Office Play: Freaky Geek Series (26 page)

Chapter Thirty-Four

Jeanette was getting her house together, making sure it was presentable. This was the first full day that she had—and she was wide awake. The gang was coming over. That included Doug. He was a top notch investigator when it came to big time stolen merchandise. Like private jets. So his ears really perked up when she first told him about her dilemma. And he was more than happy to help.

The doorbell rang. She checked her watch. Someone was early.

She went to the door. It was Adam.

“Hello gorgeous.” He bent down and kissed her on the cheek. “May I come in?”

Jeanette first just stood there. Looking at the beautiful creature named Adam. He was dressed in jeans, a simple sweater and loafers. And he still gave the appearance of a male runway model. Not fair. “Sure. Come on in.”

“Meow!”

“This is Oscar.”

“Hello Oscar,” Adam said, bending down. Friendly cat?”

“He’s picky about his friends.”

As if the cat wanted to make her out as a liar, he jumped on Adams legs and purred.

“Traitor.”

Adam laughed. He stood up with the cat in his arms and finished walking into the house. “I know I’m early, but I wanted some alone time with you. At least enough to see your place.”

“No problem. After you put down your new friend, I’ll give you the grand tour,” Jeanette said, pointing to Oscar in his arms.

Adam put Oscar down, and he ran to his kitty condo. Jeanette sat her duster down. “Okay this is the living room, obviously. And the kitchen is through that swinging door. As you can see, I’m not into the open concept.”

Adam laughed.

“And if you walk down here….” they moved towards a long hallway, then turned. “…is my formal dinning room.”

“Love the dinning table. French Provincial?”

“Yes.” She took him by the hands and led him to her office/library. “This is where the magic happens. It’s in a little disarray, but I did clean it up this morning so it’s eighty percent there.” She chuckled.

“If fits your personality,” Adam said, walking around the room and looking at her various books. “But I have to disagree.”

“Huh?”

“I thought the magic happens in your bedroom.” He smiled wickedly.

“Adam.”

The doorbell rang, and the two went to her door. It was Doug.

“Hey lady.” He came in and hugged her. “How are you?”

“Great, come in. I want to meet someone. “This is my boyfriend and co-worker Adam. He’s been helping me with this whole situation.”

“Great, we need all the help we can get on this. Glad to meet you.” He stuck out his hand. She noticed Adam was looking a bit pensive at first, but seemed to relax after she introduced him as her boyfriend.

“Where’s the rest of the crew?” Doug asked.

The doorbell rang again.

“That should be them.” Sure enough Renee, Noah and Sam where at the door. Sam was carrying several boxes of pizza.

“Hello,” Renee said. “Ready to get down to business.”

“I’ll say. Come on in folks. The rest of the gang is here. Sam let me show you to the kitchen where you can put those.”

“Thanks.”

***

Adam watched as everyone interacted with each other. But he was more interested in Doug. He seemed a bit too friendly at first. But the fact that Jeanette introduced him to Doug as her boyfriend didn’t leave him.

“So, you’re Jeanette’s new beau?” Doug said, coming towards him.”

That’s what she said damit, Adam thought.

“Good. Glad to see her dating since her divorce. She’s been sort of a workaholic and homebody.”

“And he’s a huge upgrade, from ex-hubby,” Renee said, coming behind him and grinning.

Adam felt honored and uncomfortable at the same time.

“Okay guys, let’s get started,” Sam said, coming into the room with Jeanette. “We don’t want to waste anymore time on this, especially since word in the office is that you two have really been investigating this.”

“Step into my office,” Jeanette said, waving her hands toward her room.

They all gathered in her office. There was plenty of room where everyone had a seat. Adam made sure he sat next to her. And Noah, followed suit by sitting next to Renee.

“Okay, this is how we’re going to do this,” Doug said, taking out his laptop and typing. “Adam, you’re the IT geek, I got clearance for you from the proper authorities for you to hack and steal…ahem copy their email addresses and passwords of the people in question.”

“Great.”

“This is pretty straight forward. Once we look at the emails that have been going back and forth between these people, you can hack in and pretend to be them. But first we’ll just give the perp a little virus on their end so they can’t contact the others to let them know what’s going on. Get it?”

“Got it,” Adam said. He knew what he had to do. It wouldn’t be hard at all.

“Now the rest of us, we’re going to be making purchases on those online auction sites. I’ve been looking at the list of stuff that’s gone missing from your company, Samantha, and the stuff on those sites. It’s all there. I’ve totaled up at least sixty thousand dollars worth of merchandise. And it’s constantly being replaced once stuff sells.”

“This is crazy,” Sam said, shaking her head.

“Don’t worry, we’re that close to catching them,” Renee said, as she put her forefinger and thumb together.

“Yeah, this should take no more than a few days, a week at the most. The main thing we don’t want to screw up, is the car sales. Online auction purchases are basically anonymous. They’re just going by the info you provide. You could use a postal stop as long as there is a street address in most cases. But these people have been in contact with people that want to buy your company cars,” Doug said, placing his laptop down and getting up.

“Where are the cars going?” Jeanette asked.

“Saudi Arabia, China.” This is pretty common. It’s a sophisticated theft too. I didn’t know you had people in your company that could pull that off. Not saying they’re dummies, but one doesn’t just wake up in the morning and say, I’m gonna sell cars on the black-market.” Doug mused.

“They’ve had plenty of time to practice I guess, Sam said. “And I’m not even going to say because of a woman scorned. I think they saw they could get away with something and they just kept doing it. Trying to make it look like Adam and his crew is just convenient.”

“Well, we’re about to show them that they can’t get away with it. Adam, you and I need to get cracking. You guys, I’m getting your online auction accounts with verified addresses. Once I do that, I can go in and make it look like you’re long time members.”

Everyone got up and stretched, then headed to the kitchen for pizza. Adam sat with Doug as they put their part of the plan in action.

“So I take it from Jeanette you know your way around a software program or two.” Doug typed frantically on his laptop.

“Yep. But I don’t do that regularly, I just did this time, I’m not a hacker or anything,” Adam said. He felt like he needed to justify his action. He knew Jeanette worked with this guy during her stint looking into mafia wrong doings. He didn’t want to give off the impression that he did this just for fun.

“I understand. It needed to be done and we’re glad you were able to do it. But from now on you’ll be under the watchful eye of the Feds. So when this goes to court, we’ll have your back. I think these creeps were smart enough not to use company equipment for most of their deeds. Letting people bring their personal laptop was a godsend to them. You might want to change that policy.”

“That’s good to know.”

“Now, even though you might know how to hijack an email account, just so it’s a official, I’m going to walk you through and get you started,” Doug said, as his fingers flew over his keyboard. “They have three contacts for the cars. All are overseas.”

“So this is definitely a sophisticated black-market deal.” Adam said.

“Most definitely. I think there is one mastermind for this part of the embezzlement. The online auction stuff anyone can do, but this….the cars, you need contacts.”

“Wow. I would never have guessed anyone of my co-workers would get into this,” Adam said, scratching the back of his head.

“The lure of big money does it every time. Okay, read these emails between your co-worker and these buyers,” Doug said, turning the laptop to him.

Adam looked at the email exchanges. Doug was right; this was very sophisticated. After reading the emails one by one for about twenty minutes, Adam got the gist of the exchanges. “Okay, I’m ready to become one of these guys.”

“Great,” Doug said.

After he typed a few things, he grabbed a piece of paper and handed it to him. Here is your email addy. I will take one of the other two guys. Now let me just give these jokers a virus and we’ll be in business.”

After about ten minutes the other guys email accounts and whatever else they had going was down. “Okay we need to act quickly. They can go to another computer when they see something is wrong. So it’s a matter of you getting to Laura and her bunch before they do,” Doug said.

“So when do I make contact?” Adam asked.

“The last email stated they will get in touch later tomorrow evening. So email them then. Ask for two cars. As soon as that happens I’m sure we’ll see an order for two cars. Just which office will initiate it remains to be seen.” Doug got up with laptop in hand.

“Okay you guys, time to shop on the online auctions for office supplies.”

Jeanette, Sam, Renee and Noah came and sat around Doug. Adam sat in the back and studied his assignment some more. We couldn’t wait to catch these thieves. According to Doug, they were going to go away for a long time too.

“Now, you all have your online auction accounts. As you can see it looks like you’ve been a member for at least six years and you got great star ratings. This is what you need to do. The addresses I have set up and verified are street mailboxes. When you place your orders they will go there. Of course those boxes belong to the Feds.”

“How should we order?” Jeanette asked.”

“Spread it out, not all at once. You order some things today. Renee can order in a couple of days and Noah can order some things over the weekend. Order several items, but make sure at least one of those items are high end, like a laptop that can support heavy graphics or software.”

They all nodded.

“I looked over this one car transaction,” Adam said. “It’s one of the Benzes.”

“Damn!” Sam said. “Who knows how many cars are overseas.”

“From what I’ve seen, at least fourteen,” Jeanette said.

“And no one was the wiser,” Renee said, shaking her head.

“Don’t worry, by next week this time, they will be facing a judge,” Doug said, closing his laptop. “Okay we all have our assignments, lets get to work.”

Everyone got up and headed to the kitchen again. The pizza was good. Adam went over to Jeanette and placed his hand on the small of her back.

“I’ll be glad when this is over. I haven’t even seen your bedroom yet.” He winked.

“Me too.” Jeanette said, taking his hand in hers.

“But you know what?” Adam asked, whispering in her ear. “That never stopped us before. I mean who needs a bed to make love?”

Jeanette looked up at him wild eyed.

Later that evening Jeanette made her first online auction purchase. It was for a box of binders, brochure covers, and a laptop. Fifteen minuets later she got confirmation that she would be getting them in three business days.

“What did you order from Laura again, Adam?” Sam asked.

He went over the detailed list.”

“Give it a couple of days and we’ll see it on the auction. Noah, you can order half that stuff, Renee the other half. Those things we will definitely need to help our case. They’re recent.”

“We’ll keep an eye out for them. We don’t want anyone else getting them,” Renee said.

“That means all of us have to be vigilant. The first one to see them up, order or let Sam and the others know you saw them so they can order,” Doug said, pointing Adam and Jeanette.

“Looks like we have some long days and nights ahead of us,” Jeanette said, patting Adam on the arm.

“But just think, after this is over you and Adam can really get into each other,” Sam said, smiling at the both of them.

Adam smiled even harder.

Chapter Thirty-Five

It was the next working week. Jeanette was sitting in her office looking at the online store that sold all their stolen items. The stuff Adam ordered hadn’t come up yet. But it was just a matter of time.

Adam was to contact Henry. They figured out he was the mastermind behind the black market cars.

Jeanette came into Adams office.

“So, when are you to make the first contact?”

Adam checked his watch. “In a few minutes. Since I’m suppose to be over seas, the timing is prefect since the last thing the buyer said he’ll contact them in the evening his time.”

“Are you going to do it here?”

“Nah, Doug is meeting me at the Bread Basket. We’re eating there too. Want to join us?”

“Oh yeah, love their food. And while you’re doing that I can still be checking for those items. Last night Renee called and told me she ordered some things. Not your items though. Can you believe this?”

Adam shook his head. “It’s surreal. A black-market setup under our nose.”

“This is more intriguing than any of the mafia cases I’ve been on,” Jeanette said, wringing her hands.

“How so?” Adam asked, looking skeptical.

“Let’s face it. You expect stuff like this from the known criminal element. But normal nine to five people.” She shook her head. “Something all together different.”

“You got a point,” Adam looked at his watch. “It’s time. Leave about five minutes after me so we don’t attract any attention. Meet us there.”

“Will do.”

Jeanette arrived at the Bread Basket. Doug and Adam where in the back, in the corer in a booth.

“Boy, you two want to make sure you were really incognito.” Jeanette chuckled.

“Just like old times,” Doug said, patting her on the arm. “Adam is in the middle of the transaction.”

Jeanette’s eyes grew wide. “You mean he’s talking to Henry now about the cars?”

“Yep. The buyer’s name is Carmine. So Adam is now him.”

Jeanette went over to the other side of Adam and watched him type. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Henry was describing the cars in question. He also told the ‘buyer’, Carmine what needed to be done before he shipped.

Henry: The cars will be here at our facility in the States in a day. Once there I have a mechanic friend do all the detailing. We’ll remove and replace tags as usual. Grills will be replaced too as always.

Carmine: Okay when can expect these. I need them immediately.

Henry: Since you need them urgently, it will cost you an extra $3500.00 each. I need to pay customs on the dock for rush.

Adam looked over at Jeanette and shook his head in what looked like total disgust.

Carmine: Same account for the extra money?

Henry: Yes, the 35222651 455236425 account. They’re waiting for the wire to push it through.

Adam did some scribbling and gave the paper to Doug. Doug looked it over and started typing something on his laptop.

Carmine: Now?

Henry: Yes. I need to make arrangements as soon as possible. Going to the dock to meet with customs. So as soon as the money is in the account, I can make the transaction.

Doug gave Adam a piece of paper.

Carmine: Wiring the money in now.

They waited for about five minutes.

Henry: Good. I will contact you when all transactions are done and the cars are ready to ship.

Carmine: Will look out for your email.

Henry disconnected.

“Unbelievable,” Jeanette shook her head. “This racket is so sophisticated, yet too easy for anyone to do.”

“Yeah, that’s the scary thing,” Doug said. “Anyone with the right equipment, the contacts and bribe the right custom agents, anyone can do this.”

“Did I do good on this? Nothing should have tipped him off?” Adam asked.

“Perfect. Just like the other transactions. Now we need to follow whomever Henry sends to the docks to give the money to the customs agent. We’ll have surveillance. We want any and all pictures.”

Jeanette’s cell vibrated. It was Renee. Adam’s stuff was on the auction. She was contacting Noah too.

“Your stuff made it to the online auction,” Jeanette said to Adam.

“Great, now let me see where the actual order is. Did she double it, cancel it or backordered.”

Adam started typing frantically again. He then studied the screen.

“Back ordered!”

“Come on, we’re not done yet, but almost there.” Doug said, shutting down his laptop. “Tell me what Laura says when you get back to the office. I need to go and get men on the field.”

“Bye Doug, and thanks again for all your help,” Jeanette said.

“No prob. Like I said, just like old times.” He patted her on the shoulder and winked. He then left the restaurant.

Jeanette leaned back in the booth and began finishing up her pasta dish.

“So you and Doug go way back,” Adam said, sipping his soup. It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah, during our mafia investigations.” She sipped her soup too. “Yum.”

“You dated him?”

Jeanette laughed, almost spitting out her broccoli and cheese.

“Well, I guess your relationship with him was joyful,” Adam said, looking disgruntled.

“Adam, Doug is gay. He has no more interests in me than the man on the moon.”

“Oh.”

Jeanette saw his face turn beet red.

They returned to the office about ten minutes apart. Jeanette noticed Laura rushing getting her purse and other things together.

“Hey Laura.” Jeanette said causally.

“Oh, hello. Back from lunch?”

“Yep. Oh, I need to order some special items, you have time?”

“Uh…no, in fact I’m late for an appointment as it is. Leave it on my desk and I’ll get to it as soon as I return.”

“Okay.”

Jeanette watched her as she flew down the hall. Strange. She headed to Adam’s office, but he was already walking out. He pointed to her and to Sam’s office.

She did a quick turn and headed that way.

Once in the office, Adam entered and closed the door.

“Got some news?” Sam asked.

“Oh yeah,” Adam said, nodding. He went over in great detail his transaction with Henry and mentioned about his stuff showing up on the online auction.

“In fact, as soon as I arrived back from lunch, Laura informed me that my stuff was back ordered and didn’t know when it was coming in.”

“This is just….”

“Unbelievable,” Jeanette finished. “Wait!”

“What?” Adam leaned over in his chair.

“Laura was rushing out of here like a bat outta hell. She could be—”

“The customs contact,” Adam finished.

Jeanette went for her cell and dialed Doug.

“Hello.”

“It’s Laura, she’s heading to the dock, she left about fifteen minuets ago.”

“Damn. What’s her car look like?”

“What’s her car look like?” she asked Adam.

“A red Ford convertible, license plate 5J2k00V.”

“I heard him. I’m on it.” Doug disconnected.

“Wow, you knew that off the top of your head.’ Jeanette mused.

“It’s my business to know the cars, I assign parking key cards to some people.”

“Ahh.”

“I’m gonna need a drink after this is all over,” Sam said.

***

Adam walked Jeanette to her office. They went in with Adam shut the door behind them. “I’m with Sam. I could use a stiff drink.”

“This job has been full of surprises.”

“I hope not all bad,” Adam said, coming to her side.

“No,” Jeanette said, moving in closer to his body. He loved the warmth she gave off. He bent down and kissed her forehead.

“I can’t wait until this is over.”

“We don’t have to wait long.”

As if on cue, Jeanette’s cell rang. She answered. “Hello. Great! I’ll tell them. Right.”

“Was that Doug?” Adam asked, taking a seat at her desk. He looked at it for a moment remembering that first day he had her on it—literally.

“No that was Renee. She and Noah bought all the stuff you ordered from Laura.” She smiled

“Great. That’s two things down. The stuff you ordered and my stuff. Now these cars,” Adam said stretching.

Jeanette cell went off again.

“Hello. Oh great!” She looked over at Adam. “Doug spotted her, they’re at the docks now. They’re taking pictures.” She returned back to her phone. “This is great, we’ll get them yet. Okay, see you then.”

“Going good.”

“Yep. He said all they have to do now is track the cars from the shop where it’s changed, to the dock where it will be shipping from.”

“They are going to go down big time,” Adam said, slapping his hands together.

“I wonder how many more people are in this. It can’t just be Henry, Laura and Miriam,” Jeanette said, rubbing her chin.

“Well besides the foreign buyers of the cars on the other end, the custom officers, I don’t know. But you’re right; it has to be more people involved.”

It was the end of the day. Laura arrived back at the office. She went over Adam’s order and told him that the vendor said that they ran out of inventory.

Whatever. All he and the rest where waiting for were the arrival of their stuff to the post office mailboxes that Doug provided. That was tangible, proof positive evidence.

“Let’s go back to your house,” Adam said. “I want a complete tour.”

They packed up their things and went to Sam’s office. Sam waved them in. They shut the door behind them.

“Are you two going to be together this evening?”

“Uh…yeah, “ Adam said.

“Good. I just spoke with Renee and Noah, they are at her place. I’ll go over there. Doug doesn’t want us so spread out just in case this all comes down tonight.”

“You think they’ll be able to catch them this soon?” Jeanette asked.

“I guess. All they need to see is that it’s our cars and them start making changes. It takes no time. Once the cars leave the garage….” Sam shrugged.

“Sure. A crime has already been committed for ordering the cars under false pretenses. On top of that, making changes to them,” Adam said.

“Yep. Okay you two go to whoever’s house and stay by your cells.”

“Will do.” Jeanette said.

They walked out of the office and toward the bank of elevators. “So much for having a romantic evening at my place,” she said.

“Tell me about it.”

Jeanette cell rang again. “Wow, busy night. Hello.”

“Got word the cars are in a shop called Pete’s Auto Detail. They’re working on them now,” Doug said.

“Someone there taking pictures?”

“You betcha! Where will you be tonight?”

“Adam will be at my place. Sam is going over to Renee’s and Noah will be there.”

“Great, talk to you later.”

“What’s going on? Sounds like we’re even closer to getting them.”

They reached the parking area. “They did. They see the cars getting detailed as we speak.”

“Man, they don’t waste time.”

“Well, remember, you alias buyer wanted the cars as soon as possible.”

“Humph. If only we could get some of our supplies this fast.”

They got into their respective cars and made their way to Jeanette’s.

After she fed Oscar, they ordered dinner out. “I love this Japanese place. Real authentic for take out,” Jeanette said, as she grabbed more napkins.

“You know, I never had Japanese food.”

Jeanette nearly dropped her tray. “Wait, not even sushi?”

“Well, yeah that, but you know how that is. I mean stuff like this.” He pointed to the grilled curry prawns and the squid teriyaki. “What do you have there?” He looked over at her plates.

“Oh we’re gonna share. This is Tatsuta Age and Buta Kakuni. Deep fried chicken and pork simmered in sake and soy sauce. Then of course we have these various vegetable dishes, Edamame, seasoned Japanese soybeans. Goma Ae, that’s cold spinach with sesame sauce.”

“We got a lot to choose from, I will say that.”

“Want to make sure we fortify ourselves for the evening.” Jeanette chuckled. “This looks like a long stake out.”

They were about to attack their second dish, when Jeanette’s phone rang. “Hello.

“We got them!”