Jamie Brodie 02 - Hoarded to Death

chair and rubbed his eyes. " Kevin took Paulo to the bus station. The kid says he's going back to Nevada."
    "That's where he's from?"
    "Yeah. Pahrump. His father kicked him out last summer when Paulo told his parents he was gay. But he has a sympathetic aunt living there, and she said he could come and stay with her. He needs to finish high school. So we bought him a bus ticket."
    "He'll have to come back to testify."
    "Yeah. He said he would. But he had absolutely no place to go here, and he's too old for the youth shelters now. So I plan to check in on him every so often. Anyway. Tell me about Kendall McEwen."
    I handed him the pages I'd printed out earlier. "I don't really know him in depth. The reason I know him at all is that he was also a Rhodes Scholar. I didn't know him at Oxford, but I met him here at an alumni association get-together. We struck up a conversation about surfing and got to be friendly. But I really only see him about once a year, when the Oxford group has a big meeting."
    Jon sat up a little straighter. "I didn't know you were a Rhodes scholar."
    "Yep."
    "I mean, I'd seen that diploma-" He pointed at my Oxford diploma on the wall- "but I didn't know how you got it. Did you play a sport?"
    "Rugby."
    "No shit." He looked at me with renewed respect. "I'll tell Belardo. He thinks he's hot shit because he played semi-pro soccer for a couple of years. Rugby is soccer on steroids."
    I laughed. "Damn straight. So anyway, unfortunately, I don't know how much help I can be about Kendall."
    "I did some investigating too - I can't get his financial records yet, but I talked to a couple of the booksellers we visited in December. There are rumors that McEwen is near bankruptcy. Which would provide a pretty strong motive."
    I nodded. "I figured it had to be about money, considering what Paulo overheard."
    "Yeah. But, you know, theoretically Paulo could have heard some other Australian. He doesn't know McEwen's voice. It could have been any Australian male. So we can't get any kind of a warrant at all yet."
    “Didn’t Brashier have security cameras?”
    “Yeah, but they weren’t hooked up.”
    "So you have to just go talk to Kendall?"
    "Yep. Ask him a few questions, see if he'll come up with an alibi for yesterday, see if he has an alibi for the shooting at Jennifer’s apartment, see if he admits to owning a gun. I thought maybe if you came along, it might open him up a little bit."
    "Hmm. I don't know about that. But I don't mind coming with you."
    "Okay, good. We'll have to do it tomorrow afternoon. Kevin’s got court in the morning, so he’ll meet us there. What if I pick you up here at about 12:45?"
    I checked my calendar. "I’ll have to switch my reference shift, but y eah, that'll work."
    "Okay, good." Jon stood up. “Oh, by the way. Paulo admitted to telling his friend, the delightful young lady we met the other night, that the university was looking for a page from a medieval Bible, and giving them your phone number. He said he didn’t have anything to do with the setup, though.”
    “Do you believe him?”
    Jon shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter. I told him I’d drop that matter in exchange for his testimony, and he agreed.”
    We said our goodbyes, and Jon headed for Liz's office. I finished up a few things at my desk and shut down for the day. I got home a little early. Pete was in the kitchen, just starting to gather ingredients for fish tacos, so I told him about the developments as he did.
    By the time I'd finished, the tacos were ready. Pete put our plates on the table and we sat. I dug in. " Mmm, so good."
    "Thank you." Pete ate for a minute. "Jon's right, it could be some other Australian guy. There are probably several thousand Australians in LA."
    "Sure, it could be. But I doubt it, don't you?"
    "Yeah. You know, when we were at his shop that day, I had a look around while he was examining the copy of the torn page. It didn't look like a lot of inventory had been moving recently."
    "How could you tell?"
    "The dust on the shelves. Nothing had been moved for a couple of weeks, I'd guess."
    "So maybe he is having financial problems. Although, in that business, one big sale can probably keep you going for a while."
    "True. But if you've grown accustomed to a certain lifestyle, it's hard to economize when times get tough. Especially if he's got lovely ladies to impress."
    "Yeah. I bet the lovely ladies in this town are hard to impress."
    Pete laughed. "Yeah, I'd guess so."
    We both