Good morning!  It’s another Wednesday and I hope everyone is doing well.  I am getting  ready for my weekend because I have exciting plans for early next week.  And I cannot wait!

We continue with Winchester as we finish out this case.  How do you think Shelly will react when she finds out she was Catfished by Marcel?  I hope she takes it well, but you will have to read to find out!  Get ready for more Adventure and I hope you enjoy!

This Isn’t Fair

Winchester and Anthony sat at their desk, waiting for Shelly to come by and talk to them.  Winchester shuddered. “I am really hoping that everything goes well today. I would really like to see tomorrow.”

Anthony snickered.  “You are in a police station.  I don’t think you will have to worry about that.”  They both jumped as the phone on the desk began to ring.  Anthony picked it up. “Officer West…uh huh…okay I’ll be right there.”  He hung up the phone and sighed, looking up at his son. “She’s here. Head over to the conference room and I’ll meet you there.”

They both stood up and went their respective ways.  West made his to the large conference room where they had already set up their evidence.  He sat down in one of the chairs and waited in the quiet room for his dad and Shelly to show up.

He started paging through the papers that were organized in the small file folder.  The evidence was clear that Shelly was slightly delusional and maybe a bit crazy, but they still had to ask her some questions and tell her she had met Marcel but didn’t believe it.  He hoped that everything would go well while they talked to her.

The door opened and Anthony and Shelly walked through the door.  Anthony motioned towards the chairs and smiled. “Go ahead and take a seat.  We just wanted to go over what we found and ask you a couple more questions if that’s okay.”

Shelly nodded as she sat down across from Winchester.  “Of course. Please tell me you have found my Marcel.”

Winchester shifted in his chair as his father sat down next to him.  “Uh…yes. We did find Marcel.”

“Where is he!  I want to see him.  He’s been gone for two weeks!  Is he okay? What happened to him?  Is he hurt?”

“Whoa whoa whoa slow down.”  Winchester lifted his hand, signally her to slow down.  “Marcel is at his home. But I want to let you know that you lied to us saying that you never met him.”

“What do you mean?  I haven’t met him before.  He told me where he worked and I went there one night and he wasn’t there.  There was another guy named Marcel who said he was the guy I had been talking to, but I know that wasn’t the guy.  He didn’t look anything like the pictures.”

Shelly looked extremely confused.  West had to try as hard as he could to not roll his eyes in front of Shelly.  “So we contacted the bar where Marcel works and we asked if there was a Marcel who worked there.  They confirmed that yes, there was a Marcel who worked there and we went right over there to talk to him.  The man who you talked to and who we talked to confirmed that he is the man you have been talking to online.”

“That’s not possible!”  Shelly stood up and slammed her hands on the table.  “He looked nothing like the Marcel I talked to. Why would he do something like that?”

The West’s looked at each other.  “Uh…well it’s thing called Catfishing where someone who isn’t super happy with how they look uses someone else’s photo to talk to people.  Sometimes they even use a different name and make up lies about their lives. But according to Marcel the only thing that was different was his photo.  And…” Winchester sighed. “According to Marcel the reason he stopped talking to you was because he had told you multiple times that he wanted to end the relationship and you didn’t listen.”

Shelly’s mouth dropped wide open.  “What do you mean? We were in a committed relationship.  He told me we were always going to be together.”

“I think what Winchester is trying to say is that Marcel wanted to end the relationship and voiced his opinion but it was reciprocated by both parties.”  Anthony looked over at Winchester who nodded in agreement. “Is that correct?”

“Yeah totally.  Marcel wanted to end the relationship but you didn’t.  He was getting frustrated by not being listened to and just stopped talking to you.  Marcel was trying to protect himself.”

“That’s not fair!”  Shelly was almost yelling at this point.  “He promised me that we would get married and we were always going to be together.  Why would he lie to me? That’s not fair!” She fell into her chair and started sobbing.  “He was all I had…”

West was not sure how to respond.  Anthony leaned forward and put his hand on Shelly’s shoulder.  “I’m sorry Shelly. But this is everything we have. Marcel is a real person who, unfortunately, does not wish to see you anymore.  I think the best course of action would be to put your feelings aside and move on. He does not wish to be contacted again.”

Shelly stood up and immediately left the room.  The officers watched her run out the building and down to her car.  West shook his head. “I feel bad. I know this isn’t what she wanted to hear, but it’s what she needed to hear, right?”

Anthony nodded and stood up to collect the few papers they had.  “Yeah…I know she wanted better news than that, but the news she got was what Marcel wanted her to hear.  She’ll get over it eventually.  Hopefully…”

Good morning!  I hope everyone’s week is going well.  Mine’s going well but I cannot wait for the weekend.  This is the first full weekend I have had off in a while so I am ready!

We continue with Winchester.  I hope you are liking this case because it’s different than what Winchester normally helps with.  But it has been fun to write and I hope that it’s fun to read!  We continue on our Adventure and I hope you enjoy!

Revealing the Truth

“So tell me again why we couldn’t take a patrol car to get their faster?”

Anthony rolled his eyes.  “I don’t think us going to Tranton in a patrol car would get us through the traffic faster.”

“Dad…we could’ve used the lights on the top of the patrol car to get us out of the traffic cause everyone would have to move out of the way.  I wouldn’t ask you to use a patrol car for no good reason.” He snickered. “Thanks for thinking logically and ruining my obviously well thought out plan.”

His father shook his head and smirked.  “That’s what dads are for right?” He pulled into the small parking lot of a bar.  He parked in one of the few empty spaces and turned off the engine. “This is the spot.  Now…we might have to talk to Marcel outside since you aren’t 21. I don’t know if they will let you in the bar.  Sorry…”

West shrugged.  “I don’t really care.  As long as we can ask him questions.”  They stepped out of the car and made their way to the front door.

There was pounding music coming from inside.  It sounded like a form of country and rock music, but Winchester couldn’t hear any of the words from outside.  All he could hear was a pounding bass and muffled words. They walked up to the door when the bouncer stopped them.  “Sorry gents. I’m gonna need to see some ID.”

Anthony and West both pulled out their badges.  “Officer West and my partner Officer West. We are here to talk to Brad and Marcel.”

The man looked at their badges and pressed a button on his ear.  “Brad we have a…uh…situation out here with two officers from the police department.  Do you know anything about this?” There was a slight pause as he listened. “Okay right away.”  He pressed the button again. “Okay, step on inside and Brad will meet you right inside the door.”  He stepped to the side and motioned for them to enter the bar.

It was dark inside the bar.  The music was even louder than outside but Winchester was right, it was a country rock kind of song.  There were quite a few patrons inside the bar, most of them holding a bear in their hand while conversing with the other people inside.  Near the back of the room were two pool tables, both occupied with people. There was also a strange smell, but West couldn’t quite place what was.

A door off to the side opened and a man walked out, looked around, and made a straight beeline for them.  He reached out his hand. “Good evening gentlemen. My name is Brad. I’m the owner of this establishment.”

Anthony shook his hand first.  “Officer Anthony West. This is my son and partner, Officer Winchester West.  Thank you so much for letting us come by and talk to your employee.”

Brad nodded.  “Of course. Please follow me.”

The West’s followed Brad back to the door that he had originally come out of.  Winchester stepped into the office right behind Brad and looked up to see a large man sitting in a chair off to the side.  The man stood up. “Evening. My name is Marcel.”

Winchester cautiously shook his hand.  “Hello…you aren’t what I was expecting you to look like.”

Marcel’s eyes widened.  “I’m sorry. I don’t really know how to respond to that.”

West waved it off.  “No problem. We just wanted to ask you a couple questions if that’s okay.”

Marcel nodded before sitting down.  “Sure. What can I help you with?”

West looked over at his dad who gave him a reassuring nod.  “Are you dating a woman by the name of Shelly Whittenberg?”

Marcel shifted in his chair.  “Uh…I was…is that what this is about?”

“Yeah, she came to us saying that you were missing.  Do you know why she would say something like that when you are definitely fine?”

“Uh…”  Marcel looked down at his hands and sighed.  “So…uh…we were only dating online. We never met in person.  And…uh…I didn’t use my real picture because I’m not the most attractive guy in the world.”  He shook his head. “I wanted to break up with her because I wasn’t into her anymore. I tried to tell her but she wouldn’t listen.  No matter how many times I tried to tell her she wouldn’t listen to me. So I finally just stopped talking to her and deleted her from Facebook.”

“So would you say you were Catfishing her?”

Marcel nodded.  “Yeah because I totally was.  I didn’t use my picture but everything I told her was real.  But she’s totally crazy. Like, I didn’t know a girl could be so insane.  Especially after what she did here.”

Anthony and Winchester looked at each other.  “What did she do?”

Marcel rolled his eyes and furiously shook his head.  “I had told Shelly where I worked. And one night I get this message from her saying she’s going to come by with some friends so she could meet me.  I told her that was fine. And when I actually introduced myself she didn’t believe it was me. The bartender said she kept yelling for Marcel and when he would tell her that I was the bouncer she would yell at him.  It’s not my fault she didn’t believe me. But then she took her shirt off and started swinging it around before we had to throw her out. She continued to yell at me afterwards saying that I was covering for the real Marcel because he was too chicken to actually talk to her.  Later that night I got tons of messages from her saying that I was an idiot and that she couldn’t believe I stood her up that night. That was the moment I decided that I didn’t want to deal with her anymore.”

Brad nodded.  “Marcel has talked to me about this girl and I remember that night.  I haven’t banned someone from the bar in a long time…”

Anthony leaned forward in his chair.  “Do you think that Shelly will be dangerous if she finds out what happened tonight?”

Marcel shrugged.  “Honestly, I don’t really know.  But what I do know is that I really dodged a bullet by stopping all contact with her.”

Good morning!  Has everyone had a good week so far?  My week got a little bit better because I have almost everything for my Halloween costume!  I am missing two items that have been ordered, but I’m just waiting for them to arrive.  I’m so excited!

And we move on to a new Winchester case.  I hope Winchester will be able to balance school and helping the police force.  I guess we will have to find out on this new Adventure.  Enjoy!

House Call

Winchester sat at his desk, typing out an essay for a scholarship that he was applying for.  The scholarship was for kids of police officers, something that he definitely qualified for. But he was possibly over qualified since he worked on the force as well.  It didn’t matter, he was still going to apply for it.

He fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed out why he deserved to win this scholarship.  He had to explain how his life had changed for the better since his father was an officer. But, he also had to try to stay away from saying that he was in the police force as well and how it had taught him so many things.  Being a consultant on the force had so far taught him that he was a stronger individual than he thought and that he could really do something if he put his mind to it. Winchester had figured out that he was smarter than he gave himself credit for and that his father always had his back when it came down to a case.  He had a stronger bond with his father now than ever before. So that was cool.

As he sat there typing, he paused when the sound of the doorbell rang through the house.  He stood up and made his way down the stairs and looked through the small peephole to see a random lady standing outside his front door.  West didn’t recognize her and slowly turned around. He needed to finish the essay because there was a deadline that he needed to keep an eye on.

He barely reached the bottom of the staircase when the doorbell rang again.  West rolled his eyes, this lady needed to leave, she probably had the wrong house.  He walked up two stairs when he heard something from the other side of the front door.  “Mr. West? I need your help please. I know how amazing of a detective you are and I really could use your help.  Please?”

West’s immediately became interested.  Was this woman looking for him? Or was she looking for his dad?  He quickly walked over to the door and opened it.

The lady was standing on the doorstep and was holding a frame close to her chest.  Her eyes widened as she saw West open the door. “Oh…I’m sorry. I must be at the wrong house…I was looking for Officer Winchester West.  You don’t happen to know where he lives do you?”

“Uh…I’m Winchester.  Can I help you with something?”

West could see the wheels in her brain turning.  He was obviously not who she was expecting to see.  She swallowed and nodded. “Uh…okay…so I was wondering if you could help me.  I’m looking for someone.” She turned the photo around and showed West a photo of a man.

The man was well dressed and sitting on a couch.  He wasn’t looking at the camera but he seemed to be deep in thought.  West wasn’t really sure how to react. “Is…is this your husband?”

The woman shook her head.  “Uh…no. He’s my boyfriend.  But he’s been missing for a couple days and I don’t know what to do.  I could use your help.”

Winchester shook his head.  “Ma’am. I am only a consultant with the police force and I cannot do anything without the permission of the chief of police.  If you are concerned, I suggest that you go to the police precinct and file a missing persons report. Once that has happened, I might be able to help search for your missing boyfriend.  I’m sorry.” He turned back into the house and started to close the door.

“Wait!”  He stopped to see the woman had stuck her hand in the doorway.  West pulled the door open to see her standing there with tears in her eyes.  “I can’t go to the police. You see…Marcel’s family doesn’t know we are dating.  And if they find out that he’s missing, then I will be done for. Marcel says that they won’t appreciate me and that I wouldn’t be accepted in his family.  He wants to wait until we have been together for a while before I meet his family. I can’t meet them like this. I don’t want them to know their son is missing.  But if I go to the police, then they will find out for sure. Please. Please Officer West.” She stopped with tears in her eyes. She obviously cared about her boyfriend but West couldn’t just pick up a case without permission.  Or maybe he could just help her on the side.

West let out a long sigh.  “Look. I know you’re concerned.  I would be too if my girlfriend went missing.  But, like I said before, I cannot take a case without talking to my supervisor.  So, let me make a phone call and see what I can do okay?”

She smiled.  “Thank you! Thank you so much!”

West nodded.  “Okay, give me one second.  Just wait right here.” He started to close the door again.  “Oh…what’s your name?”

“Shelly Whittenborg.”  She smiled. “Sorry…I should’ve introduced myself a while again.  I’m just a mess.”

West slowly closed the door and walked into the kitchen, hoping it was far enough away that she couldn’t hear him talking.  He quickly dialed his dad’s number and held the phone up to his ear. It rang once before his dad’s distinctive voice answered the phone.  “Hey dad. I have a question.”

“Shoot partner.  What can I help you with?”

“I have someone outside the house that is looking to get some help for her missing boyfriend.  I told her she has to file a missing person’s report but she doesn’t want to because she doesn’t want his family to catch wind that he’s missing.  Is there anyway I can send her straight to you at the precinct and I’ll come down later to get the info? I’m working on some school things right now?”

There was a slight pause and the sound of shuffling papers on the other end of the phone.  “Uh…yeah. Send her over and tell her to ask for me. I’ll bring the info home tonight when I’m off.”

“Thanks dad.  I appreciate it.”  West hung up the phone and made his way back to the front door to relay the message to Shelly.  At least this way, the case would go through all the proper channels.

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.”

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.”