His Decision, Not Mine

Good morning!  How is everyone’s week going so far?  Mine’s been pretty slow to be honest.  And I’ve only worked 2 days this week!  But, I have some exciting stuff planned for this weekend so I cannot wait to share that with you.

We will continue on our quest with Winchester to see what happened to his principal.  Will he and his father be able to figure out who it was?  Or will this be the first case that they can’t solve?  Continue reading this Adventure to find out!  Enjoy!

His Decision, Not Mine

“Are you going to answer any of my questions?”  Anthony leaned back in his chair, letting it sit precariously on its back two legs.  The loan shark David wasn’t saying anything. Winchester looked at David and shook his head.  It was one of his classmates they had to have the wrong person. There was no way in the world that an 18 year old would have enough money to loan out to adults, let alone kill someone.

Anthony stood up and slammed the chair into the table.  “Fine…I’ll let you sit here and think.” He marched out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him before entering the viewing room with a sigh.  “I don’t know if we have the right guy.”

West leaned against the back wall.  “I don’t know either. Isn’t Rhett going through his computer to see what he can find?”

Anthony leaned against the one way window to look at his son.  “Yes…but so far his computer is super encrypted. This kid is 18 which means he can be tried as an adult if he’s found guilty.”  He shrugged. “I don’t know why a kid this age would do something like this. Shoot their principal in the chest 5 times and leave him in his house.  I just don’t understand.”

Winchester didn’t understand either.  He hadn’t told his dad that David was his classmate but he also wasn’t sure if he wanted his dad to know that.  Unfortunately, it was probably going to come out sooner or later. “I don’t think anyone could have known. It could be that his parents don’t even know.  But…” He looked past his dad to see David in the room. He seemed so nervous but he wasn’t budging or saying anything. “Maybe I could talk to him. He is my age, maybe I can level with him.”

Anthony looked over his shoulder at David sitting in the interrogation room and sighed.  “That might be our only hope.” He turned back to West. “Go get ‘em Bug.”

With that, West stood up and left the viewing room.  He stood in front of the door and took a deep breath.  His hand reached out for the knob and quickly opened the door.  David looked up from the table he had been staring at and his eyes widened.  “W…Winchester? What are you doing here?”

West’s heart skipped a beat, knowing that at that very moment his dad knew.  He took another deep breath. “I’m here just to talk to you. That’s it. My dad is working on the case and he just wanted me to talk to you.  That’s it.”

He could see David relax a little.  “Oh…okay. Uh…can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Does you dad think I killed Mr. Faurnet?  Please…be honest with me Winchester.”

He wasn’t sure how to respond.  “Uh…no…he just wanted to ask you questions.  That’s it. We are not assuming anything.” David nodded.  “Can I ask you a couple questions?” David nodded again. “Do you actually work as a loan shark?”

David sighed.  “Uh…yeah…kind of.  I guess I loan people money and they need to pay me back with slight interest.  It’s nothing much, like 1%. But still. Most people need money for lunch. So I give them $10 and they owe me 10 cents for every day they don’t pay me back.  The most I made back from someone who borrowed money for lunch was $50. That kid took out two separate lunch money loans and didn’t pay me back for almost 3 months.  That was kinda nice.”

“What did you do with the money you earned?  Did you use it towards giving more people loans?”

David shook his head.  “No. I actually kept all of my profit separate.  I have been saving all of my profit to help pay for college.  It’s not much but it will definitely help.”

Winchester leaned back in his chair.  “Did you give Mr. Faurnet money?”

“Quite a bit actually.  He never asked me directly, he would actually send me a request on Venmo and would send me the money back.  That was it.”

“Did he ever not pay you?”

Winchester watched David squirm a little.  “I thought you were just coming here to talk…I feel like you are interrogating me…”

“Nah man.”  West put his arms behind his head to try to look relaxed.  “I was just curious. Did anyone you give money to not pay you back?”

David shifted in his chair.  “Uh…yeah…I have a couple people who still owe me money.”

“Are you upset that they haven’t paid you back?”

“Well yeah…they owe me money.  Why wouldn’t I be upset? I put my trust in people to pay me back money that I gave them and they never give it back.  Of course I’m upset.” David threw his body back into the chair and huffed. “I feel like you are interrogating me…”

Winchester leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table that sat between them.  “Look. I’m not going to lie to you. Yes. I am interrogating you. But, if you didn’t kill Mr. Faurnet then I need you to answer my questions.  I’m trying to help you out David and I can’t do that if you don’t answer the questions. So…” He paused to let David think. “Do you want to let me know if Mr. Faurnet didn’t pay you money that you were owed?”

David looked at the viewing window, almost as if he was pretending he could see outside.  He let out a long breath before covering his face with his hands. “Okay…okay. I’ll confess to everything.  But I…I just want it to say on the record that I am terribly sorry.” He rubbed his hands down his face before looking Winchester square in the eye.  “I started loaning people money our freshman year of high school. Again, nothing major, just $10 or $20 here and there. But someone ratted on me when I charged them $30 when they didn’t pay me back in a timely manner.  So I went to the principal’s office. Mr. Faurnet made a deal with me. If I loaned him money, he wouldn’t punish me for being a loan shark at school. So basically if someone ratted on me I didn’t get in trouble.”

He shrugged.  “I never really kept track of how much I loaned him during my freshman year but he always paid me back in a timely manner.  And he would pay me more than the interest he owed. Almost like he was bribing me to stay quiet about what he was doing. At the beginning of our sophomore year he took out a large sum, like I had to dip into my savings account for the amount.”

“How much was it?”

“$1,000.  But…1% of that is $10 a day.  I wasn’t upset because I knew he would pay me back, plus I was going to get some extra in savings.  But he never paid that back. And then he took out another loan of $100…and another loan of $200…and another loan of $100.  I was able to keep giving him the loan, but then I would remind him of how much he owed me. He would always tell me he was keeping track of the total and would pay me back as soon as he could.  Remember when he sold his car during our sophomore year?”

West nodded.  “Yeah. He said he was selling it to raise more money for students to go to college.  Didn’t he sell it for like…$10,000?”

David smirked.  “Yep. And I got all of it because that is how much I was owed.  I was very happy that I got my money back and made a mental note to really keep track of how much I loaned Mr. Faurnet.  He swore that he was done taking loans from me. I didn’t care, that was up to him. But..” He snickered. “Two weeks later he was taking out a $500 loan from me.”

West looked toward the one way window, almost as if he was looking for his dad.  “So how much would you say you loaned him in total versus how much you made?”

“Uh…I don’t remember the amounts that I loaned him but the amount I was owed was nearing about $50,000.”

Winchester whistled.  “Wow…I can see why you were angry…but why on the first day of school?  Why didn’t you do it over the summer?”

David sighed.  “He told me he was going to have all of my money by the day before the first day of school.  Then he text me saying he didn’t have it and wanted an extension. I told him no. He had to have my money or I would have his life.  When I went to his brother’s house before school and he didn’t have my money, I decided to take his life and his wallet. I cleared out his wallet and his bank account, not that there was much there, and took it as my payment.  It was his decision, not mine.”

West sighed.  “There are so many other options out there besides killing someone but…”  He stood up and made his way out of the room. “It was your decision, not mine.”