Chapter 41
FORTY-ONE
The only delay in getting on the road was Amanda looking up Harris Finch. His license photo showed a handsome man with gray hair. His details said he was five-foot-ten, didn’t need corrective lenses, and was sixty-four. Otherwise, his background itself didn’t flag at all.
Amanda called Malone from the road and told him that the latest break in the case was taking them back to Washington, DC.
When she finished, he said, “Sounds like it’s quite plausible this Finch guy hired the woman.
I’m thinking we should bring the Metropolitan PD in on this, just to let them know we’re in their territory.
I mean based on what you got from Detective Lopez, this is more than a chitchat you’re going to have with this guy. You’ll be bringing him in?”
“That’s how I see it at this point. MPD was going to be my next call. But they can’t be moving in ahead of us. I want our showing up at that firm to catch everyone there by surprise,” she told him.
“Which I understand. Keep me posted.” He ended the call, and Amanda looked up the number for the MPD.
When she finished talking to the uniformed sergeant on duty, she turned to Trent. “They’ll be sending out a couple of uniforms as backup should we need them.”
“Let’s hope we don’t.”
The forty-five minutes to DC flew by, and Trent was soon parking in the firm’s lot.
The midmorning sun glistened off the glass of the building, making for a beautiful picture, but what they had to do wasn’t going to be pretty at all.
There was only one woman at the front desk today when they turned up and asked for Harris Finch.
“He’s in a meeting with a client at the moment,” the woman said.
At least he’s in… “We need to ask that you interrupt it. This is an urgent police matter.” She and Trent had shown their badges when they’d first arrived, but a reminder of their position in law enforcement couldn’t hurt things.
“I’m sorry, but unless you have a warrant—”
“Mr. Finch is the prime suspect in a police investigation.” Amanda grounded her stance, prepared to stand there, hovering over the woman for as long as it took.
“I could have you removed by the MPD,” the woman said, reading Amanda’s energy.
“They came with us, but if you need me to get one of them, I can.” She jacked a thumb over her shoulder where the timing of two uniformed MPD cops coming through the door couldn’t have been better.
The woman sighed. “Fine, I’ll see if I can reach Mr. Finch.” She picked up the phone on her desk and pushed a few numbers.
“Thank you.” Amanda pressed on a tight smile.
As the woman spoke on the phone, her cheeks flared a bright red. When she hung up, she said, “Mr. Finch will be down to see you in a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” Amanda told her.
“Uh-huh.” She didn’t say another word and put her attention to a folder on her desk.
Call it a hunch, but Amanda felt Mr. Finch was to blame for this woman’s attitude. That seemed confirmed when Harris Finch stormed into the reception area. The woman didn’t look up, even though there was no way she hadn’t heard his soles slapping the floor.
“You’re the detectives here to see me,” Finch said, leveling this as if it were an accusation.
“Detectives Steele and Stenson. We’d like to speak with you someplace private,” Amanda told him.
Two people entered the firm and looked at the three of them as they walked past to the desk.
“If you insist, but we need to make this quick. I have a huge client waiting on me upstairs. You’ve interrupted an important meeting.” He led them to a small meeting room off the lobby.
Amanda waited until the door was shut to say, “Yes, well, you’re going to need to send them away.”
“Pardon me? What do you mean? And why would I ever do that?”
She gestured to a chair. “I suggest you take a seat, Mr. Finch.” She took her own advice, and Trent sat down too.
“I don’t have time for this.”
Trent’s jaw became rigid. “Detective Steele wasn’t asking.”
“Fine. But, as I said, make this quick.” Finch dropped onto a chair.
“We never had a chance to speak with you when we were here yesterday,” she began.
“No, I was in court. Do you need me to prove that?” He tossed out the question with a sardonic smirk.
“We might.” This was said more to shake him. After all, he didn’t need to account for his whereabouts yesterday.
Finch’s face shadowed, and his eyes narrowed. “Do I need a lawyer?”
Lawyers could slow down the process, but they served a purpose. She had the choice to stoke the flames of the existing tension or pull back. The latter was the wisest course. She replied in a calm, level voice, “That is up to you.”
“Just tell me what’s going on.”
“We spoke to some of your colleagues yesterday about the upcoming purchase of the company,” Amanda began.
“I heard. Is that why you dragged me out of a client meeting? To get my opinion on the sale?”
“Not exactly, but if you could answer that question,” she said.
“It doesn’t much affect me. I’ve been interested in retiring for a while now.”
“Then you didn’t stand to lose from the sale?” Trent asked.
“Nope. Per the bylaws, I need to be bought out.”
Wouldn’t that be the cherry on top? Making off with a fraudulent haul and a payout? “Then it didn’t concern you the company’s books were being made available to the purchasing entity?”
“Why should it?”
“We had a detective in Financial Crimes look at the firm’s financials. I’m sure you’re familiar with the adage Follow the money? Well, they discovered several vendors and clients were opened within the last seven years that were numbered shell companies.”
“I’m not sure what this has to do with me.”
“Your name is on these accounts.”
“What? No, that’s preposterous. An outright lie. I did no such thing.”
Amanda continued as if he’d said nothing. “You started putting money back into the company by forging billables in the last six months. Six months,” she reiterated. “That was right around the same time that Dominique Sharp came around interested in buying the firm.”
Finch remained silent.
“Come on, Mr. Finch. You would have known that Dominique Sharp would see your books, arrange for her own forensic accountant to comb through all of it,” Trent said.
“You wanted to keep your embezzlement from coming out,” Amanda added.
“No, no, none of what you’re saying is true.”
“Then how do you explain your name being attached to these fake accounts?” Amanda wasn’t letting his repeated denial sway her. People would say anything to avoid prison.
“I’ve been set up? I don’t know.”
Amanda was disappointed in Finch’s weak defense. “You can’t just toss that out there on its own. Who and why?”
“Maybe I should get that lawyer because I swear to you, I didn’t do any of this.” The lawyer’s posture shrank, but Amanda still wasn’t convinced of his innocence.
“Not even order a hit on Dominique Sharp?” She laid the bomb and watched confusion sweep across his face, causing his forehead to become rows of wrinkles.
“I know nothing about that.”
“The embezzlement is seen as a motive, Mr. Finch. It’s only so long before we get into your bank accounts and confirm that you hired someone to kill Ms. Sharp.
” She spoke with a definitiveness the evidence had yet to support.
He looked good for embezzlement. Conspiracy to commit murder was another thing altogether.
“You’ve lost your mind if you think I’m in on any of this.”
“Did you know two people were murdered by this hit person just within the week? Christine Lane was a successful real estate agent and a mother. Joel Blackburn was a successful lawyer and left behind his parents and a brother.” The latter was something she had looked up along the way.
“Listen, I’m sorry those people are dead, but I don’t even know them.”
“Collateral damage, caught in the crossfire, take your pick,” Trent said.
Flinch rubbed his forehead. “Crossfire? Listen, we got off on the wrong foot here, but trust me, I’m as confused as you are.”
“I’m not confused. Are you confused?” She faced Trent.
“Nope.”
“We’re going to need to ask you to come with us back to Woodbridge, Virginia,” she told Finch.
Trent got up and started walking around the table.
Finch raised his hands in front of him, palms flat toward Trent, holding him off. “Please, just hear me out. I swear to you I never stole a penny from this company or ordered anyone’s murder. I wouldn’t even know where to start. Does one go to a sketchy part of town…?”
“In this case, we suspect the dark web,” Amanda said.
“The dark web,” Finch parroted. “How the hell does one even get on the dark web, let alone know where to look for a killer?”
“You could tell us,” she countered.
“No, I can’t. That’s my point.” Finch raised his voice, and color infused his cheeks. “You think I have motive because of the embezzlement. Well, I didn’t do that, as I’ve already told you, and I’ll do anything to prove it. As I’ve said, I must have been framed.”
And we’re back to that… “You still haven’t told us who would want to frame you.”
“Beats me, but all partners have the authority to request the accounting department open vendor and client accounts. As for which one would do this to me, I can’t even imagine except for one person.
And it pains me to say their name aloud.
” He paused there, but Amanda wasn’t going to encourage him.
He was a grown-ass man. Finch eventually spat out, “Howard Gabay.”
“And why would the owner and founder of this firm steal from his own company? One that has been in his family for generations?” Trent asked.
“You’d have to ask him. But the guy is broke.”
“Sales are up year over year, even taking out the false billables,” Amanda said.
“His company isn’t broke. He is broke. All his life working as a lawyer, and soon he’ll have nothing to show for it. The offer from Dominique Sharp is a joke, but he signed on the dotted line, using his majority shares to justify the decision. There was nothing the rest of us could do.”
Amanda leaned forward. “What do you mean it was a joke?”
“Just that. It was a lowball offer, only a fraction of what the firm is worth.”
“Why would he accept the offer then?” Trent asked.
“I just told you. The guy is broke, and he ain’t getting any younger. He thought this was his way out.”
“Except you’re missing one point here. If he embezzled over a million dollars, the guy isn’t broke,” Amanda reasoned.
“Listen, I don’t know why he’d do it. All I know is it wasn’t me.”
“Detective Stenson.” She stood and summoned him to join her on the other side of the room.
“Let’s say this is Howard Gabay. He’s on his way out, and by his account”—she nudged her head toward Finch—“needs all the money he can get. It wouldn’t make sense that he’d put money back into the company at this stage.
Doing so could even draw unwanted attention. ”
“Which it did, but I have another question for our friend here.” Trent walked back over to the table. “Why would Howard Gabay try to frame you?”
“His first wife left him for me.”
“When was this?” Amanda asked.
“Seven years ago.”
Back when the money started being siphoned out of the firm. Finch had struck on something with his accusation, but there had to be some way to prove it. Amanda wasn’t going to rely solely on his word. “You said that all partners can authorize new accounts. Run us through how that works.”