Tolerance Book II

Chapter Ninety-One: Canadian Possibilities

Jay was blissfully unaware of his friends' concern.  He had more pressing issues on his mind than his own welfare.  As he glanced around the high ceilinged room the group had gathered in he wondered how many years the recently deceased owner had enjoyed the residence.  The house was obviously built as a place to retreat to.  With everything essential on site one could remain on the island indefinitely once supplies were fully stocked up.  That begged the question if the owner had merely wanted a place to leave the rat race behind for peace and quiet or if there was a more sinister reason for the isolated residence.  The young Detective did not want to think ill of the dead but being pragmatic was an essential trait in law enforcement.  Wishing everyone was good just wasn't realistic.  To that end he decided to broach the topic on his mind as he looked at Marks.

"Have you got any more intel on the owner?"
"Bart Wilkes, on paper, was clean as a whistle."
"And off paper?" Voight questioned.
"There were rumours for years he was connected to some shady deals but nothing was ever proven," Marks supplied with a shrug, "I never came across him until now.  If he was doing things illegally he buried his tracks."
"What type of thing are we talking?" Kevin checked.
"Fraud ..... he declared bankruptcy four times and .....,"
"And he owned a place like this!" Adam shook his head in disgust.
"There's always going to be people who take advantage of the system," Antonio sighed, apparently Canada was similar in some unwelcome ways to the States.
"How much was written off through the bankruptcies?" Antonio asked, trying to grasp the scale of any wrongdoing.
"Over $4 million."
"Wow!" Adam exclaimed, that was not small change.
"Creditors can't have been happy," Jay put in quietly as he pondered the information, "what if .......,"
"Go on," Al urged after it became clear the younger man was hesitant to continue.
"Well what if winding up here was always on the cards?"
"What are you saying?" Adam asked in confusion.
"It's just an idea but what if Wilkes was the main trigger for everything King has done?  Maybe he was a Creditor ...... that would have meant he lost a lot of money and ......,"
"But King's American," Kevin argued doubtfully.
"Nothing to stop him doing business here," Marks put in.
"Sure but there's no proof he was in business here."
"We don't know about that," the Canadian pointed out, they had checked Kings' border entries but this was a whole new line of enquiry to follow up and the Killer could have entered through a myriad of routes.
"But even if he did business here he probably used another name," Jay as ever was willing to expose the flaws in his own theory.
"I have an idea about that," Parkers' New York accent joined the conversation, drawing attention his way as he sat on a stool in front of the long marble bar counter beside Murphy.
"Well don't keep us in suspense," Voight directed with his trademark impatience.
"You won't like it," the New Yorker cautioned and sent a regretful look Jays' way, "he may have used Jays' name."
"What the hell?!" the Sergeants' exclamation was joined by several others.
"Just hear him out," Murphy raised his hands to quieten the raised voices, he too was upset by this possibility but knew his friend didn't use words carelessly.
"He's right," Jay acknowledged sending the Unit men a pleading look, "we don't have time to miss possible angles."
"Go on," Voight instructed the Psychologist after a moments' consideration.
"Well it's only a theory but given that he's used Jays' name when he killed it's highly likely he used his name for other less than stellar activities because ....,"
"..... he's a ******!" Adam finished vehemently.
"No arguments on that," Parker agreed unfazed by the interruption, "but I was going to say because it all goes towards denigrating Jay ....,"
"...... and his reputation," this time it was Al who concluded the New Yorkers' sentence.
"Makes sense," Murphy nodded unhappily, it fit the level of hatred King had for the young Detective, "it still bothers me that we don't know why he's honed in on Halstead."
"We're all with you on that," Voight stated grimly, the new angle if correct would only pile more unwarranted guilt on his Detective and that did not sit well with him at all.
"So first thing in the morning I'll do some checking," the Canadian informed his companions.
"Good," Voight nodded, studiously ignoring the IT Specialists' fingers dancing on the keyboard before him, he hadn't asked but knew Mouse would have hacked into the RCMP database, "for today let's call it quits and start fresh first thing in the morning."