“Well, I’ve got a new client. Or maybe I should say two. Business partners. I met with them on Friday and got going on some of the preliminary stuff yesterday.”
“Good. Interesting case?”
“It definitely has the potential. They figure someone’s sabotaging their company.”
“Yeah? What sort of company?”
“They import collectibles. Art, small antiques. High-quality things.”
“Oh? What’s it called?”
“Four Corners Imports.”
“Four corners of the world, huh? Good name. Big business?”
“Mmm…head office in New York and a few sales-people in L.A. But they outsource as much of the work as they can, so staff-wise they aren’t all that large.
“At any rate, one of the partners, Robert Haine, takes care of acquiring most of the items. Spends half his life traveling, I gather. The other one, Larry Benzer, handles the majority of the marketing.”
She closed the fridge door and turned to discover that her father was staring at her with a very strange expression.
“What’s wrong?” she said.
There was a second’s hesitation—or was she only imagining that?—before he said, “Nothing. I just… So you’ve got one of them acquiring, the other one marketing. And while they’re busy doing that who’s running the show?”
“Basically, Robert’s nephew. He’s their director of finance.”
“Ah. A little nepotism.”
“Well, I imagine that helped get him hired, but my read is that he’s good. And his area of responsibility seems to be a lot broader than his title suggests. He’s really more a director of operations.”
Her father nodded, then said, “So tell me about the sabotage.”
“You want to hear the details?”
“Sure.”
“Well…” She started to briefly fill him in on what Robert and Larry had told her, vaguely aware of feeling a touch uneasy.
Not that she was worried about confiding in him. Whenever she hit a snag she used him as a sounding board. And she knew anything she said would stay strictly between the two of them. But she’d suddenly gotten the sense he was a little too interested in this particular case.
She considered that for a moment, then decided the problem was more likely that she’d become overly suspicious. It routinely happened to cops and P.I.s.
Still, whether it was common or not, suspecting her own father wasn’t simply curious about her work… Lord, that had to be really paranoid.
Forcing away her concern, she continued her summary of what had been happening at Four Corners.
Jack listened in silence—until she got to the part about the two shipping containers that had gone astray. When she said that their contents had been worth half a million dollars, he gave a low whistle.
It made her smile. “I told you they deal in quality stuff. At any rate, I have a call in to the police detective who caught the case. But I haven’t heard back from him yet.”
She returned to the details, finishing up by saying, “Larry Benzer’s money is on one or more of the warehouse people. Because between the arson and those containers disappearing they’re such obvious possibilities.”
“The arson was definitely an inside job?”
“That’s what the fire marshal decided. According to his report there was no sign of forced entry. So someone apparently had a key.”
“Then you’re probably looking at either a current or ex-employee.”
“Exactly. And since all three of the full-time warehouse staff have been there for years, there’s no disgruntled ex running around. So current would be the likely bet. But Robert Haine isn’t convinced it was any of the warehouse guys.”
“Oh? What does he think?”
“That their theory about a plot to drive down the share price is right. And he says none of the warehouse fellows is sophisticated enough to mastermind anything like that.”
“Have they both ruled out the idea that a competitor might be behind things?”
“I don’t think so. At least not entirely. Someone could be paying off one of their employees. Or more than one. Or maybe both their theories are all wet.”
Her father nodded. “Sounds like a case that might take a while to get a good feel for.”
“That’s for sure. By the time they finished discussing everyone they thought the perp could be… Well, I was left thinking it might be almost anyone. I haven’t even ruled out Robert’s nephew.”
“The director of finance.”
She nodded.
“He a typical accountant type?”
When she couldn’t help smiling, her father said, “What’s that about?”
“Nothing, really. Just that he’s not exactly a typical accountant.”
Resisting the temptation to add that he wouldn’t be even if someone forced him to wear wire-rimmed glasses and a pocket protector, she merely waited—fully expecting another question about Noah Haine.
Her mother would certainly have asked one. Her father, however, got straight back to business, saying “What about those invoices that went missing? Any possibility of tying them to someone from the warehouse?”
“Surprisingly, yes. The best guess is that someone lifted them while they were waiting to go out in the mail. And on paydays, one or another of the warehouse fellows stops by to pick up their checks.
“So it’s conceivable one of them could have been responsible. Not likely, but conceivable.”
Jack Morancy was silent for a minute, then said, “You didn’t mention how these Four Corners people heard about you.”
“You mean you don’t think everyone’s heard I’m the best P.I. in New York?”
He grinned. “Of course. Dumb of me to ask.”
“Actually, someone on the force recommended me. But since Robert didn’t do the checking around himself, he didn’t know who.”
That seemed to bring the conversation to an end, so she opened the fridge again and took out a pitcher of lemonade, saying, “Want to sit on the porch for a while?”
“Sure,” her father told her. Then he smiled, but it wasn’t his normal smile.
“Dad…is something bothering you?”
“Bothering me? No. Why?”
“I just thought…” She shrugged. “I guess I just thought wrong.”
She hadn’t, though. She was deep-down certain she hadn’t.
DANA AND JACK MORANCY weren’t quite finished dinner when her cell phone rang. Ted Tanaka, the NYPD detective investigating the container theft, was finally getting back to her.
As it turned out, the investigation had stalled and he couldn’t add much to what she already knew. But since she’d only given her father the bare bones of that—and since he sat watching her expectantly after she clicked off—she figured she’d better recap the conversation.
“He basically just repeated what Robert and Larry told me,” she began. “What I was telling you earlier.
“Four Corners had six containers coming in on a cargo ship. It was Friday,