As soon as I walked in the house the smell made my mouth water. She made my favorite meal. I’m a meat and potatoes guy mostly, but she has a recipe for Pacific Salmon with sauteed vegetables that is just outstanding. The food makes your mouth happy. It sits lightly in your stomach so when you thank your wife with an after meal romp, you’re not weighed down and unable to…perform. If the food was any indication of what my retirement present is going to be like, then I’ll be performing for her for a long time.
The meal was wonderful and when my wife told me what my real present was, I sat dumbfounded for a minute. She had siphoned off a few dollars from our paychecks for years and put it in an vacation account that would allow us to travel for the next six months uninterrupted. We always wanted to travel to Europe and visit her extended family in Italy and now we can do it comfortably.
Oh yeah, we performed for each other.
The next morning we talked over breakfast. Helen wanted to know how my investigation was going, but I could tell her little. What information I could tell, reinforced her hatred for the actions of her former friend. “Cheaters deserve whatever happens to them,” was an new statement from my wife. “The more severe the adultery, the more severe the punishment,” was another.
I, however thought using a shotgun to put a 3 inch hole in Beverly’s chest and de-materializing a man’s head and genitals seemed a little excessive, but I’m a cop and that just means more work for me…obviously. All in all I preferred a healthy dose of abject humiliation and financial ruination for any guilty party.
At the squad room the report from our forensic accountant was sitting on my desk. He reviewed the records of the three companies that were bidding for the Baker’s job. Murder was usually for passion or money. This is the money part.
One company was a LLC in trouble to the point of bankruptcy. The company still had its backers but it was operating under very tight controls. The other company wasn’t incorporated but was instead a partnership. One partner had a minor controlling factor in the company’s ownership but not its operations. The major partner essentially ran every aspect of the business. The Articles of Partnership allowed the company to be dissolved with only a two month notice. The notice was intended to give the other partner(s) enough time to line up financing to buy out the interests of the separating partner.
According to court filings, that is exactly what happened a few days before the murder.
If the remaining partner(s) failed in buying the interests of the separating partner, the company is to be dissolved completely and it’s assets sold and distributed according the financial interest of each.
The accountant made mention that having only a two month notice was very unusual. That normally wouldn’t allow enough time for the other partner(s) to line up financing. Considering who the partners were, I don’t think they ever intended to use it knowing it would most likely destroy everything they worked for.