Read Online Murder in the Dorm by C.G. Prado - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: C.G. Prado
Ads: Link
the nonentity part. Certainly McDermott overshadowed Kelsey, but maybe that was just fine with Kelsey because he didn’t give a damn and wasn’t interested in most people.”
“The reason I’m asking is because one of the detectives told me that some rather important files they found apparently belonged to Kelsey and not to McDermott as they first thought.”
“Kelsey wasn’t as good with computers as McDermott, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t calling the shots.”
“Quite right. McDermott’s computer ability was no doubt crucial to doing whatever they were doing, but Kelsey seems to have had expertise that rivaled McDermott’s in the context of a scam, given his knowing the market, and maybe the scam was his idea in the first place. I can more readily believe that Kelsey initially approached McDermott than the other way around from what I’ve been told about both of them. I’m thinking now that whatever they were doing, Kelsey had more to do with running it than McDermott. But tell me, were you surprised that Berger called asking about what is going on?”
“Not really. She seemed interested from the first. I just assumed she thought if you’d learned something you’d have told me, as you have now.”
“I do think it would be for the best if you don’t tell Berger about our talks.”
“If you think there’s any chance at all that she might have been involved, then I won’t tell her anything. I’m not planning on calling her and if she calls me I’ll simply tell her that you and I haven’t talked. I don’t know her all that well, and if there is even the slightest chance that she played any part in what Kelsey and McDermott were up to, I’m certainly not going to help her.”
Charlie and Sommers finished their lunch and returned to their offices. Once there, Charlie pondered how things changed if he thought of Kelsey as the dominant figure. That evening Charlie told Kate about his lunch with Sommers and his view that regardless of having seemed innocuous, Kelsey could have been the scam’s main figure.
“Did you call DeVries?”
“No. She called me, but that was before my lunch with Sommers.”
“You said there were only two sets of numbers for each line in the third column. If the middle column has figures larger than the added up ones in the third, the difference is probably the third party’s cut and the two figures in the third column Kelsey’s and McDermott’s or vice versa.”
“That’s what I figured out, too, and I think it makes the best sense of the columns and differences. I suppose the question is whether the variance in the two right-hand column figures indicates that McDermott or Kelsey was legitimately getting a bigger cut or was being cheated by the other. Since there seems to have been a bad argument and Kelsey was killed, it’s pretty clear that the answer is one of them was being cheated. Now, if the files were originally Kelsey’s, then it makes good sense that McDermott initiated the argument because he was getting ripped off. Looks like Kelsey was something of a dark horse.”
Chapter 12
The Second Tuesday
Charlie awoke had breakfast, showered, dressed, and was on his way out when Kate meandered into the kitchen looking for coffee. Once in his office, Charlie gathered his notes for his epistemology class and dialed DeVries’ number. Luckily, she was in.
“Charlie here. I’ve got a class coming up but wanted to tell you a couple of things.”
He then laid out his and Kate’s thinking about Kelsey being the main player in the scam, McDermott being the enabling hacker, triggering sell orders, and his likely getting wise to Kelsey’s cheating. Charlie added the idea about Berger possibly being the third party but stressed it was pure speculation when he went on to say that if Berger was the third party, then she had almost certainly shot McDermott and her size explained why McDermott’s body was found behind the dumpster and not in it.
“Those
“The reason I’m asking is because one of the detectives told me that some rather important files they found apparently belonged to Kelsey and not to McDermott as they first thought.”
“Kelsey wasn’t as good with computers as McDermott, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t calling the shots.”
“Quite right. McDermott’s computer ability was no doubt crucial to doing whatever they were doing, but Kelsey seems to have had expertise that rivaled McDermott’s in the context of a scam, given his knowing the market, and maybe the scam was his idea in the first place. I can more readily believe that Kelsey initially approached McDermott than the other way around from what I’ve been told about both of them. I’m thinking now that whatever they were doing, Kelsey had more to do with running it than McDermott. But tell me, were you surprised that Berger called asking about what is going on?”
“Not really. She seemed interested from the first. I just assumed she thought if you’d learned something you’d have told me, as you have now.”
“I do think it would be for the best if you don’t tell Berger about our talks.”
“If you think there’s any chance at all that she might have been involved, then I won’t tell her anything. I’m not planning on calling her and if she calls me I’ll simply tell her that you and I haven’t talked. I don’t know her all that well, and if there is even the slightest chance that she played any part in what Kelsey and McDermott were up to, I’m certainly not going to help her.”
Charlie and Sommers finished their lunch and returned to their offices. Once there, Charlie pondered how things changed if he thought of Kelsey as the dominant figure. That evening Charlie told Kate about his lunch with Sommers and his view that regardless of having seemed innocuous, Kelsey could have been the scam’s main figure.
“Did you call DeVries?”
“No. She called me, but that was before my lunch with Sommers.”
“You said there were only two sets of numbers for each line in the third column. If the middle column has figures larger than the added up ones in the third, the difference is probably the third party’s cut and the two figures in the third column Kelsey’s and McDermott’s or vice versa.”
“That’s what I figured out, too, and I think it makes the best sense of the columns and differences. I suppose the question is whether the variance in the two right-hand column figures indicates that McDermott or Kelsey was legitimately getting a bigger cut or was being cheated by the other. Since there seems to have been a bad argument and Kelsey was killed, it’s pretty clear that the answer is one of them was being cheated. Now, if the files were originally Kelsey’s, then it makes good sense that McDermott initiated the argument because he was getting ripped off. Looks like Kelsey was something of a dark horse.”
Chapter 12
The Second Tuesday
Charlie awoke had breakfast, showered, dressed, and was on his way out when Kate meandered into the kitchen looking for coffee. Once in his office, Charlie gathered his notes for his epistemology class and dialed DeVries’ number. Luckily, she was in.
“Charlie here. I’ve got a class coming up but wanted to tell you a couple of things.”
He then laid out his and Kate’s thinking about Kelsey being the main player in the scam, McDermott being the enabling hacker, triggering sell orders, and his likely getting wise to Kelsey’s cheating. Charlie added the idea about Berger possibly being the third party but stressed it was pure speculation when he went on to say that if Berger was the third party, then she had almost certainly shot McDermott and her size explained why McDermott’s body was found behind the dumpster and not in it.
“Those
Similar Books
