14. Something Strange

Pam Lafave is in her studio painting a lake scene from a photograph Friday afternoon when her phone rings. It’s Mary Anderson. After exchanging greetings Mary says, “Sorry I didn’t call earlier. The Courthouse has been a madhouse all week. The mayor has the department heads planning for a budget cut. That’s got everyone upset and rumors are flying. I finally got time to look at the treasurer’s financial files. The good news is Ralph’s old school. He still uses a spreadsheet instead of modern accounting software. All his files are automatically backed up on the server so I can easily access them. I did find something strange; rather it’s what I didn’t find that’s strange.”

Pam interrupts, “Interesting, Mary. I can’t talk now, I’m in the middle of a painting and my palette is full of wet paint. If I talk it’ll dry. How about you come to my place for lunch tomorrow? I’m planning to make homemade bread tonight and I’ll fix us a salad with veggies from my garden.”

“Sounds wonderful, what time do you want me there?” asks Mary.

“Noon, no, come at 11:30. I’ll show you my garden and we can talk before lunch. That way we can enjoy our lunch without having to think while eating,”

“Perfect, I’ll see you at 11:30. Shall I bring anything?”

“No. It’s going to be a simple lunch.”

Pam is sitting on her front porch finishing an ice tea Saturday morning when Mary arrives. She goes to meet Mary as Mary is getting out of her car. Pam says, “Come and I’ll show you my vegetable garden.”

They walk together to Pam’s garden. Mary says, “You’re lucky, Pam. You have plenty of sunny space for your vegetables. I’d love to have a garden but my city lot is so small and shady I’m limited to perennials that tolerate shade.”

“Do you have hostas?” asks Pam.

“Yes, and they need dividing if you want some.”

“I’d love some. The north side of my house is shady and lacks foundation plants. Hostas would be perfect.”

“Do you have good soil?” 

“I can use soil from the old barnyard. It’s rich and has good texture from all the cow manure when the Lafave’s had cattle.”

“That sounds perfect. How about I trade you the hostas for some of that rich soil?”

“It’s a deal. I’ll spread some out in the sun and cover it with a plastic tarp. The heat from the sun kills the weed seeds. That’s the only problem with barnyard soil. It’s full of weed seeds. It’s best to kill them before using the soil in a flower garden.”

After touring the vegetable garden they go back to Pam’s front porch. Pam gets them each an ice tea and says, “Now, tell me what you found, or didn’t find in Hess’s files.”

Mary takes a long drink of tea and replies, “I found all of the monthly financial reports for the years Hess has been Treasurer. Each report is a list of expenses and tax revenues. Each bank deposit is listed by date and amount of the deposit. Similarly, fee income is listed by date and whether it’s for pet licenses, recording deeds, or whatever.”

Pam says, “All that sounds like what should be there.”

“Yes,” Mary replies. Then adds, “But I didn’t find the monthly bank statements. Years ago those would have been paper copies and maintained in a filing cabinet. Nowadays bank statements are downloaded from the bank’s web site and stored in a digital file. I expected to find a folder labeled bank statements in the master folder holding all of the treasurer’s files. It appears Ralph doesn’t download the monthly bank statements so he can reconcile deposits and deductions against his spreadsheet entries. Or maybe he prints out the bank statements to make reconciling easier and doesn’t save the downloaded files.”

“Maybe he keeps the printouts in an old fashion paper file,” speculates Pam.

“Perhaps, but what I find strange is there are bank statement files for the past years except for the last two years. He’s changed his methods, or he’s gotten lazy and not bothered with reconciling his spreadsheet entries,” replies Mary.

“Okay, now I see why you say it’s strange. It’s hard to imagine someone who has followed standard practice for years suddenly changing his methods,” says Pam

“I agree. What do you think we should do next, Pam?”

“I think we need to dig deeper, Mary. There’s another reason I think the sheriff is on the wrong path focusing on Lund’s land deals. It’s connected with cocaine being planted with the body. Who would have cocaine? Only drug dealers or users. I doubt that any of the people connected to Lund’s land deals are drug dealers. Those individuals were likely speculating in land or had inherited their land. They would have no reason to be dealing drugs. Cocaine users go through a lot of money supporting their habit. I also doubt any of the sheriff’s land deal suspects are drug users unless they sold their land to support a habit. In that case Lund wouldn’t have had to do something shady to get them to sell. No, it’s more likely someone who has plenty of money to support a cocaine habit or someone who has access to money. That’s the other reason I suggested we look at the financial stuff Glen Lund was analyzing.”

Mary says, “I see your reasoning. It makes sense to me too. Do you think I should dig into Lund’s files on tax assessments?”

“No, I have to believe whatever got Glen killed relates to his work after he became Assistant Treasurer. I think you should dig some more into Hess’s files. Who has access to his files?”

“His secretary, me, and the systems administrator who supports our computer network. That’s all I believe unless someone hacked his files.”

“A hacker is unlikely. If someone found a way to skim money to support a drug habit they would have to have regular access to cover their tracks,” replies Pam.

Mary says, “I doubt Hess’s secretary could be involved in something requiring the manipulation of digital files. She’s nearing retirement age. I bet she’s unable to handle anything other than word processing, emails, and digital calendars.”

“What do you know about the systems administrator?”

“He’s in his mid-twenties, drives a flashy sports car, but dresses shabbily like a lot of young people today. I haven’t noticed any behavior suggesting he has a lot of money or is strapped for money as a user might be. He certainly has the skill to mess with Ralph’s files if he wanted to. Don’t know what else I can say.”

“Alright, if we find discrepancies in Hess’s financial records it’s not up to us to determine who’s at fault. Let’s leave that to the sheriff. Can you access the city’s bank account and download old financial statements?”

“For that I need the username and password. Normally that would be a problem but I noticed Ralph is sloppy with computer security. He has a personal file labeled passwords. He probably listed the username and password for the bank account in the password file. If he did I can access the bank account data and download monthly statements.”

“Okay, assuming you can, print out one or two recent monthly statements and Hess’s corresponding spreadsheets. Bring them here next Saturday and we’ll see if we can reconcile the entries. Now, let’s go have lunch, I’m hungry.”