The Inspector Walter Darriteau Murder Mysteries - Books 1-4 by David Carter (best finance books of all time .txt) 📕

‘All the monthly repayments were due this morning. None of them were paid. Up to now, all the monthly payments on all the loans have been made like clockwork. No one’s going to query an open loan where the payments are coming through on the nail. So, on the older ones we’ve maybe had eighteen payments, the most recent, we’ve had none, nothing at all. Over time he’s gradually increased the value of the loans.’

‘So the most recent loans are the biggest?’

‘Correct. That £263,838 figure is the outstanding balance.’

‘Clever.’

‘Yes. But not for me, and not for this business. I want him caught, Inspector, and the money recovering, and quick, before he spends it. This could ruin us.’

‘Could there be any more loans you don’t know about?’

‘God! I hope not, though I guess it’s possible.’

‘Okay, I’ll be over to see you within the hour. I’ll want to see all the paperwork.’

‘Of course.’

‘See you soon.’

Walter set the phone down and stood up.

‘Listen up everyone. We now have serious crime with regard to Donald Rushnell. He’s no longer just a missing person. He has relieved his employers of more than a quarter of a million pounds. I’m going over there in a tick. Hector, get authority to access and freeze all his bank accounts, and get access to the parents’ accounts as well. Also mobile phone records for all three of them. Gibbons, crack on with the CCTV, he must have got off that train somewhere.’

‘Sure, Guv.’

Hector said, ‘If the Rushnells don’t have a computer at home maybe they went to the local library to use one.’

‘Quite possibly,’ said Walter. ‘Check the local libraries, see if they had access to computers, and see what they were up to there.’

‘Do you think the parents are involved?’ asked Gibbons.

‘No! But what do I know? Anything’s possible.’

Karen was busy acquainting the monster with the latest developments.

‘Karen, get a car ready for five minutes, I’m just going to keep Mrs West up to speed.’

‘What about Sadie?’

‘Sadie will have to wait,’ and he paused as if thinking better of it. ‘Are Poppy and Jenny still checking out the Oriental businesses?’

‘Far as I know, they are.’

‘Good! We’ll talk to them again later,’ and he stood up and limped toward Mrs West’s office.

For the time being Jessica Stone didn’t rate a thought. No doubt Wortley would ring again later to check on progress. He was going to be disappointed. Couldn’t be helped. A hot lead was a hot lead.

Thirty-Five

Saint Mary’s College opened for business in Hong Kong in 1963. It was a Catholic based school and determined to teach all its lessons in English. It still does, though it teaches Cantonese, Mandarin, French, and Russian too. Over the years it built up an envied reputation for turning out bright well-qualified individuals, many of whom went on to glittering careers.

The Woos were not Catholic, but were delighted when Jun passed the entrance examination with some ease at age eleven. Jun attended the school for seven years and enjoyed every single day she went there. She made friends for life, fell in and out of love at least six times, nothing too serious, gained confidence, and was very popular, always amongst the first to be invited anywhere by everyone.

She passed her final examinations with flying colours, finishing second in her year.

‘Such a pity you couldn’t have been top,’ whinged her mother, but Jun wasn’t in the slightest bit interested in that. She had worked hard, done her best, and was more than satisfied with her schooling and qualifications. The fact that one other individual had done marginally better than she, and a boy at that, was totally irrelevant.

‘Pity you couldn’t have been top,’ repeated her father.

Jun shrugged her shoulders and returned to her book. She was looking forward to her career. She was bright and personable and could have done anything she chose. Her parents had always favoured a profession: medicine, law, accountancy, that would be good, they said, you could do the Woo company books in your spare time, save us a fortune, suggested her father, but Jun was having none of that. She had long since decided where her career path would take her. She had known since she was fifteen. She would join the Hong Kong Police Force, for that was where her heart lay.

‘But you cannot be serious!’ moaned Mrs Woo.

‘It’s what I want to do, mother.’

‘No, girl! Wandering the city all hours of the day and night, smiling and kowtowing to tourists, arresting drunks, being beaten up by crazed druggies, carrying a gun! Have you lost your mind?’

‘I want to be a policewoman, mother.’

‘Whatever will the neighbours think?’

‘It has nothing to do with them! It’s my life, and my career.’

‘What about the stock market?’ suggested her father. ‘I could get you into a good firm? You’d make bundles of cash.’

Jun pulled a face. It was true she had never wanted for anything in her life and had never been without money. But the thought of becoming its slave, well, that was too hideous a prospect to contemplate. She could not think of anything worse.

‘She needs to go to university,’ said Mrs Woo.

‘Of course she does! That’s a very good idea,’ said Mr Woo. ‘Why not be ambitious and try for Oxford?’

‘I don’t want to go to university!’

‘It’s not all about what you want!’ said Mrs Woo.

‘It’s just a phase you are going through,’ said Mr Woo.

‘It’s not!’

‘It’s all those stupid cop programmes she watches on TV,’ said Mrs Woo. ‘There’s far too many of them, and they’re far too violent. All those European subtitled things. Dreadful they are! Awful! Dead bodies all over the place. Miserable people. Miserable lives. Shouldn’t be shown! Shouldn’t be allowed! I’m surprised the authorities permit it.’

‘It’s not a phase,’ repeated Jun, working hard on containing her teenage temper.

‘Why don’t you come and work in the office in the tailors for a year or so, and look at it all again then?’ suggested Mr Woo. ‘Gain a bit of