Price No Object Ch. 04

I said "Did he ever talk to you about you courting Julie, and marrying her?" I asked.

Jeff nodded as he realized where this was going. "Yes sir, he did. But not until much more recently."

"About when?"

"Not long after Julie quit BigCommo." said Jeff. "Well... when I moved down to Palmyra County, I thought I'd have to sell my condo here to buy my place down there. But Davalos called me and asked me to come to a meeting. We met in a rent-an-office in Palmyra County, and Davalos said he would back my mortgage application to buy the Palmyra townhouse. So I didn't have to sell the condo up here."

"And did he say why he was doing that?" I asked.

"Of course." said Jeff. "He told me then that he wanted me to be set up well in the event Julie and Dwayne separated and divorced, which he said he believed was imminent, and I could step in and help take care of Julie. Of course I understood the underlying insinuation, that I was to court Julie and eventually marry her. He also arranged for me to get the contract with JGP Settlement Solutions, and when that contract ended, with Aronis."

"And you were amenable to courting Julie if she left Dwayne?" I asked.

Jeff: "You know about the open marriage arrangement that Julie and Dwayne had, and that I was her Bull. During the time they were arguing and he was still working with BigCommo, I began seeing Julie behind Dwayne's back, and I did consider trying to take Julie away from him. So I accepted her father's generosity towards me, helping me to get work."

"Did Davalos try to get you to convince Dwayne to go back to BigCommo?" I asked.

"Yes." Jeff said. "After Dwayne had quit, Davalos called and asked what it would take to get Dwayne to go back to BigCommo. I said I didn't know if there was anything that would convince him. Davalos said he wanted me to try to convince him, or at least see what could be offered to Dwayne to get him to go back. I said I'd talk to him... but I never did."

Jeff: "And as you know, Dwayne had quit his job with BigCommo, and that's when things started going sideways for me. Aronis canceled their contract with me, saying I did bad work when I really didn't. And suddenly there were whispers about me, and it was getting harder to get work, so going in with Julie and Dwayne was a no-brainer. And of course I'd met Sheila by that time, so any thoughts of marrying Julie were out the window."

"And Davalos was pushing you to get Dwayne to go back to BigCommo." I said. "Tell me, did you tell Davalos that Julie and Dwayne were arguing over his employment there? Or that she was pushing hard for him to not go back?" I carefully peered at Jeff as I asked, and as he answered.

"No." Jeff said, looking more confused than anything else.

"So how did he know there was a problem, there?" I asked.

"I don't know------" Jeff started, and then it hit him. He looked up at me and said "You're right... how did he know? I sure didn't tell him anything..." He then went off into what might be described as a 'reverie'.

After a moment, I said "One more thing... you said that on Monday Dwayne was very concerned about Julie and wanted to get back to her rather than go to lunch. You, Julie, and Dwayne had gotten concealed carry permits and firearms for your protection, as well. Tell me, were there any threats to you? Or to them?"

Cawthorne nodded, then said "Yes, right around Christmas. Dwayne began acting paranoid, for lack of a better term. He was always looking around, and he didn't like it when he and Julie were not together. I think I told you how he was last Monday after our presentation. That was the worst he ever was, but he'd been like that for the previous couple of weeks."

"Any idea why?" I asked.

Cawthorne: "Maybe. I didn't know about that flag on the SBA loan until you told me about it. I looked it up yesterday when I got back home. I noted the person who'd put the flag on, and I got on Dwayne's email account... I had the password, in case I needed to get some specs sent to him... and I searched for that person's name. And I found it."

"We're going to need you to give us that password and access to Dwayne's emails. So what did that one say?" I said, inwardly berating myself for not asking about this earlier. This was definitely a reproach to my management of this case, I thought to myself.

Cawthorne named the name, then said: "It was sent two days after Christmas. There was nothing in it to show it was from the SBA, but it said the loan was flagged. It also said that the flag would be removed once Dwayne accepted 'the firm's generous offer'. Didn't mention BigCommo by name, though."

I turned and pointed at the anteroom window, and Claire Michaels opened the door and poked her head in. I said "Captain, go tell Intel about this. Have them find that email on Dwayne's account, and dig like hell to find out everything they can about it." Claire's head disappeared and the door closed.

I turned to Jeff and affixed my eyes upon him. "Why didn't you tell us about this before?" I asked. Jeff's eyes dropped, and I said "They threatened Sheila, didn't they?"

Jeff said "Not directly. And maybe I was just being paranoid. As you know, I'd been hooking up with Alicia Tate, but broke it off after Sheila and I got engaged and I went in with Julie and Dwayne on their new company. I didn't talk a lot with Alicia after that, but last week... December 30th, maybe... Alicia apparently saw me, so she texted me to come to the fence and talk to her."

Jeff: "Alicia asked me how things were going, and said she saw my fiancée and she was beautiful, and congratulated me on our engagement. Then she asked seemingly casually how things were with our business... and if Dwayne was giving any thought to going back to (air quotes) 'his old company' to keep money flow going. I told her no, and we parted ways. I didn't think of it again until the Mathesons were found dead, and then stuff started creeping into my head, and I've wondered since if Sheila might be a target, too."

I said "Well, with both Mathesons dead, you are no longer of any value to them, so even if there was a real threat, it's likely over. Having said that, be very careful... in fact, be paranoid as hell..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

12:10pm, Wednesday, January 6th. Jerome Davis, Joanne Warner, and Claire Michaels came into the Main Conference Room, where they found Subway subs and Your Iron Crowbar waiting for them.

"Okay," I said as we ate our lunches, "let's review the interview with Alicia Tate." We went through it, to the point where I banished Joanne from the room. "So tell me, what went wrong there, Joanne?"

"With respect, sir," Joanne said, "I don't know what I did wrong or to make you mad. I think she was lying to us, and she got emotional when she got called out for it."

"Jerome, what did you think of it?" I asked.

"Mrs. Tate really dug in hard about not knowing about those deposits, and she wasn't budging." Jerome replied. "So whether or not she was lying or telling the truth, maybe continuing to push so hard was becoming counterproductive."

"Good observation, and very true." I said. "Claire, what about you? What did you see? And what would you have done differently?"

Claire said "To be honest, sir, I'm not sure I would've done it much differently. I thought she was lying, too, and she definitely was holding back. I would've pushed on it, also, though maybe not directly accusing her of lying just yet."

"And you would've pushed her until she invoked, and took the Fifth?" I asked.

Claire shrugged. "We got what we needed from her husband, so it would not have mattered if she did."

I said "I see your point, and yes, we got what we needed from her husband. But if she had invoked... and she was about to... then all conversation with her would've had to cease. And I never would've been able to get her to call her husband and have him cooperate with us."

I said "Joanne, where you went wrong was getting adversarial to the point Alicia was about to invoke. I had her getting upset, but she was still talking. And after I got you out of there, I was able to calm her down enough that she kept talking and didn't invoke. If I had not made you leave when I did, I think Alicia would've taken the Fifth and set us back."

I continued: "And that's the key here. You have to learn to keep your own emotions in check, and that your goal is to get them talking and keep them talking. Yes, she was lying like a dog in the shade, but confronting her and accusing her like you did was about to shut her up, which is the opposite of what we wanted."

I continued: " And I'll say this to all of you, as you are my leaders of the Detectives. This is my fault. I have failed, utterly failed, to train you and all of my Detectives in good interrogation techniques. I can do it, but apparently I can't teach it very well. And so I need your help... all of y'all's help... in finding ways to have you be able to consistently do good, clean interrogations. And Jerome, I'm tasking you with helping me find that way."

"Yes sir." said Jerome...

Part 12 - Glimmer of Hope

2:00pm, Wednesday, January 6th. FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone had taken his wife, TCPD Deputy Chief Tanya P. Muscone, to lunch. When they returned, he knocked on my open door. I had him come in and close the door behind him.

"Tanya said you wanted to talk to me about something?" Muscone said.

"Yes, I did." I said. "I might need the FBI's help on a couple of things, and I don't want to take Tim Jenkins out of Town with Cindy due to have their baby at any time. So maybe you want to have some fun and go with me yourself?"

"Sure." said Muscone. "Where are we going and what are we doing?"

"First of all," I said, "we are going to Hamilton County and the Federal Court of Judge K.M. Landis, especially if BigCommo has done what I expect and has withheld documents and information. And second, to get a Federal Court Order for Matthew Willis to come to TCPD Headquarters and talk with us."

I continued: "Then we can mosey over to The City, where we will interview Satco Engineering CEO Lawrence J. Gordon. He personally interviewed Jeff Cawthorne and Dwayne Matheson last Monday about a consulting job, and I have a few small things I want to ask him about."

Muscone said "Har. 'Small' things, eh? I'll be glad to go with you, but is there a particular reason you want an FBI Agent going along?"

I said "I just want said Federal Agent to observe a few things..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

5:15pm, Wednesday, January 6th. Lt. Mary Milton came to my office.

"First, sir," she said, "we found the email to Dwayne about the flag on the SBA loan, but it's a 'bolo', and we can't trace it back anywhere. It was also very vague, though Dwayne having knowledge of the SBA loan would allow him to figure it out. We're checking now to see if anyone sent an email of an offer to return to Big Commo, but so far we've found nothing. And that segues into my next item."

Mary: "We finally got the employee records from BigCommo. They tried like hell to stall. They wanted to appeal Federal Judge K.M. Landis's subpoena, saying that the case was not a Federal matter, but he said the company's headquarters is out-of-State, so he was making sure they couldn't try to use that as an excuse, either."

Mary: "And then they just started stalling, saying their lawyers had to examine the records. and a whole bunch of crap like that. Judge Landis finally issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Duane Llewelyn, the COO of the company, and said that if we didn't have those records by 5:00pm, Llewelyn was going to jail. They complied at 4:59pm."

"Right to the last minute." I said. "Duane Llewelyn... where have I heard that name before?"

Mary said "He's an outside member of the Board of BigAgraFoods. He came to BigCommo right at the same time Matthew Willis did."

"Incestuous bunch, those Big Boys are." I said. "They serve on each other's Boards as (air quotes) 'outside Board members' to satisfy the letter of Federal Law, but skirting around the intent of the law after the Enron and other scandals."

"Different sets of rules for them than for the rest of us." Mary said. "Anyway, sir, we're processing the data, putting the digital data into the evidence servers after we check for viruses, and making copies of the paper records."

"Good." I said. "And when it's done, I want you to search for one thing..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

At 6:30pm, I arrived at The Cabin. We were hosting the party for Betsy Ross's third birthday at 7:00pm, and it was larger inside The Cabin than the Mountain Nest.

I thought I would be put to work immediately to prepare. But I quickly saw that everything was already done. Molly was already on location and was helping Laura and Paulina. The boys were building New Lego City, nothing new there. Tasha was solving puzzles on my iPad.

Carole had been sitting on the sofa, petting Bowser as she waited for me. And as soon as I walked into the greatroom, she said "How's the case going, Daddy?"

Laura said "Don, why don't you take Carole into your office and talk about it, while we finish getting ready for the party, hmm?" In other words, I thought to myself, get the hell out of her way. And kill two birds with one stone.

"Okay." I said. "Come on, Carole." Carole and Bowser happily followed me into my office, and we sat down. As Bowser took one for the team and let us pet him, I told Carole the basics of what we'd found, including the autopsy results that showed they'd died at different times, but omitting the attempted rape portion. I also told her that the perps that likely had murdered Julie Matheson had themselves been found dead.

Carole said "You're not stopping, are you Daddy? Don't you have to bust the really bad man?"

"Which 'really bad man' is that?" I asked.

"The one who paid those guys to hurt Mrs. Matheson and kill her." said Carole. "Matthew Willis."

I nodded. "I've got to find proof connecting him to the killers before I can arrest him." I said. "Any idea how I can do that?"

Carole said "Maybe that piece of paper I found will help. The one with all the big num-bers. Make the bad man explain that, Daddy." Wow, I thought to myself. Seven years old. And she's already made that connection.

I said "Well, I certainly will, if we can. We're looking for the original copy of that piece of paper. If we're lucky, we'll find it. And if and when we do, it's not going to be good for the bad man."

"Okay, Daddy." Carole said. "Thank you for talk-ing to me about it. And if you need any help, you know where to find me!" I had no idea where she'd picked that up; maybe off of television.

"Yes. Yes I do." I said whimsically. "And I can just tell Bowser to track you down. Isn't that right, Bowser?" Bowser vigorously wagged his tail in agreement.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was a family party, which meant it was for relatives and Angels. Of course Cindy, Maggie, and Callie were there with Betsy, and Tim Jenkins showed up. The FBI was further represented by Jack Muscone, who accompanied his daughters, Tanya, and Pete. Teresa and Todd were there with their boys. And of course Laura and Paulina and their children. And no Troy family gathering was complete without Grandpa Grizz.

After hamburgers and 'fixins' for supper, the cake was brought out. Like Carole, Betsy likes caramel cakes. We sang to her and she blew out the three candles with a mighty heave, and looked very happy as she was applauded her successful effort.

Then she got to open gifts, and seemed to have more fun ripping the wrapping paper than anything else. She got picture books and a couple of games, but it was the toy dog that Carole gave her, which looked suspiciously like the redoubtable Bowser, that Betsy seemed to like the most. The real Bowser approved, as well.

The kids played games or watched TV (it was 'DC Legends of Tomorrow' night), supervised by the big kid Todd. The women talked extensively about the upcoming baby. That was my cue to invite Tim, Jack, and Our Sheriff onto the back deck. The fire pot was barely adequate against the cold, but the bourbon that Sheriff Griswold poured us helped a lot.

Jack Muscone said "We've been following up on that Morrison Plumbing & Electric van that was observed at the Matheson home on Monday. And after those DNA results came back, we started checking them out more thoroughly. Tim?"

Tim Jenkins said "Jimenez had no association with any Federal agency, not as an employee nor as a C.I., that I could find. But the other guy, he may have been. The only thing I could get on him was the name 'Robert Long', which sounds like a nom de plume if ever there was one."

"Don't let Cindy hear you using fancy words like that." I said jokingly. Everyone laughed to varying degrees.

Jenkins: "I hear ya. Anyway, this 'Robert Long' might be a low-level guy for a Federal agency, though I couldn't figure out which one. And as such, he might be able to procure a Morrison Plumbing & Electric van for cover, and without going through the IADC clearinghouse. He might be what the CIA calls a 'cleaner', someone who cleans up messes, like a dead body that would be inconvenient for the regular Police to find and investigate."

"Or maybe kills someone on orders?" asked Sheriff Griswold.

"Possibly." said Tim Jenkins. "But 'wet boys', as those guys are called, usually are a lot less messy than that."

"And that's why this guy brought Jimenez along." I said, halfway in a reverie. "It was a pro hit, and it had to be clean and quick so that they could take all the papers away. But they wanted it to look messy, like a robbery gone wrong, or a home invasion and rape attempt that escalated to murder."

"And Dwayne Matheson?" Jack Muscone asked, just a bit too sharply.

I said "He came home, found his wife dead, became distraught, and ended up shooting himself. And that was the unintended consequence of the whole thing..."

Part 13 - Enemy of the State?

7:45am, Thursday, January 7th. There was a knock on my door, and it opened to reveal the Sheriff. "Didn't care to join us at the coffee klatch this morning, Crowbar?" Griswold growled.

I looked at the clock in astonishment. "Wow. I'm sorry, sir. I was looking at these employee records, and totally lost track of time."

"Har." barked the Sheriff, coming on in, closing the door behind him, and sitting down in the near-side 'hot chair'. "So what's got your undivided attention?"

"The BigCommo employee records for the Mathesons and Jeff Cawthorne." I said. "It's amazing stuff."

"How so?" asked Griswold.

"I'll tell it chronologically, to help me marshal my thoughts on it." I said. I was no Agency of the Weak-Minded; I knew that <>that was the real reason the Sheriff was having me talk about it.

I began: "The Mathesons and Cawthorne were hired straight out of college. For six months they worked on basic infrastructure. They got the standard check boxes to be kept on after three months, then their first evaluations after six months."

Me: "On those first evaluations, Jeff Cawthorne was cited as 'talented' but that, quote, 'he needs further monitoring before being assigned to critical projects', close quote. Julie received good marks as a business analyst and it was recommended they put in for her to get a Top Secret clearance. And Dwayne's critiques were off-the-charts good, saying he was a (air quotes) 'generational talent' as a programmer, and after receiving his clearance should be assigned to the 'Charrington Project'."

"What's that?" asked the Sheriff?

"I'll circle back to it in a second, sir." I replied. "In the meantime, I'm seeing that their next evaluations were six months later, at their one-year employment mark. Dwayne's were excellent, and he was recommended for a raise and a bonus. Julie's were very good, and she was recommended for a raise and a smaller bonus. But you know how Chief Moynahan and I were talking to you about how we'd write evaluations in the Army that didn't sound bad but were bad?"