by Kira Reese
I was tempted to tell her that her father was still alive. I refrained from that, though guilt washed over me. It would make her day if she knew his was not the body police were exhuming. That would have to come later. I reassured her that she was right about closing the case.
“I don’t mind them examining him again if whoever did this spends the rest of his life in prison.”
She couldn’t stop talking, or I should say gushing about the ongoing investigation. The fact they were digging up her father’s body gave her hope he hadn’t been forgotten.
Finally, I was back into the men-for-men website. I moved down the page. When I got to the third one I stopped and gaped. I was sure it was Thornton until I read his profile. This man strongly resembled Thornton and had a similar background. Sketchy information was given. He lived in Syracuse, New York and was an avid sailor. He owned several cruisers and apparently was wealthy when he spoke of his love of water. There was a picture of the lookalike standing near one of his docked boats at the pier. I enlarged the yacht and sent the picture to my own computer. Once it came up, I researched to find who the maker was. It originated from one of Thornton’s factories.
“That’s a little more than interesting,” I said. “Someone who looks like Thornton Grey has his same love for boats. Not only that, he bought a boat that was designed by Thornton himself.”
Something nagged at me. Until I cleared my head, I knew it wouldn’t surface in my mind. I went outside and took a walk down the street. Our next-door neighbor who was retired was in his yard. He seemed to be surveying his flowers. When he saw me he waved and said good morning. I returned the greeting.
“Looks like you have a day off, Candy,” he said. “Enjoy it before the heat sets in again.”
I told him I would. My walk took me to the park meant for residents of the neighborhood. Several young mothers watched their toddlers play. I smiled at them and started back home. I kept my mind on the children until I was a few steps from my door. I opened my mind to the one thing that appeared off base. Then it hit me.
“That’s it,” I said under my breath. “That photo on Thornton’s desk was not of him. It was the man on the website.”
I called Angelina. “Do you know if the photo of your father is still on his desk in his bedroom?”
“I don’t remember a photo there. Do you want it?”
“I just want to borrow it. Can you call Raymond to let me in the door?”
She agreed. When I got to Thornton’s mansion, Raymond let me in without a word. It took a few minutes to go upstairs and retrieve the photo. When I came back down I told the gardener thanks and drove back home. I knew I would not make it to the office today. It had taken a while for me to cross the East River to Winchester and back home.
I hurried to the laptop and brought up the lookalike again. The man in the photo held the exact pose as the one on the website. He did resemble Thornton, but some features varied. His nose was broader and hair receded slightly. This man’s cheekbones appeared higher than in photos of Thornton. They could have been brothers, but definitely not twins.
I switched to messages between the two men. They chatted mostly about boats and various hidden islands they enjoyed. There was nothing Thornton said that caused me to think he wanted to get to know this man in a more personal way. A week went by with no messages between them. Thornton chose Boatman for his handle. Then he asked the man whose site name was Theo if he had family.
Theo replied he had no known relatives and had emigrated from Sweden almost ten years ago. More chatting revealed he was interested in men and finally asked Thornton about the possibility of meeting him. More than ten days passed before Thornton responded. They agreed to meet at a lodge in the Adirondacks the following weekend. All of this transpired in early April.
I made notes of the date of the meeting and the name Sunrise Lodge. Once the date was set there, were no more chats for several weeks, at least none that I found online. There was the possibility that if they met, they switched to phone calls.
For a man who was obsessed with women, this side of Thornton proved a huge surprise. I called Camden Thomason and was told to leave a message. I simply left my first name. He had my cell number. In the late afternoon, Camden returned my call.
“I found the website I believe you hinted at on Thornton’s computer,” I said. “I have to admit that that side of him is a complete surprise to me.”
“It was to me, as well,” said Camden. “I’m not so sure we are reading that right.”
There was a hesitation in his voice. Either the son-in-law did not want to face the fact that his father-in-law was interested in men or he was holding back.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He asked me if I didn’t think it strange that the men Thornton looked at online all had similar features. I told him I presumed Thornton was narcissistic and liked his own looks. Camden laughed abruptly.
“That’s the strange part of it. Thornton paid little attention to his looks. He didn’t have to worry about that. He was handsome and did little to enhance his appearance. He wasn’t vain.”
By the end of the call, we both agreed Thornton Grey liked both men and women. It wasn’t as if men like that weren’t out there. I admitted to myself that I was more than curious about just who this Theo was. Maybe it was time to hand over the personal laptop to the police. If the two men met at Sunrise Lodge, I was sure they did not register under their true names. The police could dig further into that if necessary.
I had not promised Camden I wouldn’t turn the computer over to the cops. But right now, he nor his wife knew the body they buried was someone other than Thornton. I decided to put off the idea of giving it to Ben for another day. Delving deeper into the hidden life of the tycoon was something that held intense interest. Theo, whoever he was, may have something to do with the entire mystery. Someone who saw Theo could have mistaken him for Thornton and somehow gotten him onto one of the real victim’s yachts.
That left the burning question of where Thornton Grey was. If he had successfully vanished on his own, what pushed him to go where no one could find him? Or had he and Theo been on the same boat, and now Thornton was in the depths of the waters off the island of Holbox and Theo was the man who made it to the beach?
The next morning when I was walking out the door, Ben called. He asked me to stop by his office before I went to work. He had something he had discovered in regard to Thornton Grey. Sure it was his double life, I had to make up my mind how I would react when he told me. The truth always worked when it came to my approach of working with the detective. I walked into his office clutching the laptop that bulged with the personal life of Thornton.
“We have found that Thornton Grey was in a lot of trouble,” said Ben. “I mean enormous financial problems lay over his head. He may be in trouble with the Conti gang but he is deeper in with the IRS and several creditors. He has been living on credit for the most part.”
I gaped at him. “Are you telling me he is not as wealthy as I was led to believe?”
“If he paid back everyone he owes, he would have much less. He went from one venture to the next and has racked up quite a bill with the IRS. He has creditors coming out of the woodwork and putting liens on much of his property.”
“This tells me he has disappeared on purpose,” I said. “Who is the person in the grave that was thought to be him?”
“It is someone whose DNA has not matched anyone we know of yet. Experts tell me he was of Norwegian or Swedish ancestry. We have no name, and no one of his description is reported missing. We have bulletins out across the state. They are automatically being transferred throughout all the other states.”
Ben glanced at the laptop on my lap. It was lightweight and in its cloth bag. I pulled it out and opened it. His eyes questioned me.
“This is a personal laptop that Thornton owns. It was hidden in the recesses of his closet in his bedroom. Camden Thomason is the only one who knew about it, an
d he retrieved it as soon as he heard of Thornton’s death. He told Angelina about it recently and brought it to me.”
I went to the website that engrossed Thornton Grey. I explained everything I discovered about his second life. When I mentioned Theo and his Swedish roots, Ben looked more than interested. I continued to clue him in on everything I found there.
“I’ll send someone up to Sunrise Lodge with photos of Thornton. Maybe we can find out about the man who goes by Theo. I doubt either used their real names.” He looked closely at Theo. “He could almost pass as a double for Thornton.”
I nodded in agreement and told Ben my first thoughts about him being self-centered enough to want someone similar in appearance to him. “Camden tells me he was not self-centered about his looks at all.”
We sat in silence for a few seconds.
“I think that someone thought Theo was Thornton, and he is the one who washed up on the remote beach.” After my proclamation, I sat back satisfied with my statement.
Furrowed eyebrows told me Ben thought there was more. “If he is this deceptive about his personal life, Thornton could be deceptive about a lot of things. He managed to accrue debt and still maintain his lifestyle for the past several years.”
“When do you plan to tell the Thomasons that you exhumed someone other than Thornton?” I asked.
“I am ready to do that in a few minutes. We need their cooperation in keeping it quiet, as well as giving us all they know about the tycoon’s whereabouts.”
“I believe Camden knows more than he is telling me. I’m not so sure about Angelina, but she could be involved deeper than she is letting on.”
My mind swam with possibilities. I left the laptop with the detective and took a drive to a large park to think things out. It was time to meet with Angelina and Camden together. I prided myself on reading facial expressions and body reactions. If Camden was that close to private information about Thornton, he probably knew where he was. It was not hard to believe Camden knew the person buried was not his father-in-law. As I told Ben, I wasn’t so sure about Angelina.
At four that day, the Thomasons appeared at my office. I closed the door behind them, and we settled in the cozy corner. I offered them my usual libations which both declined. Pale and drawn, I knew the toll of first learning her father had washed up on the beach and that the gravesite held someone else was almost more than she could bear.
Camden’s taut face told me he was ready for whatever battle lay ahead of him. Other than first observations, I waited until the discussion began to find out who knew what. I extended my sympathy toward Angelina for her ordeal. There were no tears this time. Fragility pronounced itself in her.
“I am sure the news that your father is alive is good news,” I said to her. “At least we know know he is missing and not dead.”
There was no response from Thornton’s daughter. I hoped she did not enter an entirely unresponsive state. Camden did not look concerned about her. I met his eyes.
“Do you know where Thornton is?” I asked him. “You had access to his personal life. He surely told you his plans when he vanished.”
My direct questioning did not move Angelina in the way it did Camden.
“Are you accusing me of having something to do with Thornton’s disappearance?” His eyes blazed like wildfire.
“I am not accusing you of anything. I am merely saying that logic tells me you may know where he is. I conclude that fact since he trusted you with knowing his most private activities.”
This time Angelina looked from me to her husband. She had no clue of the information between us. Camden avoided her eyes. If we were to move forward, she should know everything. I explained that Camden knew everything on her father’s personal computer. I watched her reaction when I told her about the websites he visited more than once. As gently as I knew how, I told her of his connections with men on one website.
“My father is not immoral,” she said. Her voice was barely a whisper but at least she comprehended my words. “He loves women too much.”
“I believe someone lured the man who resembled your father to one of his boats. The man may have gone willingly since he knew Thornton to be a friend. Once on the boat, whoever set the bomb to go off at a certain time thought it was your father he expected to kill. Instead, it was the man who looked like your father.”
“Thank God it wasn’t my father,” she said. Her strong voice came across as confident. “I feel badly about the poor man who died on the beach, but I am just glad it wasn’t my father. We have to find him before the killer knows he is still alive.”
I glanced at Camden and then addressed Angelina. “There is more you should know. Your father is near financial ruin.” Her eyes sprang wide-open and alert. “He owes IRS back taxes and there are creditors at his back door. Knowing this, it is possible your father voluntarily escaped to someplace where no one can reach him.”
I didn’t look at Camden, but I knew his face flushed with a fury that lashed at me. “She did not have to know all of this,” he said.
His wife’s response was to pat him on his hand. She handled it better than I thought she would.
“Camden, I was aware of my father’s debt but not to this degree.” She turned to me. “He has been on the brink of financial failure before. He will dig himself out again. This news does not mean he is running away. He has never run away from problems before.”
This was not the time to go into his money problems in more depth. Angelina had access to his home computers and must know of some of his problems. The fact he was in way over his head this time was something she was ignorant of.
For now, whoever meant to kill Thornton having mistakenly targeted the wrong man was the premise I chose to go by.
When they left my office Angelina returned to the person I dealt with on the case from the beginning. She was optimistic her father would be found and return to his usual life. The worry that the killer would find him first was my problem now.
Camden’s attitude shot coolness toward me. He probably regretted he gave me that computer, which I told him was now in the hands of the police.
Chapter 13
Elusive Tycoon
It was closing time, and I told Natalie and Evelyn I was on my way out. I gave no explanation but headed directly to the precinct. Ben was still at his desk. My demeanor told him I had to talk with him immediately. He gestured to the chair across from him. I told him every detail of the visit with the Thomasons. He listened carefully, and I knew from experience with the detective that he did not miss anything I said.
“After going through that computer, Candy, I am sure Camden knows where Thornton is. He has to know, since it seems his father-in-law trusted him most of all.”
I nodded. “You may get more out of him than I did,” I said. “Right now, I don’t think he likes me so much.”
Ben chuckled. “He probably regrets he handed that computer over so readily to you.”
“As I see it, there are two possibilities in regard to his disappearance,” I said. “One is that he is hiding from creditors in a remote part of the world, and two, he is hiding from whoever meant to kill him.” I thought for a moment. “Or he could be hiding for both reasons. But how can we track him down?”
Ben rubbed his chin. “We are still trying to identify the man washed up on the beach who apparently came from one of Thornton’s yachts. As to how to find the missing man, it may take some time, but he will be found.”
I told the detective I was certain the body would be identified as Theo. I felt relieved that all cards were on the table with everyone.
“I believe the news will get out that Thornton Grey was not the man buried. Someone in that large crowd at the gravesite probably knew that,” I said. “The notion that Camden knew it still nags at me. He must have known.”
Ben agreed it was a strong possibility. As usual, he could not advance that idea without interviewing the son-in-law. He voiced that it would not be easy. Ben doubted a
ny words would come out of Camden’s mouth during an interview. His lawyer would do the speaking.
It took two weeks before Theo’s identity became known. As it turned out, his name was Theodore Andersson. He was originally from Copenhagen. He retired from development in technology of electrical equipment. He chose America to live out his life in comfort. His father had owned the Andersson Shipbuilding business as did his ancestors before him. His parents were deceased, and the business sold to someone who emigrated from Germany. He had no siblings. No relatives had been located to date.
I felt good that he had an identity. Word spread that Thornton Grey was not dead. The newspapers went wild with the story. Ben was more than upset that the information leaked from his department. His directed his efforts to the matter at hand. Finding the shipbuilding tycoon became the biggest quest for both of us. Camden Thomason was called in for an interview, and the outcome was as expected.
This case consumed me. My small office buzzed with the news between the three of us. I told Natalie and Evelyn all I knew, hoping for new input from one of them, or both. We finally returned to our desks. The phone rang, and Evelyn put the call through to me.
“Miss McCauley, I want to see you as soon as possible,” said James Butler.
We set the time for twenty minutes from his call. This could only concern the missing man.
When the shadow of the man clouded the doorway, I quickly invited him in. We settled in my corner. He waved away my offer of something to drink and got right to the point of his visit.
“Thornton Grey has been spotted.”
I lurched forward. “How do you know this, and where was he seen?”
“I sent Victoria on a business trip to Greece. We are opening new markets there. She speaks the language and is well aware of the business. While there, she was entertained by clients and their families on a small cruise ship. She swears she saw Thornton.”
“Did she speak with him?”
“She told me he did not see her, but she was sure he boarded the cruiser for a few minutes and spoke briefly with one of the executives we are dealing with.”