Page 87 of The Merger
“I do, but it is going to be irritating if he tries to keep me from working.”
“Speaking of that, we need to get back out there. Colt is a whiz with numbers, but some of the stuff Stryker’s friend brought over has even him puzzled. Since you know Malcolm best, maybe you can figure out what he was doing,” she said while tugging me back out of the room.
Since Stryker was aiming to be a helicopter husband, there was a plate waiting for me at the table. He’d piled on enough food to feed me for the entire day and all of it was ridiculously healthy. Without commenting, I grabbed a new plate, chose a smaller portion from what he’d given me, and added a chocolate croissant because there was no way I was giving up carbs.
I took a huge bite of the flaky pastry and covered my mouth with my hand so I didn’t completely gross out Colter and Jana. “Okay, show me what has you so stumped,” I said to Colt.
He passed over a few file folders. At first glance, it looked like liquor orders. I’d suspected Maxwell and Mal were washing the money that Maxwell was embezzling from Jana by making it look like a loss on Easton Global’s side, and fake liquor sales covering the money Mal got from the deal. The problem with that was in order for it to be money laundering, the money had to cycle through and come back to Maxwell, or he was just paying him off for reasons we hadn’t thought of yet.
My brow furrowed as I dug through the other folders he gave me trying to find the deposits, or credits to another part of any business Maxwell had any hand in. Not even the foreign accounts in his name matched. Of course, I was looking for a repeatable pattern of the money coming back to Jana’s father minus a percentage paid to Malcolm.
I pointed to some deposits on the page. “These make sense to me. This is roughly the same amount Malcolm has been showing for sales for this brand of liquor, and over here,” I pointed to a copy of the spreadsheet Aaron and I put together that Colter must have thought ahead to bring, “there’s a deposit of that amount minus ten percent.”
Looking over other accounts from Malcolm’s file I found the same deposit made monthly for about the last year. There are a few other large deposits, including one made about two weeks ago. “Malcolm continued to make the deposits, but if they were coming from Maxwell it’s hard to say because he stopped showing anything other than the revenue loss for the vodka.”
Colt jumped up and started frantically shuffling through files. He mumbled something to himself until he came across one that made him shout, “Gotcha, fucker!”
Jana crowded close to him so she could see what he was holding. “That’s weird. We’ve never had an account with that bank. It doesn’t even make sense. It’s only in New York. I know he does have business there occasionally, but not enough to have a bank solely in New York.”
Stryker held out his hand. “Let me see that.”
Colter handed it over. Stryker took a few seconds to look at it and started shaking his head. “I had a long term placement in New York when I first started saving companies. The company I was with was a construction firm.” He paused looking at us to catch on.
I could tell by Colter’s face he figured out what Stryker was suggesting, but Jana looked as confused as I was. Stryker continued, “The company had problems extending its line of credit. They miraculously solved their money issues, but after a few months started having problems with their labor unions. Turned out the money came from a shady mob connected investor. When they didn’t repay with the jacked up interest their workers started having grievances and refusing to work. The board figured it out and forced the company to restructure. Most of that isn’t important, except that the bank the lender used was that one.” He stabbed his finger on the paper over the name of the bank.
“It’s known for allowing black and gray monetary transactions. They also have safe deposit boxes that they keep ultra private and don’t regulate what gets stored in them like other banks.”
“When was that account opened,” Jana asked.
Colter looked at her with sympathy. “The same week as the launch party your idiot cousin messed up.”
She inhaled slowly through her nose. “I need to make a phone call.”
* * *
Jana grabbed her phone and stepped out onto the balcony despite the chilly Denver weather. It made me wonder who she was arguing with earlier. “Who was that on the phone with her earlier?”
“Her mom,” Colt said with a sneer. “She’s angry because Maxwell got cut off from Jana’s estate. Apparently they’ve already blown through most of their cash on hand. Now that she’s faced with selling property and downsizing she is trying to bully Jana into funding their lifestyle.”
I rolled my eyes. “It's the least they deserve after locking her out of her apartment in the rain.”
Stryker pushed my mostly untouched plate of food in front of me and handed me a fork. I resisted another eye roll, and since I was actually hungry I decided throwing a tantrum wasn’t really in my best interest.
Jana came back shivering. “Ugh, why did you let me go out there without a coat?”
Colter wrapped his arms around her and tried to rub some warmth back into her. “Since when do you allow anyone to tell you what to do?”
She swatted playfully at his arm. “You could have tried at least.”
“Who did you need to speak to that was worth freezing over?” I asked her before they started bickering anymore. Usually, when they did it led to moaning.
A Cheshire grin spread across her face. “Evie.”
She laughed at the look of confusion on my face. “I was thinking about the timing of the account my father opened in New York, and that miserable launch. I’d call my idiot cousin Chad, but that fucker hates me.”
“You did make your first order of business when you took over the company to fire him through a singing messenger,” Stryker said.
“Dressed as a gorilla,” Colt added.