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XIV
The Third Wednesday
[Power relations] define innumerable points of confrontation, focuses of instability, each of which has its own risks of conflict…
Michel Foucault
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. As you know, the local banks will give Meredith faculty and staff pretty much anything they want, so he had no trouble assuming the mortgage, but he didn't borrow the down-payment. The mortgage payments were less than the rent he'd been paying. We've not been able to track down any off-shore accounts or anything of that sort."
"Is there more?"
"This is the part you especially have to keep to yourself. Both Dr. Wilson and Mr. McKay were careful about deleting emails and other files from their computers, but Dr. Wilson wasn't as thorough as Mr. McKay and our techies were able to recover a few items from his computer. Most were of no use, but there was one email from Dr. Wilson to McKay that interests us a lot. As you know, most email programs retain copies and also include the previous message in a reply. The email we found was in answer to one from Mr. McKay. The techies were able to recover very little, but what they did get is intriguing. Mr. McKay's message to Dr. Wilson included two full sentence; one read 'I'll be glad when it's done,' and the other 'I've waited long enough and I'm fed up.' Dr. Wilson's message included the full sentence: 'Don't worry; we'll be rid of them soon," and a partial sentence reading 'you'll have enough to do….' There was also a fragment that read '…when we meet.' You can see they were definitely engaged in something together, and I think you're right that it had to do with those books."
"It looks like Barrett was meeting someone about the books, unless the 'when we meet' fragment referred to his meeting with McKay. But that seems less likely."
"I agree, Charlie, and I believe it was Mr. McKay who acquired the books and Dr. Wilson who was selling them. Given their respective backgrounds and likely contacts, that seems fairly obvious. What we need to do now is find out who Dr. Wilson arranged to meet."
"This information doesn't trigger any new ideas, but it dovetails with what I was thinking through last night. Did you get anywhere with book-thefts and the auction houses?"
"No. We looked for thefts of rare books generally and of the ones on the list in particular but got nothing. As for Christie's and Sotheby's and a couple of other well-known houses, they claim never to have heard of Dr. Wilson or Mr. McKay. That doesn't mean much, though, because we were told buyers and sellers are almost always represented by agents and themselves remain anonymous. We've started on the agents whose names we were able to collect, but we've already had several refuse to identify their clients."
"I take it you've searched Barrett's house and McKay's apartment?"
"Thoroughly; no books - at least not the ones on the list. That was no surprise, given both were clearly searched quite thoroughly before we arrived. We also checked for safe-deposit boxes and came up empty. Dan thinks the books are in a commercial storage locker, but that will take time to check out. We found no likely keys in either place or on the bodies."
"Last question: were Barrett and McKay killed with the same gun?"
"That has to be confirmed by ballistics, but yes. I might add that Mr. McKay took two bullets in his chest and one in the head. Whoever shot him wasn't taking any chances. Dr. Wilson didn't pose a threat, but McKay did. And no, we didn't find the gun."
Charlie mused a bit, then said:
"You know, one thing Kate and I didn't ask Milford when we spoke to her was the identity of the blond woman at Barrett's parties. She was also referred to by one or two of the students I talked to and by Theresa Bartolini. Did you get a name?"
"Milford wasn't forthcoming, as you know, and when we talked with her we didn't know about this woman. You might find out who she is more easily than for Dan or I."
"I'll give it a shot, but now let me tell you my thinking."
Charlie proceeded to fill in DeVries on his idea that Barrett and McKay were killed by an individual seeking to buy the books rather than let them be auctioned. He added that the individual probably was not a partner with McKay and Barrett but an agent acting for a well-heeled buyer. He also mentioned that McKay may have met with the individual after Barrett's death because he was willing to take less money rather than wait longer. As an afterthought he said that Milford could have been involved with the individual wanting the books. DeVries then anticipated a point:
"So if she did work at an alibi for New Year's Eve, she knew this person was meeting with Dr. Wilson."
Charlie was pleased that DeVries looked impressed. They finished their coffee and DeVries left. Charlie went back to his office. The first thing he did was dial the TA office, but Dalton wasn't there. He then tried Dalton's home number.
"Yes?"
"Richard? Dr. Douglas. I'm sorry to bother you, but the police just left my office. They're asking about a blond woman who attended some of Barrett's parties. She wasn't a student. Do you know who she is?"
"You mean Laurel. She went to Barrett's parties a few times. I don't know her last name. I know she and Chet and Barrett went out to dinner or drinks occasionally."
"Did she talk about books with them?"
"Not really. In fact, she didn't have much to say. She'd just nurse a glass of wine and liste
n to them. I never got into a conversation with her, only when we all went through the usual chit-chat about the news or the weather or whatever."
"Did she know Janet Milford?"
"No…, well, other than meeting at Barrett's. Janet never took part in our conversations at those parties. She'd serve drinks and put out plates of snacks and then disappear. I don't think she liked Chet very much. I can't recall Laurel and Janet ever talking. Anyway, Laurel didn't start going to the parties until a little before Janet moved out."
"Thank you, Richard. I'll pass all of this on. Bolster and DeVries won't bother you."
So who was this Laurel, and did she have a role in the book affair? At least so far there weren't glaring inconsistencies in what Charlie had learned from Dalton, Milford, Theresa, and the other students. Barrett gave parties for students he proceeded to ignore. At the parties he spent his time talking with McKay, Dalton, and sometimes this Laurel. What was her involvement? Feeling it a duty, Charlie left a message for DeVries that the blonde's name was Laurel but he had no last name. Then Charlie went to lunch.
Conversation at the club table centered on McKay's murder and Charlie's being mentioned in the news story. He was bombarded with questions and it was clear several didn't believe him when he gave his brief story about McKay and the reading-course. Pretty soon they tired of trying to get more out of him and the jokes started.
Back in the department Charlie asked Jodie if she knew anyone Barrett had known in another department. It had occurred to him Barrett might have talked to someone about the books. She replied that John Arnold, in history, was the only one she knew of and that she'd once or twice booked a lunch-time table for them. Thanking Jodie, Charlie went down to Arnold's office on the second floor, hoping he'd be in. He was.
"Dr. Arnold, I wonder if you can spare a couple of minutes."
"Sure. You're Charlie Douglas from philosophy. Come in, come in; have a seat. Charlie looked around and noticed that Arnold's office had some nicely framed prints. One that surprised him a little was Guernica; few people liked to have that up on their wall. Then he noticed Thomas' The Spanish Civil War on a shelf just below the print.
"Sorry to bother you, but it's about Barrett. As you may know, we didn't get on, and I've been feeling a little guilty. I realize now that I knew nothing about him outside of the department. I've learned a little, and it's clear there was another side to him. The secretary mentioned that you and he had lunch sometimes. Did you know him well?"
"Oh, not well at all. To be honest, I didn't particularly like him. He took me to lunch a couple of times and came in to talk once or twice. We discussed the Spanish civil war. Barrett was pretty right wing and seemed to think Franco was the good guy. He positively sneered at that, my print of Guernica. It pissed me off a bit. But it was mostly about books. He had all kinds of questions."
"Books?"
"When he first came to see me he said he'd seen in my file - the one circulated when I applied for the job - that I'd done research at the British Museum and in the Vatican library. He wanted to know all about that and what sort of access I'd had to rare books. My area of expertise often involves working with original works, to check out different wordings, translations, annotations, and so on. Well, he paid for lunch so I didn't mind."
Charlie got good vibes from Arnold and decided to reveal a little to see what he might get back.
"Let me tell you a bit about what I've learned and figured out. I think Barrett was selling some rare books and was killed because of it. What I think happened is that the would-be buyer argued with Barrett and shot him. Barrett's house was thoroughly searched."
"What do the cops think?"
"Well, the two detectives working the case seem to agree with me."
"But how would Barrett get such books? He did mention some titles. I remember a few: the Summa Theologica, The Art of War, The Divine Comedy, and von Clausewitz' classic. He asked what they might be worth, but I don't know about that, just that such books are often taken when museums and other institutions are sacked during wars."
Charlie was suddenly thinking furiously and barely noticed when Arnold got up and said he'd just realized he was running late to pick up his wife. They hurriedly agreed to talk some more and Charlie went back to his office. Charlie's head was full of images of McKay on one of his campaigns. He envisaged McKay and others looting museums and rich people's houses, the others grabbing jewelry, silverware, and electronic equipment while McKay recognized the value of rare books. If they were rare enough, only few stuffed in a knapsack would provide a better return than piles of silver and even jewelry.
"It's a fend-for-yourself night."
Kate's announcement was what met Charlie at the door. It meant he had to prepare his own dinner. She either was making do with coffee and cookies, as she sometimes did, or had prepared some cheesy dish for herself which she knew he wouldn't like. He checked out what was available and decided that they'd have a bottle of wine first and then he'd settle for a sandwich. Over the wine he filled her in on the day's developments and on his idea of how McKay had probably acquired the books.
"That's brilliant, Charlie. It sounds like you're outdoing Bolster and DeVries. If McKay got the books in some raid or something, he'd approach Barrett who had access to people like John Arnold and no doubt other contacts. Who better than an academic to help you flog rare books? And by cutting Barrett in, he insured his silence."
Charlie was about to pour more wine when the phone rang. It was DeVries. She'd gotten his message about Laurel. Charlie gave her a short version of what he'd told Kate. She liked the idea of McKay getting the books in some campaign and smuggling them back. That would explain the lack of stories about thefts. She thanked Charlie and said the students who'd attended Barrett's parties were being re-interviewed about the Laurel woman and that Milford and Theresa would also be spoken to.
Charlie had a sandwich after he and Kate had finished their wine. As he'd half-expected, she made coffee and sat with it and a plate of cookies to read her book. Charlie picked up his own book and for a while he forgot about Barrett and McKay.
Later that night, in bed, Charlie thought that his talk with Arnold had been productive but that there likely wasn't more to be learned from him. The question now was how to track down Laurel without even having a last name. He wondered whether Laurel could possibly have been the potential buyer of the books. He remembered Theresa had commented on the quality of her clothes in what had been an envious tone. And McKay might have been enough of a chauvinist to have thought Laurel incapable of taking a shot at him - and been proven fatally wrong. Charlie slipped into sleep and had an odd dream about a blond woman moving into Barrett's house.