Flu
Chapter 30
To the Montgomery youngsters, the most exciting thing about the White Bear Lake hotel where they'll be staying for the Anderson family reunion is the rooftop restaurant. The fact that even though it's technically still summer, they need light jackets against the evening chill, doesn't deter them, as they dig into Midwestern comfort food.
Evelyn's use of her fork isn't nearly as enthusiastic. It was great talking to Sonia on the phone, but picturing a mass of relatives, white relatives, is giving flight to a flock of butterflies in her stomach. Roy catches her eye and reaches for her hand. "It's going to be a great party, and if we want something else to do, I hear there's good fishing around here."
Evelyn groans silently.
"The State Fair is going on now too, in St. Paul," Eli points out. "I saw a sign on the way in that said it's the biggest one in the country."
"What happens at a state fair?" Evan asks.
"I've never been to one," Roy admits, "but I saw a movie once. It has animals and contests, but there are also rides and things."
"Like Coney Island?" Evan demands excitedly.
"Maybe something like that," Roy responds.
"I want to go to the fair." Evan declares.
At that moment, Evelyn would happily explore a fair herself, but that's not why the family made the trip. "We'll see how things work out at the reunion and where we should go from there."
Scowling, Evan spears a pasta elbow sticking up from his macaroni and cheese. "I want to go on a Ferris wheel."
Roy slips into his infrequently needed mantle of paternal authority. "Your mother said that we'll see."
"I just got that offering memorandum thing from Marty," Rick announces, looking up from his phone. "I'm forwarding it to you."
Kate brings up her morning email on the screen of her desk computer, stretching in her chair as she waits. "What's in it?'
"I'm just skimming it now, but I found a list if major stockholders. One of them would have the best motive for cutting the chain and killing Mitchell Beeman."
"If the body really is Mitchell Beeman. We haven't got the results of Mary Beeman's D.N.A.," Kate reminds him.
"Right," Rick agrees. "There's no contact information for these investors, just their official states of residence."
"My copy is coming up now." Kate hits a few keys and starts scrolling through the attachment. "According to this, three of them live in New York. If I can get background on them, it will give us a place to start."
"Great. How about the check you ran on Mark Newhouse, other than the meat switch scandal?"
"A few parking tickets, but that was it. Are you going to hire him?"
"Alexis will kill me if I don't. She's already shipping Mark and Holly. When she was scarfing her eggs at breakfast, she referred to them as Molly. I think the romance of the chance meeting at our loft got to her."
"It does make for a cute story," Kate admits. "You should probably call Mark now, to give him your verdict. From what Marty said, you're already behind the eight ball on time."
"According to Marty, I'm behind the eight ball most of the time," Rick confides. "But I'll give Mark a ring while you start tracking our potential murder suspects. Then I can jump into the fray with you."
"OK, Babe." The printer in the bullpen spouts a report, and Kate points at the disgorging paper. "That's the background on Harry Mudd."
"Harry Mudd? Like on the old Star Trek?" Rick's voice rises to a falsetto, mimicking Mudd's fearsome wife, Stella. "Harcourt Fenton Mudd, you've been drinking again." Coughing, Rick reverts to his customary baritone. "Harry Mudd was supposed to be an example of how a human shouldn't behave."
"This Harry is Harriman, not Harcourt, but they might have a few things in common. SunKick isn't the first company he started. He had an online sports portal that was supposed to act as a hub for selling athletic gear. His investors ended up with pennies on the dollar. And he partnered with another guy on our list, Denny Grundig, in an enterprise that was supposed to be an on-the-cheap workforce recruiter. The two of them left a bunch of people holding the bag on that one, too."
"Then why isn't Mudd in jail? And Grundig too?" Castle wonders.
"Because cases like that take years to bring and even longer to get a conviction – if the prosecutors think it's worth the trouble to try," Kate explains. "By that time, the scammers can pull off more fraudulent operations. Sometimes victims bring lawsuits. I remember my dad saying something about a case like that. But suing can be expensive. Often by the time the case comes to trial, the stolen money is long gone. There's nothing to recover, and the victims are just left with legal bills. Mudd's been dining out on other people's money for over a decade, and Grundig's been in the muck with him for quite a while."
"So you think Mudd or Grundig moved up to murder?" Rick asks.
Kate shrugs. "I don't know, but we need to talk to both of them, and…" her phone sounds a message alert. "Lanie says Mary Beeman is a maternal match with the body. Mitchell Beeman is now officially our murder victim. Before we do anything about Mudd or Grundig, I need to go break the news."
The flattened vowels characteristic of areas settled initially by Scandinavians twang through the air of a ballroom filled with Andersons. Evelyn makes a beeline for a table where Sonia is happily snacking on tidbits from the buffet, grateful to spot a familiar face.
Sonia springs from her seat. "Cousin Evelyn, you're here! Introduce me to your beautiful family."
Evan gazes around the room, then back at his mother, as Evelyn runs through the names and relationships. "How come there's no one here but white people?"
"Because we're not lucky enough to know about more families like yours." Sonia jumps in as heat rises in Evelyn's face. "But we're working on it, and there are a lot of other kids around. Would you like to meet some?"
"Are the other kids going to get to go to the fair?" Evan asks.
"I think some of them have already been. It's a big thing here," Sonia explains, "a get-together like this, but for all of Minnesota. You want to ask the other kids about it and find out if they liked it?"
Evan nods enthusiastically.
"How about you, girls?" Sonia inquires of Rebecca and Mary.
Rebecca looks at her sister and shrugs. "Yeah, sure."
Sonia sends a reassuring smile toward Evelyn. "I'll be right back. And you should try the salmon. It's not bad."
As Sonia walks away with the kids, Roy catches Evelyn's gaze. "You OK?"
"I think so." Her lips hint at a smile. "I wonder if the salmon is as good as New York lox."
Roy grins. "I'm going to find out."
As they leave Mary Beeman's home, Rick gathers Kate against his side. "It never gets easier, does it?"
Kate snuggles into the comfort of his body. "The day it does, I'll turn in my shield. If I become numb to the agony of loss, my job will be meaningless. But what matters now is getting justice for Mitchell and Mary."
"Mudd or Grundig, first?"
"They both have addresses in Westchester County, but I think Grundig. He's the less experienced of the two and more likely to let something slip. If we start with Mudd, he could warn his pal."
"You want to gird yourself with a coffee or something before we make the drive?" Rick asks.
Kate squeezes his hand. "No. I need to get after the murderer – right now."