We have plenty. You go ahead and draft the warrant when we get back, and I’ll get the captain to review it before we take it to a judge.
Eddie put his phone away and finished his lunch. Then he paid the bill, and they all thanked Vicky before leaving the diner. Eddie took Marty back to his place and saw him inside. “He and I have a lot of work to do. Vicky was very helpful.”
“She was. I just hope that her uncle doesn’t decide to make her pay for talking to us.”
“I take it all we need to do is contact her Aunt Millie and let her know what’s going on, and I’m sure she will make sure that her husband doesn’t take things out on her. Do you happen to know her aunt?”
“Millie? Of course I do. She comes into the office sometimes. She talks to everyone and is very nice. I don’t think she knows what her husband is doing.”
“Maybe, maybe not. But we’ll find out.” He made sure the doors would lock after him. “Don’t let anyone in, and call me right away if anything unusual happens. I can have someone here in a matter of minutes.” Eddie kissed him before hurrying out of the house and to the car, heading back to work. Hopefully,some of the information they had would lead to a break in the case.
ChapterSix
Nothing washappening at work. It was like the place had closed up or something. Maybe it had and he hadn’t heard anything. The transactions were coming in from the stores, so he knew that part of the business was up and running, but little else seemed to be going on. So, with hours on his hands, Marty refreshed his resume and placed it on the job search websites. He also looked for openings and sent his resume and a cover letter to anything that looked interesting.
In the late afternoon, he sat in the living room, looking out the window as the clouds outside began to clear. Facing east, he smiled as Ranier began peeking out the top of the clouds. He watched as the clouds continued clearing, the rocks and snow at the peak shining in the late-day sun. The mountain was one of the special things about living here. It was solid and steady… and every now and then, it put on a terrific show.
As the light faded and night fell, Marty wondered where Eddie was. Not that he had any right to worry. Eddie could take care of himself. Still, as it got darker, he wondered if something was happening. Marty sent Eddie a message to find out when he’d be home and then began looking in the refrigerator for something to eat.
By the time he’d finished a quick dinner, lights shone in the window. Marty checked and waited for Eddie to drag himself inside. “What happened?” Marty asked as Eddie took off his coat and shoes, flopping into the chair near the sofa.
“Based on what Vicky told us and the deposit slips, we were able to locate all the accounts and executed search warrants at Haver’s home and the office, as well as at the store locations.”
Marty winced. “I take it you found what you were looking for?”
Eddie nodded. “We did. We found plenty, including a safe full of cash in his office as well as more cash hidden behind a wall in his home. It seems that a few of his stores were being used as pickup and delivery points for heroin and cocaine flowing into the Seattle market. Basically, they had corporatized the distribution of the stuff. And with the number of shipments received, they hid the real product in with the legitimate product. The only problem they had was what to do with the cash. It had to be processed and ‘cleaned.’”
Marty understood now. “Let me guess. At first, they inflated the sales at the stores, adding extra cash and disguising it with sales of nonexistent product. But that only showed up as inventory swellage, which didn’t work. So they brought in fake product and then sold it and used their drug cash. But that got too cumbersome, so they just started using Vicky to make deposits, and then transferred the money out to offshore accounts.”
“Exactly. And unless someone looked closely, those entries would be missed on the statements because, in the end, the balances were exactly what they should be.”
“Okay,” Marty said, putting up his hand as he tried to keep everything straight in his mind. “What about Vicky?”
“She knows very little. All she ever did was make deposits from locked bank bags that she didn’t have the keys to. But we were able to trace transactions into accounts that had been opened in a number of names, including your boss’s dead parents. Vicky made deposits into those accounts as well. There were multiple accounts at multiple banks, and all Vicky did was the deposits that were later consolidated and sent overseas. Millions of dollars. The banking system should have picked up on some of this activity, except I believe it was spread out overtoo many accounts, names, and banks. In all, there were almost a hundred accounts that they cycled the money through.”
“And Vicky was the key to all of it,” Marty said.
“Well, yeah, in a way. But she wasn’t the only one making deposits. It seems there were others, and we’re still tracking them down. Haver and your boss were very good at covering their tracks and laundering this cash. And to think it would have gone on if it wasn’t for you catching the balances in those accounts when you did.” Eddie grinned, and Marty basked in the glow of that smile.
“It was an accident. I was looking for something and discovered what I wasn’t looking for.” He slumped his shoulders. “What do I do now? I’m out of a job now, I’m sure. I don’t think that the business is going to be able to weather this, not once this story breaks, and it’s too big not to.”
“Well, that’s the interesting part.” Eddie scooted closer. “My captain and the chief want to speak to you. They were impressed with how you found this money and how you understood what it meant. And there’s a joint task force in the area to help fight this type of crime.”
Marty swallowed. “You want me to go to work for the police?”
“I don’t know what they have planned or what any of the details are. But they asked to speak to you once this case is wrapped up.”
“But it’s not,” Marty said as he nodded. “You figured out everything about the money and why this was happening, but you haven’t answered the big question: Who killed Bryce? I mean, you could say that Mr. Haver did it to cut Bryce out of the proceeds or because the scheme had been discovered. But I bet he has an airtight alibi for the killing, right?”
Eddie nodded. “He was at a party with friends in Seattle. Dozens of people saw him that evening. So there was no way hedid it unless he paid someone, and with the amounts of money flowing around this case, it’s going to be impossible to trace a transaction.”
“And the killer would have been paid in cash that needed to be laundered anyway, so there’s no way to trace it. And any DNA that you match, the defense would say it was contaminated because Haver owned the building where everyone worked, and he had been in and out of every office and workspace over the past months and years. His DNA could literally be everywhere.”
“That may be true, but he doesn’t match what we got from Bryce’s office. We already checked.”
“So you are looking for someone else?” Marty asked.
“Yup, and as far as we know, you are the only person who has seen him.”
