Page 52 of Charmed Forces
While I munched the last of my cheese salad sandwich and waited for the coffee pot to heat in the cool office, I couldn’t help letting my thoughts drift back to the woman I’d fought in the hospital. My ribs were sore from our struggle; a purple bruise blooming across them. I resolved to ask Solomon to stock ice packs in the office, so I could always be ready for moments like this. Despite the dull ache, I didn’t want to complain. The number one reason I didn’t was because there was no one to complain to. The shared office was empty, everyone doing their best to protect and aid Daniel, and that thought warmed my heart. The second reason was: I was lucky to escape with mere bruising. The woman was skillfully trained to kill and she’d succeeded.
The light blinked and I scooped up the coffee pot, pouring a cupful. I warmed my hands on the mug as I returned to my desk and scanned the list of notes I’d made.
I didn’t want to be so nosy into Daniel’s personal life but Solomon and Garrett were right. This was exactly what Captain Brandt and his team would comb through and we needed the same information to offer a counter argument. Whatever they thought looked suspicious, we had to provide an alternate explanation for. Cash deposits might appear to the captain to be payoffs. To Daniel it could have been for the return of a loan to a friend. A luxury purchase might be the result of a bribe, but to our side, it could be the culmination of years of saving small bills in a jelly jar.
Before I started, I called Alice and told her what I wanted to do.
“Do it,” she said. “I’ll give you our account numbers and passwords. Most of our accounts are joint but we each have separate accounts for our personal spending. I know the police department will be going through all our stuff anyway so what’s one more person?”
“I promise whatever I see will remain confidential. Mom and Dad might have hired me but they don’t need to know all your personal details.”
“I know you will, and I appreciate that.”
“I’ll be running a credit check on Daniel too.”
“Why?” asked Alice. Then she said, “Oh. I see. In case he’s lying about something.”
“It’s been known to happen. Secret loans, credit cards, that sort of thing.”
“Not Daniel. I trust him.”
“What if...” I started but Alice cut in, “What if I’m wrong? I’ve thought about that. Of course I have. I’ve barely slept. If I’m wrong about Daniel, you let me know. Okay, Lexi?”
“Okay,” I agreed. “But for what it’s worth. I believe in Daniel.”
“Good. I’m glad you’re on his team. I’ll send you everything now.”
“Thank you.”
While I waited for Alice to collate the information and send it to me, I ran a credit check on Daniel. As I anticipated the return of the report, my stomach clenched in a nervous knot. I didn’t want to find anything untoward for Alice’s sake. I’d assured her I wouldn’t lie to her and was determined to stick to that, no matter what, even if I ended up being the messenger that got shot.
Yet when I combed through Daniel’s credit report, I found nothing strange. Mortgage, bank accounts, joint and personal all in good standing, credit cards with a zero balance, student loan with a low balance and a car payment close to being paid off.
When Alice’s email popped into my inbox, I printed off the account details and added them to the file I was putting together. I started with their joint accounts, noting they paid all their bills on time, followed by payments into Ben and Rachel’s college accounts, and a savings account marked “vacation” and another marked “emergency fund.” They managed their money sensibly with smart budgeting for their groceries, takeout every two weeks, and a monthly movie and lunch with the kids. The kids had swimming lessons and art club; Rachel had soccer club and Ben went to street dance. Various smaller payments were spent on gas, a florist, clothing and a miniature golf session.
I checked the vacation account. It held a modest amount made up of the accumulated monthly payments but it looked like they were well on their way to that Mexico vacation.
Daniel’s personal account didn’t contain anything exciting either. Here was his car payment, coffee shop purchases, lunches, his share of the dinner at the Japanese restaurant, a payment to a bookshop and one to his gym. After his car payment, the biggest payment he had was to a sports shop and I was fairly certain that was for the squash racket he’d recently bought. He also directed some money to a personal savings account, which had a lower balance than the joint vacation account.
I sat back in my seat and sipped my coffee. If Daniel sold out his friend and colleagues, he’d either done it for free, extremely cheaply, or for cash. None of those options made any sense to me. I printed the last year of statements with their balances and added them into my folder. Then I called Maddox. Maddox was the last friend to socialize with Daniel but what did they talk about?
The call went through to voicemail and I left a message for him to call me back.
I thought about what else the police would do and decided they would probably credit check Alice too. After all, she was Daniel’s wife and they might surmise he could attempt to launder money through her account to avoid suspicion. Why they could possibly think he would be that stupid was another matter. So I checked anyway, that same knot of discomfort returning.
Thankfully, Alice was no more interesting than Daniel. She didn’t carry a student loan or car payment but I knew she’d received a modest inheritance from her grandparents several years ago that covered not only those debts, but a portion of their mortgage, and the little amount leftover was stored in Alice’s personal savings. She had regular payments for makeup and magazine subscriptions. There were payments to a clothes store, a couple of restaurants and a payment to Lily’s bar last Friday night. Like Daniel, she didn’t spend beyond her means.
If anyone were paying Daniel indirectly, it wasn’t coming through Alice. I hoped MPD came to the same conclusion.
When my desk phone rang, the button indicated it was an internal call, I jumped and the coffee sloshed in the cup. I placed it on the desk and grabbed the phone. “Lexi here,” I said.
“Just the one I was looking for,” said Jim, the doorman for the building. “There’s a Jord here for you. He says you know him.”
“I do. He’s my brother. Send him up,” I said.
“She says go on up,” I heard Jim say, then to me, he added, “He’s on his way. He didn’t sign the visitor’s book. Said you probably didn’t want him to. Does that suit you?”
“Suits me just fine,” I said, wondering why Jord didn’t want to leave any trace of his visit. “Thanks, Jim.”