Stone Investigations (Stone Series Book 4) by Bob Blanton (ereader that reads to you .TXT) 📕

“I can quit helping.”  Matthew was a bit miffed.

“No, that’s not what I mean.  Just it’s complicated.  But,I’ll tell you what, why don’t I give you access to the databases.  Also if youwant any information, just ask me and I’ll have one of my people research it. They don’t have to know you’re the ones putting it together.”

“And they’ll think you’re some kind of superwoman.  Soundslike fun,” Emily said.

“Sure, but we’ve still got school.  We can only do this part-time.”

“Hey, nobody was looking before, so you two helping is waybetter.”

◆ ◆ ◆

The next day, Jackson found pills in a hole drilled in the doorbetween the house and garage.  It contained one hundred twenty-two pills.  Thepills were rushed to forensics and the team once again was amazed at AgentPeters’ powers of perception.

Two days later they found Hector.  It was Emily’s idea, butMatthew had to do the searches.  She had him search for everyone who had a realestate license in San Diego, Orange, and Riverside counties.  Those were the countieswhere Graham had been involved in sales, determined by another search she’d hadMatthew do.

“That’s him, Hector Velazquez,” Matthew said as they lookedat his picture from his real estate license.

“Okay, so what’s his background?”

“Let me see if he has a criminal record. Peters gave me a loginfor that database.”

Matthew ran the search; it came back right away.

“His record was clean until May of 1999 when he was convictedof vehicular manslaughter.  Let me pull the records of the court case.

“He was driving in downtown Irvine when he sideswiped a carthat had run a red light.  He was barely over the limit, but they prosecutedhim and sent him to prison.  He was paroled three years ago.”

“That doesn’t sound fair.  It wasn’t his fault.”

“The prosecution said that if he wasn’t under the influence,he could have avoided the other car.”

“Sounds like they were just going for a conviction withoutcaring about the facts.  What else does it say about him?  Was he married?”

“Yes, married, two children.”

“Divorced?”

“Doesn’t say.”

“Is he still on parole?”

“No, his parole lasted two years.”

“So how do we find him?  I bet he’s in hiding.”

“Let’s talk with Peters, maybe we don’t have to find him.”

◆ ◆ ◆

They met Agent Peters the following day after school.  Shedrove up to meet them in her agency car, feeling very proud of herself that shecould actually get around without having to borrow a car.

“Okay, do you two want something to drink?”

“I’ll have tea,” Matthew said.  When the two women gave him alook he added, “I’m trying to cut down on carbonated beverages.  So tea, orangejuice, or coffee.  I feel like tea.”

“I’ll have tea too,” Emily said.  “We can pretend we’reBritish detectives.”

“I’ll try not to take offense at that?”

“I just mean, you always see them having tea while theydiscuss the case.”

“Yeah.  Anyway, so you found him.”

“We figured out who he is, but we haven’t found him.  Did youhave someone look for his wife, they’re still married.”

“I did.  She lives with her two daughters in Thousand Oaks,northwest of LA.  She sells real estate.  We had a police officer do a drive-by,no sign of Hector.”

“Did the forensics come back with the data on the pills?”

“Yes, they are essentially identical to the ones that killedFrye.”

“Yes, but the key word there is essentially.”

“Yes.  But if you told him that Hector Velazquez is willingto testify that Graham gave him a foil package and instructed him to put it onFrye’s car, maybe he’ll cave.”

“That’s pretty vague.”

“Well, why don’t we search the videos from surveillancecameras around Frye’s apartment and her place of work for the two days beforeshe was killed.  If we come up with the truck with the fake plates, then you’llhave a timeline.  He would have driven straight down to take care of it.”

“I should have had Vaughn doing that already.  I’ll talk tohim and get his team on it.”

◆ ◆ ◆

On Friday, Matthew watched as Jerome Graham went to visit hisfather for the second time.  During his first visit, three days before, Grahamhad given him instructions on how to find the offshore bank account.  He gavehim two fractions and two numbers, buried in their conversation.  He thenhinted at the right bank to check.  As Matthew had deduced, what Graham gavehis son was the account numbers and password based on a mathematical formula.  Afraction that when divided gave a long decimal number, take the correct numberof digits, and add the associated number to it.  It was easy to verify sinceMatthew already knew them.

“About time you got back,” Mr. Graham said as his son joinedhim.  They were separated by glass.

“Hey, I’ve got school.”

“Yeah, right.  How much are they giving you?”

“I get an allowance of three K per month until I graduate, oruntil you get out.”

“Generous of them when they took millions out of our home.”

“Yeah.  Well, there is a problem.”

“What?!”

“Your old bank account is empty.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, well it does have five thousand dollars in it.  I leftit there.”

“That can’t be.”

“That’s what I found.  I checked the math twice.  But there’sno way it would have yielded a different valid bank account with the rightpassword.”

“Shut up!” Graham snapped as he looked around.  “They couldbe listening in.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter, does it?”

“You’re so stupid.”

“Hey, which side of the glass am I on, and which are you on?”

“Quiet.  This is going to be harder, but I still have somecards to play.  Check these out and get back to me.”  Graham drew two fractionson his hand.  Then he gave his son two numbers.  “Look that up on the corporateregistry.  You’ll figure it out.”

Matthew laughed.  Graham had given his son the accessinformation for the digital corporation he had in the Cayman Islands.  But,unfortunately for him, Matthew had taken control of that company and changedthe password.  Graham wasn’t going to be finding any pot of gold under thatrainbow.

◆ ◆ ◆

It took three days for Vaughn’s team to find the video withthe truck in it.  On Monday, he reported to Peters that they found it.  OnTuesday, September 14th, at 2:30 in the morning, four days after theincident at Starbucks and three days before Frye