The Story of Charlie Mullins

by Jim Wygand

  “Sure,” said Joey, “is this related to the IPO?”

  “Well, I don’t know yet. I am trying to find Charlie Mullins. It seems he has just disappeared. He has not been to his office and he doesn’t answer his home phone. Bill Cummins told me you are a friend of his. Have you heard from him recently?”

  “No sir, I talked to Charlie over the phone the day before the IPO. He didn’t say anything about taking time off or anything like that. He just congratulated me on the companies we referred to Shaw. Charlie was a classmate of mine at LaSalle and we have been good friends since college. Do you think something might have happened to him?”

  “It’s a little early to entertain those kinds of hypotheses Mr. Esposito. Tell me, did Charlie ever propose anything unethical to you?”

  “Charlie? What do mean unethical? Charlie is straight as an arrow, Mr. Carpenter. I don’t think he would even know how to propose something unethical. In college he would rather fail an exam than cheat. Unless he went nuts or something, I would say that Charlie would never make an unethical proposal to anyone.”

  “Well, suppose it was something that did not seem to be unethical, say a kickback from your bank for buying firms you recommended?”

  “Oh God no, Mr. Carpenter, in the first place the bank would refuse to accept such a proposal. We’ve never done business that way and we certainly would not have done that with the Shaw Corporation. Our only expectation was to be able to work with Shaw after the IPO. Charlie would know better than to even suggest that sort of thing to me and I don’t think it would occur to him anyway.”

  “Come now, Mr. Esposito, yours would not be the first bank to double dip on the fees. I’m not making any accusations. I am just trying to find out why Mr. Mullins has apparently disappeared.”

  “Well, if Charlie calls or contacts me, I’ll tell him you are looking for him. But, like I said, I have not talked to Charlie since just before the IPO.”

  “OK, thanks for your time Mr. Esposito. Sorry to bother you.”

  “Ah, Mr. Carpenter…”

  “Yes?”

  “If you find Charlie, would you be good enough to let me know? We have been friends a long time and now I am worried.”

  “Not to worry, Mr. Esposito, you will be hearing from me again. Thanks for your time and goodbye.” Carpenter rang off before Joey could answer.

  Carpenter made a note on a pad next his phone to have the investigators get Joey’s home address and put surveillance on his apartment and a tap on his phone.

  * * * * *

  The next day, immediately after the investigators had left Shoreville following contacts with some of Charlie’s neighbors, a woman showed up to put a “For Sale” sign in front of Charlie’s house. Sharon Gallagher saw the sign as she drove to school to pick up her children. She stopped and challenged the woman. “What is this? That’s Charlie Mullins’ house. Nobody told me it’s for sale and I’m sure it’s not. You’d better remove that sign and get out of here before I call the police.”

  The woman looked Sharon straight in the eye and said, “Call anybody you like sweetheart. I have a signed statement from Mr. Mullins instructing me to sell his house and everything in it. Feel free to call the cops, but be informed that if you interrupt my legitimate business I’ll slap a lawsuit on you so fast your apparently empty head will spin. Is that clear?”

  Sharon was tempted to challenge the woman further but thought better of it when she saw the woman’s firm gaze. She had not been intimidated and Sharon knew that meant she must be covered. Sharon stomped off to her car and drove off to pick up her children at school. When she got home she immediately called Diane Simms. “Diane? What the hell is going on here? Some woman showed up at Charlie’s house and put a ‘for sale’ sign in front of it. I told her that it was Charlie’s house and it was not for sale and she told me to bug off. She said she had written instructions from Charlie to sell the house and everything in it. Now, if he’s really telling people to sell his house, he’s not disappeared, right? He’s around some place.”

  “Christ, Sharon, he could be anywhere. He could have signed that paper a long time ago or yesterday. Did you see the paper? Was there a date?”

  “No, Diane. I was so shook, I didn’t think to ask for proof. I’m not sure she would have shown it to me anyway. She was a tough bitch. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going down to the police station. She will have to come back and show the paper to the police and then we will know when it was signed.” Sharon left the house and drove down to the police station. Tom Coffee was on duty. “Hey Sharon, what brings you into this place?”

  “Tom, are you aware of any authorization by Charlie Mullins to a real estate agent to sell his house and everything in it?”

  “Sure am, Sharon. Some woman came in here a few hours ago with a notarized authorization signed by Charlie. The paper authorized her to sell his place, settle all his accounts and bills, and lock it up until somebody bought it.”

  “Was there a date on the document, Tom? Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was the day the Shaw Corporation got sold. I can’t be certain because I was more interested in checking the notary’s seal and Charlie’s signature than the date.”

  “Shit!” Sharon exclaimed, “That’s the day before he is reported to have disappeared. It doesn’t help.”

  “Help what, Sharon?” Tom Coffee asked.

  “Oh never mind, Tom, forget it!” Sharon stomped from the police station back to her car. She drove home and called Diane Simms. “Diane? I went down to the police station to see what could be done about that ‘for sale’ sign in front of Charlie’s place. You know what, that woman had already cleared everything with the police. Tom Coffee was there and he told me that she came in and showed him papers signed by Charlie and notarized. Tom said he thought they had been signed on the day that the company was put up for sale but he wasn’t sure. What do you think is going on?”

  “Jeez Sharon, I don’t have the slightest idea. This is way above both of us. It doesn’t seem to me that anything has happened to Charlie, otherwise why would he have sent someone to sell his house? I think we just ought to leave it. It’s too weird for me!”

  “Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, Diane! We are not going to leave anything. Charlie has been acting strangely for a long time now. Maybe he has just gone off his rocker. Or maybe it’s that Philadelphia hussy that is taking him for a ride. We have to do something!”

  “Do what exactly, Sharon? We don’t know where Charlie is. It’s like he got picked up by aliens or something. What do we do? I say we just forget about it. We’ll know sooner or later what’s going on. Chill out Sharon.”

  “Look Diane, I’m going to find out what’s going on. Maybe I should file a missing person report or something. You know, get the police involved.”

  “Whatever Sharon, I just know that Charlie is missing. Maybe he has good reason, maybe he has taken another job, hell I don’t know and I’ve got my own problems to deal with.”

  “I’ll get back to you Diane. See ya’” and Sharon hung up.

  * * * * *

  Warren Carpenter thought it might be time to talk to Phillip Shaw about Charlie’s disappearance. He was concerned that something might be wrong with the IPO and if that was the case, Phillip’s plans for a future in politics could come unraveled. He called Phillip and set up a meeting at the Shaw home.

  “Phillip, you remember that Mullins fellow, the one who worked with Bill Cummins and me on the acquisitions?”

  “Yeah. What about him?”

  “Well, he simply disappeared immediately after the IPO. He never came back to work and nobody seems to know where he is. He’s not at home in Shoreville and I just learned that his house has been put up for sale. I called the realtor that announced the sale and they told me that they were handling the entire matter and that Mr. Mullins had left the appropriate powers of attorney for them to handle everything including receipt of payment.”

  “That’s strange Warren, what do you make o
f it?”

  “Well, I don’t know yet. I’ve put some private investigators on the case and I’ve asked Bill Cummins to go over the companies we bought. I told him to check everything he could think of.”

  “Do you think something might be amiss with the IPO, something that could prove embarrassing to me?”

  “I just don’t know yet Phillip. Everybody says that Mullins’ disappearance is out of character and I can’t think of any reason other than some kind of malfeasance that would cause him to simply vanish. I also called that friend of his at the bank, the one who presented the companies to us. He told me that he and Mullins had been friends since college. I put a team watching his home and I’ve had a tap put on his phone. The way I figure it, if there is something fishy, he might be in the middle of it and Mullins will contact him at some point.”

  “OK Warren, it sounds like that’s all you can do for the time being. Keep me informed, especially about what Bill Cummins finds out. If there is something wrong with the IPO that would invalidate it, we have a big fucking problem on our hands.”

  “Yeah, that’s my concern, Phillip. If this whole thing goes haywire, every newspaper in the country will cover it.”

  “OK Warren, stay on top of it and keep me informed.”

  Warren Carpenter took his leave and went back to his office.

  * * * * *

  Two days later Bill Cummins called Warren Carpenter. “Warren? Good morning. I think I might have something. I was going over the companies that we acquired and I noticed that each of them had hired management consulting firms during the period we had them on our short list. Each of the contracts called for rather large indemnities if the contracts were cancelled before the work was terminated. The consulting companies are all different but they have one thing in common, they are owned by offshore companies. When I tried to reach the consulting companies I only got attorneys’ offices.”

  “Oh shit, Bill, this smells like yesterday’s fish to me. Did you check on the offshores?”

  “I went as far as I could Warren. They are owned by other offshore companies that are registered as bearer share corporations.”

  “Christ! Do you have any idea how much was paid out in contract cancellation fees?”

  “It’s all here in the work papers – sixteen million dollars.”

  “You mean we saw it? It was right under our noses?”

  “Yeah, it was there all the time and was included in the acquisition price. It was all above board Warren. Nothing hidden from us, from Shaw, or from the buyers.”

  “Well that’s a relief at least. There was nothing hidden in the IPO that would invalidate it or create problems for Phillip. Is that your opinion?”

  “Absolutely, everything was transparent. All the costs of acquisition were fully reported and signed off. Fred Perkins reviewed the data and approved the deals.”

  “What about the bank that presented the companies? Was there anything there?”

  “I couldn’t see anything. It doesn’t look like the bank snookered us. There doesn’t seem to be any connection between the offshore companies and the bank, but you really can’t tell from the paperwork. I called the companies that we acquired and asked about the contracts. All of them were having management problems, which is why the owners chose to sell. Well before they had talked to the bank they had been approached by the consulting companies that offered to put their respective houses in order either for eventual sale or to reverse their fortunes. When the bank approached them, they decided they would rather sell than continue to try to stay afloat. They told the bank about the contracts, and the bank told us. Nothing had been hidden. We absorbed the cancellation fees and reported the payments in the acquisition documents.”

  “Well,” Warren said, “my first suspect would be that kid at the bank, but he hasn’t disappeared. Mullins has. What do you think about the possibility that Mullins is behind this and has pocketed sixteen million for his own account?”

  “Well, it doesn’t sound like Charlie but it sure doesn’t pass the smell test either. And he is gone, so I guess we have to assume that he has done something.”

  “You think we should report his disappearance to the police or the feds?”

  “No way Bill, first of all we have no indication of a crime. Everything was duly recorded and reported. There was no fraud involved in the IPO. Second, we have no proof that Charlie Mullins did anything other than not show up for work. The very best we could do would be to file a missing person report and that would be all over the news in a matter of minutes. It would draw attention to the IPO and there would be an investigation that would go nowhere but would be embarrassing. We will have to handle this ourselves. I’m sure Phillip or the new owners are not interested in filing a criminal complaint against Mullins at this time and there is no evidence for one anyway.”

  “You’re right Warren. We’ll have to check this out ourselves. What do you suggest?”

  “I’ve done all I can for the time being. I hired detectives to try to find Mullins and I’ve put surveillance on that banker’s place and a tap on his phone. If he is involved with Mullins in a scam, they will eventually talk to each other.”

  After talking to Bill Cummins, Warren called Phillip Shaw. “Phillip, Warren here, I think we need to meet again. I have some more information.”

  Warren Carpenter drove over to Phillip Shaw’s home and told him what Bill Cummins had told him. “Well, I’ll be damned!” Phillip said, “Do you think that guy scammed me for sixteen million? That takes balls and brains. And you say it was right under our noses all the time? We saw and approved the contract cancellation fees?”

  “That’s right, Phillip. The IPO was transparent as hell. The new owners got a complete audit report with everything in it. They knew exactly what they were buying so they have no legal grounds for complaint.”

  “Who signed off on the acquisitions?”

  “Fred Perkins did and he looked through the figures with a damned magnifying glass. He saw nothing unusual. Interestingly, he looked at each company as it was presented and not at the whole bunch of them together so he did not notice the pattern of consulting contracts. Even if he did catch them, the contracts were all with different companies so he would not be inclined to suspect anything or recognize a pattern.”

  “And the kid at the bank, did he have anything to do with the scam?”

  “It doesn’t look like it at this point. His team found the companies. The bank put out the word that they were searching and the companies approached his team members. Bill Cummins told me that he talked to the companies and none of them said anything about any indecent proposals from the bank or its management. The management contracts were in place before the bank had even talked to them.”

  “It seems to me Warren that we have to find this Mullins character and talk to him. I’d like my sixteen million back and if he’s got it we might be able to make him cough it up. Do you think the police will be involved?”

  “I don’t see why. So far there does not seem to be any crime. Everything was reported and approved. The consulting contracts are all perfectly legal. The cancellation fees were paid in accordance with the contracts and the beneficiaries of the payments were duly recorded. It’s just that we can’t identify the ultimate beneficial owners. All we have is a missing person which, in theory at least, is none of our business.”

  “Except that it is our business, right Warren? It would appear that somebody got sixteen million dollars of my money. I’d like it back.”

  “Well, my detectives are pretty good. Unless Mullins has departed this planet, they will find him.”

  “Good, see to it Warren.”

  * * * * *

  Carlo Rizzo had ordered a sumptuous banquet prepared by his cook/housekeeper. Charlie and Gina were about to get married in his home by a judge. Carlo had known the judge for years and was assured that the registration of the marriage would be held until everything regarding Charlie’s “disappearance” settled down.
He was beaming as Gina entered the room in a white silk sheath dress. He walked her to Charlie, kissed her and delivered her to her husband-to-be. The ceremony was simple and quick and Gina never looked happier. Carlo was beaming and Charlie was clearly the happiest man in the world.

  When the ceremony was over Gina turned to her uncle and said, “Thank you Uncle Carlo, this is the happiest moment of my life.” She had tears in her eyes. Charlie gave Carlo an enormous bear hug and said “Carlo, besides being an absolute genius, you are the most generous man I have ever met. I am honored to be your son-in-law.”

  Carlo Rizzo was choked up with emotion. He looked at Charlie and said “You have made my little girl very happy. I want you both to have a wonderful life together and don’t forget my grandchildren. I want as many as you can produce!” He laughed and gave Charlie another bear hug. “You’re a good man, Charlie and you will have no more cares in this world. I’m glad you met my baby.”

  They sat down to lunch with the judge as honored guest. Carlo said, “Frank, can you leave the papers with me? I’ll get them to you when things have calmed down and you can make the proper registries.”

  “Not a problem Don Carlo, I’ll have a marriage license issued as soon as you give me the word.”

  They enjoyed the best lunch that Carlo Rizzo had ever had on his table.

  * * * * *

  Sharon Gallagher walked into the Shoreville police station. “Tom? I’m here to file a missing person report.”

  “What is this, Sharon?” Tom Coffee asked, “Someone in your family disappear?”

  “You know what I am talking about, Tom! I’m referring to Charlie Mullins. Nobody has seen hide nor hair of him for over a month now and nothing is happening.”

  “Well, Sharon, what does that have to do with you? Nobody else has complained and I have no indications that Charlie’s disappearance was involuntary. There were no signs that he was incapable of knowing what he was doing, that he had gone nuts, or committed any crime. He is a grown man who for all intents and purposes just walked off his job. His bills are paid and he has no relatives. Seems to me he is free to disappear if he wants to. What basis do you have for filing a report?”