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Unless she did it illegally. If she was running from someone or something, she wouldn’t have used legal channels.
“She interned for ComOne for a semester,” Tess continued. “A tech company that at the time was owned by Logan Monroe, so that confirms his statement from yesterday. He lived in Austin then—six years ago. From there, she took a full-time job at ComOne for two years after graduation, then went to a Silicon Valley company—no ties to Monroe—for two years. That’s where she made her money, I think—her position paid $250,000 a year plus stock options.”
“Wow, we’re in the wrong business,” I said. “A quarter million for computer nerds? Wow, Lulu is going to support all of us when she graduates.”
“True.” Tess laughed. “Jennifer landed at Desert West just over a year ago and took a pay cut—making $150K a year. That’s weird to me. Sure, cost of living here is cheaper than California, but not that much cheaper.”
That was interesting. Why take a substantial pay cut?
“Did you check into her previous employer?”
“They had nothing but positive things to say, gave her glowing recommendations, but I did get one thing—when she gave two weeks’ notice, she left. Said she had a family emergency and would take her sick and vacation time. Never came back to the office. There was a two-month employment lapse between when she left California until she signed on with Desert West.”
“For a lot less money.” Though $150K a year was nothing to sneeze at. “Do you have any idea where she was during those two months?”
“Nada. It’s like she disappeared completely, then showed up in Phoenix with the job at Desert West. She bought the condo the same week she was hired. And the other weird thing—her references are all business. Even her personal references for the condo were related to work.”
“Can you get a copy of her high school yearbooks?”
“I suppose, if it’s important,” Tess said. “But what would that accomplish?”
“The more information, the better,” I said.
Maybe the odd behavior from Monroe was because he was helping his former intern, not that he was cheating on his wife.
“How’d she leave the hospital?” I asked.
“We think she used Uber—her private account, so we can’t get into it.” Tess paused, then asked, “Do you think that Logan Monroe might have another place for her? Let’s assume for a minute that she’s in trouble or danger or helping Monroe steal from his old company. He gave her access to that rental—maybe he has another.”
“I have a list of all his properties.”
“How many are there?”
“A dozen.”
“You can send me half.”
“Theo is already checking them out. Just recon. But if you want to dig into the property records, that might help—which are rentals, short or long term, commercial, co-owners.”
“Easy. I’ll get on it.”
“He could have put her up in a hotel,” I mused. “Or at his resort. I’m following Monroe now. We’ll find out what’s going on.”
Sixteen
Theo Washington
Theo had mapped out Logan Monroe’s properties, both personal and corporate. No sense in wasting gas, he plotted the shortest route that would take him by each place in the greater Phoenix area. If Margo wanted him to check out the place he had in Flagstaff or the out-of-state properties, she was going to have to pay him in advance.
Theo drove his five-year-old Honda Civic to the property farthest south—a large parcel of undeveloped land south of the airport. Snapped a photo for Margo, but there was nothing here—just cacti and scraggly trees, garbage and fallen barbed wire. He then checked out the commercial building Monroe’s company owned downtown—again, took pictures, but he couldn’t imagine someone hiding out in the four-story office building. One of his companies occupied the top floor, and he leased out the other offices, but he didn’t actually work here.
A guy who looked familiar walked by the building. Hispanic, shortish hair, stocky build. Theo would have taken a picture, but he turned into the building, the door swinging closed behind him. Maybe someone Theo had seen with Monroe? He’d been helping Margo track the guy for the last ten days. But Theo didn’t think so. He would have followed, tried to ID him, but he was here to check properties and see where Monroe could be hiding a female computer expert.
Theo glanced at his list, then headed down Washington Street. He always got a kick seeing his name on the street sign. And in four weeks, he’d be starting his internship at the crime lab, right on the corner of Washington and 7th Ave.
He could have turned up 15th, but decided to continue down Washington. He passed the Sandra Day O’Connor US Courthouse. The huge building sort of creeped him out—it was too contemporary, glass and metal. Sure, clean and new, but just too much. It didn’t fit with the Phoenix vibe. But what did these days? They were putting up so much new stuff, the old stuff seemed to just disappear. His grandma would talk about places she went as a kid that are no longer around and he wished he could go see them, just to have that connection with her.
The light was red at 7th. He stopped at the line, looked over at the crime lab. He’d toured it with his forensics class from Paradise Valley Community College, and then again with Margo’s brother Nico. The internship was part of his AA degree program, but he knew that Margo had talked to her brother to help Theo get assigned to Nico’s team. It meant everything to Theo that she had faith in him.
