Lee Endicott, Principal of Endicott Financial, was running a Ponzi scheme. I heard Imogen say those words, but my mind was rejecting it. But she was right. It did make perfect sense. Why else would they be having cash flow problems? People wanted their money back with their returns, and Lee needed the cash to pay them. But when you don't have any money it is hard to repay people, so you need to find more. Find more investors to put more cash into the kitty to pay the investors. Borrow from Max, with promises of a high return, to pay Eric. Eventually, you run out of investors to support the scheme, and it implodes.
We didn't know how much money they needed, but that explained why Lee was so keen on getting me to invest my two million. He needed it. Bad. And he would have done anything to get it. But that still didn't explain why Carl was dead. Would Lee have murdered Carl to keep him quiet?
"You're right, Ginny. He's running a Ponzi scheme," I said.
"Plain and simple. And this is a big one. No telling how many people will be affected."
"And they're all friends of friends. They trusted Lee and each other. Jesus. This is going to be bad."
"Quite bad indeed," she said. "The ol' boy is going to wind up in prison."
"When he's caught. And all of the investors are going to wind up with nothing," I said. "Well, less than they had before. Do you think Lee killed Carl to keep this a secret?"
"He very well might have. But Carl was probably on his way to prison too when the authorities caught up with them. Which could have taken a little more time. At least until Lee started defaulting on the payouts."
We weren't sure if Lee had it in him to kill Carl, but he was definitely a suspect.
"While we're in the email server, what do you say we take a look at Lee's emails?" I asked.
"Let's."
So we started going through Lee's emails in the same order that we tackled Carl's. Lee's correspondence would prove to be much more exciting.
All the business emails that Lee sent were always positive. Always towing the company line. Touting its success. Preaching that everything was perfect and that investors were flying in the door while they were turning record profits. But then we stumbled onto something quite different.
The first email that we found of interest was from a woman. DirtyGirl. The email wondered if the two of them would be able to get together for lunch later that day. The reply explained that he would love to and that they should meet at their regular spot at the regular time.
I immediately searched for all emails from DirtyGirl. The correspondence stretched back for five years. We read through them. Some were provocative, some were innocent and sweet, but they all revealed one thing for certain. Lee Endicott had a girlfriend.
"Poor Tori," Imogen said.
"Do you think she knows?"
"I don't know. She didn't mention anything about them being unhappy," she said.
"Maybe she's not unhappy. Maybe she's doing it too."
We needed to find out whom he was seeing. As we were debating the pitfalls of cheating on your spouse, in came an email from DirtyGirl. I watched as Lee opened it. Then I read it.
From DirtyGirl: Late dinner tonight?
"Perfect," I said.
"What?" Ginny asked.
"Let's see what he answers. He's reading the email as we speak."
From L. Endicott: Other is here.
"Damn," I said.
"Who the hell is other?" Ginny asked.
"Maybe Tori?" I said.
From DirtyGirl: :(
"Wait. He's writing another."
"How can you tell?" she asked.
"Another file has just been created. See," I said, pointing to the screen.
From L. Endicott: But I can get rid of her. Same time plus 2?
"Other has to be Tori," I said.
"Where are they?"
"I can't tell," I said.
"Maybe he's checking his email on his phone?"
"Or at the office?"
From DirtyGirl: Bring your jammies ;)
"Wherever he is, he's not sleeping there tonight," I said.
"What a cheeky bird," Imogen said.
I smiled.
"We need to find out who this DirtyGirl is and what she's doing with Lee," I said.
"We don't know where or when they're meeting," Imogen said.
"I've got an idea," I said.
We needed to figure out DirtyGirl's identity. Perhaps there was some link between her, Carl, and this whole mess. Maybe this DirtyGirl had some relevant information for us about Endicott Financial.
After all, five years is a long time to be with someone. You usually have a pretty good idea what's going on in the other person's life.