FORRESTAL AND LLOYD. The names echoed in Daniel’s mind. To avoid the Chinese government censors, Xiao Ping used an encrypted VPN to send files of the banking details to Daniel’s email address. He owed her another big favour. They had evidence of a financial link between Forrestal and Lloyd. It explained a lot. But just because Lloyd made money with Forrestal didn’t mean he was part of something nasty. He and Lloyd didn’t like each other, and Daniel suspected it was because he made Lloyd nervous, jealous, and unsure about his position in the department. But was jealousy enough to kill Forrestal and now to try to kill me?
Daniel pulled the PDF up on his computer screen for everyone to see. “So now we know how Forrestal made money,” he said. He was still stunned by the connection they’d unearthed.
“You seem to have an interesting past, professor,” MacKinnon said. “Care to explain what she said to the rest of us?”
“His first investment was in real estate in Ontario. He built it up in a few years into quite a portfolio of properties.”
Touesnard said, “So he was a real estate developer then?”
Daniel kept scrolling and reading the document. “Sort of. More of a property speculator. He bought for prestige.”
“Where did the money come from? He didn’t come from a wealthy family,” Touesnard said.
“Looks like he convinced some wealthy investors to go into the real estate business with him.” Daniel kept reading. “Interesting. He’s highly leveraged.”
“Which means?”
“That he borrowed a lot of money. For every dollar he had, he borrowed another ten.”
“How could he ever pay that back?”
“There’s always another investor coming in with new money.”
“To bail him out?”
“To pay the earlier investors.” Daniel began to slowly nod.
“He was a good negotiator, everyone said so,” added MacKinnon.
“And he saved those companies.”
“True. He knew how to turn around a company. But he was always only a step away from total collapse.”
“So was he very good, lucky, or a crook?” Touesnard sneered.
“Maybe a bit of all three. He was brilliant.”
“So what interests you about his finances, professor?” MacKinnon said.
“He just brought in money from new investors to pay the old investors.”
“Sounds scammy,” said Touesnard.
“It is. It’s called a Ponzi scheme. Everyone’s happy unless you’re one of the last investors who buys in before the scam is outed. And Lloyd was in on it from the beginning.”
Daniel saw something new in the documents, something more important than the Ponzi scheme. “Do you see the dates of the first transactions, Detective?”
Touesnard swung the laptop to face him. His eyes zigzagged across the screen. “The late eighties. Eighty-eight. Eighty-nine.” He looked at Daniel. “So?”
“Earlier than twelve years ago. Now we know what he did before he founded the Fireweed Corporation. He used to run a real estate development company.”
“Look at when the transactions stop and start up again. There’s a big gap there.” He pointed to the spreadsheet. “Two years between ’89 and ’91. All of the other ones are only spaced a few weeks or months apart. But not these two.”
Touesnard nodded slowly. “But the early ones are under a different company name. And look who signed them off. A different person.”
Daniel looked closer and shook his head. “The same person, the same bank account. Forrestal used a different name then.” He turned to face a confused MacKinnon. “Says here he used to be called Robert Haynes. So why did he change his name?”