“None of your damn business, Showalter.” He jerked at the lapels of his jacket as he shifted in his seat. “What’s the status on Carl?”
Mason gritted his teeth before responding. If he didn’t, he’d verbally rip into his boss, and telling him just where he could go wouldn’t help anything. “He’s gone.”
William stopped picking at his sleeve and glanced up at him without moving his head. “I can see that. He hasn’t been in all week. When he started raising questions about the Culpeper Hedge Fund, you said you’d take care of it. Have you?”
Mason stared at him, wondering how much he should say. If he didn’t say enough, William would question him, wonder too much. The last thing he needed was that jackass snooping around. He couldn’t let the tables be turned. No way was he losing his upper hand. But it was too early to reveal the truth and lose everything he’d worked for. “I’ve spent the last four days scouring our financial reports, accounting summaries, investor statements, everything I could get my hands on. There are no discrepancies. When I tried contacting Carl to get his details, his assistant said he had a family emergency out of town.” Mason smirked. “Imagine that,” he said with false innocence.
“I’d heard about that. Seems awfully convenient he had to up and leave when he tried to throw us under the bus.” He smiled, and it looked purely evil. “I’d wondered if you’d had him eliminated.”
As in killed. Mason knew what he’d meant, but alluding to something and coming right out and asking were two different things. He needed to approach this carefully. William was a smart man. Mason just needed one little slip up to go in for the kill…the one he really wanted. He laughed. “Would’ve been a lot easier than weeding through all those damn documents to prove him wrong.”
William chuckled. “True. So what do you think’s going on?”
Mason forced a casual shrug. “I think he tried to screw over F and B, couldn’t make it work, and made a run for it to figure out how to get out of the mess he caused himself.”
“You think he’s dirty.”
“I’m saying the numbers all added up.” He maintained eye contact, wanted to make sure he seemed confident as he continued down his path of treachery to lure William into a false sense of security. “Do you think he’s capable of lying? You’ve worked with him longer than I have.”
“I think everybody’s capable of it if given the right opportunity.”
Opportunity? Interesting choice of words. Most honest people wouldn’t consider a chance to fuck people over for personal gain an opportunity…a right opportunity at that. Then again, most honest people wouldn’t see the real meaning behind his reply either. Mason was nothing if not shrewd, which came with shadowed respectability. “Opportunity implies Carl hadn’t set out to frame the company intentionally.” He quirked an eyebrow as he stared at his boss. “You think something happened that made him do this?”
“Carl is a numbers man. If he wanted to harm the company, he’d have the means to do it and make it look real.”
“But?” William wanted to say more. Mason could practically smell it.
“But he’s not street-smart. Having the know-how to make the papers look real isn’t enough motivation for him.”
“So someone could’ve planted the idea in his head.”
“Sure. For all we know, he was tipped off that questioning the Fund raised flags and he fixed everything before he left.”
“Okay, but who’d be cunning enough to approach him without getting himself caught in the process?” Mason asked without skipping a beat.
William stood. “I don’t know. But I want you to find out whoever that is and do to him whatever you did to Carl to make him disappear.”
Mason’s schooled expression was the product of years’ worth of practiced restraint. He knew the drill and was fully prepared to do what was necessary…as long as those actions fell in line with achieving his own goals. “I don’t know what you mean. Carl’s out of town dealing with a family crisis.”
“Of course he is.” The way William said it proved he knew differently.
“What if there isn’t anybody else? What if Carl was it?” he asked, rather than focusing on the specifics of Carl.
William’s gaze was cold, but Mason refused to look away. “Then the matter is effectively dead, and everybody else moves on.” He stepped out and shut the door behind him.
Mason glanced at his phone but pulled out his other cell. He didn’t like making these calls from his office, but he needed to relay this information as soon as he got it. He pressed the only entry in the address book and waited for line to be connected.
“He knows Carl’s gone,” Mason said immediately.
“And? Carl is gone.”
“He thinks someone else is involved and wants me to eliminate the threat.”
“Oh, come now, he didn’t say those exact words.”
Mason gaped at the air before him. “How the hell do you know that?” But he knew. The reality slammed into him just as he asked.
“We have your office tapped.”
“Fuck!” Mason’s head was reeling. “Why all the secrecy then? Why give me a phone to update you when I learn something if you’re just going to listen in on my conversations? And why is my office tapped when you can just plant bugs in his? You can go to the fucking source.”
“It’s all for your protection.”
“Bullshit. You’re not worried about me. You want William almost as bad as I do.” Mason growled as his thoughts turned back to the man in question. He was screwing over the company. Mason had no doubt about it. He just couldn’t prove it. Yet. Once he was able to, he’d be sliding into William’s job before he knew what happened. “The man practically ordered me to off someone. He has a God complex and needs to be dealt with. I don’t have time for this shit. Take him the fuck out!” Mason whispered heatedly.
“God complex? That’s a good way to describe you. I know you’re only in this for personal reasons. Don’t try to convince me otherwise. You were the one who came to us, remember?”
“Only because you came highly recommended, and you assured me you’d take care of him.” Mason took a deep breath, trying to calm his ire. “Have you and your resources found anything out?”
“Yes. We believe the threat to the Culpeper Hedge Fund is real. We got our hands on Carl’s reports before he was dealt with, and from what we can deduce, this has the makings of a major Ponzi scheme. We also believe William Baxter is correct in his assessment that someone else was the brainpower behind tampering with it. We believe that person is William Baxter.”
Oh shit. Mason shut his eyes. “That’s impossible.”
“Why? You were the one who found possible erroneous expenses on a small open-ended fund he managed.”
“That, and he was kiting. I thought he was trying to screw over F and B, not bilk investors.” If William was stealing from clients, Mason was in much deeper than he’d realized. It went way beyond bogus expenses and delaying transactions. “I know he’s dirty enough to skirt the law, but what you’re suggesting is in another realm.” If there was any truth to this and word got out, it would destroy the company. Hell, even if it wasn’t true but suspicions came to light, it would be almost as damaging. All of Mason’s work would be for nothing.