Murdered in Argentina: A Jack Trout Cozy Mystery (12 page)

“Are you the new owner of the company?” Carola asked.

“I am. As I told you, I was pretty sure Ray had left everything to me, and he did, with no strings attached. His lawyer told me Ray had written a letter indicating what he’d like me to do with the company in the event of his death or if he became incapacitated. He suggested I name Mitch Graham as president of the company.

“Even though Ray left the company to me, he didn’t feel I had the business acumen to take on the presidency of it, and he was absolutely right about that. He suggested I have Mitch pay me a yearly amount from the profits of the company, so I’d have a steady source of income. He wanted me to be the sole owner of the company but not run it, which I think was a smart thing for him to do. As long as I don’t have to do anything on a day-to-day basis, that sounds fine to me.”

“When are you going to tell Mitch about this?” Carola asked.

“I think when they return from fishing today. I’m concerned that what Ray used to call ‘bottom feeders’ will try to take some of the accounts away from Moving Graphics, and Mitch probably needs to get things started to prevent that.”

“Sounds to me like you’re a little more business savvy than you let on,” Carola said smiling.

“I very well might have learned a few things through osmosis,” Lisa said, grinning back at her. “Sid and I discussed having a Celebration of Ray’s Life at our home in San Francisco in two weeks. Over the years Ray and I have been big donors to a lot of non-profit organizations, so I imagine it will be well attended, and of course, everyone from Moving Graphics will be invited and will probably be there.

“He suggested that I simply rest and take it easy for now and let his secretary make all the necessary arrangements for it. She and I talked for quite a while about who should do the catering, the flowers, renting chairs and tables, and all that stuff. She was going to start working on it as soon as we ended our conversation. When I get back I’ll finish up anything that needs to be done, but she seems to be very efficient. That’s a huge thing to have out of the way.”

“I’m glad she’s taking that load off your shoulders. You have enough to do without that.”

“Oh, one other thing,” Lisa said. ‘She was also going to contact a San Francisco mortuary she’d done business with in the past and have a hearse meet us at the plane when we land in San Francisco. I hadn’t even thought of that.”

“Nor had I. Anything else?”

“Yes. I had a long talk with Ray’s administrative assistant, Bea Lawrence. She’s devastated by his death. I asked her if she would be very honest with me about her opinion of the employees who had come on the trip with Ray. She was.”

“I’m all ears. I’ve also found out some things about them. What did you find out?”

She likes Mitch a lot. Bea said she knew he wanted to be president, but didn’t think that was the least bit unusual given that Ray told everyone Mitch was going to take his place someday. What was interesting was what she said about Brad.”

“I’m curious, because I picked up a little information on him as well.”

Lisa continued, “Bea said Ray rarely became angry, but when he returned from lunch with Brad last week he was uncharacteristically mad. He made several comments that if Brad cared more about Ray’s antique fishing equipment than he did about the advertising budget, maybe he should quit the company and just spend his time taking care of his fishing equipment collection. Bea thought that was very strange.”

“Sounds to me like Brad was really fixated on Ray’s gear. I had a long conversation with Colin Scott, the president of WrapAround Graphics. Evidently he and Ray occasionally met for drinks when they were attending industry events. Anyway, they talked last week after Brad and Ray had their lunch meeting. He told me Ray was frustrated because all Brad wanted to talk about at lunch was Ray’s fishing equipment rather than the advertising budget.”

“I don’t know, Carola. I find it hard to believe someone would want some old fishing gear bad enough to commit murder. What do you think?”

“I honestly don’t know either, but I do think we should keep him up near the top of our list of possible suspects, particularly since the antique Winston split bamboo fly rod and Hardy Perfect reel are missing.

“Excuse me, Lisa, that whining sound you hear is Cayo. It’s time for his dinner. I feed him about this time, so his dinner doesn’t interfere with our dinner. Give me a minute.” She opened a can of cat food and put it in a bowl. Within minutes the whining had turned into a purr.

CHAPTER 23

“Okay, Lisa, now that Cayo’s been fed, let’s continue. Did you find anything else out from Sid?”

“Yes, it has to do with Ray’s antique fishing equipment. Evidently Ray had it insured for a lot of money, and Sid asked what I was going to do with it. I told him I had no idea, because it was missing. He feels that Ray’s murder might have something to do with the missing fishing equipment. Sid asked what the police were doing about the murder. When I told him nothing, he couldn’t believe it. He thought I should call some California politicians I know and have them look into it.

“I told him it’s been my experience that politicians take forever to get things done in the United States, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine how long it would take for them to have any influence in a foreign country. I told him if I did that the murderer would be long gone before anyone got around to doing anything. I told him I was working with a private investigator, and that seemed to satisfy him.”

“Lisa, I’m hardly a private investigator, but thanks for the compliment. Sid might be right. Ray’s death could be tied to his fishing equipment. Certainly Brad is at the top of that list when it comes to tying together Ray’s death and the missing fishing equipment. I also think we should add Pablo, the fishing guide, to that list. He has a motive with his desperate need for money for his wife’s cancer treatment, but what bothers me is he’s so poor, he doesn’t even have a car.

“How does someone without a car and of limited means sell valuable fishing equipment like Ray’s? He’d have to rely on someone to take him to a large city like Buenos Aires, and people there would no doubt find out he wasn’t the owner of the equipment. I doubt that anyone in San Martin would be interested in spending that kind of money for antique fishing equipment, even if Pablo could get it to town. I would think he would do best to try and sell the equipment at auction, but there’s a lot involved in getting something to auction, plus it might really raise some red flags when a very poor individual like Pablo brings in some priceless fishing gear and wants to auction it off. I’ll talk to him this afternoon, but I just can’t believe Pablo had anything to do with it.”

“Yes, based on what you just said, it does seem unlikely.”

“I found something else out from the owner of WrapAround Graphics that I think is very interesting. I asked him if he knew anything about some of the people we’ve talked about. When I mentioned Janelle Byers, he became very quiet.”

“Why was that?” Lisa asked.

“Evidently there was a bit of a scandal several years ago about an embezzlement taking place at the company where she was working at the time. Although there were hints she was involved, nothing could be proven and even if there had been money missing, by the time the investigators looked into it, there was no indication an embezzlement had ever taken place.”

“That hardly ties her to Ray’s murder.”

“I know,” Carola said, “just hear me out. There’s more. She’s engaged to be married to the owner of an investment company. Here’s what Colin told me he knew about the man whose name is Andrew White.” She told Lisa what he’d told her and concluded with, “There’s more. I just spent an hour on the Internet looking him up, and I found out plenty.”

“I still don’t see what Ray’s murder has to do with the owner of a wealth management company who isn’t even here in Argentina.”

“He’s not here,” Carola said, “but his fiancée is. According to what I read on his Facebook page, Andrew is now part owner of a company a friend of his started. Several weeks ago he posted that he knew his friend’s company was going to be a huge success, because so many people wanted to invest in the company, so that’s why he bought into it. He was sure he could get his money out pretty quickly and at the same time make a very large profit. What’s interesting is that he never posted anything more about it.”

“I’m still not connecting the dots, Carola. I don’t think it’s the least bit unusual for someone not to brag on their Facebook page that they’d make a large profit by investing in some company. People, especially wealthy clients like Andrew has, don’t want their investment advisers bragging on the Internet about how smart of an investment they made.”

“You might not consider it unusual, but think about it. Andrew is the owner of an investment company. If he can make a killing investing his own money, he might think he could make even more if he skimmed money from his clients’ accounts and used it to invest in his friend’s company. And more specifically, what if one of the accounts he skimmed belonged to Colin’s attorney friend?”

“Yes, I suppose he could do that, but if that’s true, why hasn’t he simply repaid Colin’s attorney friend the money he took out of his account and used to invest in the new start-up company? It would be easy enough. All he’d have to do is cash out of his friend’s company and use the proceeds to repay the attorney,” Lisa said.

“Bingo, I think we’re on the same wavelength, at least partially,” Carola said. “I know this is really a long shot, but what if his friend wasn’t able to get the money he expected to get from potential investors? If that happened, it would mean Andrew couldn’t cash out with his investment. He’d be stuck with it. That, in turn, could very well be the reason he hasn’t been able to repay Colin’s attorney friend.”

“I have no idea where you’re going with this,” Lisa said.

“Last night at dinner I overheard a conversation between Ray and Janelle. Everyone was talking, and I think I’m the only one who heard it. Comes from years of living in a large family. I can pretty much filter out extraneous noises and concentrate on one thread at a time. Anyway, see if you can make sense of this.” She told Lisa about the exchange she’d overheard.

Lisa was silent for several moments and then said, “Ray never mentioned anything about that to me. Maybe it was something he discovered just before we left on this trip, but didn’t want to go into it because he didn’t have enough information. That concerns me, and I think it’s something Mitch should be told. Would you sit in on the meeting I want to have with Mitch when he gets back from fishing?”

“Yes, I’d be happy to. Let me take this a step further, and this is simply a stab in the dark on my part. What if Janelle did embezzle funds from the company she was with prior to coming to work for Moving Graphics? What if her fiancé told her he needed a large amount of money that he could use to return to his attorney client so he wouldn’t be investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission? What if Janelle embezzled funds from Moving Graphics and gave the money to Andrew? What if Ray was right and the numbers weren’t matching up? What if Janelle was afraid that Ray suspected her of embezzling funds from his company? And lastly, what if she murdered Ray so he couldn’t confirm there was money missing from the company?”

Lisa sat quietly looking out the window for a moment, and then she turned to face Carola. “I don’t know, Carola, that’s an awful lot of ifs. Something about his name rings a bell with me. What else did you find out about him? Maybe I’ve heard his name or even met him. Where does he live?”

“He lives in San Francisco, and according to all the articles I read, he’s very involved with the arts world as well as non-profit organizations. Maybe you’ve run across him at one of those events. I saw several pictures of him, and he’s very, very handsome.”

“Could I see one of those pictures? Maybe that would jog my memory.”

“Sure,” Carola said. “Give me a minute to get it up on the computer screen. Ahh,” she said shortly, “here’s one.

Lisa walked over and stood behind Carola who was seated in front of her computer. She gasped as she looked down at the picture of the man on the screen.

“Does that gasp mean you recognize him?” Carola asked.

“It sure does. He’s like a snake oil salesman. I sat next to him once at a museum luncheon, and when I was commended for making a large contribution to fund a certain exhibit, all he did was try and get me to make an appointment with him at his investment company. He told me he was sure I’d make more money with his firm than I’d ever make with the investment group Ray and I used. Believe me, he never stopped. Finally, I had to tell him in a not very nice tone of voice that I was not and never would be interested in investing with his firm. I turned to the person sitting on the other side of me, and that was the last time I ever saw him.”

“Did you know that Janelle was his fiancée?”

“No, he mentioned something about his fiancée being stuck at work, and I said something about my husband not being able to attend because he was out of town on business. Believe me, I wouldn’t put anything past him, and if Janelle has fallen for his line, I’m not sure I’d put anything past her.”

Carola looked down at her watch. “I honestly don’t know what to make of all of this. The fishermen should be back momentarily. Let’s meet with Mitch and then I’d like to talk to Pablo. I think we both should probably sleep on what we’ve found out. Maybe something will come to us in a dream.”

“It may be a dream for you, Carola, but this whole thing is a living nightmare for me.”

“Why don’t you go to your room? I’ll go down and tell Mitch you’d like to talk to him. I imagine he’s been thinking about this most of the day, anyway, so it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to him. I’ll bring him up to your room shortly.”

CHAPTER 24

Carola heard the SUVs returning to the lodge, bringing the tired guests back from a long day of fishing. She walked out the front door of the lodge and over to Jack who was getting out of the lead SUV. “How was the fishing today?” she asked, lightly kissing him on the cheek.