Show Me the Money

by Connie Shelton

  “And then what?”

  “I’m not sure. Haven’t got that far with the plan yet.”

  “You do remember what Pen and Sandy told us, that Cody redistributed the funds to a bunch of different accounts. It doesn’t sound like it’ll be easy.”

  “Nothing worth doing ever is.”

  “And we can’t forget, if we use Pen or Sandy in parts of the action, Cody most likely will recognize them. They’ll have to stay out of sight.”

  “Right. We can figure out all that.”

  Pen walked in just then, elegant as always in a lavender shell and slacks with a black blazer and pumps. She kissed Amber on the forehead and took the empty seat across from Gracie. “I understand you had a rough afternoon yesterday,” she said.

  The server, seeing a newcomer, approached and offered coffee. “Just some tea, please,” Pen said.

  Amber quickly filled her in with the basics of both the detective’s revelation about the fake text messages and the bombshell identity revelation that had come across her computer late in the night.

  “Wow, I must say, it’s been eventful.”

  “And now she’s ready for revenge.” Gracie glanced toward the neighboring table, but the eavesdropper had left and no one sat there now.

  “I think we need to first steal the money back,” Amber said. “But we have to do it in a way that pinpoints Cody as the real crook.”

  Pen nodded and accepted the small teapot their server brought over. “And how do you propose we do that?”

  “Do you have a list of the banks where he transferred cash? I think you said a young banker told you something about that?”

  “At the Bank of Scotland? Yes, I believe Sandy has that information. Earlier in the chase, in London and Paris, I’m afraid I don’t know.”

  “Didn’t you say he withdrew cash from at least one of those?”

  Pen nodded. “That’s right. He took out cash and then deposited cash in Scotland.”

  “I wonder if it was all of it?”

  Pen shook her head. “No idea. The young woman we spoke to was rather nervous, just sharing the bank names. She gave no details about the money amounts.”

  Amber focused on her water glass for a minute. “Okay, at least that would be a start. I can try getting into the banking records.”

  “What can the rest of us do?” Gracie asked.

  “Sandy may be able to help with the banking aspects,” Pen suggested.

  Amber shook her head. “Can’t risk her professional status. We need to move money around without Cody’s knowledge, and most likely those accounts are in his name.”

  “Or the name of that company we discovered, Blandishment Inc.”

  “Right. I’m thinking it’s legally iffy for us to do that.”

  “You think?” Gracie’s mouth formed a wry grin.

  “Yeah, well, it’s something we don’t want Sandy involved with. She could lose her whole career over it.”

  “Whereas …”

  “Whereas, I have nothing more to lose.” Amber said it nonchalantly, but the others knew she was deeply upset over the whole mess.

  “All right. Moving the money will be a top priority,” Pen said. “And Amber, you will handle the details. Equally important, to my thinking, is that we need to find out where Cody actually is.”

  Gracie brightened. “Exactly. Once everything is in place, if the police won’t chase him down, we will.”

  “Mary will. She’s already promised to kick him into the next universe.” Amber filched a strawberry and gave an evil grin as she bit into it.

  Chapter 59

  The first thing Amber wanted to know was whether Cody was still employed at B-G and whether he’d reported back to work after his recent jaunt to Europe. She accomplished that with Sandy’s help, again saying her bank was considering Mr. Baker for a loan and needed to verify his employment.

  “Strange answer,” Sandy reported after making the call. “They said ‘technically.’”

  “He’s technically employed there?”

  “When I asked the woman to clarify, she simply said yes, he is.”

  “So, as a banker wondering if the man has a job, how would you decide his loan application?”

  “I’d turn him down. The job does not sound like a certainty.”

  Amber chafed. “I wish I still had access to the building. I’d scour that office, floor by floor, and see whether he’s at a desk.”

  “Well, that sounds like a whole lot of work. How about just hanging within sight of the entrance at quitting time?”

  “That’s easier. Good idea.”

  And so Amber found herself at the little spot across the street from the B-G building, where she used to pop out for a latte when she simply needed to get out of the office. She’d pulled her hair up under a floppy hat and traded her chic rectangular sunglasses for a pair with large round lenses. Now she sat at a table that faced the windows, without being right up against them. She could see the big glass doors that led into the lobby, but it was impossible to monitor the entrance and the parking garage at the same time. If he parked and drove out the west exit, she’d have no way of knowing.

  On the other hand, if he’d actually ripped off the company for hundreds of thousands and managed it so Amber took the blame, why would he still be working here? Maybe that’s what the HR department had meant by ‘technically.’ He was on the payroll but not showing up any more.

  She avidly scanned the faces coming out the door. The bus stop was a half block up the street, and that’s where many of the employees headed. There was a massive push between 4:00 and 4:10. Once the bus glided away, no one wanted to stand around until the 4:45 bus arrived, and Amber found herself staring at the normal street traffic.

  It was a good time to check out the traffic from the parking garage, so she picked up her phone and the paper cup of latte and strolled out. At the end of the block, she took up a post leaning against a building diagonally from the corner where the garage ramp discharged its cars.

  Right away it became apparent she couldn’t see faces very well behind the tinted glass most Arizonans used on their windows. And she had no idea what type of car Cody would be driving. He’d never mentioned one. She tried snapping discreet photos of a few cars that emerged, but that proved a waste of time. Between the distance and the glare on dark glass she couldn’t make out the features of anyone in the vehicles.

  “Okay,” she said out loud, releasing a breath. “What am I really doing here?”

  A passing man in a business suit turned to look at her, and a homeless guy who’d been shuffling up the block stepped up his pace. Amber turned in the opposite direction and crossed the street. She could accomplish more with an afternoon online.

  She got in her car. With plenty of time to think, considering the crawl of rush hour traffic leading away from downtown, she brainstormed ideas.

  Yes, it would be good to catch Cody in person. She had no faith that the cops would follow through, even if she did supply his name. Detective Howard had certainly been noncommittal about tracking him. But … wasn’t it more important to get the money back first? If Cody caught on that they were after him, he’d figure out a way to move the money yet again. And it was already a known fact that he wasn’t above cashing out and filling a suitcase with the green stuff.

  So, she would make the money her top priority. Cody would come later, when she handed him a big dish of revenge, served cold.

  Her mind began to formulate a plan and her fingers itched to get to the keyboard.

  Chapter 60

  Cody hopped the bus and rode downtown, more out of habit and wanting to get away from the four walls of his bedroom, where the theme music and wildly excited shouts of game shows were a constant background. Since their Facetime chat he’d been thinking about Amber, trying to figure out why she’d suddenly gone cold and abruptly ended the call.

  Last night’s dream and the chill he’d felt—was that connected somehow? He realized his upbring
ing hadn’t exactly prepared him for the deeper questions of life. If you couldn’t make money from it, Pop wasn’t interested. If you couldn’t program a computer code to make it happen, Cody hadn’t a clue.

  Somehow, his move to Phoenix had been a turning point, and from the moment he’d spotted Amber and learned where she worked, fate had been set in motion. He leaned against the bus window and the rocking motion sent him thinking back to his arrival here.

  His buddy was a student at ASU and had probably assumed Cody would enroll and they’d hang out together, drinking beer and consuming pizza instead of studying. But Cody and Josh were on different wavelengths. After a few afternoons of scoping out the girls on campus and looking through his friend’s Snapchat connections, Cody was bored.

  Even though he’d never earned a fancy degree, from the moment he talked Ma into getting him a used MacBook when he was twelve, he wanted to know how it worked. Ma. She held out hope that her influence—get a good education, get a good job, be an upstanding citizen—would outweigh Woody Baker’s constant preaching about finding the easy way out, latching onto people you could use to get what you wanted. Find those rich cats with money and take ’em for all you could.

  Cody borrowed library books, found used college textbooks online when he could, and taught himself the ins and outs of programming. When his school friends were all gaga over homecoming or prom or making first string on the team, he was already writing sophisticated programs. Well before they graduated high school, he’d found his first job, a company filled with the super-bright techies. He copied everything he could learn from them. He used Omni to create his online presence, and that credential to get him in at Blackwell-Gorse.

  Pop had nearly exploded. He’d done his level best to teach Cody the tricks of all the con games he knew; achieving those things with the use of computers was beyond him. But Cody was still his father’s son, and he saw the potential. And when he saw Amber Zeckis in the lobby of B-G on his first day at work there, the plan was sealed. He had the means to tap the huge resources of a major tech giant, and he had the innocent looking girl who would steer all suspicion away from himself.

  He used his Cody Brennan online presence and proceeded to woo Miss Amber into doing what he wanted. Soon, he and Pop would be wealthy.

  He just hadn’t counted on actually starting to fall for Amber.

  The bus came to a stop in front of the B-G building. With eyes open for every detail, Cody stepped down and entered the lobby, scanning his employee badge at the security point before pressing the elevator button for the 14th floor.

  Two weeks ago, he’d bailed, with attitude, and now he wondered. Would he have a job here still? How much more could he skim off before they wised up? Or should he just erase his tracks and get out while suspicion was still directed at Amber?

  Chapter 61

  Amber knew it needed to happen all at once, the money movement. If Cody spotted cash disappearing out of his accounts, she knew he could most likely stop her. His programming abilities were amazing. She didn’t dare try to outrun him in that way. It was going to take all her skills to set this up perfectly.

  She was staring at the screen of the borrowed computer, which now had the external hard drive attached with all the Blackwell-Gorse info she had copied from her company machine. Using his employee ID, she found the maneuvers he’d used to move B-G money into the various foreign accounts. The Ladies knew about those already. But then he had taken cash out and redeposited it elsewhere. The whole thing was either a masterful genius plan or a convoluted mess.

  Pen and Sandy had brought back valuable information when they learned from the Scottish banker that Cody had sent the money off to other accounts. Amber had spent the evening devising untraceable searches for his various names and the name of his shell corporation. But now that she was actually ready to press the keys and start the money moving around, she was having second thoughts. There was no room for error here.

  She called Sandy, posing some theoretical what-ifs. As a banker, what red flags might come up? What would catch their attention and prevent the transfers from going through?

  “The biggest thing you’re going to run into is the waiting time. You know, the few days between the funds moving and when the customer has access to them. If Cody notices something wrong, or if the banks themselves become suspicious of the transactions, they could put a hold on it and stop the whole thing.”

  “That’s not good.”

  “No, it’s not. Can you think of a way to keep Cody from monitoring his accounts for two or three days?”

  She could think of one way. But knowing what she knew now, there was no way another languid week in Paris would happen. She’d be forced to murder him in his sleep. Which, of course, was another way to keep him from checking on his accounts …

  “I’m pretty sure he’s here in the Phoenix area somewhere,” Amber said.

  “Right. Gracie mentioned what you said about your Facetime visit. So, let’s think about this. How can we get him away from his phone and all computers?”

  Amber nearly laughed. “Getting a guy like Cody off all electronics isn’t going to be easy.”

  “Let me send a text out to the Ladies and we’ll come up with ideas. Maybe we can all get together tomorrow sometime?”

  Amber felt a stab of impatience, but this was not the time to rush. She knew this. She took a deep breath and told Sandy to proceed.

  Chapter 62

  Cody spent the morning tucked into his cubicle, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, acting as though he’d been in this spot all along, and hoping no one made a big deal of the days he’d missed. Mainly, he needed to create the perception that he was diligent about his work and hadn’t a care in the world.

  Just because Amber had been arrested on the embezzlement charge didn’t mean they weren’t still digging around. They might think she had an accomplice, and Cody needed to know if that finger was likely to point toward him.

  No matter what his father said about finding a mark, using her, and then disappearing, Cody knew Amber was brilliant when it came to programming. Even if the company didn’t yet know he was behind the disappearance of the money, Amber might have figured it out. And she could have talked her little head off to the cops. He needed to be on the inside at B-G to get an idea what was going on.

  Meanwhile, he’d received another not-entirely-welcome call early this morning. Woody was on his way out for another visit. Pop had his eye on a racetrack in the northern part of the city. Apparently the old man couldn’t keep his money in his pocket. He talked like he could just stay with Cody and they’d spend their days at the races. He obviously still had no concept how large and spread out this metro area was, nor did he realize Cody didn’t have a car. The bus lines and light rail were good, but they were limited in how well you could get around.

  With his programming module open on one screen, Cody flipped over to another to check out hotels near the racetrack. If he could put Woody up there, that would solve a big problem with how he would entertain the old man. Since it looked like the visit would last a week or more, he reserved a rental car at the Alamo desk at the airport.

  “Hey, dude.” The voice startled him and he looked up to see Josh, the other intern on the job. “Where were you last week?”

  “Why? Were they asking?”

  “Well, yeah. Bob was about to split a gut. I told him what you said, family emergency. Everyone okay?”

  “Yeah, it’s all fine, but my dad’s coming out here. I need him where I can keep an eye on his situation. He’s getting older, you know.”

  Josh launched into something about his own grandmother and how she was having some dementia issues these days. Cody just nodded, letting him believe Pop’s case was similar. He picked up enough facts about the condition he could spout them back at Bob if the supervisor came around asking.

  That didn’t happen for nearly an hour, but soon Bob was standing there at Cody’s cube, wanting an explanation. Cody put
on a serious expression and gave a bunch of useless details he’d created on the spot to explain how much attention his father needed these days.

  “That may be,” Bob said, “and I’m sorry to hear it, but interns don’t just have carte blanche around here. If you can’t be on the job consistently, we’ll need to get someone else.”

  Cody thought of all the money he’d set up for himself and Pop. What did he need with this job anyway?

  “Fine by me,” he said. He erased his recent searches, shut down his terminal, and picked up his backpack. “Have a nice life, Bob.”

  The supervisor sputtered a little, clearly thinking Cody would toe the line or at least give a week’s notice. But Cody walked right past him and got into the elevator. As the doors whooshed shut, he overheard Josh make some kind of comment to Bob, along the lines of, so now I’m supposed to take on all his work too?

  He chuckled as he exited the building. Bob hadn’t even thought to demand his employee badge back. Not that Cody had any intention of using it and creating a trail they could follow. The fact that security hadn’t stopped him boosted his mood—clearly, they weren’t at all suspicious.

  Chapter 63

  Amber almost decided she could get used to being unemployed. The days felt amazingly long and free of commitment when she wasn’t having to jam in a personal life around a ten-hour-plus workday. But she also knew her mortgage payment would come due next week and a month after that, and a month after that. She’d saved some, but not enough to live on forever. And there was no way she would go to her parents for money. Having the job at B-G had been a huge source of pride, being completely independent for the first time since her college days, and she didn’t want to let go of that.