Colt Crawford - Chapter 7 (Thursday)

Thursday is here. That means it is voting time! There are two questions for this chapter, so make sure you look at the poll at the top right part of the screen. I know there are a lot of you out there who have been reading and not voting. Don't be shy!

----

Krissy walked around the outside of her cubicle and came up from behind Colt. She peered over his left shoulder and her eyes locked on the name that he had highlighted. “For some reason, I’m not surprised,” she said. The effort they had spent combing over Creighton’s phone records was about to pay off.

“Why would a guy who works at the Ford dealer in Los Angeles call a yacht broker in Santa Barbara?” Colt asked.

“The broker does have a second house in L.A.,” Krissy responded. “So there could be a connection there.”

Colt realized the connection, but continued thinking aloud. “Can you run a DMV search on him? Find out what kind of cars he owns?”

“Yeah, just give me a minute,” Krissy said as she slipped around to her own desk. Colt could hear her fingers tapping away on the keyboard as she initiated her search. A few mouse clicks later, she announced what she had found. “Here it is. He’s got a Lexus, a Ford pick up, and a boat all registered in his name.”

“A Ford pick up, that’s our link. He goes down to L.A. in his big, old truck, takes it to the dealer for some work and runs into our buddy, Creighton.”

“The question is ‘What did they talk about?’” Krissy said. “I’ll see if I can get the service records from the Ford dealer for Steven Mathis. If you are right, that will tell us when they met.”

Colt and Krissy agreed that they wanted to have as much in their arsenal as possible when they confronted Mathis again, so Krissy got right to work on the service records while Colt decided to drive down to the marina and see what he could learn about the owner of the Yachtery.

Given that it was a Sunday afternoon, Krissy ran into some resistance from the operator at the Ford dealer. She insisted that the service area was closed until Monday morning and that no one in the building had access to the records. After working her way up the food chain, Krissy finally was routed to a salesman who had once worked in service and knew his way around the database. He promised he would fax her the information as soon as he found it.

Colt arrived at the marina and parked a short distance from the Yachtery office. He was hoping that the brokerage would be closed so that he would have a chance to chat up the locals in an effort to learn more about their newly identified suspect. Next door to the Mathis’ office was a small art gallery. Colt peeked through the front window and saw a few people milling around. He made a note to check in there before he left if he didn’t have any leads, but first, he wanted to talk to the people who knew boats.

Glancing down one of the ramps that lead to a row of slips, Colt noticed a man in a wet suit with full scuba gear and a bucket of tools approaching him. Although he had limited knowledge of the sea, Colt was aware enough to recognize a barnacle scraper when he saw one. “Good afternoon,” Colt said when the man was close enough.” Once he had his attention, Colt continued. “Do you know what kind of hours the guy at the yacht broker up there keeps?”

“He’s usually busy on weekends showing people boats,” the barnacle man said. “It’s kind of a weekend business.”

“Good chance he’ll be in and out today, then?” Colt asked somewhat rhetorically. Barnacle Man nodded and handed him a card from his tool bucket as he said, “Once you buy a boat, call me. Your first scrape is half price.”

Just then Colt’s phone rang. He picked it up and heard Krissy’s voice filling him in on the service records she had found. Sure enough, Steven Mathis was a regular at the dealership. As a matter of fact, he stopped by nearly every week according to the salesman, but he only had work done every three or four trips. The others were purely social visits. “This salesman remembered seeing Mathis once he realized which truck he drives. I guess it’s pretty distinct so he was able to give me a lot of details over the phone,” Krissy said.

Colt told Krissy that Mathis was out at the moment, so he was going to continue talking to the locals. He wanted to find out all he could before Steven Mathis returned to his office.

---Results ---
Question #1
If you were Colt Crawford, who would you interview next?
A) The ice cream shop owner three doors down from The Yachtery - 0%
B) The art gallery owner next door to the Yachtery - 100%
C) A local boat owner who was walking by - 0%

Question #2
What should he learn from his interview?
A) Mathis is a friendly guy who talks to everyone - 0%
B) Mathis keeps to himself and doesn’t talk to the neighbors much - 50%
C) Mathis behaves suspiciously at times - 50%