Avalanche (A Stone Mountain Mystery Book 3) (12 page)

Kalin sat beside Helen in the night auditor’s office. Large by resort standards, the office’s windows filled two of the walls, and a pale blue carpet stretched luxuriously across the room. The bright light highlighted the dark circles under Helen’s eyes. Between the theft and the promotion, she had a lot to stress about. “Let’s see what you have.”

Helen handed Kalin the reports provided by IT. She turned to the computer and showed Kalin the site the night auditor had left on the screen.

Kalin’s scalp prickled, and she moved her gaze toward a poster of Stone Mountain. “That girl looks sixteen. Is there more?”

“You need to see more? I think this is enough.”

“You’re right. I’m wondering how much of this stuff he was looking at. I can understand why the staff wants us to deal with this, and I certainly have no issue firing him today.”

They waited for Simon. Kalin took in the high performance skis leaning against the wall. A set of touring skis rested beside his downhill skis. A water stain underneath the ends of the skis indicated Simon left wet skis there to dry. “That’s a bit sloppy.”

Helen glanced at the skis. “He used to store those in Jessica’s office because hers was closer to the hill.”

“I know. He moved them the same day Jessica was fired.”

Simon arrived and slouched low in his chair, his posture indicating defeat before the conversation even started. He’d tucked his white dress shirt into neatly pressed Chinos. Not one blond hair stuck out of place, but Kalin could smell him from across the room. An odor of sweat oozed from his pores as if he were already stressed about the meeting. She wrinkled her nose and tried not to breathe deeply.

Helen looked the night auditor directly in the eyes, and Kalin was impressed by her demeanor. “It has come to our attention that you’ve been accessing the Internet during your night shift,” Helen said.

“Damn it,” Simon whispered, dropping his chin to his chest.

“Accessing the Internet for personal use is against company policy. If you weren’t accessing pornographic sites, we might be able to let you off with a written warning, however, the sites you were looking at are forbidden by our business code of conduct,” Helen said, sounding like she read from a script. “We’re going to let you go. We have paperwork for you to sign, then we’re done here.” She passed several sheets to Simon.

He left the papers resting untouched on the desk. “Isn’t there anything I can do?”

Helen’s face was a ceramic mask. “I’m sorry, but no.”

Simon gave Helen a smile that would’ve been hard for most women to resist. “Please. You know me. I need this job.”

Helen shook her head, but the mask remained in place. “This is about breaking company policy and which sites in particular you were accessing, not about whether you need this job.” She slid the list of sites across the desk closer to Simon.

“What am I going to tell Natalie?”

“Who’s Natalie?” Kalin asked.

“My wife.” Simon remained motionless, staring at the papers. “Helen?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re friends with her. You know how she’ll take this.”

“She won’t hear anything from us,” Helen said.

“If Jessica were here, she wouldn’t fire me.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” Kalin said. “She’d follow policy.”

“You don’t know her. She’s loyal to her friends.” He lifted his eyes to Helen. “Unlike you.”

Helen started to speak, but Kalin interrupted her. “Simon, there’s no reason to take this out on Helen. The incident was reported to her, and she came to me for advice.”

“You’re one to make accusations. It’s your brother who ripped off the resort.”

Other than a slight heat low on Kalin’s neck, she managed not to react. “That’s not what we’re here to discuss.”

“It’s too coincidental that he disappeared after the theft. He’s probably spending the money right now.”

Obviously Simon had lashed out at her for being fired, and Kalin gave him a moment to compose himself. Still, the idea made her nauseated. She would not believe Roy stole the money, pretended to die, then took off. He wouldn’t do that. Not to her. Not to her mom.

Instead of calming down, Simon gave one more poke at Kalin. “Read the radio reports from the day your brother disappeared. Even ski patrol thinks he was up to something. You’ll see what I mean.”

Kalin took a deep breath. “This conversation has gone off track. The issue today is your termination. It’s time for you to leave.”

“Maybe you and Roy stole the money together.”

“Taking your anger out on me is not going to help. We need you to leave, or we’ll have security escort you out.”

“Be careful what you do here. Stone Mountain is a small resort, and Holden’s a small town.” On his way out the door, Simon turned back. He looked as if he might say something and then changed his mind. They watched him stalk along the hallway until they could no longer see him.

* * *

Kalin stomped the fifteen-minute trek back to her office. Firing Simon didn’t rank on her list of fun things to do, even if he deserved to be terminated. And no matter what her intentions were, she couldn’t stop Simon’s comment about Roy taking off with the money from niggling at her.

Not paying attention, she caught her heel on a rock, tripped and scraped her palms on the sand and dirt used to de-ice the roads. She pushed herself upright and wiped grit from her hands. Her palms stung. Her eyes teared. Taking a ragged breath, she kicked the offending rock and continued toward her office.

By the time she arrived at the administration building, she stopped feeling sorry for herself and refocused on work. She strode toward the IT department, intent on asking for information about everything Simon had been doing on his computer for the last month.

Muffled voices drifted from the office. She poked her head around the edge of the doorframe. Constable Miller was talking to Cameron Denham. She stood in the doorway, waiting to be acknowledged.

Cameron had been working in the IT department for twenty-plus years. He’d graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in computer science at a time when punch cards were still used. He’d been through several financial crises at the resort and was skilled at saving a dollar. He’d pieced together both the phone and computer systems with parts purchased on eBay or anywhere else he could get a deal. He wasn’t up on the latest technologies, but he was the only one around who understood the systems completely.

Cameron was in the middle of an explanation of telephone technology. “Both calls came through the internal exchange, but the problem is our technology is old. We have a list of all calls made to the front desk, but we don’t know where the calls were transferred to.”

Miller wrote in his notebook. “So you can’t confirm Helen got a call?”

Cameron shook his head. “I can tell you we didn’t get a call from any bank. I checked the numbers received at the main exchange that afternoon and none of them belonged to a bank.”

“I’ll need the numbers.” Miller lifted his head from his notebook and spotted her. “Kalin?”

“Sorry to interrupt. Can I talk with you privately?” Kalin asked.

Miller removed his cap and tucked it under his arm. “Sure.”

They moved to a conference room on the opposite side of the hallway. The pine table shone from a recent polishing, and the chairs had been placed straight against the table’s edge. The room overlooked the ski hill, the Alpine Tracks lift station and part of the hotel across the lane.

Both Kalin and Miller remained standing. Kalin rubbed her raw palms together and composed herself. She noted Miller examining her, probably taking stock. Miller could star in a calendar for police officers, similar to the kind used for hot firefighters, although Kalin suspected he was unaware of how his looks affected women.

“Are you ever going to tell me about your chin?”

“I drove a snowmobile too fast and hit the windshield, but that’s not what I want to talk to you about. Something happened today I think might be related to the theft.”

Instead of answering, Miller chuckled.

Kalin turned to see what he’d laughed at. One of the hotel guests hadn’t closed the curtain and unknowingly showed off his butt. “Eww. I didn’t need to see that.”

“Me neither.” Miller angled his body, so he wasn’t looking out the window. “So what do you have?”

The conversation was the first relaxed moment they’d had together since the theft and the avalanche, and maybe that meant Miller didn’t really suspect her. “Helen and I fired the night auditor, Simon Crane, this morning. He used the Internet to access porn sites. The photos were of young girls.”

“Okay. I’ll take a report and check if this falls under the child pornography laws.”

Getting suspicion off Roy and onto someone else was a priority for Kalin, and she planned to use every opportunity to make that happen. “That would be great, but I’m not explaining this well. Simon brings receipts to the finance center every morning, usually at the same time the safe is being opened. He knows the exact amount of money kept in the safe each night. I’m not saying he stole the money, but I thought you should know he could have seen the combination.”

Miller made a note in his black book. “Anything else?”

“I got the feeling he’s friends with Jessica Scott. He said he wouldn’t have been fired if she was still his boss.”

“You’re not supposed to be working on this.”

“I’m not. Firing Simon had nothing to do with the theft, and I don’t think Turner wants me to hide information from you. He just doesn’t want me investigating.”

“How’s Ben doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“With calling off the search.”

“He’s okay. I know he feels horrible, and he’s dealing with it, but they’re out searching again today.” Kalin resisted the temptation to call Ben. He’d call if he had any new information. If only they could find Roy, then her mom could have a real funeral instead of a memorial service. Turner wouldn’t allow resources to be allocated for an endless number of searches. If nothing happened today, the searches were probably over.

“My mom said you called her.”

“I did.”

“Any reason you were asking about Jack?”

“Look at the time. I’ve got to go.”

“Ha ha. I should’ve known you wouldn’t answer me.”

* * *

“I need to see what Simon Crane has been working on for the last month on his computer. I’d like access to everything he did.” Kalin hovered in the IT office. Following up on what she’d overheard was a priority.

“Can I ask why?” Cameron said.

Kalin stalled, giving herself time to decide how much she could tell him without breaking privacy laws.

Cameron hit the restart button on a server tucked in the corner of his office. “I can’t give you information without a good reason. I’ve already provided Helen with the list of sites he’d been looking at.”

“I have reason, but please understand this is a confidential conversation.” Kalin gave him a brief description of her meeting with Simon. “Constable Miller will investigate whether his actions fall under child pornography laws. I need to make sure he has all the relevant information.”

“Did you know Simon worked in IT in Calgary before he was the night auditor?”

“No, but that would explain how he bypassed the firewall to access porn sites. Listen, I heard the end of your conversation with Miller. Could you give me the phone numbers you mentioned?”

“Why not? I seem to be giving you everything else.”

Kalin smiled at his sense of humor.

She returned to her office and opened her email. Cameron had sent her the information she’d requested in record time. Here was a man who understood priorities. He’d given her access to Simon’s hard drive along with the full list of Internet sites he’d searched over the last month. Gotta love a good IT department. She couldn’t imagine the same freedom to access information in her government job. The paperwork alone would have stopped her from making such a request.

Kalin scanned Simon’s email, found a few non-work related messages, but nothing of interest. She checked his folders and read the titles of files. She opened a folder called
Front Desk
. Inside the folder, she discovered two more folders. One called HD1 and the other HD2.

Curious, she double clicked on HD1. The files pertained to financial information about the resort. One spreadsheet contained a list of all fulltime employees, their years of service, salary and a calculation of termination packages.
What the heck?

Why would Simon have this and whom did HD1 and HD2 belong to? She backed up a level in the folders and studied the rest of the contents. HD1 belonged to James Turner. She clicked over to HD2. As far as she could tell, it belonged to the director of finance. So how had Simon copied these to his computer? And more importantly, why?

In the finance director’s folder, she discovered a financial evaluation of the resort, a list of assets and debt, and a five-year projection of income.