by JN Lenz
There would be no wavering of the vocal chords, or any visible moments of sentiment at all from Clyde while he explained how he had carried out the murder. Clyde explained the details with an almost clerical precision, relaying the events of the shooting and his confidence that there had been little left for investigators to make any connection to himself. Just as confident was Clyde in the belief that he had also not been seen by anyone that night of the murder, before Clyde would go on to explain how he had removed the serial numbers from his favorite riffle, the thirty- thirty.
The same gun that he had owned for years was now buried in a forest close to the Winslow mansion, buried there after the killing. The confidence that flowed from Clyde that night made me feel more relaxed than I had been all week. The bottle of whiskey and the pair of fat joints we shared as he continued talking well into the night helped in relaxing me as well.
After detailing Harry’s murder, Clyde would continue to outline the next steps for target number three. The third victim was to be female, similar in age to old lady Preston and she too resided in a nursing home. This Nursing Home was not in Largo however, similar to Harry Winslow target number three was not far from Clyde’s townhouse in the city. The nursing home was so close to the townhouse in fact that Clyde would walk over to the Home to murder her.
The weekend passed by quickly, we had so much to plan for the upcoming Winslow funeral. The Saturday afternoon service came and went routinely. By Sunday we had completed the bulk of the arrangement planning for Harry Winslow’s funeral which we were all convinced would take place on the following Saturday. The most expensive casket the Bracken Brothers had ever produced had been ordered, I had arranged for dozens of additional flowers above the multitude which were sure to arrive. Fred had managed to secure additional cars; along with the stretch limos the immediate family would be arriving in.
The largest church in town had been reserved for the following Saturday, a large even tent had been rented for the side of the church in the event there was not enough room to accommodate all the guests inside the church. There would be the rental of additional chairs to set up inside the tent to accommodate the expected large crowd. There would be a sound system set up the day of the funeral to ensure all in attendance could hear the minister and the eulogy. The Funeral Home would have all its folding chairs lining all the main floor rooms for the wake, set to take place directly following the internment at the cemetery.
The rental space in the public Mausoleum which was required until the Winslow tomb had been constructed was arranged with the cemetery. I filled the service with any additional charges I could think to add, we stood to make close to twenty grand on this one funeral, not a small sum in nineteen eighty six. I had calculated the charges for this funeral could move up our payment date to Vito by a full two weeks, saving us thousands in additional interest payments.
On Sunday evening after helping at the Funeral Home all weekend, Clyde headed back to the city as he had classes early Monday morning. After the stunning events of this previous week and with the financial windfall Harry Winslow’s funeral was sure to be, I had presumed Clyde had no intention of moving forward with his number three murder this week this week. I would be wrong.
The business phone rang early on Monday morning; I had just descended the stairs to the main floor of the Funeral Home when the office phone began to ring. The home was set up to have all phones in the entire Funeral Home ring, depending on a switch that controlled the phone to certain rooms. I had forgotten to turn the system on to all the phones before I crashed last night. The back garage and Fred’s apartment phones would ring as well from incoming calls if the system is set on open, during a service or visiting the lines would be set that only the office phone would ring.
The phone had been set to the office only setting during Saturday’s funeral; we had all forgotten to return it to ring thru to all stations. My expectation of the call as I hurried towards the office was that it would be from the Coroner announcing the release of Harry’s body from the morgue. Instead the call was from an out of town Funeral Home that had completed a pick-up of a body, the family had instructed them to call us as we were to handle the services, another funeral for this week.
The media news outlets continued to increase the coverage of Harry Winslow’s murder; some newspapers had gone so far as to reporting on wild speculation of who his murderer may have been. They listed many of Harry’s known old enemies from the business world, men that he had crushed on his path to the top. One tabloid paper went so far as reporting on the Police investigation centering on Harry’s immediate family and siblings who had much to gain in the event of the old man’s death. During that first full business week following the murder of his father, Delver mistakenly used the media spotlight to portray himself as the new head of the Winslow Empire.
In an attempt to demonstrate his competence and control of the empire to the business world, Delver used the media spot light as an opportunity to show that he was the head of the family’s vast business empire. Delver’s efforts may have helped to instill confidence in himself and the greater business community, but it also garnered the attention of the Police investigating the murder of his father Harry.
With Harry Winslow having left such a vast amount of money to be divided equally among the three siblings, any investigation could only start with the three beneficiaries of the estate. The investigators would soon discover the contents of Harry Winslow’s last will and testament and the large life insurance policies to be paid upon his death. All three of Harry’s siblings had a motive for this fact alone, but it was Delver’s confidence on camera, his brashness and over confidence that drew the attention of both lead detectives almost immediately. Within days the investigators would decide that Delver would be the first family member questioned, he had become the prime suspect in his father Harry’s assignation.
In time the investigators would bombard Delver questions and eventually accusations. What had Delver been doing the evening that his father was murdered? Had he quarreled recently with his father? Had there been acrimony with Delver residing as the president of the corporation while Harry still held on to the Chairman of the board?
Delver Winslow in fact, would not be able to provide the Police investigators with an honest account detailing his where abouts during the time of his father Harry’s murder. In order for Delver to admit that in reality, he was with his mistress for the majority of the early and mid-evening hours while his father was being murdered. This revelation to the investigators would certainly result in word of his infidelities passing beyond the walls of the Police station. The ensuing rumors and gossip would certainly result in divorce from his wife. In fact Delver had not arrived back to his residence until close to ten PM on that night of his father’s assassination, well after his father lay dead on his bedroom floor from a pair of bullet wounds to the head.
Although Delver would tell the police when they asked of his whereabouts on the night of his father’s murder that he was at home with his wife. Delver was surprised and blindsided by the detectives immediate arrival at his work days before his father’s funeral, it would be the same day they released the body from the morgue. Delver was by no means an obtuse man, but instead was rather astute.
Delver knew full well that the Police would be questioning concerning her , asking what her husband had been doing the night of his father’s murder. But he certainly did not expect them so soon after the murder, certainly not before the funeral. The rumors that began to circulate speculating Delver’s guilt must have made the weight of the empire his father had built bear down on Delver. Now he not only needed to take command of the business, but also needed to prove his innocence.
Unquestionably Delver reasoned that the Police would clearly understand that he was innocent, after all that was the truth. So although Delver would need to lie to the investigators, surely they would realize that he had nothing to do with the death of his father. Delver knew he was innocent o
f the murder of his father, so what is the worse the Police could do to him? There is no possibility of there being evidence of Harry’s murder pointing to Delver, he must have assured himself.
His greatest fear would be the revelation that he was having an affair on his wife, certainly Delver’s wife would file for divorce. A divorce would end all possibility of Delver gaining control on the business empire he had waited a life time for. There would be little doubt in Delver’s mind that his wife would do her best to strip him of fifty percent of his shares or their cash equivalent, meaning both his brothers would possess more shares and controlling interest of the Corporation over Delver.
The first questioning of Delver by the two lead detectives would take place on the first Monday following Harry’s murder, the interview and questioning had gone well Delver thought. Delver would make sure to call his wife immediately after the two detectives had both left his office, explaining to his wife how the detectives had arrived unexpectedly at his office and how he had told them he had spent the entire evening at home with her. Delver explained that Barbara needed to verify this to the investigators if and when they questioned her, there would be a good chance they would arrive unannounced at the family home Delver would advise her.
When Delvers wife Barbara, questioned him to why she was to lie to the Police to his whereabouts on the evening of Harry’s murder, Delver convinced her with a story that he had been attending a secret business meeting the night. Since the secret meeting was with two men interested in purchasing several properties from the Real Estate division of the Corporation it was critical the meeting remained a secret.
Harry knew nothing of the meeting Delver would explain, this to ensure a seamless transaction to the party purchasing the property in the form of a considerable cash kick back which would go directly to Delver, without the board or Harry’s knowledge. Delver would go on to explain to his wife that he could not tell the Police of the secret meeting, since it had taken place behind his father’s back it would present the Police with a motive for Delver’s involvement in the death of his father. The possibility of Harry discovering the sale would demoralize Delver, even potentially his removal as the President of the corporation. Delver convinced Judy to tell the police he arrived at home shortly after six and was in all evening.
The following day when the homicide investigators did in fact arrive at the door of Barbara Winslow, she had prepared herself well for the lie Delver had insisted she tell the Police. The pair had rehearsed exactly what Barbara was to say to the investigators when they arrived to question her. Inviting both of the detectives in to the living room where she offered them a coffee before Barbara happily answered all their questions including the one concerning where Delver had been the night his father was shot.
True to her word with her husband, Barbara explained to the two detectives how Delver had arrived home a little after six that evening and had remained there all night. She would go on to explain how after enjoying the meal she had prepared them would later sit together and watch a bit of TV, ending their evening reading in bed. The complete behind the scenes story would come out months later after Barbara had filed for divorce from Delver, after she had sold the entire rights to the story to some gossip magazine for a pile of cash.
Leaving Barbara Winslow’s home on that Tuesday morning, both detectives wanted to dig deeper into the life of Delver Winslow. There something that was just not sitting right with the pair of investigators, the hunch they both felt almost stank with the sense that Delver was full of shit. The two detectives had now talked to all three of Harry’s siblings and two of the brothers spouses; all three had potential motives in the murder of their father. The pair of detectives had been convinced Delver had the most to gain from the death of Harry Winslow, the hunch they felt in there gut that he was lying to them made him stand out that much more. Within a week of his father’s death, Delver would become the detective’s prime suspect in the murder.
There would be no announcement to the media at the time from the Police department that their prime suspect was now Delver Winslow. The detectives decided that same day they visited Barbara Winslow, to knock on a few of her neighbors doors to ask them a handful of questions about the night of Harry Winslow’s death. Asking the neighbors if they had witnessed anything out of the ordinary in their neighborhood on that night, the detectives disguised the questions in an attempt to appear concerned about Delvers safety.
The first two homes close to the Winslow’s that the detective’s questions produced no new information from the resident which answered the door. The third home the two detectives would visit would become a valuable source in their confirmation that Delver Winslow and his wife Barbara had been lying to them.
The lead detectives knock on the third neighborhood house door would be answered by a silver haired man; he looked to be in his mid-sixties. The investigators would hear a surprising reply from the occupant of the home, after asking if he had seen anything suspicious around the Winslow residence last Thursday evening. The silver haired man proceeded to tell them there was nothing suspicious, just the normal traffic from the streets residents. The man would describe seeing Delver Winslow return home shortly after ten pm that evening, the man had noticed him while out walking his dog. Delver was driving his large black SEL600 Mercedes Benz, which was the only one of its kind in the neighborhood.
The silver haired neighbor twice confirmed it was indeed Thursday night when Delver passed by him, on the Friday he had been out of town for the evening. The man who lived three houses down from Delver also offered the detectives the fact that Delver normally returned home from Monday to Friday around ten pm at night. Close to the same time every night, Saturdays and Sundays would be different. But for the past couple of years anyway, that neighbor would watch the big Mercedes drive by as he prepared to scoop or had already scooped the days last shit by his Boxer from the sidewalk.
This new information would be all the pair of detectives working on the assassination of Harry Winslow needed to place all their investigative efforts onto Delver. At best it looked like there was a high possibility that Delver was either having an affair on his wife. The worst case was that the several disagreements he had with his father Harry in the recent past over direction of the business and future control of the company had prompted Delver to murder his father.
The pair of detectives had pieced together stories from sources inside the corporations head office, workers who would tell them that Delver had made it clear to his father Harry that he required a controlling interest in the firm over his two brothers after his father’s death. The reasoning Delver had used to press his case to Harry was that he had the greatest understanding of the business and that it was he who had invested far more than the other two brothers combined into making the businesses the resounding success it had become. One source inside the company had gone so far as to say he overheard Delver pleading with his father for the additional voting shares on the board over and above his brothers.
This same employee would go on to explain to the detectives that the elder Winslow refused to determine there and then how the future division of power for the Corporation would be determined. Instead Harry would refute Delvers demands of a power shuffle, reminding him that as long as he was still alive the ultimate control of the business including all the group of firms would be retained solely by the elder Winston. Harry also refused to divulge the details of his will to Delver as requested, or to anyone but his lawyer. The employee who had been eavesdropping the entire time beyond Harry’s open office door would tell the investigators that following the statement about Harry’s will, Delver would storm from his father’s office his face red with rage.
These newly discovered facts presented a convenient lead for the two investigators and easily made Delver stand out as a prime suspect in his father Harry’s murder. The interviews between the double pair of gum shoes with Charles and the youngest bother Merlin had produced verified alibis by both men
for the night of their father’s death.
Charles had been with his wife and two children all evening including all of them having dinner at a restaurant before a night out at the movie theatre, all of which had been verified by the detectives. He youngest son of Harry Winslow, Merlin a perennial bachelor and partier had contracted a pair of escorts for that evening’s adventure into the bars and dance halls of Toronto’s downtown core. The registered Escort Agency which supplied the services of both ladies would provide conformation to the investigators conforming that the girls known as “Cinnamon and Spice” had spent all night and well into the next morning in the company of Merlin on the night of his father’s death.
There was an absence in the gut hunch which the detectives felt with Delver, after meeting with Charles and Merlin. The two investigators could also not identify any business rival seeking revenge that would cause them to want Harry Winslow dead. If Harry Winslow was somehow involved with the wrong kind of business associates it was not well known, leading the investigators to believe the murder was orchestrated or perhaps even carried out by Delver Winslow. All other potential suspects had come away from the investigators questions looking clean and not involved, Delvers brothers had as much to gain and as much of a motive to kill their dying father as Delver, but both had solid alibis unlike Delver.
There was certainly more that happened that night with Delver that he was not divulging to the Police, a neighbor had confirmed this. Then there was the company mole who divulged that Delver had demanded control from his father only nights before his death, after a fiery argument where Delver had stormed out. Now following the death of his father, Delver immediately presented himself as the head of the corporation in a bold and public display of his intensions. The detectives depicted Delvers display for control for the business empire with his guilt in the murder of his father.