Mr. Farley definitely falls into the category of suspicious character. He is a private investigator specializing in cybercrimes. Mort called him in to investigate the activities of Herr Ringmeister. Herr Ringmeister is German and insists on the use of the German form of address rather than mister. Informally, he goes by Red, a nickname he said he got due to his red hair and complexion and not because of his prior affiliation with the East German communist party.
Herr Ringmeister operates several server farms around the world that may or may not be engaging in questionable activities. Herr Ringmeister hired Mort to do his taxes and other accounting work as required to make his business books consistent with his tax filings. Mort had no doubts or qualms about the questionable nature of what Herr Ringmeister wanted him to do. He just wanted to make sure he understood everything Herr Ringmeister was into and that is why he hired Mr. Farley. What follows is the conversation from their first meeting here at the house.
"So, is there something specific you want me to look into?" Mr. Farley asked.
Mort responded, "Herr Ringmeister is involved in a lot of internet related businesses that frankly, I don't really understand. Ostensibly, he rents out data storage and computing capabilities at his many computer server farms that are part of this whole internet cloud thing. What concerns me looking at his books and finances is there is significantly more income coming in than you would normally expect from such businesses."
"Such businesses can be quite profitable," Mr. Farley interjected.
"Trust me Mr. Farley, I may not understand the technical aspects of his business, but I know finance and have researched similar companies providing these services and his is more than quite profitable. I suspect something else is going on. Possibly, he is garnering information from the data he is storing and selling it to the competitors of the companies who have trusted him with their data. Possibly, he is blackmailing people based on the data passing through his system. I have no idea and honestly, I normally wouldn't care. What concerns me is that if he is blackmailing or screwing over the wrong people, he could be putting his life and the lives of everyone who works for him in danger. Since I am one of those people, this I care about.
"My other concern is the possibility that Herr Ringmeister may be the type who makes sure he limits the number of people who have insight into his questionable business practices. If I become one of those with such insight, I don't want to become a loose end he feels he needs to tie off.
"So, you can see why I want to find out as much as I can about what I'm getting into before I become too involved with Herr Ringmeister. I was told you have the necessary investigative and technical skills to possibly help me?"
"Possibly," Mr. Farley paused for a moment, "This is not the type of case we normally handle. We usually deal with securing computer networks, not breaking into them."
"Perhaps, I can make it worth your while. I'm writing a number down and that is just for one day's work."
There was a lengthy pause before Farley responded, "To quote Lady Gaga, 'we're far from the shallow now.'" Farley chuckled as he sang the last part. "Normally, I would kill for a job that pays like this, but I will have to give my associates a chance to ponder this particularly princely proposition."
Mort was killed before Mr. Farley got back to him. I heard Mr. Farley was killed because of his excessive puns, alliteration and his over use of pop music lyrics.
