“Not a problem, Mister Pierce. Did I get you at a bad time?”
“No, it’s fine. Time zones aren’t kind to schedules.” He grabbed a pen from the holder on his desk and pulled over a notepad to scribble on. “Did you find something?”
“Just a preliminary overview of the activities you wanted me to look at, but I thought it was interesting enough for you to hear. I haven’t had time to trace down the accounts these deposits are going to. That’s going to take a bit. I did establish a pattern, though.”
“Oh?”
“These payments go back twenty-six years, and they’ve remained constant all that time. Same accounts. Same day of the month. Today, in fact. There is not a single deviation in all that time.”
Gregory pursed his lips. “Are they automatic payments?”
“Not until just before your grandfather’s death. That’s the strange thing. If it had been an assistant making them, or a scheduled, automated payment, I wouldn’t expect deviation. All these payments were made by hand, by your grandfather, on the exact same day of the month, without a single miss, for twenty-six years.”
“That’s– That’s diligent.”
“Extremely. Especially since I’ve done a loose evaluation of similar payments. Your grandfather had plenty of miscellaneous payments he made. Every one of them had at least a couple instances of him paying a few days early, or late. Not this one.”
Gregory wrote down what she had said. “How many accounts?”
“Three, initially. While there are a few odd and unexplained payments around the time they began, three accounts continued receiving hefty payments for that time. One of them stopped roughly seven years ago. Two remained until you cancelled them last month.”
“Did we pay them last month?”
“Yes. You cancelled the automatic payments after they’d already paid out.”
“Did my grandfather authorize the automatic payments?”
He heard the sound of typing over the phone.“No. These were authorized by Robert Lane. Your grandfather gave Robert access right around the time your grandfather fell ill. You revoked it last month.”
Curious. Gregory wrote that down as well. “That’s interesting. Anything else?”
“That’s it, I’m afraid. It’s a complicated case, which means uncovering it all will take time.”
“Not a problem. Take what time you need. I’d rather this was done right than fast.”
“I appreciate that. I’m about to head home, but I’ll start back on this first thing tomorrow.”
“Have a good night.”
“You, too.”
The connection terminated. Gregory stared at the writing on his notepad, and at his phone.What the hell was my grandfather up to? And what are you up to, Robert? You authorized these. You shouldn’t have to look up shit. But you’re stalling, and I want to know why.
He touched the speed dial for Robert’s phone number. It rang a few times before Robert picked up.“One of us is lucky I have jetlag, Greg, and it isn’t me.”
“Sorry, Robert. I’m used to you being in the States.”
“So’s my body. That’s the problem. What can I do for you? Shouldn’t you be turning in?”
“I should be, but you know how it is. I was thinking about those payments again.”
“At this time of night? This is why I say you need a girlfriend. Then you’d have something better to do than thinking about financials when you should be relaxing.”
Gregory resisted the urge to reach through the phone and throttle Robert. “Anyhow. I wondered if you’d dug anything up on them.”
“For the love of fuck, Greg. I’m on vacation. It’s this thing people do where they stop thinking about work. In fact, they stop working. They kick up their feet and drink brandy. They see the sights. They let their minds rest. I know this is a foreign concept to you, but I’m giving it a go and I find I like it.”Robert’s tone sounded sharp. Derisive.
Gregory narrowed his eyes but forced himself to sound apologetic. “I’m sorry, Robert. I should have thought of that. I’m just trying to be responsible. Do my grandfather proud.”