2 Executive Retention

by Maria E. Schneider

  After getting me out of the spider's web, Huntington and Mark got busy subpoenaing records. Pete had enough debt to actually need the side income he had been generating. From what Ben pieced together once he knew what to look for, it appeared that Pete had been running his scheme for quite some time. Huntington was smug as he told us the details.

  "During the first layoff before the IPO, twenty people were let go," Huntington revealed. "At least five employees never existed. Pete actually set up several bank accounts for the false employees--most of them were opened in a variation of his name. For two of the accounts he used his middle name. For the other three, he used variations of his initials. The scam wasn't very clever because every account had some version of his name on it somewhere."

  "But that made it easy for him to access the money," I guessed.

  Huntington nodded. "He had the money transferred to his regular account whenever he needed it. Now and again, he made sure the pay stubs got picked up from the post office boxes, even going so far as to have forwarding addresses on them so that he could pick them up at one location."

  "Not a very good way to collect the loot," Radar said.

  Huntington ignored Radar's disapproval of the low-tech scheme. "It worked though. Pete went through with the first set of layoffs, destroyed the evidence and no one was the wiser. He told himself it had been a temporary need for cash. Then, as he got himself further into debt, he needed one or two extra salaries. He hired imaginary people and kept adding new employees as he needed more money."

  I set down the appetizer plate I was carrying. With both Huntingtons, Sean, Brenda, Radar and Turbo at my house, I was going to have to cook faster. "When did Arnold get involved?" I asked. "He didn't seem very satisfied with his cut."

  Huntington helped himself to a celery stick smothered in peanut butter. "Arnold probably wasn't getting much. My guess is that at some point in the last five years, Arnold discovered the discrepancies somehow--maybe in the org charts or maybe he hacked into the system and started looking around. Naturally, he was never supposed to know about the extra people. Pete added the expenses for them after Arnold and the other managers turned in their budgets. For whatever reason, by whatever method, Arnold must have figured out what Pete was up to."

  I nodded. "At Pete's house, Arnold blamed Pete for the idea. He never said when he got involved or described his part in the scheme."

  Huntington added, "The incredible part is that there isn't a trace of anything illegal done by Arnold in the system. We've got his bank records, credit card history and other records. Based on some recent purchases, it's possible he was collecting one extra salary other than his own, but there's no trace of illegal gains."

  I thought about it. "He seemed to think that Pete should be throwing him legitimate perks," I said. "A board seat or a promotion. Maybe he kept his hands off the money."

  "Or," Radar chortled, "Maybe he's such a good hacker, he eliminated any evidence against him." He chomped down happily on a cheese cracker while we stared at him. "What?"

  "You don't have to sound like you admire the guy," Sean complained. "He was a thief."

  Radar disagreed. "Wrong." He held up a finger like a professor happily informing his students of a clever twist to a problem. "Innocent until proven guilty. He was certainly helping a thief, but there isn't any gold tied to him. I looked."

  "Splitting straws," I argued. "Why did he bother to get involved if he wasn't getting money?"

  "If he was, it doesn't show up anywhere obvious," Radar said. "My guess is that Arnold became involved after Pete erased signs of evidence during the first layoff scheme. It was only during the second scheme that Pete started using the more sophisticated way of getting fake employees' paychecks deposited. HR needed separate post office boxes and unique names so that everything looked legitimate, but," he held up the professor finger again, "the auto-deposit software doesn't care where it deposits money. It's all account numbers, not names, as Sedona figured out. No one noticed that bundles of salary checks all happened to be funneled into one account." Around another cracker he continued, "It's all done electronically these days. No one has to verify anything other than the routing number of the bank and the account number. Those numbers are so long, even if the same payroll person saw the numbers one right after the other, that person wasn't likely to notice a duplicate."

  Mark finally added the results of his own detective work. "One of the bank accounts they were using had Pete's wife's name on it. It's listed as a business account with a "consultant" title. The large influx of cash on a monthly basis, if noticed at all, would be assumed to be a legitimate expense, much like paying Ben or another contractor."

  I was stunned. "But if it was all going into accounts that Pete had access to, Arnold would have to trust Pete to pay him his share! No wonder Arnold was angry."

  Radar chuckled. "I'm betting Arnold made Pete deliver his share of the loot in cash under the table so his name wasn't attached to anything."

  Mark raised his eyebrows, but was more amused than disgusted at Radar's admiration. "From the looks of things, though, Arnold was probably getting drawn in pretty deep, especially lately. Ben was asking for more and more company records every quarter because the expenses were climbing. Good management would have tamped down on expenses and hiring. Pete panicked and decided he'd better get rid of Ben and the extra employees."

  Huntington gave a grunt of disapproval. "Unfortunately, Pete wasn't willing to let the severance go. Instead of having Arnold delete the employees and get rid of evidence, he staged another layoff. When it was five or so nonexistent employees no one noticed anything. But this time around he had a lot more fakes and a much larger charge that Ben didn't understand." He looked at Radar. Radar was still eating as fast as his hands could move to his mouth. "It's possible that Arnold only recently changed things to make sure the money and the evidence were all funneled in Pete's direction."

  Radar shrugged and agreed. "Easily."

  I nabbed the last cookie out from under Sean's questing fingers. "Arnold was careful from the very start. There's a pattern of hiring fake people right after earnings announcements, and I checked back with Becky's calendar. The employee additions coincide with when Pete was in town. Even though Arnold was helping, he knew how easily things could be traced. He was very careful to make sure evidence always pointed to Pete."

  The food was fast disappearing, and it wasn't even all Radar's fault. At this rate, I was going to have to serve every item in the house. I pulled out all available cookie dough from the freezer and started mixing a new batch of peanut butter cookies from scratch.

  Radar asked me, "Remember when I got paged in the helicopter?"

  I nodded.

  "I matched up the network ID--whoever logged in was doing so from the equipment that was in Pete's house. My guess is that, most, if not all of the dirty work was done from that computer. It is a lot more secure from prying eyes than the office machines and it's set up to be easy to use--Pete could log on any time he wanted. Since it was his equipment, he would believe himself the supreme commander no matter who was really running the show. He probably left the equipment turned on most of the time. The network ID on many crucial records was almost always the same."

  Unlike Radar, Mark was more matter-of-fact and less impressed with Arnold's cleverness. "Pete was the type to want to retain control. In this case, Arnold was happy to oblige because it left Pete holding the bag."

  "Why couldn't Ben figure any of this out when he was looking at the company records?" I complained. "I would never have gone back to Pete's house if I really believed he was guilty. I would have told Radar to keep the helicopter for a while."

  At that suggestion, Radar's eyes lit up and he smiled big.

  Mark said, "Turns out you saved your own bacon. Since you had called me that morning asking about Silvanus, I mentioned it to A.J. when we met with him. I thought it was beyond a long shot--what could A.J. have to do with any gamers or hackers?"

/>   "Imagine our surprise," Huntington said wryly, "when A.J. identified Pete's cats. And we thought the name was just another gamer name." He had the grace to look apologetic even though Radar didn't seem insulted in the least. "Once we knew the names were tied to Pete, Mark and I headed straight over there."

  "And now you've gathered the rest of the proof necessary?" I asked.

  "We're still subpoenaing records." He half nodded in Radar's direction. "When you do things the legal way, it takes more time."

  "I can't believe Pete was stupid enough to use his own cat's names on the accounts." It certainly put the cross hairs directly on his back.

  Rader held up his finger again. "Ah, but how else was he going to remember the false accounts? The guy was already trying to juggle his legit job and cooking the books. He had to have a way onto the system that he could use reliably and remember. I bet Arnold suggested it." He laughed his engineer laugh. "Heh, heh, heh. That's what I would have done."

  Great. My hacker buddy had a new hero. If he followed in Arnold's footsteps, I hoped he was learning from Arnold's mistakes.

  "Are you planning on staying at Acetel?" Turbo wanted to know. "You might not want to keep working for Jacques."

  Turbo knew about Jacques' not playing entirely fair with my career, even if it turned out Jacques wasn't the one skimming. "What choice do I have?"

  Turbo grinned. "It seems that management at Strandfrost has reconsidered."

  "What?"

  Turbo nodded happily. "Sure. Once Ross found out you were pregnant, he took it straight to John, the V.P. The way they figure it, you're bound to sue over the way you were treated. Ross was really worried. He figures that since he pressured you on the schedule, he would be named in the lawsuit. Based on the wording of your resignation, he was positive you knew about their plan to get rid of you."

  I stared at Turbo while everyone else stared at me. Sean's mouth opened and closed, but I couldn't tell if he was in shock or salivating at the word "lawsuit." I managed a small squeak and nothing else. Mark cocked an eyebrow in my direction before another thought occurred to him, and he turned to stare at Huntington. Huntington glared at Mark.

  Another weak peep passed my frozen lips, and then everyone started talking at once.

  "They are going to beg you to come back and pretend they never wanted you to leave." This from Turbo.

  "You're what?" Sean now looked murderously at every man in the room including Turbo, which was ridiculous. Turbo was not likely to have publicly announced such a transgression were he guilty---the man was married after all.

  "Interesting," from Mark and Steve at the same time.

  "Heh, heh, heh," was all Radar had to contribute.

  I waved my hands wildly. "I am not pregnant! Where in the world did Ross get such an idea?" I looked down at my stomach. It was hard to tell if I had put on weight given that I had just eaten four or five appetizers and at least three cookies.

  Turbo looked innocent. "I'm not certain, but I did chat with Ross. Seems he saw you in the mall." He paused and took a bite out of a cookie. We all leaned in closer as he did his usual careful consideration of wording. He finally noticed my snarl and hurriedly continued, "With a bunch of packages and coming out of the maternity store."

  When my anger didn't immediately dissipate, he put his palms out in an innocent gesture. "What was he supposed to think?"

  "I will quietly kill him," I promised.

  "What's this about Strandfrost trying to force you out?" Sean narrowed in on the next point he found pertinent. "Did they try to force you out because they thought you were pregnant? Completely illegal."

  Mark still watched me carefully.

  "Brenda, remember?" I pointed at my sister-in-law. "I was helping her shop."

  Huntington took the opportunity to eye me up and down rather too intently. "Uh-huh. Of course."

  "You people are insane." I sat down before I could fall and refused to answer any more questions. Turbo was more than happy to fill in his opinion on lawsuit details. I lost track of the speculation.

  By the time everyone left, I was exhausted. Sleep had a hypnotic appeal. I headed for the bedroom and found that someone had been there before me. A giant wrapped box sat on the center of my bed with shiny red paper and a big gold ribbon beckoning. The card on top was one of those pre-printed ones that said, "Merry Christmas."

  I'd never been one to take time with presents. I ripped the paper off and flung it behind me. The white box gave me no better clue, but it wasn't taped so it didn't take long to open. Nestled inside in delicate white tissue paper was a beautiful, supple black leather jacket. "Ooooh," I squealed and clapped my hands.

  A big smile broke across my face, and I raced to the mirror. It fit perfectly. Lovely! Even with dark circles under my eyes and three scratches across my face, I looked sophisticated.

  My smile faded, as curiosity struck. I went back to the box. Despite very careful searching through the paper and the box, no card appeared. I sighed. Yet another mystery to be solved.

  Which Huntington had left the gift?

  Other Works by Maria Schneider

  Executive Sick Days, the third Sedona O'Hala mystery, is now available. Most of my other works are also cozy mysteries. Some contain magic, such as the anthologies: Tracking Magic (Max Killian Investigations) and Sage (Tales from a Magical Kingdom).

  Under Witch Moon is the first in an urban fantasy series: When dead bodies start turning up Adriel has no choice but to talk to White Feather, an undercover cop. Unfortunately, Adriel is a witch and White Feather isn't convinced she's innocent of wrongdoing. She's going to have to talk fast--and set spells even faster.

  Catch an Honest Thief is an adventurous caper across the New Mexico desert; Alexia is in search of treasure, survival and maybe love.

  And of course: The Sedona O'Hala series (Executive Lunch, Executive Retention, Executive Sick Days) is a series of contemporary cozy mysteries: Sedona must solve a few crimes while fighting her way up the corporate ladder; mostly she dangles from her fingertips, just trying to survive

  Maria's website: BearMountainBooks.com

  Maria's other books at Amazon.

  Acknowledgements

  A big thank you: To my first readers who were brave enough to tell me that I wasn't yet good enough--yes Mom, I mean you. Tom, thanks to your creativity, I have an awesome cover; never mind when I will use it, I will use it. April, none of my covers would succeed without your advice.

  To Paula Lomas, Holly and Cousin John, Renee and Cathey for encouraging me. To Marty for advice on the proper role and manners of geeks; to the real Turbo for being a great boss and friend. To Joan and LeAnn for being my safety net. To John Levitt for being a fabulously good author, but more importantly, a generous person. Jim Chambers, you too fit in that category.

  To Miss Snark - May your pail be filled with gin, and may your clients set fire to your enthusiasm--never your hair.

  To all the readers who took a chance on my work, especially those of you on the Amazon Comedic Forum, Kindleboards and Mobileread. Y'all know how to keep a writer going. Old Granny--you left my first review on Amazon and it still makes my day when I think of it. Thank you.

  To my husband: for everything. Without you and family, why would I bother?

  Even More Fun Books!

  Looking for more fun books? Try Take the Monkeys and Run (A Barbara Marr Murder Mystery) by Karen Cantwell:

  Book Summary

  Film lover Barbara Marr is a typical suburban mom living the typical suburban life in her sleepy little town of Rustic Woods, Virginia. Typical, that is until she sets out to find the missing link between a bizarre monkey sighting in her yard and the bone chilling middle-of-the-night fright fest at the strangely vacant house next door. When Barb talks her two friends into some seemingly innocent Charlie’s Angels-like sleuthing, they stumble upon way more than they bargained for and uncover a piece of neighborhood history that certain people would kill to keep on the cutting room floor.


  Some of my other favorite authors include: Elizabeth Peters, Janet Evanovich, Dorothy Gilman, Anne George, and Elizabeth Cosin.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34