Stone Investigations (Stone Series Book 4) by Bob Blanton (open ebook txt) 📗

“What do you mean, nothing?”

“I couldn’t find it.  I got back a ‘no longer exists’ messagewhen I tried to log in.”

“Did you try contacting Vicente?”

“Yes.  He replied with a message saying the corporation I wasinquiring about no longer exists.  When I asked about the assets, he saidprivacy laws prevented him from disclosing what happened to them.”

“Shit, how can this be happening?”

“I don’t know, but it looks like someone cleaned you out.  Isthere anywhere else I should look?”

“No, that’s everything.  The feds already seized all thethings I had in the house.  Now, there is some money the feds can’t touch. Your trust fund.”

“What trust fund?”

“Your mother set up a trust fund for you when she left.  Youturn eighteen next week.  Then you’ll have access to it.  There’s enough moneyin it to pay for an attorney.  At least enough to pay for one to free up someof my other assets.  I’ll pay you back.”

“She set up a trust fund for me?!  You said she just left!”

“She did!”

“Now I don’t believe you.”  Jerome stood up and turned toleave.

“You little shit!” Graham pounded his fist on the glass.  Thedeputy entered the room on Graham’s side and escorted him away.  Jerome shookhis head as he left.  “Serves the bastard right,” he muttered as he left.

Matthew’s curiosity was piqued so he followed Jerome out ofthe custody center.   Jerome left his car at the MCC and walked two blocks to aMexican café.  Once he got a table, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed.

The call was answered with “Graham, Sawyers, and Associates.”

“Is Lara Graham in?”

“Just a moment, may I ask who’s calling?”

“Jerome Graham.”

“Jerome!  I’ve been worried about you.”

“Hi, Mom.  Sorry I haven’t called.”

“I understand.  How are you doing?”

“I’m staying with Dalton, they’re being nice.”

“I knew that.  Stacy keeps me updated on you.”

“Oh.  . . .  I should have figured that.  Dad told me aboutthe trust fund.”

“He had to.  You turn eighteen next week.”

“He wants to borrow money from it.”

“Jerome, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“No shit!”

“Jerome!”

“Sorry.  I’m just so confused.”

“What can I do?”

“Were you telling the truth about him beating you up?”

“Yes.  I had to leave.  I was sure he’d kill me the nexttime.”

“And the trust fund?”

“My half of the settlement.”

“So, he’s been lying to me the whole time.”

“I expect he has.”

“What should I do?”

“Stay with the Abramses, finish school, go to college.”

“You don’t want me to come live with you?”

“Of course I do.  But not in the middle of your senior year. I wouldn’t want you to do that.  I’ll be able to come visit.”

Matthew closed his portal.  He felt bad about listening in,but he felt he needed to know what the story with Mr. Graham was.  The nextday, he let Agent Peters know that Mr. Graham would be in a perfect mood forher upcoming visit.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Mr. Graham, I’m Agent Peters with the DEA and this isDetective Vaughn with the San Diego Police.  We have a few questions.”

Graham blanched upon hearing Agent Peters’ name.  He staredat her, unable to believe his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Graham, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Is there something bothering you?”

“No, . . . no, just wondering what Detective Vaughn is herefor,” Mr. Graham said, struggling to regain his composure.

“And this is your lawyer, Mr. Malone?”

“Yes.”

Agent Peters read Mr. Graham his rights and had him sign acard saying he understood them.

“We’re recording this interview.”

Mr. Graham snorted.  “Why do you keep wasting your time? I’ve told you I know nothing about any drugs.”

“We’ve heard you.  We now have some new evidence.  Maybe thatwill jog your memory.”

Agent Peters pulled a plastic bag with the mailbox keys init.  “We discovered these keys in your house.”

“Never seen them.”  Graham’s lawyer touched him on the arm toremind him to stay quiet.

“Interesting.  We have examined these mailboxes and foundmore books with money in them.  We also found some teenagers that say a manmatching your description would come by once a week and have them go get hismail for him.  One at each location matching one of these keys.  They said theytypically brought the man ten to twelve packages.

“Still nothing?  Well, we’ve traced the senders of thosepackages, and they have made statements to the effect that they sent thosepackages as payments for the drugs they received.  Those drugs were mailedinside of shoeboxes just like the ones we found on the plane.  In fact, theeight shoeboxes that we documented were on the plane were addressed tomailboxes belonging to eight of these distributors.”

Mr. Graham just shook his head.

“We also have a Hector Velazquez, who will testify that hewas the one who shipped those shoeboxes on your orders.”

Mr. Graham just smiled.

“No, not that Hector Velazquez, but the one who stays withhis wife up in Thousand Oaks when he’s not off recruiting more dealers foryou.”  Matthew had done a quick look in the house in Thousand Oaks and foundmen’s clothing, so Agent Peters was pretty confident in her bluff.  And by thelook on Mr. Graham’s face, she had nailed it.

“I assume the other Hector was your way of making sure thatMr. Velazquez would be free to run errands for you while he was still onparole.  And now, I’m sure it helps keep him off the radar.

“No, comment?  . . .”  Agent Peters smiled and waited a fullminute before continuing.

“We also made another interesting discovery at your home.” Agent Peters laid out four separate evidence bags.  Each of them had thirty toforty pills in them.  “A very clever hiding place.  But we found it.  Now wehave a direct connection between you and the drugs.”

Mr. Graham gulped but still stayed silent.  His lawyer wasn’tlooking too happy.

“Now the last nail,” Matthew whispered to Emily.

“You know, when we tested these pills we discovered somethinginteresting.  Each bag contains counterfeit Oxycontin pills that are made withFentanyl.  And as expected, one of the bags contains pills that are identicalto the samples we pulled from the pallets on the plane before you destroyedthem.

“But what’s even more interesting is that the other threebags contain pills of different strengths.  They’re different, but the pills ineach bag are identical to the other pills in