Homeward Hound

CHAPTER 18

That same Friday, Gray and Freddie Thomas sat opposite each other in an office he rented at Old Trail, just to be safe. Gray had met Bill McBryde for a drink down at Shockoe Slip early in the week. Freddie called on her old friend, Sophie Riggs, at the Soliden offices, which made it easier on both of them. Gray dropped her off, then later picked her up.

Freddie liked the office, impressive, views of the James River. People worked but Sophie told her there was unease, worry, since Gregory’s disappearance. People kept their mouths shut. There wasn’t a lot of office gossip about this unsettling disappearance. For one thing, no one wanted their curiosity to be misunderstood and no one wanted to criticize the missing president, especially since Bill McBryde had been a friend of Gregory’s. At least they worked well together, socialized as do most people at the top management level.

Gray asked Bill directly over a whiskey, neat, did he suspect embezzlement? The question didn’t surprise the acting president. He, too, had considered it. Given Gregory’s handsome compensation plus stock shares, why steal?

Then Gray asked could there be a revenge motive? Infidelity?

Again, Bill never caught a whiff of same. Gregory and Liz seemed wonderfully suited to each other.

Soliden gave money to many legislators running for state office. Both Democrat and Republican were well supported because the corporation didn’t care who was in office, only that their programs not run aground. Anything fishy?

Again, Bill admitted the company had been supporting politicians for decades, not exactly buying them but supporting their runs for office. This eased the way for many projects, including the pipeline. The House of Delegates had been rubber-stamping Soliden projects consistently.

Bill also freely pointed Gray to the entire list of politicians who had enjoyed Soliden’s support. The Richmond Times-Dispatch had printed everyone’s name from recent elections when the pipeline issue blew up.

When Gray picked up Freddie, they compared notes.

Now they sat at two computers, laboriously going through every department’s expenditures. They’d get to income later. Bill couldn’t give Gray the passwords and stuff he needed to access the numbers, but he authorized the head computer geek to do so, which of course set off a red light in that man’s head, sworn though he was to secrecy.

The two accountants had wordlessly scanned and scrolled for days. Nothing jumped out at them. A mistake here or there, nothing unusual in a company that big. The sums were small. None of this looked like embezzlement so much as mistakes, most of which were corrected when the office did its own sweep up.

“Someone wrote a check for a dentist’s bill,” Freddie noted, “from the marketing department.”

“H-m-m. Freddie, we’ve got a lot still to do, but my hunch is if this is an inside problem, then it’s systemic. It’s not one department.”

“Could be. It could be that Luckham’s disappearance and expected death aren’t related to the company or to money.”

He looked away from his screen, his eyes tired. “I don’t know. Money is a powerful motivator.”

“You said that Bill McBryde thought Gregory’s compensation more than adequate. What, three million per annum plus bonuses?”

“Not bad, but chump change on Wall Street. Never underestimate greed.”

“But maybe this isn’t about his greed. Maybe it’s about someone else’s.”