by David Archer
A lot of Jackie’s nervousness seemed to be gone. “Ma’am,” she said, “if you tell anybody we had this conversation, I’m probably out of a job. You know that, right? I got kids, I’m just trying to take care of them, and that’s all.”
“I know, I checked your personnel jacket. Tell me what’s going on, Jackie.”
Jackie looked over her shoulder at Stacy, who smiled at her from the back seat and gave her a thumbs up, then turned back to Jade. “Mr. Morton called me in that day because there was an error, but it wasn’t in my totals. It was caused by the fact that he had moved some money around for some kind of special project, but he said it had to be a big secret until it was done. He had somebody in accounting who could actually handle moving the money without leaving a trail, but he needed to be sure that all the figures here matched up. The only way he could do that without changing the entire bookkeeping procedures was if he had somebody he could trust in income bookkeeping.” She shrugged. “He said if he could trust me to help him, he’d give me a raise. He had to wait a month, so nobody would think it was funny that I got a raise right then, but I’m making more money than I ever have in my life.”
“Which makes it a lot easier to take care of your kids,” Jade said, “but also to overlook the fact that you could be the one to get in trouble over this. I know Mr. Morton seems like a very nice man, but I’m pretty sure he’d throw you under the bus if the IRS started asking questions.”
Jackie grimaced again. “I figured that out myself,” she said. “I asked him about it one day, and that’s why I got another raise.”
Jade nodded her head. “That makes sense. He’s trying to keep you happy, so that nothing blows up in his face. Now, I’ve only got one more question, and I hope you can give me the answer. What is the secret project he’s using the money for?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Jackie said. “But I can tell you this. He says it’s going to make him richer than he ever dreamed he could be.”
*
Jade and Stacy had just gotten back to their office, letting Jackie go back to her own, when Sam called.
“You girls doing okay out there?” Sam asked.
“It’s been quite an interesting experience,” Jade said. “I’ve actually got a few things I’d like to discuss with you, but not over the phone. I was thinking of clocking out early here, anyway, so can I drop by and see you?”
“Well, I was actually calling to tell you that we believe the threat to Web Wide Awards has been neutralized. There don’t seem to be any further attacks planned, but this may not be entirely over for us just yet. Why don’t you come on by, and we’ll sit down and discuss it?”
“Sounds good,” Jade said. “We’ll be there shortly.” She ended the call and looked at Stacy. “Looks like we may be done here,” he said. “Sam thinks the problem is over as far as this company is concerned.”
Stacy made a pouty face. “Already? I was enjoying this. Most of my friends are men, I do not have a lot of girlfriends.”
Jade grinned. “Well, you do now,” she said. “You can hang out with me anytime you want.”
She got up and went next door, where Annie was leaning back in her chair, a big smile on her face. She had a pair of earbuds in her ears and was just about dancing in her chair to whatever music she was listening to. She must’ve sensed Jade’s presence in the doorway, because she opened her eyes suddenly and seemed mildly startled.
“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.”
Jade smiled. “No problem. You seem to be in an awfully good mood. Something going on?”
Annie smiled again, and her face wore an expression of relief. “I just got off the phone with Canterbury Soft Drinks,” she said. “After the shooting, they were talking about removing their sponsorship from the company, dumping us. They just told me they’re going to stick with us, and they just committed to doubling their ad budget with us. That’ll make the company another eleven million dollars a year, isn’t that great?”
Jade’s eyes went wide, and her smile matched Annie’s own. “Wow, that’s awesome,” she said. “Listen, I hate to barge in to your party, but can I have a minute?”
Annie nodded and motioned for her to enter. “Sure, come on in.”
Jade entered the office and closed the door behind herself, then sat in the chair in front of Annie’s desk. “I’m going to be leaving early today,” she said. “I need to go back to the office and talk with Mr. Prichard, but he seems to think your company is no longer in any danger. I just thought you’d like to know that before I leave.”
A look of relief flashed across Annie’s face. “Do you really think so? God, that would be even more good news, because this has been a nightmare the last few days. I’m just so glad Max is going to be okay.” She shivered. “I don’t know if I could have handled it if he had died.”
“Well, the last I heard, he was doing well. He should probably be going home pretty soon, and hopefully he’ll be making new episodes of Freaktown High again very soon.”
“I’m sure he will,” Annie said with a smile. “He really is quite a genius when it comes to video production.” She looked at Jade. “So, will you be coming back tomorrow? Or is this goodbye?”
“I don’t know the answer to that, right at the moment,” Jade said. “I guess it depends on what Mr. Prichard has to say. If it’s really over for you guys, then you might not need me anymore.”
Or I might need to come back and figure out just what your boyfriend is doing with all that hidden money, Jade thought to herself. There’s got to be something fishy about that, I just can’t put my finger on it yet.
“Okay, then I guess you’ll let me know?”
“I sure will,” Jade said, rising from her chair. “And if I don’t see you again, I want you to know that I wish you the best of luck in the future.”
Annie echoed the phrase, and Jade left her office. Stacy was waiting in the hallway, and the two of them took the elevator down and walked out the door.
“So, and now that we are away from there, what do you think of the things Jackie told you?” Stacy asked.
Jade shook her head. “I’m not sure what to think,” she said. “There’s something fishy going on, some reason John Morton wants to have money available he can spend without anyone knowing about it. In my experience, the only time hiding money is good is if you’re saving up for some kind of major surprise for someone you love. You know, like buying an engagement ring, or surprising somebody with an expensive dinner, that sort of thing.”
Stacy shrugged. “Perhaps Morton is buying Ms. Porter something very expensive?”
“Could be, I guess,” Jade said. “I keep going back to the fact that he gave Jackie a couple of big raises. He really wants her to keep it secret, and nothing I’ve seen gives any indication that Annie knows about it at all. With the kind of money we’re looking at, about the only gift he could surprise her with would be a yacht. No, he told Jackie it was going to make him richer than ever. That makes me think there’s some kind of secret deal going on, something under the table that might look bad if it came out.”
Traffic was light, and they were back at the Windlass headquarters building in thirty-five minutes. Jade found a space in the parking lot and the two girls walked inside, then hugged each other as Stacy turned toward the section of the building reserved for the security agents. Jade walked directly to Sam’s office and smiled at Jenna.
“I’m supposed to see Mr. Prichard,” she said.
“Yep,” Jenna said. She picked up the phone and pushed the button, then said, “Jade Miller is here.” A moment later, she’d hung up the phone and motioned for Jade to go in.
16
Sam was on his feet when she entered and motioned for her to take the chair in front of his desk. He waited until she sat down, then settled into his own chair again.
“You said you had some things you want to talk about,” Sam said. “Go ahead.”
“Well, it might not be that big a deal,” Ja
de began, “but my gut is telling me there’s something fishy going on out at Web Wide Awards. I found out that Morton is one of those people who doesn’t like to let his left hand know what his right hand is doing. He has all of the bookkeeping split up into four separate sections, and the girl running one of them has been pushed into helping him hide a fair amount of money.”
Sam raised his eyebrows. “Well, the IRS might be interested in that,” he said, “but that’s not something we should have to report. Under our contract with the client, anything we learn in the course of our investigation that is outside its scope falls under privilege; we’re actually not supposed to reveal such things, ever.”
“I don’t think it’s a tax issue,” Jade said. “To be perfectly honest, I get this really tingly feeling down deep in my gut that makes me think this money is somehow connected to what happened at the award show.”
Sam leaned forward and his eyebrows came down. “Are you saying you think Morton might have been directly involved somehow?”
Jade grimaced, and shook her head. “I can’t say that, necessarily,” she said. “I just feel like there’s some kind of connection between the fact he’s hiding what amounts to over a million dollars in the last six months, and the fact that somebody tried to arrange to have the company ruined.”
Sam looked at her for a moment, then asked, “Jade, did you find anything while you were there that might indicate a connection between Web Wide Awards and any of the other award organizations?”
She shook her head again. “No,” she said. “If anything, I think they consider Starbright to be their biggest competition. John and Annie have both been over to London to talk with Starbright’s Board of Directors about different things, mostly stuff that has to do with the indie video industry as a whole. I don’t think there’s any love lost between the two of them, but they both seem to have some sense of responsibility when it comes to how the industry is growing. You know there’s talk of regulating it, of the government trying to impose some kind of rules on what can be independently published in video.”
“I read a couple of articles on that,” Sam said. “I really don’t think it has much chance of getting anywhere, at least not here in the U.S. Europe, on the other hand, might actually impose some limitations sometime in the next couple of years, but even there I don’t think it will last long. Indie film has always been pretty popular in Europe.”
“Europe and the U.K. do things differently than we do here in the States,” Jade said. “That might work to our advantage over here.”
*
Summer had spent the day speaking with neighbors of the shooters, and finding out that they were the type of people who stayed to themselves. Neighbors said they always smiled and were friendly if they happened to run into them in the hallways, but they didn’t socialize and didn’t seem to have any friends.
They also didn’t seem to have jobs. There were several theories around the building as to what they might do for a living, but the general consensus was that they had money and seemed to be very wrapped up in one another. They were always close when they were seen, often holding hands as they walked through the halls, but those were the only obvious signs of affection.
They didn’t own a car, and some neighbors claimed to have seen them using public transportation occasionally, while others said they’d spotted them getting into taxi cabs. After several hours of asking the same questions and getting the same answers, Summer was getting frustrated.
She was just leaving the building when she ran into Harvey coming in the front door. He broke into a smile, but the glare she gave him melted it away almost instantly.
“Look, it wasn’t my fault,” he said. “When we got to the building and you were there, I didn’t have any choice but to tell her I knew you. It wasn’t me that told her you were an investigator, it was one of the cops. Soon as she found that out, she was all over me to get an interview. It wasn’t my idea, I promise.”
Harvey stared at her pursed lips for a moment, thinking that some of his worst moments in life had begun with pursed lips on a woman. He was just about to try again to appease her when she shrugged and gave him a grin.
“I understand,” she said. “Just don’t let it happen again, okay? I really don’t want to have to break her nose, but if she ever tries to get in my face again, I just might.”
Harvey breathed a sigh of relief. “I will do my level best to keep her completely across the city from where you’re at,” he said. “But if you hit the scanners, she’ll hear it and then I won’t be able to stop her. My job is to follow her around with the camera, but she’s actually the boss.”
“Okay, okay,” Summer said. “Sorry I took it out on you. I just don’t need my face plastered all over the news, right? Sometimes I have to go undercover, and it’s hard to do that when everybody knows what you look like.”
“Yeah, I understand. Can I ask a couple questions, though? Just for my own curiosity?”
“Sure, as long as they don’t get back to you know who. What do you want to know?”
“Well, those people that lived across from me,” Harvey said. “They really were the ones who shot that kid at the arena, is that right?”
“Yes, that’s true.”
Harvey shook his head. “How sick is that? Any idea why they did it?”
Summer shrugged. “We figure they were trying to hurt the award company. Make them look bad, you know, some kid getting shot while receiving their award?”
“Huh,” Harvey said, his eyes narrowed. “Seems to me it would have the opposite effect.”
“Why would you say that? The company should have made sure the kid was safe, right?”
“Well, yeah, within reason,” Harvey said. “But—well, corporate crisis management is something that I’ve kind of studied, because I originally majored in business administration. One of the most famous corporate crises in history was the Tylenol poisoning scandal. Twelve people died after they took Tylenol that had been laced with cyanide, back in 1982. Now, Johnson & Johnson handled it pretty well, recalling a hundred million dollars’ worth of their product and working with the police and FBI to find out what happened, but the thing is that, when it was all over, Tylenol came out bigger and stronger than ever. While the people who died were victims of the killer who put cyanide in the bottles, the public saw Tylenol as the real victim.”
“Well, yeah, that was before my time, but I’ve heard about it. Still, you can’t really expect that kind of response.”
“You can’t? Pepsi had a case once where people were putting syringes in cans and claiming they found them there, and while it turned out to be a hoax, the public thought Pepsi was the victim. Same thing happened, Pepsi came out of it stronger. There have been a lot of cases like that, to the point that some companies have been known to orchestrate a crisis in order to build themselves up.”
Summer stared at him for a moment. “Are you trying to say you think this could have been some kind of publicity stunt?”
Harvey shrugged. “I’ve seen cases where people stoop to some pretty low levels, in my studies. People have even been known to sacrifice their own kids to gain sympathy, because it works. If you can make your company look like a victim, your customers and clients will rally around you. It’s happened over and over in recent history, and I wouldn’t put it past anybody in business today. Believe me, it’s something every business admin student learns about.”
“Harvey,” Summer said, “I take back every nasty thing I said about you last night.” She grabbed his shirt and pulled him close, kissed him quickly on the lips, and then hurried away.
Harvey stood there, staring as she vanished through the door.
*
Sam’s phone rang, and Jenna told him Summer was calling. “Hey, Summer. Learn anything interesting?”
“Oh, boy, did I ever,” Summer said. “You know, everybody expected Web Wide Awards to be seriously damaged by the shooting, but what’s happened is that they seem to be more pop
ular than ever. I ran into an old friend of mine and we got talking about that, and it turns out this is a fairly common phenomenon. He was telling me about the Tylenol poisonings back in the eighties, and something about Pepsi, but it seems like whenever a company is attacked this way, it’s not uncommon for the public to rally around them as long as they at least try to handle the situation honestly and diplomatically.”
“Yes, I’ve heard of things along that line before, myself. A few of us have discussed the possibility that someone might’ve anticipated this kind of result. Are you leaning that direction, now?”
“I’m leaning so hard I’m about to fall over,” she said. “Sam, I can’t help wondering if John Morton might be involved in this somewhere. Do you have any reason why I shouldn’t explore that possibility?”
“Everything I’ve seen indicates he’s clean,” Sam said, “but you’re not the first person to wonder. What have you got in mind?”
“Why, just being my normal, gracious little self. Do you think you could arrange a meeting between me and him? I mean, just me and him? If he’s dirty, Sam, I’ll find out.”
Sam bit his bottom lip for a moment. “Summer, John Morton is going to be speaking at the big internet conference in New York next week. If he’s involved in this, we need to know it before that happens. I’ll call him now and see if I can set something up. He’s probably going to be busy tonight, but we’ll see what he has to say. Just do me a favor and don’t lay it on too thick, all right? Remember, he has a girlfriend.”
“Sam, if he isn’t dirty, what I got in mind won’t affect him. If he is, then we need to know it. Right?”
“Right,” Sam said. “I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”
He cut off that call and dialed Morton again. The phone rang three times before the man answered, and he sounded slightly out of breath.
“John? Sam Prichard again. Are you okay?”
“Oh, yeah, Sam,” Morton said. “I’ve been out running. I do a five-mile run every day, right after work. Keeps the brain sharp.”