“Description?”
“One was tall, the other short. They were wearing black masks. Immediately one of them took out a gun and pointed it at me. Said he wanted me to open the safe for him.”
“What did the gun look like?”
“Just… a handgun, I guess? I’m no expert,” he added apologetically.
“Go on.”
“I led the man with the gun to the safe, and opened it. Then suddenly I heard a loud crash, but before I could look over, he hit me over the head and I fell down. When I came to, the safe was empty, the men were gone, and when I staggered back into the office, I saw that Jona…” He gulped a little, and I could see the terror in his eyes as he pictured the scene in his mind’s eye. “Jona was…”
“I understand,” said Chase. “Jona Morro was your partner?”
“Yes, we started this business together.”
“Why do you think they killed him?”
“I have no idea,” said Mr. Wissinski with a helpless shrug.
“Do you think they had some kind of beef with him?”
“It’s possible, I guess.”
“Did you recognize the men?”
“No, I’ve never seen them before.”
“But it’s possible that Mr. Morro knew them.”
“Yes, we each kept our own list of clients.”
“So when a new client walked in…”
“We divvied them up on an equal basis.”
“I see.” Chase jotted down a few notes, while Mr. Wissinski looked on, deeply impressed by the whole business. “Lot of valuables in the safe?”
“Some money, some securities we kept for some of our clients.”
“Very daring robbery,” said Chase, as he fixed the man with a steely gaze. “In broad daylight. Do you have a camera in the office?”
“No, unfortunately we don’t. I’ve told Jona many times we should have one installed, but he didn’t like the idea. Said it would scare away potential customers. You see, we get a lot of wealthy clients in here—and they’re very attached to their privacy.”
“I will need an inventory of what was taken. And I’d like you to work with a sketch artist for the robbers. I’ve checked and there is an extensive security system in the mall, so we should be able to pick them out of the crowd as they were entering and leaving the office.”
“Thank you, Mr. Kingsley,” said the insurance man as he shook Chase’s hand with quaking fingers. Obviously the man was completely undone, and it wasn’t hard to see why.
“And now my wife would like to ask you a couple of questions, if you don’t mind, Mr. Wissinski,” said Chase.
“Oh, of course.”
“This is actually not connected with the robbery,” said Odelia. “I don’t know if you remember Mrs. Careen—Mrs. Kristina Careen?”
Omar Wissinski shook his head.“Not again with the hit-and-run business.”
“Kristina Careen seems to believe that you and your friends had something to do with the death of her daughter,” said Odelia. “Is there anything you can tell me about what happened that day?”
“No, nothing,” said the insurance man, giving her a sad look. “Look, I said all I had to say ten years ago.”
“Thirteen,” Odelia corrected him gently.
“I wasn’t there. None of us were. We were all questioned, and questioned again, and finally the police had to admit we had nothing to do with the whole business. I don’t know who killed that little girl, Mrs. Kingsley. I know it wasn’t me. And I feel terrible for the parents. But hounding us won’t do them any good.”
“You filed a restraining order against the Careens?”
“I had to. Dominic Careen kept harassing us. Calling us, showing up here, showing up at my house… Finally I just couldn’t take it anymore and so I made sure he kept away from me. That man is a forester, Mrs. Kingsley. He chops wood for a living. And once he showed up here wielding a very big ax, threatening us.”
“What did he say?”
“That if we didn’t confess he’d make us.”
“But the police have determined that you were joyriding that night.”
“I’m not denying that. But we were nowhere near the place where that girl died.”
“So you think it must have been another person, unrelated to you and your friends?”
“Yes.”
He looked on the verge of a breakdown, and I think Odelia must have noticed, too, for she decided to leave the man be for now. After all, he’d just had a nasty conk on the head.
“Thank you for your time, Mr. Wissinski,” she said therefore.
“Look, I feel sorry for the Careens, I really do, but I had nothing to do with the accident, I swear.”
Just then, loud voices interrupted us. They seemed to come from the front of the shop, and when we went over to look what was going on, we saw that a man tried to gain access but was being held back by the same cop who’d allowed us to pass through.
The man didn’t look happy, and when he caught sight of Omar, he shouted, “I want my money back, you thief! Give me back my money right now—or else!”
He wasn’t wielding an ax, like Dominic had done, but he looked dangerous enough!
Chapter 6
The shouting man turned out to be answering to the name Gene Stooge, and when Chase took him apart, he was already less belligerent. Chase has that effect on people.
“So what seems to be the problem?” asked Chase.
“That man,” said Mr. Stooge, pointing an accusatory finger at Omar Wissinski, “robbed my mother of her savings.”
“I did nothing of the kind,” said Omar, shaking his head, then seemed to get a little woozy, and decided that keeping his head perfectly still was probably the better option.
“He came in and made my mom all kinds of promises about doubling her money if she decided to invest with them and instead her money is now gone—all of it!”
“Your mother’s money isn’t gone at all, I can assure you,” said Omar, then frowned. “Though now that I come to think of it…”
“See!” the irate customer shouted. “He’s admitting it!”
“We just had a robbery,” Omar explained. “And I’m afraid your mother’s money was in the safe, along with that of some of our other customers.”
“You robbed us!”
“No, we were robbed.”
The man made a throwaway gesture with his hand, then turned to Chase.“Can I file a complaint with you, officer?”
“What did your mother invest in, sir?” asked Odelia.
“Some bitcoin nonsense,” said Mr. Stooge.
“It isn’t nonsense,” said Omar adamantly. “Our bitcoin fund is a high-yield investment and is doing very well indeed.”
“So why did the paper say that bitcoin is one big scam?”
“Why do you believe anything that’s written in the papers?”
Dooley and I glanced to Odelia, whose face had flushed a little. Still she decided to keep her tongue. Now was not the time to defend her professional honor.
“So you advised Mr. Stooge’s mother to invest in your bitcoin fund?” she asked instead.
“I advise all of our customers to invest in our bitcoin fund. It’s the fund of the future. And it wouldn’t surprise me if it will be our most successful fund ever. But like with all high-yield investments there is a certain level of risk involved.”
“When I called you yesterday and asked for my mother’s money back you said she had signed a contract and you wouldn’t give it back!” the angry customer cried.
“I explained all this to Leta, Gene. When you invest in the bitcoin fund you invest for the long term. If everyone took out their money a week into their investment we’d never be able to turn a profit. It’s the way we’ve always worked here at Morro& Wissinski.”
“Ah, nuts,” the man grumbled, clearly not satisfied with this explanation. “I wish my mother would have told me before she gave you all of her savings.”
“Trust me, Gene,” said the insurance man. “You stand to double your investment. Maybe even triple it.”
“I thought you just said the money’s been stolen?” said Chase.