Loose Screw, page 9
Neither Herc nor I followed up on that comment. “Anything else you can tell us about your relationship with the man?” Herc asked.
Val, who’d remained quiet this whole time, shot both Herc and me a murderous look, since it appeared Herc was wrapping the interview without bringing her into it. Herc caught on first. “Mrs. Kowalski, was there something you wanted to add?”
Her expression changed to one of, “It’s about time.” She turned to Ludwig. “We haven’t met, Mr. Ludwig, but we’re both in the construction business, although your projects are on a much larger scale than mine. I’m serving as a consultant to the police force in case some technical details arise that need further clarification. Along those lines, could you describe the reasons why your building permits were disapproved?”
We didn’t need this information at this point. We’d learned what we needed to know for now from Ludwig. Val had inserted herself into this discussion because she wanted to prove she needed to be there.
Ludwig offered her his hand. “Mrs. Kowalski, it’s nice to meet you, even if it must be under these circumstances. Your name has come up more than once in my business dealings. Why don’t I share with you the actual permit applications and subsequent rejections? I don’t think there’s any confidential information in them that you shouldn’t see.”
He rose and crossed the room to a bank of filing cabinets. He opened the top drawer and withdrew a thick file that must’ve been right in front. “This is all original information,” he said, handing the file to Val. “You’re welcome to review it here, but if you want to take a longer look at it, I’ll have my assistant send it to you electronically.”
Val accepted the file. “Thank you. I’ll just thumb through this now, but I’d appreciate receiving what you can send me electronically. While we’re here, could you summarize the type of problem he discovered with your projects?”
“He didn’t zero in on one type of issue. Usually it was a matter of our dimensions being either just missing or just overreaching the code requirements. Things that weren’t critical. At least to my crew and me. Not to Fonseca.”
“What was the explanation for these dimensions being off?” Val asked.
“Explanation? I don’t follow.”
“When these shortfalls were pointed out by Mr. Fonseca, how did you or your crew explain them when you reapplied?” She smiled, like her question was the obvious follow-up.
He waved off her question, indicating the file she held. “It’s all in there. You can read about it later when my assistant emails it to you. In the meantime, if you’ll hand it back now?”
She stared at the folder a second, as if reluctant to return it, before giving it back to him.
Herc took it from there, first asking Ludwig about his whereabouts during the time period in question.
“At my home, of course. I have a live-in housekeeper, but she wouldn’t have seen me during that time,” Ludwig responded. “The woman’s a heavy sleeper and doesn’t usually rise until seven.”
“A forensic team will be here and at your residence in the next hour or so to inspect your car or cars. With an official warrant. Please do not leave here or go near them or have anyone else go near them. Is that understood?” Herc asked in his most official tone.
“Inspect all you want. I didn’t run him down. But to be honest, I’m not surprised someone else did.”
“That’s all for now. We may have further questions as we speak with other persons of interest and after Mrs. Kowalski has reviewed your file.”
“Of course,” Ludwig replied, rising. “I said I wasn’t surprised someone else got to him, but still, I hope you find his killer.”
Herc nodded and ushered Val and me from the man’s office. He made it a point to comment on the building’s architecture, the day’s weather and anything else that came to mind before we were back in his car. I knew the routine—no talking about the interview just concluded until we were in the privacy of the car—but he wanted to make sure Val didn’t say anything.
He was probably correct to take the precaution because Val started speaking as soon as she’d buckled her seatbelt. “I’ll bet you’re glad now that I came along with you.”
“Okay, I’ll bite,” I said. “Why do you think we should be glad you’re with us?”
“You were all set to leave before I intervened with my technical questions.”
I leaned over the front seat to face her. “What exactly did we learn from your technical questions?”
“You’re kidding, right? It’s one thing to mess up once or twice, but there appears to have been a pattern to their issues. Almost like they were skimping whenever they thought they could get away with it, and they got caught. Over and over.”
“He said those missed dimensions weren’t critical. You don’t agree?” Herc called over his shoulder from the driver’s seat.
“I can’t say for sure until I get more time to review that file he so readily placed in my hands. But I suspect they shouldn’t have been dismissed as readily.”
“It shouldn’t take too long for his assistant to put the file together and send it. Then you’ll know for sure,” I said.
“We’ll see,” she replied.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“That was an act back there. You two should’ve seen that before I did. He made a show of offering me the file to study and took it back before I could even locate the appropriate applications. I’ll bet what I receive will be a condensed, cleaned-up version.”
I hated to admit it, but the more I considered her theory, the more I agreed. Ludwig had attempted to do a snow job on us. We wouldn’t even have thought to ask to see the file at all had she not spoken up. But the bait-and-switch act indicated the man was hiding more than we suspected.
“You raise some good points, Val,” I responded. “Let us know what you discover once you’ve gone over the file from Ludwig.”
CHAPTER 12
“Anyone for coffee before we tackle our next interview?” Herc asked Val and me as we drove toward the address we had for Sterling Kuhl’s home.
“You might as well say yes, Val, even if it’s only been an hour since we had doughnuts and coffee at my place,” I said. This was par for the course with Herc’s investigative style, unless he was under the gun, no pun intended, to finish interrogations quickly.
“But—”
“I know,” I finished for her. “You’re not hungry or thirsty yet.”
“How do you ever make any progress if you keep stopping to imbibe or chow down?”
“It’s not like I need the joe,” Herc said as he pulled into a small coffee shop. “This is how I process information,” he said as we walked through the door.
“Is he serious?” she asked me while he went to order three coffees. No treats this time. We had to restrain ourselves on occasion.
“Observe for yourself.”
“At some point today, your mom and I will return to her place and do more intense reflection on everything we’ve learned so far about the victim,” he said, handing a paper cup to her and one to me before taking a seat. “But for now, we, I, need to unleash whatever’s currently on my mind. Join in when you want.”
She grabbed her coffee and settled back to listen.
“Okay, I’ll do this headline style to keep things short and focus on our last interview,” he said. “Perry Ludwig, self-made contractor, owns the business outright. That point’s critical, because it means he hasn’t had to justify any of his decisions to anyone except himself.”
“Surely the bank has some say,” Val said.
“I’m getting to that part, but you’re right. In the end, yes, he has to repay the bank. Until he gets to that point, though, even though he has people doing his planning and carrying out operations, in the end, he makes all the decisions. That gives him all the power, but it could also be his own undoing. From the numerous issues Fonseca found, that appears to be what happened.”
“Good overview, Herc,” I told him, not like he needed an attaboy, but he’d already moved beyond the headline mode and was becoming more professorial. I didn’t want him to lose Val.
But Herc continued. “Whether he successfully addressed all of Fonseca’s points or not is almost beside the point, because these changes caused slowdowns, which didn’t go over well with his clients. Word leaked out and damaged his reputation, which affected both his ongoing and future business.”
Val set down her coffee, appearing confused. “Is that important?”
“Yes. Why do you think that might not be the case?” Herc asked.
“I asked you first.”
“Yes, but I wanted you to figure out the answer for yourself.”
Val scowled but considered. At length she gave it a shot. “Okay, I’ll play. Most people aren’t killers at heart. To be prompted to take someone else’s life, there has to be a compelling reason. Something that is preventing you from moving on with your life or livelihood unless addressed. In this case, neither Fonseca’s personality nor his devotion to the rules were motive alone. What is key here is the fact that Ludwig saw his business going downhill.”
Herc studied her a beat before replying. “Very good. Based on that assessment, what is your conclusion?”
“I just told you,” she replied a little too defensively.
“No, all you described was what we already knew and why we pegged him as a suspect.”
“So he made a formal complaint.”
He continued to eye her like he was expecting her to figure out what he was getting at on her own. “Which, for the time being, addressed his concerns,” Herc said. “And even if the complaint was never addressed or worse, rejected, that wouldn’t have been enough on its own to make him want to kill the man.”
“Surely you’re not dismissing him as a suspect even before I have a chance to review his file?”
“No. So far we only have his word that his business was going downhill due to Fonseca’s decisions. Your review of his files should provide some clue about the credibility of his concerns. If you suspect something is missing, we can always subpoena the case file from the building inspection office.”
“Will we have to interview him again?” Val asked.
Herc finished his coffee and ran a nail down the side of the cup. “Maybe. But not now. You need to give those files a good read-through first. We’ll pay Mr. Ludwig a return visit if you find any discrepancies or anomalies or if we discover anything new in the rest of our investigation.”
I set down my empty container. “Everyone ready to meet Sterling Kuhl?”
Herc turned to Val. “Decided not to call this one in advance, since he’s most likely at his home. Can’t do much at his restaurant while it’s torn up.”
Herc’s hunch paid off. Kuhl came to the door immediately. “Saw you pull up. I know why you’re here, so you can cut through the preliminaries.”
Herc introduced us, explaining Val’s technical role.
“Come in, then. You’ve piqued my interest with this technical thing, although there’s not much to say beyond the fact that the dead guy ruined my business.”
The three of us took the seats he indicated before asking our questions.
Herc began. “Although we’ve got some background notes on your situation, Mr. Kuhl, we’d like your description of your relationship with Mortimer Fonseca.”
Kuhl remained standing behind a straight chair. “I only met him once, although I spoke with him on the phone several times. He didn’t come across as a particularly mean person, but he stuck to his guns no matter what alternatives I proposed.”
“Tell us what he rejected in particular,” I said, laying the groundwork for follow-up questions from Val.
Before replying, he slipped around the chair and sat. “I own the Sandpiper restaurant on Lower Manatee Road. My dad built it twenty years ago. That’s the only employment I’ve ever had, even in high school and college. He passed a couple years ago, and I inherited it outright. It offered a full menu, and even though he built up a loyal clientele over the years, it wasn’t bringing in the new generation. In response, I decided to change up the menu to feature less beef and pork and more fish and vegan entrees. A remodel of the interior came with that change. That’s when my problems began.”
“With Fonseca, you mean?” Herc asked.
“Before him. I hadn’t even thought of a major facelift for the place until a friend of mine suggested I consider a bit of new paint and wallpaper. I liked the place the way it was, the way it had been for years, the way that made me comfortable. But before I could tell her that, she broached her next idea, renovation. When I said, ‘What do you mean?’ she pointed to the layout, said I could probably increase my customer base if I knocked down a few walls to rearrange the tables.”
I stifled a smile. Val and I had been here ourselves more than once. Not that we’d worked on any restaurant remodels, but that’s how it always started. Someone, often one of us, remarked about how much more space there’d be if we could just knock down a wall or two.
“Then what happened?” Herc asked.
“Next thing I knew, she was suggesting someone who could envision a whole new ambience for the place. Her word. I should’ve rejected the suggestion outright, but she went ahead and wrote down a name and email address. Told me to contact this guy, tell him she’d recommended him and he’d give me a good deal. Never intended to go through with it until the guy stopped by to see me the next day. My good friend had taken it upon herself to contact him. I should’ve thanked him there and then and said thanks but no thanks, which I started to do, and then he held up this incredible graphic. Said he’d worked all night on it since he’d learned about the project.”
“Let me guess what happened then,” I said. “You made the mistake of checking out the sketch and fell in love with the idea of what the place could be with just some minor changes.”
Kuhl folded his hands and studied them. “If only it had been that simple. It wasn’t until I gave him the okay to proceed that he informed me he couldn’t help beyond the concept. I’d need a designer, possibly an architect or structural engineer, to draw up actual plans.”
Been there, done that. But apparently he hadn’t. I couldn’t help myself. I had to know what he did next. “I take it you found someone to draw up the plans.”
“As it turned out, the kid had a friend who was in his first year of architectural training and needed a project for one of his classes. My good luck, huh?” He gave a half chuckle. “At least it seemed that way at the time.”
“But it wasn’t lucky?” Herc asked.
“Right on. In fact, it was just the beginning of a long downward spiral of bad luck.”
As much as I wanted to get to the end of this story, Kuhl’s descent into renovation hell was fascinating. “How’s that? Did the guy who did the plans not work out?”
“That’s putting it mildly. He meant well, but a week after we signed the contract he insisted on because his prof had required such things, the guy, not the prof, was in a car accident. He was laid up in the hospital a couple weeks, but the worst part of his accident for me was that he broke his right arm. The prof gave him a bye, but I couldn’t, so I inherited another student who already had a project but was willing to take on mine for the right price.”
It didn’t take a fortune-teller to know what must’ve happened next, but we let him spell it out for us.
Kuhl continued after taking a breath. “My renovation project took second place in this guy’s priorities. The more I pushed him to complete the plans, the less important my project became, to the point where I finally confronted him and demanded he hand over what he’d done so far. That’s when I learned he had nothing to show me. Since I hadn’t signed a contract with him and hadn’t paid him any money yet, I didn’t have much leverage.”
“But you must’ve had some kind of plans in order for the bank to give you a loan?” Herc asked.
Kuhl looked away a moment. “Found someone with an architectural background on the internet. Since I still had my own copy of the illustration, I sent it to them, and they took it from there.”
Val had held back until now, but she could keep quiet no longer. “Surely you checked out that person’s credentials?”
“Of course.” He sounded offended. “He sent me a resume immediately after I contacted him.”
“And you verified everything?” Val asked.
“Well, uh, no. He had a website and all. Figured he was legit.”
His shoulders had risen with Val’s second question. Time for me to jump in before he clammed up on us. “What Mrs. Kowalski was getting at was that it’s a tad unusual to hire an architect over the internet without ensuring they are who they claim they are. A bit risky and all that.”
He waved away my comment. “Yes, yes. I’m aware how that might come across, but from all I’ve told you so far, you see what a pickle I was in. I’d already made two appointments to see the loan manager at the bank. At the first meeting, the woman ended the interview abruptly when she learned I didn’t have any plans yet. I had to cancel the second meeting when the plans didn’t materialize as soon as I’d hoped.”
I didn’t have to be watching Val to know that at the mention of “loan manager,” her eyes must have gone wide. She was only along for the ride to interpret technical construction details, but there was no way she’d back away from the subject of bank loans.
“Let me get this straight,” Val said. “You were so anxious to get the bank loan, you settled for someone who most likely was not qualified to do your plans.”
Kuhl sat back as if affronted. “I suppose if you must put it in those terms, yes. I could’ve backed away. I’d spent some money on the preliminaries but not everything in my bank account. No major demolition had taken place yet. Okay, I should’ve backed away, But that’s hindsight. That friend I mentioned, the one who got me started along this path? She was more than a friend. At least I saw her that way, but when she heard about my bad luck thus far, she was ready to move on. I, uh, didn’t want that. It seemed the only way I could keep her in my life was to proceed with this crazy renovation.”
