Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition Read Online Free PDF Page B

really have any idea
what’s going on.”
    “ I don’t
seem to know anything anymore! Nothing makes any sense!”
    “ Well,
it’s beginning to. It’s a matter of your perspective. When someone
strikes out in panic they always miss the details and that’s what
ends up putting them in the pen for life.
    “ Thanks.
That about covers it, I think. Now I have to talk to some people,
then I can either start looking elsewhere or close this one
out.”
    Marcos went shakily out and Clint told Judi,
“Have Mario tag him when he runs.”
    “ He do
it?”
    “ The
murder? No. He’s ’way over his head in the embezzling end, though.
That will be my lever to finish this one.”
    “ Ah!” she
said, grinning at him. “So his info about the money will tie the
killer up tight!”
    “ And the
rest of their little select group of crooks.”
     
    Finish
    Clint went with Menendez and Llanas to
Donna’s apartment where they made a thorough search. They didn’t
find the disks, but Clint said from the moment they went into the
place that they wouldn’t find anything. The killer had probably
come directly from the murder to find those disks. There was a
computer and printer, but there wasn’t a disk in the place.
    Clint turned on the computer and it went
directly to DOS. He groaned and tiredly said, “I’d say the drive
was formatted as insurance. There’s nothing here – except maybe one
little thing!”
    He went to the printer, inserted two pieces
of paper, turned it on and punched a code on the keys. A page and a
quarter printed out.
    “ The last
use is still there unless you delete the file. You can have it
repeat the last operation and this was it.”
    They read the pages, but it was simply a
statement that all the preceding information was authenticated and
spelled out very clearly that those two people from the institute
and the one person from the RE agency were the perpetrators of the
embezzling scheme and she didn’t yet know who – if anyone – else
was involved.
    “ Well, it
looks like we were thwarted there,” Llanas said, sourly.
    “ Nope!
Motive has positively been established, Your Honor!” Clint said,
happily. “Now we have to establish – no! It could only be one of
them! Marcos and Goldman were with Franklin! You can arrest Dr.
Alice Beckman on a charge of murder one, Mario. There’s no other
suspect with all the motive and opportunity parts. I can even show
you where she got the murder weapon replacement if she didn’t toss
it. It could be in the garbage if she did! Hell! It was on the
institute account, so who cares if she did toss it!”
    “ You
don’t make any sense!” Mario accused. “If I arrest her we can’t
hold her for more than three or four hours without proof. The
coregidor will let her go.”
    “ I can
prove it,” Clint stated. Definitely. “To make it absolutely and
positively certain, all you have to do is establish the
relationship – BLOOD relationship – between two people.”
    “ I see!”
Jose Llanas cried. “They look too much alike! They almost HAVE to
be related! It occurs to me one of them will have those disks or
evidence that they DID have them! I hope they haven’t burned them
or something. Maybe they erased them.”
    “ I don’t
think there’s time yet,” Clint said. “They’ll have to read them to
find where else to cover their slimy asses. If Donna found the crap
someone else can.”
    Mario and Jose both nodded.
     
    “ Okay,
let’s lay this out with the bunch of you here, then I can go home
and get some sleep,” Clint stated to the group gathered for the
arraignment. “You will see exactly how Dr. Beckman was
caught.
    “ It
started because Donna Dorman saw some strange irregularities in the
institute accounts and investigated the scheme. It took her a few
weeks, but she had a very solid case against two people from the
institute – you, Dr. Marcos and you, Dr./Mrs. Beckman – and you,
Mrs. Goldman. She discovered, as did Captain Menendez, that