A Case Of Murder (Kendall Book 6) (19 page)

Lynch shook his head. “No, not me, why?”

“Oh it doesn’t matter,” replied Kendall. “I don’t suppose you rang for an ambulance either.”

Lynch shook his head once again, and smiled. “Why on earth would I have rang for an ambulance?”

Kendall shrugged. “I just thought that maybe you had seen the fight, you know, on the beach I mean.”

“Kendall, I really don’t know where you are getting all this,” Lynch replied. “I never saw any fight. In fact apart from Charters, oh, and Mrs. Mulvy, I didn’t see anything.”

Kendall smiled. “I didn’t really think so,” he replied.

“Just some more of those loose ends,” Lynch suggested.

Kendall nodded. “Mr. Lynch you’ve been very helpful, thank you,” he replied. “There is just one more thing, I’m sorry.”

Lynch heaved a deep sigh. “Go on,” he said almost as a dare.

Kendall smiled. “Do you know anything about a company called Anglo-Irish Commodities?”

Lynch thought for a few moments and then slowly shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t think so, why?”

Kendall shook his head. “Oh, I just wondered, you know,” he replied. “They import things.”

“What things?” asked Lynch.

Kendall shook his head once again. “Oh, I don’t really know, things that’s all I know.” He paused for a moment. “The strange thing is that they found an envelope, on the dead man. There was an address on it.”

“An address?” repeated Lynch.

“Yes, for Anglo-Irish Commodities,” explained Kendall. “It’s located in Dublin. A guy by the name of Peterson runs it.”

“Can’t help you I’m afraid,” replied Lynch.

Kendall heaved a sigh. “Never mind, it was a long shot,” he said. “I shan’t need to trouble you any further.”

“Right, I’ll get back to work then,” said Lynch as he turned and walked back to the boat he had been working on.

Kendall watched for a few moments. He shook his head.
That had been a waste of time. But what exactly had he expected anyway? Case solved, just like that? A confession perhaps.
He looked at Lynch one more time, then turned and started back towards the hotel.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Four

Back to Square One

The following day, Kendall and Mollie were back at the town park. “There’s our seat,” announced Mollie, rushing over and sitting down. Immediately she was surrounded by a flock of ducks, anticipating that breakfast was soon to be served.

Mollie had come well prepared this time. Apart from a whole loaf, and some crackers, she had brought with her a large bag of duck pellets.

“Our seat did you say?” said Kendall as he finally arrived. “Got our name on it as it?” He looked at the plaque fixed to the back of the seat. “Killmacud Corporation,” he read. “That’s you I guess.”

Mollie glared at him and made a face. She handed him a few slices of bread.

“What’s this, my breakfast?”

“Just do something useful for a change,” Mollie replied. “Feed the ducks.”

“They’ll miss us when we’ve gone,” Kendall murmured.

“Just feed them,” said Mollie.

“They’ll probably find another gullible mug I guess,” Kendall continued.

Mollie gave him a nudge on the arm. “Enough with the comments, just get on and feed them.” She tore a piece of the bread and tossed it.

Kendall looked down at the ducks, and started to break up one of his slices of bread. “It’s alright for you guys,” he murmured. “You’ve no worries, you even get fed.” He threw the scraps into the group. There was a frantic scurry as the birds went after the bread.

“There’s no rush, guys, there’s plenty for everyone,” said Mollie, throwing down a handful of pellets. She turned towards Kendall. “So Mr. Lynch was no help to you then?”

Kendall shrugged. “No help, whatsoever,” he replied. “I needed have bothered, but I was so certain.”

“So, we’re back to square one then,” said Mollie, despondent.

Kendall heaved a sigh. “It certainly seems like it,” he agreed. “I was so sure that it would be one or other of them. It seemed so obvious to me.”

“A bit too obvious maybe,” suggested Mollie.

Kendall heaved a sigh, and broke up some more bread, and threw it to the ducks. “Maybe.”

“Well I have to say I never really thought it would be Mr. Lynch,” said Mollie. “He doesn’t seem the type. As for those other two, well maybe, but not him.”

Kendall smiled and shook his head. He wondered just exactly what type they were looking for.
What exactly did a murderer look like anyway?
He did it, he looks like a murderer.
Kendall heaved a sigh. He had to admit that that would make things a whole lot easier, but life wasn’t like that was it. 

“Well it looks like it was neither of them,” he said.

“I suppose they could have been lying,” suggested Mollie.

“Yes they could have,” Kendall agreed. “Although the guys down in Kinsale had it all documented in their log book.”

“They could have used a different boat,” Mollie replied.

Kendall nodded his head. “Yes, I guess they could have,” he agreed. “And it could have been three other guys.” He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Well maybe it was a stranger, someone we don’t know anything about,” suggested Mollie. “I mean, really it could have been anyone couldn’t it?”

Kendall shrugged and shook his head. “You know if it had just been about the body on the beach, our Mr. Nadir, I’d have agreed with, and said could be,” he replied. “But with poor old Mulligan’s death, well that puts a different light on to things, as far as I’m concerned.”

“Why?” asked Mollie.

“Because whoever killed Mulligan must have been somebody local,” Kendall replied. “Somebody who had heard him talking in the bar, about the German, and had put two and two together.”

“And decided that Mulligan had to be silenced,” suggested Mollie, throwing some more scraps to the ducks.

“Correct, and I was so convinced that that somebody was our friend, Derren Lynch,” said Kendall. “It seems like we are no further forward now than we were when we first arrived over here.”

Suddenly there was loud squawking and screeching, and the ducks rushed en masse back into the water. In their place was a large ginger cat.

“Scat,” yelled Mollie,” waving her hands threateningly. The cat didn’t wait to be told twice.

“So where do we go from here?” asked Mollie, “We seem to have reached a dead end.”

Kendall shrugged and smiled. “That’s a very unfortunate term, Mollie,” he replied. “But I think you’re not far off the mark.”

Mollie smiled as she realised what she had said. “So where do we go from here?” she repeated.

“Well to be fair, we’re not exactly back to square one, we have made some progress,” said Kendall.

“Like what?” asked Mollie.

“Well at least I’m now convinced that Charters wasn’t involved in the fight on the beach,” Kendall replied. “The one that Mrs. Duffy had seen. He wasn’t at the beach at six fifty, he didn’t arrive until much later.”

Mollie shook her head. “So how come Constable Donovan didn’t get that?” she asked. “Why was he so convinced that it was Charters?”

Kendall shook his head. “Circumstances, I guess,” he replied, as he threw some more bread. “Charters was there, on the beach, when he arrived, and he just didn’t ask the right questions, In fact he didn’t think he had any questions to ask.”

Kendall paused for a moment staring at the lake. He sighed, and took a deep breath. “He’s young, and fairly new to the job. He hadn’t seen anything like it before. A murder in Killmacud was exactly commonplace. It all seemed so obvious to him.”

What do you mean? Asked Mollie

Kendall sighed. “He gets a call, well apparently he received two calls to be exact,” he started to explain. “He’s told to Get down to the Cove because there’s a fight going on. He hurries to the cove, and he finds a body. Standing next to it is a man holding a blood-stained knife. What more does he need.”

“Surely the police needs more than that,” said Mollie sounding perplexed.

“Well they have a number of eye witnesses, who say that they saw Charters going towards the Cove, at the time of the murder,” Kendall continued. “The police seem to think that they had an air tight case, especially when they found the two packages hidden in Charters’ house.”

“The drugs you mean,” said Mollie.

Kendall nodded. “Pretty conclusive evidence, at least that’s what Constable Donovan thought.”

“What about the officers that came down from Cork? Mollie asked.

“I don’t know what they thought,” replied Kendall. “But I’m guessing that it seemed obvious to them as well, so they just went along with Donovan.” He paused for a few moments. “It hardly matters anyway. They arrested Charters, end of story, and his trial isn’t too far off.”

“It doesn’t look too good for him, does it?” said Mollie

Kendall made no reply for a moment, staring into space. “No it doesn’t,” he murmured. Then he looked back at Mollie. “Let’s look at this again, but from a different angle this time.”

“Go on,” said Mollie. “I’m listening.

“Well instead of trying to find out who did it, how about looking at why,” Kendall replied. “Just why was Mr. Nadir murdered?”

Mollie shook her head. “Could be for any number of reasons,” she replied. “A fight, that’s what the police think.”

Kendall shook his head. “That makes no sense to me. Don’t forget he was deliberately brought to shore, and then killed. And whoever brought him in didn’t hang around.”

“How do you know that?” Mollie asked.

“Because there was no sign of a boat was there,” Kendall replied. “Whoever brought him ashore almost certainly killed him.”

“Almost?” repeated Mollie.

Kendall nodded slowly. “It’s possible that someone was already on the beach, waiting,” he started to explain. “Nadir is brought to shore, the boat goes away, the man waiting steps out of the shadows, and ….”

“Possible I guess,” agreed Mollie.

“But we still don’t know why he was killed,” Kendall continued. “And we certainly don’t know why he was brought ashore and then killed. Why not kill him out at sea, and just dump the body over board.”

“Well you tell me,” Mollie replied. “Why was he killed?”

Kendall shook his head, and threw the rest of the bread into the lake. There was a flurry of activity as the ducks flew away. “I don’t know for sure but let’s consider what we know about him.”

Mollie thought for a moment. “His name was Abel Nadir, and he was an illegal immigrant. Is that why he was murdered?”

Kendall held up his hand. “I’m coming to it,” he replied. “What else do we know?”

“He came from Turkey,” answered Mollie.

“Right, he came from Turkey,” replied Kendall. “And what else comes from Turkey, and I’m not talking about belly dancers.”

Mollie smiled. “Turkish delight,” she suggested hopefully.

“Drugs,” Kendall replied ignoring her comment. “Heroin to be precise. Don’t forget Poppies are a traditional crop in Turkey, with
poppy seed
used for food and animal fodder as well as for making
opium
. But apart from that Turkey is a major route for
heroin
coming from
Afghanistan
.”

“You’re saying he was a drugs smuggler?”

“Well yes and no,” replied Kendall. “What I think is that he worked for someone who was a drug smuggler.”

“And you think it was that person that killed him?”

Kendall nodded. “It’s certainly a strong possibility,” he replied. “At least I think it was that guy who issued the orders.”

“But you’re still not saying why,” said Mollie.

Kendall shook his head, and signed. “No I’m not,” he agreed. “I have to admit that I’m still not sure on that one.”

“Let’s say that you’re right,” said Mollie. “This Mr. Big, whoever he is, issues the order, and someone carries out the murder, is that correct?”

“That’s the way I see it,” Kendall replied.

Mollie smiled and shrugged. “Well it could have been anybody couldn’t it?”

Kendall shook his head. “No I don’t think so,” he said. I’m convince that it was someone here, someone connected with Killmacud.”

“What makes you think that?” Mollie asked.

“Why else bring him into the Cove here,” Kendall said. “Why not somewhere else down the coast, somewhere isolated?”

“But everyone said they didn’t know the guy.”

“Of course they did,” agreed Kendall. “It’s not likely that anyone would admit to knowing him, because if they did they would become a prime suspect.” He paused for a few moments. “One other thing,” he continued. “Whoever committed the murder, knew that Charters would be on that beach at precisely seven o’clock. The murder was all planned for about that time of day, to try to incriminate Charters.”

“Worked didn’t it,” said Mollie, throwing the rest of the crackers to the ducks.

“Crackers to the quackers,” said Kendall looking at the ducks as they scurried to get the treats.

“Highly amusing,” said Mollie. “Have you any other gems like that one?”

Kendall shook his head. “Not really, but I do have some work to do, so enough of this chit-chat. It’s about time I questioned a few more people.”

Mollie smiled. “Well it’s about time. Do you feel up to it?” she said. “Not too tired?” Kendall said nothing. “So who will you start with?”

Kendal thought for a few moments. “It doesn’t really matter I guess, but how about Quinn?” he replied. “He was pretty quick leaving the other night, straight after Mulligan.”

“You think he killed Mulligan?” asked Mollie.

“It’s possible,” agreed Kendall. “But I was actually thinking that he might have seen something.” He stood up. “Well I don’t know about you but the ducks have had the last of the bread, and all of the pellets. So I’m thinking that it’s about time we thought of some lunch for ourselves. What do you say?”

Mollie stood up. “Sounds like a good idea.”

“I wouldn’t mind a double hamburger, and fries, with all the trimmings,” Kendall said as he started back towards the hotel.

* * *