Dead Game

Free Dead Game by Kirk Russell Page B

Book: Dead Game by Kirk Russell Read Free Book Online
Authors: Kirk Russell
life insurance policy. The payout would have more than cleared those debts.
    “He was in the habit of visiting his sister and gambling after she’d gone to bed. He’d fly down from here, stay with her, and drive into Vegas at night. What I think happened, and this can’t leave this room, is Beaudry backed out of a loan with the Russians and somehow they became aware of the life insurance policy. Maybe he told them she was sick and to wait a couple of years for their money. I hate to think he did, but whether they hacked it or he told them, they figured out it made more sense to keep him alive and collect when she died.”
    “I’m sure you sweated Beaudry.”
    “Like sweating a small hard stone. He’s also got a lot of opinions about the government. He’d built up a debt he couldn’t service running his boat as a cash business and skimming the profits. The bait shop didn’t make any money, and he’d maxed out his credit cards. The sister had disability payments and a little bit of a retirement stipend, so he couldn’t go to her, and he sure as hell couldn’t go to a bank. He had to go to a unique lender and start negotiating, except that he wasn’t in a position to negotiate.They reached terms, but then he backed out of the loan, and we think he realized they were going to end up owning his business in short order.”
    “You got this through wiretaps?”
    Ehrmann nodded and continued.
    “About two weeks later the fire kills Sally Beaudry. When the insurance company balked at paying, he hired a lawyer and fought them. In the end he got paid most of the policy value, and the Russians stopped looking for him soon after.”
    “Have you ever looked at the guy who bought the bait shop and boat?”
    “No. Give me his name.”
    Marquez watched him write down Richie Crey. He wrote it without hesitating. He wrote like he didn’t have any question about how Crey was spelled.
    “It’s possible,” Ehrmann said, “that organized crime fronted Crey the money to buy out Beaudry. They may have told Beaudry what the price would be as part of the whole package of getting forgiven on his late debt payment. You’d have to tell me that sturgeon poaching is worth the effort, if that’s what you’re saying they’d want the business to front for.”
    “Over time it could be worth it. Crey’s an ex-con, and I’ve talked to a few people who wonder where he got the money to buy. There’s also a rumor Beaudry sold too cheaply.”
    “A connection may have been made with Crey in prison. That happens. These deals have a way of getting complicated.”
    Now Ehrmann glanced at his watch. He leaned forward and faced Marquez.
    “We’re eighteen months into an investigation of a Ukrainian group operating along the West Coast. One of the locations we’vehad under surveillance is in Sacramento. We believe there’s some possibility of overlap with your sturgeon poaching investigation.”
    “Are you telling me we’re tracking one or more of the same people?”
    “No, and unfortunately I can’t talk much about our investigation. I have to leave things vague today, and I’m sorry about that. But if there’s an overlap we don’t want any confusion. I’m going to give you a phone number for me and would appreciate one in return that I can always reach you at.”
    “Where would we overlap?”
    “I can’t do this with you, Lieutenant. I’m sorry, I wish I could.” Ehrmann’s gaze went to Douglas. It was about to end. They’d called him in to put him on notice, and about everything else he could draw his own conclusions. “I hope this conversation has cleared up some of your questions.”
    Ehrmann walked out, and it was just Douglas and him again.
    “What’s the bottom line here?” Marquez asked.
    “You may get backed off of whatever you’re doing in a hurry. He wanted your phone number so that all he has to do is call you and say quit. They’ve got a lot of time into the investigation he’s talking about, and

Similar Books

Oblivion

Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Lost Without Them

Trista Ann Michaels

The Naked King

Sally MacKenzie

Beautiful Blue World

Suzanne LaFleur

A Magical Christmas

Heather Graham

Rosamanti

Noelle Clark

The American Lover

G E Griffin

Scrapyard Ship

Mark Wayne McGinnis