by Laina Turner
“You even went across town to Long’s Donuts” I said, opening the box and inhaling the aroma of the sugary pastry. I grabbed one, taking a bite.
“Yeah, they’re the best. So, what’s going on?”
“There’s only easy way to ask this question so I’m just gonna ask it - is there any gossip or evidence of any kind that President Stoddard was doing something less than aboveboard in regards to university money?”
As I was talking, Robert had been taking a drink which he now carefully swallowed, sitting his cup back down. “What are you asking?”
“Have you or anyone else ever suspected President Stoddard of embezzling?” I felt horrible saying it, like I was accusing a man who may been kidnapped.
“Why are you asking?” Was it just me or did Robert seem a little defensive?
“I don’t mean to imply that anything you were doing was in any way wrong. I just heard some gossip that maybe he did some creative budgeting.”
Robert slowly took another sip of his coffee before he started speaking again. “Yeah, I have no idea why anyone would say that.”
“So, no one has even hinted at it?”
“Who did you hear this from?”
“A couple people,” I said vaguely. I was getting a bad feeling about this conversation.
“Did you tell Don?”
“Of course I did. And he advised me to tell the police. I haven’t had a chance to do that yet.” Was it my imagination or did a look of fear just cross his face?
“I’m sorry it couldn’t be more help and I should really get back to work. Feel free to take another donut with you. You know how the first couple weeks of school are in this office.” He forced a laugh, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. It wasn’t my imagination. He was definitely rattled that I had asked that question.
I stood up to leave. Wrapping another donut in a napkin to take to Polly because I knew she loved Long’s donuts as much as I did, I started to walk to the door. I turned to him one more time. “Is there anyone else that handled his budgets beside you and Shelley?”
“No. And I can assure you, everything is as it’s supposed to be.”
“Okay. Sorry to take up your time. Enjoy the rest your day.”
“You too.”
I walked out of his office and fought the urge to turn around because I felt that his eyes were watching me leave. He knew something. I just didn’t know what or how deep his involvement might be, but I had a feeling if the president was doing something creative with the books, Robert knew about it
Chapter 25
“Olivia, Olivia.”
I heard someone calling my name as I left the business office. I turned around and saw Shelley running to catch up to me.
“What’s going on, Shelley?”
“What’s going on is I need to get back into exercise class. I shouldn’t be breathing this hard from running, but the reason I’m running in the first place was that I wanted to tell you something. I think there’s something going on between Candy and Vice Provost Thomas.”
My eyes widened. “No way! He and his wife are what I would definitely call happily married. Even Don agrees.”
“No, no, no. That’s not what I mean. I just think they are working on something together and what if that was to get rid of President Stoddard?”
“You think Candy and Vice Provost Thomas have conspired to do away with President Stoddard?”
“You don’t have to be so skeptical,” she said, since apparently my disbelief shining through.
“Okay. Being purely objective, what makes you think that Candy and Vice Provost Thomas are conspiring?”
“Vice Provost Thomas has temporarily,” she said temporarily with finger quotes, “moved into President Stoddard’s office.”
“Well, the board did make him interim president while we’re trying to figure out what happened,” I interrupted.
“I know, I know. But what’s wrong with his office? It’s in the same building one floor down. The offices are identical.”
“Who knows? Maybe he just wanted to sit in the big office.”
“Yeah, I know he’s enjoying that Stoddard isn’t here. I know he still has bitter feelings regarding being passed over for that position.”
Shelley made a good point. Vice Provost Thomas worked for the university for over twenty years and had been passed over for the last two president vacancies. To his credit, he never acted upset over it, but he was only human. It had to sting. So, it was perfectly normal that he would want to take advantage of this current situation and at least get a little taste of what it was like to be president. That didn’t mean he had anything to do with Stoddard missing. Vice Provost Thomas was a really nice man. Unlike President Stoddard and his wife Candy, Vice Provost Thomas and his wife, Amelia, were down to earth, genuine, kind people who truly did integrate themselves in every aspect of university life.
“Just because Vice Provost Thomas is enjoying the amenities of Stoddard’s office doesn’t mean he’s teaming up with Candy.”
“Except Candy called him. Twice,” she lowered her voice to a whisper and looked around to make sure no one was within earshot.
“Why would Candy be calling him?” I said.
“Exactly my point. She’s never called him before. At least at the school because everything comes through me.”
“And you have no idea why she called him?”
“No. I wanted to listen in. I won’t lie, but I don’t want to lose my job.”
“Is he in the office right now?”
She shook her head. “No. He left to go to some Rotary meeting. He won’t be back for a couple hours.”
“Then let’s search the office. Maybe we can find a clue as to what he’s talking to Candy about,” I said. Shelley shook her head no violently.
“Did you not hear me say I don’t want to lose my job? Snooping in the president’s office is worse than listening in on the phone call.”
“Well, the president is missing, and the vice provost just went to a meeting, so there’s no one in the building. Who’s gonna know? We’ll be in and out in five minutes, I promise.” The more I thought about the idea, the more I liked it. It might not help get any closer to finding out where Stoddard was, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.
“You’re thinking crazy, Olivia,” Shelley said, but I could tell she was weighing the pros and cons and starting to give in. I started walking in the direction of the building and she followed me.
“I’ll just sit at my desk and pretend I had no idea you were in there.”
“You can if you want, but no one is gonna find out and you know more than anyone where the he might hide important information.” It really would help if Shelley would go in there with me, but I understood where she was coming from.
“Five minutes,” I pleaded as we reached the steps up to the building. Walking up, we both walk through the door in front of her desk. She paused.
“Okay, fine. If we get caught, I will say you forced me,” she joked.
“Not a problem. I’ll take all the heat.”
Shelley went around her desk and opened the drawer, pulling out a set of keys.
“Stoddard always left his door open, but Vice Provost Thomas is very secretive and private. I’m sure he locked it. Let’s hurry up. Let’s take the stairs, it will be faster.”
We ran up two flights of stairs to the third floor where the president’s office was located. The building these two offices are in used to be the residence of the original headmaster back when this was a Christian boy’s school. The university had purchased the land the buildings for the boy’s school had been on back in the 1920s. Over the years they had torn everything down and rebuilt it except for this building. It was gorgeous and had been recently recognized as a historical landmark for its architecture. The university had gone to great lengths to preserve the original building anywhere it could. So, while there were modern updates—the floors, the crown moldings, the ornate mantle on the fireplace that wa
s on each floor were all original. I hadn’t had a chance to be in this building above the first floor where Shelley resided and every time I did make it up to the third floor, I was blown away at the beauty.
“Stop staring at the crown molding and let’s get on with this,” Shelley said impatiently, pulling my attention back to what we were here for.
“Okay, where do we start? Do you know where Stoddard keeps his private things?” I asked.
“Over here,” she said, walking over to a bookcase where an ornate metal lockbox sat on one shelf. She punched in some numbers and opened it. It was empty.
Shelley looked at me and frowned. “There’s a journal that he always kept in here and it’s gone.”
“If it was private, how did you know we kept it in here?”
“He told me if the building ever caught on fire this was the only thing that needed to be saved.”
“Are you kidding me? If the building was on fire, he would expect you to go up to the third floor and save the journal? Did he tell you what was on it?”
“He just said it was extremely important. Who am I to question?”
“Maybe he took it with him to the conference?”
“He could have, but I got the feeling it never left this place.” She shut the lid and locked it back up and we both came over to stare at the desk.
“Vice Provost Thomas has moved all of the president’s stuff off this desk and replaced it with his own. Now tell me that’s not the behavior of someone who would do anything to get this job?” she said, her hands on her hips.
I had to give her that. It did seem kind of cold and callous to take over when no one really knew where the president was.
I scanned the desk but there wasn’t much to see except a datebook.
“Is that Vice Provost Thomas’ datebook?” I asked her.
She nodded. “Even though I keep everything updated for them on their Outlook calendar, he still writes everything down. Each year I have to order him a new one and it’s sixty bucks. Such a waste. But he says if he doesn’t write it down, he’ll forget.”
I walked closer to the desk and looked at the datebook that was left open on today’s date. On it I could see he crossed out the Rotary meeting and wrote an address next to it.
“Is this the address of the Rotary Club?”
Shelley peered over my shoulder. “No. The Rotary Club’s right downtown on Main behind the Chamber of Commerce building.”
Wherever he was headed was in the opposite direction on W. State Rd. 36. I took a picture of the address with my phone and then flipped back a few days, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I put it back to the right day and started opening drawers.
Shelley looked panicked. She really needed to relax. “It’s been five minutes. We need to get out of here.”
“Just a minute.” I rifled through the drawers, but they were really empty, save some blank legal pads and one box of business cards.
I followed Shelley back downstairs and we made it to her desk with no one the wiser.
“See. Everything’s fine. Except we still have no idea why Vice Provost Thomas was talking to Candy.”
Chapter 26
“This is getting to be a habit, Detective,” I said, reaching my office door to find Detective Rodriguez once again leaning against the wall, waiting.
“I was told you think President Stoddard was embezzling funds,” he said softly since we stood out in the hallway and I was sure he didn’t want to be overheard.
Before answering, I opened my door and we walked in and took a seat.
“I don’t know if he was actually embezzling money. Let’s just say it came to my attention that there may have been inappropriate use of funds. I don’t know if it’s true or not true. That’s what I’m trying to find out. So, is it?”
Detective Rodriguez sat there, and I couldn’t get a read on what was going through his mind.
“Since you seem so determined to not let this go, I will go ahead and confirm a couple things on your solemn promise not to say anything to anyone.”
I nodded. “I know you think I’m being too nosy, but I do really care about what happened to President Stoddard.”
The look on his face told me that he didn’t exactly believe that, but he didn’t say anything.
“Before President Stoddard went missing, there was an open investigation based on some allegations that he was taking donations and diverting them into his own accounts.”
My eyes grew wide. It seemed so pointless to do something like that when you knew the odds were you’d get caught. President Stoddard seemed smarter than to take that kind of risk. Apparently not.
“Who told on him?”
“Well, that’s the thing. The investigation wasn’t directed toward him exactly.”
“What do you mean?”
“We think someone has been doing this without his knowledge but using his account and passwords.”
Now I was completely confused. “So, what you’re telling me is someone was taking donor money and putting into President Stoddard’s personal account to make it look like he was the bad guy?”
“Yup.”
“That makes no sense. How would he not notice he had extra money in his account? And what would be the purpose?”
“The police have subpoenaed his bank records from his wife, and we haven’t yet got them. My best guess is it was getting transferred out of his account as fast as it was going in. If he just checked the balance, maybe he didn’t notice. Could be he’s one of those people who doesn’t ever check the balance.”
“I wouldn’t know, but I guess you could be right. So, do you know who was trying to frame him?”
“It has to be someone in the business office and we’re trying to narrow down who had access and who might have motive, but you can’t mention a word of this,” he warned.
Realization dawned on me. No way, I thought. What I was thinking didn’t even make sense, but he had been acting strangely.
“What? Do you have someone in mind?” Detective Rodriguez asked, noticing my expression of disbelief.
Should I tell him about my conversation with Robert? What if I said something and Robert wasn’t guilty and then people thought he was?
“If you’ve heard something, you need to tell me. I shared what I knew with you. And if this can help investigation, you need to let me know.”
“I had a conversation with Robert in the business office. I asked him about President Stoddard’s accounting practices, because I know he handles all the president’s and the vice provost’s accounts. A few times when a group of us have hung out together, he’d made a few cracks about their fancy expense accounts.”
“Did he have a problem with that?”
“No, I don’t think so. I mean it was all in fun. But when I asked him yesterday, he got very agitated at my questioning, which isn’t like him. He’s normally very easy-going.”
“He’s on our list of people who have access, but I haven’t talked to him yet. I should go do that now,” he said, standing up. “Call me if you hear anything else.”
“I will.”
Detective Rodriguez walked out and I sat there thinking. Who could be setting the president up? Did he really not notice the money transfers?
The detective said they were still waiting on the bank, but I knew a way to get that information faster.
I needed to talk to Candy.
Chapter 27
“Olivia, you have to believe me. Thaddeus would not steal from the university. We didn’t need the money, what’s mine is his and he loves that job. He lives for that job. He loves the university more than he loves me sometimes. At least that’s how it felt, and it was the only thing we argued about.”
After talking to Rodriguez, I had shown up at Candy’s house unannounced, determined to get to the bottom of this. If President Stoddard had been embezzling, it could open up a lot more possibilities of why he was kidnapped or maybe even that his ex-wife had been right with her accusa
tions. If Candy knew anything, keeping quiet could mean harm would come to him.
“Candy, if there is any chance you think he could have done it without your knowledge, you have to go to the police.”
She shook her head violently. “No. Absolutely not. Someone is trying to frame him.”
“Who? Who would want to frame him by making it look like he was stealing from the university? Who would want to ruin his career enough to take those measures?”
Candy sat there for a minute and then her face darkened. “Colleen. My sister has never liked the fact that he left her for me. And she would do this.”
“Do you really think Colleen would do that?” I asked, remembering Colleen had said the exact opposite.
“Yes,” she snapped and sighed, the energy seeming to drain from her body. “Even though she’s capable, she wouldn’t have the ability.”
“What do you mean?”
“You said someone was putting money in his account and then taking it out of his account?”
I nodded. “At least that’s what they think. They don’t have the proof yet.”
“I have access to his accounts, so let’s look.”
“Great idea.” I’d hoped she would bring it up so I didn’t have to.
I followed Candy into what I was assuming was Thaddeus’s home office. It was a beautiful, very manly room with dark paneling to walls full of inlaid bookcases and a beautiful large oversized mahogany desk. On the desk sat a computer and Candy took a seat, turning it on. I gingerly sat on the corner of the desk and waited for the computer to boot up.
In a few moments, she had the browser open and was typing in the URL for the bank and then quickly logged in.
“What month should I check?”
“Try last month.”
Candy clicked on the statements tab and then clicked on last month’s statement, opening it up and hitting the print button. The printer made its whirring sound and spit out several pages. From where I was sitting, I could reach the credenza the printer was on. I leaned over and grabbed the papers, setting them in front of Candy and grabbed a highlighter from the cup on the desk.