Purrfect Bachelor, page 3
“What did he say?”
“That if we didn’t confess he’d make us.”
“But the police have determined that you were joyriding that night.”
“I’m not denying that. But we were nowhere near the place where that girl died.”
“So you think it must have been another person, unrelated to you and your friends?”
“Yes.”
He looked on the verge of a breakdown, and I think Odelia must have noticed, too, for she decided to leave the man be for now. After all, he’d just had a nasty conk on the head.
“Thank you for your time, Mr. Wissinski,” she said therefore.
“Look, I feel sorry for the Careens, I really do, but I had nothing to do with the accident, I swear.”
Just then, loud voices interrupted us. They seemed to come from the front of the shop, and when we went over to look what was going on, we saw that a man tried to gain access but was being held back by the same cop who’d allowed us to pass through.
The man didn’t look happy, and when he caught sight of Omar, he shouted, “I want my money back, you thief! Give me back my money right now—or else!”
He wasn’t wielding an ax, like Dominic had done, but he looked dangerous enough!
Chapter 6
The shouting man turned out to be answering to the name Gene Stooge, and when Chase took him apart, he was already less belligerent. Chase has that effect on people.
“So what seems to be the problem?” asked Chase.
“That man,” said Mr. Stooge, pointing an accusatory finger at Omar Wissinski, “robbed my mother of her savings.”
“I did nothing of the kind,” said Omar, shaking his head, then seemed to get a little woozy, and decided that keeping his head perfectly still was probably the better option.
“He came in and made my mom all kinds of promises about doubling her money if she decided to invest with them and instead her money is now gone—all of it!”
“Your mother’s money isn’t gone at all, I can assure you,” said Omar, then frowned. “Though now that I come to think of it…”
“See!” the irate customer shouted. “He’s admitting it!”
“We just had a robbery,” Omar explained. “And I’m afraid your mother’s money was in the safe, along with that of some of our other customers.”
“You robbed us!”
“No, we were robbed.”
The man made a throwaway gesture with his hand, then turned to Chase. “Can I file a complaint with you, officer?”
“What did your mother invest in, sir?” asked Odelia.
“Some bitcoin nonsense,” said Mr. Stooge.
“It isn’t nonsense,” said Omar adamantly. “Our bitcoin fund is a high-yield investment and is doing very well indeed.”
“So why did the paper say that bitcoin is one big scam?”
“Why do you believe anything that’s written in the papers?”
Dooley and I glanced to Odelia, whose face had flushed a little. Still she decided to keep her tongue. Now was not the time to defend her professional honor.
“So you advised Mr. Stooge’s mother to invest in your bitcoin fund?” she asked instead.
“I advise all of our customers to invest in our bitcoin fund. It’s the fund of the future. And it wouldn’t surprise me if it will be our most successful fund ever. But like with all high-yield investments there is a certain level of risk involved.”
“When I called you yesterday and asked for my mother’s money back you said she had signed a contract and you wouldn’t give it back!” the angry customer cried.
“I explained all this to Leta, Gene. When you invest in the bitcoin fund you invest for the long term. If everyone took out their money a week into their investment we’d never be able to turn a profit. It’s the way we’ve always worked here at Morro & Wissinski.”
“Ah, nuts,” the man grumbled, clearly not satisfied with this explanation. “I wish my mother would have told me before she gave you all of her savings.”
“Trust me, Gene,” said the insurance man. “You stand to double your investment. Maybe even triple it.”
“I thought you just said the money’s been stolen?” said Chase.
Omar seemed to slump a little as this sobering truth came home to him. “Oh, darn it,” he muttered, then closed his eyes and seemed to sway, like a sapling in the breeze.
“I think you better go home, Mr. Wissinski,” Odelia suggested. “You don’t look so good.”
“I think you better go to the hospital,” said Chase, eyeing the man with a worried frown. “You might have a concussion, sir.”
“You’re right,” said Wissinski as he got up, then abruptly sat down again. And right before our eyes, his eyes suddenly turned up in his skull, and he would have crashed down onto the floor, if Chase hadn’t been there to catch him.
“We better call an ambulance,” said Odelia.
“Yeah, looks like he got hit harder than he thought.”
“So what’s going to happen with my money?” asked Gene Stooge.
“I thought it was your mother’s money?” said Chase dryly.
“Is he going to pay me back or not?” the man demanded, pointing to the unconscious insurance broker.
“Please go home, Mr. Stooge,” said Chase. “Now is not the time.”
“I should have known,” Gene grumbled as he got up. “It’s all Jona’s fault. He’s the one who’s behind this scheme, isn’t he?”
“What makes you say that?” asked Odelia.
“Because it’s true! Everybody knows that Jona is the one who handles the investments, while Omar handles the insurance side of the business.” He planted both feet firmly on the floor. “I demand to speak to Jona. Right now!”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” said Chase.
“And why not? Are you protecting that crook?”
“Because Jona Morro is dead, Gene, that’s why.”
Once Gene Stooge had finally left the scene, after much grumbling, and Omar Wissinski had been taken to a nearby hospital, a crashing noise alerted us of a great work being carried out in the inner office. When we looked over, the car that had killed Jona Morro had finally been lifted from the poor man’s body. And I have to say that the sight of the guy wasn’t pleasing to the eye. He looked… flattened. And very dead indeed.
“Cause of death is pretty obvious, I guess?” said Chase.
But Abe was too busy examining the dead man to respond. Finally he said, “As far as I can tell he was hit over the head, then tied to his desk. The blow must have knocked him out cold.”
“Was he conscious when the car fell on top of him?”
“Hard to tell. He could have been. Which would make this a pretty gruesome way to go.” He directed a cross look at Chase, as if holding him personally responsible for the poor man’s death. “I’ll be able to tell you more later. But I have to hand it to you, Chase. This is probably the first time I’ve ever seen a man killed in quite this fashion.”
“Hey, I didn’t do it, Abe!” said Chase.
“Hm,” said Abe, then addressed a member of his staff. “You can take him away now.”
And since there wasn’t anything keeping us there, we decided to take our leave as well.
“Odd, isn’t it, Max?” said Dooley as we followed Odelia out of the office.
“What is, Dooley?” I asked.
“We came here looking for a man who killed a little girl in a hit and run, and we find a man who’s been killed in a hit and run.”
“Yeah, only this hit and run is a little special.”
“Still—it’s a big coincidence, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, a bit too much of a coincidence, if you ask me.”
Chapter 7
We were in Odelia’s uncle’s office, where the Chief was discussing the case with his niece and Chase.
“Strange business,” Uncle Alec grunted as he pensively fingered the third of his chins. “One man knocked out cold, the other one crushed with his own car…” He turned to Chase. “Security caught these guys on CCTV?”
“Nope. Turns out there’s CCTV in the mall, but it doesn’t cover every single nook and cranny. And Morro & Wissinski is one of the businesses that aren’t covered.”
“Did they at least catch the robbers as they fled the scene?”
“Nope. The camera covering the particular section of the mall where Morro & Wissinski are located is broken. Has been broken for weeks and should have been fixed but hasn’t.”
“What are the chances the robbers knew?”
Chase shrugged. “We looked for them on the other feeds, but so far we’ve got nothing.”
“It’s a daring heist, to be sure,” said the Chief.
“I don’t know. That part of the mall isn’t exactly bustling, Chief. They’ve put plenty of the same kinds of businesses together: banks, insurance agencies, real estate offices…”
“I see. So not as much foot traffic as other parts.”
“I wonder if this robbery is connected to the hit and run I’ve been asked to investigate,” said Odelia.
“Oh, right. The Poppy Careen case,” said her uncle. He shook his head. “Sad business. I remember it well. Very frustrating that we never found the lunatic who killed that girl.”
“The Careens seem convinced that it must have been one of five men,” said Odelia. “And two of those men were targeted in the robbery this morning.”
“Yeah, I’m not so sure the Careens are right. We never managed to find any evidence placing the men they accused in their neighborhood that night. We did find several witness statements linking them to another hit and run in a different part of town the week before. Luckily no one got injured, though they did cause a lot of damage to the house they rammed.”
“They rammed a house?”
Uncle Alec nodded. “Drove straight in through the front door. Lucky for them no one was home at the time, but the structure all but collapsed. Had to be completely rebuilt.”
“Did you ever confront them with the accusations leveled at them by the Careens?”
“Oh, absolutely. Seeing as we didn’t pick up any other joyriders that night, it seemed likely it must have been them. But there were no witnesses placing them at the scene, and once the little boy woke up—”
“Rick Careen.”
“—he couldn’t tell us a lot more either.”
“So how did Kristina and her husband arrive at these five kids?”
“Well, like I said, they were the only ones caught joyriding that night. And also, there had been plenty of complaints on previous nights. And on one of those nights they’d come close to the street where Poppy Careen was killed. Two blocks, if I remember correctly. Which was all the Careens needed to blame them for the death of their daughter.”
“And what do you think, Uncle Alec? You talked to them. Do you think one of those five men killed Poppy?”
“It’s possible,” her uncle admitted. “But without any evidence, my hands were tied.”
“What are the chances that Dominic Careen is one of the men who robbed Morro & Wissinski?” said Chase. “He clearly has a grudge against the two men. So what if he and his wife decided that it must have been Jona Morro who killed Poppy? And so after waiting all those years in vain they finally decided to take justice into their own hands and killed Morro? I mean, the way he died speaks volumes, don’t you think?”
“Is it possible that the car that killed Morro is the same car that killed Poppy Careen?” asked Uncle Alec. “Can you look into that, Chase?”
“I doubt it,” said Chase. “The guy would be an idiot to string up a car used in a hit and run.”
“From what I hear, Jona Morro was a pretty cocky fellow. And as I remember, all five of those kids were convinced they could do whatever they wanted and get away with it. So maybe Morro decided to string up that car as a statement.”
“Statement of what?” asked Chase.
“To tell the world: you can’t touch me. I’m above the law.”
“If he’s the guy that killed Poppy, his crime finally caught up with him.”
“I’ll have another chat with Kristina and Dominic,” said Odelia.
“And this time I’m coming with you,” said Chase, and he wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“Do you think that Dominic and Rick Careen are the two men who killed Jona Morro and knocked out Omar Wissinski, Max?” asked Dooley.
“I don’t know, Dooley, but it certainly warrants looking into.”
“If they did kill Mr. Morro, do you think the judge will be very lenient with them? They did what the police couldn’t do, after all: find justice for Poppy.”
“It’s not up to ordinary citizens to go out and kill people, Dooley. What if Jona Morro had nothing to do with Poppy’s death? Then the wrong person was killed today.”
“But what if it was him?”
“Then they should have told Odelia what kind of evidence they had, and she could have done something about it.”
“Poor Odelia,” said Dooley, as he studied our human. “Maybe we should tell her to stay home and rest. She is pregnant, after all. It’s not good for the baby, Max. She’s putting herself at risk.”
“I think you’ll find that it’s very hard for anyone to stop Odelia from doing exactly what she wants to do, Dooley. Not even us.”
“Maybe Chase can talk to her? He is the baby’s dad, after all. He should look after its health, and the health of its mother.”
“I’m sure Odelia is fine,” I said reassuringly. “And besides, Chase is with her. He’ll watch out for her. And when he’s not around, we are also there, Dooley. We can protect her.”
A dangerous glint had come into Dooley’s eyes. “This will be our mission from now on, Max. We’ll protect Odelia and her baby with tooth and claw!”
“Um, okay,” I said. “Though maybe less of the tooth and claw for now. A calm and soothing environment is also important for an expecting mother.”
“Then she shouldn’t go out and investigate murders, Max!”
And we were right back where we started. These circular arguments were a given with Dooley. Tough to convince him of anything. He kept returning to his original statement, no matter what I said. In that sense he was almost as stubborn as Odelia. Then again, we were her cats, after all. So maybe we took after her? Or did she take after us?
Chapter 8
We were back at the Careen place, only this time Dominic had joined his wife on the big couch, and son Rick stood behind it, as if reluctant to take a seat, lest he had to do a runner.
“It’s a simple question, Mr. Careen,” said Chase, who had taken the lead. “Did you or didn’t you blame Jona Morro for the death of your daughter?”
Dominic’s face spelled storm, but his wife did her best to be the peacekeeper. “Like I told Odelia this morning, we don’t know which of the five friends killed Poppy. All we know is that one of them must be responsible.”
“I knew it was Morro,” said Rick suddenly.
His mother turned to him. “Rick!”
“It’s all right, Mom. He’s dead now. And good riddance, as far as I’m concerned.”
“Why did you think it was Jona Morro?” asked Odelia.
“I asked around, and Morro used to visit the same club where I like to hang out a lot. He used to boast about his speed racing record. His family own a race car team, you see, and when he was young Jona wanted to become a race car driver. And he was pretty good, too. Said he loved racing, but what he loved even more was street racing. So one night he was boasting, and someone asked him why he’d stopped street racing, if he loved it so much. He said there had been an incident, and someone was killed, so his dad made him stop. From that moment he was only allowed to race on the track anymore, not the street.” He shrugged. “It told me all I needed to know. He’s the one who killed Poppy, all right.”
“We can’t be sure, Rick,” said his mom. “He was just boasting.”
“I don’t think so. He was telling the truth.”
“Why didn’t you report this?” asked Chase.
“It would have been my word against his, wouldn’t it? And that slippery bastard would have walked. Again.”
“So you decided to take the law into your own hands, is that what you’re saying?”
“Of course not. Though I have to say I’m not going to shed any tears over the guy.”
“Rick, please,” said his mom.
“No, Mom, I’m serious. I’m glad he’s dead. He got exactly what he deserved.”
“Where were you this morning between nine and ten?” asked Chase.
“You know where I was,” said Dominic curtly. “In the woods. Your wife saw me there.”
“My wife talked to you around ten-thirty,” said Chase. “So where were you before then?”
“Not at the mall, if that’s what you’re implying,” said the man, getting up. His weather-beaten face had taken on a darker shade of puce. Dominic Careen definitely had a temper.
“We were in the woods,” said Rick. “My dad and me both.”
“Can anyone confirm that?”
“I can confirm that my dad was there. And he can confirm that I was there. Isn’t that enough?”
Chase grimaced. “Hardly. Two men knocked out Omar Wissinski this morning, emptied the safe, and killed Jona Morro by dropping a car on top of him. You can see how this raises a number of questions. Especially since it’s not so easy to bring that car down. It requires a lot of physical strength, and a knowledge of how to work the steel cables that kept the car suspended. You’re both foresters. You’re well-equipped to handle such a job. Well-equipped, with the required know-how and experience plus motivation.”
“Well, we didn’t do it,” said Dominic.
“I suggest you don’t leave town, Mr. Careen,” said Chase, getting up. “And that goes for you, too, Rick.” And after fixing both men with a steely look, he left the room, leaving the three surviving members of the Careen family slightly reeling, I could tell.
