Ellie Ashe - Miranda Vaughn 02 - Dropping the Dime (8 page)

"Come on back in here," he said, holding the door for us.

We entered into a large room with a worn wooden desk at one end and a row of tables against the wall cluttered with plastic toys.

"Make yourself comfortable," Mark said, waving at a simple couch and chairs by the window. Burton and I took the short couch and the CEO sat across from us in a club chair. He leaned back and gave us a weary smile. "I know I asked Sean this already, but I just need to be sure—you don't work for my ex-wife's attorney, right?"

Burton shook his head and handed over a business card. "No, Mr. Fogg doesn't represent Ana Leonidis-Ramsey."

"It's just Leonidis now. She dropped her married name." Mark glanced at the card then slipped it into his shirt pocket. "The divorce has been final for a while, but occasionally things still flare up. Most of our continued contact was due to taxes and the sorting out of financial matters. And she hits me up every year for a donation to her family's foundation."

"Do you donate?" Burton said.

Mark sighed and looked up at the ceiling before answering. "Yeah, I do. It's the quickest way to get off the phone. Plus, I'm familiar with the foundation's work. It's well-run and promotes literacy programs, so I don't mind."

He looked like he minded. His lips tightened, his jaw tensed, and his cheerful tone of voice sounded forced. It'd be a tax write-off, so why was he so resentful? Was it because Ana was the one raising the funds?

"So how can I help you two this morning? Sean said it was something related to Leonidis Development."

Burton nodded. "Mr. Fogg has a client who may have a wrongful termination suit against the company. We're just doing a little background on the company. You worked there and—"

Mark laughed. "And Ana and I had a contentious divorce, and you think I may be willing to give you some dirt on the family?"

Burton smiled. "Something like that."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Leonidis family is clean as a whistle. Simon's very conservative with his finances and his business. He's not going to do anything that puts Leonidis Development in jeopardy. He tangoed once with the IRS. He's not going to do that again."

"What about the rest of the family?" Burton said, taking a small notepad from his pocket.

"Milo took over my job after I left. He wasn't very happy about it, but Simon told him to do it, so he did. I don't think he was very good at it ,and he really pushed Simon to hire someone with a background in accounting and finance."

"How do you know this?" I asked.

"While Ana and I parted on less-than-happy circumstances, I got along with her family. I kept in touch with her brothers for a while. Milo called me a lot at first, trying to figure out what he was doing as CFO. But the calls tapered off as he learned his new job, plus I was busy here, trying to learn the ropes."

"And what about Alexi?" Burton asked.

Mark smiled. "He's a great guy, but he's more of a dreamer than a businessman. He tried to strike out on his own a few years ago and ended up folding and coming back to work for his dad. He loves the construction trade, building things, creating a subdivision where there had been nothing. And he's got great ideas. It's a shame Simon doesn't listen to him very often."

"What kind of business did he start up?" I asked. I didn't remember seeing anything in the research I'd found about a failed Leonidis company.

"He bought a small plot of land and subdivided it for a planned community. It wasn't very big and I thought he'd probably do okay with it, even though his plan was ambitious. He wanted to design an energy-efficient community. You know, solar panels on all the roofs, reclaimed water for irrigating common areas, lots of footpaths." Mark shrugged. "People like the idea of those communities, but they're usually more expensive, so it's more risky."

"What happened?" I asked.

"They broke ground, got the infrastructure in, then the financing dried up," Mark said with a frown. "Simon bought him out, put in a dozen and a half tract homes. Nothing like what Alexi wanted, but it spared him having to declare bankruptcy. And Simon turned a good profit."

Burton tapped his pen on the notepad. When I turned to him, he gave me a brief but stern look. I rolled my eyes. Sure he was the investigator, but I wasn't going to sit there mute. And we were just having a conversation.

"How did Alexi feel about this?" Burton asked.

Mark smiled. "How do you think he felt? He was resentful, embarrassed that his business venture had failed. Plus there were rumors that the investors who were backing Alexi were pressured by Simon to stop funding him."

"Why?" I asked, stunned that Simon would purposefully sabotage his son's business.

"I don't know if it's true or not. But Simon's competitive. And I think he was angry that Alexi left the family business against his wishes."

"When he came back, what did Alexi do with Leonidis Developments?" Burton asked, the tapping on the notepad a little more terse.

"Same as he's doing now. He's in charge of building, hiring the crews, making sure they've lined up supplies and subcontractors, meeting with inspectors and architects, setting deadlines to complete the various phases of construction. Alexi is very good at what he does."

"Is he involved at all in the finances?" I asked, ignoring Burton's frustrated snort and increased notepad-tapping next to me.

Mark shook his head. "No. He could do it better than Milo. Definitely better than Ana, who can't hang on to a dollar. But he isn't given that responsibility."

"And what does Ana do?" I asked, remembering Kathryn's vague description of the vice-president of marketing's duties.

Mark laughed and shook his head. "God only knows. My ex-wife is a lot of things. Smart, charming. Beautiful to be sure. But she's not into working. She's got a title and a few people who work for her, and officially her job description is vice-president of marketing. But Ana sees that as keeping up the family's appearances by attending social events and getting her name in the papers. The only thing she takes seriously at the office is a small role she plays in planning."

"Naming the streets?" I asked.

He nodded, his eyes crinkling at the edges. "She guards that responsibility jealously. Once I suggested a theme for a bunch of streets that surround a park, and she nearly bit my head off. You don't encroach on that job. I think Ana feels like it's how she's putting her stamp on the projects."

"If there were financial irregularities, would Simon know about it? Is he a detail-oriented boss? Or does he leave that to the CFO and other employees?" Burton asked.

Mark tilted his head and gave us a curious look. "He's pretty hands-on," he said slowly. "He's not a detail person, though. Once he trusts people, he lets them do their jobs. He just wants an overview and to know that the details are not being overlooked. It's why Milo struggled as CFO. His dad trusted him implicitly but shouldn't have."

"What do you mean, he shouldn't have trusted Milo?"

"Milo's background isn't in finance or accounting. He got pulled into that job with no warning, no training, and no support," Mark said. "I felt terrible for him. If I'd known that's what Simon was going to do when Ana and I separated, I would have prepared him for it, showed him some things that would help. Maybe been able to convince Simon to hire someone else entirely. Unfortunately, when I moved out of the house, I was fired the next day."

He gave us a tight smile that echoed his bitter tone.

"Sounds like you and Milo were close," I said.

He smiled. "I'm an only child. I liked having siblings. It's the one thing I regret about my divorce, losing my two brothers-in-law."

"What do you know about the new CFO?" Burton asked.

Mark shook his head. "Not a lot. I talked to Milo when they were hiring and helped him vet her. She's really smart, very on top of things. Had some excellent references. Her track record was with large family-owned firms, which can be a challenge. You're coming into an established dynamic and sometimes that means you have to rock the boat, you know."

I tried to picture Kathryn rocking boats. She didn't seem the type. Yet, she did have the spine to go to the FBI with her suspicions.

Mark paused and looked between me and Burton. "Is there something going on with the new CFO?"

Burton smiled. "I really can't say. But I don't think so."

Mark's brow furrowed a little. "I understand. I'd just hate to see someone take advantage of the Leonidis family. I still consider them my family in a lot of ways, even though I don't get to see them too often these days."

"Well, I think that answered all my questions. If I need to reach you again, should I contact Sean?" Burton asked, slipping the notepad back into his pocket.

Mark nodded and smiled at both of us. "Absolutely. Are you a former special agent, too?"

Burton shook his head. "No, I was police for a while, but I've been an investigator for the last ten years. Sean and I worked some of the same cases, but from opposite sides," he said.

"We're lucky to have him. He's great at his job," Mark said, leaning forward. "Hey, you guys want a quick tour of the place? Or lunch? We have a great cafeteria downstairs."

"No, thanks. We best be heading back to Sacramento," Burton said, over the sound of my rumbling stomach.

We all stood, and Mark walked us past the tables full of toys and what looked like remote-controlled cars and planes.

"How did you come to work here?" I asked, eyeing a helicopter. "Seems like a totally different kind of work from building houses."

Mark laughed. "My college roommate was Thomas Dillon, the owner of Hedgehog. He asked me to come help him out when the business hit a huge growth spurt."

"What does Hedgehog do exactly?" Burton asked, slowing at the display of a spaceship perched on a small pedestal.

"We're a venture capital firm, so we invest money into promising start-up companies. The thing that sets us apart is that we focus on toy companies. We know what ideas will work, and we really help them push their products out. It's why you'll see a lot of our employees goofing off. Many of them are actually not Hedgehog employees, but they work for the start-up companies. We provide lab space, production facilities, offices—whatever they need to grow their businesses. Then when they succeed, we all profit."

I glanced around the well-appointed office and out the window at the manicured park below. They profited well, it appeared.

"Sounds like fun. Like you're playing, not working," I said.

He laughed. "It feels like that most days. You know, when Thomas first offered me the job, I tried to convince Ana to come with me, but she wasn't interested in leaving her familiar cocoon, her social circle, where her name and her family's name pulled weight. So I turned him down. I think that was the beginning of the end for Ana and me. She was always going to put her family ahead of me."

He shook his head and stopped in front of a pedestal, on top of which rested a tiny model of an old biplane.

"This is something new we're working on," Mark said, noting my interest. "Looks like a model airplane, right?"

He picked it up and put it on one of the empty tables, pointing the propeller at the far end of the office. Then he pulled out his cell phone and tapped the screen. A second later, the propeller started moving then sped up until it was a blur. One more tap and the little plane shot toward the end of the desk, then zoomed off into the air.

Mark tapped the screen to control the buzzing device, which circled the room above our heads.

"It's the new generation of remote control planes—controlled by your smart phone. It's got sensors that keep it from smashing into the walls, so you're less likely to damage it," he said, his voice growing more excited.

"Are all of these toys like that?" Burton said, standing over a couple of model sports cars and a motorcycle.

"Yes. Pretty cool, huh?" Mark said, guiding the plane back to the hardwood floor, where it landed with barely a bump.

"Yeah, pretty cool," Burton said, eyeing a car that looked a lot like his. "What are these going to cost when they're out on the market?"

"I'm not sure yet. We're at least a year away from that. We need to figure out how to manufacture them in a cost-effective manner first."

"And what are these?" I asked, pointing at the next table where three larger toys sat. These had propellers, but were boxy white-framed devices.

"The latest in commercial drones," Mark said, lifting one of the lightweight squares. "You mount a camera in here in the center, and you get the most beautiful aerial photography."

Mark grinned, and his boyish enthusiasm made me smile. What was Ana Leonidis thinking, letting this man get away?

"I'll walk you out," Mark said. "Unless you've changed your mind on lunch? It's Taco Day in the cafeteria."

My stomach rumbled again, but Burton ignored it and politely declined.

Mark led us back through the building to the entrance where we turned in our badges and shook hands again.

"If anything else comes up, please feel free to contact me," Mark said.

"Thanks again for your time," Burton said.