Last Flight from Flagstaff (Choices: Story Two)

by Beth Carpenter

  Chapter 8

  The next morning, Donna found herself taking special care with makeup, adding an extra coat of mascara. Her honey-blond hair glistened in waves around her face. She dressed in a sleeveless floral dress that came to just above her knees, topped by a short fitted jacket. Her high-heeled pumps showed off her long slim legs. Hearing noise in the kitchen, she went down to talk with Kristen.

  Kristen’s housekeeper, Linda, was unloading the dishwasher. “Good morning, Linda, have you seen Kristen?” Donna asked.

  Linda looked up. “She’s not here.”

  Donna frowned. “Darn. I needed to ask her a question. Where does she go so early every morning, anyway?”

  “Didn’t she tell you? She works every morning at the Family Food Center.” At Donna’s blank look she continued. “You know, the soup kitchen. She does the prep work for the meal they serve later in the day.”

  “No, I didn’t know. Thank you Linda.” Donna wandered into the family room. She realized that she had been thinking of Kristen as a poor little rich girl. She should have known that someone who had volunteered for the Peace Corps wouldn’t abandon her commitment to help others.

  Kristen was something of an enigma. Donna knew that Kristen could be forceful, having been on the receiving end of her wrath, but Kristen was also gentle and giving. She was confident and competent, all except when it came to Matt when she suddenly became indecisive and helpless. The shadow of the missing money was tainting Kristen’s relationship with Matt, and Donna needed to get it settled one way or the other.

  Donna left the house early to make sure she was on time for her meeting with Blake. She found herself parked outside of his office fifteen minutes early. She took the extra time to calm down and force herself to focus on the task at hand. She needed to be objective when dealing with Blake Russell. She reminded herself that appearances could be deceiving. Just because he had an adorable dimple and a dog that loved him didn’t mean he wasn’t skimming money.

  At three minutes until ten, she took a deep breath and approached the receptionist’s desk. “Good morning, Rainbow.”

  Rainbow bestowed her brilliant smile upon Donna. “Good morning! You’re here to see Mr. Russell! He’s waiting for you. Second door on the left!” Donna had never heard anyone sound more excited about an office visit.

  Following Rainbow’s directions, she found the door marked “Blake Russell” and knocked softly before opening the door. “Mr. Russell?”

  “Come in. Please call me Blake.” Blake stood and came around the desk to shake her hand. This time his handshake was firm and businesslike.

  Donna glanced around the office. Blake’s desk was an oak library table. One wall was lined with glass-fronted bookshelves. Some were full of books and others held various pots and arrowheads. “Let’s sit here.” He led her to a sofa in the corner of the office and sat in a nearby chair. “Now what can I do for you?”

  “I gather Matt told you about the situation with missing and late payments to Meredith Enterprises?”

  “Yes.” Blake’s voice gave nothing away. “Have you discovered anything unusual in the books?”

  Donna shook her head. “Unfortunately, I haven’t yet had a chance to go over the books carefully. I need to ask you about Arlyn and Russell. Why did you buy the apartments in the first place? You obviously had interests elsewhere.”

  Blake raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure how that affects Meredith Enterprises, but it was a matter of the right deal at the right time. My nephew, Matt, had finished his Master’s degree, but couldn’t find employment. About that time, Ross wanted to sell the apartments. I decided that this would be a way to help them both out, and it was a sound investment too.”

  “You knew Ross?” Donna’s voice was soft.

  Blake nodded. “I knew Cindy first. We served on a charity committee together and became acquainted. She decided that I was a starving bachelor and she and Ross started inviting me over for dinner occasionally. We got to be good friends.” His face clouded. “After Cindy got sick, Ross wanted to spend more time with her. He sold me the apartments and I put Matt in charge. Shortly after that, I had some trouble with another business and had to leave town. I always regret that I was out of town when Cindy passed away.”

  Donna blinked back a tear. She reminded herself that she was there to investigate the missing money. “I understand that Matt’s degree is in Native American art.

  “Yes, and I confess, I felt partially responsible for his choice of major since I was the one who took him arrowhead hunting and to museums and Indiana Jones movies when he was a boy.”

  “Don’t you think that you should have provided a little more supervision for an inexperienced manager? Do you think it was fair to drop the whole thing in his lap?”

  “It’s not that difficult.” Blake’s voice was abrupt. “You qualify renters, collect their rent, call the plumber if necessary, and pay the bills. It’s not rocket science. I think even someone with a Masters in Art can manage that.” Blake looked at his watch. “I’m sorry to cut this short, but I have another appointment elsewhere at ten forty-five. I’m afraid we’ll have to close this meeting.” He stood up.

  “I see.” Donna stood also. “Thank you for your time,” she said stiffly. She forced herself to shake his hand once again and left the office.

  “Goodbye,” Rainbow called cheerfully as Donna passed her desk. Donna nodded at her on the way out the door.

  What was that all about? Donna wondered about Blake’s sudden change of tone. Why would he get defensive about putting Matt in charge? She wondered if he had purposely hired an inexperienced manager in order to manipulate the LLC in some way.

  It was Blake’s money, though. At least he made the down payment. The profits would go to both of them according to the ownership, 80% to Blake and 20% to Matt. Matt also collected a salary for his management services. Of course, if the business didn’t make any money, there would be no profits to share. What if Blake was siphoning out money before figuring the profit in order to keep 100% and also to avoid taxes? Tax fraud. That could be serious.

  Donna decided she needed to get busy on those books, but as long as she was this close to downtown, she would stop by the artist co-op first. She wanted to buy that handbag for her daughter, Rachel.

  She was the only customer in the store. “I’d like to look at that bag, please,” she told the shopkeeper. “It’s for my daughter.”

  “Aren’t these beautiful?’ the shopkeeper commented. “Darla does wonderful leatherwork.” She lifted out a tray containing three of the handbags, each slightly different in color and design.

  Donna touched the blue bag. The leather was silky smooth on the sides, with tooled leather on the front and back. She turned over the price tag and gasped. The purse was marked at $5000. The other two were priced the same.

  “I’m afraid these are out of my price range,” Donna told the shopkeeper.

  “Mine too,” she said sadly, putting the tray back into the case. “But someday maybe I’ll be able to afford one.”

  Donna decided that Rachel would have to be happy with a cotton knit skirt embellished with a silk-screened image of a red poppy on one side.

  On the drive back to Kristen’s house, Donna thought about Heather’s handbag. She had seen Heather’s paycheck in one of the expense categories and it didn’t run to $5000 purses. Of course, Heather could be married to someone with a large salary or it could have been a gift.

  Back at Kristen’s house, Donna decided to take her laptop into Ross’s study to go over the books. She settled herself in the leather desk chair, placing her laptop on the oak desk. She glanced at the cowboy hat hanging from the peg on the wall. “Well, Ross,” she said aloud. “Here goes.”

  If Heather had used a standard accounting database Donna would have been able to quickly pull up reports and find answers, but with the random collection of spreadsheets, the information had to be sorted and teased out.

  First Donn
a looked over all the historical expenses. They had crept up over time at about the rate of inflation, but starting about six months ago, total expenses began to rise rapidly. Most of the expenses were fairly regular and went back to the beginning. A few were erratic, such as occasional plumbing or electrician visits, which made trends harder to spot.

  The landscaper, Green Thumb Co., had been with them from the start. Watson Office Supplies was a small but regular expense. T&R appeared to be a painting company. There were occasional expenses for carpet. P&R seemed to have handled janitorial duties until about a year ago, when Jansen LLC replaced them at a slightly higher rate.

  There was a new supplier named the GEO Group that began receiving payments about seven months ago. Under the memo field, their payments said “general supplies.” The first payment was small, but they were paid weekly and the checks kept growing. Donna wondered what type of supplies they provided and why the apartments were using so many more over time.

  A second new contractor who provided maintenance services appeared about two months ago. S&W had received several substantial payments. Matt must have done some major renovation or painting at that time.

  Donna decided she would drop in and have a chat with some of the suppliers and contractors. She checked the addresses on another page of the spreadsheet to see if they were all local. She noticed that two of the businesses had the same street address, just different suite numbers. Probably an industrial park of some sort. She would find out tomorrow.

  Donna took a break to make herself a cup of coffee. She closed her eyes as she sipped the warm brew, leaning against the kitchen island. When she opened her eyes, she saw her purse hanging from the back of a chair and realized that it had been in here while she worked. She dug out her cell phone to check messages. A text from Kristen read Rehearsal at 6, dinner at 7. Good. That would give her time alone this evening to puzzle through this mess.

  Donna returned to the spreadsheets. She shook her head over Heather’s odd bookkeeping practices. Donna was accustomed to dealing with small business owners who kept their own books in their own way, but this woman’s only job was keeping books. If nothing else, Matt needed a better bookkeeper. There was no ledger for the bank account, just a notation of the balance every Friday. Donna wished that she had requested bank statements, but it wasn’t worth going after them now.

  Entry by entry, Donna took the information from the spreadsheets and recreated an accounting of the business cash flow. She looked at the page in dismay. Could she have made an error? Carefully she checked all the figures. No, it was definite. The credits for each renter minus the expenses of the company didn’t equal the balance of the account. Some of the money was missing.

  Due to the quirky bookkeeping, Donna wasn’t able to determine whether the money never made it into the account or was withdrawn without listing it as an expense. The discrepancies were small but regular, and they had been happening almost from the beginning. That meant it could have been any of them.

  Matt could be collecting some rents in cash, and only turning part of it over to Heather for deposit. Heather could be siphoning off some of the cash before making the deposit. Matt or Blake could be helping themselves to cash from the account. Who to trust?

  The antique grandfather clock in the corner struck the half-hour. Five-thirty. Donna heard a door close and a few minutes later Kristen popped her head into the room. “Hi, Donna. Ready to go?”

  “Go where?” Donna tried to remember.

  Kristen walked into the room. She wore a simple green dress, which draped gracefully over her slender body. “The wedding rehearsal! Didn’t you get my text?”

  “I’m not in the wedding, Kristen.”

  “But I want you there, and besides Blake is hosting the rehearsal dinner and he specifically asked for me to bring you.”

  “He did?” Donna was surprised, considering the way she had left his office that morning.

  “Yes, now hurry or we’ll be late.”

  Donna hurried upstairs. She didn’t have time to change, so she exchanged her jacket for a soft blue wrap and her pumps for high-heels with open toes. She threw her wallet, keys, and lipstick into a small clutch and hurried downstairs.

  Kristen nodded approval. “You look nice. Let’s go.”