Chapter 4.

Andrei Shemkenov's Mansion.

After getting clearance from inside, Lindsay and her partner, Detective Jacobi drove up to the Shemkenov's multi story mansion. Once there, two guards guided them into the house and out back to where Andrei was sitting out by the pool.

Lindsay noticed a few more gray hairs on the mobster, but other than that he looked pretty much the same as he did 5-6 years ago. He kept himself in shape and the barrel-chested man still had a big smile plastered on his face, something that never seemed to disappear, no matter what the situations.

Looking up from his paper, Andrei smiled at Lindsay, "What do I owe the pleasure of your beautiful company?"

"We are investigating a murder." Lindsay said, handing Andrei a photo of Luke, "Do you know this man?"

"Indeed I do." Andrei replied swiftly, his Russian accent all but gone, aside from a few words and phrases, "He's a consultant you might say."

Surprised at Andrei's admission, Lindsay looked at Jacobi for assistance while she changed her whole line of questioning.

"How long has Luke Bowen worked for you?" Jacobi asked, his pen ready to jot down everything he heard.

"I'd have to check my records for the exact date he was hired, but I'd say about 3 ½ years. I have a very large staff and I like to provide my employees with the best possible medical attention and Luke was a very good doctor."

Lindsay shook her head as she listened to Andrei's version of things, "What did Luke do to get on your bad side Andrei? Did he refuse to work things out with Jill?"

"I see you still have a very active imagination Miss Boxer. It is Miss correct?" Andrei said with a questioning look, getting up and standing right in front of Lindsay, "Your husband did dismiss you, oh I mean, divorce you, if I'm not mistaken?"

Jacobi watched as Lindsay grit her teeth, wondering if she was going to deck him or ignore him.

"Please answer the question." Lindsay said calmly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Mr. Bowen's personal life is none of my business."

Lindsay looked up at the tall hulking former boxer, "We have an eye witness that says otherwise."

For the first time since they arrived Andrei's trademark smile left his face, replaced by a look of surprise and disbelief, "That's not possible, because it isn't true. Now, if you're done harassing me, I have business to attend to."

Jacobi stepped in front of the large Russian as he began walking back inside, "We are not finished, so sit down or we can take this downtown, it's up to you."

"I grow tired of your mindless questions. It is not my problem if you do not like the answers I provide. Either ask me something else or get the hell out of my home. My patience is growing thin."

"Here's what I think happened." Lindsay said, once again getting up in Andrei's face, "I think Luke had finally had enough of your crap. I think he grew to care about Jill and that's why he couldn't go back. You didn't like that. You don't like it when people don't do what you say. In spite of having him in a perfect position to do your dirty work, his insubordination was a much bigger problem for you. So you had him killed."

"That is a very fun little story Miss Boxer, but it is not remotely true. I can say without a doubt that I had nothing to do with Mr. Bowen's death, so do what you have to do, but my suggestion and it's only a suggestion so please don't be offended, but I would look into Mr. Bowen's financial records. I'm thinking the answer to your questions lie there." Andrei took a great deal of satisfaction at shutting up the two detectives', "Now, if you wish to ask any further questions you can contact my lawyer. Now get out."

Lindsay and Jacobi chose to leave, knowing they could always come back if needed. As they got into their car Lindsay got a call. . "Boxer here."

"Hi Lindsay, we have a match on that license plate, sorry for the delay." A young man said as he sat in front of a large computer, "It's registered to Kevin Snidely, 23 years old, last known address is Room 49, Clift Hotel."

"Thank you." Lindsay replied and quickly turned off her cell as they headed to the hospital.

San Francisco Register.

Cindy Thomas searched through the countless folders on her desk, looking for any story that might've caused problems for her or the paper. She put aside only 3 folders from a huge stack and began looking at each one carefully.

As a reporter for the paper's Community Watch section, she often did stories exposing different types of small time criminal activities, from telemarketing scams, to people who swindle senior citizens out of their money to corporate polluting, which entailed confronting unsavory types in many of those situations.

One such case was her report on toxic waste being dumped into the harbor, a story that generated a great deal of city wide attention, but ended up being scrapped because of lack of evidence and severe pressure on the mayor's office by the company in question.

Matton Industrial Equipment and Disposal was a small subsidiary of a much larger global conglomerate Trifera Solutions, a company owned by a well known billionaire by the name of Hubert Stafford.

Looking through the folder Cindy focused on two pieces of paper with red x's pasted to them. It was then that she recalled the reason for the x's. Before reading another page, she flipped open her cell phone and called Lindsay.

For whatever reason Lindsay wasn't picking up, so she left her a message on her voicemail, "Lindsay, you need to come down to the paper. I've been looking into some of my old cases and have come across some people and companies I have annoyed in the past, some who have actually threatened me. Not with physical harm, but with lawsuits mostly. Anyway, call me, I have much more to tell you."

San Francisco General Hospital.

Lindsay and Jacobi each went their separate ways, each with a list of potential people to talk to. Lindsay began at the main desk, while Jacobi started with administration.

A pretty young woman sat at the main desk, answering phone call after phone call, dealing with countless inquiries and never once losing her wholesome smile.

"Hello there. I'm Detective Boxer, I'm investigating the death of Luke Bowen, I'm wondering if you knew him"

"Hi I'm Melissa." The cute young blonde replied, "I knew him casually, but I also knew about him."
Lindsay was intrigued already, "Could you clarify what you mean by that?"

"I'm not a gossip, I'm really not, but everyone knew about Luke's spending habits." Melissa said, leaning in close to Lindsay and changing her tone to a whisper, "He had an a penthouse suite downtown where he held parties almost every night, he had three or four different cars, I mean the really, really expensive kind, like the Mazerati's, Lamborghini's, Porsche's and many others that he never drove, but he lent them out to whoever asked."

"Okay, how he could afford such things? He's not making that kind of money yet."

"I know, but he always had money and he was always giving it away, helping people, letting them enjoy the fancy things in life, things they might never get a chance to any other way."

"Were you ever at this apartment?"

Melissa smiled and shook her head, "No, my boyfriend didn't want me to go. He didn't like Luke and I didn't think it was worth ruining my relationship over."

Lindsay chuckled at the boyfriend comment, wondering for a moment why Tom was never jealous like that, "So aside from your boyfriend, do you know of anyone else who may not have liked Luke?"

"A few people got carried away at his apartment and he kicked them out, but I don't think they held grudges, they knew they were wrong. Most were quite embarrassed by how they acted."

"Would you happen to know if there was anyone here who was particularly close to Luke?"

"He hung out with a couple of the senior doctors on staff a lot." Melissa added, more than happy to name names, "Dr. Kinley, who is a radiologist, Dr. Dryden, who's an orthopedic surgeon and Dr. Rahji, who's the Chief of Staff."

After writing down the names and finding out where each of the doctor's worked, Lindsay thanked the pretty receptionist and made her way to the elevator. As she stepped inside, she pushed number 3 on the panel and snuck out her cell phone to check her messages.

She smiled the second she saw Cindy's name pop up. She listened to her message and instantly wanted to rush out and be with her and find out what she had learned, but her job had to come first.

Her first stop was room 305, Dr Kinley's office. Once again she had to go through a pretty receptionist just to get a chance at speaking to the doctor, but luckily for her she was allowed in right away.

Dr. Edward Kinley greeted Lindsay as she stepped inside his spacious office, "Hello detective. Please come in."

Lindsay took a seat in front of the doctor's large oak desk and began, "As you may have heard I'm investigating the death Luke Bowen and I hear you were a close friend of his. Can you tell me how he was able to afford to live such a lavish lifestyle on his salary?"

"That I don't know, but he was a very generous man. He insisted on treating others to a good time and he spared no expense in the process."

"What else did you do with Luke?"

Dr. Kinley smiled as he thought about his adventures with Luke, "He liked to gamble, bet on the horses, sports or go to the tables and play poker, blackjack, craps, you name it, he loved to gamble. I don't know if he was addicted, but I know he would bet on anything."

"Didn't it seem odd to you that he had so much money? I can't imagine you not asking where it was coming from." Lindsay pushed, wondering why people weren't as curious about things as she was.

"I did, but he was very sensitive about that. I just never pushed. I assumed his family was wealthy or he won the lottery, I really didn't give it much thought."

Lindsay smiled politely, yet was more than a little disappointed in the lack of information she was getting, "Thank you for your help. Just one last thing, do you know of anyone that might've wanted Luke dead?"

"Not really, he spent most of his time making life good for other people, he was well liked by virtually everyone."

"Okay, well if you think of anything else give me a call." Lindsay said, handing him her business card.

After talking to the other two doctors and receiving close to the exact same information, she tried to find Jacobi. Luckily he was exiting the elevator as she was walking into it and the two stopped to compare notes.

"Did you learn anything that might help with the case?"

"Possibly." Jacobi said as he flipped through his notes, "One of the nurses mentioned being at a casino last night with Luke and many others and while they were there Luke got into an altercation with a couple men. From what I've been able to piece together it seems he came to the aid of a man being beaten in the men's washroom, he broke up the fight and treated the man as best he could, but when the man regained consciousness, he began yelling at Luke that he'd just cost him his life."

"That sounds promising, do we have any descriptions of these men?"

"Not great ones, but I believe the casino security cameras will take care of that part for us. They argued and fought inside the washroom and outside, so something should be on tape." Moving out into the parking lot, Jacobi stopped as he waited for some cars to pass, "The other interesting bit of information I found out was that Luke was scamming money from most every bank, loan office, loan sharks, racking up huge credit card debts with every single card you can imagine, all the while, not caring one bit about the trouble it was going to bring him."

"Why's that?" Lindsay asked, waiting for the final car to go by so she could cross the street.
Jacobi paused, almost for affect, before responding, "It appears that Mr. Bowen had the same genetic and fatal disease his mother had, Huntington's disease."

Lindsay stopped in front of their car, "That explains why he was trying to live life large, but we still need to find what that altercation was about.'

"I'm going to have a look at the security cameras right now." Jacobi replied as he slipped into the car.

"Okay, I have a couple things I need to care of, but I'll meet you back at the station in a couple hours."

As soon as Jacobi had pulled away, Lindsay pulled out her cell and called Cindy.

Cindy picked up, happy to see it was Lindsay calling, "Hey there, I'm glad you called back. I just got a very nasty email from Matton Industrial. That's not even the strange part. The strange part is they are replying to something I sent them, but I haven't sent them a thing since I stopped working this story years ago."

"Someone else had access to your computer and sent some email to this company? Why?"

"I don't know why, but this email is kind of scary." Cindy said, pulling up the email on your screen, "They don't come right out and threaten me with violence, but they make it clear that I'm going to pay for what they call harassing them."

Lindsay barely heard a word Cindy said, her mind still cluttered with thoughts about the night before, "Listen, I need a bit of a favor. Can you come pick me up at the general hospital? We can get lunch; I think we need to talk."

Shaking her head at Lindsay stating the obvious, "I know, someone has been using my computer, I need to know who."

"Yes, that's one thing we can talk about, but I think we need to talk about our living arrangements and other such things."

"Okay, are these good things or bad things?" Cindy asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"I think it's good, but that's why I need to talk to you, so I'll see you in a little while then." Lindsay said, quickly hanging up before Cindy could push her for more details, knowing full well that she'd chicken out if given the chance.

While she waited for Cindy to arrive, Lindsay began to get nervous about her impending talk and called Jill for some support.

"Hi there." Jill said, happy to hear from her best friend, "How's the investigation coming?"

"It's moving along, but it's taken a bit of a turn and we're still figuring out what it all means." Lindsay replied, not meaning to sound as cryptic as she did, "I'm not sure you knew Luke as well as you thought."

Jill instantly sat up in her chair, puzzled and a little annoyed at Lindsay's comment, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, it's just that I think he was hiding some pretty important things from you." Lindsay knew she should stop and talk about this in person, but the cop inside her pushed on, "For example, have you ever been to his apartment downtown, you know the penthouse suite of that fancy building, what's it called again, oh right, Orion Plaza."

Jill pulled the phone from her ear, wondering if she'd heard right, "He doesn't have an apartment there. He couldn't afford that."

"Well he did have a place there. Not just a place, the place. He has the whole top floor rented out." Lindsay said, sound more like a cop interrogating a suspect than a friend. She shook her head and remembered who she was talking to, "I'm sorry. I hate to be the one to tell you all this, but you weren't the only one keeping a secret. Maybe this is different than yours, but it appears that Luke was living every day like it could be his last."

"That makes no sense." Jill said, searching for an explanation to everything she was hearing, "He was young and loved his job. There must be a mistake, that place would cost more to rent than he makes in 3 months."

"Another secret he must've kept from you was his health wasn't 100." Lindsay added, knowing Jill was going to find out sooner or later, "He had the same fatal disease that his mother died from, Huntington's disease and I'm not sure when he found out, but it seems once he did, he made sure he was going to enjoy what time he had left."

"How is this possible?"

"We're still piecing it together, but it looks like he's maxed out every credit card that are legitimate and many other than aren't. He's taken out very large loans, with the help of his friends, some more established doctor's, again using legitimate companies as well taking money from any loan shark he could find. We're still trying to put together a final picture of all this, but I'd venture to guess he's racked up over 25 million dollars in loans and credit card debt."

"I can't believe this. How could I not know?" Jill wondered as she paced back and forth in front of her desk.

"Because you trusted him." Lindsay answered quickly, "You had no reason to look for problems. He was very good at keeping this away from you. I'm just not sure why, I would've thought he'd want you included, but maybe he didn't want you to know he was dying."

Jill finally came to a stop, "So you don't think Shemkenov is responsible for his death now?"

"I haven't ruled him out completely, but there was an altercation between Luke and a couple men last night and we are looking into that right now. As soon we find out more I'll let you know."

"Okay, I feel so strange right now." Jill said, walking aimlessly around her office, "I'm not sure if I should be mad or hurt or what. He lied by omission I guess, but after what I did I can't really cast stones."

"How about if we change the topic for a bit?" Lindsay asked softly, hoping she wasn't being selfish, "I actually need to talk to you about Cindy. I think I made a mistake just now."

Hearing Lindsay talk about Cindy quickly changed Jill's mood, "Mistake? What did you do?"

"I told her I wanted to talk."

"How is that a mistake?" Jill asked with a slight grin.

Lindsay stared at the phone, trying to shoot a look of disbelief at Jill for not knowing exactly what she was thinking, "Because, I said I wanted to talk about our living arrangements and other things. I just started thinking about what happened to Cindy last night and then Luke being killed and I don't want something to happen to Cindy or me and not get the chance to tell her how I feel."

"Lindsay, that's not bad. That's good."

"Then why I do feel so nervous?" Lindsay questioned, not really wanting to admit her feelings for Cindy were causing her nerves.

"Well, it's probably because you care about her and there's maybe a hint of fear that she doesn't feel the same, but let me just say that from everything I've seen, she does feel the same about you. She always has."

"Are you sure? Sometimes I see it in her eyes and yet I'm not sure I'm ready for this. Look what happened with Tom? Maybe I'm not meant to be in a long term relationship." Lindsay sighed, her negative thinking beginning to get the better of her, "What if I end up messing this up to? I don't want to hurt her."

"I think you're just looking for problems now. Just count to ten Lindsay. Breathe in, relax and think of all the reasons you like Cindy. Remember why you want to talk to her." Jill said, trying to get Lindsay to focus on the positives, "What exactly are you going to say to her?"

"I honestly don't know right now." Lindsay shrugged, feeling like she was completely lost, "Maybe I'm rushing things here, you know, trying too hard. I was going to ask her to move in. How can I do that? We aren't really dating or anything. I just feel so strongly about her. I want to kiss her so much. Oh god, what if she just wants to be friends? See, this is why people date, so they find out if they want to be with someone long term. We skipped that and now I'm really not sure what to do."

"Lindsay, you need to breathe again." Jill reiterated, breathing in and out right along with Lindsay, after a couple seconds she continued, "Okay, maybe you haven't dated in a traditional sense of the word, but you've spent nearly every night together for the last month. You've gone out to dinner with her, you've gone to movies with her, you've even gone dancing with her and you hate dancing. So even if they weren't called dates, that's what they were. You got to know each other. I'm not a betting woman, but if I had to bet my last paycheck on something, it would be that Cindy wants you as much as you want her."

"Why you are more confident about this I am?" Lindsay asked with a laugh.

"Because I can be objective." Jill smiled, picking up a picture from her desk of Lindsay, Claire and her at a charity baseball game, "Both Claire and I have seen how much you've changed since Cindy came into your life. I don't think we knew it would lead to this in the beginning, but over the last month, we both knew you two were meant for each other. I truly hope you see that to."

"Not to dispute your powers of prediction, but weren't you two pushing me on Tom for the last few months as well?" Lindsay asked, not wanting to pass up a chance to mock her good friend's powers of perception.

Jill laughed out loud, sitting back down in her chair with a big smile covering her pretty face, "Guilty as charged, but now that we've seen you with Cindy, we realize we were wrong about Tom being the one. Don't get me wrong, I like Tom and think he's a wonderful man, but he didn't make you feel like Cindy does. Cindy makes you happy and that's just the way it is."

Lindsay watched as Cindy pulled up in her car, "I think you're right and here is Cindy driving up as we speak. Thanks Jill, I really needed this. Anyway, Jacobi is looking into another lead and hopefully we'll have something concrete to go on this case very soon."

"I have every confidence that you'll find his killer. Now go talk to Cindy. I'll talk to you later."

End of Chapter 4.