"So, you were knowing partners with a criminal?"
"Yes," Tannehill slid down into the booth and cocked an elbow to rest on the top of the backrest. His two companions remained silent in non-response. "What?" He pulled his elbows from the rest.
"You were ok with that?" Vera continued.
"I'm surprised you're that naive. Policemen have confidential informants and PIs aren't exactly hobnobbing with the cream of society. If he'd have done something egregious, I would've turned him in."
"Like grand theft?"
"I didn't know that he was in a scheme that ultimately got him killed. He ran low-level bunko scams, not international crime syndicates. And, this is Capital City. If you're part of a robbery ring that's bilking people 6,000 miles away, you're probably more likely to be beatified than arrested. Plus, his extra-curricular activities led to enough capers that generated business, and, if you've been able to guess from my choice of attire and high-end dining selections, I can't afford to be picky."
"He's got a point," Spinoza chimed in helpfully.
Vera polished off her coffee, "I'm going to get more cream," and pushed purposefully away from the table. She returned a minute later with cream and a chocolate chip cookie.
Nibbling one of the chocolate chips from its doughy resting place, she forged on. "So, you suppose that Bellucci met Otto and Brunner through Snell?"
"In a roundabout way, yeah."
"They just show up at the port of entry to Capital City and there's Snell, holding a sign reading 'need help committing a felony, I'm your man!'?"
"Not so much a sign as a sandwich board. I'm sure he didn't want to get lost in the shuffle."
"Was it scripted in Romanesque or Gothic?"
Tannehill paused when he couldn't retort. "Look, Brunner's father is a diplomat, so he probably knows other Germans stationed throughout the world. I'm assuming some of those Germans, especially under the current administration, aren't exactly following the letter of law in the lands of their diplomatic assignments. I'd even be willing to assume that they'd double-cross their own goose-stepping masters if it meant a big payday." He took a large swig of his now cooled coffee and continued. "Snell would likely know the most morally dubious Nazis and would be able to use those connections to arrange the party we've been discussing forthwith."
"So, Bellucci, Snell, Brunner, and Otto are now all connected. Otto and Brunner want to dump their stolen items, Snell has a safe place to store them, and Bellucci? Bellucci does what?"
"He's probably the fence. If he was a rumrunner, he would've had connections to gangs throughout the city and would've met people that can help dispose of items that were obtained via less than honorable means."
"And why the whole Beederman Bellucci conundrum?"
"Depravity." Spinoza started into his coffee while speaking, stirring a non-existent creamer into a deep, bitter vortex with his spoon.
"It's depraved to assume another identity?" Tannehill asked.
"You said that Bellucci was short and darkly-complected with dark hair correct?"
"Yup."
"And, if you didn't know his name was Bellucci, would it have been much of a stretch for him to actually have been 'Harry Beederman'?"
"No."
"Beederman is a Jewish surname." Spinoza paused, collecting the points around his theory before putting it into further words. "All of the artifacts we found," he swept his arm across the table in a grand gesture, "are of great import to Jewish heritage. The dollar value of those items is likely extremely high based on historical value alone. But add in the sentimental or cultural aspect and the dollar value skyrockets even more."
"So, you think he took on the persona of Harry Beederman to invoke a sense of collective guilt or tug at the heartstrings of Jews in the area in order to up the sale prices," Vera asked, head bowed and scribbling intently on her pad.
"I'd frame it a bit differently. Given the precarious way in which these objects were vacated from their rightful owners, I'd be willing to bet that Jews in the area would be desperate to keep our history from being ripped away from us. Harry Beederman would just make that desperation that much more poignant. Especially if he's panicked that time is of the essence before the artifacts are confiscated and returned to the Germans or dispersed to the highest bidder by the state authorities at the conclusion of any criminal investigation."
"You're right," Tannehill sat up straight in the booth, "that is pretty depraved."
"No more depraved than stealing from an authoritarian group of thugs, who in turn, stole these artifacts from honest citizens and then committed two murders in the further continuance of that crime."
"So, let's pause again to sum up what we've surmised," Tannehill began to count the points on each finger. "We know that two Germans absconded with treasure earmarked for Nazi coffers and shipped it to the west coast of the USA."
"Why the west coast and not the east coast? The journey would've been much shorter," Vera asked.
Tannehill stopped briefly, holding on to point one of his index finger. "I'd wager that they were trying to put some time and distance between themselves and their victims," - Spinoza scoffed at Tannehill's choice of vocabulary for the Nazis - "victims only in the purely technical sense, as their victims would likely resort to extra-legal coercion in order to recover their assets. In addition, the Nazis, if they knew the treasure was headed for America, would likely look on the east coast first. It's more heavily populated and, therefore, a better area to dispense of the goods. And, it's a much shorter journey as you pointed out."
Vera and Spinoza nodded in accordance with this theory. Tannehill extended his middle finger to stand alongside its indexed brethren, "point two - they use their government connections to find Snell. Snell, likely eager to assist, informs them of a place to store their goods and offers to assist them with finding someone who can offload them."
Vera and Spinoza remained silent in further tacit acknowledgment. His ring finger appeared, "third, Snell opts not to tell them where the treasure is housed, and, when he's failed to be persuaded of revealing its location, he's killed for that failure - whether it's out of frustration or over-zealous techniques of persuasion."
The house continued to remain silent. He bent his pinky finger back, "finally, for motives unknown, Bellucci/Beederman takes the fall for Snell's murder. And, possibly because he's seen as a weak link in the whole scheme, he's murdered as well."
Vera piped up after completing her final note, "ok, now what?"
"Now, we trade what they want - a storehouse full of stolen goods - for what we want - an acknowledgment that they murdered my partner. Since this particular crime involves the transportation of goods across international boundaries, the Feds are likely to get involved if we can get anything to stick to them."
"Meaning?"
Spinoza interjected, "meaning it's not left up to Capital City's finest to further justice, so justice has a better chance of being furthered."
"Can I see the notes you've taken so far?" Tannehill extended his hand toward Vera and her note pad.
She shrugged, "sure," and slid the notepad across the booth to him.
His brow furrowed in frustration and incomprehensibility after staring at the page for 30 seconds, "I can't read a word of this!" He slid the pad to Spinoza, whose face affected the same countenance.
She shrugged again. "It's my own shorthand. I like to call it High Gothic Romanesque." While the two men sat with fixed looks of exasperation glued to their faces, she calmy reclaimed the notepad and exited the booth for a refill on cookies and a glass of milk.
[Author's Note: Today's part of the Whodunit weighs in at 1297 words. It occurred to me while writing this chapter that, while I had a strong sketch of the crime and its particulars, the details and plan for catching the criminals were a little lacking. Well, that's what you get when your primary goal is to write 50000 words come hell or high water. I guess we'll figure it out along with the rest of the gang. The grand total now stands at 43377 words.]
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