Some Like It Hawk(97)

“Didn’t they already sign that contract years ago?”

“They signed a contract,” I said. “And there are plenty of copies of it floating around, so I can’t imagine anyone would need to forge signatures on that. But what if someone came up with a bogus version of the contract? With terms far less favorable to Caerphilly?”

“There would still be the originals,” he said. “There’s a pretty obvious difference between a signed original and—well, one of these.” He held up one of the sheets from the wastebasket.

“But what if the originals were missing?” I said. “And all you had were our photocopies and that—once the forger finished adding all the signatures?”

“Are they missing?”

“No idea,” I said. “I don’t even know how many of them were signed. But I know that there would be at least one copy with FPF and one with us. And I’m betting FPF’s copy will inexplicably turn out to be missing or replaced.”

“Where would the county’s copy be?”

“In the county archives,” I said.

“You mean in the basement?” he asked. “With Mr. Throckmorton?”

I nodded.

“Holy—okay, I think you solved the question of why my former client was suddenly so eager to get into the basement. But wait—why would they be doing this forgery here? They’ve got plenty of computers back at FPF’s headquarters, and probably graphic artists who could do this kind of graphic manipulation very easily. Why risk doing it here?”

I thought for a moment.

“Because the crook is here,” I said. “Not that there couldn’t be any number of crooks back at FPF headquarters, but I get the impression they operate on a grand scale, in clever ways that usually pass muster with the IRS and the court system. This is someone stationed here in Caerphilly.”

“That makes sense,” he said. “Someone desperate who is getting increasing pressure from his management to resolve an increasingly embarrassing situation playing out on his watch.”

“You’re thinking Leonard Fisher?” I asked.

Denton nodded.

“Could be,” I said. “Would it change your mind if you heard that our former mayor is in town?”

“Is he? I thought he was in Cancún.”

“He was, but he flew back to the states just before Memorial Day. And was spotted in Clay County yesterday. We don’t know that he’s in town, but…”

Denton pondered.

“My money’s still on Fisher,” he said. “But I wouldn’t laugh if you suggested they might be in on it together.”

“Let’s call the chief,” I said. “And Festus. They need to see this.”





Chapter 39




Considering how interesting Denton and I thought our find was, we were a little frustrated at how long it took the chief to arrive. But we whiled away the time by photographing various bits of evidence and e-mailing them to Festus.

When the chief arrived, accompanied by Randall, it was obvious that the delay was frustrating to him, too.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’d have been here sooner if I hadn’t been so busy chasing down and arresting intoxicated Flying Monkeys.”

“They’ll catch hell from Wilt when he finds out,” Denton said.

“That would be highly unfair,” the chief said. “Considering it’s his fault they’re blotto. Gave them all the rest of the day off to celebrate Independence Day—which would have been a nice gesture if he hadn’t already put most of them on leave without pay—and provided several cases of beer to fuel the celebration. If I were a paranoid man, I could easily imagine he’d done it just to complicate my life.”

“I’m not paranoid and it sounds perfectly in character,” Denton said.

“So what is this new evidence you’ve found?” the chief asked.

Denton and I displayed the forgeries-in-progress. While we were waiting for the chief’s arrival, we’d heard back from Festus, who called to say that no, these were definitely not the real contracts, and he’d be back in Caerphilly at eight in the morning. I suspected his parents, with whom he was supposed to be celebrating the Fourth in Yorktown, were not altogether happy with the interruption. I made a note to warn Mother to expect a complaint about my behavior.

We also continued snooping in the contents of the computer, so we could give the chief a more coherent picture of what appeared to have happened.

“Started on June thirtieth,” I said. “Someone took a digital copy of the real contract and began using a graphics program on this computer to capture just the county board members’ signatures.”