I tossed and turned all night, unable to get Kate’s comment out of my mind. What was Alaric out to conquer? Obviously they had managed to take in millions, but how much did they actually keep? How deeply was Matt involved? Was he an equal partner with Bruce and Julia or simply someone who got paid off by them? Where did he really get his money? This time I wasn’t looking forward to our dinner.
Daylight filtered through the clouds, sending hazy shards of light through the picture window in my bedroom. The last thing I could remember was checking the clock somewhere in the middle of the night and seeing 3:00 on the lighted display. I guess I fell asleep shortly after that. Oh well, four hours of sleep was definitely better than none.
I stood over the sink to splash cold water on my face, then pulled my robe more tightly around me as I made my way to the kitchen.
Why was I always attracted to the wrong men? Depending upon what happened next, Matt could even be headed for prison sometime soon.
During our conversation the night before, we agreed that Kate would set up a phony email with Avarice-2 as the ID. She would send an email addressed to all of them and make it sound like it was from someone who knew what they were doing and wanted in.
When I checked my computer, the blind copy of the Avarice-2 email was at the top of my inbox.
To: jharrison@msn.com, Matt@hotmail.com,
ghost@aol.com
From: Avarice-2@yahoo.com
I know what you’re up to and want in on the action. Don’t try to figure out how I got your email addresses. You have 24 hours to answer. Otherwise, things could get very uncomfortable for all of you. The ball is in your court.
I re-read it, trying to picture the look on their faces when each of them opened our email. Julia would be furious, Bruce would probably be shaken and Matt—well, I didn’t really know how Matt would react. I’d have to watch him closely during dinner. Maybe he would slip and say something.
We planned to meet at Manni’s Place, a trendy restaurant on Pine near 5th, at eight that evening. Cami was supposed to touch base with us at 6:30 to fill us in on what she’d found at Superior Moving, which meant I had plenty of time to go home, change clothes and get Cami’s call before meeting Matt.
As I passed his office on my way out, I heard the muffled sound of Julia’s voice. I’m sure they thought his door was closed, but apparently the latch hadn’t caught and it was open a crack. Matt shouted, “Maybe cutting him in on a couple of deals will be enough. I don’t see how this happened. It’s…”
I was about to see if I could hear more when I heard the door in the reception room slam so loud it echoed down the corridor.
Of all people, Lena came barreling toward me with her head down. For a moment I froze. I’d only known her to come to our office a few times, so what the hell was she doing in Seattle? I didn’t take time to dwell on it, though. Body language says a lot and it was obvious she was in a rotten mood. Besides, I had more important things to worry about than Lena pitching a hissy fit about whatever had her upset.
Fortunately I managed to sidestep before she smashed into me. That woman is built like a tank and if we had collided, I have no doubt she would have knocked me over. I nodded to her and hurried out.
I didn’t envy them. Lena seemed to get pleasure from attacking Matt, always complaining and showing a nasty temper. Truthfully, the image of Julia and Matt squirming as they tried to push Lena out the door as quickly as possible was delicious. If the closed door conversation meant anything, Kate’s Avarice-2 email shook them up just as we had planned and Lena’s visit would upset them even more.
I kicked off my shoes as soon as I got home and exchanged my business suit for comfortable jeans and a sweater. Then I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and worked the day’s crossword puzzle until Cami called.
Sure enough, promptly at 6:30 the phone rang. Kate was already on the line.
After ‘hi’ and ‘how are you,’ Cami gushed, “Okay, so I went to Superior Moving and Storage all prepared to use the same story as the one at Mailboxes and Much More. You know, saying I needed a company to warehouse and install a job of at least 80 workstations.”
Kate asked, “Good. Did it work? Did you get to tour the warehouse?”
“Well yes, no and maybe. This is getting murkier and murkier, you guys. Again, it wasn’t what I expected to find at all. Oh yes, it’s actually a very big warehouse and they do have a fleet of 18-wheelers. But they aren’t a company that would be first choice for warehousing office furniture and installing workstations.”
That threw me. “What do you mean?”
“Um, they are almost strictly dedicated to residential furniture. The manager explained that they warehouse stock on the West Coast for furniture manufacturing companies on the East Coast. Those companies manufacture living room, dining room and bedroom furniture. In addition, they handle many deliveries to the East Coast from companies on the West Coast. That way their trucks carry loads in both directions which is very profitable. They do handle other jobs like furniture shows and model homes, as well, but nothing for offices.”
Kate and I both said, “No shit!” at the same time.
Cami continued. “Fortunately, the manager told me all of that before I spun the story about the big commercial job. Boy, did I regroup fast. I jumped on the model home angle and said I was doing a series of model homes and the furniture would have to be shipped in from different manufacturers to a qualified warehouse, then installed when everything was complete.”
“Hey, Girl, way to go. You really think on your feet.”
“You have to in advertising. Everyone is always one step ahead of you. Anyway I asked to see the warehouse and even asked about their off-premises insurance. I remembered that from a designer friend who took a bath when a warehouse burned down with her client’s merchandise in it. She was stuck for thousands because the storage company’s insurance wasn’t adequate.”
When she gave one of her telltale giggles, I knew something good was coming.
“He took me back into this cavernous space filled with furniture and crates. I swear it must have been the size of several football fields. From what I could see, just as he said, it was not a place likely to handle office furniture delivery and installation. As we walked, he pointed out areas with sofas and chairs shrink-wrapped on pallets, ready to ship. I tried to look like I recognized the names he called out. Stuff like Living Interiors, Sofa Solutions and others just as foreign.”
I said, “Yeah, definitely sounds nice and homey.”
“Okay, then we came to another section where crates and cartons were stacked nearly to the ceiling, and he said those were bedroom and dining room furniture. I was about to thank him for the tour and say I’d be in touch, when I saw two men off in a far corner of the warehouse stenciling something on large cartons. I’m not sure why it tweaked my curiosity, but it did, so I managed to steer him in that direction as we walked. I wanted to get a closer look.”
“And?”
“And what they were stenciling were the initials FACR and numbers that looked like style numbers.”
“So they are handling government stuff. I wonder why he lied to you. Actually, now that you mention it, I remember seeing a new Alaric order among the stuff we copied. I never saw any paperwork for that one either. The amount was—let me think—yeah, almost $400,000. Maybe that’s the order you saw at Superior. Looks to me like the waters definitely are getting murkier and murkier. What did you do?”
“You would have been so proud of me. I took out my cell phone and pretended to call a partner to say I thought we had found exactly the furniture warehouse we needed.”
“Good move. That made it look like you were for real.” I was very impressed with the way Cami had handled it, but then I heard her laughing.
In between giggles she said. “Check your email. I’d managed to position myself just right to be able to use the camera in the phone to shoot pictures of the men marking those boxes without the guy realizing it. He was too busy ogling me. All the time he thought I was on the phone, I was snapping and wondering what was in the boxes and where they came from. Why would they have a shipment marked FACR if they don’t handle commercial furniture? On second thought, why would they be the ones marking the boxes? That really doesn’t make sense. The factories mark the boxes. By the way, the pictures came out great. They’ll make a terrific addition to our evidence when the package is ready to show Nathan.”