“I knew there was something fishy about Brian,” Bill grunted as he put down his newspaper. “He reminds me of crooked politicians. Smarmy and good-looking, but full of lies and ready to put their hands in your pocket when you’re not looking.”
“I think that’s bankers, sweetie,” said his wife.
“Bankers, politicians, all the same thing,” Bill grumbled, clearly not a big fan of either. “So what do you want us to do, Janelle? Or should I call you Vesta now?”
“Better stick to Janelle,” said Gran. “It’s our cover, after all.”
“I like it,” said Liz, giving her a wink. “Just like one of them spy movies!”
“We need to find out if Brian has been cheating people out of their inheritance,” said Gran, “and pocketing the money.”
“You mean this Cayman Islands account might be his?” asked Olivia. “This… Daffodil Holdings?”
“Who else could it be?” said Gran. “It’s a great racket, I have to give him that. First he sweet-talks these people, probably gives them some line about Happy Home being in financial trouble. And so he gets them to make a new will, leaving everything to him. Only instead of having the moneymade out to the happy Home account, the transfer goes to his private account in the Cayman Islands.”
“Nice racket when you can get it,” Bill agreed. “But how are we going to find out if this account belongs to Brian?”
“Simple,” said Liz, her eyes shiny with excitement. “We break into his office and check his computer!”
“Wait a minute,” said Olivia. “Isn’t that illegal?”
“Who cares! This man is a crook! He’s been scamming residents for years. But if we can catch him, he’ll go to prison, and then all of the money he scammed will be returned to the families of the residents who died, or Happy Home, if that’s what they wanted.”
“According to Al Powell—that’s the notary who’s been handling the Happy Home account—none of these residents had any relatives,” said Gran. “Which is probably why Brian targeted them in the first place.”
“The man is evil,” said Liz. “Pure evil!”
And she was probably right. As things now looked, it didn’t paint Brian in a favorable light. But so far nothing had been proven. And as they say: innocent until proven guilty. Though if it was up to Murder Club, it wouldn’t be long before they did prove it.
43
Through long association with the leader of Happy Home for the Elderly, Brian was very particular about his lunch hour. He always took it, no matter what, and so at twelve o’clock sharp, the five members of Murder Club—and four cats—were waiting around the corner of his office until the man could be seen taking his break.
We didn’t have to wait long, and soon Brian and Dee came passing by, both deep in conversation—so deep that they didn’t even see us.
“Looks like they’ve got a lot to talk about,” Brutus commented.
“Sara said she was going to tell her husband personally that she wanted a divorce,” I said. “So she probably dropped by this morning to give him the news.”
“And now Brian is telling Dee, who’ll be happy to know that her affair with her boss might bloom into a marriage very soon,” said Harriet.
Somehow I doubted that. Philanderers make bad husbands, and Brian had promised Dee he was going to marry her so many times now I just didn’t see it happening.
“So how do we get in?” asked Olivia as we paused in front of Brian’s door.
“We’ve been here before,” said Gran, taking out her trusty burglary set.
“And you’ve proved how you can’t get that thing to work!” said Scarlett. “So give it a rest already, Vesta. And let’s find some other way in.”
“Your trick with the credit card didn’t do us a lot of good either,” Gran grumbled.
“I think I know a way to get in,” said Bill, and took a key from his pocket. He then inserted that key into the lock, turned it, and opened the door! “Voila,” he said triumphantly. “It’s the master key that opens all the doors in the building,” he explained. “Desmond gave it to me when I lost my own key. He told me not to mention it to Brian, cause residents are not supposed to possess one of these babies. And of course I kept it—and kept my mouth shut!” He grinned as he accepted the admiration of his fellow Murder Club members. “And now let’s find that evidence, shallwe?”
“One of us should stay here and stand guard,” said Liz.
“I’ll do it,” said Olivia. “I don’t know anything about computers anyway.”
I could have suggested that one of us stood guard, but the Murder Club wasn’t supposed to know that Gran could talk to her cats, so I wisely kept my tongue.
Once inside, we quickly moved into Brian’s office, and Bill settled down behind the man’s computer, cracked his knuckles, and went to work.
“Do you know a lot about computers?” asked Scarlett, who didn’t know the first thing about the devices. “Only I’ve got a great-nephew who’s a real computer whiz. And if you want I could give him a call. I’ll bet he could get us into this thing ASAP.”
“I’m in already,” said Bill. “He didn’t even turn it off, or log out.” He had put on his reading glasses, and started clicking here and there.