Flat-Footed, Part 9

May 25, 2009

FLAT-FOOTED, PART 9

Biz found a Starbucks, bought another fill-up of hot caffeine and settled into a comfortable armchair with his laptop and the flash drive of Del Fontaigne’s e-mails. It was hideously boring reading, but he quickly got a sense of the most important players in his dead client’s life.

DanX was a businessman, a developer. He and Del were involved in some land deals throughout the L.A. area. The e-mails mostly discussed ways to get better deals with a lot of talk about which inspector or politician they needed to bribe or blackmail. After slogging through seventy or eighty of those e-mails, Biz decided DanX was a definite possible simply because the two of them were so clearly dirty that he couldn’t be trusted. He also figured it would be straightforward to identify who DanX was simply on the basis of the business. His best bet was Daniel Tocco with the Bellagna Corporation.

Sid Davenport was another business associate, one of three partners in DHC, Inc. Biz wasn’t entirely sure what DHC, Inc.’s business actually consisted of. They appeared to be speculators of some sort, investors, perhaps. The word that kept popping into Biz’s head while reading the e-mail was “bagmen” but he wasn’t sure. He was pretty sure that the SEC would find the e-mails interesting, because if he was following the exchanges correctly, ShalaVU was going public to raise money to go international. They already had factories in Mexico and Shanghai, but their distribution was primarily in the U.S. In order to raise money to expand into Asia and Europe, Shala Fontaigne had plans for an IPO. But Del and Sid Davenport were making plans to manipulate the stock and make a killing. All Biz could make of it were hints, but if what he thought was going on was, in fact, going on, the SEC could have both men up on charges of fraud, money-laundering and many other things.

Biz took a sip of his Mochawatziz and blew out a puff of frustrated air. It would take forensic accountants years to figure out what was going on there. He’d have to turn it over to Detective Rain, but how to do that without admitting he got the e-mails illegally?

Back to the e-mails, he picked up one from miamourfox@hotmail.com. She was apparently a lover and the nature of the e -mails was incendiary to say the least. She signed all her e-mails F, which left him with no clue who she might be.

He phoned his office and asked his Mom to run some further background checks, then jumped into his Mustang and headed to Holmby Hills, the scene of the crime.

To be continued...