It is Wednesday Story Day again, and last week we got a line on a brand-new suspect in the murder of Rafferty. No, it is not a lawyer. It is a banker. Although most of us would like to know who killed Sandusky, it is good to hear we may get to the bottom of the Rafferty incident. As a side note, Craig Boyack mentioned last week that this series had no title. I did ask him if he had an idea and being the talented author that he is he proffered, “Professor Rafferty and the Mysterious Heart Evaporating Whatchamacallit.” I thought his offering to be perfect with one change. Instead of Rafferty, the dead guy we would substitute Andrew the live former ME in the title. Craig agreed, and so we have, “Professor Andrew and the Mysterious Heart Evaporating Whatchamacallit.” Let’s get back to Larry’s office since he was going to check the phone records of Mrs. Rafferty and Ned Dixon to see if they had contact with each other.

 

“So the phone company said it would be a couple of days until we get the records.”

“That’s crap. Larry. We should have access to them online.”

“Yeah, I had to Bogart my way into the supervisor level. I pulled the obstruction of justice card.”

“Good one. Did it work?”

“Yessir. We have the online access codes, but I had to electronically sign that the scope of the investigation only covered Janice and Ned.”

“Seems fair. Nothing like pushing your nose into where it doesn’t belong.”

“If we were the Feds that wouldn’t be necessary.”

“Well we are not, and in today’s climate I’m grateful for that.”

“Do I detect some political leanings, Andrew?”

“No. Just can’t stand the baseness of the level of social dialog that is represented by Washington is all.”

“Okay. Here we are. I have Janice’s call records for the last six months. Let me do a search with Ned’s phone number to see if there are any matches.”

“That is a slick program.”

“What? I just took Janice’s cell records and exported them to Excel and am now doing a search.”

“Clever guy you are Larry.”

“Shit. Er, excuse me. There are no matches.”

“That is damn typical. Could we have an easy time with anything? Hell no.”

“Let me go the other way with Ned’s records.”

“Worth a try. What number are you using for Ned?”

“His office number.”

“Come on Larry no one in their right mind would call from the office. We need his cell number.”

“I have that right here.”

“Go back to Janice’s records and search incoming by Ned’s cell number.”

“Gotcha, Andrew. You are like a professor you know that?”

“Anything?”

“Well lookie here. Two hits.”

“Let me see. Humm the first the night before Rafferty hit the tree.”

“The second two days after. Look at this Andrew. The calls were less than thirty seconds both times.”

“Looks like not much talk. Maybe just confirming events.”

“Let’s do a run on Ned’s number and see if Janice made any more calls to him.”

“Could be interesting.”

“Well, there are no matches.”

“Just tells me that maybe they had a meeting or two and didn’t do much on the phone. We do know they made contact with each other by these calls and that is one thing. We are going to need some advanced sleuthing to determine if they met.”

“Don’t you think they will meet again?”

“I’ll bet they will wait until things cool down.”

“Just a hunch but don’t you think they would do any meeting out-of-town?”

“Good point. Gives us an opportunity to check airline reservations.”

“Man, this will be like finding a leopard in a Jason Pollock painting.”

“You amaze me, Larry. The fact you even know what a Jason Pollock is blows me away.”

“I lived with Gloria. She taught me a lot.”

“You search. I’ll get us some coffee.”

“Make mine a Latte.”

“Ha ha ha. You got it.”

It’s Wednesday Story Day again, and last we were given a hint by Gloria that more or less confused me. I don’t know about you, but I wish she would just spit out who killed Rafferty. Well too bad for me she just didn’t. Instead, she came up with some kind of insect parable that further confounded the issue. Let’s join Larry and Andrew as they try to figure out what Gloria said.

 

“So, she basically told us none of our suspects killed Rafferty.”

“I don’t know, Andrew but sometimes you amaze me with your observations.”

“What I’m just trying to help.”

“Give me some help on the insect thing.”

“She was not talking about an insect. She was saying the person we are looking for is someone we would not suspect due to his or her lack of involvement in the case.”

“Ah. So my interpretation regarding someone little as having no power is really someone not involved in the case.”

“Rafferty case. Not necessarily in the Sandusky case.”

“So it could be someone who Knew Sandusky but seemingly not involved with Rafferty.”

“Bingo.”

“If I think of everyone involved one way or another in the Sandusky and Rafferty case there is only one name that jumps out as having no involvement with Rafferty.”

“Who is that?”

“Ned Dixon, the bank manager.”

“Ned Dixon? How could he be involved?”

“Think about it. Had Louis been able to prove the machine in that is to say Rafferty signed the paper saying it was good to go.”

“Yes?”

“There would be no bankrupt company.”

“How’s that help Dixon?”

“Remember when Dixon told us he authorized the payments on the loan to stop.”

“Yeah, that was six months ago.”

“He said Louis was working for Cortez but never collected on the development funds for which Louis had a signed contract.”

“So what would have happened if the contract was honored?”

“I guess the company would prosper.”

“Right, and where would that leave Dixon?”

“He would not be able to sell the company.”

“And not pocket the loan payback amount.”

“Wait. Dixon is a trustee along with the bank.”

“You believe that? I think he is skimming money off of Sandusky’s trust. He told us it was worth fifteen million. How easy would it be to take some for himself? If the company was going strong, there would be no sale and no opportunity to skim.”

“Still seems like a risk for a banker. He doesn’t seem like the skimming type.”

“Well, we need to make the connection to Rafferty.”

“That’s a no brainer if what you are thinking is true.”

“Talk to me.”

“He wanted Rafferty to falsify the engineering study to say the machine wasn’t working.”

“I thought Cortez did that.”

“So says Mrs. Rafferty.”

“Humm. She did say her husband said, Cortez. Why would she lie.”

“To cover for someone else.”

“Like Dixon?”

“OMG. I see where you are going. I wonder if they ever talked or knew each other.”

“We need the phone records of Dixon and Janice Rafferty.”

“Damn.”