The Endicotts didn't fare too much better for the remaining six holes. In fact, things got worse for poor Lee. I gave him the opportunity for double or nothing a number of times, and needless to say, by the end of our round, he ended up owing me a fair amount of money. So much, in fact, that I actually felt pity for the man. Because he was going to be writing me a large check, I agreed that we could have a serious conversation about his investment opportunity.
Our foursome had some coffee at the clubhouse, and then Lee and I got down to business. I told him that I was still thinking about it and that two million was a large amount of money for anyone. He agreed but assured me that I could afford it. I was glad that he had such a firm grasp of my finances.
He finally relented, and I was able to enjoy my second cup in relative peace. While we were talking, I was still thinking about the auction comment and Lee's interaction with Bill. Imogen had also gathered some information about Carl from Tori during the round. Most importantly, Carl was the number one guy after Lee himself at Endicott Financial. A trusted advisor and confidant of Lee's. And his death had been devastating for everyone at the company.
After the Endicotts left the club, Imogen and I remained and had some lunch. We had invited Lee and Tori to stay, but Lee had some business back in Manhattan, so off they went.
"That was a productive round," I said.
"And a profitable one," Imogen said.
I laughed.
"Goes in the slush fund," I said. "Poor Lee. Golf really isn't for them."
"Oh, he just wanted to get us to invest. He would have given you his Rolex if he thought it would get you to cut a check," she said.
"I know. It's kind of sad," I said.
"Sad as in desperate, or sad as in a futile attempt that he's too blind to realize."
"Both."
She sipped her water.
"Dreadful."
We finished our lunch and, after a rather short discussion, decided that we were going to pay John Carrington a visit. We had a lot of information to discuss with him, and I was hoping that he had something to discuss with me. Something like where the hell they were in their investigation. The guy hadn't made a peep about it since day one. As he had pointed out, we're colleagues. Well, kind of.
We arrived at the appointed time at the old brick building in the middle of town. Imogen and I strolled in, and moments later we were in Carrington's office.
"Detective," I said, greeting John.
"Max. You in a formal mood today?" he asked, shaking his head.
"Imogen," he said. "So what do you two want to chat about?"
He directed us to have a seat.
"Oh, the weather, the Yanks, you know, the usual stuff."
"Max, I'm a busy man. Can we get to it?" he said.
Someone was in a mood.
"Sorry, John," I said.
Imogen looked at me approvingly.
"I wanted to see where you guys were with the Carl Westbrook case," I said. "We've been poking around, and I wanted to see if what we have jives with your info."
John looked pleased. He sat back in his chair, put his hands behind his head, and relaxed in his seat.
"What've you got?"
"Bill," I said.
John didn't seem impressed.
"The golf marshal guy? What about him?"
What about Bill? Was he playing coy, or was he really clueless? I was shocked.
"Something's not adding up with him. For starters, we found the initials LE in his appointment book erased on the Carl Westbrook entry. There's nothing else erased in that entire book."
John sat up straight in his chair and then put both elbows on his desk.
"There's an appointment book?" he asked. "A private book?"
He was clueless. He had no idea. Bill was not one of their suspects. That was, if there was a suspect at this point.
"Yes. There's a handwritten book that sits in that shed. The computer printout should match up with the book."
John looked like he was processing what I was saying.
"And you found initials in that book?"
"Yup, LE," I said. "I think they stand for Lee Endicott. I also found a business card of Lee's in the golf shed."
"And how did you find that?"
"I broke in and snooped around," I said.
John smiled.
"Bravo, Max," he said. "See, this is exactly why I hired you. These sort of investigative skills."
"You mean I can search things that the police can't."
"I didn't say that," John said, smiling.
Now it all came together for me. We were John's para-police. Able to operate outside of the law. Breaking and entering without a warrant. Of course, if we ever got caught it would be my ass and Imogen's ass on the line. John got to walk away scot-free.
"It doesn't have the best ending," I said. "He was onto me, and we sort of had a confrontation at Delmar."
"Confrontation?"
I was embarrassed to tell John what had happened.
"Yeah, well, Bill kind of knocked me out by the valet stand."
John laughed, hard.
He shook his hands. "Max, I'm sorry. I don't mean to laugh. But, if I remember correctly, Bill was an older guy."
"You remember correctly," I said.
He was still laughing.
"So you think Bill did it," John said, finally bringing the laughter down to a mild chuckle.
"I don't know for sure, but I certainly think we need to look into it. One thing's for sure. He's covering something up."
"I would agree, Max. We've done some work as well," he said.
"I'm happy to hear that," I said.
"It is my job, Max," he said. "It's interesting you mention Lee Endicott. Carl was his right hand man at Endicott Financial, and we have been trying to get ahold of Carl's emails. Apparently they are all on a secure server in the cloud, and Endicott's lawyer isn't too keen on giving us access. He's tying things up. We really need to see those emails."
I knew what John was asking me to do. He wanted me to hack into the server and take a look through the emails. See what I could find, then report back to him.
"I understand. There could be some important files on there," I said.
John looked at me and then pushed a piece of paper across the desk. It was Carl's email address and an IP address.
"I'm glad you understand how important those files could be. We'll keep plugging away and see if we can make some progress with his lawyer."
"Anything else?" I asked.
"I'm going to think about the Bill angle. My gut is he's not our guy. Although he could certainly be involved. But that's all we've got."
John stood up and made it clear that the meeting was over. We all shook hands, but Imogen also received a kiss on the cheek from John. We walked out of his office and then out of the station. It was clear what I had to do. I had to hack into Lee's servers.