The Truth is a Lie

Good morning!  It’s Wednesday, it’s the middle of the week, and it’s fall.  Or at least it’s fall in some parts of the country.  California hasn’t decided if it’s still summer or if it’s time to move onto fall.  Either way, the weather is getting slightly cooler and I am enjoying the slight cool down.

And then we move into our next Winchester Wednesday story.  I won’t go into to much other stuff before sending you off into another Adventure.  Enjoy!

The Truth is a Lie

A day had passed since Winchester was pulled out of school to help investigate the case of the principal’s death.  He sat in his government class trying to decide the best course of action for studying for all of his classes and still help his dad with the cases.

He sat there listening to his teacher drone on and on about what they were going to be learning about during the course of the semester.  West sighed, he wasn’t excited about the class. If anything, he would much rather work with his dad everyday.  

But he did have to at least graduate high school.

The teacher pulled up her power point slides and Winchester looked down to write down what was up on the screen.  Even if he wasn’t super interested in the subject, he would have to pay attention. He pen glided across the page as he wrote down every word on the power point slide.  He finished writing before she finished discussing the first point and he leaned back in his chair. This was going to be a long class.

His mind began to wander to the case that was at hand.  Nothing had been said at school about Mr. Faurnet though word had spread through the students that he hadn’t been seen for the first two days of school.  After leaving the crime scene, Anthony and West went to the morgue to see Lacey who didn’t have a whole lot of information yet about the death. She had presumed that the death wasn’t an accident, that someone had killed Mr. Faurnet, but that was as far as she had gotten.

Mr. Faurnet’s computer was given to the techie Rhett who, as Anthony had claimed, was the best guy for the job.  When they left the precinct the night before, Rhett was still pouring through all of the information on the computer.  There were no leads yet, but he was still looking.

The power point slide changed and West wrote everything down on his paper.  It just didn’t make sense. Everyone loved Mr. Faurnet, what could he have done that could’ve killed him?  Did he pay for someone’s college who wanted to seek revenge for some reason? Or was he actually hiding something from everyone in the world?

Buzz Buzz.  Winchester quickly grabbed his phone that sitting at the top of his bag and pulled it onto his lap.  His finger pressed the home screen and there was a text from his dad. Call me ASAP.  I have info on the principal’s death.

Winchester quickly typed out a reply telling his dad that he couldn’t call until after class and anxiously waited.  Thankfully lunch period was next so he could actually talk on the phone but for now he had to wait.

When the bell finally rang, West raced toward the door with his phone in his hand.  He had to get to the conference room to call his dad. His feet walked faster than they probably should have and he quickly got to the office and looked at the secretary.  “I need to use the conference room.”

She looked at him, puzzled.  “For what may I ask?”

“I need to call my father regarding…”  Did he tell her that he worked for the police or just make up an excuse?  “Regarding my after school job…”

She shrugged.  “Okay.”

He quickly stepped in the conference room and dialed his father’s work number.  There was a click and a hello from the other end. “Hey dad. What’s going on?”

Anthony cleared his throat.  “Bug. Rhett found some fantastic information, but I don’t want this information to change the way that you think of your former principal.  Do you understand?”

“Yeah of course.  What’s going on?”

“So…we have reason to believe that Mr. Faurnet was addicted to betting.  Like…on races. On horse races and the sort. We have reason to believe that his loan shark may have killed him.”

Winchester shook his head.  “No…that doesn’t make any sense.  Are you saying that Mr. Faurnet didn’t send any students to college, he spent all of it on races?  That’s not it at all.”

“I’m not saying he didn’t help any students, but it is kind of looking like he didn’t help out as many students as Joseph had insinuated.  I need you to come down to the precinct as soon as you are out of school and help look at this.”

“I don’t know…”  West looked around the room, trying to grasp onto something.  “I just don’t see Mr. Faurnet betting on horse races all the time.  He was such an amazing person and he wouldn’t waste all of his money online.  There’s no way.”

There was a sigh on the other end of the line.  “Winchester. I need you to put your personal thoughts aside and do a job.  I will see you when you get out of school.” And with a sudden click the call was ended.

***********************

Winchester sat in the chair next to his father’s desk and looked at the files Rhett had handed him.  He flipped through all the pages of bank statements showing charge after charge on online betting sites.  His eyes scanned the pages, reading every withdraw and deposit that was on the account. He reached the bottom of the page to see a -$10,000 in the account.  His hands lifted the pages up to his face, trying to cover the shame and embarrassment. “I can’t believe he fooled all of us.”

A hand was placed on his shoulder.  “You couldn’t have known anything about this Bug.  But I need you to understand that you don’t know everything about someone you think you know.  I understand that can be hard but you unfortunately don’t know everything.”

West brought the papers down from his face.  “I know…just give me a little bit to go through this and see what I can find.”

Anthony sat down in his chair with a thud.  “No need, Rhett already did. And our loan shark should be arriving any moment for us to talk to.  So hopefully…” He glanced down at his watch and sighed. “Hopefully he gives us some answers.”

The phone rang on Anthony’s desk and his hand flew to pick up the receiver.  “Officer West. Uh huh…okay…thank you.” He slammed the phone down. “Our shark is here.  Let’s go see if he will take the bait.”