And as Shelley prattled on, I could tell that Odelia and Chase were starting to wonder if she would ever arrive at their investigation. Before long we knew everything there was to know about Dennis, including his sleeping habits (flat on his back and snoring all night) his bathroom habits (never took a bath, only showers, even though she had often told him to take a bath when he got home from work), his smoking habits (Marlboro Light) and his drinking habits (Bud Light). But finally she seemed to have exhausted her favorite topic of conversation, and opened her laptop.
We were in a small conference room, since she didn’t have her own office, but worked in an open-plan office along with dozens of her colleagues. On the wall of the office a poster reminded us to ‘Stay alert. Be aware. Speak up,’ and we listened intently as she told us about the steps she’d taken following Steph’s complaint.
“Obviously we looked into this guy she mentioned, this Crowley character. Called WelBeQ, who were very cooperative, checked the guy’s phone records, bank statements, his phone and computer, but like I told you on the phone we struck out. I hate to disappoint you, but Crowley is not your guy. Unless of course he hired some other guy. I had our IT people take a closer look at those emails and they’re convinced they were sent by a professional, definitely not Crowley.”
“A professional?” asked Odelia. “You mean like a hacker or an IT specialist?”
Shelley nodded.“Criminal organization, most likely. Some gun for hire.”
Odelia and Chase shared a look.“The thing is that Steph Felfan’s husband was shot,” Chase explained, “in a setup that has all the hallmarks of a professional hit.”
“So it’s entirely possible,” Odelia added, “that the slander campaign and Jeff Felfan’s murder are connected, and were both carried out by the same outfit.”
“Do you have any idea who’s behind the WelBeQ campaign?” asked Chase.
“None,” said Shelley without hesitation. “Whoever set it up, they’ve managed to cover their tracks very, very well. Impossible to trace is the message I got.”
“Too bad,” said Dooley. “Now we’ll never know who’s behind this thing!”
“Don’t despair, Dooley,” I said. “There are other ways of finding out.”
“Like what? You heard the nice lady, Max. Even the specialists struck out.”
“All we have to do is to figure out who wanted to harm Steph and Jeff Felfan,” I said. “And wanted it enough to hire this criminal gang to do their dirty work for them. It’s all about motive, Dooley. The moment we know why, we know who.”
But my friend didn’t look convinced. And frankly at that moment neither was I. It’s one thing to spout great theories about crime, but another to figure out who was behind this thing! Whoever it was, they wanted to hurt the Felfans something bad.
We said our goodbyes to Shelley before she launched into another diatribe about Dennis, and soon were on our way back to Hampton Cove. In the car the atmosphere was a little subdued, I must say, and our humans weren’t entirely convinced that the trip had been worth it. After all, they didn’t know a lot more now than they had before. Except maybe the part about the professional gang.
And of course about Shelley’s husband Dennis. But there, I think, the expression TMI applied: Too Much Information!
CHAPTER 36
[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]
Steph hadn’t heard from the police since the day before, and frankly she was getting a little antsy. They had talked to Robbie, and they were going to talk to Kevin, and so far she had no idea what the result of these conversations was. It seemed to her that the police were simply twiddling their thumbs, instead of being out there looking for her husband’s killer.
So today she decided to take a more active role. She simply couldn’t sit around doing nothing while whoever killed Jeff was out there, doing God knows what—maybe even getting ready to kill her! Or Zoe. The thought made her blood run cold. What if her dad was right and this was connected to Ben Kosinski? And what about Kevin’s car parked in the drive of the Kosinski place? Where did that fit in? She would have asked her brother, but as usual he couldn’t be found. And when she asked her mom, she said she had no idea, and didn’t seem to care either.
So she took her car and went for a drive, just like Kevin liked to do, and drove straight to the Kosinski Winery, just like her brother seemed to enjoy doing! When she got there, the gates swung open even before she had a chance to announce her arrival. Clearly whoever was operating that big metal gate had recognized her, which wasn’t hard, since she was their neighbor, after all.
When she arrived at the end of the long drive, she wasn’t surprised to see a gleaming red Ferrari already parked there. So she swung her own car right next to Kevin’s, and went in search of Beniamino—most of all, she wanted answers.