CHAPTER 52

“LET IT GO. It just doesn’t matter.” Brian was annoyed with Annie because she wouldn’t stop demanding an investigation of Dean Teath.

“It may not matter to you,” Annie told him. After all, her little indiscretion had brought him a wealthy girlfriend more than eager to lavish all her attention on him. Carol was his dream come true. What did he have to worry about? “But it matters to me.” It had become an ongoing battle between them.

“Oh come on, you have to be philosophical about these things. Think of it as water under the bridge.”

In pretty much the blink of an eye he’d returned to being her manager, and he never mentioned their little tryst again. That might have been gallant of him, but she wasn’t letting Dean Teath off the hook. She didn’t care that he was an old man. She believed he had murdered his wife because she wouldn’t sign over her stock to him. The Staten Island police might have let it go. Hall Stale certainly wanted to let it go, but Annie wasn’t letting it go. She had many unanswered questions about the case. One thing, however, was transparent. Even though the Teaths had hid their wealth from their daughter and neighbors, they hadn’t hidden it from the IRS. Annie talked to Brad Rosen, their accountant, several times, and he told her they’d always paid taxes.

No one else seemed to care what happened. Annie was the only one who was preoccupied by Dean Teath, and she started following the money. It wasn’t very hard. All she had to do was put the situation to Brad Rosen in a persuasive way.

“Brad, I left you in the kitchen with a quarter of a million dollars in bearer bonds that Dr. Teath claims I stole from him,” Annie told him. “Do you understand my predicament?”

“I understand,” he said nervously, “but I didn’t take them. The old man was with me every second.”

“That may be true, but somebody is going to have to repay that quarter of a million. Could be you, could be us . . .” She hung up to let him think about it. A few days later she called him back and said the same thing.

“You’re scaring me,” he replied.

“Well, so far, my firm is not naming you as a codefendant in this case, but I could change that in a heartbeat. I don’t want this on my record. It’s a lot of money to lose.”

Silence. “What do you want?” he asked after a moment.

“How much do you make a year, Brad?” Annie felt like a detective. This was how they did it.

“Thirty-two-five,” he said slowly.

“You make thirty-two thousand, five hundred dollars? Do you own your own home?”

“Not yet. My wife and I have made an offer on a place last week. We’re still negotiating.” His voice quavered.

“Last week. Really,” Annie murmured.

“We need a bigger place, we’re having a baby,” he explained.

“Well, congratulations.” She paused. “I guess you need a lot of money to buy a house and raise a child these days.” She could hear him breathing.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said after a moment.

“That’s what Martha Stewart said, I’m sure you didn’t,” she added quickly. “But I didn’t do anything wrong, either, and maybe our lawyers won’t be as trusting about you as I am. Trust can be a dangerous thing. I trusted you in that room with him, and something happened there that got me in trouble. I’m not letting it go.”

“What do you want?” Brad asked again.

“I want to see your records. The tax returns, the account statements.”

“There’s a privacy issue. I’ll have to ask my boss,” he replied slowly.

“This is important to all of us. I’d be happy to ask your boss for you,” Annie offered.

“What are you looking for?” he asked timidly.

“Maybe I can find a way to get us both out of hot water.”

“How far back do you want to go? We keep everything that’s more than two years old in a warehouse. When Brad retired, a lot of it was thrown away.”

“When do you start throwing things out? Six years?”

“I don’t know. I’d have to check.”

“That’s great, Brad. And I’ll need Brad Meltzer’s address. I want to talk to him.”

“No problem. She lives in Sarasota.”

“She lives in Sarasota!” Annie was stunned.

“Yeah, her name is Bradley, but everyone calls her Brad.”

Annie was exhilarated, but she did not run to Brian with that interesting piece of information. The Teaths had had a woman accountant, who’d moved to Sarasota, where Dean just happened to have relocated as well. She wanted to put the whole story together before she said goodbye. She was taking all her clients with her when she left the Third Avenue office. A big chunk of Brian’s business was going out the door.

A few days later Brad sent her copies of the Teaths’ tax returns and their work product for preparing them. Three file boxes full of stuff. She and Ben spent time studying them at night. Then she asked Frisk and Darian to help her. In the file boxes, she’d found Teath’s bank statements from several banks on Staten Island; the accounts had been closed. She asked Frisk to memo all the banks in Sarasota again about the missing bearer bonds. Frisk was able to locate the bank where Teath had deposited the money from the sale of his house. The bank that had issued the mortgage to the new owners provided the name of the bank that received the funds. It was on the canceled check returned to them. The bank was Colonial. That was their target.

Frisk got in touch with the president of Colonial Bank, and they waited. The day after Hall Stale received a signed release of liability from Teath and issued him a check for $160,000, Annie flew to Sarasota. She planned her visit to coincide with his receipt of the check. She took the seven-forty-five flight from Newark and arrived at ten forty.

By noon, after much driving around a huge subdivision in Palmer Ranch, she located the home of Brad Meltzer and rang the bell. Brad, an attractive blonde of indeterminate age, was waiting for her.

“So nice to meet any friend of Dean’s. Come in,” she said.

“Thank you for agreeing to talk to me about real estate in Sarasota,” Annie said, entering a house where everything was peach—the sofas, the floor, the paintings on the wall, the lamps on the table.

“Oh, it’s a pleasure. I love the company.” Brad was plump and cute. Her hair was carefully coiffed and she wore quite a bit of makeup. She led the way to a huge kitchen–family room. “Houses here all have the open plan. You’re going to find that quite a change from up north. How do you know Dean?”

“His daughter is one of my clients,” Annie said.

“Carol, yes . . . well, it’s sad to lose someone. I lost my husband recently, so I know how hard that is.” She shook her head, and her hair didn’t move.

“Are you and Dean close?” Annie asked.

“Oh, well, he’s a delightful man. I’m helping him find a home.” She laughed. “It’s not easy, he’s very tight—but that’s not uncommon in men of his generation. Would you like some iced tea?” She bustled around her large kitchen, gathering up plates and glasses and turkey wraps that she must have purchased at the deli counter of her grocery store.

“That would be great. Did you know his wife?” Annie sat in a white chair at the kitchen table. Brad poured tea, and she sipped it gratefully.

“No, I always worked with Dean. I was their accountant. Some people find that surprising, but my husband and I always worked together. We had a wonderful life.”

Annie smiled. “What did you know about the Teaths?”

“Well . . .” Brad joined her at the table and leaned in confidingly. “His wife had all the money. She kept him on a tight rein, I’ll tell you, and he wasn’t very happy. I guess you know that Carol got all the money. Poor man, he hasn’t had an easy life. But we all carry some baggage, don’t we?”

Not as much as he does, Annie thought. She sat with Brad for an hour and a half, learned a few things and guessed others. On his wife’s instructions, Dean had reinvested some of the dividend income in her name. But he’d skimmed part of it off over the years to purchase the bearer bonds for himself. Furthermore, when Brad’s husband died and she retired to Sarasota, Dean told her he was moving there soon himself.

“People always say that, and sometimes they do,” she said brightly. “What brings you here, dear?”

“The weather. I know Carol will be happy to know her father has a friend here. Are you two dating?”

“Oh my, no. My Bernie was a wonderful man. I’ll never marry again, but it’s nice to have a friend.”

Brad passed the wraps with a smile, and Annie wondered if Dean had received the check yet. She knew he would not try to cash the bonds until he’d been paid for them. Of course, he could hold on to them for months, or even years, but she didn’t think he would. After all, he’d started divesting as soon as his wife was gone.

At two o’clock she said goodbye to Brad. She was nearing her new office building downtown when Frisk called on her cell. “Bingo,” he said. “Teath tried to cash in the bonds at Colonial Bank an hour ago. We got him.”