After lunch we walked back to the hotel. While walking through the grounds with Kat the day before, we had found a small chapel away from all of the hustle and bustle of the hotel guests. It was cool and comfy. Chen hinted it would be best if Leilani didn’t meet with us, so we would be free to discuss the murders and the suspects.
The three of us were officially on the case. Leilani, of course, was not. Chen seemed afraid that leaving Leilani out might hurt her feelings. Being the great lady she was, she said she understood and to call her when we were through. And for us not to worry, because she was going to visit her sister Pualani.
Chen explained that Detective Sally Ann was no longer on the case. Her partner was back and they were assigned to a new homicide.
Kat and I took turns in sharing what we had found out from our interviews with Nick Lang, with Nick’s father, Lance Mann, and with his mother, Susannah, plus our phone conversation with Nadia.
Chen asked what conclusions we had come up with after talking to all four of them, and if we thought there was someone we could eliminate. We told him the only two we were certain had no part in the killings were Nadia and Susannah. We were sure of their innocence as they had great alibis. Anyway, we were pretty certain they had no involvement in the crimes, and although we hadn’t yet checked out Savannah’s alibi, it was on our calendar for tomorrow’s events.
Then we asked the detective if he was free to tell us who J. Doe was.
He smiled, thanked us for being patient, and then said, “What do you know about a Mr. Bartholomew Sinclair?”
Kat and I looked at each other, as Bartholomew was the one we thought might be the mystery J. Doe. We told Chen again what we knew, but this time going into more detail. We then related all of our information about our questions and answers from the people we had interviewed, and gave Chen our information on Anita Sinclair and our conversation with her on the phone about her son, Bartholomew.
At that time we were talking about the four suspects, but this time we told him all about our conversation with our former client.
Larry Chen thanked us for the information. He said he also had checked out a few things about Anita Sinclair’s son, but didn’t know all of the information that we had given him. One thing Chen knew that we didn’t, was that Bartholomew was on the island the day Oliver, Nick Lang’s best friend, was murdered. Chen was hoping we would be able to put some light on the Bartholomew situation. He did lighten up when we told him that Anita Sinclair said her son had told her that he vowed to get even for putting her in such misery for the last thirty years.
Chen was thinking that maybe Bartholomew had seen Chas Baker and Oliver talking at the bar that night, and thought they were blackmailing his mother together. And then he had ended up killing both of them, and even Gary Smith. Chen reminded us that he was only considering this, but was coming to the conclusion that it was indeed possible. In fact, we all agreed it was.
Kat took out her notebook, telling us, “I want to write down our suspects’ names. Let’s see, we all agree that for now, they are…
“Nick Lang, Lance Mann and Bartholomew Sinclair.
“Why don’t we focus on these names? Kit and I can talk again to Lang and his father. Maybe you, Larry, can focus on Bartholomew Sinclair. Is this alright with you?”
Larry Chen smiled. “It sounds great to me, but don’t forget to put down our fourth suspect.”
We looked at him, and wondered what he meant by a fourth suspect.
Kat asked, “Who would that be, Larry?”
“How quickly you forget. Our J. Doe of course!”
“But we thought Bar——”
Before we could finish the name, our detective friend interrupted. “Sorry, I guess I did lead you astray, but I never said Bartholomew was our J. Doe suspect. You just took it for granted.”
Of course, he was right. Kat added the fourth name.
J. Doe