by Dale Mayer
“If you want to keep track of stuff, you have to devise new and unique ways to do it. The world is a sucky place if you always do everything the same way.”
He laughed. “Maybe, but I can’t imagine doing what you’re doing.”
She glanced at her hands and smiled. “Not a biggie. I started a few years back. Actually, I think, when I was in college. I was always struggling to get caught up, and this seemed to be one of the few ways to do it.”
“Good for you,” he said. “I certainly can’t.”
She glanced over at his prosthetic. “And yet you’re very good at computers.”
“I learned to type fast with my right hand anyway. Never did learn to type properly, so this wasn’t much of an issue.”
“That was advance planning.”
That startled a laugh out of him. Then he asked, “Do you have any idea who’s been digging into the company and causing trouble?”
“I want to say it was Slim, but that’s because I don’t like him. Plus that’s just way too easy as an answer. I don’t think he has the computer skills to do this.”
“Didn’t take too much skill to leave photocopies in the Xerox machine.”
“True, he was probably the idiot at the copier,” she said. “But, as to this second-ledger business, if it was him, he’s logged in as one of our three partners because I’m not seeing any other log-ins here.”
“How hard would it be to get their log-ins?”
“Phil’s, probably not too hard. He was lazy and wrote down everything on his desk. Fred was much more security-conscious.”
“Places like this, security is everything,” Carter said. He got an ill feeling when he thought about somebody being so cavalier about that. “The number of accounts someone could access through your company alone …”
“I hear you. It’s one of the things I was fighting for before all this happened. Over this last year, Fred slowly came over to my way of thinking, but Phil wasn’t even close.”
“How often did that happen?”
“What happen?” She shook her head and tried to focus on him.
“How often did one partner side with you against the other partner?”
As if understanding this might be more serious than she initially thought, she sat back and frowned. “I’m not sure. Not very often. There hasn’t been much we’ve disagreed on.”
“Good. When there are three partners, it’s always a bit of a worry.’
“If we had spent ten years together and had gone through multiple economic cycles especially, then maybe. But we have only been together for just over four years. As the youngest member, I was always much more deferential to their wishes. But I have been finding my voice lately,” she admitted. “And a few things—like the physical and the online security—I was getting to be a big stickler on.”
“Do you have an IT company that handles it?”
“We do. They’re very good.” She named a company he’d heard of. “Of course that’s no guarantee they don’t have a problem within their own system, but we didn’t see anything.”
“Well, Phil obviously left his log-in information lying around,” Carter said. “So then it’d be easy enough for somebody else to get it, whether a client in for a face-to-face visit or an employee. Particularly if they knew that’s what he did. So we need to focus on Phil’s folders first.”
“Yes. And one of the people I need to talk to is his secretary.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea. Does she have any boyfriends within the company?”
A glimmer of a smile whispered across her face. “Not a boyfriend but a husband who is friends with Slim. His name is Andy. The two have been best friends forever. Andy might even be related to the Longfellows too. I don’t know. And that was exactly what I was thinking of.”
Chapter 6
Hailey wasn’t sure if she should be bothered or grateful that Carter was on the same wavelength she was. She motioned at the computers in front of her. “Somebody must have had access and had to know what they were doing.”
“What does her husband do for the company?”
“Andy is a junior analyst.”
“So, potentially he knows enough to get into trouble?”
“Potentially. He also has a connection to get the log-ins from her.”
“We need them interviewed again, from this embezzlement angle. Any chance you can get the sheriff to do it, so you’re kept out of it?”
“I was thinking about stopping by his office today,” she said slowly. “I don’t want to cause trouble where there isn’t any, but we do need to get to the bottom of this.”
“I’ll come with you,” he said. Then he motioned toward the laptop. “How secure is this room?”
She glanced at the locked door. “I guess if somebody has the keys, it’s not that secure.”
“The door has a keypad for a passcode on top of the doorknob.”
“Yes, but we stopped using that and went back to the keyed entry. Everybody kept getting the codes wrong.” She watched his eyebrows go up and shrugged. “As I said, I’m trying to get certain things fixed.”
“Do you know if you can go back to using the passcode? We’ll lock it with a key but also with the passcode, if possible.”
“I can for my office,” she said. “I don’t know about Phil’s though.”
“Puts Phil back to being the weakest link again.”
Hailey watched Carter’s face as he turned to the door. It was almost like she could see the wheels spinning behind that gaze. She had forgotten how intelligent he was. The last couple times she’d seen him, they’d done nothing but fight. She saw a different side to him now. Maybe that was just her letting him in because she needed his help.
“Possibly,” she said, “but we can’t look at that just because it’s an easy assumption.”
He chuckled. “I would say something similar. Can we get into Phil’s office?”
She nodded and stood. “Come on. I’ll take you.” She locked her office and walked over to Phil’s. She would have unlocked the door with her key, but it was already unlocked when she twisted the knob. She swore under her breath. “That should never have happened.”
“Unless the sheriff’s department has taken all electronics, and nothing is left?”
“I know. But I would still say that nobody should have left these rooms unlocked.”
Carter wandered through Phil’s office that offered a good view. “Will you take a corner office now?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure what I’ll do actually. It’s a very strange position to be in.”
“Just try to get through this rough weather and see what it looks like on the other side of the storm.”
“Depends on how long this storm goes on,” she said. “Something like this is more damaging if it never gets solved. If it does get resolved, at least we have answers, whether I like them or not.”
“And rumors are deadly in the financial world. Did the sheriff take Phil’s laptop?”
“I’ll confirm that. You’re definitely right—that’s one of the big things.” She pulled out her phone and called the sheriff. “The door was also unlocked when I opened it up just now. It was locked, and I did lock it again when I was here this morning.”
The sheriff sucked in his breath. “So, you’re saying somebody went into that room and left it unlocked? Did they take anything?”
“Not that I can see,” she said. “I’ll run through the security feeds for the building. I’ll get back to you.” With that, she hung up.
“Why didn’t you mention the security feeds earlier?” Carter asked.
She sighed. “Maybe because I just learned both my partners are dead. I’m not thinking straight—not to mention the fact that the sheriff was already talking about our video feeds. So I assumed he was looking at them.”
“Where are they?”
Hailey led the way downstairs to one of the back rooms. She sensed the odd looks Carter was getting from other people. The c
ompany was now hers, and she appeared to be on chummy terms with him. They didn’t know who he was—he was a stranger in a place like this—and that was the worst thing one could be here in a town full of Longfellows. Hailey sighed.
Meanwhile, Carter ignored them all and followed her into a small room full of feeds and security camera equipment. “Where do you have the cameras?” he asked.
“One is at the top of the stairs, but it’s been disabled.”
“Since when?”
“Since May,” she said bluntly. “At a May Day party that crossed the line a bit.”
He just stared at her.
“Yes. I know. Apparently a couple people tried to take advantage of one of the upstairs offices for a private room. Somebody disabled the camera but did such a good job that we’re supposed to be getting a new one but haven’t yet.”
“It’s July.”
“I know. We haven’t had it fixed. Again, one more thing I argued about.”
“What is to even argue about? It should have just been done.”
“I put through the vouchers to get it done,” she said. “And our business accountant went to Fred for approval, and Fred brought it to me, then he brought it to Phil, and they both thought it was a waste of time and money. But I said, if it was good money to put it in, in the first place, it was good money to fix it, but the old men were stubborn.”
She watched as Carter stared at her uncomprehendingly.
“Small town. And you have to understand they didn’t think anything bad would ever happen.”
“But you did?”
“I didn’t like Slim,” she said bluntly. “Didn’t trust a damn thing about him. And when you don’t trust somebody, you always look around and wonder just what all else could be going on.”
“Okay, so we don’t have any cameras on the top floor. What about on the stairwells and the elevators?”
“Stairwells, yes. Elevators, no.”
He brought up the stairwell feed. “Do you have a company that looks after this security?”
“Yes, but they just handle maintenance on the equipment.”
“But not enough maintenance to put the camera on the top floor back up and running, it seems.”
“No, in fact, one of the maintenance guys got involved at the May Day party with one of the married secretaries. That’s how he knew which camera to disable.”
“For God’s sake.”
“Right?” Hailey laughed. “So, I’ll give you his name too. If you want to tear him apart, that would be just fine because he certainly isn’t planning on listening to me.”
“Why is that?”
“He’s a Longfellow.”
“Does everything come back to the Longfellows?”
“They’re like a virus,” Hailey said. Her voice held a certain mirth but with no laughs. “You’ll find them everywhere. Very contagious. You can catch the virus just by brushing past them.”
“So, let me get this straight. That Longfellow is one of your IT guys, and he was here for a May Day party where he knew there was a camera, then disabled it, so he could have a tryst with somebody from the company. Correct?”
“Correct, and the secretary was married.” She emphasized the last word.
“Good God,” he said. “This is worse than a soap opera.”
“It is a soap opera,” she said. “Anyway, the sheriff knows about the security issue, and he knows the company handling our security, but he also knows our IT guy is a Longfellow, also related to Fred. So, if we find anything, that’s one thing. But, if we have to go to that Longfellow to get it, that’s a different story, and security and privacy will then be an issue.”
“It shouldn’t be,” he said. “They should be locked down to secrecy at this point.”
“Well, again, this is a small town, and everybody knows everybody.”
“I don’t care if he’s married to you. He shouldn’t be telling anybody what the hell’s going on.”
“In theory, he shouldn’t be,” she said. “But in reality …”
Carter shook his head and kept going through the feed. “So, we can’t see the top floor. We can’t see the elevator, and I’m not seeing anything in the stairs. I presume everybody in the company knows the camera on the top floor isn’t working and none are in the elevators?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I’ll take a stab and say yes. And, if they had all known, and they have all spoken about it, then chances are three-quarters of the town knows too.”
He flicked through the cameras. “And yet this one is running.”
She leaned forward. “Yeah, I’m the one who insisted on that one going up. But they never connected it to the main system because they thought I was being foolish.”
“A security camera in a parking lot is being foolish?”
“‘Money out the window’ is what Fred would have said.”
“Wow.” Carter whistled. “They sound like backward hicks, and yet they’re involved in finance and investments.”
“Exactly. We have more firewalls and safeguards on our company’s internet databases than we do on actual physical security.”
“What use is any of that digital security if Phil wrote down his log-ins?” Carter asked.
“You’re asking the wrong person. Like I told you before, I’m the one who fought the lack of online security. I can only do so much with two older guys from another generation.”
“Wrong,” he corrected. “There’s only so much you could do. That’s all about to change.”
She looked at him and smiled. “I guess the first thing I should do is see if I can find a competing company for security without any Longfellow involvement. Then I’ll change how the passwords are dealt with.”
“I would get somebody not even close to this city. Surely somebody bigger handles stuff out this far too.”
“Maybe. I’ll check into that.”
“I’d check into it fast because you don’t know what all else they might be accessing.”
“What do you mean?” Hailey asked.
“For instance, what if they have hidden cameras in your office and can check your log-in as you type it in? It’s not that far out of the realm of possibility.” He watched the color fade from her skin.
She wrapped her arms around her chest.
He walked over and said, “I’m not trying to scare you …”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not that. I just always had the feeling my office was being watched.”
He froze and then put a finger to his lips. He pulled her close and whispered, “We’ll search the offices for bugs and cameras.”
“But I don’t know how,” she said.
He stepped away and said, “It’s probably just your imagination. I see nothing suspicious in this security office. Let’s go back to work.”
They locked the door behind them, and Hailey made a point of locking the keypad too.
Carter nodded in agreement. However, when they reached the hallway, Carter looked around and whispered, “We need to get some equipment.”
“Sure, but, while we don’t have it yet, I have work to do,” Hailey said, as they returned to her office.
“Can you work from home today?”
She frowned but nodded.
He motioned for her to pack up everything, and he grabbed all of what he had been working on. He stopped when he looked at the folders and told her maybe they should take them all home.
“Pardon?” she asked in confusion. He motioned to the files spread about her office.
She grabbed a box and stacked the files, then put in her laptop, leaving the one he’d been using.
“I’ll take that to my truck,” Carter told her after she finished packing.
“Okay,” she said. They stepped out, and she locked not only the knob but also the keypad.
After that, they went to Fred’s office. Nothing was left to lock up, as the sheriff had taken it all. She led the way down the back staircase and out into the parking lot, wher
e Carter put the box in Gordon’s borrowed truck while Hailey got in her truck. When she was inside her vehicle, Carter walked over to her side and leaned in.
“I want you to go straight home,” he said. “I’ll make a couple phone calls and get a shipment of tracking equipment sent to me.” She frowned at him, and he shook his head. “No arguing. We need to know if there’s a video problem.”
“We already know there’s a problem. What we need to know is how extensive it is.”
“I can get something in overnight. Or I can take the afternoon and make a trip to pick up the closest equipment. I’ve got to think about that.”
“Fine,” she said, “but I have to go grocery shopping before I go home.”
“Okay. You do that. Just be careful, will you?”
She nodded and backed up and out of the parking lot. After that, Carter hopped into his truck and headed out too. He didn’t go too far. He went up and around the corner, pulled onto the shoulder, and called Geir to explain what the problem was.
Geir stopped him midway. “Okay, so a hell of a lot is going on there with your friends, but what about the dog?”
“Longfellows dropped the ball on the dog,” Carter answered. “Get me some tracking equipment. I know it’s all connected. I just don’t know how.”
“You better find that dog though,” Geir warned.
“I will,” he said, ending the call. His fingers tapped a staccato on the wheel as he thought about it. Then he contacted Brenda’s driver.
“Hey, it’s Carter again,” he said.
The driver was almost sullen.
“I need the dog.”
A shocked silence came on the other end before the old man spoke. “I don’t have the dog.”
“You don’t, but I need to know what you did with him.” And again more silence followed. “Look. I don’t care what problems you have or how much trouble you might have gotten into with this dog. I think you let the dog loose somewhere. Probably for its own sake, but I need to know where, so I can find it.”
The driver spoke a spot of Spanish and then suddenly he said, “I let it go just outside the airport.”
“How long ago?”
“On the day it arrived. It was sitting there, waiting to be picked up, and I didn’t want to pick it up because I knew what Brenda would be like to the dog,” the old man said in a rush. “Nobody was around, so I opened up the cage and got the dog outside. Then the dog just took off. I don’t think he appreciated sitting in the cage all that time either. Maybe he knew what freedom was.”