Majoring in Murder

Chapter 22

That Saturday, the judge's murder was still a hot topic on the morning news. According to the reporter, the GBI had now joined the investigation. That piece of information made me nervous. I guess when the victim is a state court judge the matter takes a higher priority than the average victim.

"Here." I handed the remote control to my sister Emily. I wasn't in the mood to relive the intimate details of that particular job. She had been sitting on the opposite end of the couch, drinking chocolate milk, patiently waiting for me to give up control of the TV. She pressed a couple of buttons and had it tuned to a kid's show before I could leave the room.

I went upstairs, took a notepad from my desk drawer, and sat on my bed. I wrote down the name, Terry Goodwin. Beside it, I added the word Judge. On the line below that, I wrote, Lou Harbin and, to the right, D.A. Then I penciled in Stanley Russell and Hector Ramirez's names in similar fashion. Beside Stanley's name, I jotted that he had been the CEO of a holding company and beside Hector's I scribbled Drug Dealer.

A voice in my head kept insisting that all the people I had executed were connected in some way, aside from the fact Carlo just wanted them out of his way. I was hesitant to Google them on my computer, thinking the browser history might link me to them if the police were to seize my things. I went down each of the names on the list and made terse notes out to the side about what I learned from watching the latest news reports. Stanley was indicted on money-laundering charges. Goodwin was a judge and Lou Harbin was a district attorney, so I could see a logical relation between those three victims. Hector was the odd man out. There was no information I had on him to show how a drug dealer fit into the money laundering.

I knew I'd have to give it more thought, dig deeper to learn the common thread they all shared. Until then I had to keep my information hidden, so I tucked the pad beneath my underwear in my top dresser drawer. I knew it was safe there because my mom never went through my things now that I was old enough to do my own laundry. She still hadn't found my nearly empty bottle of Wild Turkey hiding there. Thinking of doing my laundry reminded me of my dirty clothes waiting downstairs for me to wash.

After putting my clothes into the washer and starting it, I went back upstairs and turned on my laptop. My curiosity was piqued to the point of obsession. I disregarded my paranoia of the browser history and went to Google where I searched for S. Russell Holdings Company. As with most internet searches, there were plenty of results, many of them offering to locate people named S. Russell and close variations. I scanned the results, looking for anything that provided information on the company and exactly what it held since I knew it was an umbrella for other smaller companies. Near the bottom of the results was a link to a site called Citybizlist that mentioned the S. Russell Holding Company. I clicked it.

The web page that came back showed only one result. The tagline of the site said, "Your source for business news, jobs and networking". When I clicked the link, it led to an article summarizing the holding company and mentioned something about a Reg D filing, whatever that was. I learned that S. Russell Holding Company was the parent of several investment companies and a few technology companies that mainly served restaurants; in addition, it owned several restaurants, one of which was Vini, Vedi, Vici. My discovery came as a revelation and made me suspect Carlo was more connected to Vini, Vedi, Vici than just a frequent VIP client. I scrolled down the page, scanning the text for anything that might link Carlo more firmly. It didn't take me long to find something that did just that.

After navigating through a few links to the restaurant, I came upon a business listing that contained contact information for the restaurant's owners. One of them was Carlo, although according to his bio, he was more or less a silent partner.

Of course, I thought. The silent partner who silences his other partners.

I try not to jump to conclusions and make hasty assumptions. It's hard to succeed at that goal. Since learning the old adage of what assuming makes of you, I've tried to be more calculating and patient in judgment, but so far, all of my gut feelings seemed to be coming true. Goodwin, the judge, Harbin, the attorney, and Russell, the indicted CEO, were connected to Carlo via a money-laundering scheme. A scheme that had somehow blown up in Carlo's face and now he was in the midst of damage control. Of course, there was a chance I could still be wrong, but it all seemed too plausible. The only person I couldn't trace to Carlo within this web of corruption was Hector Ramirez, my first target. The drug dealer.