Crash Tack

by A. J. Stewart

  “Michael Baggio,” he said without a smile as we shook hands. Maybe it was the defining difference between architects and builders, but his hands were soft as satin. We introduced ourselves and told him that we represented Ron, and he ushered us back to his office. His space was neat and tidy and had a killer view of the water. We sat at a small conference table by the window and he asked us if we wanted ice water, and we both said yes.

  Michael cleared his throat. “I’m afraid I really didn’t know Ron,” he said sitting down.

  “He told us that you met on the boat,” I said.

  “That’s right.”

  “We’re more concerned about getting a feel for events on the night of Will’s accident.”

  “So you think it was an accident?”

  “Don’t you?”

  “I can’t see why not, but Ron was arrested, so I don’t know.”

  A young guy came in with three glasses of water, then left and closed the door. We all took a sip .

  “So, how did you come to be on the boat?” asked Lenny.

  “I was invited, by Mr. Colfax. By Will.”

  “And how did you know Will?” I asked.

  He cleared his throat again. “Through a friend.”

  “And who was that?”

  He took a sip of water. “Is that relevant?”

  “I don’t know what’s relevant.”

  “A mutual friend.”

  Who had no name, apparently. “Did you know Will very well?” I asked.

  “Casually, I guess you would say.”

  Lenny swirled his water around in the glass. “Do you have any idea why Will would invite you to sail in an open water race given you had never sailed before?”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Seems to have been the opinion of everyone on board. They all had considerable sailing experience, bar you.”

  Michael stood with his hands behind his back and looked out the window at the water.

  “Well, I suppose that’s true. I guess I expressed an interest and Mr.—, Will—offered me a place on board, in order to learn.”

  “It’s not that common for a first-time sailor to go open water,” I said, as if I was some kind of expert. “Usually you do a few races on the Intracoastal or in Biscayne Bay first.”

  He cleared his throat again. I wondered if he was coming down with something, and I hoped he wouldn’t give it to me.

  “I suppose there was a lot of experience on board and he figured it would be fine.”

  “Did you know anyone else on board?” I asked.

  “Only a few, by reputation. I had heard Amy was a good sailor. ”

  “And Drew Keck?”

  “I heard he was doing some kind of boat restoration, but I didn’t know he was a sailor until we were on board.”

  I nodded and sipped my water. Michael turned around but didn’t sit.

  “So where were you when Will went overboard?” asked Lenny.

  “Asleep.”

  “Where was that?”

  “In my cabin.” He seemed to frown, but no lines appeared in his brow. He either moisturized a lot, or he was doing Botox.

  “The cabins were doubles, weren’t they?” I asked. “Who did you bunk with?”

  Michael took a deep breath. “Drew Keck.”

  “Cozy,” said Lenny. “Those cabins are small.”

  “Yes, they are. Most of the time we were on opposite watch or both awake, so only one of us was in there at a time.”

  “And the night Will went missing?”

  “Drew was supposed to be on first watch, and I went to bed. But I heard later that Alec swapped with him, so he came down and slept too.”

  “How did that go?”

  “It wasn’t very comfortable, to be honest. He snores, loudly.” Michael made a face like he’d eaten a bad olive. “And his personal hygiene is not all it could be.”

  I nodded. “I can see that. So did you get any sleep?”

  “Yes, I was very tired. We all were. I thought we were going to stop in Bimini, and I wish we had. But the others decided to go on, and it wasn’t my place to argue.”

  Michael moved back to his chair and stood behind it, hands on the back of the seat.

  “So when did you know Will was gone? ”

  “Someone banged on the door, said there was a man overboard. Woke me up.”

  “Woke you both up,” said Lenny.

  “No, just me. Drew was up.”

  “He was up already?” I asked.

  “Yes, he was up.”

  “When did he get up?”

  “I don’t have any idea. But only a couple hours had passed, so it can’t have been long.”

  “How do you know the time?”

  “I was disoriented. I checked my watch. I remember because I wasn’t due to be on deck for another hour.”

  “So what happened?”

  “I got up.”

  “And?”

  “Well, I don’t know. I didn’t know what was happening. Ron was on the radio, to the Coast Guard, and Felicity was pulling on shorts and running through the boat, to go upstairs. So I followed.”

  “And?”

  “Drew was at the wheel, and he said Will had gone overboard, and for me to look.”

  “Look?”

  “Look for Will. Felicity and Amy and Alec were on the front of the deck, with flashlights. Alec might have had a spotlight of some kind. They were looking for Will in the water. So I looked too.”

  “For how long?”

  “I don’t know, maybe ten minutes. Maybe twenty.”

  “You’re not sure on the time?”

  “No, I wasn’t looking at my watch then. I was trying to find someone in the water.” Michael pushed away from the chair and returned to the window. I wondered if he had a step count he was trying to achieve.

  “Makes sense,” said Lenny. “So why did you stop looking?”

  “Ron came up and said the Coast Guard helicopter was en route, and he said something about the signal was moving away from us, and Drew said we had to keep heading for shore because the weather was turning.”

  “Was it?”

  “It was certainly getting rougher, yes.”

  “And did everyone agree with Drew’s decision?”

  Michael nodded. “They did. Drew seemed to look at Amy, not so much for agreement, more to see if she would disagree. They didn’t really see eye to eye. But she didn’t disagree. She said the Coast Guard could track the signal but we couldn’t, so it was the right call. I think Felicity and Alec were okay with it because Amy was.”

  “What about you?” I asked.

  He looked me in the eye. “I’d never been on the ocean before. Honestly, I just wanted to be on dry land again.”

  “Reasonable,” I said.

  “What about Ron?” asked Lenny.

  “What about him?”

  “You said everyone else agreed with Drew’s decision. Did Ron?”

  Michael thought about it a moment, and then slowly shook his head. “You know, I don’t think he did. Not immediately. He said Will couldn’t be too far, and we had the last coordinates from the Coast Guard, so we could use the GPS to find him.”

  Lenny frowned. “But they didn’t listen?”

  “No. I think it was Amy. She told Ron that Will was a moving target in the Stream, and they didn’t have the equipment to track him if he was moving. She said the weather was changing direction, I can’t remember how, but it was going to get worse. She said they had to make sure no one else was lost, and that the Coast Guard would be over the spot within twenty minutes. I think Ron then agreed.”

  We took all that in, and then Lenny finished off his water and thanked Michael for his time. We stood and wandered out into the morning sun. Already the ground was warm and the moist air seemed to be rising from the pavement. We shook hands with Michael, and one more time Lenny thanked him, and said if he thought of anything useful, he should call. Lenny gave him a business card. We turned
to walk to Lenny’s truck and were almost knocked down by a guy in a suit who was running like a windmill trying to make a break for freedom.

  “Michael!” called the suit.

  We watched him run toward the entrance, arms flailing, to where Michael Baggio stood, mouth agape.

  “Michael!” called the man again, somewhat unnecessarily. He had attracted every eye in the zip code.

  “What are you doing here!” said Michael, in a whispered shout.

  Lenny and I watched as the man in the suit screeched to a halt and tried to regain his breath.

  “They’re going to arrest me,” said the man, more quietly but not quiet enough for Lenny and me not to hear. We took a couple of steps toward them.

  “What are you talking about, Keegan? You can’t be here,” said Michael.

  “Don’t you hear me? The FBI, Michael, the FBI is going to arrest me. They think I’ve been stealing money from Cyntech.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  THE MENTION OF arrests and Will’s company reeled us right back in. Michael looked around as if the guy in front of him was a psycho, embarrassed by the whole episode. The guy seemed to be having a nervous breakdown. Lenny stepped forward to suggest we take a walk to Poinciana Plaza, a mall behind the office building. The guy having the breakdown stared at Lenny like he was wearing a hazmat suit, but complied when Michael nodded his agreement. It seemed Michael was keen to do whatever was necessary to get this crazy loon away from his place of work. We cut through a parking lot and Lenny directed us toward a grassed area, under the shade of a large tree that might have been an oak, but certainly wasn’t a palm.

  “Take a breath,” Lenny said to the crazy guy.

  “Who are you?” he replied. He frowned a creaseless frown like Michael had. He was average height, somewhere between Michael and me, maybe five-ten, and he had perfectly trimmed brown hair. He was an unusual sight in South Florida, in that he wore a pinstripe suit with clubby red tie. He would have passed for a Boston banker .

  “I’m Lenny Cox, this is my partner, Miami Jones. We work with Ron Bennett.”

  “Who? What? Lenny? Miami? What kind of names are those?”

  “They work with Ron, the guy who is in jail for Will’s disappearance,” said Michael.

  The guy didn’t look any less confused.

  “Who are you?” asked Lenny.

  “What?”

  “This is Keegan Murray,” said Michael.

  “What?”

  “Keegan,” said Lenny, stepping in close and taking up the guy’s full sphere of vision. “Take a breath. Do it.”

  Keegan took a shallow breath, like a sparrow.

  “Again, Keegan. Deeper. Give me a good breath.” Lenny spoke like he was praising his prize labradoodle, which he didn’t have. But Keegan responded with a deep breath.

  “Now, slowly. Tell us what happened. The FBI . . .”

  “They’re going to arrest me!” He started flipping out again, waving his hands like he was directing planes at JFK.

  “Keegan, calm down. They’re not going to do anything here. You’re safe. Just breathe, then talk slow.”

  Keegan took another breath and nodded to Lenny. “My assistant called. He said the FBI is in my office. They have a warrant.”

  I gulped and wondered if I had given them the idea for the warrant. Then I brushed the idea away. The feds didn’t really need my help to figure out how to serve a search warrant. Lenny nodded but didn’t speak, and kept his full attention on Keegan.

  “They’re taking computers, files, whatever. He said they wanted to know where I was, that they had questions. My assistant says he thought he heard one of them say I should be arrested as soon as I arrive.”

  “Okay, Keegan, that’s good,” said Lenny. “And you work at Cyntech?”

  Keegan nodded.

  “Will Colfax’s company?”

  He nodded again.

  “What do you do there?”

  “I’m the finance director.”

  I thought back to the FBI agent we had met at the boatyards. He had said they were investigating financial irregularities at Will’s company. Now it seemed they were swooping in on the culprit. Michael Baggio stepped forward into Keegan’s line of sight.

  “I think we should go,” he said.

  Keegan looked at him. “Go where?”

  “Home. So we can figure out what to do.” Michael glanced at Lenny, then back at Keegan. “And I don’t think you should be answering any more questions.”

  “We’re not the feds,” said Lenny. “But I can assure you, they will be watching Keegan’s home. Or is it your home, too?” he asked Michael.

  “Yes, we live together,” said Michael. “Roommates,” he added.

  “Well, going home isn’t the right move.”

  “What is the right move?” asked Keegan.

  “What do you think the FBI is after?” asked Lenny.

  Keegan threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know!”

  “Keegan, calm down. Breathe.”

  The guy seemed permanently set to one second from panic .

  “I’m calm. I think they are interested in the offshore accounts.”

  “They do like looking at those,” said Lenny. “Where does the company have offshore accounts?”

  “All over. Will liked to fly close to the wind, tax-wise. We had accounts in Hong Kong, Nassau, Caymans. Dubai.”

  “And you worked closely with Will?”

  “Yes, I told you, I was his finance director.”

  Lenny looked at Michael. “And he just happened to ask you on board his boat?”

  “What are you saying?” Michael stood erect. He was a fit-looking guy, a good percentage of muscle. “That we engineered for me to be on the boat to knock off Will so Keegan could get away with embezzlement?”

  It was an excellent theory.

  “What I think doesn’t matter. But the FBI will certainly wander down that path.”

  “Oh, my gosh!” yelled Keegan, losing it all over again. The hands went into the air, the pitch went up toward the territory that only dogs can hear, and Lenny spent several minutes calming him back down.

  “Okay, Keegan,” said Lenny. “Does the company have insurance against this kind of theft?”

  “Yes,” he said, on the edge of hyperventilating. “But it isn’t valid if the theft was committed by an officer of the company.”

  “And who are the officers?”

  “Will, of course. His wife, Celia. And there are two non-executive board members based in New York, but they have nothing to do with the day-to-day.”

  “And that’s it? You’re not an officer of the company?”

  “I am. ”

  “Okay, Keegan, listen to me close now. This is what you need to do. You’re going to have to give yourself up to the FBI.”

  “Are you crazy!”

  “No, no, I’m not crazy,” Lenny said, calmly.

  “He’s not doing that,” said Michael.

  “Yes, he is,” Lenny said to Michael. “And I’ll tell you why. The feds will find him. He can’t go home, he can’t use credit cards or an ATM. He can’t see anyone he knows, family or friends. They will find him. So it’s going to look better for him if he turns himself in.”

  I wasn’t sure why Lenny had gone all good Samaritan suddenly, but I let him run with it.

  “It’s a setup,” said Michael.

  “That’s what they all say,” said Lenny. “But the guilty ones run.”

  “So he just walks into the FBI office with his hands up.”

  “No, don’t do that. That will end up looking like an arrest. It needs to be documented that you are coming in of your own volition.” Lenny looked at Keegan. “Do you have an attorney?”

  Keegan nodded.

  “Not a company attorney, one of your own.”

  He nodded again.

  “Who is it?”

  “Curruthers Partners. Here in Palm Beach.”

  “Okay. You are going to go to the
m now. Tell them what is happening. Have them contact the FBI to arrange a time and place for your surrender. Doing it that way means it will have to be documented. You understand?”

  Keegan nodded.

  “You understand?” Lenny said to Michael .

  “Yes.” He didn’t look happy but the logic of it seemed to hit home.

  “All right, you should go now.”

  “I can’t do jail time,” said Keegan. Every man and his dog could see that was the truth.

  “It’s a white-collar crime,” said Lenny. “Most likely you will have to surrender your passport and make bail, but it’s unlikely you’ll be held until trial.”

  Keegan nodded. He had gone pale, and I wasn’t sure he had done all the flipping out he was capable of, but he and Michael strode back to the office, and climbed into a red Lexus convertible. They didn’t say goodbye as they screamed out of the lot.

  I watched them go and then looked at Lenny. “You think they’ll do it?”

  “I do.”

  “You think he embezzled from Will?”

  “No idea.”

  “He seemed pretty shocked.”

  “Yeah, the shock was real enough. But was it the shock of being accused of something he didn’t do, or the shock of getting caught?”

  “Which do you think?”

  “Don’t care,” said Lenny. He turned and walked toward his truck. “Either way, Ron just got some serious reasonable doubt.”

  “Michael?”