Whodunit: Airport Insecurity

The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad.  These mysteries are from The Little Giant® Book of Whodunits by Hy Conrad and Matt LaFleur. Can you solve the mystery before you read the solution?

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Phil Moretti hated it when tourists got murdered. It reflected badly on New York City, on Kennedy Airport, and especially on him, chief of airport security. Somehow it didn't seem as bad when the victim was local.

In this case it was a businessman on a flight from Chicago. He had barely gotten off the plane. At 3:42 p.m., a passerby found him stabbed to death in the men's room just a few feet from his arrival gate. The body had been robbed. No jewelry. And although the wallet and credit cards had been left behind, there was no cash.

Three suspicious characters had been seen loitering by the gates. Barely 15 minutes passed from the time of the body's discovery before all three were brought in for questioning.

The first suspect was Abe Grisham, a petty criminal with a long rap sheet. "I was just seeing off a friend," he said as he nervously twisted the silver and onyx ring on his finger. "After her flight took off", I just hung around. I like airports."

The second was Johnny Ambrose, who had one prior arrest for grand theft auto. "I was here to pick up a friend, but his flight was canceled. I was just wasting time here till my next appointment." Johnny checked his watch. "Is this gonna take much longer? I got a 4 o'clock meeting way up in the Bronx, and I can't be late."

The last man interviewed was Doogie Weber, a suspected member of the Cordoba crime family. "One of the employees here owes me some money. I can never find the guy at home, so I tracked him down at work. That's why I got so much cash on me. I took the guy to an ATM and he gave me a payment on his debt."

Security Chief Moretti listened to all three stories, then pointed to one of the suspects. "This one we need to question further. The other two can go."

Whom did Moretti suspect and why?

Show Answer

The whodunit above was provided by American mystery fiction author Hy Conrad.

In addition to his work in mystery and crime puzzles, Hy was also one of the original writers for the groundbreaking TV series Monk.

Currently, Hy is working on mystery novel series "Abel Adventures" as well as the Monk series of novels, starting with Mr. Monk Helps Himself (published by Penguin, order from Amazon here)

Check out Hy's official website and Facebook page - and stay tuned for more whodunits puzzlers on Neatorama from the master of whodunit mysteries himself!