"That's my favorite Dickens novel," Justin said.
"What?" Matuszek said blankly.
"Nothing. Where do we find Hudson Fenwick?"
Matuszek didn't answer, just reached toward his phone, pushed a few buttons, and said, "Hud? You wanna come in here for a minute?"
And a few moments later, Hudson Fenwick walked through the door. Fenwick was more or less a thinner, less-athletic version of Carl Matuszek. Same short haircut; same button-down long-sleeved shirt; same slacks; and same striped tie, except his was red and black instead of blue and white. Fenwick also seemed nervous and fidgety. He immediately got more nervous and more fidgety when Matuszek told him the visitors were from the FBI. Justin went to pull out his badge, but Reggie managed to grab his hand before he could dig it out of his pocket.
"What-um-what can I do for you?" Fenwick asked.
"They're looking for some information on Menking, Inc. and-what's the other one?" He looked down at Reggie's list. "Right. Cates and Herr."
"What-what-what do you want to know?"
"What they do, for one thing."
"Menking-um-deals in precious metals. Trades. Buys, sells. Mostly platinum."
"Platinum?" Reggie said. She leaned forward, then realized it probably gave the impression she was a little too interested.
"Yes," Hudson said. "Something wrong with that?"
"No, of course not," she said. "Where are they located?"
"They've got offices all over the world. London, Belgium… I think their home office is in Canada."
"What about the other one?" she asked. "Cates and Herr."
"Um… mining, actually. Platinum again."
"Uh-huh," Justin said. "Where does one mine platinum?"
"They're in"-he coughed two or three times, then cleared his throat from all the coughing-"South Africa."
Before Hudson Fenwick could do any more hemming, hawing, or coughing, Forrest Bannister walked into Carl Matuszek's office. Justin couldn't help noticing that with five people in the office, the room looked a lot less crowded than his own living room with just two people in it.
"Chief Westwood," Bannister said. "I apologize for being late. Things are a little… out of the ordinary, as I'm sure you understand."
Justin said that he understood completely and he introduced Reggie. He was surprised at the difference in Bannister's demeanor from the night that he had found Evan Harmon's body and called in the murder. He was far more calm and collected now, which wasn't really surprising. But he was also much more commanding and assertive. He no longer seemed like the kind of guy who'd immediately come running a hundred miles when Evan Harmon called.
"I hope Carl and Hud are being helpful."
"Yes," Justin said. "Extremely so."
"What can I help you with?"
Justin glanced over at Reggie, so she told Bannister what she needed. She wanted a record of Evan Harmon's travel over the past fifteen-month period, everywhere he went and who he went to see. She also wanted the same information for any of the associates at the firm who might have traveled to Canada, California, Russia, South Africa, and South America. She also asked for records of any business transactions that had been done with the LaSalle Group in Providence.
When she was finished, Bannister smiled evenly and said, "Of course. Would you mind telling us what you're looking for specifically? That might make it easier for us to give you what you want."
"I'm afraid it doesn't work that way, Mr. Bannister. We'd like all the information in as complete a form as possible. We don't want you sifting through it or editing it for us."
"Absolutely. I wasn't trying to interfere. I simply thought it might help us be more efficient." He looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "Let me see… This will take some time-"
"We need this as quickly as possible," Reggie told him. "What would be the delay?"
"Well, the records aren't kept in the same place or by the same person. The travel plans, for instance, are made by each assistant individually."
"You don't use a central travel agent?" Justin asked.
"No, we don't," Bannister said. "And Evan's assistant will certainly have a record of some of his specific meetings but not every one. Evan did a lot of that himself."
"That-that's right," Fenwick chimed in. "He was kind of a con-control freak for his schedule."
"But I'll talk to Evan's assistant and see what she's got."
"And her name is?"
"Lisa."
"Lisa what?"
"Are you going to want to talk to her?" Bannister asked.
"Is that a problem?" Justin said.
"No, not really. It's just that she was so devastated by what happened. She really hasn't been functioning very well, and I don't know how she'd hold up to any kind of interrogation."
"This is hardly an interrogation," Reggie said.
"You know what I mean," Bannister said quickly. "I didn't mean that pejoratively. She's just very fragile right now. It's why we've given her some time off."
"Not a problem," Justin told him. "But I do need her last name for my records."
"Schwartz." This was Carl Matuszek who chimed in. "Lisa Schwartz."
"Thanks," Justin said. "Now how about the LaSalle transactions?"
"Now that might be a different matter," Bannister told them. When Reggie asked why that might be, he said, "Because there are questions of privacy. We can't simply open up our clients' financial transactions." And before Justin could get a word out, he went on, "Or our transactions on behalf of our clients."
"We can get a court order," Reggie said.
"I'm not sure that you can," Bannister said. "But you're certainly free to try. It's not that we don't want to do everything possible to help catch Evan's killer. Lord knows, we do. His death is the worst thing that's happened to this company and possibly the worst thing that's ever happened to me personally. But this company is also Evan's legacy, and I fear that releasing those kinds of documents could do us great harm."
"Totally understood," Justin said. "I don't blame you." He continued as Reggie stared at him in amazement. "And I think we've taken up enough of your time. If you'll just give us your cards so we can get in touch with you again and figure out how to get the travel info we need." He rose and took a business card from each man. Reggie hesitated before rising, too. As they were being escorted out by Bannister, who was going on again about the tragic loss of Evan Harmon, Justin saw a secretary working away expertly on her computer. He stopped as he passed the young woman's desk and said, "Excuse me just a second." He turned to Bannister and said, "Sorry, this doesn't have anything to do with Evan, but…" Turning back to the assistant, he said, "We're completely redoing our computer system at the police station. In fact, they've asked me to put together a recommendation for all of the various forces on the eastern part of Long Island. What kind of system do you use? We all want to be linked wirelessly."
She smiled, flattered that he'd picked her to talk to, and told him the system they were using.
"Mac or PC?" he asked.
"PC," she said and shrugged as if that wasn't her choice but what could she do?
He thanked her. Then he turned to Bannister and said, "You know, I forgot to ask you one thing: how involved is H. R. Harmon with the company these days?"
"He's not particularly involved."
"That's funny. At Rockworth, they told me that one of the reasons he left was to spend more time working with his son."
"Well… he has an office here, if that's what you mean. But he's hardly involved in our day-to-day operations."
"Even now? I would have thought he'd be very involved right now, making sure that things hold together."
"I'm… I keep him apprised of anything important, of course."
"So you're in touch with him?"
"Yes. But this is hardly his top priority right now."
"Of course. That's only natural." Justin smiled kindly. "Thank you. And I'm glad to see you're doing so much better than you were the other night."