The Jumper (SF Mystery)

The Jumper 05: Money Trail

That afternoon, Jeff got the financial statements he had been waiting for. He spent the rest of the day and evening going over them, and could not make heads or tails of them.

The next morning, he took them to one of the departmental accountants, who owed him a favor. Alicia looked at them for a few minutes, then said, clearly puzzled, "so, what's the problem, Jeff–aside from the fact that you need a new girlfriend?"

He winced at the reference. He didn't think news about Carol had spread already.

"What's the problem? I'm in over my head, that's what the problem is."

She snorted. "Lots of pretty girls right here in the department," she said, twirling blonde hair around a finger. Her eyes were saying, Come on, Jeff, take a hint!

He chuckled. "Oh, I keep a stick to fight them off with. I meant the old man's money, Alicia." He had always liked Alicia, and even fantasized about her a little, but he had already been with Carol when he met her. He could not help his eyes flickering to take in her form again, as he realized he was allowed to think about such things, now. Not as thin as Carol, but . . . No. It was too soon, and this case was too important. He tapped the papers.

Her eyes were crinkling, but Alicia sighed with good humor. "Okay, Jeff, I surrender. I mean, what are you looking for in the money? These finances seem fine."

Jeff stared at her. "He's broke, right?"

"Yeah."

"A year ago, he was rich, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, how did he go from being rich to being broke?"

"Oh. Why didn't you say so? Look here. It's a classic scenario. This says he leveraged everything he owned to buy a huge chunk of a foreign company. I expect he thought it would go up quickly. Instead, it promptly went belly up. Because he leveraged, he owed a lot of money. Then he sold the estate to cover his losses..." She trailed off, frowning.

"Jeff, are you sure these are all the records?"

"Pretty sure. Why?"

"He sold off his estate to cover his debts?"

"Yeah, I think so. Yeah, it says it right there." Jeff was looking at some notations on a closing statement. Alicia frowned at him, with a quizzical smile.

"What's the matter?"

"That's just a handwritten comment, Jeff. It doesn't mean anything. In fact," and she put the papers in order, "he didn't have much debt at all, other than the stock loss."

"What?"

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