Chapter Ten

Alex walked off the elevator the next day and immediately headed for Cliff’s office.

“Jodi, is he in right now?”

“Morning, Alex. Yes, he’s in, but he’s in conference. Said if anybody needs him he’ll be free about 9:30.”

“Gotcha. Would you tell him I need to see him?”

“Can I tell him why?”

“Just let him know I had a discussion last night with the enigmatic Ms. Mylos. Tell him she’s willing to share.”

“I take it he’ll understand.”

“Yeah, he will. Tell him I’ll be in my office.”

“Will do.”

*******************************************************

“So, our assassin’s willing to talk?”

Cliff was in the doorway of Alex’s cubicle.

“To a point. She doesn’t trust me, yet, and I don’t blame her. She’s gotten burned before.”

“So, what did she say?”

“Follow the money, and study Kittredge.”

“That’s it?”

“That, and she doesn’t think Derek White is the one giving the orders. She doesn’t doubt his involvement, but he’s not the top dog.”

“Huh.” Cliff scratched his chin as he came into the office and sat down. “You think maybe it’s Gerlach?”

“Teren never mentioned his name. And so far, other than being Derek’s brother, there’s been no connection.”

“Then who?”

Alex shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m just going to follow the money, I guess.”

“Okay. ” He stood. “So, I take it you’ll be speaking to Ms. Mylos again.”

“Yes.”

He nodded. “Good. At least if you’re in contact with her you can keep one eye on her.”

“You think she needs watching?”

“I’m not sure. On just what you’ve said, and what I’ve seen, no. But, she is a trained killer. I don’t think I’d feel safe if we weren’t staying in contact.”

“Good point.”

He pointed to the papers on her desk. “What’s all this?”

“Oh. David and I requested some records from the IRS. Tax returns and audit papers on Kittredge. David’s looking at people involved in the company, and I’m looking at their tax returns. Something Teren said last night kind of stuck in my mind, and I wanted to check on it.”

“What was that?”

“Something about them selling very few clothes for the amount of material they buy.”

“Why is that important?”

“I’m not sure. There are some budget reports in here from when they were audited by the IRS. Maybe there will be something there.”

“Okay. So, David’s looking at the people and you’re chasing dollars. Ben and Mark are going to keep grilling Ricky Wilford. They’re having him look through pictures from our surveillance file to see if he recognizes any of his brother’s friends.”

“Good. Maybe he’ll see a familiar face, and we’ll have another live suspect.”

“Speaking of suspects, how long do you want to wait before leaning on Brogan?”

“Is the surveillance in place?”

“As of last night. And the wire tap is in.”

“Then I think sometime this week will be good. I want to see if I can find a few more facts about his cousin. Then we’ll confront him, and see if he talks to us or White.”

“If he chooses White?”

“I’ll just have to remind him what happened to his buddies who were driving his car.”

*******************************************************

Alex couldn’t figure out how the Kittredge Clothes Company made any money at all.

First, they had no physical outlet. The only way to get their clothes was to order them by mail, phone, or on-line. While they listed four stores as ‘distribution centers,’ it was noted that these stores did not sell the merchandise. They simply arranged for individuals to pick up the prepaid items. Which made absolutely no sense to Alex.

Also, the recorded prices for these items was absolutely outrageous. The Klaser Coat was listed at over five hundred dollars, while the signature Kittedge line was priced close to seven hundred.

Not that the coats weren’t made well. The materials purchased by Kittredge were top of the line, best quality. Only the best silk was used in the Kittredge shirts, and the gold buttons on the Kabel blazers were fourteen karat gold. Therefore, if the price Kittredge paid for their materials was any measure, the price of the product was justified.

But something didn’t sit right with Alex. She wondered exactly who they were buying their material from. As she looked over their list of suppliers, she noticed a trend. All of the other companies were part of either Atlantic Properties, or its conglomerate The Talcott Companies.

As Alex looked through report after report, she noticed the Kittredge Clothes Company actually made no profit whatsoever. It made enough to cover the price of doing business. Otherwise, the amount spent on material and the amount brought in through sales balanced each other perfectly. As if the amount of materials bought every month were precisely calculated to offset the number of items sold.

Which, Alex decided, was virtually impossible.

David showed up just as she was coming to this conclusion.

“You’ll never guess what I just found out.”

“At this point, David, I don’t think I’d want to try guessing what day it is. What did you find?”

“I got a full list of the shareholders. It reads like the who’s who of the far right.”

“Like who?”

“For one, of course, Gerlach. But there’s also Ned Simpson, from North Carolina. Grand Imperial Wizard Jed Miller from Louisiana. Teddy Rushford from Mississippi. Most of the major groups are represented.”

“Shit. What is this, the new trend? If you’re Klan or Nazi you need to buy a Kittredge coat?”

“I don’t know about that, but I do know that, surprise surprise, each of these men also hold positions within at least one other business under Atlantic Properties or the Talcott Companies.” He dropped into the chair beside Alex. “I got a bad feeling about this Alex.”

“Me, too.” She closed the folder she was holding and tapped it against her desk. “This is getting bigger and bigger. And I’m worried.”

“This was a total conspiracy from start to finish, Alex.”

“Yeah. But that’s the problem, Dave. I don’t think it’s finished.”

“I don’t see that as the problem.”

“You don’t?”

“No. All we can do is what we’ve been doing. We’re not prophets, and we don’t have a clue if, where, or when the next assassination will occur. If it’s not finished,” he shrugged, “it’s not finished. We’ll just ride it out ‘til it is.”

Alex leaned back. “So what does scare you?”

“What scares me is that every day we find that one person is linked to someone else, and that person is linked to another. This thing is getting bigger and bigger. I know conspiracies can be broken, but Alex, all we have is connections, and no proof. How the hell are we going to prove Derek White is involved in this shit? We can prove he knew the guys, but that’s not even enough to get a search warrant.”

“I know, Dave. I’m frustrated, too.”

They were both quiet for a moment. Then Alex reopened the folder again. “Well, while you’ve been looking at people, I’ve been looking at dollars. Look at this. There is no way in hell Kittredge can make a profit. They make enough to break even and that’s it. There’s no way the shareholders are getting rich from this.”

David stood and looked over her shoulder. “Jeez, Alex. It looks like their sales are just enough to cover what they’ve spent on materials.”

“That’s right. But they buy materials at different rates per month. And I can’t see that it’s based on the previous months sales. It’s almost like they predict what they’re going to sell.”

“But that’s not possible.”

“It’s not supposed to be.” She flipped to another page. “This is the list of suppliers for Kittredge. They’re all part of Atlantic or Talcott.”

David didn’t say anything, but when she tried to flip the page, he stopped her. “Those are the suppliers?”

“Yes.”