Then they close the back door, and the ambulance speeds away.
“Cody,” Rover shouts from behind the police line.
I must have been in the ambulance when they put that up. I walk over to him. “Joseph is on his way to Quincy.”
“Do you think it was Vince?”
I chew on that. “No. Vince loaned him more money a few days ago.”
He puffs up his cheeks and blows out a breath. “You know, I’m still wondering where Joseph got the money to pay Vince back the first time.”
“Me too. It could be his trust fund. I was told he gets one hundred thousand dollars every month.”
“No shit?”
I nod.
Rover laughs. “If he’s blowing through that kind of cash, he’s a bigger idiot than I thought.” Then he grows serious. “If he’s gambling at that level and borrowing from guys like Vince, he’s in deep. And if he’s in deep, he probably isn’t smart about who he takes money from.”
I run my hand over my scruff and recall my conversation with Joseph about his borrowing habits. “I have an idea where he may have gotten the money.”
“Where?”
“Some of the university’s funds.”
Rover’s eyes widen. “You mean embezzlement?”
“He practically admitted it to me. I told him that was embezzlement. He said no and that I misunderstood. And when I told him I had to tell his boss, he made it clear that any accusation without proof would reflect poorly on my company. I have no proof.”
“Fuck. If someone doesn’t kill him, I just might. The balls on that guy.”
“Tell me about it.”
“But if he is messing with the university’s funds, we could get pulled into an investigation,” Rover points out.
He’s right. This could bring unwanted publicity to both of our companies.
“Hey, I need to check in with Stormy about all of this,” he says. “Mind if I meet you at the hospital?”
“Yeah. I’ll see you there.”
* * *
Joseph is staying overnightand sedated so I can’t get any answers from him. I stand guard outside his hospital door until Rover comes to relieve me.
Apparently, Stormy isn’t happy with the situation, but he’s cleared Rover to stay on it for now, which means I need to call Hawthorne sooner rather than later. No doubt Stormy will call him to compare notes.
Joseph said some guy called him. The question is, does he know who this guy is? He must have. Why else would he have gone to his house, alone?
Once more, I go over everything in my mind, see what I’m missing.
Someone wants Joseph dead. Did he fail to pay someone or borrow from the wrong person? Did that person threaten him at the fundraiser?
There is too much I don’t know. One big piece is if there is still a threat out against Lucy. And that is why I must find Vince. His words have been bothering me. He said even he wouldn’t touch that fund and ‘piss off those people’. What fund and what people?
And I still need to know why he wanted Joseph to go to Lucy for money. None of it sits right with me.
I drive to the food bank and am happy when I see Vince’s car in the lot. There’s only one other car here, which is good. It means I have a chance of getting him alone to answer my questions.
