Monahan 01 Options (46 page)

“Philip told me that last night. He said they just wanted her sick, for a few days,” I said with disgust.

“They were aware of her allergy to nuts but not aware of the severity of it. They doctored the food with peanut oil and disabled her EpiPen. Philip and Chris Oakes decided to have a potluck - I think they referred to it as that. A potluck, where the employees bring the food. If the caterers had been hired, Oakes and Winston wouldn’t have had any access to the food.”

“The greedy bastards. All of this for money. Philip Winston is more guilty because he didn’t go to the police and report a murder in the first place.” I felt the rage building in me and wanted to pound my fist on the table.

“Unfortunately, their plan backfired when Mrs. Morris died. And apparently Mr. Harmon, you were another victim. Mr. Cox fired you because he knew he had not caused those changes to be made, and right or wrong, he believed it had to have been you. You were supposedly the only one who knew his system password. Is that correct?”

“I agree that I knew his password. But was I the only person he told? I don’t know,” Jay answered.

“Everything apparently fell apart for Mr. Cox and we were led to believe he committed suicide. Philip Winston has informed us otherwise, which confirmed the Police Department’s suspicions. From the evidence at the scene, it was unlikely that Mr. Cox had shot himself. That was confirmed by Philip last night under questioning.”

Detective Leech sipped from his coffee and looked at Jay. “That was about the time you disappeared.”

“I told you I didn’t disappear,” Jay retorted. “I was around all the time but our paths never crossed.”

“We know that now. But you understand that we had to cover all the bases.”

Jay nodded reluctantly.

“Did Philip give any explanation for why he and Rick Cox were together the night I saw them at Bigliardi’s?” I asked.

“I was coming to that. Philip told us that he was worried that Rick might be on to something so he wanted to meet with him and confirm his suspicions. He got Rick Cox to meet him by telling him that he had information about Oakes that could end his job as chairman of the board. Apparently, Mr. Cox was still interested in working at TechniGroup and would have been happy to see Chris Oakes’ career go up in flames.” He shook his head in amazement as he told us. “The plotting and back-stabbing that went on in this company was amazing.”

“What did Philip think Rick might be on to?” Jay asked.

“One of Mr. Winston’s contacts in the stock market industry told him that Rick Cox had called him asking questions. Turns out this was one of the stockbrokers who had been fed all the false information by Oakes and Larry Everly. When Rick Cox called the broker, the broker took the opportunity to question Rick further on those stories. Suffice it to say that Rick Cox knew he’d been set up. Very complicated.”

“So when Philip called Rick with the cock and bull story about dirty information on Chris Oakes, Rick jumped at the chance to meet him.” Jay added. “Not so complicated Detective, once you’d worked there for a while.”

“I’m a little confused,” I piped in. “Why did Rick end up murdered?”

“Let me guess,” Jay offered. “Because of the information he had. Philip wasn’t about to let anyone screw up his plan so he killed Rick.”

Detective Leech shook his head. “No. You’ve only got part of it right. The next part of the story is what will get Philip Winston his immunity from prosecution, if we can prove it. That night at Bigliardi’s, Rick Cox threatened that he was going to the Ontario Securities Commission with the information that Oakes and Everly were manipulating the stock price. Winston says it was Oakes and Everly who killed Rick Cox. And once I’ve had a chance to question Larry Everly, I think we’ll find out that they did it the same way they killed Philip’s father. Philip probably thought there was some poetic justice there, forcing or blackmailing the two into killing again. The ultimate act of revenge. And that young lady and gentleman,” he nodded at us, “is all of the information we’ve gathered so far.”

I was suffering from information overload but there was one small point that needed clarifying. “How and why did Harold Didrickson get involved?”

“He’s just another sad statistic,” Leech said. “Philip told me that Oakes had been wanting to fire Mr. Didrickson for a long time. For what reasons, we don’t know.”

“He never needed a reason,” I interrupted. “If the wind changed, that was reason enough. The man was a lunatic. Correct that.
Is
a lunatic.”

“Well, after Rick Cox met with Philip Winston at the restaurant, he called Didrickson. They were buddies?” he asked me and I nodded my confirmation. “Didrickson panicked at the thought of Cox going to the Ontario Securities Commission because he was about to make out big on the intended take-over and he needed the money.”

“Didn’t we all,” Jay added sarcastically.

Leech ignored his comment and continued. “I know it sounds like a plot from a dime store novel, but it seems that Mr. Didrickson and his wife have a little passion for the tables in Vegas. And the track. And the football games. They’re in debt up to their proverbial eyeballs and this was going to be Harold’s big payoff. Typical gambling syndrome. He knew he was going to be fired, but he managed to hang in for a long time. When the end was near and he saw all that potential cash, he couldn’t allow anything, or anyone, to get in his way. Mr. Didrickson threw friendship to the wind and turned into a Benedict Arnold. He called Philip and the rest is history. He was a ready, willing and able participant in assisting Philip in luring Miss Monahan here, back into the trap.”

It was all too much for me to take in and digest. All the pain and suffering that had been caused for the almighty buck. I got up from my chair and wandered over to the window where I stood facing Jay and Leech.

“I haven’t read the papers or watched the news today,” I said to Leech. “How soon will the whole story make the news?”

The thought of the company going down the tubes and all of the hardworking employees who had sweated blood for so many years losing their jobs was too much to fathom.

“Enough of the story is out now. I understand that trading has been halted in the shares and the Securities Commission will be involved shortly. One of the directors of the company was interviewed this morning on the news and he was adamant that they would push on.”

I lit a cigarette and thought about the irony of it all. The remaining directors of the company would push on. Wonderful. A couple of the crooks had been caught and were locked up for the time being, but the rest of the morons were still on the loose with the public shareholders’ money. The blind were now leading the blind.

I took a drag from my cigarette and blew the smoke out the open window. The smoke wafted through the screen and dispersed quickly in the fresh air and I thought for a moment about finding something symbolic about the smoke disappearing so quickly.

Fuck it. I wasn’t into symbolism, just reality.