Page 98 of Charmed Forces

“Brandt runs a tight ship. I’m sure he knows exactly where his people are. Crump and Hertford play by the book too. Not the smartest cookies but they do as they’re told and always obey orders.”

“What about their personal circumstances?”

“I’ve told you everything I know about Brandt. Crump’s single, as far as I know. Hertford got married recently. Some whirlwind courtship.”

“What are their first names?” I asked, hoping one of them was a Buddy.

“No clue. Want me to ask around?”

“I’ll find out.” I thanked Garrett and relayed the part of the conversation Solomon and Delgado couldn’t hear. Before I could suggest my next idea, my phone rang.

“I found the link,” said Lucas without any preamble. “And the assassin’s car was also found.”

“I’ll put you on speaker,” I said before I got into information overload and muddled my recall. “Start with the first one.”

“The car was burned out two hundred miles from here. I looked for camera footage in the area but found nothing. I figure she picked up another vehicle or had one waiting but there’s nothing to go on. She’s definitely gone,” he explained. “I did find footage of the car shortly after it was stolen. She wasn’t the driver. It was a dude.”

“That supports our idea she might have gotten local help. I think she’s related to Tom Victor,” I told him. “I’m sending you a photo. Can you work with that? She might be a cousin, or a niece, or maybe a goddaughter. Whoever she is, she’s close enough for him to have her in a family photo on his desk.”

“I’ll get right on it,” said Lucas. “Now, regarding the link you asked me to look into between Tom Victor and the construction company? I found it. It’s actually owned by a shell, so Victor officially looks like an employee but he’s really the owner when we work our way up the shell chain. It’s not connected to his family either. Everything about Victory Construction looks legit, from the accounts filed to the employees, and there’s no record of Jeff Denney. However, it’s skyrocketed from a turnover of nothing to eight figures in less than five years! Multiple developments across the state, mostly non-residential, abandoned strip malls, condemned buildings, and land development. Some are designated for business use. But his latest ventures have been all luxury apartments. He just won a bid for Mill Avenue.”

“Mill Avenue?” I asked. “Where’s that?”

“It’s the not-so-nice area of Harbridge. A trio of former commercial buildings that are soon to be become luxury loft living. The concept drawings are pretty nice. Underground parking, communal garden, even a gym.”

“That’s a big undertaking,” said Solomon. “The city already owns the land. There were some big bids on it.”

“Can you access the bids?” I asked, frowning as a new thought occurred to me. “I want to see if Victory Construction and MH Construction placed bids too. Then compare them to whatever else they had bids on.”

“Got it,” said Lucas.

“What’re you thinking?” asked Solomon.

“Remember the case I had regarding industrial espionage?” I said, unsure if Solomon had filled Delgado in.

“Yeah, you wrapped it up just before Daniel’s whole world blew up then the woman turned out to be related to Tom Victor’s girlfriend,” said Delgado.

“I thought I wrapped it up, but now I’m almost certain I was wrong. I think Lucas will find a pattern of bids from MH Construction and Victory Construction for the same properties over the last few months. I think Victor’s been subtly pumping Louise Milton for information ever since Angelica introduced them, then using the inside knowledge he shouldn’t know to undercut his competitors. That way, he gets to win all the bids and grow his business. I don’t think Louise realized any of it. She mentioned earlier that Victor was always very interested in her career.”

“Let’s get that information backed up,” said Solomon. “How long has Victor known Louise?”

“Six months? Maybe a year?” I said. “Which is also how long he’s been dating Angelica.”

“Lucas, find every bid for the lifetime of Victor’s firm. If Lexi’s right, we’re going to see a pattern of successful bids from the past twelve months.”

“Is this illegal?” I asked.

“I don’t know the ins and outs of it but The Federal Trade Commission might consider it bid-rigging,” replied Delgado.

“Collusion to fix a bid results in prison time or fines, depending on the case,” added Solomon. “It doesn’t sound like Louise’s firm could be in on the collusion so it’s not an anti-trust case. Lucas, double-check that MH Construction doesn’t benefit in any way from Victor’s firm once they their bid is rejected.”

“You’re thinking bribes?” I said.

Solomon rocked his head, apparently unsure. “I doubt it, since Markham Hardy was irritated enough to hire us, but let’s check anyway.”

“At the best case scenario, Louise is going to lose her job,” I said. I didn’t like the sound of that. Louise was nice. I doubted she’d throw away her architecture dream to funnel information slyly to Tom Victor. Yet how could Markham Hardy ever trust her again?

“Maybe that’ll teach her not to shoot her mouth off to mobsters,” said Delgado.

---