“I appreciate this, Lieutenant. I’m not holding back. My focus has been, to this point, on what has been recovered. I know Interpol is working in conjunction with your EDD on monitoring underground auctions and chatter. As far as I know, there’s nothing yet to report there.”
“When there is.”
“When there is. My word on it. If any of the names you gave me lead to more, you’ll hear from me. The recovery of so much stolen property may ring loudest, but Interpol doesn’t take murder lightly. Nor do I. I’ll be in touch.”
Eve replaced the ’link, then ran her hands up over her face, into her hair. “That’s done.”
“You’re starting to fade again.”
“Not that much. Joy Barrister.”
“Nothing that shows. She’s made money from her money—smart investing, good property purchases, well maintained from what I can see. It’s clear to me why she’s CFO. Her records there? Again, from a cursory look, meticulous and clean. I’d say she’s a woman who takes her position very seriously.”
“Likes to travel?”
“She does. Europe and the tropics seem favored, though she travels to Asia, South America, and so forth. Sometimes on the company dime, sometimes on her own.”
“Companions?”
“Company staff when it’s business. Occasionally a travel companion when it’s personal. No one there who seems of particular importance, in that the travel companion rarely repeats. She appears to be a woman who enjoys her position, her wealth, and her freedom to choose her companions.”
“Okay, staff.”
“Not much there. Nothing—what’s that word you use?—hinky. Again,wise investing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they got advice from the Barristers there. They use the same investment firm as Henry Barrister, though a different financial adviser, as none of them are in the Barrister bracket.
“In college—before she took the job at Barrister House—Uma Acker was seriously involved with another woman.”
“How’d you get that from her financials?”
“If you go back, and I did, there was a shared bank account, and two names on an apartment lease. When I checked the other woman, I found she’d been killed in a vehicular accident—about six months before the start of Uma’s employment. Which explains why, every year on the date of death, Uma purchases flowers—always white roses.”
“To take to the gravesite. Okay.”
“The butler. John Tyler owns a share in some beach property in North Carolina. His parents also own shares and have retired there. Travel-wise, he visits them two or three times a year. His financials are in good order, nothing in the hinky area. He does, occasionally, play the horses. Small bets, and he wins more than loses. I assume he’s seeing someone, or someones, as two or three times a month he charges what would add up to dinner for two at a nice restaurant. He also buys flowers on occasion.
“He lives within his means, with sporadic indulgences—such as orchestra seats, generally for two, a few times a year. Broadway. He enjoys musical theater.”
“I think we’ll dig up his dinner/theater companions. You never know.”
“Until you do. And last, the divine Divine. A widow—she married Jasper Fortigue when she was but twenty-two, and lost him in a construction accident—work-related—when she was thirty-eight. Two children, boys who were sixteen and fourteen at the time of their father’s death. She received a lump sum payment, both from insurance and from the construction company.
“From what I can tell, she used it to pay her bills, raise her children, start college funds, and take classes. Culinary classes.
“She’s also been careful with her money. Small investments, but she banks the bulk. She doesn’t own any property, but helped both her sons buy homes. She lives simply. Her travel is almost exclusively limited to a two-week trip—with her family—to various locations. They rent a house, a big one, at the beach, in the mountains. From a financial standpoint, she is what she seems. Someone who loves her work, loves her family, and gives her best to both.”
“Any romantic or sexual companions?”
“None that show.”
“Loves her family, vacations with them. Maybe she knew about the vault, just mentioned it to them.”
“Do you really think so?”
“No, but it’s best to cover it. I’m going to talk to the guy who found the wall panel, see what that turns up. This thief? He didn’t just wake up one day and think: You know, I bet there’s a vault full of good stuff in that office in that house. I’m going to go grab something.”
“No.”
“Go over it with me one more time. The process.”
