PART II Chapter Twenty
Kate hadn’t learned anything that she didn’t already suspect. She had asked Tim before parting if he could introduce her to some other grunt workers that had been recruited by Jason. Tim told her that since Jason had been killed it would be hard to get anyone to speak up.
Kate acknowledged the difficulty she would face getting anyone to tell their story. The thing that Kate could do is have some of the active recruiters followed to see where that led to. She assigned a few undercover officers to follow some of the recruiters pointed out to her by Tim. She hoped they led to other people who were higher up on the chain of command. It was understood that the murder of Jason was a message to the others that silence is expected.
With the recruiters being followed Kate could concentrate again on the murder of William Duncan. She thought she would pay another visit to Elizabeth to see if she might be more open if presented with the facts she had acquired from other people. She was pretty sure that Elizabeth had the gold coins. She knew that Elizabeth would be getting most of the coins anyway so she didn’t have much of a motive.
Kate received a phone call from Charles Duncan, William Duncan’s nephew, and he said, “I got a call from Elizabeth. She told me that she had the gold coins. She said that her grandfather had given her the coins and they were in her name. According to her she had a bill of sale that transferred ownership to her. She said that she didn’t think it was fair and she intended to give some coins to both me and Seymour.”
Kate wanted to ask Elizabeth why she hadn’t told them about having the coins in their earlier interviews. Kate called Elizabeth and asked that question. Elizabeth told her that it was simple. She said the ownership of the coins had been transferred months earlier and her grandfather no longer owned them. That technically made them irrelevant to the case.
Kate told Elizabeth that when she mentioned the fact that William had bought the coins which could be a motive, Elizabeth should have mentioned at that time that William no longer had the coins.
Kate asked, “Is there anything else you might know that I should know. I am trying to solve this murder. When you keep secrets it makes you look guilty of something.”
Elizabeth replied, “I have some file boxes of papers from my grandfather’s beginning days of his business. There may be something in there that could offer some clues. I have tried to look through some of them but I can’t understand them.”
Kate replied, “I think that is something we should look at. I can come and get them.”
Elizabeth replied, “I will bring them to the station for you. I know you are trying to solve this crime and I want to help. I want those answers.”
Elizabeth was true to her word. Kate saw her bringing a box through the entryway of the station. Kate walked down to the front entryway and took the box from Elizabeth.
Elizabeth said, “I have two more boxes in my car.”
Kate turned back toward two patrol officers standing in the hallway and said, “Can you guys go out and bring in the other two boxes from her car?”
The officers followed Elizabeth to her car and brought back the other two boxes.
Elizabeth said, “Most of those records were back before computers so they aren’t stored in any database anywhere. They should tell you how William started his business and most of his financial information.”
Kate thought the amount of information was overwhelming; it would be something that may tell her about some of the people William may have known in those days. She could split it up with Cindy but that might be something better done while sharing a pizza.
Cindy agreed to start going through the boxes of papers while they shared a pizza. Kate told Cindy they could work on the papers at her house and Megan could join them. Kate was letting Megan get more involved with the cases since she had started studying forensics. She often had input now that she was more familiar with the techniques used.
Megan was home when Kate and Cindy came through the door carrying the boxes.
Kate yelled out, “Order a couple of supreme pizzas, we have some work to do tonight.”
Megan saw the boxes of papers and said, “Okay, I can help.”
Megan ordered the pizzas, Kate grabbed some bottles of Guiness from the refrigerator and the three women scattered the boxes of papers apart in Kate’s den.
Megan asked, “What exactly are we looking for?”
Kate replied, “These files are the paperwork for William Duncan’s business when it first started and before they converted to computers. Our research department hasn’t been able to find anything on William’s partnership even though we know he had one.”
When the doorbell rang, Megan jumped up and went to get the pizza. She knew she was the youngest and her getting up from the floor wouldn’t be as big a deal as her mother or Cindy. She knew where her mom kept her debit card for household purchases and she was allowed to use it.
Even though papers were scattered all over the floor the three women thought that pizza was the item of interest at the moment. It was time for a break and since no one had made any major discoveries so far, a break for dinner couldn’t hurt.
Some of the papers that covered the floor got a small coating of pizza sauce and cheese. It didn’t detract from the documents but it did indicate what a long night it would be. Kate would take a bite in-between organizing the stacks of receipts, deeds and court filings that filled the boxes.
Cindy was so busy looking through the paperwork that she didn’t notice the sauce dripping down the corner of her mouth onto her chin. The drops that fell on her stack of papers didn’t even catch her attention. She enjoyed being Kate’s partner and wanted to be appreciated by Kate. She liked Kate, even though their lifestyles were a lot different, she had a lot of respect for Kate.
Megan enjoyed being part of the group. She felt some validation from her mother by the work she was entrusted to do. Megan knew she had some issues with her mother when she was a teenager, but over time she saw what her mother was all about and she gained a new perspective and she certainly grew to respect her mother and what she did. Her mother was doing important work and that was what led Megan to choose the education path that she chose.
The women had decided to go through one box at a time and as they finished they would put the contents back in that box and move it aside. Kate hoped they could finish one box that night and start another box the next day. It would be too easy to get the contents mixed up if they tried to go through all of the boxes at once. Kate did suggest they wiped off the pizza sauce from any paper object it landed on.
While they all sat on the floor, Kate told Megan about putting a tail on some of the other recruiters of girls that Tim had pointed out to her. Kate wanted to know who ran the operation. She may never know. She did know that the person that recruited Megan and kidnapped her was shot and killed and the two men that had been sent to silence Megan had been killed by Megan. When the news got out that Megan was the daughter of a police lieutenant and a crack shot they had no further problems with anyone coming after Megan.
Kate knew that finding who ran the kidnapping operation would not help Megan at all, but she wanted to do it because it needed to be done. If she could stop another parent and child from going through the ordeal she would be making herself feel better.
The women finally finished the first box and only found where William had started his business as a sole proprietor. Kate was beginning to think William never had a partner at all. There didn’t seem to be any record of it.
When they finished with the first box, Kate said, “Let me load that in the trunk of my car and we can start another box.”
Kate picked up the box and took it out to the trunk of her car. She wanted to mainly make room for the other boxes, When she came back inside Cindy and Megan had started on another box.
Kate took back the spot she had broken into before she went to her car. Papers were scattered everywhere. Kate heard something from Cindy. It was a gasp.
Cindy said, “Oh my God, take a look at this, you won’t believe this.”
Kate went over to see what had Cindy so excited and then she too said, “I can’t believe that, I would not have thought that in a million years.”
Megan was trying to figure out what was so surprising, that had gotten both Cindy and her mom excited.