Amber’s lower lip trembled.
“But, hey, I don’t know this Cody. Maybe he’s working for someone else, and is in over his head. That can happen too.”
Amber shook her head, reaching for a second cookie. “Possibly. But is that the sort of guy I want to get involved with? No.”
“Then we’re going to chalk it up to the hormones. You just haven’t met the right guy yet. Someday you will. And meanwhile …”
“Meanwhile, I have to clear my name, get another job, and get on with my own life.”
“Right.”
“And I need to be looking over my shoulder. If he’s really watching me …”
Gracie was silent for a minute. “Absolutely. I get the feeling this whole thing is coming to a head. Do you think he knows where you live?”
Amber shrugged. “I have no idea. I had no idea he was within a thousand miles of me.”
“Would you like to stay here until he’s caught?”
“No, that’s asking too much. You’ve seen my building. It’s really secure. I don’t buzz anyone up unless I’m expecting them, and I never answer the door without looking.”
“That’s good. Keep it up.” Gracie set her spade down. “I think it’s about time for another visit with that detective. I’ll see if I can find out if they’ve got any new evidence. He still seems to think I’m an associate of Mariah Kowzlowski, so I’ll play that up.”
“And I’ll get out of your hair. I had a few ideas of things I can check out online.”
Gracie saw Amber over to her car, then she went inside and called Detective Mark Howard.
Chapter 54
“I was practically on my way out the door,” Howard said. “I’ve got questions for your client. I can go to her or she can come to me.”
“We’ll come there. How’s three o’clock?” Gracie said.
At least he still believed she had a right to be there when Amber was questioned. She debated calling Mariah next, but they would learn more if the lawyer wasn’t there shushing them every other minute. She called Amber instead.
“I know you’re not even home yet …” She explained the detective’s request.
“I’m turning around. I’ll come back to your place and we’ll go together.”
“Meanwhile, we need more ammo for this meeting,” Gracie said. “We can do some research from my computer.”
They spent an hour on a website that purported to locate the criminal record of anyone. After paying the small fee, they browsed into the life of Cody Baker’s brushes with the law since the age of nineteen. Officially, there were only two.
“A traffic violation ten years ago?” Gracie seemed disappointed.
“Yeah, but look at this one. An arrest for fraud when a woman filed a complaint that young Cody had pulled the old pigeon drop scam. The case went before a judge, who ruled that Cody pay back the victim’s money, do thirty days of community service, and pay a fine of one hundred dollars.” Amber studied the details. “Isn’t this proof that he understands scams and isn’t above taking money?”
“I agree. Unfortunately, I don’t know if the police are going to think this is super relevant. Cody was barely twenty. Lots of young guys go through a wild phase, and a little brush with the law like this is what sets them straight.”
“Sounds like what his lawyer would say,” Amber said. “What if it’s true?”
Gracie turned away from the computer screen. “On the other hand, we know Cody didn’t quit after that little infraction. We’re ninety-nine percent sure he stashed the cash in your bag. And we know there’s more. You found a lotta, lotta banking transactions that add up to way more money than a guy like him earns. Sandy and Pen chased him all over the UK to figure out what he did with it. Do those sound like the actions of a totally innocent person who learned his lesson way back when? I’m thinking, no.”
“You’re right,” Amber said with a sigh.
“One thing I’ve learned about con men, such as the time my mother got roped in by the fake movie producer, is that they don’t generally learn their lessons and they don’t often change their ways. They depend on the victims not to report the crimes because it’s usually the victim who is embarrassed that they got taken in.”
“True that. I don’t want to admit this time it was me.”
“Hey, we’ll figure this out.” Somehow. “Let’s go talk to the cop. We’ll see what we can learn and we won’t tell him we’re working on our own. Right?”
“Got it.”
Howard escorted them into an interrogation room. Gracie found it hard to read his mood. He was carrying an evidence bag and a folder of papers, but she couldn’t tell what the bag contained. Once they were seated, he laid it on the table.
“Is this your cell phone?” he asked Amber. The phone’s case depicted a piece of art that Marianna Zeckis had painted. She’d had the cover custom made for Amber last Christmas. “The phone belongs to Blackwell-Gorse Tech. The case is mine. I’d like it back.”
“Later. This phone was issued to you by your employer?”
“Yes.”
He set the printed pages on the table and spread them out slightly. “This is a transcript of the text messages found on your company phone.”
“People send lots of text messages during the course of their work day,” Gracie said.
“The ones highlighted in yellow seem more personal,” Howard told them. “These particular ones were sent between Ms. Zeckis and one Cody Brennan.”
He turned the pages one-eighty degrees, so the printed text was visible to the women. Their eyes immediately went to the highlighted lines.
“There are a lot of references to cash,” the detective said, pointing. “This one in particular, where Mr. Brennan talks about ‘big money’ and your response says ‘got away with it.’ Care to explain that?”
“I’ve never seen these!” Amber was nearly out of her chair, and Gracie set a gentle hand on her thigh to get her to sit back down. “Show them to me on the phone.”
“They’re on there,” Howard said. There was no trace of warmth in his eyes now. “The phone itself will be brought out at trial. I assure you, these pages are an accurate transcript.”
“We’ll need copies of these pages,” Gracie said, her heart pounding as she tried to maintain a cool air.
Amber was trembling, practically ready to leap across the table and grab the evidence bag. Gracie’s grip on her knee tightened.
“Have you questioned the other party, this Cody Brennan?” Gracie asked.
“Not yet.”
“Do you plan to?”
“We’ve been unable to locate Mr. Brennan as yet.”
“Our own investigators have learned that his real name is Cody Baker,” Gracie told him. “He has a driver’s license issued in New Jersey. I can give you the address.”
Howard showed marginal interest. “We’ll check it out. Obviously, that’s quite a ways out of our jurisdiction.”
“But since the alleged crime occurred using a cellular connection, it’s really in no one’s jurisdiction, is it?” Gracie wondered how she’d come up with something so logical sounding while her own nerves were on edge like this.
“Back to my questions,” Howard said. “What, exactly, were you referring to in the message about ‘getting away with it’?”
“Ms. Zeckis has answered that. She did not send the message and has never seen it before. And we’re done here.”
She’d always wanted to say that to someone. She was frankly amazed when Howard handed over the transcript papers and stood up.
“These are a copy,” he said.
“Come on, Amber. We’re going home.”
It took a triple brownie hot fudge sundae with extra nuts at Cold Stone Creamery to calm Amber down enough that Gracie felt at ease leaving her at the condo by herself. She’d seemed in a daze as they left the police station and kept mumbling “how did he do it?” as they drove away in Gracie’s van.
Chapter 55
> Amber knew she wouldn’t sleep tonight. Her stomach was way too full of ice cream, and Detective Howard’s revelation still had her mind churning. Gracie had dropped her off, promising that she and her husband would get Amber’s car back to the condo. There was no way she wanted Amber driving, as upset as she’d been.
She’d gone through the printed sheets of text messages a dozen times. The frightening thing was that many of the messages were real. She remembered correspondence within the department, and messages from coworkers. Even some of the notes between herself and Cody were real. But the damning ones were those that referred to cash, the ones that made it seem as if she and Cody had plotted something together.
The guy was clever. She had always known it. But to figure out a way to hack her phone, to plant messages and make them fit—after the fact—the theft of the money from B-G and the cash in her bag coming back from France. He’d made it look as if she’d texted him from the airport after she’d cleared security in Paris, knowing there was illicit cash in her bag.
How? How had he done it? The question ricocheted through her head constantly.
She paced her condo restlessly, closing the drapes at dark, feeling like a caged animal. Her thoughts wouldn’t leave her alone.
Okay, she finally decided. How do I solve things? I go online. I look it up.
It was after ten p.m. when she settled at her desk. The texts were on her company phone. There had to be some way he’d hacked it. She sat in front of the borrowed computer from Sandy and began searching. Once again, the computer nerds in that same online forum provided an avenue to try.
Little miss badkitty asked how a person might plant texts on someone else’s phone. She took a little razzing about what her love life must be and a few suggestions that she was trying to take out a competitive lover, but she went along with it lightheartedly.
Hahaha. Yeah. So what would you guys do?
She actually received some good suggestions, but they all involved getting into the account for the phone, and that was Blackwell-Gorse.
“Okay. Let’s just give this a try.”
The houseplant didn’t respond.
Of course her old password and employee credentials were no longer valid. That came as no surprise. She tinkered with a few of the options the forum nerds had provided, hoping like crazy that B-G had not updated its security systems. She finally hit upon the one that got her into their system. From what she knew when she worked there, even though data itself was encrypted, there were no overall sweeps that would detect someone signing in through this one particular channel.
She had two goals. First was to figure out how Cody had framed her. If he could plant fake messages on her phone, could she figure out a way to make them disappear? Secondly, she needed to find out exactly how much money had been taken. That was more of a curiosity at this point. If her case ever went to court, it would surely be a highlight. But, if the thing she had in mind proved to be true, and if she found a way … the dollar amount would be important.
It took more than two hours of running into dead ends before she admitted that she couldn’t figure out how to get into anyone’s company cell phone, including her own. That appeared to be a function of the cellular provider, and that was a subject she would work out later.
Internal company memos seemed a promising way to find out more about the missing money. She located the account of the corporate comptroller and began reading emails that had gone out during the weeks leading up to her arrest. She’d just found the thread when the computer sent out a ding.
Hmm. It wasn’t the signal for incoming email—she’d never configured this machine with an account. She toggled away from the browser tab she’d been working on and looked to see what the new message might be.
The facial recognition software had picked up something.
Hm, puzzling. Amber didn’t remember having left the program running. She didn’t remember shutting it down either, so she clicked the icon to bring it up to full-screen size.
There was a photo of Cody Brennan. Side by side were one of the pictures she had loaded from her phone, and the match found by the software was an employee badge.
Cody Brennan was an employee of Blackwell-Gorse Tech.
Holy crap!
Chapter 56
Like an avalanche reaching the bottom of the mountain, everything fell into place. Chaotic, destructive, yes. But so many things now made sense. Amber slapped the surface of her desk so hard the houseplant flinched.
She raked her fingers through her hair, unable to take her eyes off the screen. What the hell, what on earth, what the f— was happening? She turned away for a moment and then looked back. It was real, all right. He’d been working in the Phoenix office, right in her same building. Her leg began twitching.
She stood up and paced to the kitchen, staring around. She strode the length of the living room, back to the hallway to her bedroom, making a circle of her home. Had he been watching her all along? Targeted her specifically? How long had this been going on? She trotted back to her desk and took a closer look at the badge. His date of employment began four months ago.
When had she first heard of Cody Brennan? Three or four months ago.
Had he moved here from the east coast specifically to spy on her? A creepy feeling washed over her. How much watching had he done? Could he have even come to her condo and placed bugs or cameras?
Paranoia was quickly followed by anger.
“If you’re listening in, Cody, I have one thing to say: Watch out!”
She reined herself in. Wait a minute. This isn’t how Pen would handle it, not the way any of the Heist Ladies would. They would play it smart, set a trap, gather their evidence, and then get angry. No, not get angry—get even.
The boiling anger inside her settled into something else. Cold, hard determination.
“You don’t mess with my heart, and you don’t mess with my livelihood, you rotten little creep.”
Except he hadn’t been a creep—he’d been handsome and romantic and so gentlemanly. The perfect con man.
The walks, the dinners, the kisses under the linden trees, the single pink roses—it was all nothing more than a means to a goal. She felt tears prickle her eyes, but she blinked them back. She had to keep her wits about her. This was war.
She picked up her phone to call the Ladies. It was 1:56 a.m. She couldn’t wake everyone now. It wouldn’t be nice. But she could work out a plan and call them together later in the morning. For now, she needed to delve deeply into the code behind the company screens and figure out exactly how Cody had pulled off the scam.
From the facial recognition program, she printed the page with the two images of him. She would begin gathering every scrap of evidence she could put together for the police. But she had no intention of turning it over to Detective Howard just yet.
First, she had a score to settle.
Chapter 57
Cody woke up in a cold sweat. At first he couldn’t figure out if the landlady had left the thermostat set too hot or too cold. He kicked off the covers. His skin felt clammy.
He’d been dreaming, and this one was real, exactly what had happened seven months ago. He’d been back in Jersey, where it was bitter cold. An ordinary day in late winter, one of those where everyone was ready for spring but yet another cold front was pushing through. A buddy from school called, suggesting Cody come out to Arizona for spring break. Except he wasn’t still in school, and there was no such thing as spring break when you worked at Omni.
“Hey, man, the winters here are nothing. Some rain for a couple weeks … you might put on a sweatshirt once in a while. It’s gorgeous here right now and I’m sitting by the pool in shorts. Dump that gig and come on out here.”
At that moment the power went off. It stayed off for two days, as the whole Eastern seaboard was shut down by an ice storm. Three days later, once planes began flying again, Cody was on a flight westbound.
He smiled now at the memory, but there was
something more. He couldn’t remember the ending of the dream, but it felt ominous, like a warning of some kind. And then he knew. Amber had figured out his lies and knew he was now in Arizona. He knew it when something in her expression abruptly changed during their video chat. He reached down and pulled the blankets back over his body, suddenly unable to stop shaking.
Chapter 58
“I want to catch him and I want to wring his neck,” Amber said through gritted teeth.
Gracie was the first of her friends she’d been able to raise this morning. Once her two kids were off to school, Gracie suggested, they should meet for breakfast at their favorite place. It was the two of them now at Brennan’s where the eggs Benedict were heavenly.
Pen had said she could join them later. She was on an early call with her editor in New York. It was Mary’s turn to take the opening shift at the gym, and Sandy had management people in from her bank’s home office. They had all requested updates from Amber as soon as possible.
“But before I kill the slimy worm, I need to clear my name.”
“We need to figure out the best way to do that,” Gracie said, stabbing a fresh strawberry that had come with her meal. “And just to be clear, you don’t actually get to kill him.”
“I know. Dammit.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to. There’s always way more blood than you expect, and then there’s the life sentence in prison. If you thought embezzlement was serious …”
Amber actually chuckled, which drew a stare from a severe looking woman at the next table.
Gracie lowered her voice. “But secretly, I agree.”
Amber cut into her eggs and ate a generous forkful.
“So, how do you propose to clear your name?”
“I say we steal the money back. Remember how we did with Pen’s stolen necklace? Well, we just figure out how to gather up all the missing money.”
Show Me the Money Page 17