Now he just needed to get Pop on a plane back home.
And then what? Cody knew he could go back to Jersey too, could write programming code just as easily from his bedroom there. Too bad he couldn’t dip into the money yet. He’d be on a plane to Jamaica or somewhere, get himself a room near the beach, and skip the upcoming Jersey winter. Then again, he could do that here, and he might still have a chance with Amber.
He tamped down thoughts of all things tropical. The money needed to sit right where it was for at least six months, and then he’d need to pull out small increments so as not to arouse suspicion. And that was another reason he was antsy to get to his phone or computer. He needed to be sure all those foreign transactions had gone through at the correct exchange rates.
Did this new distrust of bankers mean Cody was more like his father than he wanted to admit? Ugh.
Woody’s drink was getting low. Cody chugged his Coke and tapped his dad’s shoulder, giving a nod toward the door. “Hey, you can watch the end of the game back at the room. We got TV there.”
Chapter 78
Something was wrong. Mary felt the change between the two men, as strongly as if a jolt of lightning had rocked the turf club.
The morning of the third day had started in what was becoming a predictable pattern. Breakfast, racetrack, bets, turf club around noon, and an order for snack food. She’d donned an over-styled blonde wig that a housewife in her seventies would choose. That, and a muumuu that added twenty pounds and covered her athletic build, provided the perfect cover. She’d placed a tiny pebble in her shoe to create a realistic limp. She was certain Cody had noticed her in the bar last night where her chic outfit had been out of place. She’d made sure she looked nothing like that woman now.
Mary had whiled away the past two hours by tracking the news via an app on her phone. Cody was still being referred to as ‘an unnamed suspect’ but the details fit. He was from New Jersey and had been in the Phoenix area a short time, although they weren’t quite admitting the police didn’t have an address for him here. He had worked in the building where the phone had been located, abandoned, at the lost and found. He had recently quit the job with no notice.
Much was being made of the fact that the threat had stated the bomb would detonate within the next 51 hours. Endless pundits speculated on why that number had been chosen. There was even a countdown timer at the bottom of the screen showing 29:32:04 left against that deadline.
If Cody was monitoring the news, he would know in a moment that he was the suspect, and since he was not exactly making any attempt to hide, Mary could only assume he wasn’t following the story.
Now, just as she was limping toward the bar to order a soda, the older man raised his voice.
“I just don’t understand why you need your computer. You got no job to go back to. Why can’t we just have a nice day out together?”
“Pop, it’s three days now. Sorry if my new project interests me more than watching horses run around a track. I’m happy you’re winning, but it’s driving me nuts, just sitting here.”
“Fine then, go! I’m sick of hearing about that damn computer. You can’t spend a couple days with your old Pop and just relax? Go get the damn thing.”
Standing at the bar with her back to them, Mary did her best to conceal her reaction. At all costs, she had to keep him away from his laptop. She asked the bartender to put her Coke in a paper cup.
Cody was on his feet when she turned around, and Woody was fishing in his pocket. The keys. Gracie told her it seemed the old man controlled the car keys, but now he was about ready to hand them over. Mary limped her way toward the exit where she could keep an eye on the outcome.
When Cody came down the stairs from the turf club, dangling the key ring from his finger, she walked outside. He strode out the door, not even giving her a glance. There was no way she could keep up the convincing limp and keep up with him. She kicked off her shoe and dumped the pebble out, then dashed to her little red sedan and got inside.
By the time he steered the rented Taurus to the exit, she was twenty yards behind him, tapping her phone to raise someone. Pen was the first to answer.
“Cody’s leaving the track and he’s headed for his computer,” she said, a little breathlessly as she ran the yellow light.
He was heading for the interstate and she couldn’t lose him.
“Do you know where?” Pen asked.
“Wherever he lives. I have no clue.”
“Describe to me where you are now.”
“I-17 southbound.”
“How can I help?”
Mary thought fast. “I should be able to tail him, but I don’t know how it’ll go once he gets to his place and gets the computer.”
“Shall I put Amber and Gracie on alert?”
“Yes, please. I’ll let you know what happens.” Ahead, Cody appeared to be taking the ramp toward I-10, right through central Phoenix. She left her phone on the console, ready to hit redial if she needed to.
This is where it could get tricky. If he exited downtown, there were a number of one-way and crowded, narrow streets where she could easily lose him. She thought of the news scenes shown outside Blackwell-Gorse. Surely he wasn’t planning to go back there. What, exactly, had he said to his father? She tried to remember.
But Cody stayed to the middle lanes, passing through the tunnel. Mary was three cars behind him when they emerged. At the junction where I-10 headed south toward Tucson, Cody merged onto the 202. From here, the exits were spaced farther and were well marked as the freeway took them toward the East Valley cities.
He bypassed chances to go north to Scottsdale or south to Chandler or Gilbert. It looked as though he was heading toward Mesa. Mary reported it to Pen.
“I’ve spoken with Gracie. She’s on the move and can meet you.”
“Let me find out where that is.”
“It might not be a bad idea to let him actually get his hands on the computer,” Pen suggested. “It probably contains evidence the police can use.” There was a pause. “However, at that point you must stop him. Once he sees his bank accounts, our cause is lost. Amber says only half the money transfers have been completed.”
“I’m on it.” Mary closed the gap to two cars between them. This time of day, with rush hour not due to begin for another hour or more, there was enough space to keep an eye on him from a distance.
She tapped Gracie’s number and reported. “We’re passing Gilbert Road.”
“Good. I’m not far behind you. Let me know what turns he makes. I have an idea.”
While Gracie outlined the basics of her plan, Mary didn’t take her eyes off the white Taurus.
Five minutes later, Cody edged into an exit lane.
“He’s getting off at Power Road. I’m closing in so there’s only one car between us.”
“I see you ahead,” Gracie said. “I’ll be two minutes behind you.”
Cody roared through the major intersection at McDowell, but slowed at the next one as traffic exiting a Home Depot joined the flow. Mary had tossed her wig aside and was now right behind their quarry. She hardly dared check the rearview for Gracie. Right now she had to keep her eyes on Cody’s plain white vehicle, which could easily blend with the hundreds of others at the busy commercial intersection.
If she’d blinked, she could have almost missed his last-minute signal before he turned right, onto a side street. He drove two blocks and made a right turn again. Smallish, middle class houses filled the area.
Wary of being spotted, Mary pulled to the curb and watched as Cody came to a stop in front of one of the houses on the left. He got out, leaving his car on the wrong side of the street, and went inside. He planned this as a quick stop, she realized. Gracie had suggested they create a diversion, cause an accident if necessary.
In less than two minutes Cody walked back out of the house, a briefcase-sized bag in hand.
Mary’s heart rate picked up as she realized this was it—this was the time.
Chapter 79
Amber stared at her computer screen. Lines of numbers scrolled past, account numbers and dollar amounts. As the word Confirmed showed up at the end of a line, the list scrolled upward. Next line, Confirmed. Two more to go.
Her phone rang. It was Sandy. “How are the transfers going?”
“Nearly there. Just one more …” She swallowed hard. “And they’re done.”
Sandy let out a sigh of relief.
“I’m switching over to the other server now,” Amber said. “Just need to check and be sure … Yes! the B-G account has the new deposits. I’m going to make a couple of entries within their own system.”
“I probably don’t want to know this.”
“So true. Okay, I’ll let you go. Sandy—thank you.”
Amber raised her eyes to the ceiling as the call ended. Thank you, Sandy, thank you, banking system, thank you, whatever gods of money are out there watching over me.
She turned back to the internal B-G server once again, and entered dates beside each of the new deposits, effectively postdating them so it appeared the money had never actually left their account. It would give the auditors and accountants a headache, but eventually she hoped they would just assume an error had been made on their part and accept that everything really was back to normal.
Picking up her phone she tapped Gracie’s number. “It’s all done. Do you have the evidence?”
“It’s all coming down right now. Call the police and send them to this street,” she said, reading a name off a street sign. “I gotta go!”
Amber made the call, talking directly to Detective Howard. “Be sure to confiscate Cody Baker’s computer. The answers are in his bank accounts.”
Howard sputtered a little but agreed to at least have the Mesa Police Department detain Mr. Baker.
“And send someone out to Turf Paradise to get his father, Woody Baker. He may have been the mastermind behind the whole thing.”
Howard started to protest that Amber was not the one in charge here, but she hung up. She still had a few loose ends to tie up, starting with completely wiping the hard drive on the borrowed computer.
Chapter 80
“We’ve got to stop him!” Gracie said, leaving her van at the curb, rushing up to Mary, and assessing the situation.
Mary seemed to be undressing, right there beside her car. From her gym bag on the passenger seat, she’d pulled stretch pants and a workout top. “I can’t let him know I’m the same person from the track. The street’s a cul-de-sac,” she told Gracie. “He’s got to turn around to get out of there.”
She’d already pulled the pants on and ripped the baggy muumuu off over her head. She yanked the stretchy top over her sports bra and got back behind the wheel. Without even closing her door, she pulled forward and blocked the narrow street. Cody had returned to his car, set a computer bag on the back seat, and now from half a block north, was turning the Taurus around to leave.
Mary got out of her vehicle and walked around front to raise the hood. “Stay out of sight, Gracie. Once he’s out of his car, you grab that computer bag.”
“Will do.” Gracie tucked herself behind an enormous bougainvillea, two seconds before Cody’s car swung around, facing south again.
Mary stood in front of her vehicle, hands on hips, staring under the hood. For a moment she was afraid Cody would try to edge around, but she was blocking the road well enough that he would have to hop the sidewalk and take out a fire hydrant to do it.
He edged the Taurus closer, clearly impatient.
Mary threw up her hands and stared at him. “What do you want me to do? It just quit.”
He got out of his car and walked toward her.
“Could you take a look here and see if you can tell what’s the matter?” Mary tried for a helpless-female attitude, but it was a little hard to pull off. With her spiked blonde hair and toned body in workout gear, she seemed far more capable than the computer geek standing beside her.
Still, males will be males, and Cody walked over and made a show of peering under the hood. Mary glanced up in time to see Gracie dash from the cover of the big flowering shrub, circle to the far side of the Taurus, and pull the bag from the passenger seat.
“Maybe it’s this thingy right here,” Mary said, pointing to the fuel injector. “Does this hose look loose to you?”
Cody had no choice but to take a closer look.
Gracie sprinted back to her van and disappeared through the passenger side door.
Mary heard sirens out on Power Road. They seemed to be getting closer.
By the time the sound registered with Cody, two City of Mesa police cars had roared to a stop on either side of Mary’s vehicle.
“Seems like overkill for a stalled car,” Cody commented.
Four cops emerged, one strode forward.
“I was just about to suggest we push the lady’s car out of the way,” Cody said. “We won’t be blocking the road much longer.”
“Cody Baker?” said the cop.
Realization dawned. Cody’s eyes went wide and he stepped back, but a second cop was right behind him. Cody chose to take the innocent approach.
“What’s this about? I swear I don’t have any tickets.”
“We have orders from downtown Phoenix PD to bring you in. They’ve got questions.”
“I can’t just leave my car—” Cody was looking around, a little frantically. “My computer—”
Gracie stepped forward, holding the computer bag. “I believe the police will want to see this.”
“You! From the track yesterday?” Cody stared. “Wait, officers, this woman … she’s got something to do with this. My dad can identify—at the racetrack. My dad’s at the racetrack. He can tell you—”
Two of the officers led Cody to a patrol car; another one took the computer bag from Gracie.
“Tell Detective Howard he’ll find the evidence he needs, right here.”
Chapter 81
Three nail-biting days went by while the Ladies waited for news. When the call came from Detective Howard, Amber had to sit down before she could take it all in. He said she would need to come downtown to finalize some paperwork. She called her attorney and her four best friends.
“Cody Baker and his father are both in custody,” Howard told them, when they met him in the downtown squad room.
He nodded toward the other man in the room, who spoke up. “Our forensic computer team are still putting together the fine details of the case against them, but we do know this. Using Cody Baker’s personal computer, money was routed out of Blackwell-Gorse Tech, sent through a complex series of transactions all over Europe and the US, through at least one dummy corporation, and into the personal accounts of these men.”
“So you can now put your hands on that money and return it to the victim, the corporation Blackwell-Gorse?” Mariah Kowzlowski asked.
“Well, that’s a little way down the road,” Howard said. “There’ve been more transactions, even as the two men were seemingly spending leisure time at the racetrack.”
Amber held her breath.
“Bottom line, for our purposes here today, is that Blackwell-Gorse has dropped the charges against Amber Zeckis. You’re free to go.”
There was a collective sigh of relief and smiles all around.
“What will happen to Cody?” Amber asked.
Gracie gave her a look, but the detective didn’t seem to notice.
“The charges are serious. Both men will likely do prison time.”
“But you said the money is no longer in his account?”
Howard looked a little impatient at being questioned. “We’re still working on the money trail. All we’ve discovered so far is that the last set of transactions were apparently done from a different computer than the laptop we confiscated.”
The forensic tech spoke up. “The ID on that computer isn’t registered to anyone, as far as we can tell. But we’re staying on this until we prove the connecti
on.”
Mariah Kowzlowski stood and gathered the forms she and Amber had signed, and the group moved out of the room. The lawyer said goodbye, apologizing for her abruptness by saying she had another case in court in ten minutes.
The Heist Ladies made their way out of the big judicial complex and stood in the parking lot near their cars. “What about that other computer?” Mary asked.
“Shall we say, what you don’t know won’t hurt you,” Amber told them. No one asked for further details.
“Be sure you call your parents,” Gracie said. “They’ve been worried.”
Amber promised she would. She gave each of her friends a long hug. “Thank you, all of you, for helping me get through this. It was a scary time.”
One by one, they got into their cars to get back to their routines. Sandy was the last to leave. “Thanks for not saying more about the extra computer.”
“It’s all good now? I don’t want any trouble for you, in case—”
Amber had delivered the borrowed computer back to Sandy, later the same night Cody and Woody were arrested.
“You might want to put this one at the back of the shelf, make sure it’s one of the last to be given out to any of your employees,” she’d said. “Just in case a serial number can somehow be pulled from the data the police have. I was careful, really careful, but I’d hate to take the chance.”
“Oh, this one’s going into a bin of old machines that are headed for recycling. It won’t ever be registered to anyone.” Sandy had taken the machine there herself.
Now, Amber pictured an Indiana Jones-type warehouse filled with old equipment that was stacked to the ceiling. By the time the police could figure out which machine they were looking for—if they ever did—there was virtually no way they could pinpoint its location. Besides, once computers were recycled, the old hard drives were normally bashed beyond usability.
At least she hoped so.
* * *
Show Me the Money Page 23
