“That only takes two people?”
“Two people and a lift truck. Anyway, they did that, then locked up and went home. But according to them, there were just four containers.”
“Why wouldn’t they know there were supposed to be six?”
She shrugged. “Stu says he thinks he mentioned the number—that he meant to but isn’t entirely sure he did. They claim that, if so, they didn’t hear him. And the one who signed the ship’s delivery form barely looked at it. Didn’t check how many it specified.”
“Pretty sloppy.”
“Yes, but I guess it’s the sort of thing that becomes so routine…”
“Honey, nothing should ever be routine when you’re talking half a million bucks. I’m surprised that guy still has his job.”
“Well, the insurance company will pick up most of the loss. And I gather it was the first time anything like that ever happened.
“But I’m getting off track,” she continued. “The important thing is that the company’s men say there were only four containers while the ship’s captain swears his crew unloaded six.”
“So either he’s lying or the warehouse guys are,” her father said.
“Uh-huh. And the ship has a foreign registry and is long gone by now, which means Tanaka probably has all he’s going to get from that end.”
“This happened on a Friday,” Jack said slowly.
“Yes. Then, come Monday, Stu Refkin arrived at work and discovered…Well, he got on the phone to Larry Benzer and Larry called the police.”
Her father nodded. “In the meantime, if you assume all six containers were unloaded, the two warehouse guys would have had the entire weekend to dispose of them. And even a fence would have paid…
“But did this Tanaka tell you what he figures happened?”
“He thinks only four of them made it off the ship. A security guard patrols the piers, and moving containers out of the warehouse on a weekend would be unusual. So if he saw it happening he’d probably have questioned it. At the very least, he’d have made a note in his log.
“All in all, disposing of them would have been risky. So Tanaka’s best guess is that the ship’s captain intentionally shorted the delivery. But he also thinks the captain was in cahoots with someone at Four Corners.”
“Someone like…?”
“Take your pick. Stu Refkin checked out and left the others in charge. And he’d probably know if they don’t normally pay much attention when they sign receiving forms.”
“Yeah, so the ship could have been intentionally late, letting this Refkin remove himself from the picture and…”
“But he’s not our only contender. Tony Zicco, the guy who signed the delivery slip, hasn’t always been Mr. Straight-and-Narrow.
“He ran with a bad crowd as a kid and eventually did a stretch for a B and E. It was his parole officer who got him the job at Four Corners.”
“Now, that’s an interesting wrinkle.”
She nodded. “According to Robert, they’ve never had a single problem with Tony. But Larry figures… Well, I already told you what he thinks.”
“That there’s a rotten apple in the warehouse,” Jack said.
“At least one. Maybe two or three.”
“Yeah, they could all have been in on it. But, you know, something isn’t sitting right with me.”
“What?”
“It’s just too obvious. I mean both the arson and this pointing toward the same people seems like overkill.”
She nodded again, glad to hear her father’s line of reasoning coincided with hers. “And there’s another thing. They all offered to take lie detector tests.”
That made him grin. “Sounds as if they watch too many cop shows.”
“Maybe. But Tanaka arranged for it. And according to the tests, none of them had anything to do with either the arson or the theft of the containers.”
“’Course…those things can be beaten.”
“Uh-huh. So if it was only one of them involved, and he managed to do that…”
Jack nodded, then said, “I think you were right. This really could be an interesting case.”
CHAPTER THREE
FIRST THING Monday morning Dana was at Four Corners once more, ready to step into her role as Dana Mayfield.
After she’d spent a few minutes asking Robert last-minute questions, he said he’d show her to the office she’d be using. Surprisingly, he led her over to the short hallway near the top of the stairs.
When she told him she hadn’t expected to be on the “executive floor,” he smiled.
“You’ll have more privacy here,” he said.
She knew that had to be true. Tucked away and out of sight would perfectly describe the location.
“As you’ll see when you get the grand tour,” he continued, “our office area downstairs is basically open concept.”
“You’re saying it’s not quite ideal for someone doing undercover work.”
He smiled again. “Exactly. I didn’t think you’d want people looking over your shoulder.
“And these two offices are just sitting empty. Both Noah and our director of logistics, Chris Vidal, prefer to be on the main floor. They interact a lot with the rest of the staff, so being up here wouldn’t work as well.
“That, by the way,” he added, pointing toward a narrow back staircase, “will take you down to a hall that runs from the alley door to the main office area.”
The stairs, she saw, also led to the top floor. When she asked what was up there, Robert said, “It’s mostly dead storage. Filing cabinets full of old records and all sorts of other ghosts from the past thirty years.”
She resisted the impulse to say that, considering costs in Manhattan, it was an incredibly expensive storage area.
Then she had the disconcerting sense Robert had ESP as he said, “We’ve got more room than we really need.
“Initially, we figured we’d use that space for additional employees as the business grew. But modern technology exploded, the work world changed and we didn’t grow, people-wise, the way we’d anticipated.”
Opening the office door, he ushered her inside. “Helen put some supplies in the desk and had that computer moved in. If there’s anything else you need, just tell her.”
“Thanks, I will.”
She eyed the computer for a second, hoping it was loaded with software she knew, then turned her attention back to Robert.
He’d taken a couple of keys from his pocket and was saying, “These are for the door and the desk. And I should show you this.” He produced a sheet of paper and gave it to her along with the keys.
“After you left on Friday, I drafted a memo about you—made you sound as nonthreatening as I could.”
She began skimming it. Addressed to “All Staff,” it said that, in light of recent problems, he and Larry had hired an organizational design expert to look at the company’s operations with fresh eyes.
It went on to say that while her findings might result in a few modifications to current practices, no changes would be made without the direct involvement