Chapter 23
“Hey, Joan. Oriole here. Can you look to see if Lisa Wood had an appointment with Marlowe on June 7?”
“Let me pull up the calendar. Nope. Marlowe was in court all day. Anything else I can do for you?”
“Say hi to her for me. Gotta go.” Oriole turned to Fred with the news that MS. must be someone else.
“Let’s go see the accountant, Tom. See if he has any ideas about money or names.” Fred and Oriole left for Prescott Valley and Tom Schumann’s office.
“Mr. Schumann. Thanks for taking time to talk to us. We’re looking for information about Lisa Wood’s holdings, her finances, and anything else you might have. I have a search warrant that says you can give us anything you have relating to her estate.” Oriole handed the accountant the paperwork.
“Thanks for the formality. It makes it easier to cooperate with you. Let me get her file up on the computer and see what we can see. Here we go. Just about everything was in her name solely. There was an insurance policy for both Lisa and Phil, Lisa paid the premiums. The triplex was in her name. Of course the condo was just in her name. She was a very savvy business woman and to be honest with you, I don’t think she trusted him very much.” Tom paged down through the computer file.
“We have a letter that she wrote and she questions some missing money. Know anything about her concerns?”
“I wasn’t going to address that unless you brought it up because at first she wasn’t sure, but since you brought it up. She came so see me about six weeks ago with a concern that money was missing from her brokerage account, significant money. I started a trace on the accounts to see what I could find and sure enough, money was being drained off the account. It looked to me like it was pretty sophisticated. Small numbers of stocks were being sold on a semi regular basis nearly every day. It looked to me like it had been going on for a long time. The account had pass words and security that were breached. It would take someone with brokerage knowledge. I’d guess the amount came close to a hundred grand. She believed Phil was involved, but not acting alone. Lisa said he didn’t know enough about stocks and bonds to pull it off on his own.” Tom turned to the detectives from his computer.”That’s about all I know.”
“Did Lisa say who she thought may be working with Phil?” Fred asked.
“She didn’t say, maybe she didn’t know, or maybe she didn’t want to tell me. I’m not sure. I do know she was considering legal action as soon as she put together the information. I assume she was going to confront Phil based on what she said when we met last.”
“Do you know if she had done so? Confront Phil, I mean.” Oriole inquired.
“No idea. I’m not sure she would have confided that with me.”
“Have you had the opportunity to look to see if the drainage continued?”
“Good question. I actually did check when I heard about her murder. And yes, it was continuing. I haven’t checked since then. Is that something you would like for me to do?”
“Can you do it right now or does it take some time?” Fred wanted the information as quickly as he could get it.
“It only takes a couple minutes. Hang on and let’s see what we see.” Tom Schumann tapped the keyboard and began making cooing noises as he worked. “Yes sir. We have continued activity right up through yesterday.”
“Is there a way to freeze the accounts?” Oriole could see a major problem occurring if they didn’t get a handle on the stealing.
“I asked Lisa if she wanted me to do that, but before she could give me directions, she was killed. I don’t know if I have the authority to freeze her accounts. Whoever is her estate administrator will be able to do that. Is that Phil?”
“We’ll find out. Thanks for your help, Mr. Schumann. May we take these printouts?”
“You’re welcome. Hope you get the bastard. Lisa was a great lady. And yes you can keep the printout.”
They left Tom’s office and put in a call to Gerri Martin who was the administrator of the estate. “Gerri, this is Detective Wolfe. We need to meet with you as soon as possible. When will you get to town?”
“Oh. Hi. Bobby and I are driving in tomorrow. Will sometime early afternoon work? Can you tell me what’s happening on Mom’s case?”
“Early afternoon works for us. Say 1:30 at the Sheriff’s Office. We’ll talk about what’s going on then. Okay?”
Gerri Martin and her brother Bobby arrived to meet with the detectives. A reincarnation of Lisa Wood, Gerri stood 5’6”, natural blond hair to her shoulders, creamy complexion, and piercing blue eyes. Bobby Wood, three years younger, didn’t resemble his sister at all. Dark curly hair, 6’3”, 210, all muscle, dark brooding face full of questions, he was just the opposite.
“Let’s see if we can make this go faster for the two of you. While Detective Wolfe talks to Bobby, I’ll talk with you. We’ll try to get you out of here just as soon as we can.” Fred wanted to separate the siblings in a kind, gentle way. The detectives utilized separate interview rooms.
“Bobby, tell me what you can about your mother and Phil’s relationship.”
“Mom came out to California for Mother’s Day. She told Gerri and me that the marriage was over and she was divorcing Phil. She thought he might be stealing from her. I never really liked him, but I tried to be nice because he was her husband, while Gerri on the other hand was openly hostile. That’s about it.”
“Your mother made out a new will recently. Are you aware of the contents of that new will?”
“She didn’t tell us much about that. She did say things would be different though. Gerri and I took it to mean he’d get nothing. Mom wasn’t rich, but she had worked hard and had some holdings. I’m guessing Gerri and I inherit, is that correct?” Bobby seemed to be less informed about his mother’s wishes than he let on.
“The attorney in charge of probate will answer those questions. I was wondering if you’ve been out to visit your mother after Mother’s Day.” Oriole decided to pin Bobby down as to his possible involvement.
“No, neither Gerri nor I have been here recently. She’s got the kids and I have been busy with a new construction project in Marin County. We were both concerned about Mom and her state of mind. We all planned to get together 4th of July for a vacation in Las Vegas. Now that will never happen.”
“Tell me about your project.” Oriole wanted more information about Bobby’s activities.
“It’s a small housing project. I’m in partnership with several other guys. I’m the construction manager. My job is to get the permits, crews, and materials. If we do this right, we’ll get 150% return on our investment. You would think that with the economy like it is, construction would be down, but the opposite is true for us. It’s booming.” He warmed to the topic.
“What kind of investment are we talking?”
“Well, I was short on dollars, but with my abilities and skills it made up. So we’re talking the project itself is about half a mil give or take. When we finish up, we’ll split the profits. Course, my share will be different because my investment is more sweat equity. I tried to borrow to put in my share. Banks aren’t loaning right now. I even tried to borrow from Mom, but she was short on cash.” Oriole’s senses perked up at the prospect of another motive.
“Gerri, tell me what you can about your Mom’s affairs.” Fred began as he shut the door to the interview room.
“I talked to the attorney. I’m the administrator of Mom’s estate. Apparently, she’d been losing money. Her estate is worth about half what it was a couple years back. I haven’t told Bobby about the division yet. I thought it’d be better to let the attorney. The thing that concerns me aside from who killed her is where did all the money go?” Gerri Martin seemed more concerned about what Lisa left than why Lisa was killed.
“One of the things we need from you as administrator is to initiate a hold on her brokerage accounts so we can get a handle on the money situation. The accountant said he could help you get that in place. What about P
hil? I know you and he were polar opposites. Do you think he is involved in her death?”
“I can’t see him killing Mom. He was more than likely involved in stealing her money, but he doesn’t have the backbone to kill in cold blood. Is it possible it was just a random act? You know wrong place wrong time kind of thing. I’ve heard about people getting killed when showing homes. Sometimes Mom would go out to the houses to go through them with clients.”
“We don’t know yet. We were hoping you could shed light on the situation. Are there any other men in your mother’s life? What about your father? Is he still in the picture?” Fred was interested in finding out more about the person in the parking lot with Lisa the day she died.
“My dad? He died years ago. Mom was never much of a man hunter. Phil saw a financial savior and swept her off her feet. Mom had a couple male friends in some of her committees, but that’s all they were. Buddies. You know, a drink after a planning committee, lunch once in awhile.”
“Can you give me their names and phone numbers? Anyone else you can think of that might have knowledge about your mother?” Fred could see this case spiraling out of control with more leads.
“I know their names, but not phone numbers. I’m not too sure how to say this and I feel really awful for thinking it, but you might want to look closely at Bobby. See, he wanted to borrow money from Mom and she was pretty adamant that she had loaned both of us the last dime. He was pissed. He tried a couple of times to change her mind. I think he even came over to see her to talk to her again.” Gerri didn’t realize she had just added another name to the growing list of suspects.
Fred and Oriole finished up with the siblings, acquired information about where they could be reached in Prescott and back home.
As the detectives compared notes, they realized they were farther from a solution than they had been when they started. Oriole decided to follow up on Bobby’s possible involvement and whether he’d been in Prescott recently. Fred took his turn on the phone following up on issues Gerri had raised with Lisa’s male friends.