Installment #42 Kevin

Installment #42

Kevin

Jack quickly caught Kevin up to speed with what he knew, which was not much. Meg was missing. A man she had planned on meeting in Denver was missing. Someone had hacked into her email. That person lived either in Denver or near here. Or both. What did Kevin know? Nothing. He had not even known about the man in Denver. Mom had been a widow for over three years now, so it did not surprise him. Could the man in Denver have done something to Mom?
No.  Jeffery Purcell was missing first.
Had Meg seemed different in any way when he last spoke to her?
No, she was always just mom.

Suddenly the door burst open and Leroy and Ferrel hurried across the yard. “Jack! You are not going to believe this! The computer in Denver belongs to a man named Marshall Purcell! Marshall Purcell is Jeffery Purcell’s twin brother. They have been estranged for years. The father is in Brattleboro, Vermont.  He has not seen either son in several years.  No contact at all with Marshall since before the mother died.  Marshall never went back for the funeral. The father remarried and moved to Vermont or moved to Vermont and then remarried, but shortly after the marriage Jeffery wrote him out of his life.”

Jack frowned as he digested this bit of news.  “This is just getting worse.  Have someone pick up Marshall Purcell and take him in for questioning.  He is going to have some explaining to do about hacking Parkers’ computer.”  He turned to Kevin.  “How does your mom know Marshall Purcell? Who is he?”
Kevin shook his head. “ I have no clue. I never heard her mention him at all. What does he do?  Mom never goes to Denver unless it is business. What does this Purcell guy do?”

Ferrel glanced at his notes. “He is a stock broker. Quite successful. Your mom have stock?”
 “Yeah, but I bought it through my broker. I keep her portfolio and she does not buy anything any more. We are just kind of riding the sinking ship and hoping it makes a comeback.”

Who in the hell was this guy and why was he spying on his mother?  Mom would surely have told him if she were interested in someone.  And she would have told him if she had someone playing inside her computer.  Well, she would have told him had she known it. Leroy disconnected from his call on the cell phone and turned to face the group.  He was very solemn.

“Well, they sent a team to Purcell’s office.  He was not there, but Jennifer, the office manager was and she was quite helpful.  Seems Purcell left the office on Thursday morning and has not been heard from since.  When she went to transfer money from the main account into the payroll account, she found there was nothing to transfer. Seems Marshall Purcell had already transferred it somewhere.  She went to his apartment to confront him, but that is gone too.  Nothing there.  Like he fell off the face of the earth.”

 Kevin sat down on the small patch of grass by the back porch.  Immediately Daisy and Elvira were in his lap.  He laughed as he saw Icarus, Miss Independent cat, watching the dogs.  These three animals had the same disposition as Meg,  all love and happiness.  He stared at the mountain.  What secrets did it hold?  He and Greg had known something was amiss, but never dreamed it would lead to this.  Mom was way to trusting. Meeting a guy on the Internet was absurd.  Making plans to meet him in Denver was even more out of character.  He watched as the fingerprint guy came out and walked to his van. Jack intercepted him. Kevin watched them with their heads together. Goodbyes were said and Jack approached Kevin.

No good news there.  Says a preliminary turned up a lot of prints, but they all seem to be accounted for and he does not have much hope.”

Somehow Kevin was not surprised by this.  He suddenly felt like he was smothering.  “Jack, I am going for a short walk.  Probably up the mountain a ways.  I need to call California and the reception here is not the best.”
Jack nodded.  “ I hear you buddy.   Here is my cell phone number if you need me or see anything unusual just give me a jingle.” Kevin slipped the card into his cell phone case, nodded at the dogs to stay and headed north, up the mountain in the direction Meg had refused to go just a week earlier.  The dogs watched him go a ways and then settled down in the grass and the cat lay in the grass twitching her tail and contemplating a nap.