Innocent Conspiracy

by David Archer

  “Charlie’s in his late forties,” Sam said, “and I don’t think he’s all that intelligent. It’s possible he was fooling us, but I certainly didn’t get that impression.”

  “No, neither did I,” Darren said. “Quite the opposite, in fact. He’s not entirely stupid, you can’t be and do good video work, but he’s not the kind of person who can manipulate others very well. The person we’re looking for knows how to do that, and how to do it very well.”

  “Okay, anybody else got any ideas?”

  All five of the investigators looked at one another, but it was Walter who finally raised a hand.

  “Walter?” Sam asked. “Go ahead, what are you thinking?”

  “Jade said John Morton is the one hiding money,” Walter said. “Did we find any proof of that? Is it possible it could be somebody else? The reason I’m asking is because I looked up a few things about Morton’s background. Besides the fact that he’s a programmer, he’s also a licensed CPA. If he wanted to hide money, he could probably find a lot of ways to do it that we never would discover.”

  All of the others stared at him, and Jade began to shake her head.

  “No,” she said. “I never saw any proof that it’s him doing it. I actually was told that by one of the employees who says he forces her to fudge the paperwork, but I only have her word for it, now that I think about it.” She turned to Sam. “Maybe I should go pay her another visit.”

  “Go ahead,” Sam said. “But take Summer with you.”

  27

  It took Karen almost an hour to find Charlie, but Sam was ready by the time she got him to the offices. There was a room near the front door that was used for small meetings, and had just a table and four chairs. They took him in there, with Sam, Karen, and Darren.

  “What’s this all about?” Charlie asked. “I already told you everything I know.”

  “That’s what we want to find out, Charlie,” Sam said. “See, there’s one little detail we haven’t been able to figure out, and we think maybe you can shed some light on it for us.”

  Charlie shrugged. “Okay, if I can. What is it?”

  Sam had brought a tablet into the room, and he turned it around so Charlie could see it. He tapped the screen, and the security video showing Bernadette Jones mounting the rifle onto the camera began to play.

  “Take a look at this,” Sam said. “That’s the woman who set up the rifle. Notice anything funny about this video?”

  Charlie looked at the screen. “Looks like she’s trying to dress like a man,” he said. “Is that what you mean?”

  “No,” Sam said. “No, what I’m talking about is the fact that the camera moves down to where she’s standing. Now, we know enough about the control room to know that it’s very complicated. It’s very doubtful that her partner would have been able to figure out which controls moved the camera well enough to have brought it down to her that perfectly. That would take somebody who was familiar with those controls, somebody who really knew how to use them. Any idea who might have been in the control room at three o’clock in the morning?”

  Charlie suddenly looked nervous. “I—how would I know? I already told you, I gave them the cue sheet, but that was it.”

  “No, you also admitted to giving them the access code for the door,” Darren said. “Charlie, it’s time to come clean, buddy. That was you in the control room, wasn’t it?”

  Charlie stared at him, swallowing repeatedly. “I—no, I wouldn’t…”

  “See what I mean, Sam?” Darren asked.

  Sam grinned. Charlie was tapping his pinky against his palm. “Charlie, give it up. Your body language is giving you away, right now. We know it was you in the control booth, but I want to know what else you know about this. Now, you can either talk to us here, or you can talk to the prosecutor when he adds accessory to attempted murder to the charges against you. I think you can kiss any hope of probation goodbye, if that happens.”

  Tears started to run down the man’s face, and Charlie gave in. “It was the same thing,” he said. “They threatened to rat me out if I didn’t help. They just told me what time to be there and which camera they wanted, that’s all I did, I swear. As soon as they were done, they went their way and I went mine, and I never saw them again.”

  “What this means is you spent more time with them than you told us before,” Darren said. “I want to know what they talked about while you were with them. Did you know they were planting a gun?”

  “No, no, I swear I didn’t know that,” Charlie said. “I told you, they said they were reporters and they were trying to get the scoop on everybody else. I thought they were hiding their own cameras up there, I swear I did.”

  The questioning went on for nearly an hour, but Charlie never gave up any more information. When they were done, Sam and Darren agreed that he probably didn’t know anything else of value. With Karen’s cooperation, they decided not to take this additional information to Pemberton.

  Karen drove Charlie home, and Sam and Darren began once more trying to figure out who the inside person was.

  *

  Jade and Summer walked into the Web Wide Awards building and told the security guard at the front desk that they needed to speak with Jackie Bridges. He consulted his computer and then looked up.

  “I’m sorry, but Ms. Bridges didn’t come in today. According to the computer, she didn’t even bother to call in, and personnel hasn’t been able to get hold of her.”

  Jade looked at Summer, then both of them took out their IDs and shoved them in the security guard’s face. “My name is Summer Raines, and I’m an investigator with Windlass Security,” Summer said. “Give me her address, right now.”

  He looked at the ID for a moment, his eyebrows trying to crawl over his forehead, and then slowly shook his head. “Ma’am, I’m sorry,” he said, “but I’m not allowed to give out that kind of information about employees here.”

  Summer leaned across the desk until she was almost nose to nose with him, and gave him her sweetest smile. “Daniel? It says Daniel on your name tag, that’s you, right? Listen, Daniel, I’m not the type of girl to really push a guy, but if you don’t cough up that address in the next five seconds, I’m going to make you wish you were born female, because then it wouldn’t be so embarrassing when you have to sit down to pee. Now, you don’t have to believe me, because it won’t take me ten seconds more to prove it. Five—four—three…”

  “Hang on, hang on,” he said. “They don’t pay me enough for this stuff. Okay, look, I can’t give you the address, even though it’s right here on the screen on my computer, I can’t give it to you, do you see it? I’m not allowed to read that off to you.”

  “Got it,” Summer said, and the two women bolted out the door. They had come to the building in Summer’s Jaguar, and the big engine roared as she dropped it into gear.

  Behind them, a man stood and stared after them through the glass of the front doors. Neither of them had noticed.

  Jackie’s house, according to Jade’s GPS, was nearly 20 minutes away. It was less than fourteen minutes later when Summer slid to a stop in her driveway. The two girls jumped out and headed for the front door of the house, each of them with a hand on a weapon.

  Jade knocked, but they waited more than a minute with no response. Summer signaled that she was going around the back, and Jade nodded as she knocked again.

  The backyard was fenced in, and Summer found the gate and made her way into it. She slipped around the back of the house, keeping a close eye out in case anyone was watching, and walked up to the back door. It was on a small concrete porch, and she looked through the window on the door before she tried the knob. There was no one in sight, but the knob was unlocked so she opened the door and stepped inside. She had her gun in her hand, keeping it low until she managed to get the door closed quietly behind her.

  The kitchen opened directly onto the living room, and she cleared it quickly. She went to the front door and opened it, putting a finger to her lips to
tell Jade to be quiet. The two of them, both with guns in their hands, started moving through the house.

  A hallway led off from the living room, and they found Jackie laying on the bed in what must’ve been her own room. There was a needle hanging out of her left arm, and Jade made a face as she reached down to feel for a pulse.

  Her eyes flew open. “She’s alive,” she said to Summer, who immediately dialed 911.

  Jade yanked out the needle and started slapping Jackie in the face. “Jackie? Jackie, can you hear me? Jackie, it’s Jade, come on, respond to me.”

  She got a simple moan, but Jackie wasn’t truly responding. She kept trying until paramedics arrived almost 10 minutes later, and they got out of the way as they started doing what they could for her.

  “Any idea what she took?”

  “No, we found her this way. I removed the needle, it’s right there on the bed beside her.”

  The paramedic took a look at the needle, then rolled his eyes. “Meth,” he said. “Any idea how long she’s been using it?”

  “I’m pretty sure she hasn’t been, before now,” Jade said. “She works for a company that requires regular testing, and not just urine. They get very serious about it, so there’s no way she was using meth regularly.” She showed him her ID. “She was a potential witness in a major crime investigation. I personally suspect foul play. Any idea whether she’ll make it?”

  “That depends on a lot of things,” the paramedic said. “How much she took, how strong her heart is, and a lot of other things. I started an IV drip to get fluids into her, and we’re taking her to the hospital now.”

  As the paramedics were leaving with Jackie, two police officers arrived. Jade gave them Jackie’s basic information, and the officers began taking the steps necessary to locate and arrange care for her children.

  Jade called Sam and told him what was happening, and he gave her the okay to go to the hospital. She and Summer headed there immediately.

  Surprisingly, Jackie was awake in the ER when they arrived. Showing their ID got them past the hospital’s security, and they were able to walk into the room where she was still connected to IV lines.

  Jackie saw Jade and began to cry. “They said you found me,” she said. “They said I might’ve died if you hadn’t found me.”

  “Don’t worry about that, right now,” Jade said. “What we want to know right now is how this happened. Do you use meth regularly?”

  “Oh, God, no,” Jackie said. “I don’t do any drugs at all. I’ve got kids, you know?”

  “That how did this happen? How did you end up with a needle hanging out of your arm, overdosing on methamphetamine?”

  Jackie looked at her as if she was confused for a moment, then her eyes went wide. “Somebody broke into my house,” she said. “It was right after the kids left for day care, they ride a van in the mornings. I was getting dressed, getting my makeup done and all that, and somebody broke in the back door. I heard a noise, and then somebody grabbed me and held me down on the bed, and somebody else stuck a needle in my arm.” She shook her head, tears flying. “That’s all I remember. Who would do that?”

  “Jackie, did you recognize them?” Summer asked.

  “No, they—they had some kind of cloth over their faces, all I could see were their eyes.” She looked around for a moment, then her eyes came back to Jade. “This is because I talked to you, isn’t it? Somebody’s afraid I told you too much, they’re trying to shut me up.”

  “I have to say that’s possible,” Jade agreed. “But don’t worry, my boss is putting security on you. No one is going to get close to you again, and we’ll make arrangements to protect your children, as well.”

  “My kids? You think they might try to hurt my kids? Oh, God, I have to get out of here, I have to…”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Jade said. “Right now, this is where you need to be. The police are going to pick up your kids, and they’ll bring them here, I already arranged that. I’ve got security guards on the way right now, they should be here any minute. You just lay back and relax, and do what the doctors tell you.”

  Jackie was still crying, but she nodded. “My kids,” she said. “If they think you’re doing drugs, they can take your kids.”

  “I already explained to the police that I know for a fact you don’t do drugs regularly, so they’re cooperating with us. I’m sure they’re gonna want to talk to you, but you just tell them the same thing you told us. They can’t hold it against you if someone injects you with drugs against your will.”

  “No, we can’t,” said a voice behind her, and Jade and Summer turned to see Karen Parks walk in. “Sam called me, and I’d already heard on the radio anyway. What’s going on?”

  “Summer and I were going out to talk to Jackie again, about some things she told me when I was working undercover. I’m sure Sam told you we have evidence that money has been transferred from Web Wide Awards to Starbright, and might be the money that was used to pay for the shootings. Well, Jackie was the first one to notice discrepancies in the accounting, and she told me that John Morton was requiring her to keep her mouth shut about it. He even gave her a couple of big pay raises, to keep her quiet, but it’s actually scaring her pretty badly. I think she knows that, if it ever comes out, the fact that she was covering it up isn’t going to look good on her.”

  Karen nodded. “And now, it looks like somebody wanted to shut her up permanently. Any idea who?”

  “Well, Morton is my number one suspect,” Jade said, “but Sam doesn’t agree with me. He doesn’t want any of us to confront Morton right now, unless it turns out there’s nobody else in the company who could be involved.”

  “Yeah, Sam gave me a quick briefing. At the moment, I’m agreeing with him.” Karen turned around as two Windlass security guards suddenly came through the door. “Looks like your reinforcements are here. I heard a couple minutes ago that they found her kids, and they’re on the way here right now. Let me talk with your witness for a bit, so I can make my report.”

  Jade and Summer stood back while Karen took Jackie’s statement, and then the two of them sat down on the sides of her bed.

  “Jackie, I found out where all that money was going,” she said. “Do you know?”

  Jackie shook her head. “No, it’s completely out of my hands once it leaves our office. All I know is that I get an email at the end of the day telling me what our total should have been, and then I go in and fix it if I have to. Can you tell me where it was going?”

  “I don’t think you need to worry about that right at the moment,” Jade said. “Jackie, do you know anything about the bank account? Who has access to them, that sort of thing?”

  “Not a whole lot,” she said. “Like I said, all we did was tally up the money that came in, and then it was up to the different sections in accounting to transfer it to where it needed to go. We didn’t even have access to any of the bank accounts.”

  “Okay, then, can you tell me anybody inside the company who would have access to that information, and who you think I could trust?”

  Jackie wiped away a tear and gave her a half grin. “There’s only one person involved in all of the accounting that I trust at all, and that’s Andy Wilson. He’s the senior accountant, and that means he’s the guy who actually has to okay transferring the money, but he’s about as nice as they come.”

  Summer looked at her. “Jackie, if he’s trustworthy, why would he be involved in a plan to hide money?”

  “I don’t actually think he is,” she said. “See, the way it’s all set up, there are different people in the accounting office to handle individual accounts. Only one of them would need to know what money was supposed to be transferred out, and that amount would be missing from her daily report. Andy would never see my totals until he went to reconcile everything the following day, and he couldn’t see that it had been edited.”

  “So, who is it that tells you every day how much you have to take off your totals to make it match up to
accounting? Wouldn’t that be Mr. Wilson?”

  “Oh, no,” Jackie said. “That actually comes in an email, in a special email account they set up for me. I’m not really sure who sends it out every day, it could be one of the accountants for all I know.”

  “Or it could be John Morton,” Jade said. “He’s the one who told you to make the totals match, right?”

  “Yes,” Jackie said. “He was very nice about it, but there was something about that meeting—almost like it was in some kind of spy movie or something, it was weird.”

  Summer’s eyes narrowed. “Tell us about the meeting,” she said. “Tell us everything about it, from the moment you got called to it, to the moment it was over.”

  Jackie blinked, but she nodded. “Okay. Well, it was toward the end of the day, and I remember it was on a Thursday. Somebody came by the office and told me that Mr. Morton wanted to see me about some kind of mistake I had made, and I thought that was pretty odd, since I’d never made a mistake in all the time I worked there. Anyway, I got up and went up the elevator and went to his office, but his secretary was already gone for the day. I knocked on the door and he told me to come on in, but when I stepped inside it was kind of dark. He was sitting behind his desk, in the dark, and he said he had a headache and that’s why the lights were out.”

  “Have you heard of him having headaches like that before?” Summer asked.

  “Well, pretty much everybody knows he gets migraines sometimes,” Jackie said. “Sometimes he just goes home, and we don’t see him for a day or two.”

  “Okay. Go on.”