1 Executive Lunch

by Maria E. Schneider

  There was a kind of silence while I tried to suck air back into my useless lungs. My heart was still trying to escape my body.

  If there was anyone left in the cabin, they had to have heard us. I wiggled in anticipation of getting shot.

  "She tackle people like this all the time?" Mark asked.

  "Sedona? I didn't know it was you!" Turbo sounded shaky.

  "Turbo?" I squeaked happily.

  "Yeah, she does that all the time."

  Huntington! "Mgreh," I protested, wiggling some more.

  "I guess this time it was a good thing." Mark pushed himself partway up with his arms and grinned down at me.

  "My God, I could have killed you!" Turbo again.

  Finally Mark moved enough that I could at least see the other bodies in the shadowy dusk. I could also see the glint of something stuck in the trunk of a tree a few yards behind us. I squinted. "What is that?"

  Turbo crouched down. "Meat hook." He still sounded rather shaken. "We weren't expecting you. I jury-rigged the cellar door."

  "Mark?" I squeaked.

  "Yeah?"

  "Will you get off me now?"

  He cocked his head to the side, listening.

  "Damn," he whispered on a breath of air.

  "You pathetic bunch of morons."

  I peered around Mark's shoulder. Even in the dim light, I knew the voice and shape. "You?" I gasped. "Dan got you involved?" I wiggled in earnest now, trying to see better.

  She grinned, her beautiful white teeth gleaming for a second. "I'm sure you're enjoying yourself there, Huntington, with all her wiggling about, but how about you get off the bimbo, nice and slow."

  Mark moved then, and he kept it slow. Before he could stand, she instructed, "No, stay on your knees." He stopped, still facing me. She came up behind him carefully and reached down, picking up his gun. He must have dropped it when I tackled him. Great. It was my fault we were going to die.

  "How could you let Dan talk you into something like this? The guy is a leech. He even grabbed my ass!"

  "Move over," she instructed Mark. "I like to see the people I'm going to shoot."

  Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.

  Autumn said, "Dan doesn't know a thing about it, honey. He was just a convenient access opportunity."

  It took a moment for the words to reach my brain. My mouth dropped open. "You mean…you fake the reports? For all the extra equipment?"

  "Stand up, next to your buddy over there."

  I wasn't sure whom she meant, but when I counted buddies, we were short one. Huntington was missing. I was confused. Hadn't…I was having trouble processing thoughts. I moved slowly, watching Autumn. "Dan fit into this somehow," I insisted.

  Autumn smiled again, flashing her perfect teeth. "Oh, he's a big help, believe me. He makes it easy for me to talk to the right people and be where I need to be."

  My mind refused to grasp that Dan wasn't guilty. "You're saying Dan doesn't even know? That the scheme is all yours?"

  "Of course."

  "But…but, how did you get Allen to sign off on the equipment for you?" I took a wild guess. "Favors after hours?"

  She snarled. "I am not a slut." She pointed the gun at me.

  "Hey," I said, waving my hands innocently. "I just don't get why he didn't tell the Feds what you were up to."

  "Because he didn't know! He thinks the whole thing is just a few charity checks." She shrugged. "I made the mistake of letting him in on the deal so that I could get more checks. The loser did fine until he stopped paying my half and worse, he started taking bigger amounts. He ruined a perfect setup."

  "He ruined it? You couldn't just keep opening charity accounts forever!"

  "Ah, contraire, my dear. As long as I don't leave bogus accounts in existence for too long, and people like you don't get in my way, everything is just fine. He wasn't going to tattle about the equipment because he didn't know anything about it."

  "If Allen didn't know about the equipment, how did you get him to sign for it?"

  She laughed, delighted. "That's where Dan came in handy. The equipment and expense reports for services were easy to stick in Allen's pile when I was by to see Dan. Allen signs about four million pieces of paper a week."

  "He never caught a single item? Not even after he knew you were bilking Strandfrost for the charity checks?"

  "Men don't pay too much attention to much else when they're looking down your shirt. Not," she said, "that you would have that problem."

  I didn't really appreciate her pointing out that my feminine assets were that much smaller than hers, but she had the gun. "Why did you bother to steal equipment from the shows? Why not just order what you needed whenever you felt like it?"

  "Conferences are the best time to add charges. Allen has more paperwork, and he doesn't have time to look at each one. Not to mention it's easier to pick up the equipment when it is already being moved. Show up with a truck and Strandfrost even has people to help load them." She stretched her arms out towards me, taking better aim.

  "Game's over now," Mark interrupted. "No point in adding murder to the charges."

  She swiveled slightly, just in case there was a threat, but Mark didn't make any sudden moves. "Nice try, buddy. No one is going to tie this place to me. If your bodies are found after the long winter hunting season is over, I'll be gone, just like closing the bank accounts I don't need anymore."

  "Your brother owns the body shop. We already figured out that is how you were getting the equipment moved and sold. He's been out to this place more than a few times. I don't think you'll look that clean."

  My jaw dropped. It had taken me forever to finally tie Ted and the trucks together. I had no way of knowing that Larry and Autumn were related. Not that I had done any worse than the cops. They had guessed right about the money laundering, but were wrong about where the money was derived.

  Beautiful Autumn wasn't swayed by Mark's argument. "You may know about Larry coming out here, but there's nothing that ties either he or I to this property. Even if someone who is still alive after tonight knew he came here, they wouldn't be able to prove he did anything other than stay here now and again."

  If Huntington was out there, I wish he would just shoot her and get it over with. She didn't like me so I was obviously going to go first. Before I could take any action, there was a loud crackling in the bushes.

  Autumn didn't seem to care whether the noise was a bear or a human. She turned and fired the gun in that general direction. Huntington or not, it was my chance to escape.

  I ran forward because to my left was the big gaping cellar.

  I don't know what Mark was thinking. He was still on his knees, only partially facing Autumn, so maybe he thought she was firing at me. Whatever the reason, he leaned forward and grabbed my ankle.

  One minute I was trying to get past the cellar hole, the next, I was falling into it. With my clumsy momentum and only one foot still on the ground, I toppled right into the blackness with no way to break my fall.

  Another shot followed the first, but if it was aimed my way, I couldn't have moved to save my life. There was a lot of noise above me, but I was busy trying to figure out if my head was still attached to my shoulders.

  Turbo must have been worried about me because he jumped down into the cellar and landed on my bottom with at least one foot. "Ow," I shouted and then groaned in continued agony. My head felt light and detached.

  "Sedona! Sorry! Are you okay?"

  Another large body joined us in the cellar. I could tell because the ground shook. Turbo managed to find a candle stub and light it.

  I opened one baleful eye and stared at the newcomer. Even with the flickering candle it was too dark to tell which Huntington had joined us. Since I assumed that Steve had come to our rescue, this had to be Mark. "What," I said through gritted teeth, "was that for?"

  He leaned down close to my face. I was still flat on my stomach after having belly-flopped into a pool with no water. "You okay? I
thought you were going to rush her."

  "Are you crazy?" I yelled. It came out a quiet gasp. I tried pushing myself up with my arms, but nothing happened. Turbo grabbed one arm and Mark hoisted on the other. My head spun some more, but I managed to make it to a sitting position. My butt hurt. I glared at Turbo.

  "Sorry," he apologized when he noticed the wince.

  I turned to my other enemy. "Why in the world would I have rushed her?"

  Mark shrugged. "She's okay," he called to his brother. "You have everything under control up there?"

  Huntington yelled back, "Trussed like a turkey."

  Mark faced me again with a grin. "Why wouldn't you have tackled her? You tackled me twice."

  "You weren't pointing a gun at me." Turbo offered a hand to help me out of the hole, but I glared at him and tried to get out without his help.

  Mark wasn't as polite. He came and shoved on my sore butt. Huntington met his effort halfway and pulled me out by my arms.

  "Sedona, are you okay?" He set me to the side gently. A flashlight was on the ground, throwing funny shadows. We were all strange silhouettes, dancing.

  "No." Dirt clung to my hair and bits of it kept falling off the side of my face. I was scratched and bruised. I brushed at the dirt ineffectively.

  "You look like you're going to live," Huntington said.

  In the dim light, I could see Autumn. She was barely disheveled. Other than the rope that was wrapped around her entire body, she looked like maybe the wind had blown a strand hair out of place.

  Life was just not fair.

  Chapter 40

  Derrick and Sean stopped by on Wednesday. Derrick looked rather sheepish. Sean headed for the refrigerator and instantly discovered the pasta salad I had made. He didn't bother to ask; he just dished some out for himself and for Derrick.

  "So," I said to break the ice, "you got them all?"

  Derrick nodded and accepted the glass of soda that I handed him. "We were pretty embarrassed that we saw those trucks with computer equipment going in and out of there and never suspected they were the source of the cash flow. We assumed all along it was a drug deal."

  "You never guessed? Not at all?"

  "My partner, Adrian, followed one of the trucks once," Derrick said, "but it appeared to be delivering the computers from place to place. One of our guys even saw the contract for servicing trucks for some computer company." He shrugged. "The key, as you know, is that half the time the computers weren't being delivered, they were being stolen."

  "I take it they weren't selling the stolen merchandise out of the body shop?"

  "No, and having a maintenance contract for moving trucks didn't seem that far out of line. The trucks came from multiple companies, because they used guys from various moving places. There was no evidence of certain trucks coming in too often because they used so many different trucks, and even owned a few."

  "How long have they been doing this?" I asked.

  Derrick shrugged. "At least two years."

  "Two years." I tried to do the math in my head. Autumn could have handled several thefts per quarter. Even with only a few thefts and the non-existent vendors at conferences, she had probably been raking in at least a few hundred thousand a year of pure profit.

  Derrick continued, "We're still investigating. From the records at the body shop, the large inflow of money from the stolen computers started about two years ago, but keep in mind, we haven't gone through the records for Autumn's printing company. She probably laundered some money through there also, and that may have started earlier."

  The doorbell rang. I got up to answer it.

  "Do you have any garlic bread?" Sean called as I opened the door.

  It was my two Huntington friends. "It's in the fridge," I said over my shoulder. "You better put all of it in the oven. And there are some chicken breasts in there too, ready to be grilled."

  "Excellent. I'll start the grill. Derrick, can you throw the bread in the oven?"

  "It has to be wrapped in aluminum foil!" I waved Mark and Steve in and hurried back to save the bread. Derrick was tearing off a sheet of aluminum foil large enough to wrap one of the kitchen chairs. I took over.

  "Grab something to drink and have a seat," I told the new guests. "The pasta salad should wait until the chicken is ready, unless you're Sean and haven't eaten for a week."

  Huntington grinned at me and grabbed the chicken. "I'll take care of these."

  Sean looked at him suspiciously. "You know what you're doing? You're not going to burn them, are you?"

  I rolled my eyes. "Some people know how to cook and do it often," I informed him. "I bet he can grill without starting them on fire."

  Sean didn't appreciate my input. "Who is the one that started that fire at the homeless shelter, hmm?"

  It was mean of him to say that.

  Within the hour, we were sitting around happily eating our meal. I hadn't really expected all the company, but luckily I always made a huge pasta salad.

  "I'm curious," Sean said. "How exactly did you discover the body shop was involved?" Sean directed the question at Huntington, but he glared at me.

  "I just work at Strandfrost." I pointed my fork at Steve. "He was doing the investigation."

  "You're the one that hired Marilyn," Steve said.

  "I wouldn't have met her if it hadn't been for Derrick," I countered.

  We quibbled over the details for a while, but Mark had actually been busy infiltrating various computer companies that had done large orders with Strandfrost. "At the time," Mark explained, "we didn't suspect the delivery trucks. We knew someone was submitting orders that were bogus, but we thought the payments were being made without any equipment actually changing hands. I decided to follow a few orders from start to finish to prove it. I got in good with a contract driver. The guy didn't own a truck. He used a van that came from Larry's Body Shop."

  "So you caught them delivering the stolen goods there?"

  "I might have, had things gone smoothly. When I showed up with the driver, we just picked up the truck from Larry's and the delivery was normal. I expected the delivery to be canceled, the equipment not there, or a reschedule--and then we'd have proof that the order had never been filled, but had been paid for. Unfortunately for us, part of the order was real so it was all delivered properly. Everything looked legit."

  I already knew about the delivery part, but I had other questions. "You never told me what you were doing at Strandfrost with the thugs. How in the world did that happen?"

  "That was my fault too," Mark said. "Allen's wife was attacked first--I tracked one of the guys that did it, a two-bit drug dealer name Crane that hired out for muscle. When the second attack was planned, I managed to talk Crane into letting me go along. I thought I could keep things from getting out of hand and figure out who hired him."

  "Except that the day the attack was planned," Huntington said, "Mark had already arranged to help with another Strandfrost delivery. He couldn't be in both places at once."

  "Steve went to Strandfrost in my place planning on keeping things under control so that no one got seriously hurt. The guys never noticed it wasn't me."

  "But you," I pointed my fork rudely at Huntington, "were back near the body shop and met Mark when Derrick and I were talking to Marilyn."

  He nodded. "Mark was still watching deliveries, and I was his backup that night. After the delivery, the driver parked the truck at Larry's shop. When that same truck went back out right away that night, Mark followed it. Turns out Ted was borrowing the truck, something he apparently did as a way of using someone else's gas. Mark trailed Ted, but Ted just went to the bar. Even though Ted worked at Larry's Body Shop, there was still no obvious tie-in to the equipment thefts, not at that point. No one delivery guy was used every time; Ted was just one of several. That night, Ted wasn't doing any business that interested us."

  "Yeah, he was beating his wife."

  "And then you hired Marilyn?" Sean blinked, obviously confused. "For
what?"

  I looked around my place. It was even cleaner than usual because I hadn't been living in it much.

  Huntington grinned. "That reminds me. I brought the paperwork for your house." He went over to the couch to his sports coat. "If you'll just sign my condo back over to me, I'll sign your house back over to you."

  Sean's eyes nearly popped out. He actually broke into a sweat. "Do. Not. Tell me. I am a lawyer and you agreed to--" He put his head in his hands and rubbed his eyes. Then he held up a hand. "I do not want to know. If you didn't involve me, then it is none of my business."

  "Now there's an idea," I muttered.

  "You mean you really don't live with my brother?" Mark eyed me, his brown eyes glinting. One eyebrow rose and a grin spread across his face. He looked at his older brother. "Seriously?"

  Huntington ignored Mark, while I protested vehemently, "I told you I wasn't his girlfriend!"

  Sean's face reddened dangerously. "It seems to me that you may have tried to take advantage of my sister. You put her in a very dangerous position, solely for your own gain."

  "No," Huntington disagreed firmly. "She managed to do that all by herself, just like Turbo managed to get caught all on his own when he tracked down Ted."

  "You got caught too!" I said.

  Huntington looked annoyed. "Mark had an in with the delivery guys. I showed up at Larry's Body Shop, acting like I was looking for work just as he had on a couple of occasions. Knowing that the last Strandfrost order was stolen, I checked the back of a few trucks. Larry took exception to my nosiness."

  "And how is it that you weren't endangering my sister?" Sean demanded. "You couldn't even keep your own cover, let alone protect hers!"

  "The part involving Sedona didn't actually work. There was no chance Autumn was going to approach Sedona and ask her to start stealing charity checks or sign for bogus equipment. We assumed all along that whoever was stealing from Strandfrost was working with someone inside, but Autumn's inside man was Dan--he just didn't know he was being used."

  "They couldn't even arrest him," I complained. "You can't arrest people for stupidity. That's why Allen got off too. He didn't know enough to be useful."