Donal thought for a moment. “I think it has some kind of ninety-nine-year lease. I don’t think they pay a monthly rental for the premises.”
“What about other rentals? Cars? Equipment? Anything like that?”
“They own all their vehicles but are paying some of them off to the bank.”
“Okay, we’ll put a pin in that. That has potential. What about a monthly cleaning service?”
“There are two cleaners on the regular payroll. They aren’t outsourced.”
“That brings us to the biggest and most delicious prize of them all. It also happens to be the most difficult to fiddle. I’m talking about salaries. For most organizations, their monthly salaries bill is the biggest line item in the budget. But because this is real money being paid to real people, it isn’t easy to fiddle.”
“A lot of companies use payroll software to pay their salaries these days, don’t they?”
“Yes. More old-fashioned institutions still do it manually, but many have moved over to using software.”
“Imagine that you were the inspector of a local division looking for new ways to boost your sideline in creative accounting, and someone came to you offering you a software package for salaries that would let you do just that, would you be interested?”
“You’re thinking of setting up a sting operation?” She sounded worried again. “Donnie, I don’t think that would work. Anything that came from you would be viewed with instant suspicion. They know you’ve been sniffing around their financial statements. That’s what got you fired. I think you should leave this alone. It’s not your business anymore.”
“What if it didn’t come from me? What if it came from a veteran in the department with thirty years’ experience, who has known about the skimming for a year but has been keeping quiet about it?”
“There would be nothing to connect it to you?”
“Nothing.”
“You’d need someone to pose as the software salesman. Your veteran couldn’t pretend that he has suddenly designed his own software package.”
“It would have to be an experienced salesman,” said Donal. “Some smooth-talking operator who could sell ice to Eskimos. Someone we could trust implicitly.”
Catriona laughed. “Now you’re talking about Remus.”
“Would he do it, do you think?”
Catriona thought of her husband and his fun-loving, risk-taking nature.
“He’d do it like a shot.”
Chapter 9
Eulalie
“Chérie, ma petite, mon ange.” Angel de la Cour murmured French endearments to her granddaughter. “What is wrong? What has happened? Tell Grandmère.”
“A girl is dead, and it is all because of me.” Eulalie began to sob.
Angel overflowed with love for her granddaughter, but her practical side asserted itself. She made her voice firmer.
“Tell me exactly what has happened, ma fille.”
So, Eulalie did. She told her everything, from the attack on herself and Fleur, to her conversation with Whitney, to her discovery of what she believed to be the predator’s lair. She described the night she had spent keeping watch on the mountain, and the dream she had had that morning.
“I felt her die, Grandmère. I felt the life force ebb out of her body. I felt her relief as her pain and fear came to an end.”
“Vraiment? Total empathy with a dying person? That can be dangerous, chérie.”
Eulalie brushed her concerns aside. “It was fine. It was nothing. The point is that while I was walking about on the mountain, feeding my ego and thinking what a great hunter I was, he was leisurely torturing and killing poor Carrie. Carina Novak – that was her name. She was a Czech exchange student. And now she’s dead, and it’s all my fault.”
Angel resisted the urge to comfort her granddaughter. The comforting could come later. Right now, she needed to be snapped out of it.
“You’re making this all about you, chérie. You realize that, don’t you?”
“What? No, I’m not. I’m just acknowledging the reality of the situation.”
“You’re centering yourself as the main player in this narrative. You can’t accept that you are not part of what happened. You’ve invented a role for yourself as the villain of the piece.”
“No, I haven’t,” said Eulalie. “Have I?”
“I’m afraid you have, my darling. What happened to that poor girl is nobody’s fault except for that of the predator who took her and tortured her and killed her. You are eighteen years old. You are in South Africa to study and get a degree. The fact that you tried to take on this task reflects well on you, but if you’re serious about helping you need to change the way you’re going about it.”
There was a pause while Eulalie digested this. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you can’t allow yourself to become emotionally involved. You can’t make yourself the center of the universe when things go wrong. You need to consider whether there are any lessons to be learned. If there are, learn them and move on. Every mistake is a learning opportunity. You stay focused on doing your best work at all times. And that means not allowing yourself to be distracted when things go wrong.”
Eulalie wanted to protest at the idea that she was making herself the center of the investigation, but she managed to swallow her indignation.
“Do the legwork,” Angel went on. “Every investigation rests on a slow build-up of information. Gather as much information as you can. That is how you will catch him.”
Before she left for her afternoon lectures, Eulalie spent some time refining the sketch she had made of the man she had seen in her dream. When she was finished, he looked less like a cartoon character and more like a person that someone might recognize. The fact that he had gone to such lengths to keep his face hidden from the women he had attacked made it likely that he was a recognizable figure on campus.
She folded up her new sketch, slipped it into her messenger bag, and headed out to her first computer science lesson. At four-thirty she was done for the day. Her first proper day at college had passed in a blur. Attending lectures had felt like marking time before she could get on with the real work of investigating Carrie’s murder.
Eulalie left the computer science lab at a brisk walk, hoping to get to the philosophy department before it closed at five. As she walked, she felt around in her bag for the map she had been given at the beginning of orientation week. It was very crumpled, but she shook it open and ran her finger down the side looking for the philosophy department. There it was – on the other side of campus.
It was ten to five by the time she jogged up the stairs to the department. The secretary was packing up for the day when Eulalie burst into her office.
“Whatever it is, love, it can wait until tomorrow.” She heaved an enormous bag onto her desk and shut down her computer. “There’s no one here. The professors have gone home.”
“Just a quick question,” said Eulalie. “I believe one of your graduate students was attacked by this man who has been terrorizing girls on campus. He tried to attack me too.”
The secretary looked up from her phone. “I’m very sorry to hear that, love. But I’m not sure what I can do about it now.”
“I gave a sketch of the guy to campus security. I was hoping to show it to the girl who got attacked. I thought she might recognize him. Is she here?”
“Ruby? I don’t know… she might be. The graduate students don’t have their own offices, but they tend to hang out in the senior common-room. You can go and look if you like.”
“Thank you so much.” Eulalie hurried off in the direction she had indicated. She glanced up at a board that listed faculty members and saw there was an R. Smith listed under the teaching assistants. When she got to the door of the senior common-room, she hesitated. As a freshman, she had no business being here. Then she remembered Carrie and steeled herself to knock.
The door flew open. An impatient young man glared at her. “What?”
“Sorry to interrupt. I’m looking for Ruby Smith. Is she here?”
He twisted his head around and yelled. “Rubes! One of your babies is looking for you.”
There was a sound of footsteps, and a woman with long brown hair and a floaty cotton dress appeared behind him. She stared at Eulalie.
“You’re not one of my freshmen.”
“I know I’m not. I never actually said… I just wanted to talk to you about the man who attacked you. He attacked me too.”
Ruby Smith had started to close the door in Eulalie’s face, but this made her pause.
“You too?”
“Yes. I got a look at his face. I’ve given a sketch to campus security, but I wanted to show it to you.”
Ruby stepped into the corridor with Eulalie and slammed the door shut behind her.
“Let’s go and sit on the steps outside. It’s more private there.”
They went outside and sat down. There were very few people around as the various faculty buildings emptied rapidly.
“What’s that accent?” asked Ruby. “Are you French?”
“Sort of. I’m from Prince William Island.”
“You sound half French and half American. It’s an interesting accent.”
Eulalie had a feeling that Ruby was deflecting the conversation into safe channels. She wanted her to feel comfortable, but also felt a strong sense of urgency to move the investigation forward.
“What did he do to you?” Ruby asked after a long pause.
Eulalie told her about how he had jumped out of the bushes at her and Fleur with a knife in his hand and chased them almost to the guardhouse on campus.
“You’re lucky he didn’t catch you. How did you get to see his face?”
“He was wearing a mask and it kind of… slipped for a moment. I saw his face before he could pull it back into place. What about you? Where were you when he snatched you?”
“That’s the thing,” said Ruby. “I think he was waiting for me.”
Donal
“Sir, if you would just meet with him, I know you would be impressed. He offers the most flexible salary management software on the market.”
Inspector Petrick sighed. “What makes you think I’m in the market for new accounting software, Burns?”
“It’s one of those systems that you don’t know you need until you hear what it can do. I have a friend who runs a catering company that supplies lunches to some of the local schools. Her salary bill is huge. After switching to this accounting package, she freed up hundreds of pounds a month. All that money had just been lying there doing nothing until the software guys showed her how to channel it properly.”
Inspector Petrick was quiet. His eyes roamed across Constable Burn’s face, taking in his agitated manner and high color.
“Who sent you here, Burns? Who are you working for?”
Constable Burns’s heart bounded. He felt as though the wire he was wearing must surely be picking up the racing of his pulse.
He breathed in slowly. Young Macgregor had prepared him for this question. He forced his lips into a smile.
“You’ve got me, sir. I will get a small commission if the station decides to switch over to this software. I should have been frank about that from the beginning. But I’m not lying about the benefits. Just think of your monthly salary bill, sir. It’s a great, unwieldy chunk of change, isn’t it? Just think of being able to free up some of that money for other purposes. Meeting with my guy would take thirty minutes of your time. Well worth it for the sake of maximizing this department’s budget, I would have thought.”
Constable Burns ordered himself to stop talking. Any more and he would begin to sound desperate. Petrick would either take the bait or he wouldn’t.
There was no doubt in Burns’s mind that Petrick understood what he was hinting at. They had spoken about this before. Petrick has explicitly warned Burns to stay out of budget issues. He had threatened his pension. And for more than a year, Burns had done as he was told. He had raised no alarms and caused no trouble. Surely that had earned him the benefit of the doubt?
Unless Burns was much mistaken, there had been a gleam in Inspector Petrick’s eye at the thought of being able to get his hands on the salary budget.
“I suppose I could meet with your guy,” he said. “What did you say his name was?”
“It’s Selkirk, sir. Remus Selkirk.”
“When can you get him here?”
“Any time that suits you. He’s a salesman, so his time is flexible.”
“Marge!” Inspector Petrick roared.
The door flew open and his secretary appeared. “Inspector?”
“Do I have a gap today, Marge?”
“Three o’clock, Inspector.”
“I can see your boy at three, Burns. See that he’s not late.”
Burns jumped to his feet, trying to look grateful, but not desperately grateful. “Thank you, sir. I’m sure you won’t regret it.”
Constable Burns felt as though he had forgotten how to walk when he left the inspector’s office. He didn’t know how to swing his arms without broadcasting to the world that he was wearing a wire. He lumbered down the corridor, feeling like a performing bear.
He took the stairs down to the basement, looking over his shoulder constantly to make sure no one was following him. When he reached the door to a small storeroom, he knocked twice.
“It’s Burns.”
The door opened just wide enough to admit him, and then closed again.
Macgregor was looking a little green around the gills.
“You all right, son?”
“Fine, sir. I’ve taken more painkillers. They should kick in soon.”
“Did you get all that?” Burns took off his shirt and began to strip away the tape that held his wire in place. He winced as a fine coating of chest hair pulled away with the tape.
“I’ve got it all here.” Donal patted the police-issue recording machine. “You reeled him in perfectly.”
“Suspicious bastard, isn’t he?”
“Yes, I heard that. You handled it well. I suppose the only way he can have got away with it for so long is by being suspicious.”
There was a knock at the door. Burns turned to Donal with wide eyes.
“Who the hell is that?”
“It’s okay.” Donal stood up carefully, keeping his left arm still. “It’s just Remus.”
He opened the door to admit a fresh-faced young man approaching thirty. He had a broad smile and a ready handshake.
“Constable Burns, this is my brother-in-law, Remus Selkirk. He’s a software salesman in real life and he’s going to do the sting for us.”
“I started out selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door,” said Selkirk cheerfully. “I moved on to barbeque sets, Tupperware, time-share units, and then pharmaceuticals. Today, it’s software, but who knows what it will be tomorrow?”
“And you’re sure you don’t mind doing this?”
Selkirk’s infectious laugh broke out. “Burns, old son, my wife is on day two of her maternity leave and she’s climbing the walls. I’m up for anything that will get me out of the house. Besides, she hasn’t been so entertained in weeks. It’s taking her mind off worrying about when the baby will arrive.”
“You’re going to be an uncle, lad?” Burns turned to Donal.
A rare smile swept over the young man’s face. “That’s right.”
“Congratulations to both of you. Now, how are we going to get this crook to reveal himself?”
“Let’s remember that we don’t need him to say something that will necessarily stand up in court,” said Donal. “This is not a police sting – it’s a civilian operation. These tapes are going to the media first, and then to his superiors.”
“I’m going to show him how he can move some of his staff onto a fixed-term contract basis, which means that their money comes from a different part of the budget. Then he can keep the same number of staff members on the payroll, but some of them
will be dummies who don’t really exist, which means he can pocket their monthly salaries. I bet he’ll like that idea.” Selkirk gave a satisfied nod.
“He can’t be working alone,” said Donal. “There’s no way he could have kept this going single-handedly. He must have help inside the department.”
“You mean apart from the suckers like me that he intimidated into keeping their mouths shut?” said Burns. “Yes, I suppose he must have.”
“You know him better than I do, sir. Who would you put your money on? What about Sergeant Shortridge?”
“There have been rumors about those two for years. They are both married, but that hasn’t stopped the rumors. Yes, I’d say she’s a pretty good bet as his accomplice. She has a brother who is ex-military too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one who shot you the other day. He’s exactly the sort of person who would have access to a sniper rifle.”
“That could be useful later on,” said Donal. “If we’re looking for someone to flip on Petrick to save their own skin, Sergeant Shortridge would be a good candidate. Especially if she has a brother to protect.”
“We have until three to get me word-perfect in my role,” said Selkirk. “We’d better get started.”
Chapter 10
Eulalie
“He was waiting for you?” said Eulalie. “What do you mean?”
“No one knew where I was that night,” said Ruby. “I’d gone out with a group of friends and we split up as the night went on. It had never been our plan to stick together. I hooked up with a guy I’ve known for years but never dated. He graduated last year but was in town with his family to help his sister get settled into her dorm. She’s a freshman like you. He and his family were staying in a B&B just off campus. He had a room with a separate entrance. We went back there at midnight. At about four, I decided to leave because I was giving an early tutorial and didn’t want to be wearing the same clothes as the night before. The guy, Jason, was fast asleep so I let myself out quietly. I share a house with three other people and it was just a couple of blocks away. I felt quite safe to be walking home at that time. I had hardly gone a few steps when I… when I…”
The Complete H-Series of The Eulalie Park Mysteries Page 74