Chapter 20

Christopher

I hired a private detective—a guy who’d been in Navy Intel and knew his way around computers and how to blend in. I sent him to Steve’s house and when he reported back, I knew I’d been right. Steve had never left for the islands. It had been a cover to give him time out of the office, out from under my supervision. He was planning his coup. I could smell it.

I was missing Lillie with every fiber of my body. I wanted to go to that lousy Ramada and carry her out—even if it meant kidnapping her. I couldn’t. Not until I took care of Steve.

I knew she’d find out the part I’d played and right now, it would be enough to guarantee I’d never get close to her again. Worse than that, there was an off-chance I could be framed for the fire and if Steve had his way, it would mean he could activate the clause in our contract that stipulated that any felonious act would be cause to terminate it. That meant if Steve could convince the authorities that I’d ordered the fire, he could take over my holdings in the shops we co-owned. I couldn’t bring Lillie into that. My fear was that she’d be brought in anyway – as the prosecution.

My detective, Sean Malloy, knew his stuff. The first thing I did was put the office staff on vacation the remainder of the week and lock up the building. I gave Sean full access to the computers, including the bookkeeping programs. He was intense, suspicious by nature and had the advantage of knowing code at an international level. I stayed out of the way in my office, finishing up my year-end numbers. There was no sign of Steve; he thought we believed him to be in the islands.

On the third day Sean showed up in my doorway. I felt his energy approaching before I heard him; my senses were so attuned to incoming danger. It was making me a nervous wreck. I was keeping a bottle of Seagram’s on my nightstand at the apartment, which certainly didn’t help my physical health. I felt like I was falling apart. I missed her. I’d failed her. She would hate me.

“What’s up?” I asked him when he appeared.

“I found something…well, a lot of somethings.”

“Come in, sit down.”

He walked in, his posture stiff and military. He laid a flash drive on my desk. “If you could load that, sir, I’ll show you.”

I did as he asked and suddenly a number of spreadsheets were splayed across the screen. He walked around so he could lean over me and touch the screen. “You will note that there are duplicates here, sir.”

“Two sets of books.”

“Yes, sir, and I don’t need to tell you that they don’t match in their figures, or in their expenditures.”

“Go over the high points for me, would you?”

“Of course, sir. If you’ll bring the two marked December up to the foreground? Now, these aren’t complete because naturally the month hasn’t ended, but there’s something her that you won’t find in the other months. There is an expenditure for twenty thousand dollars to a ‘Mr. Dillon.’ I’ve gone through the accounts payable and the employee records. I’m unable to locate any Mr. Dillon on the payroll or as a supplier. Would you have any idea who Mr. Dillon is?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know him, but I have a pretty good idea who he might be.”

“Yes, sir. One more thing, sir. You’ll see that according to those records, the expenditure was authorized by you.”

“What?” I leaned closer and sure enough, my initials were in the column for approvals. But there was more. The check was drawn on the company and it was dated two nights before the fire at the Flemming’s Bakery. “That son-of-a-bitch!”

“Yes, sir. It would appear so. I believe we could make a case for your having been framed.”

“How do we get to this ‘Dillon’?”

“Already in the works, sir. I have a system in the other room searching for all the transactions in the city banks that involve that exact number. I’ll find it, don’t worry. When I find the bank, that will lead us to the man. A check in that amount does not go unnoticed by the government, sir. There are rules in place.”

“Good work, Malloy. Is there more?”

“Yes, sir, there is. There is an accounts payable vendor noted as ‘M.P. Enterprises, Inc.’ You’ll see if you look through the previous months, and indeed I’ve found it in the last two years, a monthly payment from your company to them in the amount of two hundred and fifty-thousand dollars. Sir, there is no M.P. Enterprises on record with the IRS or any state revenue-collecting office.”

I stared at the screen. That was three million dollars a year! Going to who? That was when the truth shouted at me and I knew. M.P. Enterprises, Inc. was Steve’s wife, Marjorie. Oh, she was a stripper, alright. She’d stripped me of at least six million dollars and most likely, that was where Steve had been getting the cash to buy the real estate he’d used to leverage his way into my employ. I was, in essence, paying him to rob me.

I pulled out my phone and called my attorney. “Willard, sorry to interrupt your holiday. I need you at my office. Now. Come to the door at the back in the employee lot. I’ll let you in.”

Twenty minutes later, Willard and I were ascending the utility stairs toward my office. I introduced Willard to Sean and asked Sean to go through the numbers for him. When he’d seen it all, I said, “Steve has been embezzling for two years, using his wife’s pseudo corporation to receive the money. I’m willing to bet he used the money to acquire real estate he knew I was interested in before I could get to it. I’ll bet if Sean here goes through the records, he’ll find that the last few properties I’ve purchased were all sold to me through a holding company, M.P. Enterprises, Inc.

Willard listened and sat in the chair solemnly, thinking through the situation. “I believe what you have here is the base of evidence you need to take him down, Chris. It will trigger the felony clause in your contract and he will go to prison. Are you ready for me to pull the plug?”

I shook my head slowly. “No, not just yet. I have some innocents to get out of the path first. I’ll let you know when. It will be soon. Very, very soon. Sean, I want you to finish up the work. Go as far back as you need to and give me the proof. I don’t want any of this to get out. We don’t know how deep it goes.”

“Yes, sir,” Sean answered. “Anything else, sir?”

“No, good job. Great job. Make copies of whatever you need and plan to work off-site to put together the rest of the proof. Don’t leave any prints behind, Sean. Steve is no dummy and he’ll know if you’ve been into the system.”

“No problem, sir. Standard operating procedure.”

“Good. Thank you, Sean. I’ll be in touch.”

Sean left the office and Willard was studying my face. “You’re worried about Corey, aren’t you?”

I shrugged. “Maybe, a little. I know he’s not in on the building. He would have threatened me with what he had, and he didn’t. He just thinks I told someone to burn it. Steve’s holding him as leverage against me, but no, Corey’s not in at any illegal level, unless you count cheating on his wife.”

“Then…?”

“Willard, I haven’t told you, but there’s a young lady I’ve been seeing.”

“Okay… that’s not new, Chris. I’ve known you for some time, remember.”

“No, this one is different. She’s a keeper.”

“Where’s the problem?”

“She is Lillie Flemming, daughter of the bakery owner. She doesn’t know what I do or that I wanted to buy her building.”

“Shit. So, you’ll lose her.”

“Maybe. I hope not.”

“Which is why you bought the building.”

“Exactly. Steve can’t find out about it.”

“He won’t. I set up a holding company that only you control and used those funds to pay off the taxes and buy the building.”

“But you left up the sale notices, right?”

“Yes. As far as anyone knows who goes by the place, it’s going up on the auction block.”

“Can Steve find the trail?”

“No. Impossible. First of all, he’s waiting for the sale on the courthouse steps, so he won’t be sniffing around until the end of January when that happens. By then, I hope you’ll have given me the signal to pull the plug.”

“Oh, hell yes, it will be long before then. Okay, then I guess your next job will be to interface with Sean and prepare the papers to get Steve off my back—and to cover my ass. Can you do it?”

“Sounds like a piece of cake. The Feds will be involved, Chris. There will be a scandal.”

I slapped my hand on the desk. “Doesn’t matter. I’m dumping the company anyway. Tired of it. I just want that SOB in prison and out of the way. Is that clear?”

“Crystal.”

“Okay. Well, thank you again for coming. I know this is your family time.”

Willard stood. “Chris, we’ve known one another long enough that I consider you family.” He put out his hand and I stood and shook it firmly, then went around the desk and hugged him briefly.

“You’re one of the few people I trust, Willard. That means a lot.”

Willard nodded and left my office.

I settled back in my chair and began planning. That was my specialty, after all.