Numbers Can Be Deadly (Sage Gardens Cozy Mystery Book 7) Read online

  “That’s not the story I was told.” Jo narrowed her eyes.

  “What was the story?” Walt looked over at her and finally their eyes connected.

  “I was told that you found something illegal in Magnus’ finances, and you were either intimidated or bribed into keeping your mouth shut.”

  Walt held her gaze. “Jo, we may not have known each other for long, but I do hope that you know me well enough to see how ridiculous that statement is.”

  Jo’s expression tensed. Everyone looked in her direction. She took a deep breath and then nodded.

  “Of course I do, Walt. I’m sorry for ever considering it.”

  “No need to apologize. If I had explained from the get-go there would not have been any confusion. You’ll have to excuse my desire to hide the experience. It’s just that it wasn’t one of my proudest moments. I’m sure that there was something more I could have done.”

  “It sounds like you did everything right, Walt. It’s a good thing you stood up for those employees.” Samantha patted his shoulder.

  “Whoever was stealing from him, might still have some animosity towards Magnus. He might still be an enemy.” Jo tapped the table lightly with one finger. “If we can figure out who was stealing then we might just have our murderer.”

  “Good point, Jo. But first let’s talk about these lists,” Samantha said. “This one is the list of names I was able to gather for all of the employees that I could find. It includes a few employees who I don’t think work there anymore. This one is a list of numbers that I think might coincide with the names.”

  “They do.” Eddy nodded and tapped the sheet of paper. “Chris confirmed it when I was on the phone with him. However, the number that was written down on the paper, doesn’t belong to any of the employees on file.”

  “Oh.” Samantha sighed. “I guess that’s a dead end then.”

  “It looks like it is. Chris is going to try to send me the information from keycard swipes around the time of the murder. That should help us narrow down which employees entered the building.”

  “If they used a keycard.” Walt frowned.

  “You have to use one to get into the building.” Samantha looked across the table at him.

  “Maybe, but I’ve worked at plenty of places where one employee will swipe and then hold the door for an entire group. So, it’s possible that more than one person could enter after one keycard swipe.”

  “That’s true.” Eddy sat down at the table. “But it looks like an inside job, there was no sign of a break-in and more importantly they also have video surveillance of the police’s new suspect.”

  “Who?” Samantha’s eyes widened.

  “Jimmy Barker. He was seen on camera entering the building twice last night, once was around the time of the murder. Unfortunately, he also has a very solid alibi for the time of the murder with plenty of witnesses to back him up.” Eddy sighed. “He was having dinner with his baseball team.”

  “How can one person be in two places at once?” Walt shook his head. “That’s not possible.”

  “Sometimes it is.” Jo smirked.

  “How?” Samantha looked over at her.

  “It’s easy to look like someone else for the cameras. It’s a great way to frame someone or direct attention away from you. A good hat and coat will hide your face and frame easily. If you’re lucky you will be able to get the same clothes that the person you are attempting to imitate wears.”

  “Wait, did you say baseball team?” Samantha picked up the list of employees.

  “Yes.” Eddy nodded.

  “There’s a baseball team which some of the employees have formed. Several employees are on it and from what I can tell even a few past employees,” Samantha said as she picked up the employee list. “This list includes the baseball players as well as other employees I have managed to find.”

  Eddy grimaced. “And they are the ones providing Jimmy’s alibi. Jimmy claims that his access card was stolen.”

  “Any one of them could have worn the baseball cap.” Walt struck the table with frustration. The sudden sharp sound made everyone at the table jump. “I’m sorry.” Walt gulped. “I’m just frustrated.”

  “It’s fine, Walt.” Eddy clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s okay to be frustrated. It’s just that none of us are used to that frustration coming from you.”

  “I know, I make it my business to try to remain calm at all costs, but this situation is trying my patience.”

  “It’s understandable.” Samantha smiled at him.

  “No, it’s not.” Jo crossed her arms. “This is not the time for any of us to fall apart, especially you, Walt. There’s a good chance the police will be back to question you, and if you lose control of your emotions under questioning you will implicate yourself.”

  “I think Walt’s entitled to some emotions.” Samantha frowned.

  “No, Jo is right.” Walt smiled at Samantha. “This is not the time to lose control. I need to remain focused on what is happening here. So, what are we going to do with this list?”

  “Well, until we hear from Chris, I think the best chance we have is dividing the list into sections. We can start making calls, arranging interviews.” Samantha shrugged. “It’s a lot to get through, but it’s the only move we have.”

  “I’m sure that Chris will come through.” Eddy checked his cell phone. “Nothing yet.”

  “We can start making calls until he does,” Samantha said.

  Jo looked over at Samantha. “I can help you with that.”

  “I guess we have our work cut out for us this afternoon.” Samantha picked up the list.

  “Walt has a list of Jimmy’s bank transactions,” Eddy explained. “He’s going to see if there’s anything obviously suspicious about them.”

  “I’ll look into Jimmy as much as possible, too,” Samantha said.

  “I can also help with the phone calls. Just give me a portion of the list.” Walt reached for it, but Eddy interceded before he could.

  “Not a good idea. We don’t want any calls from you to anyone associated with the company. We don’t want to risk anyone recognizing your voice either, Walt. It’s important that you keep yourself out of this as much as possible and work behind the scenes.” Eddy frowned when he saw his friend’s disappointed expression. “Don’t worry, Walt, you play your part and look at Jimmy’s account records. Let us help you with this part.”

  “I feel like all I’m doing is letting people help. Not that I’m not grateful, but I hate to cause so much inconvenience.”

  Samantha stood up and walked over to him. “You’re not causing anything, Walt. We’re your friends, we want to help.” She gave him a light hug.

  “Can I at least look at the employee list and the numbers,” Walt said. “Maybe there’s something we’re missing. I won’t call anyone.”

  “Here you go,” Samantha said as she handed him a copy of the lists. “If it’s something to do with numbers you’ll work it out.”

  “I just wish there was more I could do,” Walt said.

  “You’re doing a lot,” Eddy said.

  “Keep thinking about anything that you might remember, anything that might help the case,” Samantha suggested.

  “The clients.” Walt’s eyes widened. “We should get a list of the clients, too. It’s a long shot, but maybe one of the clients wanted to erase their debt.”

  “That’s a lot of trouble to go to just to get out of repaying a loan,” Jo remarked. “But I’ve seen people kill for less.”

  “I’m going to head down to the station and find out if Chris got any more information yet.” Eddy walked towards the door.

  “Wouldn’t he call you?” Samantha caught up to him and walked with him to the door.

  “Sure he would. But there’s nothing wrong with applying a little pressure.” He winked at Samantha as he stepped out the door. Samantha rolled her eyes and turned back to find that Walt had walked up right behind her.

  “I should go,
too. I’m not going to be much help here.” Walt shrugged.

  “Try not to worry too much, Walt, this is all going to get straightened out.”

  “If you say so.” Walt nodded. As he left Samantha’s villa and walked back towards his, his heart grew heavy. For the thousandth time in his life, he thought about how different things would be if he’d just turned down the job. It was the main reason that he did his best not to always choose money first. Airing his dirty laundry in front of people he cared about was difficult. He hoped their opinions of him hadn’t changed. He raised his shoulders up close to his ears as a burst of cool air rushed past him. The question that cycled through his mind was a simple one, who had enough motive and enough anger to kill Magnus?

  When Walt arrived at his villa he sat down and looked at the list of numbers. Like Samantha had said there wasn’t a number 6886. Walt looked through the numbers slowly. He tapped the page when he reached the number 9889. Was it possible the number on the note had been read upside down? He sent a text to Eddy asking if he could find out who the employee number 9889 was assigned to.

  He then looked at the list of employees. Most of the names he didn’t recognize, but there were a few he did. He saw the names Chad Hillwick and Len Lazario. Maybe they had returned to work for Magnus’ company. If they hadn’t then they probably didn’t hold any hard feelings towards the company if they were prepared to play with the other employees on the baseball team. Because Walt recognized their names he decided to send a text to Eddy to look into them. Maybe they could provide some information about Jimmy.

  While he waited to hear from Eddy or Samantha he decided to do an investigation on Jimmy’s life, especially his finances. Yes, he had an alibi, but it might not be as solid as the police thought it was. He launched a few different programs and did a search. The first thing he noticed was just how wealthy Jimmy was. Despite Magnus’ reputation for not paying well, Jimmy appeared to have a lot of assets. He looked over the account details that Eddy had given him. He was surprised at how large his paychecks were. Then again he had been with the company for many years. However, his paychecks weren’t the only deposits going into his account. There were several smaller deposits throughout the month. Walt followed the trail from the deposit to its source and found that these smaller deposits were coming from a company.

  “Hiller Maximum.” He looked puzzled. “Why would a company be paying Jimmy for anything?” Walt jotted down the name of the company. Then he began searching for information on the company itself. It was a small business, just the type that Magnus would have snapped up in the past. Maybe the payments were to prevent that? Walt picked up his phone and dialed Samantha’s number.

  “Hi Walt.”

  “Hi Samantha. Were you able to find a list of the clients yet?”

  “Yes, it’s a partial list, but I think we have most of them. One of my contacts who is good with accessing computer systems managed to get it for me. He’s still working on getting the rest of the names. Apparently the security at the company is pretty intense.”

  “Yes, rumor was that Magnus got pretty paranoid after that little discovery that I made. I’m betting he has the best encryption software he can get and maybe a few additional backups to it. On the list that he’s given you so far, is there a company by the name of Hiller Maximum?”

  “Hiller Maximum?” She paused a moment. “No, I don’t see that on here. I do however see a Hiller Brothers.”

  “Odd. Two companies with similar names? Maybe the owners are relatives?”

  “Maybe. I’ll see what I can find, Walt.”

  “Thank you, Samantha.” He hung up the phone and looked back at the computer screen. So far he hadn’t found anything to prove that Jimmy was involved. But he suspected he was getting closer. By the evening he gave up on the search. He was exhausted and his eyes burned from staring at the computer screen. The only thing he’d dug up was the fact that Jimmy had multiple girlfriends, multiple residences, and a very strong view on politics. If there was anything more than that it would have to wait until the next morning. Just as he was going to get into bed his cell phone rang. He picked it up when he saw that it was Eddy.

  “Did you get an update from Chris?”

  “Yes eventually, after I got the cold shoulder. He was with some higher ups when I visited, and not too pleased to see me.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, it is. He met with me afterwards and told me that they’re pulling out all of the stops to get the case solved, including getting him directly involved. It may be a little harder to get information from him as he will be more closely monitored.”

  “Well, that makes things harder.” Walt sighed.

  “It does. He also told me that the employee number 9889 belongs to a Kent Waltet.”

  “Interesting, it’s a long shot but it’s worth looking into. What about Chad Hillwick and Len Lazario?”

  “I almost forgot. He also mentioned that they were at the baseball game and then the dinner with Jimmy around the time of the murder. No one could verify with complete certainty whether any of the players were at the dinner the whole time, but they were at least there for most of the time so it’s still quite a solid alibi.”

  “That’s a dead end then.”

  “Looks like it. Samantha called me a little while ago and said she only managed to reach a few employees, and none agreed to talk to her.”

  “That makes it even harder.” Walt closed his eyes.

  “I know it seems like we’re hitting nothing but dead ends. If only there was a way we could get together with a group of employees. Maybe we could hit one of their baseball games.”

  Walt’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute, I know where we could go. There’s a restaurant near the company that most of the employees would go to for lunch. I don’t know if they still do, but it might be worth a shot.”

  “Great idea, Walt. We can go there tomorrow for lunch and try to get some information.”

  “You want me to go with you? Aren’t you afraid someone will recognize me?”

  “At this point I’m more interested in you recognizing people. Since Magnus never discovered who was stealing from him, that we know of, the employees that have been there the longest might be a good group of suspects. If you can point out people you are familiar with I can focus on them for questioning.”

  “You are a genius you know that, Eddy?”

  “Sure, this from the man who casually recreates a computer program in an afternoon. This is all going to be over soon.”

  “I hope so. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to sleep until it is.”

  “Warm milk and a shot of vodka, works every time. Trust me.”

  “I’m not much of a drinker.”

  “Do you want to sleep or not?”

  “Yes, I do.” Walt closed his eyes. “Thanks Eddy.” He hung up the phone and sat down on the edge of his bed. If he had vodka, he might have tried Eddy’s idea. But he didn’t. Instead he stretched out on his bed and began counting as high as he could. It was a trick he used as a child to get himself to fall asleep. He counted pretty high.

  Chapter Nine

  Eddy stared out through the windshield. Walt was silent beside him. The morning was gray. Drips of rain struck the windshield. No good news came that morning. It was just another day closer to the police deciding whether to arrest Walt or not. Eddy pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant that Walt had pointed out.

  “I can’t believe it’s still here. It’s funny, I only worked briefly for Magnus, but some things I remember vividly.”

  “Is the food good?” Eddy locked the car doors as they walked up to the restaurant.

  “As I recall it was decent, and you know how I am about restaurant food.”

  “Yes, it surprises me that you would go out to lunch every day.”

  “I only worked there part-time, but trust me, if you had felt the tension in that building you too would have gotten out every chance you had.” Walt pull
ed out a tissue from his pocket and covered his hand with it before he opened the door. Eddy walked through. A young girl in a yellow uniform walked up to them.

  “Table for two?”

  Eddy pointed to the small bar near the front of the restaurant. “Actually, could we sit there?”

  “Sure, if you like. Pick your spot and you can order from the bartender.”

  “Thanks.” Eddy glanced over at Walt. “It’ll give us the best view of the entire restaurant.”

  “Good idea.” Walt followed him over to the bar. There were quite a few people in the restaurant. The noise level was still tolerable.

  “Did you make friends with anyone from the company?” Eddy looked around the restaurant again.

  “Not exactly. I was more the type to keep to myself.”

  “Understood.” Eddy nodded. “Well, if any of the workers still blow off steam here maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  “I hope so.” Walt wiped his seat and the counter in front of him with a wipe before he sat down. Eddy was so used to Walt’s behavior that he barely noticed.

  “Can I get you something?” The bartender paused in front of them.

  “Room temperature water please.”

  The bartender raised an eyebrow. “All right. You, Sir?” He looked at Eddy.

  “I’ll take a soda if you have one.”

  “Sure, no problem.”

  “Any familiar faces?” Eddy glanced around at the people that were gathered at the tables for lunch.

  “It’s been years, Eddy. I’m sure that the people I worked with then, don’t work there anymore.”

  “Magnus was still there.” Eddy took off his hat and set it on the bar.

  “Yes, but Magnus rarely kept an employee beyond a few years. The place had a high turnover rate.”

  “See, you know more about the company than you realize.”

  “Maybe I do.” Walt sighed and took his glass of water. “I just think that we’re at a dead end here.”

  “Don’t think that way. We’re going to come up with something, trust me.”

  Just as Eddy took a sip of his soda the door to the restaurant swung open. The moment the man walked in, a cheer went up from a crowded table. The man paused near the door. His cheeks turned pink. He lowered his eyes. Eddy watched him as he walked across the restaurant towards the table. A few of the people at the table stood up to greet him.