The Oaths We Keep

Chapter 29

On Monday morning, the detectives assembled in Taylor's office. McClendon gave an update on his part of the case. "The name Marco Bolin was a fake. It took some time, but I eventually came up with his real name, Marcus Bollani, from Los Angeles. He worked as a frontman for Devious Dames Studios from 2000 to 2015. Unfortunately, he died three years ago, leaving a couple of ex-wives. I was able to get a number for the studio. The two films they had on record for Mrs. Harper were no longer in their catalog. Several years ago, they sold the rights to distribute the film to a website called Classic Adult Vids Stream."

"Were you able to get in touch with anyone associated with that site?" Taylor asked him.

"Yes, and they have a list of customers who bought the videos in question. The problem is there are over 1000 downloads on each of them. Then there's the fact that all of them were downloaded by screen names, email addresses, and even a third-party video download site."

"Making it virtually impossible to figure out who would be trying to blackmail her with the video," Taylor said in frustration.

"Afraid so, but more than likely, that's how our blackmailer got the video."

"And at least now we know Bolin, or whatever his name, is not our guy either," Barnes added. "So, what's our next move?"

"First, McClendon, I want you to head over to the distribution center at the industrial park. Keep an eye on the building Fernando told us about. Call it in if you see someone who matches the description he gave us." He turned to look at Barnes, "You and I need to head back to see Mr. Daniels."

An hour later, Taylor and Barnes were back in the office of Franklin Daniels. "My secretary and I worked most of the weekend to get you this information, Detectives," he said to them as they sat across from him at his desk. Daniels' face was pale, and from the look of him, he had not slept much. "I know this may be hard to believe, but I am appalled that something illegal could occur here. But it looks like you were right."

"Explain it to us, Mr. Daniels," Taylor said as he thumbed through a large amount of paper before him.

"I took the opportunity to have some of our people in the accounting department go through the records. There are several irregularities, and I had my people mark and highlight for you what they found. Something is off. Erin appears to have been writing off transactions from numerous customers' accounts as regular losses in investments. It's small amounts of money, to be sure, but it's coming from many different accounts. That also corresponds to an increase in this account that we could trace back to Erin."

"Does this indicate that she acted alone or had an accomplice?" Taylor asked him.

"That's hard to say," Daniels began, "she could have had help, but more than likely, she acted alone. That's my guess."

Barnes glanced over at Taylor. "How far back does this go, Mr. Daniels?" she asked him. "Do you have a timeline?"

"Not an exact one, no, but at least six months as far as we can tell. We would have to dig deeper, which would take much longer than a couple of days."

"And who was in charge of putting this report together for you?" she asked him.

"The head of our accounting department, Jacob Connelly. He and his team stayed over the weekend, only going home to sleep for a few hours and coming back."

"Where is he right now? We need to talk to him," Taylor asked.

"Well, I gave him the day off since he put in so much time this weekend."

"We need his address. We'll also need the contact information for anyone who worked on this report."

"Of course, I'll have Meredith get those for you immediately."

"Thanks. Did you get us the information on the security guards on duty that day?"

"Yes, Meredith will have that information for you as well. Is there anything else I can do for you today?"

"Make sure your people understand this is an active investigation, and they should not be discussing it in any way. It's an obstruction of justice charge if they do anything to screw up the investigation. Just make sure they understand that."

Once they had the information compiled by Meredith, the detectives left the building and got into Taylor's car. He sat there for a moment before starting the vehicle. Barnes looked at him quizzically, "Well, what are you waiting for?" she asked him.

"I heard you had some excitement Friday night over at Eddie's."

"Oh god, really? Look, it was nothing."

"Nothing? Eddie said you and Miller got into a shouting match in the parking lot. That was after you had it out at the bar. Want to talk about that?"

"He caught me on a bad night, okay? I didn't mean to go at him like that; he just. I don't know."

"Really? What is it with you two?"

"I don't know, Roger. He just pushes all the wrong buttons."

"Way Eddie told it, all he wanted to do was invite you for a drink."

"Yeah. I told you it was a bad night. What do you want me to do? Apologize to the guy?"

"That might be a start."

"You can't be serious?"

"Laura, Miller came to your aid the other night and even gave you a ride home. Now, I am trying to figure out what started this back-and-forth between you two, but from what I gather, it goes back to your patrol days. Look, you may not like the guy, but you need to end this feud before the chief gets wind of it."

Barnes exhaled and put her hand above her eyebrows. "Fine, okay, you're right. I can't believe it, but I'll apologize to him if that will make you happy."

"Not about making me happy. We need to keep it as friendly as possible. If for no other reason, we can do our jobs. We're all on the same team, Laura."

"Can we please drop this? I said I'll apologize to him."

"And?"

"And I'll try to be nicer to him?"

"And?"

"And no more arguing with him. At least not in public."

"Good enough," he said as he started the car. "When we return to the station, we need to start reviewing personnel files. You take the security guards, and I'll take Erin's coworkers."

As they drove away, Barnes asked, "What do you make of the timeframe Daniels gave us?"

"Yeah, six months is longer than what Erin told us about. Either she's lying to us about her involvement, or someone on the inside is setting her up. Guess I don't have to ask which you think is right."

"No, you don't."

"People lie all the time, Barnes. Are you prepared to accept that?"

"Let's just get back and find out for sure."