Collateral Damage A Matt Royal Mystery - By H. Terrell Griffin Page 0,38
poured coffee for both of us and took a seat across from me. “How can I help you, Mr. Royal?”
“Please call me Matt, Jeanette. I’m a lawyer and I represent a man whose son was killed on the beach on Longboat Key back in June, the same day as the murders on the Dulcimer. We think there may be a connection between the two events.”
“I hadn’t heard that.”
“There hasn’t been any press on it. We’re not even sure there is a connection, but we’re trying to find out.”
“Who is ‘we’ if I might ask?”
“I’m working closely with Chief Bill Lester and Detective J. D. Duncan of the Longboat Key police. Our interests are the same. We’re trying to find out who committed the murders.”
“How can I help?”
“What can you tell me about Katherine Brewster?”
“Not much, I’m afraid. She’d only been here for a couple of days when she died. I suggested she take the Dulcimer cruise that evening. She had a gift certificate for dinner on the boat, but I don’t know if she intended to use it. Maybe if I hadn’t suggested she go, she’d still be alive.”
“You can’t blame yourself.”
“Oh, I don’t. I understand that things happen. If I hadn’t suggested she go on the boat that evening, she might have been killed crossing Cortez Road or on the trip back to Charlotte. There’s no way of telling, so I know intellectually that I wasn’t the cause of her death. But one does wonder at the vagaries of life, doesn’t one?”
“One does. I’m convinced that life is a series of random events that somehow come together in some sequence that is beyond our understanding. That sequence, when it becomes a whole timeline, is what we call our lives. It may be fate or the result of a higher intelligence or God. I don’t know, but it’s there.”
“Oh, I think God has a hand in it. I’m not sure just how, but then that’s part of the eternal mystery, isn’t it?”
I smiled. “It is a mystery, and for some of us it works out very well and that’s what we call happiness.”
She smiled. “You’re a philosopher, Matt.”
“Right.” I laughed. “Do you know how she chose your place for her stay, or for that matter, how she chose Anna Maria?”
“That’s easy. She was given a gift certificate for a week’s stay here at my inn. She said she had been asked to bartend at a function in Charlotte, some charity event, and a few days later, she got the certificate in the mail along with a thank-you note signed by the chairman of the event.”
“Was the gift certificate one you issued?”
“Yes.”
“To whom?”
“To a travel agency in Charlotte.”
“Was this unusual?”
“Not really. Sometimes an agency somewhere requests one. They pay me with a credit card less their commission and I send it to them. It’s blank, so they can put whatever name they want to on the certificate.”
“Would you have a record of the one used by Katherine Brewster?”
“I’m sure I do. It’ll be in my computer.”
I followed her back out to the foyer. She sat at the desk and clicked at the keyboard for a few seconds. “Here it is. Each certificate is numbered and the one that Katherine used was issued by me to the EZGo Travel Agency in Charlotte on May fifteenth of this year.”
“Have you sent them other certificates?”
“I don’t think so.” She went back to the keyboard. “No. That’s the only one.”
“Can you check to see how it was paid for?”
A few more clicks. “A credit card. Would you like the number?”
“I would.” I thanked her for the coffee and the information and left.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
It was nearing noon as I crossed the Longboat Pass Bridge. I’d planned to meet Jock at Moore’s Stone Crab Restaurant for lunch. Logan had a morning doctor’s appointment and then was going to meet Marie for lunch in downtown Sarasota. J.D. was lunching with the chief to bring him up to date on our evolving views of the cases.
I was a few minutes early, so I swung by my house. I wanted to call EZGo Travel. I dialed information and asked for the Charlotte number. There was no listing. I thought that strange, but then figured it was probably in one of the suburbs. I went to my computer and Googled EZGo. Nothing. Nowhere in the entire country. I went to the North Carolina public records. No listing for a corporation or a fictitious name filing for EZGo. Some of the Charlotte