The Tattered Thread

Carlyle Kastenmeier is a successful businessman who routinely amuses himself by controlling the lives of his wife, his son, his brother, his mistress, and his many employees. He also has a nasty habit of belittling others, delighting in making them feel incompetent and insignificant. And he emphasizes this point by tying a piece of red thread around their fingers to humiliate them, and only he is allowed to take it off.

Lois, Carl’s wife, stays with him because he gives her everything she wants except his love. Carl’s employees stay with him because he pays them three times what their services are worth. Everyone justifies tolerating his abuse by telling themselves that the pay is good.

Witness the story’s events through the eyes of Elaine Kostas, a maid recently hired by the Kastenmeiers. She observes as Detective Rein Connery tries to figure out who beat Carl with his own walking stick, cut him with a straight razor, and then left him to bleed out on the bathroom floor.

It seems as if everyone is a suspect. Tasia McAvoy, Carl’s mistress, tried to leave him just months before his murder, but he forced her to come back. Carl’s bitter wife had to sign a prenuptial agreement relinquishing any right to his estate before he would marry her. Silas, their son, is a seven-year-old genius who certainly has the wherewithal, the intelligence, and the motives to kill his father. Vic Kastenmeier, Carl’s brilliant, alcoholic brother, had discovered a formula for an ideal oil paint varnish twenty years ago, but Carl took it away from him and built his fortune on the varnish’s manufacture and sale. Meanwhile, Vic is a pauper who depends on his brother’s assistance to live.

Nicolette Howard oversees the sale and distribution of Carl Kastenmeier’s varnish and related products. Of late, Carl has been threatening to take away many of her duties and give them to one of her colleagues, Marlon McGhee. Marlon is in no way as talented or as bright as Nicolette, but Carl loves to tease her by suggesting that Marlon could easily take her place. Marlon, on the other hand, believes that he is being promoted when really it’s just another one of Carl’s practical jokes. Cameron Dmytryk, Carl’s chauffeur, hates his boss for many reasons, but most especially because of his condescending attitude. Zachary Cutteridge is the Kastenmeier’s painter and landscaper who is fired after Carl discovers that Zach is having an affair with Tasia.

So, who killed Carlyle Kastenmeier? Read on as Detective Rein Connery sorts through the anger and animosity to get at the truth.