“We have nothing to hide,” Givens said. “We file everything with the SEC, and we’ve never been cited for any improper practices. I’ve worked here for eleven years, and I’ve overseen leasing agreements of at least fifty companies in that time. I can assure you that at no point were we aware of any criminal activity. And if any took place without our knowledge, we’ll happily cooperate with law enforcement.”
“Now you see?” Serrano said, smiling at Tally. “Who says accountants are always pains in the ass?”
“Actually, I think you’re the one who always says that,” Tally replied.
“Well, I’m going to make an exception for Mrs. Givens. Or is it Dorothy?”
“It’s Mrs. Givens.”
“Right. Mrs. Givens. Let me ask you this: Do you remember a company called Albatross LLC?”
She tapped her lip with a red manicured nail. “I don’t recall the name and don’t recall ever meeting anyone from the firm.”
“They were one of your tenants,” Serrano said. “They leased space here about three years ago.”
“That’s odd,” Givens said. “In that time we’ve only had about ten or so new lessees. I don’t recall ever meeting someone from Albatross. And I make it my business to get to know our tenants.”
“Does anyone else sign the lease agreements besides you?”
“No. Although after my son was born, other people at the firm handled leasing arrangements while I was out on maternity leave.”
Tally said, “We’ll need the names of any J&J employees who had the authority to sign leases for the firm at any point in time.”
“Absolutely. I know them offhand; there aren’t many. Esther Warren, our vice president. Alphonse Russoti, our managing director. And Caroline Drummond, in management services.”
Serrano’s eyes went wide. “Caroline . . . Drummond.”
“That’s right,” she said. “You probably recognize the name because of her brother and the whole mess with his ex-wife, Constance. Say, she died recently, didn’t she? Does this have anything to do with that?”
Serrano looked at Tally, then said to Givens, “We need to see every leasing agreement signed off on by Caroline Drummond. Now.”
As they were leaving J&J Accounting, Serrano called Lieutenant George on his cell phone.
“This is George.”
“Lieutenant, it’s Serrano.”
“Detective. What do you have for me?”
“Get this. Earlier today, we spoke with Sam Wickersham, Constance Wright’s alleged lover, who testified to an affair and helped blow up her marriage and career. Well, turns out Mr. Wickersham may not have been fully forthcoming in his sworn testimony.”
“How so?”
“He was paid nearly half a million dollars to create a false affair. Bank records show three payments of a hundred and sixty grand apiece deposited into Wickersham’s Bank of America account. He also claims Wright’s phone was cloned, which is where all those dirty texts on her end came from.”
“Jesus. Who paid Wickersham off?”
“That’s where it gets interesting,” Serrano said. “Wickersham never met anybody in person but still has records from the phone calls he received to help him fabricate the allegations. The phone number is registered to an Albatross LLC. There’s just one problem: there is no Albatross LLC. It’s a shell company whose only purpose, it seems, was to provide cover for those payments. Now, we traced the payments to Wickersham from an account in the Cayman Islands. And with their banking laws, it’ll be near impossible to trace those accounts back to anyone.”
“OK. Tell me you have some good news.”
“Good and bad. The good news is that Albatross leased an office in a building owned by an accounting firm called J&J. J&J confirms they leased out the space . . . and you’ll never guess who signed off on the paperwork.”
“Don’t tease me.”
“Caroline Drummond.”
“Caroline Drummond . . . is that any relation to . . .”
“Nicholas Drummond’s sister.”
“So you’re telling me Nicholas Drummond’s sister leased space to a shell company whose sole purpose was to help destroy the life of her brother’s wife.”
“And I thought I had issues with my in-laws. Now, the name on the lease for Albatross is a Walter Mackey, but Walter Mackey is a retired octogenarian. His identity was stolen to create the LLC.”
“Where is Caroline Drummond now?”
“That’s where this gets tricky,” Serrano said. “Turns out Ms. Drummond took a somewhat unexpected sabbatical, which happened to begin one month before Constance Wright was killed. According to the J&J CFO, Dorothy Givens, she’s somewhere in Italy with no return date.”
“Doesn’t sound like you think Ms. Drummond’s travel timeline is a coincidence.”
“I do not. I think somebody had a feeling this was all going south, and Albatross is trying to tie up loose ends. Caroline Drummond getting out of the country is part of that.”
“Can we extradite her?”
“Not yet. We have enough to charge Sam Wickersham with fraud and perjury, but that’s about it right now. Wickersham said he doesn’t know who’s behind Albatross, so we wouldn’t be able to get much by offering him a deal in exchange for turning state’s evidence. But somebody wanted Constance Wright’s life to go up in flames in the worst way. And it appears her ex-husband and his sister were in on it.”
“Are you going after Nicholas Drummond?”
“Not just yet. He can claim plausible deniability, that his sister was acting independently, unless we have something concrete to tie him to Albatross or Wickersham. I’d rather find that link before bringing him in.”
“Keep at it, Detective. Find the link. And keep me posted. Nice work.”
“Will do, sir.”
Serrano ended the call.
“It’s possible Isabelle is connected to Albatross,” Tally said. “Would make sense. Gets Constance out of Nicholas’s life, frees them up to marry. And she has the money and connections to make it happen.”
Serrano thought as they got in the car. “I don’t know. Doesn’t feel right. No doubt Isabelle made out well, got the man she wanted, but seems like a whole lot of trouble to go through just to break up a marriage. Why wouldn’t Nicholas just divorce Constance and remarry? This Albatross situation feels personal. Like a vendetta of some sort.”
“So what now?”
“Let’s head back. I want to come up with names of people who may have had motive to want Constance Wright ruined.”
Tally slid into the driver’s seat. Serrano hooked his cell phone up to the stereo through a USB port.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Clearing my head.”
He opened the Audiobooks app and pressed play. A man’s voice came over the speakers. British and slightly nasal, but jovial.
This book is largely concerned with hobbits, and from its pages a reader may discover much of their character.
Tally looked at Serrano and said, “Speaking of suffering, I can’t listen to this again. Listen to the radio like a normal person.”