Murder in the Dorm (5 page)

“Charlie; hello. I was wondering if you would join us for coffee. There’s someone I think you need to meet.”

Charlie picked up his coffee and followed Sommers to a table on the other side of the dining room. Seated at it was a well dressed young woman who looked familiar.

“Charlie, this is Kim Berger; perhaps you remember her? She’s one of my former students, now working for Raymond, Teller, Kingsford’s biggest brokerage house. She took an intro course with you several years ago. I was telling Kim about your sleuthing.”

“You do look familiar. Could you just jog my memory a bit?”

“I took your Introductory course as an elective in my second year. What you’ll probably recall is that you gave me a fabulous mark…”

“Of course! You did a great paper on consciousness and artificial intelligence. I certainly remember that. It was one of the best treatments of the issue I’ve had from a student, any student, never mind someone in an intro course. I’m not surprised that it sounds like you’ve done well. Do you do a lot of computing work at Raymond, Teller?”

“Oh, I use very little of my computing knowledge. It got my foot in the door, but what I do is largely oversee online trades. On and off I think about coming back, doing a doctorate, and getting into teaching instead of working for Raymond, Teller.”

“Charlie, I brought you over because Kim and I were talking about the events on campus and she told me something you definitely want to know.”

“Well, Professor Douglas, I’m afraid it was a slip of the tongue. I shouldn’t have said what I said, but since I did, and Professor Sommers explained you’re helping the police, I suppose I can tell you. But please don’t mention my name if you tell the police.”

“I’ll pass on whatever it is to the detectives but I won’t mention you.”

“Okay. When we were talking about the murders I blurted out to Professor Sommers that Lawrence McDermott was a client of ours. He did a lot of online trading. I shouldn’t have revealed that and can’t tell you any more, but if the police need to, they can get a warrant for more information.”

“That is interesting information, Kim. I’m grateful because it’s possible that the police didn’t find statements from Raymond, Teller, and they should know about this.”

Charlie had another coffee and insisted on getting dessert for Sommers and Berger. They talked a bit about how Meredith hadn’t changed much since Berger had graduated, aside from the new and impressive Lipson Hall. Berger then excused herself to get back to work and Charlie thanked Sommers. They agreed to have lunch soon so he could fill her in on what was going on with the investigation, something he now felt he owed her.

Later that evening, Kate and Charlie enjoyed a bottle of New Zealand sauvignon blanc, one of Charlie’s few exceptions to preferring California wines. He told Kate what he’d learned from Garcia, Ford, and Berger, and after hearing what he had to say, Kate’s reaction anticipated Charlie’s own conclusion.

“Charlie, if McDermott and Kelsey were into something, and McDermott could afford to buy expensive clothes and have an account with a broker, DeVries really has to find their computers.”

Chapter 7

The Second Wednesday

Over his morning coffee Charlie summed up the points he had to communicate to DeVries. He’d learned McDermott seemed to have plenty of money. Kelsey struck a couple of people as furtive and McDermott struck one, but a discerning one, as dissembling. Both were savvy about computers and whatever they were doing no doubt centered on computers. As he showered Charlie realized he’d been missing the obvious. He had no classes this morning; as soon as he got to the university he’d go to the Information Technology center. He knew someone there. He’d call DeVries after.

ITS was located on the first floor and basement of Carter Hall, the other three floors of which were taken up by Computing Science. The original building was where Meredith had held its first classes. The irony was that not only was the building the oldest on campus, it had initially housed only humanities departments. But while the exterior of Carter was old stone and ivy, the interior had been totally redone. Charlie entered a lobby that screamed minimalism and high tech and found his way to the office of a man he liked to describe as a close acquaintance. Mason Blake was a heavy-set, bearded techie. Charlie thought he couldn’t knot a tie to save his life and must have worn out a dozen identical brown sweaters in the years Charlie had known him.

“Uh, oh. What now?”

“Relax, just a couple of questions.”

“No, I can’t provide untraceable porn sites and no, I won’t mess with your Mac.”

“Will a double sundae at lunch make you more amenable to a brief conversation?”

“Two. On separate days.”

“Done. Now, does the name Lawrence or Lawrie McDermott ring any bells?”

“I heard he got killed.”

“He did. Can you tell me anything about him?”

“Sure. He was in here all the time. Bought a lot of stuff, unlike some I know.”

“You have any sense of how able he was regarding computers?”

“He knew more than most of the guys working for me.”

“Do you know anything about what he used his expertise to do?”

“No, but I can guess. No one as knowledgeable as McDermott can avoid doing some hacking, and all of his fingertips were calloused. I spotted that the first time he came here. It means hours and hours of fast keyboarding.”

“I’m helping the detectives assigned to his and Kevin Kelsey’s cases. All I’ve learned about McDermott is that he was apparently older than his peers, knew computers, bought expensive clothes, and was thought by one person to be dissembling.”

“Did the cops get his laptops? He had a couple of laptops and an iPad.”

“I’m going to check on that but wanted to see what you might add.”

“There’s a bit more. Last thing I sold him was a portable terabyte external drive. Maybe the computers aren’t as important as that drive.”

“That’s a thought. It might be where he kept the good stuff. I’ll certainly pass that on. Now, what about Kevin Kelsey?”

“A cipher. He was in here with McDermott several times, but never said anything. He’d come in on his own, too, to buy blank DVDs, flash drives, that sort of thing.”

“Okay; thank you; one single sundae next time.”

“Two doubles!”

Back in his office Charlie called DeVries. She was in and he told her what he’d learned.

“We haven’t found McDermott’s or Kelsey’s computers. We found printers and power supplies, but no external hard-drive. That sounds like it’s worth looking for again. The portable ones are about the size of a smartphone, aren’t they?”

“Generally, yes. One wouldn’t be hard to hide. Did McDermott live in a dorm? Surely searching a dorm room wouldn’t be too complicated.”

“Hardly. He had a very nice apartment on Clement St. He had a living room, kitchen and dining area, a bedroom, bath, and good-sized closets. We’ve been through it, but after what you’ve told me, we’ll go through it again. A small external drive could be easily hidden in the woodwork or a vent. What’s odd is that we found very little personal stuff in the apartment. We didn’t find anything like statements or contracts from, what was it, Raymond, Teller. Then again, he’d likely be getting electronic statements, so they’d be on his laptop or the external drive. We did find a good bit of cash, but no letters, no pictures or little mementoes. There were no credit cards.”

“Did he have anything on him?”

“He had a driver’s license, his Meredith ID card, some cash, and an expensive Montblanc pen. He didn’t even carry a wallet. He had a little card case for the license and ID and a money-clip for his cash. You’d think the guy never had a job or belonged to anything. We’re tracing the information on the license, but that takes forever.”

“Did he have a cell?”

“He did have a cellphone, but it was one of those pay-as-you-go ones without an account, just a number. On top of that, he knew how to erase his calls. We got on to the service provider and got his calls, but they only go back to mid-February. There aren’t many, mostly to pizza delivery places and a few to a cab company. There are a few other numbers, but we’re shorthanded, so have someone tracking them down when she can.”

“If he had a driver’s license, did he have a car?”

“No, at least not in his own name. We’re checking the rental agencies, but nothing so far. We’re looking for cars that have been left in the area, but that takes time.”

After talking with DeVries Charlie fired up his laptop and started working on his paper. It wasn’t long before his mind drifted back to the conversation and he reminded himself that however important it might be to determine what it was McDermott and Kelsey had been doing, it was important only as a means to an end: discovering who else was involved. Whether or not McDermott had in fact been responsible for Kelsey’s death, someone else had killed McDermott.

Charlie tried going back to the social-media sites. He found nothing he hadn’t seen before. Then he tried Google to search first for “Kevin Kelsey.” The search got him an interesting though older entry. He clicked on a link titled “Kevin Kelsey wins his third consecutive Watson award.”

In his last two years of high school and first year of university Kelsey had competed in and won a Kingsford brokers’ organization’s award for running the most successful mock portfolio of stocks and bonds.
 

So Kelsey was knowledgeable about stocks and bonds. That seemed to Charlie to be of real interest. Computer expertise and financial-markets know-how made an intriguing combination. If Kelsey and McDermott were combining and using their skills in some financial scam, it would explain their secretive and intense conversations as well as why a guy like McDermott would be teamed up with someone like Kelsey. It seemed to Charlie that a stock scam was a likelier bet for Kelsey and McDermott than drugs.

Was this something DeVries should know about? Charlie wasn’t sure. After all, what he had was no more than Kelsey’s winning those prizes. Perhaps he should wait and try to learn a little more. But at least he had something to work with. The next thing he did was Google McDermott and Kelsey’s names together with “stocks.” He didn’t get any relevant results. He then tried each name individually together with “stocks and bonds” but got only the original link for Kelsey.

Charlie stewed for a while, everything else forgotten. McDermott and Kelsey had been running some sort of operation, a scam using their computers and assumed ability to hack into various sites. Whatever it was, their roles were different, going on Garcia’s observation that they had to check each other’s screens rather than both being on the same site. Kelsey seemed an unlikely friend for McDermott, but it looked like he’d been a good partner. McDermott had an account with a brokerage. So, imagine that McDermott was online trading on his account while Kelsey was hacking into sites that had relevant information. But that didn’t figure because McDermott was the more able computer jockey. Well, suppose it was Kelsey that traded on McDermott’s account using McDermott’s password. That way he could use his stock-market expertise in working with whatever McDermott provided. That made more sense.

What about whatever led to Kelsey’s death? Could Kelsey have been cheating McDermott? What was the third party’s role in the scam? The likeliest answer was that the third party had supplied startup money and that he or she also supplied crucial information that led McDermott to particular financial sites on particular days. That seemed to fit.

Charlie was surprised to see that it was nearly one o’clock. He’d overlooked lunch. He settled for a sandwich and coffee from the cafeteria and decided on doing some work before calling DeVries. That way, things would settle in his head and he’d be more coherent. It might be better, too, if they met rather than talked on the phone.

Chapter 8

The Second Thursday

Charlie met DeVries for an early breakfast as they’d arranged the previous afternoon. The diner was one where she and Charlie had met during the Barrett Wilson case and he remembered that the coffee was particularly good.

“Okay, Charlie, tell me what’s on your mind.”

Charlie kept it brief, laying out his idea that Kelsey’s apparent knowledge about the stock market and his and McDermott’s computing expertise were what had yoked them together and were no doubt the basis and means for some scam involving computers and the stock market or financial institutions. He thought there was a third party involved in the scam who had shot McDermott.

DeVries was silent for a couple of minutes, mulling over what Charlie had told her.

“So, Kelsey and McDermott had expertise in areas that would enable them to be part of a lucrative scam. They apparently did have serious, private conversations about something. We can assume that there were difficult choices to make with respect to whatever they were doing. Somewhere along the line Kelsey and McDermott had a bad argument and McDermott struck Kelsey, killing him. It’s possible the third party killed Kelsey but let’s say it was McDermott for the moment. Finally, the third party decides that McDermott is a liability and shoots him.”

“Right.”

“What do you think should be done next?”

“What I’d do is find that external drive McDermott bought and their computers.”