Death at the crossroads, p.18
Death At the Crossroads, page 18
part #2 of A Camelia Belmont Mystery Series
He grabbed the folder and lifted out the padded envelope containing the traffic preemption device. It was too light. He pressed the sides of the envelope and felt . . . nothing. When he opened the envelope, he caught his breath.
Empty.
That sneaky little bitch.
24
Scout’s Honor
Friday, February 26
Everyone knew the conference rooms were rigged with video cameras. It was even in their employment agreement. Chris Fischer had been stewing over that fact ever since he’d walked in on Anders and Kaitlyn. Why would they take the risk? Or was the risk part of the fun? Anyone with access to the security video—and Chris didn’t even know who all had that authority—would get an eyeful of Kaitlyn. He needed to be the only one controlling that image; otherwise, it was worthless.
When he got it in his head to steal the video from the office surveillance system, he knew he would need the technical skill to swap the drive and the right tools for the job. Most important, he would need to access the server without anyone else finding out. But he didn’t know how to accomplish any of that stuff. However, he did know how to plan, problem solve, and overcome obstacles by capitalizing on opportunities.
Chris’s colleagues teasingly called him Johnny Hayseed, Country Bumpkin, and even Hicktopher sometimes. It was all part of law firm hazing, and it didn’t bother him, because they weren’t entirely wrong. But there was another side to this North Dakota farm boy they knew nothing about. He was an Eagle Scout, hunter, marksman. His skills extended far beyond how to use a compass and light a fire. But for this, Chris would need all the skills he’d learned as a Scout, and then some. He was about to break a lot of rules, but it would be worth it because, when he was done, Kaitlyn would regret ever having screwed him over.
Or would she?
Chris wanted to believe Kaitlyn wasn’t as cold hearted as she’d seemed the past few weeks, and he considered whether he should bring up marriage counseling one more time. Would she agree? Laugh it off? Just ignore him? More likely, she would gaslight him: deny everything, seduce him, try to convince him it was all in his head. And based on how she’d been acting lately, his wife would go right back to screwing Anders the minute he turned his back.
No, Chris knew the marriage was over. He’d known the minute he swung open that conference room door, even if it took a while to admit it. That’s why he was about to do something he’d never expected of himself. The video footage was Chris’s ace in the hole. She couldn’t deny her adultery when it was all right there. And if he visited a bit of sweet revenge on that asshole Anders at the same time? Well, that was just gravy.
Determined not to screw it up, Chris went over the broad outline of his plan again, concentrating on filling in the fine details. But unlike mergers and corporate deals, Chris didn’t know the first thing about servers or data drives or security camera backup systems or, hell, any of it. So, he turned to YouTube, source of all knowledge.
He'd considered how to get to the files containing the security footage of Anders and Kaitlyn together, but Chris didn’t know jack about the firm’s system and he was clearly no tech geek. After watching a few videos that went right over his head, Chris realized he needed to come up with another way to accomplish his goal. A way to convince—or, better still, trick—someone into getting that footage for him.
He knew who to go to: Office Bee. Yeah, some people called her Office Bitch, but Chris had always gotten along well with Janice. And she was exactly the kind of person he needed right now: a busy little bee who knew everything that went on in the firm. Which is why, right before five o’clock, he’d nonchalantly dropped by her office to probe for intel.
“Hey Janice,” Chris said as he rapped on her door. “Got a minute?”
Office Bee looked up and took off her reading glasses, dropping them on the desk. She glanced at the clock on her computer monitor before turning back to Chris.
“It’ll have to be quick. I had no idea it was this late. How can I help?”
“I’m in a bit of a bind, and didn’t know who else to ask. I had a meeting a while back with the guy from Sunnyside Solar.” His heart rate ticked up a notch. “I have arbitration on Monday, so I want to review the meeting over the weekend. I was wondering where to find the video file.”
“Well, hon, if you need access to security footage, you’ll have to ask Dov Saminski. As Chief Security Officer, he manages all that. Even I’m not allowed to help you there,” she’d rolled her eyes.
“We keep the footage from all the cameras, though, right? I’m assuming—”
“Of course, we do. For ninety days. I gotta tell you though, I’m against all this Big Brother video surveillance crap. But then again, after what happened to that lawyer at McCaffrey Rhodes & Rodriguez, who knows? Maybe it’s for the best.”
Chris blanched at the reference. He’d heard about the incident at Camelia Belmont’s office; the threat of violence that hung over everyone these days.
“Yeah, that was pretty awful. But we just have coverage in the conference rooms—"
“The conference rooms and the front lobby all have cameras, five in total. And don’t think Saminski didn’t push for a camera in every office. But I put my foot down. That’s an HR bomb just waiting to explode, if you ask me.” She huffed a disapproving sigh. “Anyway, that’s not your problem, is it Christopher? Your problem is how to get that video file of your meeting without letting the whole office know you can’t read your own notes. Because that’s what this is about, right?”
Chris felt his face flush. “Hey, my handwriting’s not that—”
“Don’t kid yourself, hon. You shoulda been a doctor,” she laughed as she began shutting down her computer. “But if you want to view that video, you need to talk to Dov.”
“Sounds like he’s the expert.”
“If you say so,” Office Bee sighed then dropped the volume of her voice. “Personally, I think Saminski’s focused on the wrong stuff.”
“Really? How so?”
“What I mean is . . . here’s an example, he’s all uptight about the server room and wants it locked 24-7. But I pushed back, because that would be a real pain in the patootie for me. I need that space for office supplies because you lawyers never seem to get tired of making binders.” She laughed and winked. “If the door’s locked all the time, guess who’ll have to come running every time Baby Lawyer can’t find his keys? Well, I won that round. But then, on the other hand, he lets the security video just overwrite itself every three months. How’s that gonna help us out later? I mean, some of our cases go on for years. You never know what you’re gonna need ’til you need it.” She shook her head.
“If the files are backed up to the cloud, then it wouldn’t matt—”
“Oh no, not AndersLaw. I’ll never get that past the boss. He’s terrified of getting hacked!” Janice smoothed her sleek bun. “We’ve got cloud backup for some stuff, but none of our client data, bookkeeping, or even work product are in the cloud. It’s all in that little room, right there, on three computers.” She pointed at the server room.
“Really? Is that safe?” Chris couldn’t believe they didn’t have a more secure system in place.
“Hell no, it’s not safe,” Janice whispered. “But do you think I can get Mr. Anders to cough up $30k a month for a cloud-based practice management system? Also, hell no.”
Chris whistled. “Whoa. I had no idea it cost that much.”
“That doesn’t even count the new equipment we’d need on site,” Janice said. “But I came up with a workaround and—”
Chris had to get Janice to stop talking, or they’d still be here by the time Saminski came by to lock up.
“Anders is lucky to have you guarding the henhouse, you clever little fox!” He grinned. “But hey, I know you need to get going, so it sounds like I just need to catch up with Saminski and have him look up the video file.”
It couldn’t be that easy.
“Oh, honey, don’t even think about going to him without your ducks in a row. You need to give him the details. Otherwise, it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack, especially if it was a busy day of back-to-back meetings. There’s no way Saminski’s gonna waste his precious time hunting through all the files like I would. But if you have the date and time, along with the conference room number, he should be able to hand it over in about 10 seconds, flat.”
Chris paused. “Do you know when he’ll be in the office? That guy doesn’t exactly keep regular hours, and I need the video pronto.”
Janice was shoving things in her purse and stood to put on her coat. “He’s always here Wednesday mornings to meet with Mr. Anders, and I know he stops by most nights between nine and ten to make sure we’re all locked up.” She flung her purse over her shoulder. “Now, I gotta run.”
Chris walked back to his office and slid into his chair. How would he get Saminski to help him without raising a ton of red flags? It sounded like Dov could assist with a legitimate request, but how far could Chris push his luck with a not-so-legitimate motive? Since even this Eagle Scout was apparently just too dumb to figure out how to disassemble a computer and put it back together in under five minutes, he didn’t have a choice. Saminski was his best . . . no, his only option.
But he couldn’t just outright ask for the footage of Anders with Kaitlyn, because he sure as hell didn’t want Saminski seeing Kaitlyn like that. And if Saminski’s job was to protect Anders, he would no doubt delete the file the minute he figured out what was going on.
No matter how awkward it might be, Chris needed to just suck it up, wait around as late as it took, and ask Saminski for the footage of his meeting with Sunnyside Solar. That meeting had taken place earlier in the day, in the same conference room. But Chris knew how to play up his naïve reputation. If he could get Saminski to show him how to access the footage from his meeting, he should be able to find the file path of the footage he was really after.
Once Saminski showed him how to . . . wait. Why would Saminski show him anything? If Office Bee wasn’t allowed to access the security server, what made Chris think Saminski would just hand it over? Surely the Chief Security Officer would be a lot more careful than that. Since there was no way to predict Saminski’s reaction, Chris would just have to improvise, play it by ear. And capitalize on any opportunities that came along.
Time to Scout up!
As he waited for the last of his coworkers to straggle out of the office, Chris’s mind drifted to increasingly elaborate revenge fantasies for his adulterous wife and arrogant boss.
Kaitlyn would be ruined, of course. She’d have a hard time finding another job once word got around. But Anders was another matter. While exposing their affair might embarrass Anders for a few days, it wouldn’t do any permanent damage. For that matter, it would probably elevate his status in certain circles. It sure as hell wouldn’t ruin his career. But having worked closely with Anders on a few cases, Chris knew the one thing dear to his boss’s heart: money.
He needed to figure out a way to hit Anders where it would hurt, but how? How would Chris—a lowly corporate transactions associate, not even a partner—ever get an opportunity to bring Anders down? Unless he could figure out some way of hobbling the firm’s cash flow, some kind of untraceable espionage, Anders’ wealth and influence was virtually untouchable. At least by Chris. He had no power in this equation. And the firm was pretty much bullet proof. AndersLaw was profitable, highly visible in the legal community and, frankly, a desirable . . .
There it is.
AndersLaw was a perfect, fat little piggy, ready for market. This was Chris’s area of expertise: mergers and acquisitions. But who would have the money or the balls to try to buy out Aaron Anders?
It was getting late and most everyone had left, which is why raised voices surprised him. Chris pulled his door open to better hear what was going on, and overheard Jim Frost’s strident words coming from David Weisman’s office around the corner. Why were the two senior partners going at it?
Chris nonchalantly walked down the hall with a file in hand. He could hear them clearly as he lingered, out of sight, at the junction of hallways.
“I know you’re pissed, Jim, but what the hell can we do about it?” Weisman said. “We don’t have a majority, and without it, we’re screwed.”
“Well, I, for one, am not going to sit around and wait for the screwing. I’m not ready to retire just yet, but if I don’t get my money out of the deferred comp now, I might not ever see it again.” Jim muttered something Chris couldn’t pick out.
Chris’s mind was still gnawing on the juicy idea of corporate sabotage, a way to slip the rug out from under Anders when he realized the solution was right in front of him. All it would take was one timely rumor. And now was that time. Companies much bigger than AndersLaw had folded over less and Chris had seen it play out a dozen times in his role as a corporate transaction attorney. He straightened up and rounded the corner.
“Hey, how’s it going?” Chris said, smiling. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, we’re fine, and you?” Frost’s response was curt, dismissive. “Kind of a late night for you transaction types, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, arbitration on Monday. I was just on my way to make some copies,” Chris waved the file folder in his hand, “Sorry, but I couldn’t help but overhear. So, it’s true?”
Frost and Weisman exchanged a look. Those two were thick as thieves, and Chris could see they were about to clam up.
“What’s true?” Frost asked.
“Look, firm business is above my pay grade. I’m only asking because I heard a rumor,” Chris said, leaning closer.
Just one tiny fib, an unverified, but completely plausible lie.
Frost and Weisman bent their heads forward. “What kind of rumor?” Weisman asked.
“I don’t want to piss anyone off, so don’t worry, I’m keeping this close,” Chris glanced around. “But if the firm is being sold . . . Look, I just want to make sure I’ve got a job lined up if I’m not part of the deal.”
Weisman looked at Frost, then back at Chris.
“Who told you the firm is being sold?” Weisman said.
“I was at Durant’s the other night and overheard some chitchat. Some folks from Sherman Wright, I think. And I know what that means for associates like me.” Chris looked from one to the next. “I’ll probably be out on my ass, but I’d rather stay on if it’s an option.”
“Chris, those kinds of rumors are always floating around,” Weisman said. “I wouldn’t put much stock in it.”
“Okay, well, I hope that’s the case,” Chris nodded. “Because I’m sure Mrs. Anders would jump at the chance to cash out. You know, with the divorce and all.”
“You think Sherman Wright approached Suzanne about a buyout?” Chris could tell Frost’s wheels were already turning.
“Oh, no, I have no idea who they’re talking to. I thought it would be you guys. But since you haven’t heard . . .” He shrugged. “You’re right, it’s probably just gossip. Forget I said anything,” Chris said as he turned and headed back to his office. “Have a good evening!”
Chris walked back to his office, smiling to himself. Frost and Weisman had chomped down on that hook faster than he’d expected. The grin on his face broadened when he heard Frost and Weisman arguing as they headed out of the office.
Chris was methodical, the type to plot out every step of his life, but he was beginning to see how useful spontaneity could be. And now that he’d stirred up a little shit for the partners to consider, all he had to do was wait for Saminski to arrive.
It was almost nine when Jeff Petronelli, his best friend, stopped by his office.
“You still here? Thought you’d be getting some me time since the womenfolk are all at Andrea’s baby shower,” Jeff said. “I’m heading out for some ribs and brew if you wanna join me.”
“Love to man, but I’ve got an arbitration hearing coming up on Monday,” Chris pointed at a fat file on his desk. “Thought I’d get up to speed tonight so I don’t have to work over the weekend.”
“You know how I can tell you don’t have kids? Because you don’t want to work weekends!” Jeff laughed at his own joke. “Trust me, Saturday is sometimes my favorite work day.”
Chris laughed in response, but saw an opening for the next step in his plan. “How about happy hour next week?”
“I’ll have to check with Rach, but it should be fine. Anyway, I’m outta here. See ya Monday!”
“Set the alarm on your way out, Jeff,” Chris called out.
“Yes, Mommy,” Jeff called back.
Now, where the hell is Saminski?
25
Little White Lies
Friday, February 26
About a half hour after Jeff Petronelli left the office, Chris heard the staccato beeps of the code being entered and the short bingbing tone that meant the alarm was off. It had to be Saminski.
Finally.
Chris got up and headed to the lobby, calling out as he approached so he wouldn’t startle him. “Hello? Dov?”
Saminski was in the mailroom alcove just off the lobby, thumbing through a pile of envelopes.
“Oh hey, Fischer,” Saminski said. “You’re working late tonight.”
“Yeah, waiting for you, actually,” Chris said.
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” Saminski put the envelopes back in his mailbox and turned to face Chris. “Something going on?”
“No, nothing like that. I just . . .” Chris paused and swallowed. Why did Saminski make him so nervous? It was like he could see right through you with those steely grey eyes. “I need a favor, and Janice said to talk to you.”
“I’m on a bit of a tight schedule right now.” Saminski looked at his watch. “Mr. Anders is at an event this evening, so I need to get back as soon as I’ve done my rounds. Can it wait until tomorrow?”
