“Oh,” I mumbled.Then I glanced around and said, “I kindacan’t talk about that in company.This is a client.I’m bound byconfidentiality.”
“Got a dollar?Or a quarter, a quarter would work,” Daisyput in.
“I got one,” Toni said, digging in her purse.
She fished it out and Daisy treated us to a bird’s-eye-viewof her cleavage when she leaned forward and took it, and I had to admit, myeyes started burning.
She shoved the bill in her cleavage then said, “Right.Youjust hired Rock Chick Investigations.And we got confidentiality too.Carryon.”
“Okay, but…” I slid my gaze through the crew.
“I hear you,” Daisy said.“And Ava’s our graphic designer.Roxie is our website coordinator.The rest you can consider associates.”
“It’s okay,” Ally cut in.“No one is going to breathe aword.Honestly.Shoot.”
I looked to Toni.
She nodded in encouragement.
I returned to Ally.“Right, so I got this folder on my desk.Except, when I opened it, there was nothing in it but a Post-it that said ‘RemostrosEngineering,’ and that address we were at.”
“The vacant offices?”Ally asked.
“What?”I asked back.
“I did some preliminary checks.On that floor where youwere, there were four office suites.Three taken.One by an accounting firm.One a data processing organization.The last, an architect.The only othersuite of offices, the one around the corner from where you two were lurking,was vacant.”
Again, Toni and I exchanged a glance before I went back toAlly.“That should be an engineering firm.”
“Well, it isn’t.I went in.There’s nothing there.Not evena desk.But there is a listing for it on a commercial rental site, and it’sbeen vacant for twelve months.”
“Whoa,” Toni whispered.
My skin started feeling funny.
“That’s it, child?”Shirleen spoke for the first time,watching me carefully.“An empty folder?”
I shook my head at her.“No.I didn’t know what was up, so Ityped the number on the tab into our system, thinking maybe the paperwork hadbeen misplaced.It’s the case file number.And it came up locked.The messagesaid I had to ask the network engineer for access.I’ve never run into thatbefore.We have three named partners, four senior partners, six juniorpartners, and four associates.I do work for all of them.I have all access toeverything because I need it.”
“Okay, we’re getting fishier,” Ally said.“What else?”
“I asked the network administrator for access,” I told her.“And he was acting all kinds of shifty and said that only Jeffrey, one of thenamed partners, has access to that file.”
“And let me guess, you got curious, and it didn’t stopthere,” Ally deduced.
I nodded.“Especially since it was a named partner.Theydon’t do any of the grunt work.They pass it off to the paralegal pool.Or anassociate.So I looked upRemostrosEngineering.Andit exists, and I’m no forensics accountant, but from what I can tell, it’s ashell company.”
“Well, damn,” Daisy whispered.
“And that’s owned by what appears to be another shellcompany, that’s owned by another one, that’s owned by yet another, and thatlast one is owned by a tiny LLC with only one director,” I went on.
“This Jeffrey,” Ally concluded.
I nodded again.
She turned to Daisy.“Extortion?”
Daisy shrugged.“Maybe.”She gave her attention to me.“ThisJeffrey married?”
