Modem Operandi - Part 4
By Fiona Robinson
(see part 1 for disclaimer)
"So if these…crooked…agents are setting up a dummy bank, just who are they stealing from?" Amanda asked an hour later, as she, Alexi and Lee gazed at her computer screen. The "bank's" website glowed on the screen before them.
Alexi shrugged. "Whoever decides to bank at the site."
"How would they find out about it?"
Alexi turned around to face them. "All you need are a couple of brochures, maybe a kiosk in a couple of upscale, snooty locations, to make people think it's real."
Lee let out a long breath. He felt sick.
"So when you set up those sweeps…they'd already given you the codes to get into our system."
"Uh…no." Alexi looked sheepish, suddenly. "They wanted me to run the first one. Actually, they wanted me to delete some files, but I told them it'd give them away in a second, so I accessed files at random. After that, I hacked to get your attention. You guys really need to do something about your security that way."
Lee and Amanda exchanged glances. She wanted to laugh, but didn't.
"Why didn't you tell me this in the first place?" Lee demanded.
"I didn't think you'd believe me. My track record isn't the greatest."
"Your record isn't the greatest," Lee said.
Amanda shot him a warning look. "What now?" she asked, trying to change the subject.
Lee shook his head. "I have no clue where to begin…so I'm going to bring in Sheila for questioning."
Lee left Sheila Marler and made his way down the hall to the room where Amanda and Alexi had watched him question her. Sheila had never wavered in her insistence that she was innocent, and that made him wonder. Lee knew she wasn't that good an actress - he could tell from the look in her eyes that she was truly confused about what he was asking her. Anne Hendrickson had been wrong.
Amanda and Alexi turned as he opened the door.
"Do you recognize her?" Lee asked.
Alexi shook his head.
"Her voice - mannerisms - anything?"
"Nothing. I don't think she was there."
Lee nodded. "Well, it's about time we agreed on something," he said. "I don't think she was, either."
"So…what now?" Alexi wanted to know.
"Now, you're going to show me where this money is coming from." He glanced at his watch. "And then we're going home for a nice, hot Sunday dinner with the folks."
Francine caught up with the group on their way up to the Q Bureau, a sheaf of papers in her hand. Lee and Amanda were both surprised to see her - before they had a chance to think about it, she began to speak.
"Thank God I caught up with you two," she said, then saw Alexi and stopped. "Who's this?"
"Our mystery messenger," Lee said. "Francine, meet our security breach in person. This is Alexi Kalnikov."
Her eyes narrowed at the person who had turned her section - and the entire Agency - upside down. "Maybe you know something about this," she said, waving the papers in her hand. Alexi watched her with curiosity.
"What are those?" Amanda asked.
"The auditor paid me a visit this morning," Francine said. "There's something wrong with the accounts in Pete Williams' area, which of course is part of my section."
"What's up?" Lee asked.
"They're paying a ridiculous amount of money for inventory that doesn't exist."
Lee raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"
"I'm positive. In fact, Sheila Marler's the one who brought it to the auditor's attention, yesterday afternoon. A/P has paid one vendor for inventory we received but that never saw the light of day."
"I don't get it - why didn't Sheila tell someone earlier than this?"
"She only had someone do inventory late last week. And she's been on vacation for most of this month."
Lee shook his head. "She didn't mention any of that this morning," he said.
"You didn't ask her about her vacation," Amanda said, and Lee cast a reproving look in her direction.
"Amanda, could you go downstairs and talk to Sheila again?" he asked. "Alexi, I want you to show us those files."
Lee and Alexi were sitting behind Amanda's desk, staring at her computer, when Amanda came into the office, a pad of paper in her hand.
"Hi," Lee said as his wife came toward them. "What did Sheila tell you?"
"Well…" Amanda flipped through the pad of paper, looking at her notes. "She said she didn't bring up the variances earlier because she didn't know about them. She's been in California for the last couple of weeks - her mother's sick and she's really worried about her, and…" She caught Lee's eye. "Well, anyway. She didn't know about the variance until Accounts Payable sent the invoices back up to her the other day. You see, the original purchase order - which Sheila didn't cut - quoted a price that was different than what whoever received the inventory received it as. If the variance is more than three percent A/P sends it back."
"But what was it? I mean, what did they receive?" Lee wondered.
"That's just it. She couldn't tell. The invoice was never itemized, the purchase order just says "hardware". The packing slip - and I quote - conveniently drowned in a cup of coffee, and no one will own up to it. The only thing she knows is the name of the company, which is…" she started flipping through her notes, scanning the pages for the name.
"Amanda," Alexi said.
"Hold on, I wrote it down…Circ…"
"Amanda." Lee turned the computer monitor so she could see it, too. "We know who it is."
She looked up at the screen. "Circuitech," she said, nodding once. "That's exactly who it is."
"Circuitech," Lee repeated. "Makes more deposits to that bogus bank than anyone else."
Amanda's eyes widened, and she pulled up a chair, the notepad in her lap, staring at the computer screen. The three were silent.
"They're skimming off the top," Amanda said, suddenly, sitting up straight in her chair. Lee looked across the Q Bureau at her, one eyebrow raised. He knew the look on her face well. He could practically see the one hundred watt bulb go off inside her head.
"You mean embezzling?" Alexi asked.
"They're filtering Agency funds through that bank. They aren't just stealing from all those people that deposited money, they're stealing from the Agency, too."
Lee's forehead wrinkled. "Who would be stupid enough to do that?"
"It's a government agency, Lee. Money goes all over the place, to all kinds of things. Sheila's in charge of coding purchases for her department, but when she was away someone had to take her place - how hard would it be to buy a few more circuit boards or whatever they need? None of us are going to question it. Pete's her superior, he signs all the purchase orders…."
Lee nodded. "I'm pretty much at Pete's mercy as far as this investigation goes, but that's not an issue because it isn't about the sweeps anymore. It's just plain old-fashioned stealing, isn't it?"
Alexi nodded. "Internet style."
Sunday dinner that week was admittedly one of the strangest in Amanda's recent memory. Alexi sat at the table, between Jamie and Lee, across from Dotty and Gordon, and Amanda tried to keep the peace.
Jamie remembered Alexi, vaguely, as one of several strange, inexplicable episodes from his childhood. He regarded Alexi with curiosity, wondering how his mother and Lee had, once again, managed to take in someone they'd otherwise have no contact with.
"When's your next trip out of town, Jamie?" Lee asked, passing asparagus to his mother-in-law.
"Thursday," Jamie said. "Vegas."
Alexi whistled. "What're you going there for?"
"I'm a photographer. I'm going for a shoot."
Alexi regarded Jamie carefully, one eyebrow raised. "Huh," he said. "You were kind of a geeky kid. I never thought you'd turn out to be a half-interesting guy."
"I was eight," Jamie protested.
"You any better at craps?" Alexi asked, spooning potatoes onto his plate.
"Much," Jamie said, counting the spoons full of mashed potatoes as they hit Alexi's plate. The part of his psyche that worked out three times a week observed the hefty chunk of butter Alexi dropped on top of the pile, and figured that if he ate like that every week, the other man wouldn't live to see old age.
"Well, maybe later I can win your car off you," Alexi said, tearing a bread roll in half. Jamie cast a glance at Lee, and Lee shrugged, gesturing to Amanda.
"What happened to the Porsche?" Alexi asked Lee suddenly.
"It was written off in an…accident."
"Betcha picked up a lot of women with that thing."
Lee started to chuckle, looking across the table at Amanda. "I, uh, didn't have much use for it in that sense," he said, and she smiled back at him. Jamie rolled his eyes. Gordon chuckled.
"You'll never guess who we ran into today," Dotty said suddenly, and Amanda raised her eyebrows. "Captain Curt."
"Really?" Amanda asked, pretending not to be aware that Gordon was rolling his eyes at the mention of Dotty's former suitor. "Does he still fly?"
"Once in a while." Dotty shook her head, taking a sip of her wine. "He was with a pretty young thing who was closer to Jamie's age than yours, Amanda. You wouldn't have believed it. It was pathetic."
"I still say more power to him," Gordon said, and it was clear that he and Dotty had discussed the incident several times over. "If someone that young is interested in an old fart like him…."
Dotty turned to her partner, her expression indicating she was about to challenge him. "What are you saying, Gordon? If someone that young was interested in you…."
But Gordon held up a hand. "That isn't even an issue, sweetheart. First of all, I'm lucky you're interested in me, and secondly, I haven't been interested in another woman since the day I met you."
Dotty cornered Amanda in the kitchen, as she was loading the dishwasher. "Where did that boy come from?" she asked, running water to fill the sink.
"He looked us up."
"He saw you for a week, fifteen years ago, and he just happened to look you up? How did he find you?"
"He's good with computers," Amanda answered, trying to fit the last glass into the top rack of the dishwasher.
Dotty's eyes widened a little at Amanda's response, and she pulled on a pair of rubber gloves with a snap. "Amanda, darling, I know you still think you can help these people, but that boy is trouble."
"Oh, Mother," Amanda tried to keep exasperation from her voice, "he isn't. He's been having a tough time, is all."
Dotty shook her head. "I'm as compassionate as the next person, sweetheart, but I think he's taking advantage of you."
"He isn't."
"Where are his parents in all of this?"
Now there was a question. Amanda had asked Alexi that very thing, several times that week, and he'd been unable to give her a straight answer. She had a feeling he hadn't seen his parents in quite some time. Not that they'd be hard to find. The mixup with ACM all those years ago, and the Agency files on Alexi, should have pinpointed their location right away. Bur for some reason, they hadn't.
"He doesn't know where they are. He hasn't seen them in a few years."
"Hm."
Amanda raised her eyebrows and shut the dishwasher door. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Dotty raised a hand, as if to close the subject, and Amanda watched suds run down her mother's arm. "Let's just say I'm not altogether surprised."
"Oh, Mother," Amanda said, mopping water from Dotty's elbow. "Not everyone has a mother that's as nice as you are, or sons that are as good as mine."
Dotty didn't answer, but her expression softened a little at Amanda's words. "All I'm saying is keep your eyes on your silver. All right?"
"I will. I promise."
"And make sure he doesn't bring any other people in with him."
"I know. I will."
"And don't let Lee lose the house in a game of craps."
Now Amanda laughed, switching on her dishwasher and turning to make a pot of coffee. "Oh, Mother. Lee likes roulette."
Amanda woke on Monday morning to the sound of Lee running the shower. She peered at the clock through eyes still foggy with sleep and groaned inwardly when she realized her alarm had gone off twenty minutes ago. Seven a.m., and she had once been such a morning person.
The water stopped running, and Amanda could hear Lee humming softly as he dried himself off. She rolled onto her back as he came out of the bathroom, smiling at him drowsily.
"Hey," he said, tying the belt on his robe. "Decided to stop hitting the snooze button?"
Amanda rolled her eyes, moving her legs as he sat down on her side of the bed. "I did not touch the snooze button."
"You did. Three times, if anyone's keeping track."
"You can't hear that in the shower."
"I can so. That thing is like a jackhammer and you still sleep through it. What happened to Amanda King, perky morning person?"
"She married you and turned into Amanda Stetson, person who never keeps regular hours." She grinned at him, reaching out to touch the beads of water still clinging to his beard. "I wouldn't be so tired if I could get to bed at a decent hour."
"Bed? You were in bed in plenty of time last night."
"Okay, let me rephrase that. If I could get to sleep at a decent hour."
Lee grinned at her, leaning forward to kiss her, and Amanda tasted mint. "So you're blaming me?"
"I'm not blaming anyone. I never said I didn't enjoy the…activities…that kept me awake, I'm just telling you why I'm so sleepy this morning."
Lee laughed, kissing her neck, and Amanda squirmed as his beard tickled her. "I'd love to give you a repeat performance," he told her, "but I have a meeting at eight, and we don't seem to be newlyweds anymore so being late isn't an option."
"You act like a newlywed," she told him, sitting up in bed.
"So do you." They both turned their heads as they heard a door close, down the hall. "It'll be nice to have our house to ourselves again, once we solve this case."
Amanda nodded. "You just want to make out on the couch again."
Lee laughed, nibbling her ear. "That too," he admitted.
"You're impossible." She was silent for a moment, enjoying what he was doing, but her mind was on Alexi, down the hall. She sighed, and Lee stopped his feast on her neck to draw back and look at her.
"Am I losing my touch?"
"No. I was just thinking about…" She waved a hand in the direction of the guest room. "It's got to be hard for him."
"I suppose it is. But it'll work out. You know that."
"Will it? He's got a record - how's he supposed to get a good job, or live a normal life after all of this? He's been through a lot."
"Look, Amanda, we'll worry about that when we get to it, okay? When everyone is safe and he doesn't have to worry about someone trying to kill him. And then…maybe his parents can help out, who knows?" He stroked her face, smiling encouragement at her. "This must really be bothering you."
"It is."
"I figured. You usually lose your mind when I'm kissing you like that."
Amanda laughed now. "I do, don't I? Maybe you should try again."
Amanda arrived at the Q-Bureau after a meeting downstairs to find Lee and Francine sitting on the sofa, reading a file.
"What's up?" she asked.
"Anne came to see me again this morning," Lee said.
Amanda nodded. "I saw. What did she have to say?"
"She thinks Pete's involved."
"You mean as well as Sheila, or instead of Sheila?"
"As well as."
Amanda rolled her eyes. "Who's next - Francine?"
Lee chuckled. "I know. It's getting out of hand. But she's down there in the middle of everything, and we're not."
Amanda nodded, hesitating a little before speaking again. "I ran a background check on her."
Francine's eyebrows shot up. "You did? Why?"
"I don't know anything about her, and I wanted to see if it kicked anything out."
"It shouldn't have, Amanda. We do routine security checks down there, just like every other section."
Amanda let out a long breath. "I'm not saying you don't, Francine. I just wanted to see if there was anything in her background that could shed some light on the investigation." She handed a file folder to Lee. "She isn't as new to the Agency as she led you to believe."
"She's only been in my section for six months," Francine said, sipping her coffee.
"I know. And before that she worked in Accounts Payable, right?"
"Only for a couple of weeks, I think," Francine said. "At least, that's what the file I saw said."
"She worked in a branch office in London before that," Amanda said, sitting on the edge of her desk. "She's always worked in administration - Field Support - though she was trained as a field agent."
"Why isn't she active anymore?" Lee wondered.
"She was in a car accident a few years ago, and her husband was killed. David Whittaker."
"Was he an agent, too?"
Amanda shook her head. "He was the CFO for a booming IT company. But there were rumors when he died that he was about to be charged with embezzlement."
"Where did you find all this out?" Francine asked, her expression incredulous. "I mean, we review everyone's files pretty carefully. Why didn't any of this show up before?"
"I just did a little digging. I thought there was something funny about her starting here without going through any training, so I ran a more detailed search. And let's face it, we all count on those guys doing background checks to flag anything unusual. There isn't much here that's odd - it's just different from what she's been telling us."
"Mm-hm." Lee nodded. "Selective storytelling."
"I wonder what she's trying to cover up," Francine said, thoughful.
"Most likely, Circuitech. But we can't prove any of it," Amanda said.
"Yet," Lee said. "Amanda, I want you to cozy up to Anne a little - see if you can follow her around. I want to see what she does with her day."
"You want me to follow her around the Agency?"
Lee chuckled. "Tail her in a room full of spies….Yeah."
She laughed. "Okay."
"What about Alexi?" Francine asked. "Can he identify her?"
Lee let out a long breath. "Maybe. But we can't rely on that. He says he never really got a good look at the woman, and his description of the man isn't the greatest."
At noon, Anne Hendrickson handed in her pass and left the Agency. Amanda was close on her heels, tossing the pass on Mrs Marsden's desk in what the older woman thought was a strangely absent-minded way and hurrying out the door. She had arranged to borrow a car from the Agency lot that morning, and she started up the rusty hatchback with a grimace, tossing a blackened banana peel into the back seat and wishing that they'd had something cleaner available.
She followed Anne to a trendy diner on the other side of town - and watched from across the street as the other woman waited at a patio table for ten minutes, until her companion showed up with a rose and a kiss. And at that moment, Amanda did a double-take.
Anne's companion was Pete Williams.
Amanda fished her cell phone out of her purse and dialed Lee's number.
"She's having lunch with Pete," she told her husband, "and I don't think they're talking about new software."
"What do you mean?" Lee asked, trying to peel the plastic wrap from a days-old deli sandwich.
Amanda smiled to herself. "Remember how we used to meet for lunch?"
"You mean last week, or when we were sneaking around?" Lee chuckled.
"He brought a rose. You never brought me a rose at lunch." Amanda cast a glance at her subjects, watched Anne sip from a glass of wine. "And they're having wine."
"Jealous?"
"When our suspects can squeeze in a date in the middle of running a money laundering operation, kidnapping a computer genius and cracking a top-secret organization's system - and we can't find time for a simple dinner - yes."
Lee laughed. "Don't get too caught up in the romance. They'll never get to Paris."
Amanda sighed. "No. But will we?"
Back at the Agency, Amanda left Anne in her office and decided to track down Alexi and Billy. She had asked Mrs. Marsden to buzz her if Anne left the building again - running downstairs from the Q-Bureau was a million times faster than trying to sneak up the elevator. And she knew Anne wouldn't use the blind entrance.
"I need to give her a check for some Tupperware," Amanda said, trying to allay any suspicion. "I missed her before - and I've been missing her for three days. I'll never get my salad spinner at the rate I'm going, and we're leaving for vacation on Thursday and then it's practically Thanksgiving by the time we get back, and I'm going to need it then. So if you could buzz me I'd really appreciate it."
Knowing the benign smile on Mrs. Marsden's face meant a call would come when Anne appeared in the lobby, Amanda went back up to the Q-Bureau to tell Alexi that he was coming with her the next time she left. "I want you to get a good look at Anne," she told him, even as the phone rang. Moments later, she put down the receiver and picked up her purse. "Lucky you. Now's your chance."
Anne and Pete were together again, and Alexi and Amanda followed them in the rusty loaner, parking at the far end of a grocery store parking lot.
"This is exciting," Alexi said dryly when Anne and Pete headed into the supermarket. "What's up - did she forget to pick up some eggs?"
Amanda shot him a reproving look and unbuckled her seatbelt. "No one ever said spy work was glamorous," she muttered, getting out of the car.
The two followed Anne and Pete through the deli and past the dairy section.
"Do you recognize them?" Amanda asked as she pretended to be choosing bananas.
Alexi shook his head, putting tomatoes in a bag. "No. And I know for sure the guy wasn't at the house. The guy I saw was much bigger. Heavier. And meaner."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
Amanda looked up just as Anne began to turn back. "Uh oh," she said softly, catching Alexi's sleeve. "They're coming this way." She quickly drew Alexi down an aisle, out of Anne's line of sight. Unfortunately, she chose an aisle full of shopping carts and stock boys, unloading the latest shipments of film and tin foil. They were blocked in.
"Nice," Alexi muttered. "What if they see us?"
Amanda paused for a moment. "I guess it doesn't matter that much."
"If she was at the house she could kill me," Alexi said.
"She won't kill you in the middle of a grocery store. I won't let her."
"She could kill me in the parking lot."
Amanda raised an eyebrow. "I think you're overreacting."
"You think they're going to believe you're here as a coincidence?"
"Just look like you're shopping."
"What am I supposed to do?"
"Look at the magazines," Amanda hissed, pushing Alexi toward the rack. She turned her back to Anne and Pete, rolling her eyes as Alexi picked up a copy of Playboy. "Not one of those," she whispered, shoving a copy of Good Housekeeping into his hands. Amanda turned toward the display of batteries beside her and began to pretend she was absorbed with a package of six double-A's.
She thought they were almost in the clear when Anne suddenly turned her head and saw Amanda. A bright, false smile appeared on her face, and she took Pete by the arm and guided him in Amanda's direction.
"Look who's here, Pete," Anne said. "It's Amanda."
Amanda smiled. "Oh, hello."
"I didn't know you shopped here," Pete said, juggling a loaf of bread and wedge of cheese.
"Oh, I don't usually," Amanda said. "I was just over on this side of town, picking up a friend, and I remembered that this place has that nice shaved ham that Lee likes."
Pete nodded, looking behind her and catching Alexi's eye. Amanda saw it and turned around to draw Alexi into the conversation.
"This is a friend of my son's," Amanda said. "Alexi. He's…visiting for a little while."
Unable to extend a hand, Pete nodded his head. "Nice to meet you."
"Hi," Alexi said.
Anne was silent; the smile, Amanda noticed, was even more forced than before.
"This is Pete and Anne," Amanda said to Alexi. "Lee and I work with them."
"We'd better be going," Anne said, suddenly. "We've got a meeting at three, back at IFF. We just stopped to fill up the department cookie jar." Amanda watched as Anne drew Pete away from the group before he could protest. She recognized the look of confusion on his face.
"Huh," Alexi said as Anne walked away. "She's friendly."
Amanda just raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "What can I tell you?" She sighed. "Let's go back to the Agency."
Alexi nodded. "To the Batmobile."