Chic’s fears that he was going to be called back into the case involving Ken Renfro came to life when he received a voicemail from Dr. Fletcher Renfro asking that he call him. Chic returned Dr. Renfro’s call and arranged a meeting at Dr. Renfro’s home. Chic arranged the meeting for a Saturday afternoon when Vanderbilt didn’t have a football game scheduled. Chic had checked and knew that Dr. Renfro was a Vanderbilt football fan.
Dr. Renfro met with his family prior to Chic’s arrival. The whole crowd was there: Ann, Ken’s mother, and a retired nurse, Dr. Myra North, Ken’s sister, a professor of English at Vanderbilt University, and Dr. John Renfro, his brother who was a neurosurgeon. Dr. Renfro’s house was very nice and in a great neighborhood, but it couldn’t be classified as a mansion. Dr. Renfro had done well in his family practice. This family group was certainly financially capable of underwriting at least a basic investigation into the present whereabouts of Ken.
As was the practice with Chic, he pulled up to the front door at 2:00 p.m. and rang the doorbell a little ahead of schedule. Ann, Dr. Renfro’s wife, opened the door. “Mr. Sparks, I assume.”
“Yes, ma’am, and with me is Suzy.” Suzy was a petite, redheaded bombshell, outgoing and captivating. She taught gym in college, and her physical fitness was obvious. Until she encountered Chic, she had been a fully committed rounder. Together, Chic and Suzy made everyone’s list of first among the pretty people.
“Come on in and let me introduce you to the family.”
After the introduction, Chic took over.
“Folks, it is a real pleasure to meet with you today. I want you to know that Ken was my friend. I can’t tell you what all he was into, but he left me this handwritten note at his house.” Chic gave Ann a copy of Ken’s note. “In fact, this note is the only thing we found in the house. In spite of our diverse views about the meaning of life, I called Ken my friend.
“I can tell you that regardless of what you and your family decide about my cost, I’m going to continue to do what I can to find Ken. I would like to be optimistic about finding him alive, but I fear the worst. To this point, I have used all of my police resources to find him but to no avail. I have not been able to locate his boat, Amedee. I have not been able to locate a single asset of his that was not foreclosed on.”
“Chic,” said Ann, “Myra and John also believe he might be dead. They say that a person with his assets, more than $20 million or so, doesn’t just disappear into thin air along with all the assets. Is that true?”
“First, I think that Ken had substantially more than $20 million,” said Chic. Then he addressed the entire group. “Folks, I hoped that you could give me some tidbit of information that might turn out to be beneficial. For example, I hoped Ken had sent you a postcard or made some effort to contact you on birthdays and Christmas but obviously not. Apparently, none of us actually has any solid information about his boss or the name of someone he actually worked with. Is that true?”
All agreed that this was true.
“I’m actually embarrassed that I never cared enough to press Ken for his personal information. I’m amazed that I failed to observe any warning signs that Ken was living a double life. I have to admit that this failure causes me to question whether I really was concerned about my friend’s soul and his general well-being. Hopefully this is a life lesson learned about how we actually show our interests in the well-being of others. Thank you for allowing me the chance to fret over my shortcomings.
“Now, I’m here for two reasons. One is, after talking to Dr. Renfro, he expressed some interest in helping with the expenses of my investigation. In view of the time it will take from my practice and the fact that I will get no financial help from the sheriff’s office, I actually need a little financial help. Secondly, sooner or later, the most likely source of information about Ken is you. So you need to probe your letters and cards and dig into any information you got from Ken in the last four or five years—or any clues about his business contacts. Be sure to get that information to me.
“I understand that Ann is going to take me into the back room and beat me around a little bit until I agree with her terms. Ann, are you ready?”
“Follow me to the kitchen, Chic. We’ll leave Suzy in here to entertain the children. Oh, I forgot about Fletcher. I think she can handle him as well.”
“Don’t worry about her, Ann. Suzy can handle her own.”
By now, Chic had developed some rapport with this family. They were good people. Chic couldn’t cast blame on Ken’s family for his sins. Ken’s sins were his own. Chic was convinced that if he was fortunate enough to have three children, he could only hope that two of them would be as exemplary as Myra and John.
Chic actually enjoyed head banging with Ann. It was a lot like dealing with his mother. After about thirty minutes, they came to a reasonable deal. Chic was not going to be made whole, but he would be getting enough financial assistance to make the effort feasible. The next thirty minutes they spent cracking jokes, and Chic, of course, took most of the time fishing family history out of Ann.
They completed their business, and Chic followed Ann to look at Ken’s old bedroom, which yielded no useful information.
Suzy entertained the rest of the family while waiting for Ann and Chic to return. The great thing about Suzy was her positive, upbeat attitude and her lack of inhibition. It was hard to be a stranger around Suzy. By the time Chic and Suzy bid the Renfros adieu, the two of them had developed an affinity toward the Renfro family. Once again, Suzy impressed Chic with her intelligence and her gift of reading people. The group gathered back together and said their good-byes, and Chic and Suzy left.
“Well, Chic, did you learn anything helpful?”
“I learned a lot about Ken’s family, I think, but nothing really helpful to the investigation. They certainly give the appearance of an exemplary family—highly educated and positive community leaders. I’d have to say that on my first impression, I’m in awe of the family. I believe that if Ken were alive, he would have contacted them. He may be the black sheep of the family, but he did stay in contact, at least on special occasions. I detected some evidence that Ken liked to brag about his wealth to his folks, just to prove he had achieved more than the whole crowd of them combined.
“I also think the family was a little irritated that Ken was able to disappear along with his wealth. I think they need to believe that Ken is dead. If he’s not dead, they would have to accept that Ken deceived them and devised a plan to deny them any of his wealth. From my point of view, Suzy, it took careful planning to place mortgages on all his assets and have them held by legitimate companies that were prepared to foreclose as quickly as legally possible after he disappeared. Only the FBI or IRS could pierce this veil and determine whether the loans were real or bogus. In fact, this method could be used to advance money to Ken when he got to his destination. The loan to value was low, so the mortgage company would not have lost money.
“The key part is that if Ken was disposed of, this method would have placed all Ken’s assets into the hands of the criminal enterprise, eliminating any battle over assets by his estate. Without this method, the criminal enterprise would be in court trying to protect Ken’s assets, which they would consider their assets. The criminal enterprise would need to avoid this outcome at all costs.”
Chic fell silent for a long time. He concentrated on the road. A red pickup truck cut him off, and Chic had to slam on brakes to avoid a collision. Suzy squealed and shot her arms out to brace herself.
“Thank God you’ve got good reflexes, Chic!”
Emergency avoided, Suzy fixed her hair and sat up straight. “Let’s see if you can get us to Anniston, Chic, where my mom and my family are waiting on us. I know you can’t wait.”
“Sweetie pie, you know I’ll follow you anywhere, even to Sand Mountain, Alabama.” Chic had the feeling that by the time he met all the Sand Mountain folks, his definition of “anywhere” might well be exponentially enlarged.