Lou Ferrigno had moved alone into the Concord Building at Freedom Village only a year before, but it didn’t take him long to make an impression, and it was not a good one. In addition to his commanding physical appearance he had a direct personality and focused his energy on trying to meet every single woman in the community. It didn’t take long before he established a bad reputation. But he pressed on, having relocated from the Bronx where operated a furniture moving business, which flourished in the overheated real estate market in downtown Manhattan. A business that was based upon the intersection of real estate brokers, corporate office managers, the union, and behind the scenes, the mob.

And there was always a lot of dollars involved in every transaction. The first Tuesday morning of every month they would meet together at the Hunt Club, a venerable building on Front Street. Within a few hours they would have all the pieces together for the month to make sure everyone was taken care of. A tough job in a tough city.

Although Lou had sold the business and retired, there were strings attached as they always are in that business. He had become aware of Freedom Village, as it‘s owned by a real estate investment trust company, aptly named HardNose., a corporation that he had been servicing its office locations for years. When his references were checked by Freedom Village, he was a shoo in.

A few weeks later, Lou had a phone call from New York.

“So how’s it goin’ down there, Hammer?” asked the caller.
“ Hi Sam, just fine but the place kind’a operates different from home”, he said.
“Look,” said Sam, “ we’ve got a problem. The exec’s from HardNose are concerned with the financial results of this place and they’ve sent down one of their accountants to scope it out.”
“ So what can I do bout it?” asked Lou.

“Well they want to make sure the accountant is extremely accurate on his assessment because although the occupancy rate is dragging down their profitability, there might be additional problems” said Sam. ”And they know you live there so they want you to keep tabs on what’s going on. His name is Douglas Fairhaven, so check him out and get back to me”, said Sam.
“I’ll try my best”’ said Lou, “ and let you know what I find out.”

The total campus of Freedom Village spreads over 50 acres including Lou’s building, the Concord, which is connected by covered walkways to the Landings, - the main offices and community facilities, and the Lexington, the largest of the residential buildings.

Directly across from the Landings, the INN provides to Assisted Living, Memory Care and Skilled Nursing. Behind and separate from the Inn is the Colonial building, the scene of the crime. Its remoteness might have been contributing factor due to its low occupancy.

And north of all these buildings, across 18th Street, there is a separate community, the Villas. Ironically the Villas, isolated to the north and the Colonial, isolated to the south share one main desk and dining room, located in the Colonial. Yet another source of potential witnesses. Once detectives Tracy and Franks understood these connections, they realized the complexity of their task of interviewing and understanding the relationships of the two outlier communities.

Doug Fairhaven had arrived two weeks before he was murdered. He was assigned a guest bedroom on the second floor of the Colonial building on its east side. The east side has a higher occupancy than the west side. Another very curious fact is that the east and west side are two different heights and are only connected on the first and second floor. The east elevators service five floors while the west side has a separate elevator servicing its three floors. Another variable in solving the case could be determining if the murderer might have escaped by crossing to the west side of the building, where they could exit the building without being seen..

Doug had a thing for raw oysters ever since he was a boy in New Orleans. He was a regular customer at the Acme Oyster House on Ibervile Street in the French Quarter. Within the first few nights he tried a few oyster bars in Bradenton and Sarasota and settled on the nearest, Anna Maria Oyster Bar on Cortez Road . He made it a point to get there around 5PM and sit at the bar. A steady flow of customers came and went each evening so it was easy to strike up a casual conversation. By the end of the first week, he had made a slight acquaintance with a couple of younger guys who were visiting nearby Anna Maria Island and its great beaches. They hit it off as Doug had an apartment on the lower east side and the guys were right across the bridge in Brooklyn.

“Yeah, we come down every year late in the spring when the tourist crush is about over,” said Tony. “Particularly the old timers who can’t wait get to back to Cleveland,” his buddy Dino added sarcastically. “Well, I might as well admit that I am down here on accounting business at an old people’s home,” said Doug. “ You gotta be kiddin’ said Tony. “Let’s have another round here, bartender!” said Tony.

Doug was busy every day reviewing detailed financial statements from every department. When he opened the books of the food and beverage operation he knew this would be a good place to check out. Firstly, it was a relatively large percent of the total operating expense, and it contained may transactions every month and was subject to constant variation. Particularly in this year of rapid inflation.

He paid particular attention to one account: S&S Food Distributors headquartered in Brooklyn, who were by the far the largest supplier to Freedom Village every month. Because his employer Hard Nose also owned a dozen other senior living communities in Florida it would be possible to construct comparable costs between locations.

With some effort, Doug was able to compare invoice amounts to the amount of food products by shipment. The amounts charged monthly did not seem consistent with the quantities of food being delivered. The month to month variance was sometimes as high as 20 percent. On an annual basis this could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars!

It was also interesting to note that six months prior to his arrival the Director of Food Services had died in a late night motorcycle accident. There was no other vehicle involved and there were no witnesses so the cause of the accident was still under investigation. “Something is rotten in the food department”, thought Doug.

Meanwhile, back at the station, Detectives Tracy and Franks had been summarizing what they knew so far .The key facts were arranged with stick pins on the large felt evidence board:

• Doug Fairbanks - found dead in the elevator.
• An accountant working for the owner of FV, a real estate investment trust - HardNose.
• He was likely killed with a large serrated knife.
• He had the phrase “sic semper Tyrannis” scrawled on his face.
• He dined regularly at Anna Maria Oyster Bar
• An FV resident , Lou Ferrigno, had mob connections, nicknamed “Hammer.” He had been seen with a couple of unsavory character that were not FV residents.
• Both Fairbanks and Ferrigno had connections to NYC.

As they scanned the board, Tracy said to Franks, ‘We need to find out more about Lou and the two “unsavory characters” he has been seen with. We know he eats regularly at AMOB. Let’s stake out the place tomorrow night”. Frank said “Hey, I love oysters.”
“Get some discreet photos of these guys and I will run them through the NYPD database. “ said Tracy. “Captain Benson and I graduated from the Police Academy together. I’m sure she’ll put a rush on it.”