Corky looked up from where she was trying to persuade Juni to take“one more bite,” grinned and said, “Youre right again, Chief. Except no ones explained to me why OHearne blew up the plane. Its a good thing he isnt alive and coming up for trial here. If he were, our prosecutor would be bugging Hank for a motive.”
Kays eyes opened wide. “My God, Corky! Youre right! Id completely forgotten about the motive in the midst of all the excitement. But I think I know the answer. Who booked your flight for you, Morton?”
“Isobel. Remember? I told you she did back in Denver.”
“So she really wanted you to be on that flight, and actually thought that you were.”
Morton looked aghast. “You mean she was responsible for the bombing. She hired OHearne. And it was all intended just for me.”
“Exactly right. And for good reason. Shed discovered youd embezzled what she figured was about a million dollars. In the meantime, she had access to the million from the State. From there on the scheme was simple. She stole the money, knowing your embezzlement would come to light and you would be immediately suspected of stealing the state loan money too. In fact, she probably planned to reveal your embezzlement to the world, as soon as you were out of the way, and to do her best to further the notion youd taken the state money as well. The neat solution was to do away with you so you would never be able to say otherwise, and to do it in a way which would look like the money had been destroyed along with you. OHearne and his bomb expertise was the way she tried to accomplish it.”
Kay paused for a moment, then added, “And it would have made the application of Occams Razor produce a completely wrong answer in this case. We would have been ready to accept the thought of one person stealing two million dollars, but not two different ones stealing a million apiece.”
Craigs face broke into a broad grin but he said nothing.
Morton looked down at his plate. “I see what you mean. It would have been only too natural to think there was only one crook around when in actuality there were two.”
“Thats a great solution, Kay,” Sid said, “but how are you going to prove it.”
Qual spoke up from the other end of the table. “Sullivan Jabagat strikes again. Do you want to tell the folks, Craig?”
Craig stood up to provide the news. “Sullivan called today. He said the state loan had been translated into cash immediately by Hawaiian Harvest, since the company needed cash on hand. The bills were all new and were consecutive numbers, of which he has a record. And, just today, the first bills began to show up.”
Several heads leaned forward to get a better view of Craig. Sid was the one who asked,“Where?”
“Why, at Friedas Bottoms Up Lounge, of course.”
The phone begin to ring. Kay picked up the portable and went off into the kitchen.
“Kay? This is your father.”
For a moment Kay had the sinking feeling there was some kind of emergency. Her mothers calm voice joining into the conversation reassured her.
“Can you and Sid get away on the 14th of February, Kay?” Etsuko asked.
“Im quite sure we could make arrangements. Whats happening?”
“Were having a wedding,” Yoshito broke in.“Your Uncle Nathaniels getting married. Yeah? And youll never be able to guess who hes marrying.”
Kay blurted out, “Marcella!”
Yoshi sounded hurt. “How did you know?”
Etsuko said nothing.
END
The Yoshinobu Mysteries: Volume 2 Page 72