Miranda Vaughn Mystery 01.00 - Chasing the Dollar (5 page)

"What's wrong? Is it the tequila?" Sarah said, joining me outside and putting her hand on my arm.

I looked at her, then past her as a shadow passed over the screen door and paused, the tall outline of the FBI agent silhouetted against the bright lights of the kitchen behind him.

"I'm fine. Let's go," I said, turning abruptly.

Well, it was nice being normal while it lasted.

If Rob was the brains of the operation at his law firm, and Sarah the looks, then Burton Worthington was the muscle. He was at least 6-feet 3-inches tall and had improbably little body fat. When standing, he was the most intimidating man I'd ever met, and this was part of the reason why he was such a good investigator.

But he was also charming and easy to talk to, which made him a great investigator. People opened up to him. They trusted him. They told him things they really didn
't want to share, things that they knew better than to tell him.

I kept that in mind as he held the door for me at the law firm.

"Welcome back, Miss Miranda," he said with a grin. He always called me that, though as far as I could tell, he didn't do that to anyone else—either coworker or client.

Burton
's office was right inside the law firm's front door. He wasn't actually an employee of the firm, but he was hired on nearly every job Rob took, so the proximity worked for both of them. Theresa constantly reminded everyone that she worked for Rob, not Burton. But then she'd offer to type letters for the investigator, retrieve his messages, or even bring him coffee—which always annoyed Rob, since he couldn't seem to get that level of service from his secretary.

"
How are you, Burton?" I asked, looking around the office.

Rob
's door was shut, which meant he was probably on the phone. Theresa's desk was empty again, but Sarah was at her desk. She waved a hand and grimaced, motioning to the phone receiver in other hand.

"
Are we going to have to find a desk for you?"

I grinned.
"Sarah said I should take your office, since you're always out goofing off."

"
Oh, she did, did she?" He nearly growled his response, and I saw a glint in his amber eyes.

She hadn
't said any such thing, but I enjoyed teasing them both too much.

"
I'll just wait for Rob in the library," I said, shifting the backpack on my shoulder.

Burton
gave me a hug that nearly crushed the air from my lungs, the sudden show of affection surprising me.

"
It's really good to see you, kid," he said.

I felt the sting behind my eyes and blinked quickly, not wanting to show exactly how much that meant.

"Yeah, thanks. You, too," I said.

I made my way to the large conference room, which doubled as the law library for the firm and set up the computer on the table to prepare for my meeting with Rob to discuss his new fraud case.

Rob's door flew open, and he rushed to the conference room and greeted me with a warm hug.

"
I'm so glad you're doing this, Miranda. It will be nice to work with you on this. But first, I hear you have something else important to share."

I paused at his expectant expression.
How could he know?

Then I remembered the box in my bag. I pulled out the pink cardboard container with the almond croissants inside. He grabbed the box and pulled a pastry from inside.

"Perfect. Tell Marie thanks for me. She knows the way to my heart, that woman," he said. His eyes sparkled as he bit into the flaky treat.

Sarah walked into the conference room and dropped a stack of paper napkins on the table next to Rob.

"Perfect timing. I've gotta go serve a bunch of subpoenas," she said, picking up a croissant and a napkin. "Sorry I can't stay to chat."

"
You're taking Burton with you, right?" Rob asked.

She shook her head.
"I can do it without him."

Rob frowned and glanced toward
Burton's office. "If you're going into the south area, I'd prefer you and Burton go together."

Sarah sighed and then nodded.
"Fine, I'll go with Burton."

"
I'll drive," Burton said, appearing at the door as if summoned.

"
Damn right you will," Sarah said, adding another croissant to her napkin. "I can't ride my bike and eat these at the same time."

"
Oh no. Not in my car," Burton said, walking toward the office door with Sarah right behind him.

"
Try and stop me, big guy. I had to skip lunch."

The front door closed, muffling the bickering duo
's conversation and leaving Rob and me alone in the conference room. He gave me a smile and a wink. I wasn't the only one who saw the chemistry between them.

"
Well, now that the important stuff is out of the way, I have a couple other items of news. First, Ralph and Tim were sentenced this morning. I attended the hearing."

My heart lurched. I knew the sentencing hearing was set for this week, but it had been delayed so often, I didn
't really expect it to go forward this time.

"
What happened?"

Rob leaned back in his chair and frowned.

"They each got seventy months, a little less than six years," he said.

"
What?" I was shocked. I had been looking at ten years if I'd been convicted. Federal fraud sentences are based, in good part, on the dollar amount, and thirty-seven million dollars stolen from more than 250 investors put the sentence at well past a decade. By their own testimony, Ralph and Tim were the masterminds of this scheme and profited by it, which added more years to the estimated sentence.

"
Well, keep in mind that they pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate and testify against you," Rob said.

"
Yeah, but I was acquitted. Why do they get credit for lying on the stand?"

He shrugged.
"The government felt they gave truthful testimony and recommended forty percent off their sentences," he said. "Remember, had they gone to trial and been convicted, they'd be looking at eighteen to twenty years. And they would have been convicted."

The numbers flew through my head.
"But that would have been—"

Rob held up a hand.
"The judge considered their age, lack of criminal history, and ability to pay restitution to the victims. They agreed to forfeit most of their assets, including art, real estate, and cars, as well as bank accounts," he said. "But there's no way around it, they got a break. With good-time credit, they'll be out in just over five years. They also were each fined two hundred and fifty thousand dollars."

My face warmed as I thought about Ralph
's mansion that overlooked a private lake on his estate. He could probably pay the fine with the money shaken from the many sofas in that huge mausoleum of a house. Tim, though not as wealthy as Ralph, lived in a ritzy neighborhood and collected art and baseball memorabilia. Both of them drove obscenely expensive cars and purchased similar models for their wives.

Most of it bought with stolen funds.

My head spun at the thought that I could have easily been right there with them, getting sentenced to that much time or even more since I wouldn't have gotten credit for pleading guilty and cooperating as a government witness. I tried to picture the impeccably dressed Ralph Tinker wearing orange jail garb, but it was hard to wrap my head around. He was in his 60s, and Tim was in his late 40s, and both had families and children. Ralph had a new grandson. I knew their families and felt sorry for them, for what they were going to lose when their loved ones went to prison.

But when I thought about Ralph and Tim testifying under oath that I was part of their scheme and had willingly helped them cheat clients out of their life savings, my heart chilled. I did not feel bad for the two men who would serve the sentences handed down this morning. Not at all.

Tim, especially, disgusted me. He had been an excellent boss and mentor, and I had been thrilled when I'd been promoted to work as his assistant. When I thought back to the four years I worked for him, I wondered how I could have missed the signs that he was a complete sociopath. I never had a clue that he was defrauding our clients, siphoning off their hard-earned money into his own pocket.

"
What else did you want to tell me?" I asked Rob.

He leaned forward and paused, clasping his hands together. He raised his eyes to mine, and my heart stalled.

"You remember when we talked about the investors bringing a civil suit against Patterson Tinker?"

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Rob had explained that many of the investors had hired a lawyer to represent them in a civil suit, which would name Ralph, Tim and me personally, in addition to the investment house.

"Their lawyer called me this week. They're going forward with the suit."

"
But I was cleared," I said. "They won't sue me, right?"

Rob bit his lip and my stomach dropped.
"Well, see, you were cleared in the criminal case, but this will be a civil suit. The burden is less—only a preponderance of the evidence, instead of beyond a reasonable doubt."

I gave a bitter laugh.
"Well, good luck getting anything from me. You know that saying about getting blood from a turnip? I have nothing. I make just over minimum wage."

Rob shook his head.
"But you do have some interest in property."

I tilted my head, confused.
"No, I sold the Tahoe cabin. And I never owned my condo. That was just a lease."

"
Your aunt put your name on the bakery building and her house," he said gently. "It was years ago, a way to prevent you from having to pay inheritance taxes if anything happened to Marie."

I gasped.
"No. They couldn't go after the bakery. Or Aunt Marie's home."

He nodded.
"They could, if it gets that far," he said. "That's a long way off. Civil suits take a very long time to get through the courts, so please don't worry yourself too much right now."

Fat chance of that. My throat felt like it was closing around a softball-sized lump. I blinked back tears at the thought of Aunt Marie losing the Sugar Plum Bakery. She built that business herself and made it a thriving success. It hadn
't been easy, either. Marie's business had only been open a year when her sister dumped me, a nearly feral 3-year-old, at her doorstep and took off to follow yet another poor excuse for a man. But we'd managed. I played in the office, screened off from the kitchen with a baby-gate while she rolled out dough and filled pastries. When I grew older, I helped decorate cupcakes and cookies, and swept the floors. The employees at Sugar Plum Bakery stayed a long time, treated well by Aunt Marie who believed that everyone should benefit when a business makes a profit, and that everyone should earn a decent wage and have health insurance. They stayed so long, they became our family.

The tears spilled over as I remembered all the wonderful times I spent in the bakery with Aunt Marie. Rob leaned over and gripped my hand.

"Miranda, now don't you worry about this. Your aunt is going to be just fine. This is just another bump in the road. You have faced down worse than this," he said.

I was not reassured. This felt worse than going to prison. When I
'd been charged with a crime, I was looking at a loss of my freedom. That would be hard on Aunt Marie, but she'd still have her life, her business, her home. Now that was all at risk, and it felt like a much worse sentence than a decade stuck behind bars.

"
Why are they doing this?" I whispered.

He frowned.
"They're trying to recover their lost savings, sweetheart. It's not personal."

But it was. It was so personal that I could hardly stand it.

"Is it that prosecutor, Donna Grayson? Is she trying to make me pay since I didn't get convicted?"

Rob scowled at the mention of the federal prosecutor.
"I wouldn't put it past her, but no, the investors' lawyers have been looking at filing this suit for a long time."

My mind raced back a few nights to the Mexican restaurant.

"I just saw one of the agents who arrested me. The one taking notes in the interview," I said. "Could he be following me?"

I knew it sounded paranoid, but panic was setting in.

"Jake Barnes, you mean? The FBI agent?"

"
Yeah, I think so. Dark hair. Tall."

Rob nodded.
"Yeah, he's a decent enough guy, for a fed, you know. He wasn't on your case long. Got moved from white collar to a different unit. It's probably just a coincidence, especially if you were dining near the downtown area."

I nodded. The restaurant was a popular place on the edge of the downtown office buildings. My mind was still not at ease. I hadn
't seen Agent Barnes for months, and then he pops up just after my trial is over and the civil suit starts moving forward.

"
The government can't come after you again. That would be double jeopardy. The criminal case against you is over and done. I can't imagine they'd have Barnes watching you," he said.

I breathed in, still not convinced but trying to calm myself.