MY WIFE AND THE NO-GOOD LYING SCUMBAG–Part 3

CHAPTER 8

My research at the library showed absolutely no trace of Reliable. There were plenty of companies called Reliable—boilers, plumbers, concrete, locksmiths and so on, but nothing in title or mortgage insurance. I went to the office, checked on my staff and returned to Jonathan Nash’s agency. I spent the rest of the morning calling Nash’s former clients and verifying what Mrs. Carlson had told me another dozen times. I broke for lunch then had another idea. A short walk later I entered our local CVS where I bought a cheap cell phone and 1,000 minutes good for the next month. I was able to activate the phone in less than fifteen minutes. My first call was to the New York State Dormitory Authority. I was transferred around several times until I reached someone with authority. He assured me that everything with the projects was up to the bid specifications. I swear—the State of New York hires idiots. I ended the call and went back to work.

I finished the Nash project the following day. There were forty-seven houses involved in the scam. Shirley Miller and Wayne Gibbons had stolen $470,000 in bogus insurance premiums and had denied Jonathan Nash three percent of that total in agency commissions—a bit over $14,000. I spent all of Friday morning explaining the scam to a pair of county detectives. Shirley and Wayne were arrested that afternoon. Then I explained something to Jonathan Nash.

“You have forty-seven clients who think they have mortgage life insurance. They paid representatives of your firm $10,000 each for it.”

“Yeah…so what?”

“If this ever went to court the negative publicity would destroy you even if you won the case which I doubt. You need to contact each buyer, explain the situation, and offer to pay from your own pocket. One way to look at it—the whole amount would be a business expense and one-hundred percent deductible. You’d be John Wayne in a white hat.” He thought about it for a few minutes then took my list and told his receptionist to get busy.

Now I had to deal with Simon Alcott. My decision was made while I rode the elevator up to my office. I phoned Jennie and told her my plan. She agreed immediately. I typed a brief memo to Robert explaining that I needed some time off. I hadn’t taken any vacation time in the past eighteen months and soon those vacation days would expire. Additionally, the stress of the new job and the loss of Ted had taken a toll. I was between big projects, the only one being the audit of Alcott’s firm and that could wait a week. Once Robert had approved I left early to pick up Jennie. Instead of driving west through New York City we went east toward Port Jefferson for the ferry to Bridgeport, Connecticut. From there it was only a two hour drive to Albany. I was a bit concerned about having Heidi on the ship, but she was fine, even entertaining several children. We stopped at a moderately priced motel near the university around ten that evening.

The three of us strolled around the university campus the following day. The construction crews were busy even though it was Saturday. We turned around in a hurry when we saw Simon Alcott in conversation with several of his supervisors.

We decided to enter the School of Accounting building so we told Heidi to sit and stay beneath a tree outside. I wrapped her leash around a tree limb, but that was more for show than anything else. Heidi would stay until we returned.

Once in the building I looked for one of my professors, knowing how much time he spent on the job. Sure enough he was in his office grading papers. Looking up, he called my name, “Mr. Healey!”

“Hello, professor, how are you?”

“Old, that’s what I am. And who is this charming creature?”

“Oh, sorry—this is my wife, Jennie.”

“Come along, dear. You are much too good for this boy. You deserve a real man—distinguished, worldly….”

“Full of shit?” Jennie queried. Professor Henderson laughed. “She is obviously too good for you, Tim. So tell me what brings you back to Albany? Last time I heard you were working somewhere down by New York City.”

“I’m still there,” I replied, handing him a business card.

“I’m impressed. So, what can I do for you?” I explained what I found while reviewing the Alcorp invoices. Then I told him what had happened when I phoned the dormitory authority.

“I’m not at all surprised, Tim. These people are bureaucrats. All they care about is keeping their jobs. I have a friend who’s an assistant district attorney. Why don’t you come to dinner tonight?”

“Umm, we have our dog, sir. I wouldn’t want to leave her in the motel room.”

“Then I guess you’d better bring her with you. I’ll phone Paul’s wife Sheila and invite them, too. But, first, I need to phone my wife.” He gave us directions and we were out the door a few minutes later. We left the building just in time to see a couple of students trying unsuccessfully to steal Heidi. She bolted from them, running to Jennie’s side.

“Bad move, guys—this is a trained guard dog. One word from either of us and she’ll take your arm off at the elbow.”

“We thought she was a stray…honest.”

“Right…a stray…with a leash tied to a limb. Now I suggest you scram before I turn her loose.”

“Ah, you’re just bullshitting.”

“Heidi…alert!” Heidi jumped to her feet, teeth bared. I never saw three guys move so quickly. They were gone in seconds. “Heidi…back.” She returned to heel as we continued our stroll.

We hadn’t brought any fancy clothes so we dressed in the best we had for dinner with the Hendersons. I used my car’s GPS to find the professor’s house. Not knowing what to expect we fed Heidi and walked her first, buying several bottles of wine en route. She accompanied Jennie at heel into the house carefully checking everyone out to protect her mistress. Professor Henderson insisted that we call him Roy and his wife Helen. Then he introduced his friend Paul Harris and his wife Sheila. We ate dinner first—a delicious prime rib—before getting down to business.

I returned to the car taking Heidi with me in case she had to do her business—she didn’t. Back in the house we gathered around the table where I laid out the emails and installed the disc onto my computer. Paul carefully reviewed each document before commenting. “This could be something, Tim…or it could be nothing. Any idea how much steel is involved in these dormitories?” I just gave him a look that said, “Duh!”

I opened Excel and brought up a spreadsheet that I’d made of the invoices. Sorting on “Osaka Steel” I was able to separate out the pertinent data. Then I added them instantly using the Sigma Auto Sum feature. I had the answer in less than thirty seconds. “I’m not sure if I have all the invoices for Osaka, or if they’re the only supplier involved, but the ones I have come to $5,437,628.”

“Hmmm…and ten percent would come to more than $540,000. I think this will bear looking into. You know you’ll get a percentage of the total recovered.”

“No thanks—I want my part to be strictly anonymous. I have a feeling I might lose my job for this.”

“Then…why?”

“I’ll tell you why, Paul. Jennie and I met Simon Alcott at a dinner for my firm and some of the bigger clients. He seemed to be taken with Jennie, but I dismissed it as being overly polite. However, he went to our home and coerced Jennie into having sex with him by threatening to make up some story to have me fired. I found out and practically killed him, but not before I had suffered terribly. As bad as it was for me it must have been ten times worse for Jennie. It took us months to repair our relationship. I’d prefer to see him dead, but prison or disgrace will do.”

“I don’t blame you. I’d probably kill anyone who tried that with Sheila. Okay, we’ll keep your identity a secret so don’t let on when we come into your office for the financial records.” We agreed and it was a deal. We left the following morning for Bar Harbor, Maine. We stayed there for three days then drove south to Boston for another three before returning home to Long Island.

Jennie had been off the pill for just over a month so we were extremely hopeful. We made love every morning and every night. It was wonderful as always even though Jennie couldn’t surprise me with some zany outfit or idea and even though it was strictly missionary. We were home on Saturday afternoon so we had some time to relax before work on Monday morning, however you already know all about Jennie’s idea of relaxation. We spent almost the entire time in bed making love except for those times when we put Heidi out or when we ate so we’d have the energy to make love again.


CHAPTER 9

The next month flew by as I finished the audit of Alcott’s company which not surprisingly was perfect. I was almost ready to release the documents back to Alcott when Claire answered my phone. A few seconds later she buzzed me on the intercom. “Tim, Mr. Reinhardt needs you up in his office immediately.” I was out the door, a pad in my hand, less than a minute later. Rather than wait for the elevator I took the stairs two at a time. His secretary told me to go right in.
There were two men seated at the table with Robert. They stood when I approached; one was Paul Harris. They introduced themselves as assistant district attorneys from Albany. Paul and I acted as though we were total strangers. “Sit down, Tim—these gentlemen have a search warrant for all of Alcorp’s records. You have his stuff down in your office, don’t you?”

I acted confused. “May I ask why?”

“I don’t suppose there’s any reason why not,” Paul responded. “We’re investigating fraud in the construction of the new dorms at the SUNY Albany campus. We think there might be other construction projects involved, too.”

“I was just about to send them back to their office in Manhattan so they’re just about ready to go. May I see the search warrant so I know what’s included?” Paul’s partner—Herman Werner—handed the document to me. It was simple; they had the legal right to seize any and all documents pertaining to Alcorp, Inc. financial records and communications. “Okay, I’ll give you everything I have. Do you want a copy of my audit report, too?” They did. I excused myself to go downstairs and get everything ready.

I trotted into my office telling Claire there were some law enforcement officials here to pick up everything we had on Alcorp. “I’m not surprised, Tim. That Alcott is a slimy bastard.”

Gee…I’d never said a word and she knew him even better than I did. She went through our files and copied all of our communications. I was only halfway into gathering the files when Paul walked in, closing the door behind him. “Damn, Tim…if you only knew what a firestorm you’ve unleashed up in the capital. We’ve had an engineering firm check all the steel—I-beams, sheet steel—everything, even the rebar. It’s all ten percent short in thickness meaning that it’s all ten percent weaker than specified. We’ve just begun checking his other projects and the DA is sure we’ll find the same situation in some, if not all, of the others. The Governor’s livid and the Attorney General is prepping a mammoth lawsuit. Alcott is done. It’s just a matter of time.”

“I guess that’ll teach him not to mess with my wife.” He smiled and then joined me in a long hearty laugh. I directed the men from the transport company to all the boxes of Alcorp records and then to our communications and reports. They were done half an hour later. I shook hands with Paul and Herman and went back to work. Jennie had a special surprise for me when I got home that evening.

I called out once I had dropped my briefcase onto the carpet. Intrigued that Heidi hadn’t come running to greet me I began a search before finding her with Jennie in the kitchen. I began laughing as soon as I saw them. Heidi held a box of Saran Wrap in her teeth; it was empty, but my crazy wife was completely wrapped up from neck to toe.

“And how exactly am I supposed to get you out of that?”

“I was hoping with your mouth.”

Still laughing I leaned in for a kiss. Jennie was helpless to resist, not that she ever would. “I have an idea…an even better one.” First, I pulled the box from Heidi’s mouth. “How long has she been holding that?”

“Too long; thank you, Tim.”

I petted Heidi as I removed the box from her jaws then moved to one of the cabinets for a pair of scissors. Very carefully I began to cut away the wrap around each of her breasts. “Was this what you had in mind?” I licked and sucked on each nipple.

“Not quite,” she replied, “but that’ll do for a start.