Fourteen

“I’ll be waiting for you. But I have a lunch date with Natalie in a couple of hours,”

“It won’t take that long. I’m on my way.” I arrived at Max’s apartment fifteen minutes later.

He opened the door and stepped aside for me to enter. “How are ya?”

“Not too bad. And you?” I gave him a quick hug.

“Doin' okay. I have three days off. That doesn't happen very often.”

I followed him into the living room. I pulled the chip from my pocket. “Can we put this in your computer?”

“Whatcha got?”

“A video clip. Go to the 2:36 marker and take a look.”

He fired up his computer and inserted the chip into a USB slot.

“That’s my mailbox,” I told him as he scrolled to the marker I’d mentioned. “I have no idea who the person is. The time stamp indicates this was a few minutes after ten, Sunday night.” I then told him about the letter.

“Dammit, Olivia! Why in the hell are you just now telling me about that? Sheesh!”

“I tried twice on the phone and you cut me off. For good reason both times; but still you cut me off. That’s not on me, big brother.”

“Okay, you get a pass this time.” He viewed the clip again.

“Does it tell you anything?”

“Not a lot. Taking into account the angle of the camera, I’d guess the subject to be about 5’10” at the most, maybe shorter.”

“How can you tell that?”

“The relationship of his head compared to the height of the mailbox. The camera height appears to be no more than six or seven feet above ground level, so the vertical perception isn’t significantly altered.  I know your mailbox is forty-two inches above the ground. I put it in for you, if you remember.”

“Anything else?”

“Not much. There’s not a lot to work with here. Too dark to see much detail. Have you looked at anything before or after the person in the hoodie?”

“No. Chuck already had it fast-forwarded to this part. But if there was anything of interest elsewhere, I’m sure he would have told me.”

“Still might be a good idea to have an expert look at everything on the chip. A trained eye can catch a lot that the typical person doesn’t.”

“Do you think your people could give it a closer look?”

“This is an issue for the Bakersfield Police, not the County Sheriff. This is one time I just can’t help. Sorry.”

“Bummer.”

“Look at it this way. Getting the cops officially involved is the best thing for you to do. This obviously ties in with Alice’s murder. Don’t turn away from any assistance you can get. You probably should have consulted with them from the beginning. If you want, I can contact Jankoswki. He knows the forensics people pretty good. He might be able to speed it along.”

“I’ll take it to the police department this afternoon and clue them in about the letter and anything else that might be helpful.”

He removed the memory chip from the computer and handed it to me.

“Uh, you said you had something to tell me,” I said as I pocketed the chip.

“Natalie and I have set a date—October tenth.”

“Congratulations! I’m so happy for both of you.” I gave Max a long hug. “She’s a lucky woman.”

“And I’m a pretty lucky guy.”

“Yes, you are.” I’m sure my smile stretched from ear-to-ear. “Well, I’m off to see the wizard—and the police. Love ya. And give Nat my congrats.”

“Love ya, too. I’ll tell her.”

I backed out of the parking spot and headed Patsy to the police department. After dropping the memory stick off at the PD, I pointed Patsy in the direction of Butler Farms.

“How was Vegas, other than the Andy Bishop folly?” Anna Flores asked after I’d stepped into her office. “Sorry we sent you there on a wild goose chase. I was doubly sure he was our guy. I mean, like, no doubt in my mind.”

“I was convinced, too. But, hey, we’ve scratched one possibility from the list. That’s progress. As far as Vegas, I could have done without it.”

“Sorry about sending you to Sin City. It sounded like a good idea at the trime.”

“Have you had any more incidents or concerns since Bishop left?”

“Not a thing.”

“My guess is whoever our bad guy is knows we’re keeping a close eye on things and lying low.”

“My thoughts, too,” Anna said. “That suggests someone in management is involved as they’re the only ones with knowledge of the investigation.” Anna pulled her mouth into a frown as her eyes narrowed. “It’s got to be someone right under our nose.”

“Unless your computer system was hacked.”

Anna shook her head. “That’s the first thing that came to mind, so I called in a computer security service. They couldn’t find any evidence of a hack.”

“Let me have a list of everyone who might know about the investigation.”

“Got it right here.” She opened a desk drawer and pulled out a single sheet of paper. “I’ve reviewed it time and time again but can’t find a reason to suspect any of them.”

“Not the slightest bit of doubt?”

“Nope. Not even a smidgeon.”

“Could I speak to Lupe Santiago right now? Perhaps she’s overlooked something or somebody. Can’t hurt to ask.”

Anna keyed up the plant PA system and called Lupe to the security office. The door opened a few minutes later and a short, middle-aged Hispanic lady entered.

“Hi, Lupe. Have a seat, please.” Anna cut her eyes to mine as Lupe took a seat next to me. “This is Olivia Grace. She’s the private investigator we hired to look into our problem.”

“Hi. Good to meet you.” Her greeting revealed a slight accent.

I asked her a series of standard questions which she answered quickly and her responses were reasonable. “One more thing.”

“Yes?”

“Mr. Bishop told me that when he informed you of an account irregularity he noticed, you appeared dismissive of his concerns. Is that true?”

“Adjustments are made to accounts many times, often after the company receives the order. Sometimes that information doesn’t get into the system before it reaches our office. Customers make last minute changes to orders, often just before the shipment is scheduled for processing and filling. That’s not uncommon. I looked into the things he brought to my attention and took care of them—every time.”

“Every time?”

“Yes. Did he tell you I didn’t?”

“No. Just checking that your story and his match.”

“Feel free to look into my records. You’ll see what I just told you is true. Everyone makes a note of those things and leaves it on my desk. I then make reconciliations as necessary. We just have to make sure the changes are made before the final order reaches accounting. Standard procedure.”

“I don’t mean to sound critical, but isn’t leaving a hand-written note on your desk a little archaic these days?”

“Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that was a temporary procedure. There was a glitch in our software that took our people quite a while to find and remedy.”

“How long did the glitch last before it was fixed?”

“Two weeks, maybe a little longer. It happened a second time, earlier this week, and we just got back to our regular method today.”

“Thank you very much. I appreciate your input.”

“You’re welcome. If I can be of any help in the future, let me know.”

“I’ll do that. You’ve been very helpful.”

Lupe turned her attention to Anna. “Anything else?”

“Not at this time. Thank you.”

Lupe nodded and smiled at both of us before leaving the security office.

Anna crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “What you think?”

“I find it ludicrous that simply leaving a note on the supervisor’s desk is a good way of handling account adjustments, even with the software problem she mentioned. I'd think there’s a better approach to that—something more secure and more private. And less chance of the message getting lost. In a small, intimate office setting with just two or three people, that might work. But in a huge operation like this, I’d say pretty sloppy at best. Something as simple as an email to her with the order number for reference would have been far better.”

“Hard to argue with. Anything else?”

I took a few seconds to organize my thoughts. “This might be nit-picking and perhaps it means nothing, just a different recollection of the events. But Bishop said he approached Lupe just once about some questionable accounts, and he was very emphatic about that. But she said it happened several times. Like I said, it might mean nothing. But you know what they say, ‘The devil is in the details.’”

“Are you suggesting Lupe might be involved in this mess?”

“I’m not suggesting anything. I just find those two things interesting. One of them is lying. But why?”

"Or bad memory."

I sighed. "That's true."

“So, what can I do to help?”

“For now, don’t say anything to Lupe. Who’s her boss?”

“That would be Bob Henderson. He’s the production manager.”

“And who does Henderson work for?”

“Daryl Davis. He’s the general manager of the whole operation.”

“Anything about them I should know? You know, anything out of the ordinary?”

“No, not really. Henderson thinks he’s God’s gift to women. If he wasn’t such a jerk, that might be true. He’s got a Rock Hudson face and a ripped body.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. But the brain of a horny teenager on his first hot date.”

“There are a few of them around.”

“True. But I’m willing to bet Henderson tops the list.”

“What can you tell me about Daryl Davis?”

“He’s pretty new, less than a year on the job. Don’t know much about him but he’s already held in high esteem by the Butler family. He’s quiet and business-like. Seems to be an okay guy.”

“I guess I’d have to talk to Darlene Watson in HR to get a personal profile on any of them.”

“Yep. And good luck. She’s the bitch from hell. That’s when she’s in a good mood. We call her ‘Mystery Lady’, not to her face of course. She never talks about her private life, no one I know of who works here has ever been to her house and, again to my knowledge, she’s visited the house of no one who works here.”

“Strange. Wonder why the secrecy. You’d think she has something to hide.”

“Dunno," Anna said with a shrug of her shoulders. "But I gotta agree with ya that it’s pretty strange. Anyway, be prepared when you go to see her. Wear your armor and take a sword.”

“Satan’s sister?”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

“I don’t scare easy.”

She arched an eyebrow to reinforce the devilish grin. “Make sure the sword is long and sharp—and the armor is in good condition.”

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