A Taste For Danger Read online

  “Thanks, Bob.”

  “Oh, and one more thing. We don’t have to wear suits around here. It’s good you wore one today because Tom is coming, but for the rest of us, it’s business-casual. We never actually see the customers so the only time we need to dress up is for Headquarters. I’ll give you a tip, just bring a suit to work and hang it on the hanger on the back of your door. That’s what we all do. Then if for some reason you’re called to HQ, you change. Simple.”

  Smart. “Thanks again, Bob.”

  “We’ll go to lunch another day and I’ll give you the lay of the land,” said Bob as he left, causing Jack to wonder if all the real work was done over lunches.

  Jack glanced around his office. Nice layout, wooden furniture, leather chair, two filing cabinets, a computer and a monitor. Regular office set up. He opened the desk drawers. Pencils, pens, writing tablets, highlighters—they’d already taken care of everything. His office possessed a window, but a brick wall stared back at him. Oh well, can’t have everything.

  About a half-hour later, after Jack had logged on and finished exploring his computer, Cynthia stopped by. He remembered her. Head of H.R. She wore a pencil skirt and shortsleeved sweater. Attractive. She clasped a pile of papers with her hands and came over to his side of the desk.

  “You need to fill out these by tomorrow and get back to me, ok?” He could smell her perfume as she bent over him. Nice.

  “Sure.”

  She stood up straight again. “Where did you say you worked last?”

  Jack paused. He wasn’t their usual new hire, that’s for sure. “I was an independent detective. Cases for hire and all that.” Cynthia nodded. She didn’t leave, but rather stood in front of him looking him over.

  “You can call me Cindy,” she finally said.

  “Sure, ok.”

  She took a seat in one of the chairs at his desk and observed him. He glanced around, suddenly uncomfortable.

  “What did Tom bring you in for?” she asked as if they were having a friendly chat.

  “I don’t know. He hasn’t told me yet.” An honest answer. Jack was glad he didn’t know. For some reason, he didn’t want to have to lie to this woman.

  “I see,” said Cindy. She rested her chin on her hand. Jack watched her face. It gave away that she was trying to make a decision. Then her eyes moved toward the window.

  “You don’t have much of a view,” she said.

  “Those kinds of things don’t really matter to me.”

  She smiled a little for the first time. No teeth, just a tiny smile. “You’d be surprised how many people fight over the views. As if a better view made them superior.”

  Jack laughed. “Well, don’t worry, I know my place.” He watched her face again. She had concluded something. What, he didn’t know.

  “If you can excuse me for a minute, I have something to show you. Just let me run to my office and get it,” she said abruptly.

  “Okay.” Jack had no idea what was going on, but this woman clearly had something on her mind, and now she planned to bring him into it.

  Chapter Four

  Fifteen minutes later, Cindy came rushing into his office. She closed the door as she entered. “I’m sorry it took so long.” She plopped down in the desk chair with a stack of files held closely to her chest. “I had to get these out of the safe and safes are a pain in the you-know-what.”

  “No problem,” said Jack. “It’s not like I have a lot to do yet.”

  “When’s your lunch with Tom?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Cindy looked at her watch. 10:00 am. “Okay, we’re okay. He won’t be around until at least 11:30.”

  What the hell? Cindy obviously didn’t want to run into Tom with whatever she was about to show him. Some first day.

  Cindy dumped the files on the desk in front of him. “Here, hide these. Then take them home and read them.”

  “What? I just started here. I really don’t know what’s going on.” Jack’s brows furrowed.

  Cindy sat back further, leaning against her chair. “I know. But you’re from the outside. And you’re a detective. I don’t know what they brought you in for, but you need to know this.” She leaned forward. “This firm is committing one of the biggest scams in history. We’re just so above-board that no one has noticed. But it’s all going to blow up one day and someone needs to know the truth.”

  Jack shifted uneasily in his chair. “This isn’t what Tom brought me on for?”

  “No! And you can’t mention a word of this to him or we’re all cooked. No one from Headquarters can know.”

  Jack sighed. Leave it to him to walk right into trouble. “Even if whatever is in here is true, what do you expect me to do about it?”

  Cindy frowned. “You’re a detective! You have connections. People need to know about this.”

  Jack sighed again and eyed the files. They were legal documents of some sort.

  Cindy stood up. “I need to go. Just promise me that you’ll take a look at them tonight. Please.”

  Jack figured he could smuggle them out in his briefcase. Damn. What am I getting into now? “Okay,” he finally said. After all, taking a peak at them couldn’t hurt. He could always tell her tomorrow that whatever was in there didn’t fit his area of expertise.

  Cindy palpably relaxed. “Thank you.” Before she opened the door she cautioned again, “Remember, not a word of this to Tom.”

  “Got it,” said Jack. He put the files in his briefcase. By the time he finished, Cindy was gone, and his door was still closed. Not a good impression on the first day. He stood up and went over to open it.

  No one stood nearby. All he saw was a hallway full of busy cubicles and people wandering around, going about their normal business. He walked back to his seat and took a deep breath. Cindy made him nervous.

  ***

  While waiting for Tom, Jack milled about and discovered a well-supplied kitchen, two copier rooms with every kind of equipment, and two sets of restrooms—one set inside the suite and one set outside near the elevators. He also discovered that the secretary’s desk functioned as the main hub of social activity due to a candy bowl, tasks that were shifted to her, and the secretary’s—whose name he found out was Felicia—general beauty and good nature. Felicia gave him his cipher lock code and a sheet with all the nearby restaurants one might frequent for lunch. She also supplied him with a seating chart. Exactly what he needed.

  As he wandered the halls with the seating chart, he happened to pass by Bob’s office. The door stood open, and he heard Bob on the phone: “No we can’t! It’s headquarters.” Bob sounded annoyed. Jack wondered if he had misread Bob’s seemingly easygoing nature. He passed by another office and looked on his seating chart. He heard what sounded like Chinese or Japanese on the phone. He must have cocked his head because one of the managers from the meeting walking past him stopped.

  “That’s Cheryl,” said the woman, Fathoming Jack’s questioning face “She speaks four different languages. Comes in handy for the government contracts she’s in charge of.”

  At a loss, he couldn’t remember this woman’s name. She seemed to catch on though.

  “Victoria White,” she said and held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you in person.” Victoria had long, wavy blonde hair and wore heavy make-up. She also wore a stylish dress and a number of what looked like expensive rings on her fingers. Jack categorized her as one of those women always put perfectly together.

  “I’m sorry.” said Jack, shaking her hand. “I’m not good at names.”

  “That’s okay,” said Victoria. “There’s quite a few of us to remember.” She smiled. “I’m the one in charge of the Managing Agents.”

  Jack didn’t know what a Managing Agent was but figured he’d find something sooner or later to read up on and explain this gigantic company to him.

  “Anyway, that’s Cheryl Wong you’re hearing. She speaks Chinese, French, Italian, and Spanish. And of course English,” she added.
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  “I’ll do my best to get up to speed fast.”

  “Since you come from HQ, I don’t think there’s anything you could do wrong. Take your time. And don’t take it personally if some of the people don’t take a shine to you,” said Victoria. They’re suspicious of anyone from HQ.”

  “I guess it’s that way in all companies.”

  “Hmmph, I guess so,” said Victoria with a little smile. Then she continued down the hall.

  Jack made his way back to his office and dug into the H.R. papers that formally made him an employee. He spent an hour or so filling out forms. He also found a manual explaining the company and how it worked. Some more late-night reading.

  At 12:10, Tom Stokes knocked on the wall inside Jack’s office. “Making yourself at home?” he asked.

  “Yes,” answered Jack. “It’s quite nice.”

  “Great!” bellowed Tom. “Come with me. I’m going to show you some great steak.”

  Jack followed Tom like a puppy to the suite doors and then the elevators. As they rode down, Tom asked about the people he’d met.

  “They all seem very nice,” said Jack.

  “Anyone stand out to you?”

  “Um, I haven’t really interacted with many of them yet,” Jack hedged. He didn’t know what Tom was fishing for, and until he did, he planned to stay mum.

  They took the elevator all the way down to a garage. “Make sure you see the secretary about a parking space.” said Tom. They climbed into a company car. Tom pulled out a company card to exit the garage. It would be the same card he pulled out at lunch.

  ***

  Lunch was a steak place somewhere in the middle of town. Jack ordered a T-bone to fit in. Tom had the prime-rib. Tom looked like he ate lunch like this every day. Jack figured he’d be going taco or vendor dog after today. He wasn’t much for wasting time at restaurants. Unless in the company of a female. Females overrode many of his rules.

  Tom made small-talk until they were done with their steaks. Then he ordered a port. Jack declined. Finally, Tom started in on the real business.

  “You’ve been placed here, regardless of what they may think at Little D—

  “Little D?” asked Jack.

  “Oh, they didn’t tell you this morning? HQ is known as Big D, and the satellites are known by different letters. The site you work at is Little D, because all the department heads are housed there.”

  “Ah,”said Jack. “Got it.”

  Tom continued. “I hired you because—and this is only between you and me. Capishe?”

  “Okay.”

  “I hired you because someone is embezzling from the firm.”

  “Oh.” Jack paused to consider this.

  “We don’t know who, only that someone is. Our books, the ones we keep at HQ and the ones kept at Little D, as well as some others, no longer align.”

  “I’m not really a numbers man...” started Jack.

  “Don’t worry about it. We have numbers men out the ying-yang. What we need is someone like you who has a nose for trouble and tracking down criminals. Even though this is the white-collar variety, your instincts are still valuable.”

  “Well,” said Jack, flummoxed, “thank you for placing your trust in me.”

  “Don’t mention it. Now, you should know that only four people besides yourself know about this and they are all at Big D, at HQ. One is me, one is my boss, the overall Vice-President, and the other two are the CEO and CFO. I’m talking about over the whole company. Not heads of Divisions or Departments. That’s what Headquarters consists of.

  Now Jack understood the uneasiness of the others back at ‘Little D’ towards him. The biggest of the bigwigs really did hire him. Again he felt out of his element. How was he supposed to track down some white-collar paleface playing with numbers?

  Tom came across as unfazed and supremely confident. I guess that’s what being a bigwig does to you. Jack doubted Tom paid for parking. He doubted Tom paid for much of anything at all. Sure enough, at the end of the meal, Tom whipped out the company card. “Business lunch,” he said to Jack as he put the card on the tray.

  Jack needed to get all the info he could while he had Tom’s attention. Especially since no one at ‘Little D’ even knew about the case. “How much has been taken to date?”

  “Over 500K,” Tom answered. “Even to a company like Devonshire, that’s not small potatoes.

  “Wffffttttt,” Jack whistled. “Are there any books or records I can review? How did you discover the missing amounts?”

  Tom made one of his grand gestures again with his hand, waving it across the table. “I’ve already sent the files to you over email. They should be waiting for you back in your office. Our CFO discovered the discrepancy last year.”

  “Last year? Isn’t that a dead case by now?”

  “No,” said Tom. “At first it was only 250K and we planned to write it off. We did an in-house investigation, but came up with nothing. This year, the CFO discovered another 250K missing. That’s when we decided to bring you in.”

  “I see,” said Jack. The company wanted to keep it quiet and would rather have written off the first amount than have to own up to the fact that problems existed. He bet there were ways they could write it off that didn’t cost them a dollar. But when the second amount went missing, they knew they had to act. Made sense.

  “Remember, this is just between you and me. Keep the lips silent to anyone at Little D or anywhere else about this.” Tom made the universal shhh sign with his forefinger over his lips.

  “Will do,” said Jack. “And everything I need is in my email?”

  “Everything we know so far.”

  “Who did the investigation last time?” asked Jack.

  “He’s no longer with us.”

  “Hmmm.”

  “Don’t let that scare you. We have faith in you. I have faith in you. You’ll have as much time as you need to get to the bottom of this. I’ve sent you everything I have.”

  “Okay,” said Jack, still uneasy. “Is there a way for me to interview the CFO?”

  Tom tilted his head and looked thoughtful. Then he focused his eyes directly on Jack. “I suppose I could set something like that up.”

  “Just to, you know, hear what he has to say too.” Jack had the feeling he was treading on thin ice without a clue as to why.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” said Tom finally. “I’ll email you.”

  With that the two men rose from the booth. Tom dropped Jack off at Little D. Each remained silent on the way back, lost in their own thoughts.

  Chapter Five

  After lunch Jack walked back to his office to check his email. Sure enough, dozens of documents came through, all sent from Tom. He had his work cut out for him. He spent the rest of the afternoon scouring the documents. From one of them he learned the name of the first investigator—the one that was no longer with the company: Jerry Wilson. None of the paperwork said what position Jerry held while he worked at the firm. He wanted to contact Jerry. Jack hoped Jerry would be in a talking mood.

  Around time to go home he had a visitor. Cindy popped her head in. Why? To check up on me? He had almost forgotten about her case. It wasn’t even related to why he’d been hired.

  “Do you have them in your briefcase?” she asked, referring to the files she’d given him.

  “Yes, but I don’t know how much help I’m going to be.”

  “I’m sure you will,” she said. “Just read the files.” Then she was gone.

  In over his head, Jack missed having someone to bounce ideas around with. Carolyn leaving created a void in more ways than one.

  As he gathered his jacket up to go, another visitor stopped by. At the door stood Cheryl Wong. “Hola. Habla usted español u otros idiomas?” Cheryl was a petite woman with pale skin and dark hair that hung loosely around her shoulders. Attractive, now that he saw her up close.

  Jack stared at her, perplexed.

  She came in and closed the door. Then she took a s
eat at his desk. She seemed comfortable, like she had done this before. “Sorry,” she said now in English. That’s just my way with new people. I like to find out if there are any other bilinguals here and Spanish is the most common.”

  “Ah,” said Jack. “Well, I speak a little football and baseball, but that’s about it.”

  Cheryl laughed. She was prettier when she smiled. But then most women were.

  “You are on your way out?” she asked. “I was wondering if you could do me a favor? My car is in the shop and I took the subway here this morning, but I don’t want to take it back after dark. Would you be able to give me a lift home?”

  Jack was nothing if not gallant. “Sure, I could do that.”

  Then she threw a twist in. “You know, there’s a bar on the way. We could stop and have a drink.”

  Jack studied her. What was she up to? He’d have to go through with it to figure her out.

  “If you’re up to it,” she added.

  “Okay, sure. But I can’t stay too late.”

  “You have a wife or partner?”

  Blunt, this one. “No, I just have some work I have to get to.”

  “Your first day, and they’re already piling it on? That hardly seems fair.” She pouted her lips in sympathy.

  What was that song? Maneater? He had a feeling it was an apt description of Cheryl Wong.

  Jack made sure to get his parking pass from the secretary for tomorrow. He wasn’t made of money, and today was gonna cost him twenty bucks. Cheryl followed him out, and they took the elevator down together. Jack thought this little get-together might be a good chance to interview her. What was she head of again? He couldn’t remember. He’d have to ask her. His instincts told him to wait until the bar.

  Jack made sure to put his briefcase in the trunk. Cheryl brought a satchel with her and sat up front. She directed him out. Apparently she lived not too far away from him, although in the city, even a block of traffic could turn a short drive into an hour. Stuck in rush hour, Cheryl made small-talk.