Chapter Twenty-Six
Rubbing her tired eyes, Ava lifted her arms over her head and stretched her stiff back muscles. She’d been sitting for far too long. The twins were busy playing in a blanket fort she’d built them about an hour ago. The only sounds coming from the chair reinforced structure were giggles and whispers. They’d taken every stuffed animal they’d brought from home in there with them as well, and it sounded as if they were playing school. Brianna loved telling everyone what to do and Colt enjoyed it as well. Whether the stuffies were taking direction was an open question, however. Brianna was always saying her teddy bear liked to be naughty and needed frequent timeouts.
Ava had been staring at Bryson Construction financial documents since the day before and she was beginning to go slightly stir crazy. Nothing seemed out of place. Not really. Expenses were high but their revenue was steady thanks to a stream of jobs from one particular customer. They weren’t making tons of money but they were keeping their head above water. Lyle and Aaron were able to pay themselves every two weeks, although they weren’t pulling down what some might call an executive salary. The fact that Lyle and Mary were spending it as fast as they made it wasn’t the fault of the corporation.
“Mom, can we have cookies?”
Ava looked up from her documents to the face of her six-year-old daughter. Brianna had a huge sweet tooth which she’d inherited from Logan. He had the metabolism to burn off every calorie he consumed and then some. It looked like the children did too, but that didn’t mean Ava was going to hand out cookies on a whim.
“It’s too close to dinnertime. You’ll spoil your supper.”
I have become my mother. I remember her saying the exact same words.
I swore I wouldn’t do it to my kids. Yet here I am.
I could use a cookie.
I’d have to eat in the bathroom or pantry. Behind a locked door.
“Just one,” Brianna sighed. “I promise I’ll eat my peas.”
“How do you know we’re having peas?”
“There’s hamburger in the refrigerator. That means peas.”
Ava usually made cheeseburgers with peas on the side. It made her feel less guilty that she’d made red meat for dinner.
I’m becoming predictable. Maybe Logan is bored with cheeseburgers and peas.
“No, sweetheart. We really are going to eat dinner in a little while. I’m going to take a break in about fifteen minutes and start cooking.”
Brianna leaned forward so her elbows were on the table and she was balanced on her tiptoes.
“Whatcha doing?”
Educating the children that law enforcement wasn’t all shoot ’em up and car chases seemed like an excellent idea.
“I’m combing through these financial papers trying to see if anything looks unusual.”
Brianna studied the paper on the top of the pile as if she understood profit and loss. Perhaps she did. She was growing up too fast. Logan was right. Six going on sixteen.
“Did you find anything?”
“Not yet. Everything looks like it should. Good customers who pay on time. The ideal scenario.”
Good customers who pay on time. Hmmm…
The six-year-old attention span was small. Brianna was already bored.
“Can I help you make dinner? Can we eat in the fort?”
Brianna liked to shape the burgers. She did a pretty good job, too.
“Absolutely. I need my number one helper. I’ll call you when it’s time. And sure, you can eat in the fort. But you have to eat all your peas.”
Her daughter bounded away and back under the blanket without agreeing to the deal. Green vegetables were always a fight. Carrots and potatoes went over much more easily.
Good customers who pay on time. Ideal.
One customer that seemed too good to be true. Every month they had a large influx of business and they paid on time. Never one day late. Every business should have such a wonderful client.
Ava dug through the pile and pulled out all the folders that dealt with Timber Ridge Development. There were no details on the company but that wasn’t a problem. She knew just who to call. She punched a few buttons on her phone and lifted it to her ear.
“Jared? Hi, it’s Ava. I’m helping Logan with the Bryson case and I was hoping you could look up a corporation for me. Timber Ridge Development. No, I don’t know where they were incorporated but they’re Bryson Construction’s biggest customer by at least ten times. I don’t know what we’re looking for I’m just doing a Logan thing and following my gut. They’re almost too good to be true. Without them, Bryson Construction would have been out of business a year ago. You will? Thanks, I owe you.”
It was probably another dead end. They’d had too many of those lately.
* * * *
If Logan lived to be a hundred and four, he’d never understand the Bryson family. Their logic was clearly beyond his comprehension. They made absolutely no fucking sense.
“So you knew Lyle was losing money? That he was in debt to his eyeballs?”
Aaron sat at his desk across from Logan who had taken up pacing back and forth in the small space. The other man looked completely unperturbed about the entire subject as if Lyle’s gambling addiction was no big deal and that Logan was overreacting.
“I knew but we were dealing with that internally.” Aaron leaned forward, his palms flat on the desk. “Like a family. The way things should be done.”
“Internally,” Logan echoed. “Just how were you dealing with it? You didn’t get Lyle to stop gambling and seeing another woman.”
Red suffused Aaron’s cheeks and he cleared his throat a few times. “His relationship with Mary was his own business. He never brought his girlfriend into work so I didn’t stick my nose where it didn’t belong.”
“Fine, you didn’t care that he had a side piece and you didn’t care that he was gambling all his money and your money away. You’re a great brother, Aaron. Not many would be so accommodating. You just didn’t give a shit that he was bankrupting your company. Are you taking Valium or something? Or is it meditation? Just how do you stay so calm?”
“Bryson Construction is hardly bankrupt. We may not be cash rich but we’ve made payroll every single week. We also never miss a payment to our suppliers.”
That was true. Ava had been able to ascertain that quickly from the stack of financial statements on the kitchen table.
“Let’s talk about assets then.”
“What about them?”
“Do you have any? According to Natalie, Lyle was going to pay his bookie back with Bryson assets but he needed to do it in a way that you wouldn’t know.”
Aaron was shaking his head before Logan finished. “There isn’t any way to do that. When Wade…left…we made it so both of us have to sign off on any sales or major contracts. He couldn’t get rid of anything without my agreement and vice versa.”
Logan’s phone vibrated in his pocket and with a growl of frustration he pulled it out, reading the long text from his wife.
I’m going to give her a big kiss when I get home.
He tucked the phone away in his pocket. “So let me get this straight. Neither of you can sell anything without the other agreeing to it. You also can’t enter into any business deals without the other’s say so. Is that about right?”
“That’s right. So he couldn’t use Bryson assets to pay off his debt without my knowledge. Natalie was wrong.”
“You’re right. She was,” Logan agreed, settling into a guest chair and stretching out his legs. “What can you tell me about Timber Ridge Development?”
The once smiling and relaxed Aaron paled slightly and shifted in his chair. “They’re a customer of ours.”
“Your biggest customer. By far. In fact, without them you’d be bankrupt.”
“We’re very lucky they came along when they did.”
Logan nodded, stroking his chin. “About a year ago, right? Just about when Lyle got into major debt trouble. Funny on that timing.”
“I’m not sure when we first started doing work for Timber Ridge.”
Logan tapped his denim clad thighs. “Funny thing about them. They’re owned by a holding company in Canada. So Jared did a little more digging and found a string of holding companies that all come back to one family. The Eldridge family. As in Cory Eldridge, owner of the nightclub and gambling den where Lyle owes his money. Isn’t that a strange coincidence?”
Logan sat up straight, a smile finally turning up the corners of his lips. “More fun facts. Cory Eldridge’s uncle did some federal time for racketeering back in the nineties and his dad has been under scrutiny by the ATF for years. Interesting people you do business with.”
Aaron’s throat bobbed and all color had drained from his face. “I didn’t–I didn’t know any of that.”
Logan stood and leaned over the desk so he and Aaron were almost nose to nose. Beads of sweat had broken out on Aaron’s forehead. “Let me guess how this went down. Lyle got ass deep in debt and couldn’t pay it back. The company barely has any assets so he couldn’t sell anything. You weren’t willing to part with any personal assets so he didn’t have much choice. He could get his kneecaps removed and his bones broken or he could launder drug and gambling money through Bryson Construction for the Eldridge family. The only question I have is when did you find out? Did you know from the beginning or did you find out later?”
Aaron reached into the pocket of his blazer and pulled out a white handkerchief, dabbing at his face. “I didn’t know. Not at first.”
“But you figured it out eventually.”
Aaron nodded, looking close to tears. “I couldn’t let my brother be hurt. I put the family first–”
“Right,” Logan cut in. “Loyalty and all that jazz. Even if it’s illegal.”
“So what does this mean?”
The question came out squeaky and high pitched. He was scared and he should be. He could do some hard time for this.
“I’ll leave the money laundering to Drake and the Feds. That isn’t my problem. As for your motive, well, you didn’t really have one since you knew about the debt and didn’t think it was a problem. Eldridge loses his motive as well because he wouldn’t want to lose the mechanism for getting his money clean. It doesn’t help Mary or Bruce however. They still have motive – and right now – rotten alibis.”
A tear squeezed out of Aaron’s eye and slid down his cheek. “Mary didn’t do it. I know for a certainty.”
For a moment Logan almost turned his back and walked out. This family was a pimple on the ass of society.
“And how do you know that?” Logan asked with a heavy sigh. He was going to hate the answer. There was no doubt about that.
“She was at our house. Lindsay and I had a bad argument and she called Mary to come over and get her. She was planning on packing up and leaving. Then of course the whole thing with Lyle blew up so she didn’t.”
“Why didn’t she tell me this?”
“Because I asked her not to,” Aaron admitted. “I didn’t want anyone to know how things had gotten between me and Lindsey.”
Snapping his teeth together, Logan held back the words he really wanted to say.
“Drake may want to add obstruction of justice to your charges. Is there anything else that I don’t know?”
“No, nothing.” Aaron shrugged as if the entire incident was no big deal. “Not a thing.”
Logan didn’t believe him but for now he had to accept the answer.