Castle Killing Read online

  Castle Killing

  Alec Peche

  GBSW Publishing

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Alec Peche

  Thank you for downloading this eBook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

  Thanks!

  Alec Peche

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  Text Copyright © August 2017 Alec Peche

  Published by GBSW Publishing

  Cover Design: Vila Design

  Photograph: Rachael Paulsen Photography

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the author and the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in review.

  Acknowledgments

  Acknowledgements…Many thanks to my first reader and my editor for improving the quality of the story and my writing!

  Chapter 1

  Angela Weber checked her watch and then sipped her Brains beer. Where was Nick? They were a long distance couple and their time together, even among her friends, was precious.

  Angela was in Cardiff, Wales on vacation with her closest friends Jill Quint, Jo Pringle, and Marie Simon. They’d arrived in the UK and spent three days touring London before moving on to other parts of England and now Wales. Nick, a friend from a previous vacation in Belgium and the Netherlands and the owner of a security firm was supposed to have taken the Eurostar from Amsterdam to meet them in Cardiff. In fact he’d named this pub as the place to meet, as it was located between Cardiff Castle and the Central Train Station. He was a half an hour late and he was never late. Both she and Jill had tried reaching Nick by text, cell, and email and they’d gotten no response. Weird.

  Marie looked up from their table in the dark bar as two men in suits entered and spoke to the bartender. She thought at first they were asking directions of the bartender, but then the bartender pointed their way. Her friends had picked up her focus on the men and followed to where they were in conversation. The two men arrived at their pub table and pulled out detective shields for them to look at. They were Caucasian men with short brown hair, stocky figures, and dark suits.

  “I’m Detective Inspector Oliver Jones and this is Detective Inspector Logan Davies. We wanted to ask you some question about Nick Brouwer. We understand you’re acquaintances of his?”

  The four women froze, thinking that something must have happened to Nick.

  Angela spoke first, “Yes we know him. In fact he’s thirty minutes late to meeting us at this pub. Do you know where he is?”

  DI Jones replied, “You’re Americans and Mr. Brouwer is from the Netherlands; how do you know him?”

  Jill was getting a bad feeling as the officers had not answered their question. She replied, “He’s a friend of ours for about the last two years. Was he attacked?”

  “Why would you ask that question,” replied DI Davies. “Was he expecting trouble or was he ill?"

  “No, but he’s never been late, and I’m a forensic pathologist. It’s not a good situation when a Welsh DI approaches you; that means a serious crime has been committed. So what happened to Nick?”

  “I’m sorry to inform you that he is dead,” replied DI Jones.

  The four women gasped and instantly teared up, overwhelmed with grief for the loss of their friend.

  Jo recovered first and asked, “What happened? How did he die?”

  DI Davies replied, “We’ll give you that information later, but first we would like to get some information from you. May I see some form of identification? Do you have your passports?”

  Jill put her arm around Angela, seeing the grief in her face. With one hand she searched her purse and produced the passport; not a word was said while the Inspectors copied down their information. When they finished, they asked where the women were staying in town and noted their hotel address.

  They were still wiping tears when DI Jones said to Jill, “We found Mr. Brouwer outside the tower wall and witnesses say he was pushed from a window above. We believe he was pushed over the edge and dropped about fifty feet, suffering a severe head injury in addition to multiple injuries elsewhere. Emergency personnel were unable to revive him at the scene and he was pronounced dead. He’s with our coroner now.”

  They all sat there in stunned silence, thinking of Nick at some moment over the past two years. They had just seen him last month at their long weekend visit to Henrik Klein’s home.

  DI Davies brought them back to the present with, “Look this place is small and it’s getting loud. Would you mind taking a ride over to our nearest police station which is a couple of blocks from here? I can call for two cars.”

  The four friends looked at each other then nodded and stood up to depart. Fortunately, they’d already taken care of their bar tab. Following the two officers in silence, they waited at the curb for two compact police cars to arrive and they distributed themselves between the cars. Pedestrians stared at the four women who might have cared if they weren’t grieving for Nick. They pulled up next to a square ugly building whose sign indicated it was the police station. They followed the two inspectors inside to a small conference room where they were offered beverages which they declined, instead they all kept a supportive hand on Angela.

  Jo broke the silence by asking, “How did you know we were friends of Nick’s?”

  DI Jones replied, “We looked at his cell phone and saw the texts from an American telephone number. We didn’t know that there were four of you, just that you’re American and one of you was labeled ‘Jill’ and another 'Angela'. He looked at Jill with his last comment then he continued, “Can you tell me how you came to know Mr. Brouwer?”

  “It’s a long story,” replied Jill.

  “Go ahead and tell your story then,” replied Davies. The two officers were a smooth team.

  Jo began, “Two years ago we were on vacation in Belgium and The Netherlands. A woman became sick sitting next to us in a restaurant in Antwerp. Jill’s a doctor and so she resuscitated the woman and kept her alive to reach the hospital where she was la
ter murdered. She is also a renowned pathologist and the local coroner asked for her help with the autopsy. Jill helped; in fact, we all helped as we continued our vacation into the Netherlands. When a man followed us on a train and then a different man with a gun followed us on the street, we asked for help from hotel security. Nick operates a company that manages hotel security in addition to other businesses and he came to chat with us at the hotel and then escorted us over the remainder of our vacation and from there we became friends. Jill operates a consulting company in the United States that offers second opinions on the cause of death. She also has her private investigator’s license and she uses us in many of her cases. I’m the financial wizard so I follow the money; Angela is a photographer and interviewer, and Marie is a background search expert and can find the most obscure facts about anyone. Nick helped us on a case last year in Colorado when Jill was brought in to consult on a skier that was murdered.”

  Jo’s explanation was not what the two inspectors were expecting. DI Jones was rubbing his forehead as if he had a headache while DI Davies had a look of doubt and suspicion. Jill interpreted the men’s emotions and said, “You’re giving us a look as though we’re spinning you a story about your local legend, King Arthur. Contact Special Agent Leticia Ortiz of the FBI’s office in San Francisco, CA in the United States or Belgian Police Inspector Willems in Brussels and they will verify our story and credentials. Nick was a good friend and we’ll go to work on solving his murder, and we would rather work with you than separate from you.”

  DI Jones stood up saying as he exited, “I’ll go check those references.”

  DI Davies looked at the women and said, “Tell me more about Nick Brouwer. We need to notify his family. Did he ever mention parents or siblings or a spouse?”

  The women looked chagrined and shook their heads. Then Marie said, “We probably spent a total of ten days around Nick over the two years and I can’t ever recall him mentioning family.” Then looking at Jill she added, “Maybe Nathan or Henrik know about his family, I’ll contact Henrik and why don’t you drop a text to Nathan since he is likely still asleep at this time in California and it would scare him to get a call at this hour from me. I also think Henrik was closer to Nick.”

  Angela spoke for the first time, "I knew Nick better than my friends here and he never mentioned family; despite many long telephone conversations between us and questions from me. He never revealed more than he had no immediate family."

  Ignoring DI Davies, Marie checked for reception then said, “I’m going to step outside to call Henrik, be back in a few,” and she exited the room.

  DI Davies was nonplussed. Usually, people brought into interview were intimidated enough to request to leave the room. Not this woman, she just got up and left. Americans had a reputation for being bold and he guessed that was what he was seeing. Now he just needed to regain control of the situation.

  With patience in his voice he asked, “Who’s Henrik and who’s Nathan?”

  “Nathan is my boyfriend, and Henrik is the husband of the woman we saved in Belgium that was later murdered at the hospital. He’s also the CEO of Gunter Industries, a high tech security firm. He, Nick, Nathan and the four of us had a quick vacation about a month ago at his house in Germany.”

  DI Jones re-entered the room much to Davies’ gratitude. He was simply disbelieving of everything the American women were saying.

  “I was able to reach both Inspector Willems and your Special Agent in the United States and they both implied I should let you run this murder investigation.” He paused and looked around the room, then checked his notes and asked, “Where’s Marie Simon?”

  “She went outside to make a call to our friend Henrik Klein in Germany,” replied Jill. “He was also a friend of Nick’s and may know about his family. Besides he deserves to hear of Nick’s death from us.”

  “I think we need to start this conversation over,” Jones said. “You’ll have to admit your background is very unusual. We’ve had people in the station before claiming that they could help us on an investigation. Often they’re self-proclaimed psychics who do nothing more than waste our time and energy. You ladies seem to be the genuine article, and I’ll take the advice of my law enforcement peers in Brussels and San Francisco and ask for your assistance in finding Nick Brouwer’s murderer. My first question for all of you is if he was supposed to meet you at the bar, what was he doing at the castle?”

  They looked up as Marie returned to the room. She sat down and said to her three friends, “Henrik is devastated by Nick’s murder. He said that Nick wasn’t worried about anything. As for family, I think he feels as bad as we do about not knowing more about Nick’s family. How about if we contact the restaurant owner Max in Amsterdam? Wasn’t he an old friend of Nick’s?”

  Angela sniffed and said, “One problem at a time. Let’s solve Nick’s family notification first. How about his passport; does he list an emergency contact there?”

  DI Jones replied, “He didn’t have his passport on him. We’ll contact the Dutch consulate to see what they have on record for his passport and see if they can assist us in finding his family.”

  “If you give me access to a computer,” Marie requested, “I’ll do a background search on Nick and see if I can find his family. It usually takes me about thirty minutes which is probably faster than the consulate can get you an answer.”

  “Nick was a member of the Dutch police force for about a year and they also might have information on him,” Angela suggested. “You could also check with his company, although I don’t remember him ever telling us what the name was of his security company. I’m having a hard time believing that I know so little about him.”

  She got looks of sympathy from her friends as there had been the faint hope that Angela and Nick might evolve into a romantic relationship once they conquered the distance barrier between the two of them. Now there was only a fantasy of what might have been.

  DI Jones asked Angela, "Were you involved with Mr. Brouwer?"

  Angela paused searching for the description of the relationship and finally said, "Yes… in a way. We weren't a committed couple as we hadn't figured out how to bridge the distance gap between Amsterdam and Green Bay, but Nick was exploring the option of expanding his company to the United States which would have at least put us on the same continent."

  In the silence that followed Angela's remarks, Marie could be heard to be busily typing away on a laptop supplied by the DI. Jill and Jo focused on the murder. Why had Nick gone to the castle and who had he angered enough to find himself dropping off the edge of a castle wall?

  “What can you tell us about the murder scene?" Jill asked. “Did anyone see someone push Nick over the edge? Did they hear any conversation? How tall was the barrier in front of him? What’s your guess as far as the size of the murderer? Could a woman have pushed him over the edge?”

  “Whoa, that’s a lot of questions. Our crime scene unit is over at the castle collecting data from the murder scene. I’ll have answers for you in a few hours,” replied DI Jones.

  Marie looked up and said to her friends, “I can’t believe we’ve never searched Nick’s background. We just trusted him from the moment we met him. Now that I’m looking into him, he appears to have a few holes in his background.”

  “Like what?” asked Jo.

  “He appears to have been born perhaps six months before we met him,” Marie said. “Not literally of course, but there’s no record of schooling, relationships, or even serving the police. I’m wondering if he’s even a native of the Netherlands. Since he traveled here by train, he wouldn’t need a passport which is a good thing since there’s no record of anyone by that name having a passport in the Netherlands. It looks like our first task in this murder investigation is figuring out who Nick Brouwer was since he doesn’t appear to be the person we thought he was. I’m not saying he was connected to anything illegal or he was doing anything criminal, it’s very odd that he doesn’t seem to exist as
a human being.”

  There was silence in the room as the women thought back to their interactions with Nick over the past two years. They tried to think of any information he revealed about himself during those conversations and came up blank. His background appeared mysterious, and yet they who chased mysteries all the time hadn’t seen or delved into it.

  “Doesn’t he run a hotel security business?” asked Jo. “Is he still managing the security of the hotel we stayed at in Amsterdam? Can you trace Nick’s background by his business ownership?”

  “Good questions. Give me a moment while I research them.” Marie replied.

  The two inspectors were somewhat bewildered by the women’s approach to the murder investigation. It was like they were not even in the room and they just took off investigating any direction that came to mind about the murder victim. Not that they had disagreed with the direction the women had taken, and to be fair, both contacts in the FBI and Interpol had warned Jones to expect this behavior.

  Chapter 2

  “Let’s slow down a moment and plan out this investigation,” Jill suggested. “Inspectors, what do we need to do to make sure that you’ll share with us any findings on this case? As you know, we can be a real help but only if you agree to a mutual sharing relationship.”