"Let's try a few windows,” she said.
Theo ran his fingers along the wooden frame, attempting to find an indentation where his fingers could leverage the panel upward. The first four windows refused to budge. On the fifth attempt, the panel gave way and he forced it open. “I don't think I can fit through there. Are you willing to give it a try?"
Sadie placed her foot into Theo's cupped hand and pulled herself up. She placed a leg through the opening. “There's a shelf or some kind of board under the window.” She wriggled in through the opening.
One thud and then another echoed from the dark opening. Sadie whispered, “I knocked a couple cans off the shelf. This must be their pantry.” She felt along the wall for a light switch.
A light flooded the room. Theo looked through the window. “Are you all right?"
"I'm right here,” Sadie said, coming up behind Theo. He jerked upright and screamed.
Catching his breath, he rasped in anger, “Don't do that. You startled me."
"Sorry. I thought you might want to come in through the front door. And take that stupid suit coat off. You look ridiculous."
"I look ridiculous?” Theo said. “I'm not the one wearing a mini skirt and a halter top. It's not me who's exposing a sagging abdomen with a tattoo of a worm."
"That's an asp,” Sadie said. “Like the one that caused Cleopatra's death. I love that story, don't you?"
"I hadn't given it much thought. That tattoo actually looks more like a shriveled up worm."
Staring at Theo with her mouth askew, Sadie said, “My asp isn't any more shriveled up than your balls."
"My balls, Madam, are about as important to me as the Ides of March were to Caesar."
Opening her mouth to reply, Sadie paused, took a deep breath, and said, “I don't get it."
"I didn't expect you to."
Sadie closed the front door behind them and pointed toward an opening. “That must be his office. I see file cabinets."
Theo sat at the desk while Sadie rifled through a stack of papers on Richard's desk. “Where did Tim say the key was hidden?"
"Under a horse statue."
"There's got to be twenty horse statues in here.” Theo scanned the shelves and pedestals featuring Richard's collection. “You start there and I'll take this side of the room.” Theo began by lifting the smaller pieces of art. Leaning one of the larger bronze statues against his chest, a key dangling from a felt pad tumbled to the floor. “ Eureka!"
Placing the key in the middle desk drawer, Theo pulled it open and ran his hands through the shallow drawer. He repeated the process with two more drawers. He inserted the key into a deeper bottom drawer and unlocked it.
"This might be it.” He pulled a hard-bound checkbook from the drawer and placed it on the desk. He lifted a stack of folders and separated them into two piles. Pushing one pile toward Sadie, he said, “You start with this and I'll see what's in the checkbook."
Sadie opened the first folder and paged through the contents. The folder held several letters with envelopes stapled to the back of each piece of correspondence. “These are all addressed to Gessal Life Insurance at a Minneapolis address.” Paging deeper, Sadie said, “Here's one from Mrs. Fading Sun."
"Who?"
"Mrs. Fading Sun. She lives in Pinecone Landing. Her husband died about six months ago.” As she finished reading the letter, Sadie said, “This is a letter of complaint. Apparently she thought her husband had signed a $100,000 life insurance policy. But when he died, she got a check for $10,000.” Sadie turned the letter over and tapped it with her fingers. “It looks like this letter was a second request. Here she says she previously asked for a copy of the original application, but never received one."
Theo held out a check. “Look at this. Here's a check written to Fading Sun for three thousand dollars. He's got a note clipped to it indicating it's the return of premium payments. The check's signed by Richard Fossum."
Sadie held up several more letters. “These are complaints, too."
"Give me their names,” Theo said. He laid several checks on the desk's surface.
As Sadie read the names, Theo turned the checks over one by one. “There's a check here matching each of the letters in your hand. There are also envelopes with stamps on them. I believe Richard was getting ready to mail refunds to these people."
Opening another folder, Sadie whistled. “Looks like somebody's been making duplicate applications. Here's the original signed copy, and here's the one that actually got turned in.” She pointed to the line indicating the dollar amount. “The original application says one-hundred-thousand dollars. The copy says ten thousand dollars. These polices were altered."
Sadie looked up in disbelief. “On this original policy it says to send the payments to a post office box in Minneapolis."
"And look at the insurance agent's signature,” Theo said. “Paul Brinks. Gessal Life Insurance."
"Richard obviously got his hands on the paperwork sent to the Minneapolis office. That's what Tim heard them arguing about."
"Here's the proof we need,” Theo said. He held copies of two bank reconciliation forms. “Paul had the policy holders pay their premiums for the larger policy to a post office box in Minneapolis. That money was deposited into a personal account Paul had down there.” Theo looked up at Sadie. “Some businesses have their collections processed by holding companies and pay a fee for the processing."
Theo tapped on the second reconciliation form. “It looks like some of those funds were transferred from his personal account in Minneapolis to the business account Richard worked with here in Pinecone Landing.” He pointed at the two forms so Sadie could see the progression from one account to the other. “Paul transferred enough from that holding account so Richard could record the receipt of premiums on the lesser policies and pay the bills. Who knows how long this went on before Richard figured it out. I would guess Gessal Life isn't involved in this scam. Gessal Life Insurance paid the larger death benefit to Paul and Paul paid the lesser benefit to the recipients."
"Do you think Richard was ever in on it?"
"I doubt it. I'm guessing he figured it out and worked through the process to prove it. He got his hands on Paul's personal bank account by tracking the account number the funds were transferred from. He must have requested copies by using Paul's official letterhead.” Theo pointed at a stacking tray containing letterhead.
"Do you think he told Paul he was going to refund the money?"
"He must have. Either that or Paul figured it out. Tim heard Paul tell Richard he'd never live to see another day if he turned him in. A threat that serious means Paul was worried,” Theo said. “Is that characteristic of him?"
"What are you getting at?” Sadie said.
"Did you ever think Paul was capable of murder?"
"Shrewd. Sneaky. But not a murderer. We've got to show this to the police. With this evidence, we can get them to follow up on the rifle Tim saw. If the autopsy didn't show any evidence of Richard being shot, then maybe we can convince them to look closer at the car. Something caused that car to swerve."
"It's not we, Sadie. It's you who has to convince them. In case you don't know it, you can't present evidence you've gathered by breaking and entering. That's against the law.” Theo tucked the reconciliation sheets back in the folder. “You're going to have to convince them to look for the same information we found. But we've got to come up with something believable before you approach them."
A muffled bark came from outside the front door. “Oh, no. Belly followed us.” Sadie hurried to the front door. Opening it a crack, she whispered, “Shush. Be quiet."
"Let him in before he barks, again,” Theo said. “Someone might get suspicious."
Cracking the door to coax the dog in, Sadie's breath caught in her throat. “Paul's car just turned in to the driveway.” She released the knob and eased the plunger into place before dashing to the desk.