Synergy: New Adult Romantic Suspense (U-District, #1) (38 page)

“You’re a genius.” Bryce kissed her hard on the forehead. “I love you, you know that?”

“I know. I love you too.” Kenzie reached for a beer bottle.

“No, don’t clean up after me. I’ll take care of them when I get out of the shower.” Bryce dashed into the bedroom and caught her picking up the bottles out of the corner of his eye.

He soaked in the hot shower, letting it clear his head. He had to prove to Jade that he wasn’t guilty. More importantly, he needed to stop whomever was trying to hurt her. The break-in happened the day she went to see Johansson, the same day she figured out someone was stealing from her. Could Joshua Greenberg be involved?

Whoever it was knew Jade was getting close. He’d seen the desk when he’d walked into her condo. Someone had hacked away at it violently. It was a miracle that the culprit hadn’t decided to hack Jade up too. Anger simmered in his gut. He had to figure this out before someone seriously hurt Jade. He focused on her visit to New York.

What does Johansson have to do with someone stealing from the company?

Jade mentioned something about letting them know she was going to start getting competitive bids. She’d mentioned the cost of goods was reducing profit. Okay, so that meant Johansson’s prices must have been significantly higher for her to meet with the CEO in person.

So why would the costs be higher?

She mentioned something about a sole source provider. If Johansson was the only one providing the material, they could charge whatever price they wanted to. But that wasn’t stealing. Unless… someone at Johansson was in on it with someone from Synergy.

Who had the authority to require a sole source provider?

Stan came to mind first, then Timothy, who was in charge of Purchasing. That’s where Bryce would have to start. One way or the other, he was going to nail the thieving bastard.

NEAL HAD WORKED THROUGH THE NIGHT.
He rubbed his neck, which was stiff from sleeping at his desk. It was just after eight a.m. Taking Bryce out of the picture caused Neal to reexamine his list of suspects and review the copious notes he’d kept. His list was small, so why couldn’t he pin it on one person?

He got up to get a cup of coffee.

Shit.

The coffeemaker was empty. He threw in extra coffee grounds, dumped in water, flipped the switch, and leaned against the counter to wait. Neal ran through the facts one more time.

Zachary Miller in IT had administrative access along with the others. He was trusted by Jade, still living at home with his parents, and after Neal had talked to him, he’d been the lowest on Neal’s list of suspects. Now suddenly, Miller leaves work for some sort of emergency? Neal needed to find out if Miller had surfaced.

The aroma of coffee filled the room and somehow made him feel less groggy. He poured creamer into his mug.

Stan Templeman was still high on the list. He’d had a secret relationship with Gloria. He’d expected to become CEO and was instead fired by Jade. Right before that, the laptop had been stolen, the financial consultant had been run off the road, and then Jade had been attacked. Yeah, Templeman was still high on the list of suspects, but his love for Gloria seemed genuine. If he was the perp, then Gloria’s death was likely not related. Neal needed to pursue that angle again and put a tail on the man.

After the break-in and finding out about the holding company, Neal had more resources at his disposal. His captain was starting to believe the possible connection with Arnie Thompson’s death. This was no longer just a minor police matter. It was becoming a major investigation.

Two detectives came over with their mugs, too damn lazy to make a pot themselves.
Vultures.
“Get in line.” Neal poured the strong brew into his mug and stirred.

Timothy Hartwick had an outward dislike of Jade. He didn’t even try to mask his disdain for her. Purchasing reported to Hartwick, making it possible for him to arrange for the bogus companies to be involved. Hartwick was single, had no children, liked young women, and had a lot of expensive toys, despite his debt. He had plenty of motive too.

What about Arnie Thompson? How does he fit into this?

Neal had confirmed that Hartwick’s boat was moored at Elliot Bay Marina, five and a half miles from Shilshole Bay Marina, where Thompson’s car had been found. What if Thompson had something to do with the financial issues Synergy was having?
Thompson did work in Purchasing. He might have been involved somehow. And Hartwick could easily have met Thompson at Shilshole Bay Marina, but then why would he own another boat under a holding company? That didn’t add up.

Neal sat back down at his desk. The caffeine was slowly making its way into his system. He glanced at his notes on Donald Haley, who he’d just added to his list yesterday.

Haley had administrator privileges to the system, but he hadn’t been on the management team when Jade had threatened to fire them, so that didn’t provide motive. Haley did benefit from Stan Templeman being fired, but Jade said he was surprised by his promotion.

Haley had married his only girlfriend when he was twenty-seven. They had no kids, possibly due to his bad childhood. He had been placed into foster care at the age of six, one year after his mother had died. Haley’s father had gone into a deep depression from the loss of his wife and had forgotten to feed the poor kid. By high-school graduation, Haley was the heaviest one in the yearbook. Neal had read about food hoarding by children who’d gone without. He couldn’t blame the guy. But was food the only thing Haley had an irrational need for?

Haley lived in Carnation, practically in the wilderness compared to Seattle. It was a small farming town known for its dairy cows. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to live out in the boonies. Jade liked Haley, and he was helping her figure out what was financially wrong with the company.

Interesting. Haley, the director of Finance, hadn’t zeroed in on the financial discrepancies himself. Jade had found them.

Haley had just recently taken on Stan Templeman’s work in addition to his own, so that could explain why he hadn’t figured out the problem yet. Still, Neal wanted to talk to Haley further. He listed that on his notepad.

When the computer beeped, Neal glanced up at his screen. It was his travel alert on Stan Templeman. Templeman had just bought two plane tickets to Mexico for three days from now. It was time to pay the man another visit.

But first, Neal would check whether Templeman had suddenly moved any funds out of the country.

JADE RUBBED HER EYES.
She’d been staring at numbers for the past three hours. She saved the query she’d created on her office computer. There were fifty-six companies with P.O. boxes associated with them. Thirty-eight of those had “LLC” at the end of the company’s name.

She searched the Internet, comparing the prices on their web sites to what her database showed. She entered them into a spreadsheet imported from the database. The lower-cost parts were overinflated by as little as sixty cents per unit, while the higher-cost parts were overinflated by as much as a several thousand dollars.

One number stood out in the center of the screen.
Where have I seen that figure before?

Numbers raced through Jade’s mind.
No, not from school. It came from Synergy.
She focused on her time at the company, seeing in her mind the contracts and financial reports from when she’d worked at Synergy before. Nothing stood out. She focused on her recent time at the company, and more contracts and reports raced through her mind. None had the figure she was looking for.

Maybe it’s nothing.

Then her mind stopped at a memory from her first day at Synergy in her new office. She was looking down at a notepad with her grandmother’s handwriting, the weight of the gold pen heavy in her hand. She’d laughed at Gran’s doodling where she’d circled a number several times.

It can’t be.

Jade stared at the screen in front of her. It was the same number. Gran had figured it out on the day she’d died.

It was too much for Gran to bear.

The guilt of never mending her relationship with her grandmother weighed even more heavily on Jade now that she knew Gran had found out someone she trusted was stealing from her on the last day she lived. Whoever it was had stolen more than just money from her grandmother; they’d stolen her will to live.

I will figure this out Gran, if it’s the last thing I do. I promise you.

Jade emailed the spreadsheet to Detective Hawkins with a note that she had to speak to him right away.
Shoot! I wasn’t supposed to send anything by email.
She smacked her forehead.
Too late now.

She needed a break before she made another mistake and did more analysis to find out when the bogus transactions had started and how much money had been taken. If she could trace the earliest transaction to before Bryce was hired, she could clear his name. Based on the initial numbers, she assumed over a million had been stolen from her company. She picked up her mug and headed to the break room.

Jade was pouring honey into her green tea and nearly jumped out of her skin when Donald walked up behind her.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s not your fault. I’m just a little jumpy after the break-in.”

“I heard about that. Are you okay? You look like you haven’t been sleeping. Rumor has it you were in the house when it was being robbed.”

“Yeah, it scared me to death.”

“Do the police have any leads?” Donald put a dollar bill into the vending machine and chose a bag of chips.

“Unfortunately, no. They think my jewelry was taken for drug money.” Jade was careful to keep up the pretense. Donald was one of the five on the list, though she suspected him about as much as she did Zach. Still, if she could suspect Bryce, she had to suspect them all. She wasn’t taking any chances.

“What brings you in here on a Saturday?” Donald filled his coffee mug.

Jade laughed. “I should be asking you that. I normally work on Saturdays.”

“Guess I’ve been the lucky one then. I’m trying to get two contracts done for Bryce.”

“Any luck hiring a replacement controller? You can’t keep doing two jobs forever.”

“I know. It’s a vicious cycle. I’m too busy to interview, so I’ll never get anyone in here.”

“Why don’t you talk to Linda? Maybe HR can find you a short list of candidates.”

“Yeah, I will, as soon as I have time.” He smiled sheepishly at Jade.

“I think my workaholism is rubbing off on you.”

“Afraid so. I don’t mind really. How is the analysis going?”

Jade paused, not knowing how to answer. “I’m still looking at the numbers. It was great to see profits rise this month. I think some of the changes we’re making are paying off.”

Donald smiled. “Good to hear it. I’m sure we’ll have things turned around in no time.”

“I’m sure of it. When are you heading out?”

“I’m hoping to leave by noon. Tanya and I have plans with friends. We’re sailing to Orcas Island.”

“That explains your outfit.”

Donald was wearing a pair of long khaki shorts, one of his Hawaiian shirts, and a pair of brown sandals. “At least it will be cooler on the water. It’s hotter than Hades in here.”

“I know. Roz said they’re waiting for parts to come in on Monday. The air should be working by then, I hope.”

“Figures we’d have ninety-degree weather when the air conditioning goes out.”

“When else would it decide to break?”

Donald laughed. “Well, I better get back to work. Bryce will tan my hide if I’m late with another contract.”

“I’ll put in a good word for you.” Jade smiled and headed back to scrutinize more numbers. But one number stood out. The one Gran had circled the day she died.

Something Neal had asked came to mind. He’d asked her if Gran was allergic to almonds. Why would he ask her that? And why had a detective been involved in Gran’s death at all?

A chill ran down Jade’s spine. Only one reason came to mind. Now that she knew about the fraud, now that someone had attacked her and possibly attacked her professor, now that someone had broken into her home. There was only one reason a detective would be involved in Gran’s death.