around, shrieking.
'Okay, okay! Look, I know because I looked at the fucking thing, okay? I guess maybe it was me who broke in the Mesa building like you said at first, okay? The cops arrived. I downloaded the info and ran. Happy now?'
I dropped him back to his feet. Then I unhooked him from the teeter-totter and recuffed him with his hands behind his back.
I returned the long teeter-totter to its original location and led Jack back to Alexa's BMW. I got a beach towel out of the trunk and put it over the seat so he wouldn't bleed on her upholstery, then put him in the car. I got behind the wheel and looked off up the street.
'Whatta you doing?'
'Thinking.'
He waited for a long moment, then said, 'About what, dude?'
Tm trying to decide whether to bury you on a beach up in Oxnard or just dump you in a shallow grave close by, like under the Hollywood sign.'
'Funny.'
'You think its funny? You must not be picking up my vibe, dude'
After pondering this mess for another minute, I turned to look at him. 'I don't know why the fuck I'm doing this, Jack, but okay. I'm gonna go retrieve those electronic records. You are gonna swear that you took them. Not me. After we take a look, I'm gonna book them as your personal property that you had in your possession when I arrested you for bank robbery. We'll worry about how, or if, they can ever be admitted as evidence in Pop's murder later.'
'You're gonna book me on the federal bank charges?' he said, sounding incredulous. 'I thought just now we were like in the zone or something, man, solving Pop's murder like a team. How can you take me in? That's pretty cheesy.'
'Those cops turned you over to me. They're all witnesses to a custody exchange. You think I want to be an accessory after the fact on your two dumb-ass bank heists?'
'You could say I jumped you and got away.'
I shook my head, and he sat there pouting. 'You're not much of a friend,' he said.
'You're finally seeing it,' I shot back. 'You're right. I'm not your friend. I don't want to have anything to do with you.'
'I wasn't talking about me,' he said softly. 'I was talking about Pop.'
Chapter 29
The flash drive was behind a Dumpster in an alley off Spaulding Drive, about three blocks from the Mesa high-rise building. I gathered it up and got into the car beside Jack, who was sulking.
'What's on here?' I asked.
'Uh… it's like an audit or something.'
'An audit or something?'
'Yeah. For Huntington House. A private audit done by some company named Randall Weis and Associates.'
'So what's the audit say?'
'I don't know. I'm not a fucking accountant.'
'I thought you said you broke the case while I was sitting on my ass.'
'I said I could've broke the case while you were sitting on your ass.'
'You said you broke it. You said it was huge. You don't even know what's on here? How 'bout finally telling the truth? I thought you said you cared about Pop.'
'Okay, okay, stop with the nitpicks.' He took a deep breath. 'I followed O'Shea to the Mesa Building, went in behind him when he keyed his security card. He was accessing shit on the computer. When he was done the numb nut left the fucking thing on. There's all kinds of spreadsheets and shit. I just copied the pages. I didn't have time to sit around scrolling columns of figures. The file was marked Huntington House Audit 2005–2008 so I took it, but I musta tripped a silent alarm when I split. Are you happy now?'
I called Vargas and got him out of bed. I told him I wanted a meeting with everyone in an hour at Huntington House.
'Jeez, Scully, can't it wait until morning?' he complained sleepily.
'No, it can't. And make sure that Vicki is there. I need somebody who can understand a complex fiscal audit.'
After I hung up, we headed to Huntington House. Jack was complaining all the way. 'I don't see why you won't do me a solid and let me go.'
'I won't let you go because I don't want to.'
'We both went to Huntington as kids,' he persisted. 'We both got the same lousy start in life. I'll tell you, man, Pop really cared what happened to me. He would shit if he knew you were gonna bust me for those two nothing bank heists.' It went on and on and on.
'Shut up, Jack,' I kept saying, but it didn't slow him down.
He finally just ran out of gas. He had stopped sulking and was ignoring me.
We pulled up to Huntington House a little past 3:00 A. M. I took the cuffs off Jack while we waited for the rest of the pallbearers to show up. They all made it by four. The last to arrive was Vargas, but that was understandable because he had to call everybody else before he left and he had the farthest to drive.
Diamond unlocked the door, and we trooped into the makeshift office in the rec center. Vicki sat at the computer, which was set up on Diamond's card table, and opened the first file. All of us hunkered over her shoulder, peering at the screen as she began scrolling through spreadsheets and columns of numbers.
'Stand back, you're crowding me,' she said. We gave her some space, and after a minute she said, 'This looks like it's an independent audit commissioned by Creative Solutions to cover the last four years. This first file lists some accounts payable and where the money went.' She leaned forward, studied the screen, and frowned. 'A lot of this references private loans that I have no record of. The documents probably all got lost in the fire.'
She opened the next folder, scrolled through the files, and then did the same for the third and fourth. The first file of the final folder contained a summary letter from Randall Weis, who apparently did the audit.
'Uh-oh,' Vicki said, as she started to scan the screen. 'What is it?' Diamond asked, moving closer. Vicki turned off the monitor so she couldn't read it, then put her head in her hands.
I moved Vicki aside, sat down, then turned the monitor back on. The letter was short. Under the accountant's letterhead it said:
Our audit of the disbursements made by Huntington House, LLC, for the fiscal years 2005 through 2008 uncovered numerous irregularities and charges without appropriate documentation. We also discovered several fraudulent loans. The totals of unaccounted-for losses by year are as follows:
2005 — $407,631
2006 — $100,455
2007 — $566,923
2008 — $398,765
The fraudulent transactions were initiated by the executive director, Walter Dix, who authorized payments to entities that were secretly controlled or owned by him, for services not rendered or goods not purchased. These fraudulent documents all contain his verified signature. Further; the executive director authorized loan repayments to himself when in fact there was no evidence that any loans from Mr. Dix to Huntington House ever existed. A full analysis and documentation of these transactions has been scanned and appears on this disk.
Randall Weisy CPA
'What's it mean?' Seriana asked.
I turned to look at her, but her face told me she understood. 'According to this, Pop was stealing a lot of money from the home,' I said.
'He wouldn't do that,' Vicki protested. But this time she sounded less convinced.
