by I. L. Wolf
“Seriously Venetia? How can you even ask that?” Julian said.
“Well, for starters, Marlene’s spent years lying to us all, and went to great lengths to pretend she isn’t who she is. She married you still married to someone else. Delenda sued you, too. Is that when she found out? The lawsuit? Is that why you paid her the settlement?”
Julian and Marlene looked at each other and spoke in the silent language of long-married couples. Finally, Marlene flicked her head to the side and raised her shoulders. Julian nodded in her direction. She shook her head no.
“Can we please have this conversation in a way I can hear it?” Venetia said.
“The problem is that this time, it’s Delenda’s story to tell, and she really can’t tell it,” Marlene said.
“I think that, given everything, it’s probably best if you do tell it, because I’m thinking we’re heading into serious issue territory.”
“I think—” she said
“Marlene, there’s no reason to protect her.”
“Me?” said Venetia.
Marlene sighed. “No, Delenda.”
“You would actually feel like you had to protect her? When she was blackmailing you?”
“She wasn’t blackmailing me.” Marlene got up and put water into a mug. “Tea?” she said.
“I just want to know what you’re talking about.”
“I’ll have some,” said Julian.
“Fine,” Venetia said, “me too, but you can talk while you’re making it.”
“I don’t know if you know this, but Delenda never knew her real mother.”
“I’m listening,” Venetia said.
“Why is this so awkward?” Marlene said.
“It’s OK, sweetheart,” said Julian, “I’ll take over.”
“As long as someone does.”
“Higson told Delenda about Marlene. Not that they were still married, of course, but that they knew each other, that she’d gone by a different name or two.”
“Name or two? Try eleven or twelve,” Venetia said.
“He was concerned that Marlene would blow the whole thing, tell Delenda the scam. So he told her first. Only Delenda didn’t take it the way that he thought.”
“With me coming here, not really talking about my past, and then finding out that I wasn’t exactly Marlene, Delenda got the idea somehow that maybe—”
“That you could be her mother? You must be joking. Someone shows up with a changed name and it obviously has to be about her. How typical.”
Julian smiled a little, the twinkle back and bright in his eyes. “It is, isn’t it? About what you’d expect.”
“I’m not,” Marlene said quickly. “Never had any kids. Actually, Julian and I have always felt like you, while not our kid, exactly, since you have your own parents, but like you’ve been a niece to us.”
“I’ve felt the same way,” Venetia said, “except right now, I’m kind of feeling like I have no idea who I’m talking to. Doesn’t it bother you, Julian, that your marriage isn’t valid?”
“That’s what Higson was doing here in the first place,” he said. “Well, that and trying to clear Shane Palint. We tried to reason with him, tried to get him to see that they needed the divorce, at least, if not the annulment. But he’d never had a problem with the marriage scam before.”
“Let me guess. The last time he ran it was years ago.”
“Bingo. So we were working out the details, if you know what I mean,” Marlene pulled a box of tea from the cabinet and gave a couple of teabags a dunk in the hot water.
“I don’t get why he’d use his grandfather’s name, though. It seems like a pretty big giveaway.”
“He didn’t come here for the marriage gig. It sort of just happened. He was here about Shane Palint. For Woody, he’s his you.” Marlene smiled at her tentatively. “He couldn’t get out of the state with the name Woody Boggs. If you think my list of warrants is impressive, you should see his. So he used his older brother’s identity.”
“Wouldn’t his older brother have a problem with that?”
Marlene shrugged, grabbed the mugs and plunked them on the table. “He wasn’t exactly using it. He was stillborn. Anyway, he came to town looking for anything that would get Shane off the hook for Brenna Chale’s murder, and we took our chance to try to talk him into the divorce. And then Delenda came along. She said she knew something important, and then I guess the marriage thing took care of itself. He’s not one to miss an opportunity. Any opportunity.”
“But why would she think you’re her mother? First of all, you’re not that much older.”
“Teen mom? I don’t know, but she was fixated on the idea. Then she brought that lawsuit, and we didn’t have the heart to go through the trial.”
“Or you didn’t want people to find out who you really are. You know, that small pesky detail of active warrants.”
“I’m taking care of it,” she said.
“Right.”
“I really am. No, that wasn’t it. We felt, well…”
“Sorry for her,” said Julian.
“For Delenda.”
He nodded.
“Do you realize that she created a money laundering operation and used my name? She even faked a notary stamp from me for it. A registered notary stamp. Bonded and everything. Do you know what kind of crime that is?”
They exchange looks again.
“What? This talking without talking thing is driving me bananas,” she said.
“We gave her the money so that she could find out who her real mother was,” said Marlene. “That was really it. It was obvious that the lawsuit was her lashing out, so we figured, if she had the cash, she could find her. I thought it might make her a happier person.”
“It certainly didn’t make her a nicer person,” Venetia said.
“We didn’t think that they’d drag you into it,” said Julian.
“Drag me into what?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Everything’s complicated.”
“Here, let me take the tea from you for a moment, this might be a little shocking for you. It turns out that her real mother is your aunt. Sissy.”
“Yeah,” said Venetia, sliding her tea back toward her, “I know.”
“You know? How?”
“I don’t think that’s important. What does Sissy being her biological mother have to do with me?”
“I don’t totally understand it,” said Marlene, “but because of some kind of restriction with Sissy’s estate, in order to make sure that Delenda was treated as her daughter, they had to form that corporation.”
“What?”
“The corporation, whatever it was called –”
“ShamCorp”
“Yes, that one, they needed it because of something with how Sissy’s money was tied up after she had to sue. You know, after Lan Mather died.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I’m probably not explaining it right,” said Marlene.
“Did Dane say all that?” Venetia said. “Did he come up with that explanation?”
“No,” said Marlene. “It wasn’t Dane. What a shame, by the way,” she said.
“You heard he was killed?”
“Yes,” she said. “We heard.”
“I’m telling you, that makes absolutely no sense. All Sissy needed to do is revise her will if she wanted Delenda to inherit. Heck, if she doesn’t have a will, and who knows, it’s Sissy, if she dies, it would go to her offspring, and Delenda had the maternity test to prove it.”
“How do you know that?”
“Again, it doesn’t matter, I do. Even if she wanted to set up a trust for Delenda, so that she could get money now,” Venetia paused, and then re-thought, “I mean while she was alive, she’d draft that. A trust. Not a corporation. A corporation doesn’t make any sense.”
Marlene shrugged. “I don’t know, I ‘m not a lawyer. That’s what they said they needed to do, and they both figured you w
ouldn’t mind. And neither wanted to tell you, at least not yet. They said it wasn’t a big deal.”
“Are you kidding? Of course it’s a big deal. It looks like I created a shell corporation, and worse, it looks like I used my notary license to boot. That’s under penalty of perjury.”
“They didn’t explain it that way.”
“Who told them that? If it wasn’t Dane?”
“I’m not sure,” said Marlene.
“Oh, no, I remember,” Julian said. “It’s that lawyer Sissy’s been seeing, what’s his name, Walter I think.”
“Walter Bloaerd?” Venetia said.
“Yes,” said Marlene. “He seems nice enough for her, though I think he’s married.” She and Julian smiled at one another, and she suppressed a chuckle, “though who am I to talk?” she said.
“I thought conmen—”
“Hey,” Marlene said.
“Conwomen, is that better? Were good judges of character. And besides you guys are weirding me out,” said Venetia. “This is just…not normal.”
“Who needs normal?” Marlene grinned.
“I’ve got to go,” she said. “Are you sure that that’s what Delenda said, she needed the corporation in order to inherit from Sissy?”
“Absolutely,” said Marlene. “Or something like it.”
“See you Monday,” said Julian as Venetia headed for the door.
***
She was sitting her car outside a sandwich shop, trying to unravel her brain enough to figure out something to eat, when she got a text from Cadby. “Got some of the documents,” it said. “Nightingale was right. Quite a story.”
She called back immediately. “What is it?” she asked.
“We figured out ShamCorp,” he said, “and you are now completely, unequivocally off the hook.”
“I thought that happened already.”
“Eh,” he said, “I let you think that. In case you slipped up.”
“You know, you haven’t gotten less annoying over the last week,” she said.
“You know, I still am an officer of the law,” he said.
“So what does any of it have to do with ShamCorp?”
“It was definitely laundering money. For none other than Alden Sway.” He waited for it to sink in.
“You got that from the documents on the platter?”
“Absolutely not,” he said, “they’re too out of date. Nope, I got that from Dane Froxen.”
“But Dane is dead.”
“Exactly,” he said.
“Why don’t you meet me?” she told him. “I’m confused.”
He was there in less than fifteen minutes, and they sat at a table outside, away from the café’s other handful of customers.
“What do you mean, you got it from Dane?” she said after he ordered his coffee.
“We searched his computer,” he said, “and we found some accounts. Some very unusual ones,” he said.
“Why?”
“That’s not the best question,” he said. “How about asking me where?”
“But you said Dane’s computer.”
“Yes, but which one?” he said.
“He had a computer at Bloaerd & Associates?” she said.
“Sometimes you’re quick enough to impress me,” he told her. “Yes, he sure did. And the files weren’t specifically on his hard drive. They were on the server.”
“Huh,” she said. “I don’t get it.”
“You wouldn’t, I haven’t given you enough information yet,” he said. The waitress brought the coffee, and then went back inside. “There was a code to the accounting, nothing was spelled out.”
“And you cracked it that quickly?”
He smiled, shaking his head. “Nope,” he said. He took a sip of coffee. “We didn’t have to. That we got from Brenna’s documents, there was a key on the plate.”
“A key?”
“Yes, a key for the encryption. With it, we were able to see where the money came from and where it went. We haven’t figured out individual names yet, but the corporation itself funneled huge amounts of money from various banks all over the world.”
“So Brenna was completely on to something about Alden.”
“We haven’t gotten to Alden yet,” he said. “We’ve gotten as far as Dane.”
“But she got the documents from her husband.”
“That’s what she said. We have to prove it,” he said. “But so far, it’s been pretty useful. And it’s a lot of money. Tipsy was right, it looks like trafficking, but there’s no indication of what. It could be weapons, it could be drugs.”
“Do you think the files on the platter will tell you?”
He shrugged. “We’ll have to wait, it’s not the most efficient way to get data.”
“You came all this way to tell me this? It doesn’t seem like a ton of information.”
“I needed some coffee,” he said, holding up the cup. The waitress noticed and brought the pot over, refilling it to the brim. “Thanks,” he said.
“You left the office to get coffee and to tell me that? Really?”
“There may be one other little thing,” he said. “We got some fingerprints off of the chocolate box that was delivered to me. Couldn’t find anything, until we checked the federal records, you know, the databases for background checks and the like.”
“And?”
“They matched a Tammy Steyer.”
“Tammy Steyer?” said Venetia. “I know that name.” She flipped through her mental files, trying to line it up. “She’s the receptionist at Bloaerd & Associates.”
“Not bad,” he said. “Not bad.”
“But why would she send you chocolates from Tipsy? That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
“Turns out that Bloaerd & Associates regularly sends chocolates to clients,” he said. “They have an account.”
“But the note?”
“Talked to Tammy. She said she never saw it, she only picked up the order, brought it to the office, and gave it to the courier.”
“Why not have it picked up by the courier and delivered directly?”
“Apparently she was under strict orders not to do it that way.”
“From?”
“Bloaerd himself. Oh, and one other thing,” he said, his eyes alight. “Two of those chocolates in the box on my desk had poison in them.”
“What?”
“You, Venetia Shipman, apparently saved my life.”
Chapter 29
“Poison? What kind?”
“All we know so far is that it’s some kind of alkaloid. A pretty potent one.”
“That’s unsettling.”
“Tell me about it,” he said. “And there’s something else. And this one’s tougher for me to admit.” He slowly turned his cup in its saucer.
“I think I’m going to like it if you start that way.”
“I think you might,” he said. “I’m starting to come around to your point of view on Brenna Chale.”
“Really?” she said, her flinging hand nearly tipping her coffee. She grabbed the cup in time to steady it, with a little coffee sloshing into the saucer. “Why?”
“Turns out that Bloaerd has one major client,” he said. “And that’s Sway. Even the main set of books—”
“There are two sets of books?”
“I told you there were—”
“You said you found another set on the server. That’s different than keeping two sets.”
“How?”
“The question is whether they’re for the same business,” she said. “He could have been keeping financial records for someone else.”
“That’s a point,” he said, “but what we found matched the key in Brenna’s documents. And, if you’ll let me finish—”
“You act like interrupt you or something.”
His only answer was a glare. “If you let me finish, we found a company that fulfilled the same function as ShamCorp filtering a huge chunk of money from whatever that import/e
xport business is. Only it looks like that earlier corporation was dissolved.”
“When?”
“At the time of the divorce,” he said. “That one was in Brenna’s name. Do you know anything about it?”
She shook her head. The waitress refilled their coffee and put the bill on the table.
“Nothing in the discovery?” he asked.
“Brenna didn’t want to do full discovery, we only got about a third of the documents we requested, but the more I pushed in court, the more scared she got. Clearly for good reason. She wanted a settlement, but we had to show we’d done discovery to enter one. Given how reluctant Sway was to turn over anything, we still had a way to go.”
“Could something like incorporation papers or anything showing ownership maybe find their way into the documents they sent for discovery?”
“What are you asking?”
“It’s actually more of a favor. Brenna must have known about the corporation, for all we know, that’s what got her wanting out in the first place.”
“So?”
“What if she had told you? Or better yet, what if you found something that proved it existed in the discovery you were, say, closing out now that the law office has to shut down?”
“You now believe me about Sway and Brenna.”
“I’m leaning that way, yes.”
“And you want me to go talk to a guy you think killed her and make him believe I have documents that don’t exist?”
“I’m starting to think Sway had something to do with Delenda’s death as well. Oh, and Dane’s”
“OK, there’s too much in that sentence. First, why Delenda and why Dane?”
“Well, the previous owner of the previous money laundering operation died. And we found the connection on Dane’s computer. Add to that what you told me about Dane and Sissy needing to those documents to give to Sway, probably in exchange for fixing Sissy’s estate case—”
“I see what you mean. How do we know he won’t kill me?”
“Totally different set of circumstances,” he said. “You’re approaching him about what you found. Maybe you’re looking for a little payout.”
“Sway would never buy it of me, not given the way the case went or the court hearings. Besides, sorry to poke a hole in your plan, but I can’t contact Sway directly, it’s against the ethical rules.”