Following the efficient Tanya's directions Adam and Ryan found Carson Creed in his office, having a rather intense phone conversation with someone who was not holding up his end of the bargain.
'No, no, you're still not listening, there is no way that my client's current business gross will allow for such a steep increase on the loan rate which, might I point out to you sir, you agreed would be frozen for at least thirty-six months and they are only in month twenty-two of said loan.'
Carson glanced up and waved Ryan and Adam in as he tried to get his way with the telephone. 'The best offer I will accept is a point-seven increase. You have my figures, you have their loan documents. I expect to hear from you by the close of business today.'
He hung up and briefly closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose. 'The last thing I need today,' he muttered before popping two aspirin and gulping them down with a bottle of water. 'I'm sorry, did you say who you were?'
'No, we didn't.' Ryan held up his badge, pointed to Adam who did the same. 'Detective Ryan, Detective Brennan, NYPD. We're investigating the murder of Melissa McGyver.'
'No, that's not possible. I just spoke to her a few days ago.'
'She was found yesterday morning in her office,' Ryan replied bluntly. 'she'd been choked to death and she was missing an eye.'
The cops had the satisfaction of seeing the man blanch white as raw bread dough; had he not already been sitting down, Carson's knees would surely have buckled. But it wasn't shock on his face - it was panic. Pure, undiluted and unadulterated panic.
'Oh my god,' he breathed, 'my god, who would do that?'
'Well, we were hoping you could tell us about that.' Ryan approached the desk while Adam hung back like a sentry. 'We have a witness who says that you had a drink with Melissa at the Tanzania Grill on Wednesday at five pm.'
'Yes, I did, I needed to talk to her about some questions on behalf of her main investor.'
'Interesting because my witness says that he heard you say to her, and I quote 'you made a deal with him, he expects you to honour it',' he read dutifully off of his notepad. 'Does that sound familiar?'
'Yes. I represent her main investor and he was becoming irritated that she was slipping on her payments for his loan.'
'Who might that investor be?'
'I'm sorry, Detective, unless you present me with a court order I'm not about to drag his name through the mud and implicate him in a murder investigation.'
'Adam.'
'On it.' Adam made a show of pulling out his phone and genuinely asking, 'Is the judge two-two-one?'
'Two-two-four.'
Adam nodded, and stepped into the hallway to make the call while Ryan took a seat across from Carson. 'My background on you says you were involved in the Yankees-Red Sox Riot few years ago. You broke a bottle into some poor schmuck's skull.'
'Yeah, it was a stupid thing to do in the heat of the moment. It was the guy's girlfriend who convinced him to press the charges, but the judge could see that it was a stupid mistake in the heat of the moment when the rest of the crowd around me was doing worse.'
'You have an answer for everything, don't you?'
'Excuse me?'
'You were seeing Melissa over drinks for a rushed business meeting, you were just going along with the crowd, you are protecting a business interest.'
'What's wrong with being able to back up perfectly true stories?'
Ryan leaned forward, and was pleased to see that he retained the advantage of height. 'The fact that you look like you've seen the devil in the flesh when we tell you that Melissa McGyver is dead less than twenty-four hours - hell, less than six hours - after you deliver to her what sounds suspiciously like an ultimatum on a shady business deal.'
'Like I said, I was simply reminding Melissa that her investor would not be pleased if she defaulted on her loan payments. Simple as that.'
'Where were you on Wednesday evening between nine and ten-pm?'
'What?'
'As simple as that,' he said politely, easily, in the same matter-of-fact tone Carson had used. 'Your whereabouts?'
'The drunk-tank in Yonkers.'
'Oh?'
Carson sighed heavily, glanced around like there were ghosts that might overhear them. 'I had a small friendly wager going with a co-worker at our usual working-dinner pub. He'd had a few too many and was starting to get into it with some musclehead and punches were about to be thrown so I stepped in to try and cool him off.'
'I take it that didn't work.'
'No, unfortunately,' Carson replied, shaking his head. 'My friend took a swing at the musclehead, the cops were called and he wound up in the drunk-tank, and I was there trying to keep him from being charged and from spending the night in prison over a misunderstanding.'
Ryan glanced over his shoulder, saw Adam come back in with the slightest of nods. 'Do you have any proof of this?'
'Yes, I have a receipt right here.' Carson opened a locked drawer on his desk and produced a file-folder with the official seal of the NYPD on the receipt paper. 'Time stamp nine-forty-seven.'
'We'll need this to make an official copy.'
'Can you make it quick? I need to file that with accounting before next Friday.'
Ryan and Adam looked at the man like he'd sprouted a unicorn horn in the middle of his head. 'I beg your pardon?' Adam asked in genuine bafflement.
'Well the incident took place during company time, I need to file it for my expense account.'
'Yeah, you try that,' Adam said dryly, wiggling his fingers for the receipt. 'We'll do our best to make sure you have it back.'
'Thank you. Meanwhile I wish I could help you gentlemen more but I have an appointment in-' Carson made a show of looking at his watch '-fifteen minutes I need to prepare for.'
'Sure. We'll be back later with that court order you requested.'
As parting shots went, Ryan knew it was a good one because in the reflection of the office's glass door he could see Carson remained stock-still in his chair and not preparing for that Very Big And Important Appointment he had after their visit.
Adam said nothing on their way down in the elevator, took his cue from Ryan as they went into the lobby and saw Tanya Levitan there. He went over to the reception desk and smiled at Tanya. 'Thanks again for your assistance today.'
'Anytime, Detective.'
'Were you working late on Wednesday?'
'No, just until six, my usual hour.'
'Did you happen to see Carson Creed leave or return before you left for the day, say around four or four-thirty?' he asked politely, saw her hesitation between honesty to the police and loyalty to the company. 'It's not gossip or tattling if you're talking to us about him, Tanya.'
'I know, I know, it's just...my own insecurities, that's all,' she sighed, then took off her ear-piece and moved around the desk; Adam could see she was wearing stylish kitten heels that put her at about five-foot-three. 'It's hard enough for me to be away the long hours from my boys and with the economy the way it is right now, I always worry the boss will look for some reason to give me the boot.'
'I completely understand, I've had my own struggles with the higher-ups myself. All I need to know is if you saw Carson leave on Wednesday afternoon and if you saw him return.'
'Leave, absolutely. He was moving through the lobby very quickly at four-forty-five. I was taking a quick call from my oldest son, letting me know him and his brother were home from soccer practice. As for coming back...' Tanya shook her head. 'I left before he returned.'
'Okay.' Adam did the math in his head, knew that was about right for the timeline for Carson to be at the Tanzania Grill to meet Melissa at the time Carmine saw them together. He fished into his pocket, handed Tanya a card. 'You think of anything else, or you even see him sneeze funny and you think it might help, you call us.'
Adam gave her a smile, then met back up with Ryan at the door; they remained off-topic from the case until they were speeding away to their fourth pop on the cross-reference list.
'We didn't bring up the bible page,' Adam pointed out to Ryan, who merely drummed his fingers on the wheel.'
'That is incidental. You saw his face when we told him Melissa was dead and how she'd died. If he doesn't know anything about a motive for why she was so brutally murdered, my ass is a banjo.'
