The Manifest

Chapter 29

     The cops had been sweating out Edgar for the past four hours and hadn't the manners to offer him a cup of crappy coffee from the detective's lounge. This led Edgar to believe that the coppers assumed to possess strong evidence that linked him to the killing of Tuck and their men. Chances are all they had was a mess of circumstantial evidence, and hoped Edgar would do all the heavy lifting for them and just confess. He was sure Jerome's auctions were over by now but he would have to wait a little longer to find out what those labors were. The two detectives where getting impatient as one of them slapped an open hand on to the desk, in a futile attempt to intimidate him,

     "Edgar Willis," The first detective started, "We know you and Tuck got a substantial amount of money two days ago. Where did it come from?"

     "A client." Edgar said, actually being rather honest with his answer.

     "Which client?" the other detective asked.

     "You probably got some monkeys tracing the money," Edgar said, as he knew the routine. "You tell me."

     "We traced the payment to a company called Dryden Supplies." The first detective said as he laid down the papers regarding transaction, "Did you know that Tuck took over half the money and wired it to an off shore account in the Caribbean."

     Yes I do, Edgar thought to himself. It was also wired to several other accounts from there and then laundered back into the states under dummy accounts that he's now using to finance his operations.

     "I had no idea." Edgar said out loud, trying to act rather surprised. "Wouldn't that be a good motive for Tuck to fake his own death and spend the rest of his life sipping margaritas for the rest of his natural life?"

     "We've already identified Mr. Tucker by dental records." The other detective who was still standing replied, confirming what Rod had said earlier.

     "Well, he's a detective and a former cop." Edgar added, "Don't you think he would know that and work his way around it to give you the slip?"

     Edgar was now having fun with then. He knew Tuck didn't fake his death, but this kind of cat and mouse was the best way to suckle information out of them. Both suckers were falling for it hook, line, and sinker.

     "It would give you motive to kill him and keep that money for yourself." the detective said, jumping right to the punch, "That's why you killed them all and burned the place down, isn't it?"

     "Oh sure, and if you think I had that kind of money available for the taking, would I be stupid enough to just waltz right in here and give myself up that easily?" Edgar said as he beat them at their own game. His appearance at the police station made no sense at all. His conversation with the two detectives was more than enough to let him know what happened to his men. They were gunned down in cold blood and then the bodies were burned to destroy the offices and possibly any evidence of the case they were working on. Edgar was ready to weasel out a few more answers when there was a loud knock at the door. When it opened, another detective walked into the room. This startled the other two who didn't seem impressed.

     "This is our case Jenkins!" The first called out to him. "What the hell are you doing in here?"

     Jenkins didn't seem very impressed either as he gestured to the door, "I want both of you to leave this room immediately. I need a moment alone with Mr. Willis."

     "We're trying to interrogate this man!" one of them protested.

     "You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" Jenkins said, smirking at the two idiots, "He's been squeezing more information from you than you have from him! You've pretty much feed your entire case to him. This is probably the real reason why he came here in the first place, isn't it Mr. Willis?"