Chapter 42
FORTY-TWO
Amanda and Trent let Harris Finch return to his client meeting while they set off to talk to the people in the accounting department.
Finch had told them there was a paper trail for every new account.
Each request had to be signed off by a partner, and Finch said they didn’t use signature stamps.
Amanda messaged Detective Lopez in Financial Crimes to remind her to send the list of business names as she hadn’t seen it yet.
The accounting supervisor was Molly, a plain woman with brown hair. After they introduced themselves, she gestured for them to sit across from her desk.
Amanda was the first one to talk. “There have been several new accounts opened in the last six months, vendor and customer, attributed to Harris Finch. These are numbered companies, and he’s denying that he made the requests.
We’ll need to see those signed requisitions and be provided with samples of each partner’s signature for comparison.
” This would let them know if someone had forged Finch’s signature, and if so, who.
Molly leaned forward and clasped her hands on her desk. “Right, well, I can’t help you unless you have a warrant.”
Amanda was afraid they would meet with that response but figured they should try it first. “We’ll return with one.” She left the room with Trent.
“I can call Judge Anderson about this,” he offered, and when she nodded, he got on the phone.
A few minutes later, he was off and giving her the update. “We’ve got verbal authorization, and I’ll get the paperwork through to my email soon. Have you received the list of business names from Detective Lopez yet?”
“Let me see.” She checked the email on her phone and saw a message from the detective come in. “I do.” She turned and knocked on Molly’s door.
“Come in,” she called out. The supervisor’s shoulders sagged when she saw her visitors were Amanda and Trent again.
“We have verbal authorization for these requisition forms from Judge Anderson. A hard copy will follow soon,” Trent told her.
“Okay. Once I get that, I’ll gather the requisition forms.”
“If I could get your email, I’ll send you the list of businesses and Detective Stenson will forward you the warrant.”
“Very well.” Molly gestured to her business card in a holder on her desk. “My email address is on there.”
“Thank you.” Amanda plucked a card, and she and Trent returned to the hall. She forwarded the list to Molly’s email and passed her card on to Trent. “For when you get the warrant.”
“Yep. And while we wait?”
“We talk things out.”
They settled back in the conference room where they had been with Finch.
Trent started the conversation moving. “I’d like to know why Howard Gabay would sell his firm to Sharp if she gave him a lowball offer.”
“That’s assuming Finch is telling us the truth about that. But let’s focus on the facts. The money started going back in six months ago. At the same time Dominique Sharp became interested in acquiring Gabay’s firm.”
“This could be about more than trying to cover the embezzlement. Whoever is behind this may have wanted the firm to look good on paper.”
“Which would track for Howard Gabay if not for accepting a lowball offer. Supposedly,” she added.
“Going back to covering up the embezzlement. If Finch was being framed, why would the real culprit care about feeding money back in? Finch would be the one to pay for the crime.”
“Except for one thing. This person could have lost their nerve and panicked, thinking this would lead back to them. After all, the sale would have put more eyes on the books. We can’t see those forms soon enough.”
“I just hope they still exist.” Trent checked his phone, and a moment later was pecking Molly’s email in from her card. “The warrant’s been forwarded.”
“Good, that’s one thing off the list. And while we wait on accounting to get everything together, we should consider another aspect to all of this. If the embezzlement is linked to the hit woman, who is most capable of accessing the dark web? I don’t see Howard Gabay as being very techy.”
“Makes two of us. The guy must be in his mid-sixties. But here’s the thing. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Howard Gabay could afford to pay someone to do this.”
Her eyes widened. “Or he already is? He does have a computer guy on the payroll.”
“Corey Shea,” they said together.
“And he was rather cagey when we walked into Sullivan Gabay’s office,” Amanda said.
“So Howard Gabay, as we’re presuming here, paid Shea to do this.” Trent took out his tablet. “I’m going to pull a background on Shea right now.”
He rarely used his device for this purpose, but it was police-issued and capable of accessing all law-enforcement databases.
Trent moved his finger around the screen and stopped a few seconds later. “All right. Here we go. Shea is twenty-five, graduated MIT.”
“So he’s a tech genius. Continue.”
“He’s single and rents an apartment…” Trent did more sweeping of his finger. “He has a new BMW X4 M. Registration records show he just got it two weeks ago.”
“Okay, that’s an expensive car for a law firm IT guy. I doubt his regular salary would allow for that extravagance. They cost close to eighty K.”
“Right, so how could Shea afford that car unless he came into some sort of payday? He’s young enough that he probably still has student loans to pay off.”
“Although, there is the possibility that we’re wrong here. He might have family money behind him.”
“One way of getting a picture of his finances is a credit check.”
“Which would require a warrant, and I’m not sure a judge would approve one based on what we have so far. It’s nothing more than speculation and circumstantial.”
“So close, yet so far away. It’s maddening. I think you’ll agree with me it’s likely that Shea was paid to go onto the dark web and hire a contract killer.”
“I can get behind that. So, I say while accounting is pulling the account requisitions, we have a chat with Corey Shea. See if we can get him to roll on whoever put him up to this.” She just hoped they were on the right path with this.