Dead Broke (Lana Denae Mystery Series Book 1)

by Bruce A. Borders

  “Guys like you. What’s that mean?”

  “Like you said earlier, “I was the top of my class at ITT. But I didn’t graduate, which keeps my name off the radar.”

  “So, have you done this before? Been hired to steal identities?”

  “No.”

  “This is the first time?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s convenient,” Lana said. “How did you decide which accounts to target?”

  “I didn’t. The guy who hired me gave me the names.”

  “But you don’t know who that is?”

  “No.”

  “How did this guy get in touch with you?”

  “He called me.”

  “When was this? The first time he called.”

  “I think it was about two, maybe three months ago. I’m not really sure of the date.”

  Lana nodded. “How many calls?”

  Eric shrugged. “I didn’t count.”

  “But he called more than once?”

  “Yes. Multiple times.”

  “Did he ever contact you by any other method?”

  “No, just by phone.”

  “And did he call you on your cell phone?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, those calls would still be on your phone?”

  “I cleared them from the phone but I’m sure my provider would still have them.”

  “Do you remember the number?”

  “Never saw the number. It was blocked.”

  “How did you report to him; let him know when you had the requested information?”

  “I didn’t. He just knew.”

  Pausing just long enough to again write a few notes, Lana kept the questions going. “And how did you get paid?”

  “I haven’t yet. He said he’d pay me in a few months.”

  “A few months? And you were okay with that?”

  “I didn’t really have a choice.”

  “Why is that?”

  “He had to wait until the information started producing a profit.”

  “Meaning he had to wait until the investments were paid out?”

  “I guess so. I don’t really know for sure.”

  Lana was silent a moment, contemplating what her suspect had told her. It seemed plausible. Except for one thing: “I think you’re forgetting that we know you are the one who cashed those checks from Cascade Global Investments. You cashed them both at Quick Check Cashing on Hillyard Road.”

  Nodding his head, Eric said. “Yes, that was part of my job. I cashed the checks, but did you find the money? Not in my account you didn’t.”

  “So, you cash two checks worth several thousand dollars and you hand the cash over to someone else? Why not just keep the money?”

  “First, I like staying alive,” Eric said. “But also for job security. I stand to make a lot more money in the future if I keep a good reputation.”

  “Honor among thieves,” Lana muttered under her breath. To her suspect, she said, “You had multiple credit cards in your possession, issued in the victims’ names. In addition, we found many other accounts, set up by you, using their names. You still expect me to believe you weren’t doing all of this yourself?”

  “If you check, you’ll find I have not put a single dime on any of the credit cards or other accounts,” Eric said.

  Ignoring his claims of virtue, Lana pressed on with her questions. “How much were you being paid to do this?”

  “Twenty thousand per identity.”

  Lana had tossed the question out quickly, hoping to throw Eric off. But from the way he answered, he hadn’t even had to think about it. Maybe he was telling the truth after all.

  “Okay,” she said. “Say I believe you—I’m not so sure I do—but say I believe you. Would you recognize this man’s voice if you heard it again?”

  “I think so. It wasn’t a weird voice or anything. But I think I would know him if I heard him.”

  Nodding, Lana gathered her papers, files, and pictures, stuffing them in the satchel. “They’ll return you to your cell. We’ll talk more later.”

  “So do you actually believe me? Or, are you just stalling while you check out my story?”

  Lana wasn’t about to let him know she was considering the possibility that she might have the wrong guy. “Mr. Schmidt, I learned a long time ago not to believe anybody unless they have proof.”

  “Proof? Isn’t that your job? I thought I was innocent until proven guilty.”

  “You are guilty,” Lana said. “Six counts of identity theft, securities fraud, illegal hacking, shall I go on?”

  Eric didn’t answer.

  “We have proof of those, as well as your confession. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

  As she was leaving, Eric said, “What if I could tell you who hired me?”

  Halfway to the door, Lana stopped, looking back. “I thought you said you didn’t know who hired you?”

  “I said that because this guy has a lot of money and a lot of power. I was scared. Still am. But–”

  “Who is it? Give me a name.”

  Eric shook his head. “If I tell you that, I want something in return.”

  “What?”

  “I want all of this to go away.”

  “You want to make a deal? I don’t think the D.A. is going to go for–”

  Eric interrupted her. “Do you want the guy responsible for murdering those people or do you want the guy who stole their identities?”

  “I think the D.A. will probably go after you for both,” Lana said.

  “Not a man who cares about the truth?”

  “Not a man who likes playing games or is easily manipulated.”

  Eric sighed. “How does he feel about losing a case in court because he refused to look at the facts when offered?”

  “Mr. Schmidt,” Lana said. “If you have any information pertinent to these murders, I’d advise you to share it. I’m sure the D.A. will be happy to add the charge of withholding evidence or obstruction. Maybe both. That is, providing you are telling the truth. You want to give me a name?”

  Eric shook his head. “I’m not answering any more of your questions until I have something in writing that says I’m not going to be charged with anything I may, or may not, have done.”

  “Suit yourself,” Lana said, again heading toward the door.

  Watching her go, Eric said nothing.

  “Last chance,” Lana said, pausing again, hand on the doorknob.

  Eric sat stone-faced, staring at the wall, then the floor, anywhere but in the detective’s direction.

  He’s consistent; I’ll give him that. With a shake of her head, still not entirely convinced of her suspect’s innocence or guilt, Lana slipped out the door.

  Exiting the interrogation room, she headed straight for where she knew Jamie and Damien had been observing. She wanted their opinion on the suspect’s story.

  “Either this guy is telling the truth or he thinks he’s smarter than everyone else in the world,” Jamie said as soon as she came into the room.

  Damien agreed.

  “Well, I don’t really trust him,” Lana said. “But his story does make sense and I did not find any discrepancies in his answers. So, I don’t know.”

  “He could just be a good liar,” Jamie said.

  Lana nodded. “Either way, we have more work to do.”

  Damien said thoughtfully, “I’ll get the recording of the interrogation to Ray. He can check out much of Eric’s story pretty quickly.”

  Lana agreed. “While you do that, I get to go tell the Captain this case is maybe not such a slam dunk after all.”

  “I hear the word ‘partner’ coming up in the conversation,” Jamie said with an amused grin.

  “Perhaps. But I’m not sure they do much good,” Lana returned. “I currently have two of them and they haven’t really helped solve the case.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “The guy seems to be telling the truth as far as the financial as
pect goes,” Ray announced as Lana came into the squad room the next morning.

  “No record of him being paid?”

  “Not only that but he hasn’t used a single account he set up under the names of the victims,” Ray said with a penitent look. “I apologize. That’s something I should have checked earlier but obviously didn’t.”

  Lana dismissed his blaming himself. “Not something you would have known to check for. Besides, it wouldn’t have meant anything anyway. I’m not sure it does now either.”

  “Only that it does corroborate his story,” Ray said. “And we’re talking multiple credit cards and online accounts.”

  Lana frowned. “That makes no sense. Why set up the accounts and then not use them?”

  Ray said. “If he was hired to this, as he claims, it does make sense. But if he was acting on his own, it’s strange behavior for a guy who has very little money and no job.”

  Lana chewed on her lip thinking. “No job? I guess I knew that but never thought much about it. But you’re right, that is strange. How does he pay his rent and other bills?”

  “Not sure,” Ray said. “But I can find no record of current employment. In fact, I can’t find any record of the guy ever having a job.”

  “Ever? Yet, all his bills are up to date?”

  “Not behind on a single one.”

  “So obviously, he’s getting money from somewhere,” Lana mused. “We just have to find out where.”

  “He’s not on public assistance either, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Ray said. “I checked.”

  Perplexed by how the guy managed to live seemingly without money, Lana sat on the edge of the desk, thinking. Even if Eric had told the truth about someone else being responsible for all of this, he still had bills to pay. He would need an income of some sort. Slowly, she shook her head. There must be something she’d missed. Something more had to be going on. Just what that might be, she didn’t know.

  Seeing she was brooding, Ray tried to be helpful. “While I was waiting on you to get back, I watched the video again too, the one of the killer throwing the body off the bridge. I just wanted to see how it looked after seeing Eric Schmidt; see if maybe it could be him.”

  “And?” Lana said. “What’s the verdict?”

  Ray shrugged. “It could be. Definitely could be, but it’s not conclusive. Might not be him at all.”

  “So, more proof of nothing.”

  “’Fraid so—for now,” Ray said. “Did you talk to the Captain?”

  Lana shook her head, “He’s gone to a meeting until late this afternoon. So, I went to question Eric Schmidt’s neighbors. All of them say he’s a decent guy, never causes any trouble. But, I did learn he is a loner. Stays in his apartment most of the time. Although,” the detective said with a half smile, “one elderly lady informed me that Eric occasionally brought a date home. An older woman, she said, as if I should have arrested him simply for that. When I told her that was not a crime, she did reluctantly agree. ‘But you would have thought it was, as secretive as they were,’ she said.”

  “The woman was probably married,” Ray said.

  Lana nodded. “That’s what I told her. But it didn’t sway her opinion any.”

  Ray shrugged. “Happens all the time.”

  Again, Lana nodded. “Also, from what I could gather, without coming right out and asking, Mr. Schmidt is a bit of a night owl. He stays up late most every night, usually until one or two o’clock in the morning. So, his claim that he was sleeping at the time of the murders is reasonable and consistent with his behavioral patterns.”

  Jamie and Damien had come in as Lana was speaking. Waiting for her to finish, Jamie said, “We couldn’t find anything that suggests there is a boss or anyone other than Eric calling the shots.

  Damien spoke up then. “If what Eric says is true, someone other than our suspect would had to have had information about the clients, or investors, in order to tell him which accounts to target.”

  “Furthermore,” Jamie started to say. He was almost immediately interrupted.

  “Furthermore?” Damien said with a slight frown.

  “It’s a word,” Jamie said with a defensive tone.

  “Sure it is,” Damien said. “And if we lived in the sixteenth century, no one would question your use of it.”

  Jamie looked to Lana for support, hoping she would back him up.

  “I think I’ll have to go with Damien on this one,” Lana told him with a short laugh. “There are less formal sounding words like; and, or also.”

  “Fine,” Jamie said, rolling his eyes. “I’ll start over for you modern people.” Pausing a moment, he said, “In addition to what Damien reported... That better?”

  “Not really,” Lana said, grinning. “But, go ahead.”

  Shaking his head, Jamie continued. “In addition to what Damien said about there needing to be someone else with access to the client information, we do have a little evidence that Eric could be telling the truth about receiving phone calls from his ‘boss.’ After checking with his service provider, we discovered there has been many calls to his phone from an unknown number—starting a few months before the first murder.”

  “An unknown number?” Lana questioned. “I thought the phone company kept records of everything.”

  “Usually, they do,” Jamie answered. “But oddly enough, some of their records have been lost.”

  “Like the security footage and traffic cams,” Lana said with a frown.

  With everyone in the room serious once more, Damien took over again. “We were able to get one number but it traced back to a pre-paid cell phone. Unfortunately, no ID is required to purchase or use one of these phones and the user can pay with cash. We have no idea if it’s the same number that made the other calls.”

  “The upshot of it all is we have no way of knowing who was calling him,” Jamie finished.

  “So, again, he could be telling the truth, but we don’t know,” Ray said.

  “He could be telling the truth about all of it, for all we know,” Lana sighed. “But he could just as easily be lying through his teeth. Problem is, we have no proof either way.”

  “So, what do we do then?” Jamie asked.

  “We proceed as if he is lying but at the same time, we may have to consider that this phantom boss of his actually exists,” Lana said.

  “Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t,” Ray said. “On the other hand, there are a lot of indicators that suggest Eric is our guy. He’s anti-social, parents are deceased, a college dropout, sees himself as smarter than everyone else. He’s unemployed, moody, goes through life with that silly smirk, and identifies as a citizen of the planet. If that’s not the profile of a killer, I’ll eat my computer.”

  “Well, for your sake, let’s hope he’s our guy,” Lana said with a laugh.

  “I didn’t say he was the killer,” Ray said. “I said that this was the profile of a killer.”

  “You been talking to Sophia?” Lana asked with a worried look.

  “No if I can help it,” Ray said. “Why?”

  “You’re starting to sound like her.”

  Ray gave her a look of dismay. “One major difference, I ain’t making things up to fit my own idea of who is responsible. What I gave you is the classic profile of a killer. And I stand by that. I ain’t saying that makes him guilty.”

  “So, a definite maybe?”

  Ray nodded. “Something like that.”

  Damien broke in suddenly, changing the subject. “We also talked to Holloway again. Just to go over everyone who might have that info, and came up with nothing.”

  “Common theme on this case,” Lana said with a sigh.

  Damien nodded. “By the way, Holloway is bringing by some additional information from past employees that we requested,” he informed her. “Probably tomorrow.”

  “For all the good that will do,” Jamie said.

  “You never know,” Lana said. “I know it’s frustrating but there’s not a lot we c
an do about it except to keep digging until something turns up. Meanwhile, I still need to go see the Captain and then meet with the D.A. I’ll check in with you guys later.”

  With those words, Lana left, her head and shoulders set in determination.

  When she was gone, Jamie and Damien looked at each other with a blank stare. “And how are we supposed to find a phantom boss?” Damien asked.

  “Like the lady said, keep digging and see if something turns up,” Jamie repeated.

  “What exactly does that mean?”

  Jamie shrugged.

  “I could run an algorithm,” Ray offered. Using all of the criteria Eric gave us about the boss: prominent, local, rich, and powerful. Shouldn’t take long to get a list of names that I could cross-reference with the names of our victims and Cascade Global Investments. We just might end up with a few likely suspects.”

  “Yeah,” Jamie agreed. “Whatever you said, do that.”

  “How big a list are we talking?” Damien asked.

  “I don’t know,” Ray confessed. “Could start off with a few hundred, I suppose. But after matching the names with the other possible prospects, it will get considerably smaller. The more we refine the parameters, the smaller the list of candidates.”

  “Well, let’s hope so,” Jamie said. “A few hundred names is not even close to feasible.”

  “Yeah,” Damien agreed. “We’d like to solve this case sometime this decade.”

  “I’m sure Miss Lana would say check them all out anyway,” Jamie grunted.

  “I’m pretty certain I can narrow it down to a better number,” Ray assured them.

  “A better number would be one,” said Jamie.

  “Well, that’s not likely to happen.”

  “Just do what you can,” Damien told him.

  Leaving Ray to his self-appointed task of subjective computer analysis, the title he gave his endeavor, Jamie and Damien decided to make another visit to Cascade Global Investments. When they had seen Holloway earlier they’d not shared Eric’s explanation of events with him. But both agreed that it couldn’t hurt. The man might be able to offer something of importance if he knew the story.