Max Story PI #108

Max Story PI #108

It was a cool drive with the windows open for fresh air until I got behind one of those roofing tar pot trailers. I closed the car windows but the putrid smell was still in my car when I locked it up in the parking garage. I chose the express elevator to get quickly to twenty eight. I opened the frosted glass door into Max Story Private Investigations and stepped inside. Carol greeted me in her jingly voice, then wrinkled her nose. You been roofing?, she asked. Nope, I said, I got stuck behind one of those tar buckets on wheels. That smell came into my car even after I closed the windows.

Max walked into the front when he heard my voice, to refill his coffee cup. I joined him and filled mine to the brim hoping to wash down the ride, and hear the case story from Max. I got stuck behind one of those roofer tar pots before, Max said. The smell stayed in my car for a week. Thanks I needed that, I told him as I sat in the easy chair Max pointed me to.

Today I have a puzzling type of story. Max started by hinting to me to follow closely to the facts. A lady came in one afternoon asking if we could help her boss. She worked for the corporation vice president and saw our sign. Carol said she was sure we could, she recognized the young lady from seeing her in the top floor cafeteria. This is the only time I give part of their identity partially away. The corporate offices are in this building, and the plant is elsewhere. I knew of several of these operations, but it did narrow it down some.

When the vice president herself walked into the front Carol recognized her right off. From her knowing both women, starting the preliminary information file was easy for her. A few short moments later, Carol walked the new client into my office. The VP as I will call her, was in charge of Billing. I knew from the start, Tex was going to be a big part of this investigation. I just did not know how hard the complicated case was going to be. The VP came prepared carrying a list of all the people in the department. The corporate president noticed the profit margin had suddenly shrunk and asked all the VP’s to look into their part of the operation and report back in two weeks.

Tex took his copy of the personnel list into his office and closed the door. I have seen him do this many times when he did not want any interruptions. He was going to shorten the list for us. I called Ralph, Ray, and Bill into my office. This is one we would have to watch close looking for the little things. The issue might be in another department, or in more than one, I told the men. The following morning an hour after Carol opened the office, Tex had the list narrowed down. I passed out the cards Carol prepared to each of the others keeping a few for myself. All of the cards were long time workers. The youngest two, I gave to Bill, and split the others between Ralph and Ray.

Tex had separated the people whose family spending exceeded their salary. You remember the last story where one was selling drugs besides the real culprit. I do, I replied. Max continued with the case story. Ralph had little to report, as did Bill. Ray still had one he was holding until he knew more. I had weeded out most of the cards I had so I met with Ray. There was something suspicious between his person and the one I had left. They sat in cubicles back to back in the office. I talked to the VP and was able to watch a copy of the security video of the inside office operations with Ray.

Let me tell you, Max said, that gets hard after an hour watching the split screen cameras. After a couple of hours my person handed a card to the person behind her that Ray picked out. As the day went along four more credit cards were passed. I met with the VP while Ray watched the video play out for that one day. The VP punched up the terminals at the two stations for the day we were watching. I had her send the raw data to Tex. When Ray reached the end of the video for the one day, he and I went back to the office.

Tex was waiting for us when we got back into the office. We met in the conference room with the spreadsheet printout of that day. Ray told Tex the terminal and times we observed the card passing of the person I had selected made the entries, and Ray’s person who took the cards and placed them in envelopes. There were eight cards passed, we saw that one day. The data Tex uncovered was the issue of new card accounts. Ray and I took that information the next morning and separately drove out to the card addresses listed. They were vacant apartments. Further investigation made by Carol showed the card holder names were deceased.

Carol called the VP up to our office. There had to be another person in billing involved, we informed the lady VP. The two we caught were involved in creating new cards for deceased persons. They mailed them to people outside who would make purchases with them. The as yet unknown person in payments received had to know them and throw them away before they reached the billing computer.

Our client was surprised seeing what we found. She was going to get with the VP in charge of payments received. She said we may get a call again some day, and would tell other people she knew that we can investigate and find the puzzling details.

Max, I said, that was a real dig into the problem case. It is a wonder how you figured it out. Come to think of it, how someone thought it up in the first place and found the right people to work it. Max smiled and said, he will have another case story soon. We stood and walked into the front office with out empty coffee cups. I set mine where Carol said, Max refilled his and walked back into his office. I said goodbye to Carol and walked to the elevator wondering if the tar smell would still be trapped in my car. When I got to it and opened the door, I found out it still smelled like tar. I drove home with all the windows open.