Page 91 of Puzzle for Two

Zach rose and went to the doorway of his office. “When you were at the county clerk’s office, did you come across anything related to Rusty Jordan and Alton starting up a business together?”

Brooke nodded. “Fifteen years ago, they filed a Business Certificate for Partners.”

Zach felt a flash of excitement. “So—”

“It was a dead end. Two months later they filed a Certificate of Dissolution and Certificate of Cancellation.”

Zach’s elation faded. “They were never actually business partners?”

“Nope. They couldn’t get the financing. At the time, Alton’s company was underwater financially. I guess Zora wasn’t in the mood to bail him out again, though it seems like she came around in the end.”

“They tried to get financing…” Zach was thinking out loud.

“Right. But they couldn’t.” She added, “What’s that look for?”

He said slowly, “I think I have an idea.”

“You think you have an idea about what?”

“About a possible motive for Rusty Jordan killing Alton Beacher.”

“What possible motive?”

Zach said, “I’ve got to verify a couple of things first.”

“Argh. Zach—”

Zach ducked back in his office and sat down at his computer once more.

Thirty minutes later, Flint rapped on the doorframe of Zach’s office.

“Hey. What’d you find out?”

Zach snapped out of his preoccupation. “What?”

“Brooke said you think you found Rusty Jordan’s motive. Did you?” Flint studied Zach; his eyes widened. “Holy hell. You did!”

Zach leaned back in his chair and grinned. “It’s not for sure, but yeah. I think there are people who might believe twelve million dollars is worth committing murder over.”

“Twelvemilliondollars?”

Zach grinned, nodded.

Brooke joined Flint in the doorway. “You got it?”

“Maybe. When Alton and Rusty were trying to get financing for their joint venture, the banks stipulated that the company take out a key person policy on Alton.”

“What’s a key person policy?” Flint asked.

“Basically, it’s a life insurance that a company takes out on an employee or employees considered indispensable to the success of the business. A lot of times it’s the founder or owner or CEO.”

Flint began, “How’s that different from—”

“Because thebusinesspays the premiums and is the beneficiary. The business owns the policy. In this case, that business ultimately became Old Timey Fun, Ltd.”

“Beacher was insured for twelve million?” Flint asked.

“Yep.”

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