Stephanie Plum 5 - High Five
Stephanie Plum 5 - High Five
13
MORELLI LEANED BACK against the counter and folded his arms. “Somehow it came to light that there was a discrepancy between how much money Vito Grizolli's cleaning business was taking in and how much was reported for income tax purposes.”
“Gee, what a surprise.”
“Yeah. Well, the Feds decided they wanted to nail him on it, so they started to do their thing, and it soon became pretty obvious that Vito, in fact, is losing money he has no knowledge of.”
“Someone is skimming Vito?”
Morelli started to laugh. “Can you believe it?”
“Man, there's a lot of that going on.”
“Enough to make it worthwhile for Treasury to deal with Vito so they can maybe get a bigger fish.”
“Like what kind of a bigger fish?”
Morelli shrugged. “Don't know. The two brain surgeons I'm working with think it's some new crime organization.”
“What do you think?”
“Until you showed me the checks, I thought it was just some guy with a death wish trying to pay off his mortgage. Now I'm not sure what I think, but a new crime organization feels far out there. I don't see any other signs of a new organization.”
“Maybe it's just coincidence.”
“I don't think so. There are too many things adding up. Three companies involved so far. Three accounts-?receivable clerks have died. Another is missing. Fred is missing. Someone set a bomb to your car.”
“How about the bank? Were Vito's missing accounts processed through First Trenton?”
"Yes. It'd be helpful to pull some records, but we'd run the risk of alerting whoever is involved that there's an investigation going on.
“It turns out, RGC had also been flagged for possible tax evasion. The RGC stands for Ruben, Grizolli, and Cotell. I knew Grizolli was part owner, but I didn't know there'd been any irregularities. My Treasury contacts didn't tell me that part.”
“You're working as a team, and they didn't tell you about RGC?”
“You don't know these guys. Real hot dogs. And they don't like being coupled with local law enforcement.”
I smiled at him.
“Yeah, I know,” he said. "Sounds like I'm describing myself. Anyway, Bronfman, the guy you know as Bunchy, was doing surveillance at RGC, looking to see who went in and out. He was sitting in the café across the street the Friday that Fred disappeared. I guess Fred had wanted to get an early start, but he got to RGC before the office opened, so he went across the street for coffee. Bronfman and Fred got to talking and Bronfman realized Fred was one of the nonrecorded accounts. The following Tuesday, Bronfman got to thinking it might be helpful to get a canceled check from Fred, one way or another, went to talk to Fred, and discovered Fred was missing.
“When Mabel told him you were on the case, Bronfman decided he could use you to front for him. You could poke around and ask questions, and it wasn't as likely anyone would run for the hills. Didn't turn out exactly as he'd planned, because he hadn't counted on your ornery, suspicious nature.”
“I didn't tell him much.”
“No. His efforts got him zero. That's the good part.” Morelli locked eyes with me. “Now that you know what's going on, you're going to tell me what you have, though, right?”
“Sure.” Maybe.
“Christ,” Morelli said.
“Hey, I might tell you something.”
“I'm sorry, I didn't have enough pieces to put this together sooner.”