The Case of the Murdered Contractor

When the body of Eric Anderson was found in an abandoned house, detectives Davis and Moreno were called to the scene. As photographers took pictures of the area, the policemen looked for clues and talked about the case.
“There are some things which don’t make sense about this situation,” Moreno said. “Anderson was declared missing five weeks ago. At that time, no one knew if he had been kidnapped, murdered, or had take off on his own free will. Now that we’ve found him, we can be pretty certain that he didn’t end up here himself. But why would the perpetrators bring him here?”
“There are some reasons I can think of,” his partner replied. “This house was boarded up and it may have looked like a good place to dump a body. Anderson could have been here for years without anyone ever finding him. It was only by luck that two kids broke in and found him here.”
Davis examined the body closely. Anderson’s clothes were slightly wet, but the detective didn’t see any sign of a leak on the ceiling. The crystal on his watch was fogged up. There were no marks on the body.
A few days later, the detectives received a report on the autopsy. However, it didn’t answer all of their questions about the case.
“The coroner was unable to pinpoint any specific time of death,” Moreno said. “The cause of death was arsenic poisoning , but we still have no idea how long he was there before he was found.”
“I guess we’ll have to question anyone who might have had a motive for causing his death,” Davis replied. “That won’t be easy because as I found out, he had frequent disputes with other contractors over bids.”
As their investigation continued, the detectives interviewed several possible suspects in the case.
Rick Carter, the owner of a HVAC company, denied knowing anything.
“It’s true that we didn’t get along sometimes but I would never think of doing anything bad to him,” he said.
John Colvin, Anderson’s business partner, also denied being involved.
“I would have no motive at all for hurting Eric,” he told them. “His wife inherits his share of the company now and I’m not any better off now than I was before.”
Jeff Leal, the owner of a lumber company, couldn’t provide much new information, either. “Anderson did owe me a lot of money,” he said. “But I knew that he was going to pay me back. I certainly wouldn’t have killed him over it.”
Rachel Bales, an electrician, expressed grief upon hearing of Anderson’s death.
“He was such a good man. It’s such a terrible shame. I admit that I did owe him some money, but I was going to pay him back.”
“Do you have any ideas on who might have done this?” Moreno asked his partner.
“Yes,” Davis replied.

WHO DID DAVIS SUSPECT?

THE ANSWER
He suspected Rick Carter. Davis found that Anderson’s body had been wet at one time, yet it had been found in a dry place. The detective thought that the murder had killed Anderson several weeks before and frozen the body in order to confuse police about the time of the death. He believed that the only person who would have had access to the facilities for doing this would have been the owner of a heating , ventilation, and air conditioning company. The investigation soon concentrated on Carter and a search of his company grounds soon yielded fiber evidence against him.