Fifty Shades of Greyhound (The Pampered Pets Mystery Series) (15 page)

THE FBI DIDN’T include me in their briefings, so I had to use other means to get updates on the case.

Eugene had met with the FBI again once he’d made contact with Joe, the guy he’d mentioned from the work release program. He’d filled in the progress for Verdi who stopped by to let me know the latest.

It had been a great move on Agent Milner’s part to use Eugene. He was able to collect quite a bit of intel about Dirk Pennick.

It turned out what Pennick had been investigating had nothing to do with any of the wealthy people who were at the Greyhound fund-raiser. The FBI had been barking up the wrong tree. He’d been investigating the Greyhound rescue itself.

Verdi sprawled on my couch and munched on the Portabella mushroom “burger” I’d grilled for dinner. She’d shown up unannounced, but I always made too much. It’s the bane of those of us who live alone. I always make too much food.

She spoke between bites. “Eugene says the FBI guy was really happy with what he’d been able to find out.”

“Did he say who they were focusing on?”

“They think Blanche LeRue was involved.” Verdi finished and got up to take her plate to the kitchen. “Something to do with the finances, that’s why the Feds are involved.”

“But Blanche told me she paid little attention to the money the rescue collected.” I still wasn’t convinced about Blanche’s role. “She was all about the dogs.”

“I guess they don’t think she ‘acted alone.’” Verdi made little quotation marks in the air. “Someone at the rescue must have been in on it with her.”

“That leaves very few suspects.” I followed her to the kitchen. “Blanche was the executive director, Dave Benda is their accountant, George Thomas is their attorney.” I wished I had a clearer picture of what it was the FBI thought Blanche had done. “The rest are volunteers, and then, of course, there’s the board.”

“Eugene said the FBI is looking into everyone’s background who has anything to do with the rescue.” She rinsed her dish and stacked it with mine in the sink, right at home.

“I’d think background checks wouldn’t be too difficult for such a small group.” I poured us each a glass of iced tea. I’d brewed a new pomegranate raspberry green tea from the Koffee Klatch that Verdi had suggested I try.

She took a sip. “This is good.”

We carried our drinks back to the living room. There’d been such a change in Verdi since her brother had come forward. She was more like her old self, and it was nice to have her back.

“I don’t know Dave or the attorney that well, but the other board members are all people who don’t need to skim money from a rescue group.” I set my glass down on the end table. “Diana and Sam are on the board. Also, Alice Tiburon’s the chair. All people we could safely say are ‘comfortably well-off,’”

“I guess.” Verdi emptied her glass and stood. “I’m going to run next door and check on the cats. And talk to my brother one more time. I’ll let you know if I find out anything else.”

“Okay, hon.” I took the empty glass from her. “You do that.”

I transferred the dishes in the sink to the dishwasher and added Verdi’s glass. I’d grown fond of Verdi. She was a good kid. So was Eugene. I hoped his cooperation with the FBI worked out and he was able to get his record cleared.

Kitchen cleaned, I poured another glass of iced tea, picked up the book I’d started over a week ago, and settled into my favorite chair. It was a thriller by Sandra Brannan, one of my favorite authors, but I’d had a little trouble concentrating on fiction lately. Real-life murder and mayhem will do that to you.

I’d no sooner opened the book and located where I’d left off than the doorbell chimed. Maybe Verdi was back with some new information on the case.

I set my book aside and went to the door. Agent Milner, Detective Malone, and another man stood on my step.

Milner was attired in his usual FBI uniform, a business suit. Malone, his standard, dark jeans, dark T-shirt, leather jacket. The third man was more casually dressed but still had a law enforcement air about him.

Bloody coppers.
I heard Ollie’s voice in my head, and it made me smile.

No matter. I sincerely hoped one of them had Grandma Tillie’s brooch.

“Wow. Please come in.” I opened the door wider. “To what do I owe this honor?”

“Ms. Lamont.” Agent Milner stepped through first.

“Caro.” Detective Malone was next. It had taken a while to get him to call me by my first name, but I was glad to see we’d definitely made the transition.

“I’m Nick.” The next guy held out his hand. He was clearly law enforcement but a young pup.

Had I become a part of some training exercise? The “how to return property to an irate citizen” module?

“Hello, Nick.” I shook his hand. “Come on in.”

The other two were already in and had seated themselves in my living room. Apparently, this wasn’t going to be a quick visit.

“Can I get you all something to drink? I have coke, iced tea, wine.” I looked from one to another.

“No. No, thanks,” they each answered.

“Well then, could one of you tell me what you’re doing here?”

Agent Milner kicked it off. “Eugene has had some luck in getting in touch with people he was formerly incarcerated with. We’ve done some follow-up already and need your help to go further in the investigation.”

“What kind of help?” I barely got the words out before the doorbell rang again. “Excuse me while I answer that.”

I opened the door this time to Sam who carried a stack of paperwork.

“Hello, Caro.” He kissed me on the cheek and followed me to the living room. He didn’t seem shocked to see the others.

“You all know each other?” I asked, before returning to my chair. My sarcasm was not at all subtle. Nor did I mean for it to be.

Everyone nodded manly nods. I truly didn’t believe my living room had ever contained so much testosterone at one time.

Sam perched on the arm of my chair. “Here’s what I found in going through the board reports.”

They all leaned forward. It was like they were continuing a conversation they’d started earlier. And I guessed they probably were.

“I don’t have access to the accounts themselves,” Sam continued. “Only Blanche LeRue, George Thomas, and Dave Benda have access to those. But my grandmother kept hard copies of the quarterly financial reports provided to the board.”

I looked around the room. I was the only one who was lost.

Sam handed out some papers. “If you take a look at the last two years, everything seems to be in order.” He flipped a legal-sized page over and pointed. “However, if you go back three years, there’s clearly a difference.”

“Missing money?” Milner asked.

“It’s hard to say without all the details.”

“Not enough,” Milner said.

“Can someone fill me in?” If they were going to meet in my living room, I was darned well going to be in on this discussion.

Malone spoke up. “Eugene was able to find out that Dirk Pennick, aka Victor Lustig, was investigating Greys Matter. He had stumbled onto something big, and that something got him killed.”

Milner picked up the story; a corner of his mouth lifted in a half-smile. “He’d told a friend that he’d been hired to look into things and that he’d discovered a scam of some sort. Nothing like a con man to uncover a scam.”

“Our minds aren’t as devious. We don’t think twisted enough,” Malone observed.

“What I’ve found in the old reports would support that idea.” Sam folded the paper he held in half.

“Here’s the rub.” Agent Milner looked at me. “We’re pretty sure, but not absolutely certain, that it wasn’t just Blanche LeRue.”

“But—” I started to protest.

“I know you don’t think Blanche’s death was a suicide. Detective Malone has apprised us of your opinion.” He looked over at Malone.

I met Malone’s stare. I had not changed my mind.

“Here are the facts.” He ticked them off on his fingers. “Blanche is dead, she can’t tell us the whole story, and the only one who can is the other person who was involved.”

“And who is that?”

“That’s the problem, as Mr. Gallanos noted, there’s a limited lineup of people who have account access. We don’t know which one was the accomplice.”

“So why not just bring them all in? For Pete’s sake, two people are dead.” It seemed pretty straightforward to me.

“That would be one approach.” Agent Milner held my gaze, but I could sense all eyes on me. “The problem is, as soon as we make a move in cases like this, the suspects disappear. These are people with resources.”

I turned to look at the men seated around my living room. There was a reason they were all here.

“If we can act quickly enough and bring them in for questioning, we can prevent the flight, but they immediately lawyer up.” He shifted toward me. “And, here’s the deal, we’re not just interested in this little issue.” He tapped the papers Sam had given him. “We believe this may be part of a larger operation we’ve been tracking. If so, this is only one of many set ups by this group. We want Big Al, the guy who is replicating this all over the country. He’s a regular franchise. We want to take him down.”

“Big Al?” I couldn’t wrap my brain around the idea of some guy named “Big Al” pulling the strings at the pet rescue. Could it be these men had watched too many gangster movies?

“We could access the rescue computer and try to sort it out, but anything could tip them off.” Milner looked at me.

“I’ve had brief discussions with Dave Benda and George Thomas under the pretense of following up on Blanche LeRue’s suicide.” Malone spoke from where he sat, foot on knee, beside the young man, who’d so far had nothing of substance to add.

I thought about how nervous Dave had been when I’d told him about Blanche not showing up for our meeting. But then I also remembered how livid George Thomas had been when he slammed out of the Greys Matter office the day I’d stopped in there.

“We think Dave Benda is our guy.” Milner rubbed his chin with his thumb.

“Dave is Big Al?” I couldn’t see it. Dave Benda was a numbers guy, not a mastermind. The only thing he cared about was making enough money to keep his trophy wife in diamonds.

“No, but we believe Dave was Blanche’s accomplice and he knows who Big Al is,” Milner answered. “We need someone who can get close to Dave without spooking him and offer him a deal. If he will act as an informer, and give us the details, we’ll make him an offer that will protect him in exchange for the information he has.”

“That’s where I come in?” I knew they’d eventually get to why the evening’s Bloody Coppers Anonymous meeting was at my house.

Sam spoke up from beside me. “You and Diana.”

Young Nick spoke for the first time. “We would send you both in completely wired. It’s good to have two people in case of technical problems.”

“We also believe having a board member there will add some pressure, because he would question your involvement alone,” Milner explained. “He knows you both, so asking him to meet you at the rescue’s offices won’t raise an alarm for him.”

“I could tell him I need some files from Blanche’s office.” I saw where they were going. “Diana would make perfect sense because of her concern for the rescue.”

“If we can get some listening devices into the building beforehand we will, but we’ll need to move quickly,” Nick said to the group.

“Are you sure Dave’s not dangerous?” I wasn’t concerned so much for myself, but for Diana who I knew wouldn’t ask the question.

“There’s nothing to make us think he is. He seems to be the numbers guy.” Milner sat back in his chair. “If we thought so, we wouldn’t do this. We do think he has information, though, that can help us.”

“Okey dokey, I’m in.” I looked around the room again. “You knew I would be, didn’t you?”

Every head nodded.

“You’ve already talked to Diana, haven’t you?” I wasn’t sure why I suddenly thought so, but Agent Milner’s glance at the floor told me I’d hit the nail on the head.

“Yes, we have.” He looked up. “Though we didn’t have Mr. Gallanos’s board reports until now to confirm our suspicions. We will finalize plans and meet with the two of you first thing in the morning.” He stood. “We’d like to do this tomorrow night if we can, before he gets word through Dirk’s friends.”

The rest stood and filed out in the order they’d come.

Milner first, with a promise to call first thing tomorrow with details. I reminded him that he also had another promise outstanding. Involving my grandmother’s brooch.

Malone stopped for a moment before exiting. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” His blue eyes searched my face for hesitation. “You know, you don’t have to do this. It’s not your fight.”

“I know.” I patted his sleeve. “I’m sure.”

Nick was next. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Lamont.” He held his hand out to shake mine. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Yeah, I bet.

“Nice to meet you, too, Nick.”

“I’m the technical end of this operation, and you have my word, we’ll make sure you and your friend are safe.”

“Thanks, hon.”

I closed the door and turned to the final visitor, who’d hung back when the rest had exited. “Sam, what, in heaven’s name, have I gotten myself into this time?”