The Merger – 38

 

"Our plans for the movie are on hold," Mike said early Friday afternoon after Josh had returned to the agency. He had been checking then debugging the offices of one of his regular clients who was dealing with someone trying to steal company secrets. The man knew who was responsible but needed to be certain that what was being said during in-house conferences about the problem wasn't being picked up by the perpetrator. The client didn't want the man to know he was on to him until he could gather all the evidence he needed to have the man arrested. Josh had tried to get him to hire Mike to handle the investigation. The man had demurred, saying he was quite capable of doing it on his own.

"New case?" Josh asked, settling down in the client's chair by Mike's desk.

"Yes. And I could use your help."

"You got it. What's going on?"

Mike handed Josh the notes he'd taken while talking to Mr. Palmer that morning, then proceeded to give him the basics of the case.

"Mr. Palmer owns an electronics store," Mike said. "Recently, he added a new company, Leades' Distributors, to his list of suppliers, because their prices for certain items were considerably less than his normal suppliers charged."

"Really?" When Mike nodded, Josh said, "That should have been a tip-off right there that something might be wrong, which I presume it is."

Mike chuckled. "You'd think it would have been, but Mr. Palmer just thought he'd gotten lucky. That was, until he began to wonder if some of the merchandise he'd bought from the company was stolen. He can't prove it and admits he could be wrong. That's where we come in."

"You want to do surveillance on the company's what? Warehouse?"

"Yes, on the warehouse. One of the purported salespeople gets in contact with Mr. Palmer every Monday morning to tell him what new items are available then has what Palmer wants to buy delivered to his store the same day. To my way of thinking, they might be hijacking shipments then quickly getting rid of the items by selling them to small companies like Palmer's."

"Didn't he check them out first?"

"He says he did and didn't find anything negative about the company. I have the feeling it was only a cursory check, at best. Palmer's business is having money problems, so when someone from Leades' Distributors contacted him, offering him much lower prices—"

"Hold on. Someone contacted Palmer, not vice versa?"

"Yes. Palmer admits that should have made him think twice, but he says it happens occasionally—high-powered salesmen looking for new customers, according to him," Mike replied. "Anyway, I did some investigating into the company after Palmer left this morning. The owner of record is one David Leades. The company opened for business three months ago. Since then, there have been no complaints filed against it—that I could find, anyway. It has a website, albeit a small one. One page lists the company address and phone number, a blurb about the owner—which really says nothing other than that David Leades is, quote, the president and CEO—and what types of merchandise they handle, which is mostly electronics, sports equipment, and small household appliances. On the surface, everything looks on the up-and-up. However"—Mike held up a finger—"Mr. Leades doesn't seem to exist, despite the fact that when he filed the company with the state as an LLC corporation, he listed himself as the sole owner with two additional members, as required by law. The members are designated as managers of the company."

"Are they actual people or made-up names to meet the legal requirements?"

"I haven't been able to find out, so far. I suspect that Leades had a very good tax attorney set everything up and they made it seem that the three men are actual people."

"Why do that in the first place?" Josh asked.

"To make the company appear legitimate to their potential customers."

"In other words, to con small business owners who are looking for cheap prices for what they sell," Josh said sourly. "Do they operate solely out of a warehouse? And where is it?"

"They do, and where else? In the warehouse district," Mike replied, grinning momentarily. "I think we should stake it out, for starters, to see when and how the goods are delivered. I mean, obviously they use trucks, but whose? Then, maybe, we'll pose as buyers to document a transaction and get physical evidence, if we find out that they are dealing in stolen goods."