Enemies Closer (16 page)

At some point that afternoon she had gone online to pay her bills and check her bank statement, and the bomb had dropped. She’d discovered that she had
a lot
more money in her account than she should have. Three deposits over the last few weeks of thousands and thousands of dollars. Maddy had no idea where it had come from and a call to her bank hadn’t helped. Apparently the money had been electronically deposited and accepted. Whoever had done it had somehow gotten access to her bank passwords – not difficult since she left them all in her desk drawer, labeled – and authorized the transfer. It appeared to the banker she spoke with that it was a legitimate electronic deposit. Not an error.

She had spent the next few hours fretting about it, thinking first that it
had
to be a bank error and then that the unexplained funds must have something to do with the money that was disappearing from her restaurant. She’d thought about calling Michelle, or Eddie, but Maddy had wanted a clearer understanding of the situation before she started asking suspicious questions or making accusations. Finally, she’d decided to send Michelle a quick text message saying she wanted to have a business meeting this week –
did I actually send the text?
Then she must have gotten dressed for dinner because she was still wearing the waxed burgundy denim and silk pintucked shirt, her ruined suede trench coat still keeping her arms and shoulders warm. But she didn’t actually remember dressing. She didn’t remember dinner –
with whom did I eat dinner?

She did not remember where she’d been going, or with whom, what she had eaten, whether she had gone home after dinner…

In frustration she yanked at her chain and cried out a slew of angry profanities and remorseful entreaties until her already hoarse voice gave way to a few choked sobs of despair. Burrowing deeper into her sleeping bag, Maddy Gardner finally cried herself to sleep.

Chapter Fourteen

A
uniformed desk sergeant escorted Clara and Ben into an incident room at the main precinct building. Kincaid, Carlisle and Tanaka all turned in unison when the sergeant knocked and opened the door.

“Good morning,” said Carlisle. She noted that Clara looked better-rested than she had yesterday and the mother in her wondered if she and Ben had spent the night together.

Kincaid would have wondered the same thing, but as soon as he saw what she was carrying all his curiosity transferred to the black MacBook in Clara’s arms. “Is that for us?” he asked.

“Yep,” she answered simply and searched for an empty spot on the conference table. Carlisle reached out; handing it over, Clara said, “I want you to use the information you find on my sister’s computer in any way you have to to find her, but I implore you not to take advantage of it.”

“We’ll only use what’s necessary to bring Maddy back,” said Kincaid with complete sincerity, although he knew that if they found evidence that Maddy had committed a grievous crime or was involved in her own disappearance, they would have to investigate further.

Clara gave him a long look as though she read his mind, but finally nodded. “Okay. And here are her passwords,” she said as she handed Carlisle a single sheet of printer paper.

The detective scanned the paper. “Did you make this list?”

“No – I found it in Maddy’s desk, made you a copy.”

Carlisle handed the paper to her partner. “She shouldn’t keep her passwords labeled and listed like this. Anyone could get into her accounts.
All
of her accounts.” A look of horror passed through the detectives’ eyes. “Savings, checking, credit cards, even her mortgage account. Plus email, social media, PayPal. What was she thinking?”

Clara just shrugged. “Bring her home and we can all give her a stern lecture. For now, it makes the process of invading Maddy’s privacy very easy.”

Kincaid set the list down on the table. “You don’t have a list like that, do you?”

“No, detective, I’m much more careful.”

“Good.” He looked at Ben. “I don’t even have to ask you.”

“Nope,” Ben agreed, dismissing the notion without offense and turning a curious glance toward the man sitting at the end of the table, staring at Clara.

“Detective Fred Tanaka,” said the man, standing and stretching out a hand. “Homicide.” Tanaka noted the look of alarm on Clara’s face and clarified, “I’m working on Susan Burns’s case.”

“Oh, thank God,” said Clara, and Ben wrapped his arm protectively around her shoulder. “For a second I thought…” She still looked stricken but the color was coming back to her cheeks.

“Did you come across anything unusual?” asked Kincaid, hoping the change of subject would distract her. He gestured for everyone to sit down and when they did, Clara answered.

“Yes, we did, as a matter of fact.”

Carlisle and Kincaid exchanged a look. Tanaka’s ears perked up. Maybe they were about to get a break. No one spoke, waiting for Clara to go on.

“Well, I don’t know what it means, but there have been three deposits made into my sister’s account in the last month. For thousands of dollars.” She looked at the detectives sternly. “Now, before you get excited thinking she had a motive to disappear, let me make something perfectly clear. My sister did not embezzle money from Dovetail or anyone else. She was not blackmailing anyone. She was not selling smack out of the back door of her restaurant, and she was not running a Ponzi scheme. Someone got hold of her passwords and account information and deposited that money to make it seem more likely that Maddy is somehow behind her own disappearance. I think Susan’s murder makes it clear that there’s some kind of conspiracy going on.”

Tanaka was still admiring Clara’s beautiful face when he said with absolutely no inflection, “Unless your sister murdered Susan.”

The incident room went perfectly still as Clara’s eyes first widened and then narrowed in anger. “Get one thing straight, Detective Tanaka – if you go after Maddy for Susan’s murder, you’ll waste your time getting nowhere while her killer goes free. I can’t tell you how to conduct your investigation, but I can give you a good piece of advice: look elsewhere for your killer.”

Tanaka nodded slowly but said nothing. Thinking that Clara could be right, but she could just as easily be wrong. Loved ones were often surprised by what their friends and family were capable of.

Carlisle admired Clara’s loyalty, honesty, and certainly her spunk, but large cash deposits were suspicious. She and Kincaid would have to track down the source before they could be sure of Maddy’s innocence. Either way though, guilty or innocent, their job didn’t change. She and her partner had to find Maddy Gardner. She tapped her index finger hard on the table and said, “We will be fair, Clara. And we will find Maddy. Right now, we need to get this laptop to our tech guys and you need to let us do our job.”

“Fine,” she said. “We’ll leave you to it, but I’ll be checking in later today.” She got up to leave and Ben stood too, looking at her with a subtle smile of admiration.

As they walked through the door, Kincaid called out, “Don’t do anything stupid!”

Clara and Ben left police headquarters and started along Fifth Avenue. He asked, “Where to?”

“I don’t know,” said Clara despondently. “I should talk to Michelle again, especially since Susan’s murder. Maybe she has some new insight.”

Ben frowned. “Have you considered that Michelle and Eddie might have played a role in this whole mess?” When Clara didn’t answer, he went on, “Because with Susan’s murder, Maddy’s concerns about the business, and the strange deposits in her checking account, it’s pretty hard to believe this doesn’t all revolve around Dovetail.”

“I know, Ben. But I don’t want to think Michelle, or Eddie, could be involved.”

“It might not be them specifically, but something’s going on in that restaurant.” He paused, considering what he was about to say. “Eddie does have a violent temper, and Susan was brutally beaten.”

Clara didn’t answer right away. “I don’t want to start thinking that way,” she said again.

“You’re going to have to,” he said seriously. “You’re going to have to be suspicious of everyone and start watching your back. A woman has been murdered. Maddy is missing, and I hope to God she hasn’t been hurt, but that’s looking more and more like a real possibility. Something is funny with the finances at her restaurant, and more often than not, it’s the people in charge who are responsible for misappropriation of funds.”

Clara sighed. “I still want to check in at Dovetail today but I promise to keep in mind that I may be talking to the enemy.”

“It’s only eleven o’clock. Let’s stop in after the lunch rush. Right now I want to go to my office.”

“Oh,” said Clara, failing to hide her disappointment. “You’ve been so great and so helpful. Above and beyond, really. I’ll go see Michelle on my own.”

“I was hoping you would come with me, Clara. I think we can chase a few more lines of inquiry from there.”

She smiled broadly and shrugged. “Even better.”

Ben’s office building was close to Dovetail, just a few blocks off of the water in a steel and glass tower. He used a key card to open a door to the right of the main entrance and they rode the elevator to the twenty-ninth floor. RD Investments occupied a block of space on the northwest corner with views of Elliott Bay and the downtown skyline. Through the glass entry doors, Clara could see an empty receptionist’s desk and a caramel-colored leather seating arrangement around a low glass table.

“Simple and clean,” she commented while Ben unlocked the door and punched a code into the security system keypad.

“That’s my motto,” he replied with a wink. “Welcome.” He walked her past the receptionist’s desk and down a hallway lined in glass with offices on either side. When they reached the corner of the building the glass walls gave way to wood panels. He pointed to a door. “That’s my partner’s office. I said he could have the corner because he’s the old guy of the two of us.”

“How old is he?”

Ben laughed. “He’s three years older than I am.”

She winked. “Pretty young for an old guy.”

They had stopped outside of another oak door. Ben leaned against it and pulled her into his arms, brushing a lock of hair away from her face. “You are incredibly beautiful, Miss Gardner.” She opened her mouth to speak but he silenced her with his lips. For a long moment he kissed her and then just as suddenly, he released her. “This is my office.” He stepped to the side and pushed open the door, letting Clara enter first.

The office was spacious but not oversized. Four club chairs upholstered in the same leather as the furniture at the entrance sat in the foreground with a huge oak desk in front of the windows. The desk was styled like a table, with only three shallow drawers along the top. The legs of a black leather and chrome chair showed under the desk and light poured almost unobstructed from the windows.

The view was spectacular. “Absolutely breathtaking,” she said. “How do you get any work done?”

“That’s why my desk faces the door.”

“Ah,” she said. “You spend a lot of time in your office?”

“No more than I have to,” he replied. “I have to be able to play as much as I work. Otherwise it wouldn’t be worth it. The view here is just to impress investors.”

“Thank goodness!” said Clara with mock relief. “I can’t get involved with a work-a-holic.”

He gave her a meaningful smile and pulled another desk chair alongside his own. “Come here,” he said and patted the chair. “I did have a reason to bring you here, other than trying to impress you, that is.”

She sat down next to him and watched as he wiggled a mouse and the twenty-seven-inch Mac desktop lit up. He opened his address book and typed a name. Then he picked up the desk phone and dialed. Ben turned to Clara and whispered, “Secure line.” Then, into the receiver, “How did I know you’d be working on a Saturday?”

Clara listened as he reassured the person on the other end of the phone that his line was secure, that it was checked bi-monthly. Then he said, “I need you to check someone out. Two someones, actually.” He spelled out Eddie’s name, rattled off his home address. “See if he has a police record. And I want to know if he owns any properties other than his primary residence.” He thought for a second. “Also, can you hack into his finances, taxes, anything you can find and figure out where he gets his money?” He listened for a minute, said “Married. Yep,” and then, “Susan Burns is the other one.” He gave her address and current status as a murder victim. “Same info for her.”

When he hung up the landline, Clara raised an eyebrow and said, “Friends in high places?”

“High or low, depends who you ask. I’m not nosy, but I’ve had occasion to need more information than I can find on the internet or through the firm’s corporate attorneys.” When she smiled provocatively he added, “My brother is a techie at Quantico and even though he’s clean as a whistle, some of his friends are a little more flexible. Morally.”

“I’m in, baby. You’ll get no complaints from me about where you get information that might bring Maddy home.”

What Ben didn’t tell her was that when his friend had asked Eddie’s marital status and asked, “Should I check her out too?” he had replied yes. He figured that if Michelle was clean he wouldn’t mention it to Clara, but he also knew that no one was above suspicion at this point. If he could, he would spare Clara the feeling that she had violated a friend’s privacy, but if Michelle
was
involved, they had to find out fast.

Ben turned his chair so he was knee to knee with Clara. “Now we just have to wait for him to call back.”

She leaned forward. “How long, do you reckon?”

“An hour, two? I just don’t know, but I think we should make the most of the time we have.” He leaned forward too and rubbed his nose against hers.

Clara kissed him lightly on the lips. “I’m starving.” Ben had brought croissants and fresh-squeezed orange juice for breakfast, but Clara had been too wound up to eat more than a bite or two. After Ben had left the night before, she’d fallen easily asleep, curled up in her sister’s cozy bed with Bea purring into her chest. And she had slept reasonably well, but in the morning she’d awoken with a feeling of dread and panic, her stomach clenched into a tight ball of anxiety, the reality of Maddy’s disappearance hitting her full-force.

Ben’s arrival had been welcome. He’d come to the door in jeans, a black cashmere sweater and shiny brown oxfords with pointy toes, brown eyes smiling reassuringly, brown hair a little mussed, carrying a bakery bag and a cardboard cup tray holding coffee and juice. When he saw her, he had set everything down on the kitchen counter and wrapped her in his broad shoulders and strong arms. He had asked how she’d slept and how she was feeling, told her not to despair, it was a new day, they would bring Maddy’s laptop to the detectives and talk to Michelle and Eddie, maybe even talk to Harry again if he was willing to talk so soon after his girlfriend’s death.

When he sensed that Clara was relaxing a little he had distracted her with small talk, asking more about her restoration business.

“When Maddy told me about you, she said you were the world’s sexiest carpenter.” That had finally made Clara laugh, but did not bring back her appetite.