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XXV
The Last Wednesday
[Knowledge is] the possibilities of use and appropriation offered by discourse.
Michel Foucault
When Charlie woke up that Wednesday, the events of the previous evening felt like a dream. They were made real, though, by his realization that the mystery was over. Hamilton had killed both Barrett and McKay. Charlie'd been right about her shooting McKay, though he'd not been sure about Barrett. On reflection, what he'd learned the night before really was the simplest possibility. There was no John Sawyer; Shwayder hadn't played a part; McKay hadn't had a mysterious accomplice. Hamilton had learned about the book deal and gotten greedy.
Charlie got up and showered. He went downstairs and made coffee. He wouldn't leave the house till Kate was up. He wanted to see how her face looked. Perhaps she should see someone about it. As it turned out, he didn't have long to wait. Kate came down a few minutes later. The welt on the side of her face was no longer a bright red and looked ready to be black and blue for a bit. Charlie gently felt it but the bone underneath seemed undamaged.
"Maybe you should have someone look at that."
"I don't think so. She didn't hit me that hard; it was more a warning. She got pissed off when I hesitated to open that drawer where we keep our accounts stuff. I'm going to spend a good part of the day tidying things up. It's a mess upstairs. At least the kitchen is more or less okay. I think by the time we got there she didn't think she was going to find the books. Are you going to your office?"
"Well, I was hoping to see DeVries and learn…"
The phone rang and perhaps not so coincidentally it was DeVries.
"Charlie? How about I buy you breakfast at that coffee-shop we've been to, the one near your bank? I'm sure you want to know what we found out and I feel I owe it to you to fill you in after all your help and the scare last night."
"I'll be there in half an hour."
Trying to be thoughtful Charlie asked Kate if she wanted to go along, but as he'd expected she said no. She wanted a long shower and then to sort things out upstairs. They'd gone to bed in the near-chaos Hamilton had left behind, too tired to care, but now Kate wanted to set things right.
DeVries was sitting in a booth when Charlie got to the coffee-shop.
"Good morning."
"It certainly is; looks like we've solved a case that didn't look like it would get solved. But let me tell you what happened. Of course Hamilton lawyered up, but it wasn't simple. She had some sort of argument with the first lawyer and she walked out, so we had to get another one. Unfortunately, the second guy is a sleaze-ball with a good record getting guilty people off. If anyone can help Hamilton, he can, but he's expensive. I suspect it'll clean her out. Whatever the eventual sentence, she isn't going to walk she'll be broke."
"What do you actually have on her?"
"Enough. She had the gun and forensics will show it was the gun used to shoot Dr. Wilson and Mr. McKay. She had no compunctions about using the gun to threaten you and your wife. We'll have your and Kate's evidence regarding what she admitted to you last night, and the prosecutor will argue that by admitting all that to you, it's obvious she intended to kill you both. We'll get onto her second client for a more specific time-frame for her showing him the houses on New Year's Eve. We've got the voice-altering software on her computer and we're going to ask Mr. Smythe about the phone calls from 'John Sawyer.' She'll do serious time; the question is how much. On the downside, Dan and I are positive she doesn't have those missing books. She wouldn't have risked doing what she did last night if she had them. She was sure you had them."
"What about the books you've got?"
"One of our guys is nearly certain he's tracked down their source. A super-rich Saudi living in Nigeria reported his house - palace, more like it - was raided when there was a so-called "police action" in the neighborhood. Something to do with breaking up an allegedly treasonous gang that was holed up in a fortified house very near the Saudi's home. Apparently the police needed help and hired half-a-dozen mercenaries to storm the house. We're betting Mr. McKay was one of those mercenaries and that they went a little further afield than they might have. We're a long way from turning over the books to the Saudi, but they'll probably end up back there. I think since Mr. Smythe was so cooperative I may let him know about that. Unfortunately, those annotated copies are still missing. Dan thinks Mr. Wilson had them hidden somewhere and was going to keep them rather than include them with the others. Just two books like that could be hidden any number of places, as Hamilton's unsuccessful efforts to find them prove."
"I could go through the basement storage area again; maybe Barrett hid them on another shelf. Bolster may be right that he was going to hang on to them. It'll be a job, though. What about a safe-deposit box? Two books would fit."
"If he had a safe-deposit box, it was under another name. We looked. And we don't think he sold them, unless he got cash, which would be just as hard to hide as two books - or he opened an off-shore account somewhere and no doubt under a different name. No, I'm afraid those books are gone. Our lieutenant isn't willing to pay for more on this case. As far as he's concerned, it closed with the arrest."
Charlie and DeVries finished their coffee and doughnuts and left the coffee-shop.
"Charlie, it's been a pleasure. You were a real help. I think you've got a talent for sleuthing. I hope, though, that we won't do this again."
After DeVries had gone Charlie walked to his car. He'd have to search the storage area. He couldn't let it go. This time, though, he'd talk to Amanda first.
At the department word of Hamilton's arrest was making the rounds, based on the briefest of notices in the Times-Standard, one obviously inserted just prior to the paper going to press. Charlie found Amanda in her office and explained the problem. To preempt her objections, he suggested that they both go and have a look in the storage area. As he'd hoped, Amanda liked the idea and suggested that they get it done right away. A few minutes later, Charlie and Amanda were in the storage area working out how to go about their search. The decided to start with the philosophy and history department shelves and agreed all they would do would be to open boxes for a quick look and set any one aside that had Barrett's name inside or otherwise looked suspicious so they could both look at it. Amanda felt that no one in the other departments could object to this procedure. Charlie wasn't so sure, but he was hardly going to argue.
After half an hour they'd looked through all the philosophy and history boxes and found nothing even slightly curious. They then decided to each start at opposite ends of the room and work towards the middle. There were only four other departments and in a bit more than an hour they decided that wherever Barrett had hidden the two books, it wasn't in the storage room.
Back in his office Charlie decided not to push things with DeVries and settled for just leaving her a message that he and Amanda Rankin had searched the storage area with no luck.
At lunch Charlie recounted the previous night's events. There was obvious interest in he and Kate having been held hostage by Hamilton, but with the story told there was not much more to say and the conversation soon turned to jokes and the president's latest blunder. As he walked back to his office Charlie was a little taken aback that something he'd devoted so much thought and time to could just be over. At least he could get back to his proper work and next Monday's seminar would be the better for it.
That evening Charlie and Kate went to Sandoval's to celebrate the case being over and Charlie ordered a pricey bottle of Oregon pinot noir.
"You're still bugged by those missing books."
"I am. It's an irritating loose end. In a way, their being missing was a break because it was Hamilton's undoing. But I can't figure out what happened to them and that is annoying. My best guess is that Barrett hid them somewhere. He may have been trying to cheat McKay, but more likely he or both of them were holding out for more money. In either case, Barrett wouldn't have had thos
e books with the others. I'm betting they're in a safe-deposit box under another name, but without the name, they won't be found until the box has to be paid for and no one ponies up. I imagine DeVries will have routinely notified the banks to let the police know of defaults on safe-deposit box fees. There wouldn't be many."
"That could take years. Barrett may have paid for a couple of years or even more."
"He might have, especially if what he was doing was cheating McKay and wanted to wait a while before selling the books."
Just as Charlie was tasting the pinot noir and pronouncing it more than acceptable, Janet Milford was in her kitchen in Coulton serving two plates for herself and Mike. She picked one up but before picking up the other she patted her now slightly rounded tummy and whispered to herself:
"You're going to go to the best college money can buy. In a few years I'm going to sell those books."
As Milford put Mike's plate in front of him and sat down with hers she marveled again that Barrett and Chet hadn't bothered to check the duffle-bag after she'd kept it for those three or four days. Now the two books were in a safe-deposit box. The bank would automatically charge the cost of the box to her credit card, so she wouldn't have to worry about the books till she was ready to sell them. Perhaps that Mr. Smythe would still be interested?
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