gold coin he had seized from Freddie Geddes. At the time that Charlie McKnight gave the gold coin to Freddy’s granddad, spot price of gold was nowhere near the price as it is now. Still, Manny wondered as he drove, just where McKnight had come into possession of a British sovereign. And if he had had more.

Manny turned his desk light to avoid the glare as he sat back in his chair and examined the notes he’d just taken. On the way back to his home in Rapid City, his office had called—St. Louis PD had information on Charles McKnight. As soon as Manny arrived at his office, he’d called the St. Louis liaison officer.

“Our records show that Charles McKnight owned a small taxi company here in the city,” Officer Waits said. “He bought the business right after he came back from World War II—long before my time. Seems that his aunt gave him the money to buy the taxis, though I don’t know what her name is. Or was.”

Manny knew the chances of McKnight being alive was slim: he would be as old as Amos. “I can’t say if he’s still living or not,” Waits said. “He pulled up stakes and left town.”

“When?”

Paper shuffled on the other end of the line. “Last contact our officers had with McKnight was 1952. There’s several police reports of him and his girlfriend fighting, and it looks like he was a suspect in dealing drugs in the city.”

“Could you fax over those reports?”

“Sure,” Officer Waits said, “though there’s nothing here that would help you.”

It was those reports that Manny now studied as he sat back in his chair. He would be late for his dinner date with Clara, but he prayed that the police reports from St. Louis might contain some pearl of information. They didn’t. Knight’s live-in girlfriend called twice when he came home “drugged up” as she put it. The follow-up report developed information that McKnight was dealing downers and uppers via his cab drivers, and he was an associate of the city’s most ruthless dealer at the time. “How the hell did you get involved in drugs?” Manny said to himself, then answered his own question. Combat veterans returning from the war suffered what they called shell shock back then, what is now recognized as PTSD. And like modern warriors, returning World War II vets drowned their agonizing memories in drugs and alcohol. McKnight might have seen an opportunity to deal himself to support his habit.

Manny picked up another report from an undercover officer assigned to follow McKnight whom the officer referred to as “Charlie.” McKnight had entered a pawn shop specializing in antiquities and pawned two pieces of pottery dated from the Chinese Kangxi period of the 1700s. On yet another occasion, he sold the shop a rolled-up oil painting depicting a Taiwanese country scene.

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