MURDER at the BREAK by C.G. Prado

Author:C.G. Prado
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: C.G. Prado
Published: 2015-12-03T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

The Third Wednesday

The Times Standard story wasn’t as bad as Charlie had feared. Perhaps he’d struck the right note with Belford. Aside from the bare facts, repetition, and speculation, the story said only that a man, identified as Chester McKay, had been shot in an apartment at 215 Wellington Street. Reference to Charlie was limited to McKay having approached him about a program of study in philosophy at Meredith University. No doubt Belford had checked her facts after Charlie’s denial and been careful in what she claimed. Barrett was mentioned, but only to the effect that McKay’s was the second murder in three weeks in Kingsford, which hadn’t seen a homicide for over two years.

Charlie got to the department at eight-forty-five to find DeVries waiting for him.

“Dr. Douglas, Charlie, I wonder if I could buy you breakfast? The secretary told me you usually go for coffee and pastry as soon as you get in. Okay with you?”

Seated at the cafeteria DeVries began with a question Charlie had anticipated. “Did you see the Time Standard?”

“Yes. A reporter called last night but I gave her as little as I could without getting her mad. The story this morning suggests she had very little to go on.”

“Well, neither do we. The information you’ve supplied has been helpful, so I’m going to take a chance and tell you more than I should to see if it prompts anything useful. But please keep this to yourself. I’m taking the chance because the circumstances are rather special and Dan and I think you can be trusted. We’ve learned that Mr. McKay’s source of income was regular transfers of funds from a bank in the Bahamas. He had an account there with a balance still in the mid six-figures despite regular monthly withdrawals for the past couple of years. He lived modestly, but he bought that Corvette for a fair bit about eighteen months ago. He opened the account with just under eight-hundred-thousand dollars. After a little research we’ve learned that while it’s just possible for him to have saved that amount working as a mercenary, it isn’t likely unless he lived like a monk. He would have had to stash more than fifty-thousand a year over the time he worked to end up with the eight-hundred-thousand. He no doubt made considerably more per year, but we’ve been told that while food and lodging usually are supplied, mercenaries buy their own weaponry. And I doubt liquor was supplied. The point is that a lot of that money may have been acquired through dubious means.”

“That’s all very interesting. I did wonder about McKay’s source of income; it just didn’t seem as important as other things. But can you tell me anything about Barrett’s financial situation?”

“Not much to tell. There was his university salary and a smallish savings account, roughly half a year’s salary. His rent was on the high side, but within his means. As for the purchase of the house, he came up with the down-payment and took over the existing mortgage.

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