by A.R. Wise
Chapter Three
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” said Lincoln to Daniel Barr as they stood in the gutted office. It was after hours, and the salespeople had gone home. Lincoln had spent several hours meeting with the salespeople who worked for him. They appreciated his time, and he was a good motivator. His employees loved working for him, and pleaded with him to come in more often. He promised he would, and then stayed late with Bentley to iron out the plan to present Daniel.
“We want to make the new office a hub for a bunch of crowd-funding projects. I’ve got a guy who knows the business already, and he can help us get things rolling here. I want this to be separate from my other crew, but my IT guy can work for you as a consultant. Other than him, there’s not going to be any overlap.”
“Whoa, wait,” said Daniel. “Crowdfunding?”
“Yeah, we looked into it,” said Bentley, “and it’s like the whole thing was designed purely for money laundering. People can donate however much they want to a campaign anonymously, and as long as we’re following through with the project there’s no way for anyone to know it’s not on the up and up.”
“What sort of projects?” asked Daniel.
“It can be anything,” said Lincoln. “There’re campaigns for people suffering an illness, and some for programmers looking to make a videogame.”
“There are artists and painters,” added Bentley. “Anything you can think of, pretty much.”
“I don’t want to hire on a bunch of artists,” said Daniel, discounting the idea already. “That’s a headache I don’t need.”
“That’s not what we’re going to do,” said Lincoln. “What I had in mind was more of a private investigation company.” He felt like a child campaigning for an expensive Christmas present. He was nervous, and undeniably excited by the prospect of finally delving into a career he’d dreamt of since he was a child.
“I like that idea even less,” said Daniel with a laugh as he looked back and forth between Bentley and Lincoln, surprised they would even bring up such a ludicrous idea. “Cops hate P.I.s, and the last thing we need is to get the law looking at us sideways.”
“Hear me out,” said Lincoln. “The internet’s full of urban legends, conspiracy theories, and missing person cases that people are obsessed with. We can set up crowd-funding projects with the goal of investigating them, and then put up websites to detail our progress. The best part is that the hard work’s already been done for us. We can collect what the police know, and then compile what other sites have already reported. If we pay someone to put the information together, then we can pass it off like we’re running an actual investigation. There’ll be no need to involve a bunch of people, and no way for anyone to accuse us of not actually following through with the project.”
Daniel’s brow furrowed and his lips pursed as he thought about the proposal. He didn’t look convinced.
“We’ll set up a test site to run through the process,” said Lincoln. “The first campaign will be legitimate, although you can feel free to throw some money our way if you want to see how it works. If it goes like we think it will, then it’s a win for everyone.”
“Are you on board with this, Bentley?”
“Yeah. I think it’ll work.”
Danny chewed his lower lip, considering the idea. He still didn’t look convinced, and Lincoln was certain he would turn them down, but then Danny simply shrugged and said, “All right then, I’m willing to give it a shot. How much money will you need to get things rolling?”
“We’ll work up the costs for the start-up and send it over to you,” said Lincoln.
“What’s the first one going to be?”
“The first cost?” asked Lincoln. “Probably the…”
“No, not the cost,” said Daniel. “What’s your first case going to be? Have you found a good one yet?”
“I’ve got something in mind,” said Lincoln. “It’s a case that already earns a lot of web traffic, and we’re coming up on the ten year anniversary.”
