The Sketching Detective and the Bitcoin Murders

By Jack McCormac

Upon arriving at his university office one morning, Jack MacKay finds the body of a former boyfriend of his wife, Fiona, lying on his desk with a bullet hole in his back. The murdered man was Billy Bell, the owner of the Bell Bond Company and a former professional football player. Eventually, Jack and Fiona overcame the polices suspicion that Jack was involved in the murder. They learn that the computer theft of bitcoins is in some way involved in the death. Together with Billys wife, who is nicknamed Hercules because of her great physical strength, they eventually stumble across the unlikely killer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514418918

Jack McCormac

Jack McCormac, a native of South Carolina, is an emeritus professor of civil engineering at Clemson University. He is the author of a number of well-known civil engineering textbooks. These texts have been used at over five hundred universities around the world for required courses and have been translated into quite a few languages. Engineering News Record, working in collaboration with the engineering and architectural societies of the United States and Europe, selected Jack for their list of the 125 greatest engineers and architects in the world for their contributions to the construction industry over the last 125 years.

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Copyright © 2014, 2015 by Jack McCormac.

All rights reserved. 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 permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 10/23/2015

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1   Billy Bell

Chapter 2   A Fatal Situation

Chapter 3   The Bell Bond Company

Chapter 4   The Apartment

Chapter 5   The Missing Car

Chapter 6   Experienced Golf Balls

Chapter 7   A Rainy Day

Chapter 8   Hercules

Chapter 9   You Can’t Judge A Book (Or A Girl) By Its Cover

Chapter 10   Hacking

Chapter 11   Visiting Bond-Fund Investors

Chapter 12   Bitcoins

Chapter 13   We Buy Some Bitcoins

Chapter 14   The Flea Market

Chapter 15   That Letter To Fiona

Chapter 16   Billy’s Thesis

Chapter 17   Orlando

Chapter 18   Starting All Over Again

Chapter 19   A Lamplighter?

Chapter 20   Naomi Is Back In Town

Chapter 21   A New Track

Chapter 22   Reading E-Mails

Chapter 23   The Murderer

Chapter 24   An Accomplice

Chapter 25   Another Murder

Chapter 26   Bingo

Chapter 27   Conclusion

CHAPTER 1

 BILLY BELL

O ne summer Sunday afternoon, my wife, Fiona, and I, Jack MacKay, took an afternoon nap. When we awoke, Fiona put on her gardening clothes and walked out to our front yard to do some weeding in her flower beds. She carried with her a large pocketbook, as she planned to drive to our local nursery to buy some more flower seeds after she finished the weeding. Upon seeing what she was doing, I put on my yard work clothes and began to help her with this onerous task.

Fiona has fiery red hair and a temperament to match. Though she is the love of my life, she has very little patience with my many shortcomings. On this day, she proved this was the case when I made the mistake of not correctly identifying some of her flowers. The sad consequence of this mistake was that I uprooted a number of her favorite flowers along with the weeds.

As a result of my mistake, I was rapidly retreating from a lovely but enraged woman who was wildly swinging a voluminous pocketbook at me. At that moment, it appeared I was going to suffer some painful blows if I was not quick enough to get away. I ran in the direction of my car, claiming I had some urgent business to attend to at my office.

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Running for my life

At the height of my retreat, a large blue Jaguar of the one-hundred-grand-plus type with a Florida license plate pulled up in front of our home. A tall, broad-shouldered man in his early thirties climbed out of the car and came walking toward us. He seemed to be trying very hard to keep a straight face and not to laugh as he approached us.

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Billy’s Jaguar

The man spoke to Fiona, saying, Doesn’t my little, itsy-bitsy sweetheart recognize me?

Fiona is not his itsy-bitsy sweetheart. First of all, she is mine and not his. Secondly, she is an average-size girl who, if locked in a cage with a tiger, would probably tear the animal to pieces if it attacked her. Thus you can see why I was doing my best to escape from the swinging pocketbook.

Fiona looked at the man and exclaimed, Billy! Oh, Billy, how wonderful to see you again. Where in the world did you come from?

As she said this, she rushed over and hugged him. Even worse, from my viewpoint, the man put his arms around her and firmly planted a kiss on her lips. This situation was even worse than the pocketbook-whacking incident.

She glanced at me and said to Billy, This incompetent weed puller is my husband, Jack. And then to me, This is an old flame of mine, Billy Bell. When he and I were in college together, he was one of our greatest football players.

Looking at Billy, I could see he thought he was the number-one greatest football player at their college and everywhere else. As we shook hands, I could tell by the strength of his hands and arms that physically throwing him off our property was not going to be a viable option.

At that moment, Billy asked, What were the two of you doing running across the yard when I drove up? Were you playing a game of tag?

I looked over at Itsy Bitsy, and much to my surprise, she was plainly blushing as she replied, I know our running around the yard seemed rather strange to you. Jack stepped into a hole that was the home of some very unfriendly yellow jackets. They furiously flew out of the hole in battalion-sized groups and began to really go after him. Just before you arrived, I grabbed my pocketbook and rushed over to try to drive the demons away from Jack, who was trying unsuccessfully to outrun them.

Billy, who once again seemed to be having trouble trying not to laugh, said, I would like to advise you that when you are trying to beat some sense into your husband, you will need a more formidable weapon than a pocketbook to accomplish your goal.

Fiona broke out in a smile and exclaimed, What you and Jack don’t realize is the fact that I have a large paving brick in my pocketbook.

Billy, still smiling, commented, I had hoped you were trying to gently persuade Jack to go with you to see a divorce lawyer, thus opening the door for me to once again pursue you. Maybe I would have better luck this time. Now that you have been married to this dodo for a while and have seen what he is like, you might better appreciate my charms.

Fiona responded with words that were, at first, rather encouraging to me. I’ll never go to a divorce lawyer to get rid of him.

Then she continued, but this time her words were very discouraging to me. I’ll kill him first.

To add emphasis to her words, she took another vicious swing at me with her pocketbook. Fortunately, I saw it coming in sufficient time to duck.

Composing herself, Fiona said to Billy, With your wonderful suntan, you look as though you have been having an extended vacation at the beach.

Billy replied, I have a home in the Cayman Islands and go there every chance I get. As a matter of fact, I have been staying there for the last two weeks. Ultimately, I plan to retire to the Caymans—hopefully with you—in the not too distant future. My main objective in coming to see you, Fiona, is to ask you to come with me.

Happily for me, Fiona just ignored the question.

We invited Billy to come into the house for a cup of coffee and some cinnamon rolls. He, however, declined, saying he had an appointment he needed to keep. I noticed he kept glancing down the street as he talked, as though he was expecting someone to come along. Later, I wondered if maybe he was afraid he was being followed.

Billy then continued, Later this evening, I will be free. I hope the two of you can join me at my hotel, the Hyatt, for dinner. Could you meet me in the lobby there at eight thirty? Jack, if you are busy, I will certainly excuse you because I didn’t come to see you anyway, other than to nudge you out of the way.

I responded, I think I will be able to squeeze out a little time to have dinner with my Itsy Bitsy and you. But, Billy, if you should find yourself tied up with important business and be unable to get there, don’t worry. It will be quite all right. I will be able to sacrifice and have dinner with Itsy all by myself.

After my somewhat sarcastic words, Itsy told him we would be glad to come to dinner and would look forward to seeing him at the hotel at the designated time.

Billy replied, Don’t worry. I’ll be there. Fiona, this is not the last time I am going to propose to you. I’m going to continue in this endeavor until you surrender.

To me, he said, I’ll say one thing for you, Jack. You have certainly taken good care of this girl. She is even more beautiful than I remember. By the way, what is your occupation?

When I replied that I was an assistant professor of civil engineering at our local school, Podunk U, he said, Tomorrow morning I have an appointment with a Dr. C. A. Wilson in the physics department. He apparently is interested in investing some money in my company. May I stop by to see you in your office for a few minutes after I speak with Dr. Wilson?

That will be fine, I fibbed, as I didn’t care if I ever saw him again. As I may be a little bit late, here is a key to my office, room number 424 in the civil engineering building. Please make yourself at home, and I will be there as soon as I can. You can return the key to me at that time.

Billy took the key. Thanks, I’ll see you both this evening.

With that, he hopped into his Jag, waved to us, and roared off with a skidding of tires.

Immediately after his departure, I decided to look up my old voodoo doll with the appropriate pins and go to work on Billy. It is my understanding that for this serious work, it is well to have a photo of the victim and a lock of his hair. However, I had neither of these items and was not going to ask Fiona to get them for me. I will just have to name the doll Billy Bell and then push the pins into the doll with extra vigor, hoping my efforts will be successful without the photo and hair sample.

At about eight that evening, Fiona and I climbed into my car and drove off with a skidding of the tires as I tried to emulate Billy Bell. Fiona was not impressed. Don’t be an idiot, you idiot, she declared.

We arrived at the Hyatt a few minutes before the appointed time, so we sat in the lobby to wait for Billy. I could see Fiona was on top of the world. What about that? Another proposal and an invitation to go live in the Cayman Islands. After she said this, she looked at me and said, Don’t look so down in the dumps. I know he probably has ten other girlfriends to whom he says the same things.

We sat there in the lobby for forty-five minutes, but Billy did not arrive. I confess I was not unhappy over the situation. Finally, I walked over to the hotel desk and called Billy’s room, but there was no answer. The two of us decided to proceed into the restaurant for dinner. Though we ate slowly, anticipating his arrival, Fiona’s old flame didn’t show up.

I smiled at Fiona. Maybe he ran into a blonde whose company he preferred to ours. However, when I look at you, Itsy, I realize there couldn’t be a blonde anywhere who could beat your time. If he is alive and wiggling, he would be here to see you in your finery.

Later, I was to realize this was a very prophetic remark.

CHAPTER 2

 A FATAL SITUATION

W e thought Billy would call us later that evening to explain his absence, but strangely, we heard nothing from him. I made a comment to Fiona about how unreliable her old flame had been in comparison to her handsome husband. Fortunately, she didn’t make any remarks about my dodo looks or how I might be rather unreliable when it came to pulling weeds, hanging up my clothes, washing dishes, carrying out the trash, and a few other areas where I have, according to her standards, fallen short. Rather, she said something must be wrong; otherwise, Billy surely would have contacted us.

In the morning, I, at Fiona’s urging, called the hotel asking for Billy; but he did not answer. When I asked the desk clerk if Billy was still registered there, he replied in the affirmative. I expressed my concern and asked if he could have the room checked to see if Billy was all right. (Truthfully, I was hoping a trailer truck had gotten him in his fancy Jaguar. Then I decided I didn’t want anything to happen to that lovely car.) The clerk called back in a few minutes to tell me Billy’s things were still in the room, but his bed had not been slept in. I asked them to leave a message for Billy requesting that he give us a ring when he returned.

After making this call, I drove to the university, parked my ten-year-old Ford Taurus station wagon, and walked into the civil engineering building and up the three flights of stairs to my office. I try not to use the elevator as I feel so righteous after I have huffed and puffed my way up the sixty-three steps. Well, after that ordeal, I walked down the hall toward my office. Upon arriving at the office door, I noticed it was unlocked. However, I was not particularly worried. I just assumed the janitor had been there giving the room a good cleaning and failed to lock the door when he left, as he had done several times in the past.

Was I in for a surprise! When I walked into the room, I saw a big, tall man lying facedown across my office desk. Unfortunately, he was not breathing and had apparently died from a gunshot wound in his back. After the bullet struck him, he must have fallen forward onto my desk, which was now covered with his blood. I recognized the man at a glance. He was Billy Bell, the great football hero and Fiona’s old boyfriend. (Oh my! I must have pushed the pins too far into that doll.)

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Billy Bell’s body

Billy’s right arm was hanging over the side of the desk. A ballpoint pen was lying on the floor below his hand, as though he had dropped it there.

As I looked around, I saw the office was a complete wreck,