“Such as?”
Michelle answered, “Sean thinks Steve Canney was Bobby’s illegitimate son. His mother had worked for Battle and probably gotten pregnant by him, and we think Roger Canney was blackmailing Bobby. We also think Bobby may have been involved in Mrs. Canney’s death three and a half years ago, and that’s when the blackmail started.”
“My God!” exclaimed Harry.
“But, Sean,” said Michelle, “I’ve been thinking about this too. Bobby openly had affairs with women, slept with prostitutes. If what you say is true, why would he care if the truth came out about an illegitimate son? Why would he allow himself to be blackmailed over a sexual encounter?”
“I think I can answer that,” said Harry. “Just about the time period you’re talking about Bobby was in the middle of selling his company. Many local lawyers I knew were working on the deal on Battle’s behalf, so I heard all the war stories about the negotiations. The buyer was a large multinational corporation with a sterling reputation. And Bobby was the very public face of his company.”
“So news of an illegitimate son wouldn’t have helped the negotiations,” said King.
“Precisely. As a matter of fact, the deal did go through and made Bobby more money than he could possibly have spent in several lifetimes. It was probably a good thing.”
“Why do you say that?” asked King.
“Battle had always been eccentric, but for some years he was growing more and more bizarre in his behavior. Violent mood swings, bouts of depression followed by times of unrealistic euphoria. And his mind wasn’t what it was. One of the most brilliant engineers and businessmen of his day, he was forgetting names and important items. I really wasn’t surprised about the stroke. In fact, I suspected he suffered numerous minor ones previously that had affected his mind. But we’re getting far afield from the topic of blackmail.” Harry turned to King. “Sorry for the detour.”
“No, we need all the information we can get. The timing of the sale of Bobby’s company makes me believe it was only Roger Canney who had the blackmail plan. One would think that Mrs. Canney would know who the father of her son was, or at least that Bobby could have been the father. Steven Canney was seventeen when he died. If she’d wanted to come forward and make a claim, she wouldn’t have waited all those years. It’s not like Bobby wasn’t rich seventeen years ago too.”
Harry picked up this line of reasoning. “But Roger Canney might have known Steve wasn’t his biological son and been waiting for his wife to die before putting the screws to Bobby. Perhaps he waited because his wife wouldn’t have gone along. He certainly would have known of the potential sale of the man’s company. That was publicly disclosed.”
“Or maybe,” said Michelle, “Roger Canney didn’t want to wait for his wife to die ‘naturally,’ so he sped up the process by running her off the road, freeing him to begin his blackmail scheme.”
“But it was Bobby’s car that was damaged right around the time of her death,” King said. “So it seems far more likely that Bobby killed her.”
“I’m just pointing out that Roger Canney might’ve had a motive to kill her too,” Michelle replied.
King looked at her admiringly. “That’s a good point, Michelle. I hadn’t really considered that.”
“So where does that leave us?” she wanted to know.
The bell for dinner interrupted them.
“I’ve told Calpurnia that a dinner bell is quite old-fashioned, but she claims my hearing’s not what it was, and it’s the only way she can get my attention without trudging all over the house to find me. Shall we?”
CHAPTER
75
SEAN HAD UNCORKED
both bottles of wine upon his arrival so that they could properly breathe before dinner. At the table he poured out the first one. “This is a La Croix de Peyrolie out of Lussac-St-Emilion.”
“And I’m sure it has some wonderfully nifty history,” said Michelle as she smelled it.
“It’s made by the appropriately named Carole Bouquet, who used to be a famous model and was a James Bond girl in one of the films—For Your Eyes Only, I believe. The other bottle is a Ma Vérité de Gérard Depardieu, Haut-Médoc.”
“Let me guess, made by the actor of the same name,” chanced Harry.
“Yes. These wines are really up and coming, and I only bring them out on special occasions.”
“Harry and I feel so honored,” said Michelle, smirking.
They toasted and began their meal, which was served by Calpurnia. She was about sixty years of age and over six feet tall, blocky of build and with thick gray hair pulled back in a harsh bun. She looked like every child’s worst school-cafeteria-worker nightmare. Yet the food was spectacular.
As Calpurnia left them, Harry said, “Now, Michelle was asking where your speculations about Steven Canney’s lineage and Rhonda Tyler’s possible liaison with Bobby Battle left us.”
“With the fact that two of the victims might be connected to Bobby Battle. Does it stand to reason that more are as well?”