Last Flight from Flagstaff (Choices: Story Two)

by Beth Carpenter

  Chapter 10

  Donna slept in snatches, waking from vaguely troubling dreams, always tossing and turning before going back to sleep. She finally gave up and rolled out of bed as the first rays of dawn came through her window. She decided that the best thing to do was clear her head. She threw on some running clothes and set out around the neighborhood.

  The sky was clear, the sunshine winking between the pines as she ran, breathing the crisp air into her lungs. She felt the weight of the world begin to lift from her shoulders. Before long, the altitude made it difficult to catch her breath, so Donna stopped and put her hands on her knees, breathing deeply. A sudden movement caught her eye as a rabbit hopped away into the brush beside the road.

  She began to walk along. The grass along the roadside was just beginning to green up for spring. On the edge of the woods, beautiful blue columbine was beginning to bloom. A mourning dove cooed softly in the distance. Donna rounded a corner, startling a deer. She stared in wonder as the small buck bounded into the woods. She loved this place. On the way back, she saw another of those big-eared black squirrels and thought of Sally. Hopefully the dog was recovering well.

  Back at the house, Donna felt decisive for the first time in days. She took a hot shower, dressed, and made a cup of coffee. Today she would find out the answer, no matter what it took.

  Donna sipped her coffee as she mapped out a plan of attack. Basically, there were two problems with the business. First, expenses had skyrocketed, ruining any chance of making money for the enterprise. Somehow, Matt needed to get the spending under control.

  The second problem amounted to much less money, but it was far more troubling. Money was disappearing, either being withdrawn out of the account or being removed from deposits before going into the account. Someone was slowly bleeding the business. Donna could help set up some checks and balances in the business in order to prevent future bleeding, but she couldn’t easily trace where the past money had gone. So, what could she accomplish today?

  She decided to talk with the suppliers and contractors in order to determine how to save money. Looking over her records, she determined that it made sense to start with the business to which payments had increased the most rapidly, the GEO group. She might as well talk to S&W too, since they were in the same industrial park. She would start there, and then move on to the other suppliers.

  She programmed the address into the GPS and began driving. It directed her to another pocket of town, away from the downtown area. “You have reached your destination,” the GPS announced. Donna looked around. There was no warehouse here. There must be a mistake in the GPS database. Maybe it was further down the street. She continued along, but this area was mostly small buildings and a few restaurants, no warehouses or industrial parks. No office buildings. She pulled over and rechecked the address. She had programmed it in correctly.

  Donna drove around the block again, looking for the address she had for the GEO group. There on her left, behind a purple coffee cart, was a small building. Pulling into the parking lot, she looked at the sign on the door. The business at that address was a mailbox store.

  Suddenly, everything made sense - the sudden increase in expenses, the additional supplies, the low balances in the account. These weren’t real companies. Somebody was running a scam.

  Donna thought back. Matt said he signed a bunch of checks day before yesterday. They might have been delivered yesterday, or they might come today. It was worth a try to see if anyone came. She walked into the store, setting off a bell on the door.

  A clerk appeared from behind the row of boxes. “May I help you?”

  “I may be interested in renting a mailbox,” Donna said. “Are your records confidential?”

  “Completely confidential. We don’t give out information for anything short of a court order.”

  So she couldn’t just ask who owned the box. Donna wasn’t surprised. “Some places won’t deliver to a post office box. Can I use your street address?”

  “Sure. You just use our address, and add Suite whatever your box number is. It works fine.”

  “Can you show me the different sizes available, please?”

  The clerk came around to her side, bringing a large ring of keys. He opened one of each size of box, demonstrating the capacities. Each box had a lock and a glass window. While he was bending to reach a large lower box, Donna managed to locate boxes fourteen and sixteen, which were the suite numbers listed for the businesses. Each of them appeared to hold an envelope.

  “This setup looks good. I’ll just discuss it with my partner.” Donna accepted a flyer showing charges for different sizes of boxes and left. She got into her car and drove away, just in case the clerk was watching. She drove around the block and pulled into the parking lot next-door, easing into the edge of the mailbox store lot where her car wouldn’t be seen by the clerk. She parked between a van and a bush, hoping to be inconspicuous.

  Stakeouts turned out to be a lot more boring than movies had led Donna to believe. Several people came and went, but they all opened boxes in a different area than boxes fourteen and sixteen. Long stretches of time went by without any visitors to the mailbox store.

  Donna had plenty of time to think. What would she do once she found out who was stealing money? Call the police? If it were Matt, Kristen would be devastated. Would it be right to spring this on her right before her wedding? On the other hand, would it be fair to let her marry a liar and a thief?

  The coffee cart girl kept looking her way. She was young, probably just out of high school, and she seemed uncomfortable to have Donna parked in a car and not moving. Donna hoped she wouldn’t decide to tip off the mailbox clerk that Donna was there.

  What if Blake were the thief? She could hardly believe it of him, but she couldn’t rule him out. The extra expenses had started not long after Blake returned to town. If Blake was stealing from his own company, he would probably go to jail and lose his business, and Matt would lose his job.

  It could even be one of the regular suppliers or someone else familiar with the setup of Arlyn and Russell. If someone started sending regular invoices to Heather, chances are she wouldn’t check with Matt before paying them. Matt would just sign the checks Heather gave him. He never questioned anything as far as Donna could tell.

  A middle-aged woman drove up in a small white hatchback. Donna didn’t recognize her and didn’t pay much attention until she walked directly to the corner of the store where boxes fourteen and sixteen were located. Donna started her car and drove to the drive-up window of the coffee cart in front of the mailbox store. She could see through the cart into the store.

  “What will it be?’ the coffee girl asked.

  “Umm, plain coffee, please.” Donna reached for her wallet without taking her eyes off the woman in the store. The woman quickly used her keys to open fourteen and sixteen, removed the envelopes from the two boxes, and was returning to her car.

  “Cream or sugar?”

  “What? Oh, cream, no sugar.” The woman started her car and began to drive. Donna threw a five-dollar bill into the drive-through window and drove after her.

  “Ma’am. Here’s your coffee. Ma’am?” Donna ignored the coffee girl as she followed the hatchback out of the parking lot, cutting someone off and earning an angry honk.

  Probably not the best way to start a tail, she thought. She repeated the license number of the hatchback to herself, memorizing it. After clearing the next intersection, she dropped back and allowed another car to get between herself and the hatchback. Once she almost lost it at a traffic light, but slipped through just as the light turned red.

  This tailing thing was harder than it looked. Surely, the woman in the car had spotted Donna’s jeep by now, but if so, she hadn’t given any sign. After about thirty minutes of driving, Donna found herself in a familiar area. Sure enough, the hatchback parked directly in front of Heather’s office.

  Donna pulled into the parking lot next door. She got out
of her jeep and walked toward Heather’s office. She forced herself to walk at a normal pace, as though this were just a routine errand.

  As Donna entered, the woman was just coming out of the door, carrying a plain envelope in one hand and a pink African violet in the other. Donna held the door for her, watching as Heather slipped the two envelopes into her beautiful handbag. Bingo!

  Heather turned around, startled to see Donna standing there. “Hello, I didn’t see you there. Did you have more questions?”

  “I just wondered if you had a list of expenses from before Arlyn and Russell took over the apartments,” Donna lied. “I know sometimes that information is available, and I’d like to compare.”

  “Sorry, I don’t have anything like that,” Heather said. “Maybe you should talk to Matt.”

  “Okay, I’ll do that. Thanks, Heather.”

  Donna returned to her car. How to handle it from here? Should she call Kristen? No, Blake was the majority owner of the company. She found his office number and called.

  “Blake Russell’s office, this is Rainbow. How may I help you?”

  “Hi, Rainbow, is Mr. Russell in this morning?”

  “Yes he is, whom shall I say is calling?”

  “This is Donna Zimmer.”

  “Thank you Ms. Zimmer.” There was a short pause.

  “Donna?” Blake’s voice sounded pleased.

  “Blake, it’s Heather. She’s the one who has been stealing funds.”

  “What are you talking about, Donna?”

  “Heather, the bookkeeper. She set up some dummy companies and has been funneling money out of Arlyn and Russell’s accounts. I’m pretty sure she’s skimming from the cash deposits too.”

  There was a short pause. “I see. Do you have proof?”

  “I can’t prove the skimming, but I can definitely prove the embezzling through the dummy companies.”

  “Good. Okay, I think we need to get legal into this right away. I’ll get my lawyer over here as soon as I can. Can you come to my office now?”

  “I’m on my way.”