Dog Helps Those (Golden Retriever Mysteries) (25 page)

Tor did so, with great grace, I thought, then continued. “Rita invested in six companies, from one that promises to make a better, faster jump drive to an online community that connects expectant mothers to doctors, babysitters, and other services.”

I resisted the impulse to glance at Lili, keeping my eyes fastened on Tor. The waitress returned and we switched our focus to the entrees.

Lili had the most experience with the menu, and she guided our choices. For Sherry, who was always watching her weight, the grilled snapper with a citrus beurre blanc and a side of roasted asparagus. Lili had the same. For Tor and me, she recommended the Tuscan grilled steak with potatoes Donatello.

When the waitress had wafted away, Tor resumed his story. “
Last Monday,
anonymous comments began to appear in online forums about three of the companies in which this fund invested. Very pointed, specific details about operations issues, leadership troubles, and so on. Things only an insider would know.”

“Rita?” Lili asked.

“She is the prime suspect,” Tor said.

“But why would Rita want to sabotage companies she invested in?” I asked.

Tor picked up a piece of crusty Italian bread and buttered it. “As you know, Rita was not a nice person. Sometimes she let her temper get in the way of her business judgment. Perhaps she was angry at someone.”

“I’ve seen clients make that kind of mistake,” Sherry said. “I can understand with one company, but not three. She can’t have been that stupid.”

“There was a case,” Tor said, speaking slowly, as if he was thinking about each word. “Some years ago. A senior vice president with one of the big investment banks, in municipal finance, creating complicated loan packages for development somewhere in the Middle East.”

We were all looking at him. “Forgive me, I don’t remember the details, but a series of deals went bad. At first no one suspected anything. He was a very smart man, from one of the best schools, an excellent track record. But the losses mounted and an investigation was launched. It was discovered that he had deliberately sabotaged this series of deals because he was in collusion with a relative of the sheik, and every time a deal failed, they both pocketed an obscene default fee.”

“You think that could be the case here?” I asked. “How?”

Tor shook his head. “I have no idea. But high finance is very complicated. Look at the way some very smart people can lose millions of dollars overnight on a bad wager—and others can steal millions without anyone noticing for years. Who knows what was going on in Rita’s mind?”

We all considered that for a moment. I’d seen Rita in action—the way she could shift from anger with a human to adoration of a dog in the space of a heartbeat, the way she’d been so open to expressing her every opinion. I’d never witnessed her intelligence, but enough people had testified to it. She was clearly a very complicated woman.

“What happened once those anonymous comments appeared online?” I asked.

“Any piece of negative information can trigger an avalanche of trading on Wall Street—especially something like this, which smells like inside knowledge. Suddenly everyone wanted to sell StanVest shares—in every fund, not just the high-tech one. The exchange had no choice but to suspend trading.”

The waitress delivered our entrees, and we began to eat, with many comments about how delicious the food was. “This was a wonderful choice, Lili,” Sherry said. “We’ll have to come back here again.”

“I love this place,” Lili said. “It’s convenient to Penn Station and to Broadway, and Donatello does a great pre-theater dinner, too.”

Sherry reached into her tiny scallop shell-shaped purse and pulled out her card. “If we depend on the boys nothing will ever happen,” she said, handing it to Lili. “Call me and we’ll set something up.”

Lili retrieved her own card from her shoulder bag and handed it to Sherry.

“Isn’t it sweet,” I said to Tor. “They’re like real businesspeople.”

Tor laughed. “You are playing with fire, my friend,” he said.

Lili smiled sweetly at me, and in a perfect imitation of Margaret Hamilton, said, “I’ll get you, my pretty. And your big dog, too.”

Everyone laughed, and we went back to our food. Then Lili turned to Tor and asked, “What happens to the companies Rita invested in?”

“I don’t know the specifics of their agreements with StanVest,” Tor said. “Usually in such cases, the company has a milestone schedule they must meet in order to receive the next disbursement. Of course, if the fund no longer has the money to meet its obligations, then the companies must look elsewhere for financing. If they are unable to find it, then…” He shrugged. “But then, such companies are always a high-risk proposition. For everyone involved.”

I thought of Rita, whose risk – in whatever way—had ultimately led to her death.

“When on Monday
did this start
?” I asked. “Do you know?”

Tor pulled out his Blackberry, and Sherry groaned. “I made him promise to put that away during dinner. But you had to ask him.”

“Only a few minutes, my love,” Tor said. While he punched a series of keys, I pulled my own phone out and dialed Rick Stemper.

“Boys and their toys,” Lili said.

When Rick answered, I asked, “
Did you ever get Rita’s time of death? And do you know w
hat time
her
body
was
discovered last Monday?”

“Why?”

“
I’ll explain it to you later. Right now I just
want to know.”

He huffed out a breath that I’m sure was intended to demonstrate his irritation with my Hardy Boy antics.
“
Coroner puts time of death at approximately six p.m. Sunday.
She had a kennel assistant who came in at seven
on Monday morning
to feed and clean up after the dogs in the barn. When she hadn’t come out of the house by eleven, he went inside to look for her. He called 911 then.
What have you dug up?
”

“Nothing concrete. But I’ll let you know once I put the pieces together.”
I hung up as Tor looked up from his Blackberry. “The first
comments were actually posted Sunday night at a few minutes after eleven o’clock. Could they have been made by Rita herself
?”

“
No. She was dead on Sunday evening.
But if the killer had invested with her, and knew the fund was going to fall apart with her death, they might be connected.”

“Enough death,” Sherry said. “This was supposed to be a nice dinner so we could meet Lili.”

Lili looked over at me
and I knew I should have given her more of an indication that she’d be under a microscope
. “I wanted to talk to Tor about StanVest,” I said to her. “I can’t control
if
he told Sherry
this was going to be about meeting you
.”

“Now, you are going to get me in trouble, Steve,” Tor said.

Sherry finished her grilled
snapper
and pushed the plate away from her. “We’re multi-tasking here. But I can already tell Lili is a thousand times better for you than Mary ever was.”

“Tell me about her,” Lili said. “Steve is very diplomatic.”

“Because Steve and Tor are such good friends, we spent a lot of time with Mary while they lived in New York,” she said. “Mary always had – issues.”

I looked at her. “Really? What kind of issues?”

“Steve,” Sherry said. “Have you forgotten her already? How she was always sniping at you to get a better job, to work out at the gym, to have your hair cut or wear nicer clothes?”

I did remember, but I hadn’t realized it was so obvious to everyone else.

She turned to Lili. “Steve is a sweetheart, but you have to have a high tolerance for goofy. Mary didn’t.”

“Goofy!” I said.

“I can see that,” Lili said. “Have you seen him with Rochester?”

“Ah, the famous Rochester,” Tor said. “We have heard a great deal about this mythical character but never met him.”

“Excuse me, I’m sitting right here,” I said.

They trampled over me. Before dinner was over, we had made plans for Tor and Sherry to come out to Stewart’s Crossing the following weekend so they could meet Rochester. “Do you like flea markets?” Lili asked.

“Absolutely!” Sherry said. “I’d love a good antiquing afternoon.”

The waitress reappeared and w
e ordered a round of cappuccinos
. “And dessert?” Tor asked.

“I couldn’t eat another bite,” Sherry said, dabbing her lips with her napkin.

“It’s always like this,” Tor said mournfully. The edges of his mustache tipped down and he looked like a basset hound.

Lili came to his rescue, turning to Sherry. “If you like chocolate, you must try Donatello’s
baci d’alassio
. They’re little hazelnut chocolate kisses. So tiny, they have almost no calories, but they’re full of flavor.”

“Excellent!” Tor said, slapping his hand on the table. “Bring us a plate of them!” He shooed the waitress away before Sherry could complain.

Li
li’s cell phone rang. “It’s Van,” she said.

She answered, and told him where we were. “He says he can come by,
i
f that’s all right?”

“I’d like to talk to him. You don’t mind, do you?” I asked Tor and Sherry.

“Go right ahead,” Tor said.

Sherry and Lili talked about antique hunting while we waited for Van to arrive.

“
Can you get me a list of the companies in that high-tech fund of Rita’s?” I asked Tor. “I’d like to know which ones had the bad comments posted about them. You said only three, right?”

Tor nodded.

“I wonder if there is anything special about those three—or the other three that didn’t have anything posted. I’d also like to see if I can make any connections to the people my friend Rick has been investigating—the ones who had access to Rita’s barn and to the poison that was used to kill her. If Rita was already dead by the time those comments were posted, then someone else put them up. And if only Rita had access to the information that went into those posts—then maybe the killer took the material from Rita after killing her.”

“That’s a big jump, Steve,” Sherry said.

“I agree,” I said. “And I know I’m not a cop. But my friend is one, and if I can provide him with some information, then maybe he can use it to make an arrest.” I looked back at Tor.

“I
t will take a little research, but I can put my assistant onto it tomorrow morning,” he said.

“That would be great.” I took a sip of my cappuccino.
I felt like I was finally on track to help Rick find out who had killed Rita. Even though I hadn’t liked her, she was a human being, and she deserved justice.

I looked up and saw Van Dryver at the hostess stand, and waved to him. He pulled a chair up at the end of the table, next to Lili, and slid into it. She introduced him to Tor and Sherry.

“We’ve spoken on the phone,” Van said to Tor. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Van wrote the article for the
Journal
about StanVest,” I said to Tor
, though I was pretty sure he already knew
.
Then
I turned to
Van
. “Are you still investigating?”

He caught the
ballerina waitress’s
eye and ordered himself a cappuccino
, then returned his gaze to me
. “Yup. I just finished a story for tomorrow’s paper.”

“Any chance of getting a heads up?” I asked.

Tor took over before Van could answer.
“
Let me guess,” he said. “You are focusing on the rumors about the companies that StanVest Hi-Tech Seven invested in.”

Van eyed him carefully. “You’re very good,” he said.

Tor picked up his cappuccino and took a sip. “Yes.”

He waited. I waited. The entire table seemed to be holding its collective breath to see who would break first.

Van shrugged. “It’ll be in the paper tomorrow morning. I spoke to each of the companies involved about the rumors, and for the most part, they’re true.”

“I assumed so,” Tor said. “They had that ring of authenticity that only an insider could have provided.”

“Take the Baby Connection,” Van said, and I winced. Why had he chosen that example? Did he know about Lili’s background? Or was I too sensitive because of my own?

Van picked up a sugar packet and shook it as he spoke. “I spoke to the CEO and she admitted everything. But she swore the only people who knew that stuff were her executive team, her attorneys, her investment bankers, and Rita Gaines. Same thing with each of the companies I talked to. The only common thread was Rita.”

The
waitress delivered
Van’s cappuccino
as if she were Salome serving up John the Baptist’s head and then fluttered away.