Brash Endeavor, A Stan Turner Mystery Vol 3

  Chapter 10

  DEATH ON

  HIGHWAY 24

  The clock radio blared its harsh refrain over and over every nine minutes starting at seven-thirty, but unconsciously I managed to hit the snooze button with equal regularity. Finally, I opened my eyes and looked at the clock and saw the time.

  "Of God! It's already 9:30."

  Rebekah rolled over and looked at me. "I can't believe the kids are still asleep. They're usually up at 7."

  "I've got to get out of here. I've got a 10:30 appointment with a new corporate client."

  I flew out of bed, hit the shower and was out of the house in twenty minutes. When I walked in the office General Burton was practicing his putting on the green carpet he usually kept rolled up in his closet.

  "How's your game today?" I asked.

  "Not worth a rat's ass, that's why I practicing."

  "You going out today?"

  "Rufus is picking me up at two," the General said. "So how was Corpus?"

  "Beautiful. The guy I met down there has a beach house on the bay with his own yacht . . . and a wife that will knock your socks off," I replied.

  "Really?"

  "Uh huh. . . . Oh, guess who called while I was gone?"

  "Who?"

  "The late Melba Thorn," I said. "And Rebekah found out where she's calling from."

  "Where?"

  "Amarillo."

  "Amarillo? . . . Huh. What are you going to do now?"

  "This afternoon I'm going to the library and check out all of the news stories on Melba's death. Then I'm going to see if I can find some of her old friends who can fill me in on some family history."

  "I can probably help you there. I'll try to get you some names and phone numbers."

  "Good, that will be a big help."

  As we were speaking my 10:30 appointment walked in the door. After meeting with them for a half hour, I checked my phone messages from the answering machine and saw I had a call from Cynthia Carson. I dialed the number and waited as the phone rang.

  "Oh, hi Stan. Thanks for calling me back. Listen, Kurt's out of town and a couple of problems have come up, I need you to handle them for me."

  "Sure, what are they?"

  "Metro Leasing has been calling threatening to repossess the Rolls."

  "What?" I said "I didn't know the Rolls was leased."

  "Yeah, Kurt leases everything. He doesn't believe in buying anything because he likes to preserve his capital."

  "Do you know why he's behind on the payments?"

  "No, I don't. . . . It must be some kind of oversight."

  "Okay, I'll call them and calm them down until Kurt gets back."

  "Thanks."

  "What's the other problem?"

  "You remember Pete Hall, one of the investors in the Panhandle building?"

  "Right."

  "He wants to go over the deal with you again. His accountant has spooked him," Cynthia said.

  "Sure, shall I call him?" I said.

  "Please. Don't let him slip away. Kurt will be furious if he loses one of his investors."

  "I'll talk to him. Don't worry."

  "Thanks Stan, let me know if you need anything."

  The calls from Metro Leasing disturbed me since I had always got the impression Kurt owned all his fancy cars. I immediately called them to see what they were upset about.

  "Mr. Weber, this is Stan Turner. Cynthia Carson asked me to call you regarding Kurt Harrison."

  "Yes, is he going to pay up or do we have to come out and pick up the Rolls?"

  "Well, I wasn't aware he was behind. How much does he owe?"

  "He's two months past due."

  "So how much is that?"

  "Eleven hundred and twenty-four dollars."

  "Damn, those are pretty stiff payments."

  "Well it's a hundred and twenty-five-thousand-dollar automobile."

  My car had cost me $8,000 and change. I couldn't fathom paying over a hundred grand for a car.

  "Kurt's out of town for a few days. When he gets back I'll be sure he drops off a check."

  "We can't wait a few days. We need to get paid now or we're going to come repossess the car."

  "Come on, you can wait a couple of days, can't you?"

  "No, Mr. Harrison has never made a payment on time and were tired of it. We would rather just write off whatever our loss might be and never see Mr. Harrison again."

  "Well, let me see if somehow I can scrape up the two payments due so we don't have to get entangled in litigation over this matter. I don't understand why you can't wait a few more days since you've waited this long."

  "Well we can't and if we don't get our money by Monday we'll be over to pick up the Rolls," he said.

  "It won't do you any good to go over there, the vehicle will be locked up and you can't breach the peace trying to repossess it. You'll have to file a writ of sequestration if you want the vehicle. By the time you get that put together Kurt will be back and will pay you. You might as well just wait."

  It surprised me that Kurt was having problems with Metro Leasing since he was making so much money on his real estate ventures. Surely he could afford to pay his bills. I figured I would give him the benefit of the doubt anyway. Maybe he was just so busy he wasn't tending to his business the way he should.

  That afternoon I went downtown to the Dallas Department of Vital Statistics to get Melba's death certificate, then to the Public Library where I started searching through old newspapers that were kept on microfilm. It didn't take long to find the story on Melba Thorn's death.