WW-Business Partners

Good morning!  It’s Hump Day!  It’s Wednesday and I am already ready for Friday.  I cannot wait until the weekend where I will have 2 days off to get some writing done.  Hooray!

And we continue on with Winchester Wednesdays.  It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, and it’s a new part of the story.  So hold onto your hats as we continue on this Adventure story.  Enjoy!

Business Partners

36 hours had passed since Brad Everhart was murdered and they were finally getting some of their evidence back.  The candlestick didn’t bring any leads except for the blood belonging to Brad.  There wasn’t a single fingerprint on it meaning the murderer was careful. Same with the knife, not a single fingerprint.  Every person from the party had been interviewed and nothing crazy had come up in their testimonies.

Winchester sat on the table in the conference room with his feet on one of the chairs.  His father paced up and down the room, spouting off random questions to think about. Anthony was getting angrier and angrier with every dead end.  “What about the wife? Is there anything suspicious between her and any of the men?”

“No dad.  Unless either Mark or Stephen is lying then there is nothing.  Both have expressed wonderful relationships with their wife which their wives have reciprocated.”

“What about the other wives?  Either of them lying?”

“No dad…we’ve already explored all of these options.”  Winchester rubbed his forehead with his fingers. “We’re at a dead end.  I don’t know what else to explore.”

Anthony threw his hands in the air.  “There has to be something! Brad Everhart wouldn’t be murdered for no reason.  There has to be a reason. Was there anything with their businesses?”

Winchester sighed as he picked up the information on the men’s businesses.  “Dad…I’ve looked through everything.”  

There was a knock on their door.  “Officer West and uh…” She paused trying to find the right name to call him.  “Winchester. I have the documents from Mr. Everhart’s business office that you wanted.”

Winchester stood up and grabbed the papers from her.  “Thanks. This is awesome.” He started flipping through the pages to see if there was anything out of place.  Suddenly he stopped and his eyebrow cocked. “Wait…I might have found something.”

Anthony stopped in his tracks and looked over at his son.  “What is it?”

“I feel like I have seen this before but I don’t 100% remember.  Did you know that the men had small company together? It doesn’t look like it’s too big yet, like still in the planning phase.  But it says here that Brad was supposed to be making a higher percentage than the other men. Not much, but enough. He was getting 40% while the others were getting 30% each.  It could’ve been because Brad was putting more money into the company so he could be getting more out of the sales.” He looked at his dad. “Do you remember them saying anything about this?  Could it have been one of the men trying to get more money out of the company?”

Anthony sat down in a chair to think.  “I don’t remember them saying anything about this other business.  We also didn’t ask about it because it isn’t public knowledge. How did you see it anyway?”

“This uh…contract?”  He held up a handwritten paper with the signatures of all three of the men at the bottom.  It laid out the details for the small beer business that wasn’t too far off the ground. “Do you remember anything about beer at the murder mystery party?”

Anthony shook his head.  “Not that I remember. Why?”

“Well apparently they were starting a beer business.  Or a brewery I guess. But I’m wondering if they had their beer at the party to taste.  Maybe something happened between the men over the beer?”

“I’m not sure.  This is definitely an avenue to look down.”

Winchester sat back far enough that he was laying on the table.  He looked up at the ceiling, trying to make sense of this new information.  “Literally the only thing I can think of is that either Mark or Stephen was upset about not having a higher percentage.  I don’t think that it would’ve or could’ve been any of the wives.” Suddenly he sat up. “What if Brad was having an affair with either Amy or Pamela?  What if their husband found them making out or something and then bashed his head in with the candlestick? That’s very possible, don’t you think?”

Anthony reached for the evidence box and started looking through the files.  He found the testimonies and read it. “So according to Mark, he and Amelia both walked into the ballroom at the same time.  But his pattern doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. He said he walked from the library, to the ballroom, to the conservatory, and then to the kitchen.  But wouldn’t he have had to pass through the ballroom to get to the kitchen? How would he have not seen the body?”

“Or maybe he went up to the conservatory, like he said, but he grabbed the candlestick and came back downstairs to kill Brad.  Do we have a map or something that shows where all of the items were hidden?”

Anthony dug through the evidence box again to find a map.  He gently pulled it out of the box and looked at it. “Okay…so the candlestick wasn’t in the ballroom or the conservatory.  It was in the library…what?”

Winchester leaned back so he was laying on the table.  “So the candlestick was in library…do you think it was possible for Mark to have gone into the library and as he was leaving he saw whatever happened, grabbed the candlestick, and walked into the ballroom and killed Brad.  Then he walked into the kitchen and came back when Amelia walked in. What if he never went to the conservatory? But how would have Amelia have gone into the library without seeing her husband’s dead body?”

“There was an entrance from study to the library.  So it was very possible for Amelia to enter the library without seeing the body.”

“That would give Mark plenty of time to kill his friend and leave the body.  And the worst part, or best part depending on which side you are looking at, is that no one else from the party can confirm his story.  Granted it was a murder mystery party so they were all investigating, but no one saw him go into any of the rooms? That seems very unlikely.”

Anthony stood up.  “I think we need to get Mark here to get more answers.”