It was my turn to shake my head, my chin-length hair sweeping against my neck. “I don’t even know where to begin. How’s your dad doing?” I changed the subject.
“He took it pretty hard. He had been telling himself Max wasn’t a thief. With the money he had with him, people will be convinced he is though.” He gave a weary sigh.
“No, Drake,” I interrupted. “I don’t believe that for a minute. You can’t simply accept this as proof of his guilt. You have to keep looking.”
“I’m not giving up, Holly. Someone killed him. I don’t know if it was an accomplice, or because Max took the money, or someone else.” His words echoed my earlier thoughts. He held up his hand when I started to object. “If he wasn’t involved, why would he disappear at the same time as the money? Why would he have the cash on him?”
“I don’t know, but I do know that he was scared when he came to see me. Now I have a question for you. How was the money removed from the accounts?” He looked at me, a blank expression on his handsome face. “Did someone take the money in cash?”
“No, there’s no way someone could get away with several hundred thousand dollars in cash.” I gasped at the amount missing. He continued as though I hadn’t made a sound, “without someone at the bank being aware of it. The funds were wired out.”
“So where did all that cash come from?” I continued to argue.
For a minute he seemed to consider my question. Then he shook his head. “I don’t have any of the answers yet, Holly.”
“Ten thousand dollars in cash, whether it’s a deposit or a withdrawal, requires paperwork being filled out and sent to the IRS. Max would know that.”
“The bank is looking into this, Holly.” He kept telling me that, but I couldn’t let Max take the blame for something he didn’t do. “I need you to stay out of this.”
I ignored him. “All right, let’s say you’re right. Why would he stick around here if he had that much money? Wouldn’t it be more logical for him to take off, just disappear for good?” I knew we were overlooking something important, but I didn’t know what.
“I understand that you don’t want to believe he’s guilty. I don’t either. But facts are facts.” He was holding himself together with a strong will, but I could tell this was killing him inside.
His eyes lost focus for a moment as he considered all that was happening. “Wally is going to be all over Dad.” The words came out so soft I wasn’t sure I heard him correctly. “He’s had a real hate going for Max for as long as I can remember.”
That hate seemed like a good motive to me. Wally would do anything to discredit the Cox family, Max in particular. I’d been too young when I moved here to pay attention to the feud between the two men. As a teenager, I heard all the talk about how Max had stolen Wally’s girlfriend. Even then I thought it was rather silly to be carrying a grudge over something that took place so long ago. Neither man had married the woman. I wasn’t sure either of them even remembered her name. They just hated each other.
“Just because he had money on him when he died doesn’t mean he’s a thief,” I said heatedly. Was I the only one willing to look past appearances, and try to find the truth?
“No, it doesn’t, but I have to put emotion aside and look at the evidence. Right now that evidence is pointing to Max.” He sighed. “I wish I’d had a chance to talk to him. I don’t know why he didn’t come to me with what he thought he knew.” He was still upset that Max had come to me instead of him. There was nothing I could say. I didn’t know what Max thought I could do that Drake couldn’t.
On my lunch break, I walked down the street to the hardware store to see how Jim was doing. Jim and Max’s grandfather had started the store when he moved to Arizona as a young man. Both Jim and Max had worked there as teenagers. Max wanted no part of it as an adult, and couldn’t wait to get away from the small town. When their father retired several years ago, Jim had taken it over.
“I’m so sorry about Max.” For lack of anything better to say, I fell back on the old standby. I gave him a hug, hoping that would help in some small way.
“Thanks, Holly.” He struggled to keep his composure. “People were convinced he took the money from the town, but I didn’t want to believe he’d do such a thing. He wasn’t always reliable, but I thought he’d changed. I don’t want to believe he was a thief.”
For several long moments he was lost in his thoughts. Finally he shook his head. “None of this makes any sense. At least we got part of the money back.”
“If he took the money, what was he doing in town?” I asked, using the same argument I had with Drake. “If he really took the money, he could have gone anywhere. What was he doing behind the library?” I wasn’t sure if Drake had told him that Max had come to see me. Was that something he wouldn’t want anyone else to know?
Jim shrugged. “I have to leave this up to Drake. He has his hands full right now. There hasn’t been a murder in town since…” He stopped, trying to remember. Finally he shook his head. “I can’t even remember the last time there was a murder even close to town. Right now, I don’t have any answers.”
“Why didn’t the bank do something before it was too late? Didn’t they even check with you before the money was transferred?” He didn’t understand what I was asking.
Before I could clarify what I meant, the door slammed open, hitting the wall and rattling the windows. “When is that damned son of yours going to tell us what the hell is going on? He wouldn’t tell me if they found the rest of our money. There are bills this town needs to pay.” Wally Miller was steamed up as usual.
Someone had leaked the fact that Max had money with him when he died. That was all the confirmation Wally needed to believe Max had taken the money. The amount found on Max hadn’t been released, but that didn’t mean anything to Wally.
Seeing me with Jim, he glared at me. “Aren’t you one of Jim’s step-kids?”
I shrugged. “I was, but I’m not now.” I wasn’t sure what this had to do with a murder and the missing funds, but Wally enjoyed having something to complain about.
He gave a sniff like there was a foul odor in the air. He turned back to Jim with another complaint. “You keep padding the town payroll with your relatives. Just because you’re the mayor doesn’t mean you can hire every rag tag relative that comes along. There are other people in this town who need jobs.”
“Leave Holly out of this,” Jim snapped. “There were no applicants with the qualifications she has.” As long as they were arguing over my job, Wally wasn’t blaming Max for the missing money.
“Did someone else apply for my job?” I asked mildly.
“My niece would like to have that job.”
“Does she have a degree in Library Science? Has she ever worked in a library before?”
“That’s beside the point.” He waved me away like I was an annoying insect. “I didn’t come here to talk about the library.”
“You brought it up.” I lifted one shoulder in a shrug.
With another glare in my direction, he turned back to Jim. “Has that son of yours found the rest of our money yet?”
“He has his hands full looking into a murder right now.” A vein in Jim’s temple throbbed with his attempt to keep his own temper in check.
“I don’t give a damn about a murder. I want the money back. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake here.” By the way he was talking you would think it was his personal money that was missing. How much did he know about Max’s death and the money he had with him?
Jim took a menacing step towards him, his hands balled into fists.
“Someone mind telling me what’s going on here?” Drake stepped through the still open door.
Whirling around, Wally marched up to Drake, getting right in his face. “I want to know what you’re doing about finding where our money is. What’s taking you so long to find out where that damn uncle of yours put it?” The two men were standing nose to nose. Wally might have outweighed Drak
e by fifty pounds, but it was all fat. Drake was all muscle.
“I’m not in the habit of discussing an open investigation with civilians. I got a report that there was a problem over here. Want to tell me what’s going on?”
“As a taxpayer I have every right to know what happened to our money.” Wally puffed out his chest, edging a little closer to Drake.
“As soon as I have information that I can give out without jeopardizing the investigation, I’ll report to the mayor and town council. They can inform the town.”
“Your old man’s the mayor, and he’s standing right here. Tell him what happened to our money.”
Drake’s jaws were locked tight in an effort to control his temper. He was doing a better job of that than Jim. He was ready to explode.
“As I said, as soon as I have something to report, I’ll do just that. Until then, I will continue to investigate.”
“I have every right to know where that money went.” He made the mistake of poking Drake in the chest with his finger, emphasizing each word. “I heard he had some of our money with him. How much did you find?”
Drake gripped Wally’s hand, leaning over him like an avenging angel. “Unless you want to find yourself sitting in a jail cell, you’d better keep that finger in your pocket.”
“You can’t arrest me. I didn’t do anything wrong.” He was daring Drake to do just that.
“We can start with assaulting a police officer, and go from there.”
Wally yanked his hand from Drake’s grip, dropping it to his side. “I didn’t assault you.” He gave a sniff of disdain. “When I assault someone, it isn’t a poke in the chest.”
“Really? Care to elaborate on that statement a little? You assaulted anyone around here lately?” He lifted one eyebrow. “I got a dead body, and I’m looking for someone who made him that way. From the looks of the bruises on Max’s body, someone had assaulted him within the past twenty-four hours. Your knuckles look pretty skinned up. Care to explain how that happened?”
“Go to hell.”
“Already been there in Iraq, don’t plan on going again. You want to come down to the station to explain those bruises?”
“If it’s any of your business, I had an accident at work. You can’t prove otherwise.”
“We’ll see about that. Now, I suggest you move along before you do something you’ll regret.”
With a few mumbled expletives, Wally tried to elbow his way around Drake. It didn’t have the desired effect when Drake took hold of his arm, pulling him up close again. “I already warned you about assaulting an officer, Wally. You don’t want to push much harder. I’m having a really bad day investigating my uncle’s murder. I suggest you go back to work before I decide to haul your sorry ass to jail.”
As soon as Drake released his arm, Wally rushed outside. When he was safely out the door, he must have felt brave once again. Giving Drake the one finger salute, he hustled to his truck that was parked at the curb.
“You didn’t need to come to my rescue, son. I can fight my own battles. I was handling him just fine.” Jim didn’t sound grateful for Drake stepping in.
“I know you can handle him, Dad. But you two are like oil and water. Milly gave me a call when she saw him come in here. I don’t need another murder on my hands right now.” Milly Frazier owns the bakery across the street. She’s old enough to be Jim’s mother, and has always had a soft spot for the Cox brothers.
“Sorry, Son,” He ran his hands through his hair. It was a gesture I’d seen Drake do many times when he was frustrated. His hands shook slightly as the adrenalin slowly left his blood stream. “Wally’s been all over town grumbling about Max stealing the money. Maybe they got in a fight, and when Max couldn’t tell him where the money was he decided to take the law into his own hands.”
“Talk like that will only start another battle. Wally’s a hot head, but I can’t see him killing someone.”
Jim’s face got red, his temper on the rise again. “You don’t know him the way I do. He’s been blaming Max for everything bad that’s ever happened to him.”
“Dad, I need you to keep a cool head. Don’t do something foolish.”
Jim’s shoulders slumped slightly, the fight gone out of him. “I’m not stupid, son. I have a little girl that still needs raising. Her mother…” He didn’t finish his sentence. Jane wasn’t exactly up for mother of the year. Clearing his throat, he changed the direction of the conversation. “I still think you might want to check out Wally’s alibi for when Max was killed. Those two have hated each other for more than twenty years.”
Wally owned the only construction company in Pine Mountain. He would drive fifty miles out of his way to get supplies to avoid shopping at Jim’s hardware store. That was carrying a grudge a little too far if you asked me.
“I’ll be checking out alibis for a lot of people. I want the person who did this, too. I also want to find the rest of the money that was stolen.”
An accident on a construction site could explain the bruises on Wally’s hands. They could also be from a fight. If he thought he could bully Max into returning the money, I didn’t think he’d hesitate to use force to get his own way. He’d been in more than one bar fight when I lived here years ago. It didn’t appear that his temper had mellowed any with the passage of time.
“I need to get back to work,” I said. “If there’s anything I can do for you, let me know.” I placed a kiss on Jim’s cheek. “I really am sorry about Max. I was just getting to know him. It seemed like he had gotten his life together.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that. I just wish we could prove that Max didn’t steal that money.” He gave a sigh.
“Working on it, Dad,” Drake said. “I’ll see you later.” He followed me out of the store, draping his arm over my shoulders. My breath hitched in my throat at the casual yet somehow intimate contact. “What was Wally yammering about the library when I walked in?”
I was surprised he’d heard that. I didn’t know how long he’d been outside the store before making his presence known. “He isn’t happy that I got the job at the library. He seems to think his niece should have the job.”
He chuckled, probably for the first time all day. “His only niece is seventeen and a senior in high school. I really doubt she’d thank him for suggesting she work at the library.”
I tried not to take that as an insult about my career choice. Instead I changed subjects. “If Max really took the money, why didn’t he transfer it to a numbered account somewhere? Why haven’t they been able to find out where it was transferred to?”
“They’re investigating the matter.” That was his standard answer.
I held up my hand to stop him. “I know this is an open investigation, and you can’t comment. Thank you for stepping in when you did. They were both ready to exchange blows. I’ll see you later.”
Turning away, I headed back to the library. I could feel his eyes on me as I crossed the street. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking. My mind was spinning with unanswered questions. There was several hundred thousand dollars still missing. How could anyone get away with that much money without someone being aware of what was going on? Why hadn’t the bank been able to trace the wire transfer?
As the town treasurer Max had access to the accounts. But he would know that taking the money in cash would raise all sorts of red flags. Had someone at the bank been working with him? Or had someone tried to frame him like he said? So why did Max have ten thousand dollars on him when he was killed? Why did the killer leave behind that much money? None of this made any sense to me.
When did the embezzlement first begin? If someone had been doing this systematically over a period of time, why hadn’t anyone noticed? Or had the money disappeared in one lump sum? Again, why hadn’t anyone noticed? Weren’t there any safeguards on the accounts? How could I find out something like that?
A wire transfer to another bank would be easy to trace. After several more transfers, it would be nearly impossibl
e to traceable. Max was smart enough to know this. Why did Max have so much cash with him when he was killed? Why didn’t the killer take it? The only explanation I could come up with was it had been left there in an effort to make Max look guilty.
To help pay my way through college, I had interned part-time at a bank, working in several different departments. Maybe I could put what I’d learned to use now, and try to figure this out. If someone at the bank had a hand in the embezzlement, the bank officials wouldn’t want that made known. Most banks were willing to fire an employee for stealing and not report it rather than get a reputation for being an easy mark.
I’d only been back at my desk a few minutes when the library door opened again. With the heavier than usual traffic, I assumed it was another person looking for a tidbit of gossip. I didn’t realize how right that assumption was until Beth Ann Rodgers stopped in front of my desk.
“I was so sorry to hear about Max this morning, Holly. I know how close you are to the family. How is Jim holding up?” Beth Ann had been a year ahead of me in school. She had teased me about having a crush on Drake the entire five years I’d lived here. She had always enjoyed sharing any little tidbit of gossip she could repeat.
“As you can imagine he’s very upset.” I let it go at that. She had missed her calling. Instead of working at the bank, she should be working at one of those gossip rags at the grocery store checkout counter.
“Oh, yes. It’s just terrible. Will Jane be coming home for the funeral?” Her full lips twitched like she had a secret she was dying to tell.
“I don’t know what her plans are.” She was as bad as the reporters when they stick a microphone in front of someone who has just tragically lost a loved one to ask how they’re feeling. She took delight in knowing tidbits about people that she could exploit.
“Well, I’d better get back to work. We’ve been really busy lately.” Were they extra busy because of the embezzlement, or something else? I still thought there had to be an inside person to facilitate the wire transfer.
Never Con A Con Man (An Arizona High Country Mystery Book 1) Page 4