year. He hasn’t done that.”
“Why has the company been less profitable?” Matt asked.
“I’m not sure.” Bree stepped back from the bank statements to look at Beckett Construction’s financial statements. A number caught her eye. She skimmed backward through the pages. She’d been looking at individual monthly bank statements instead of the big financial picture. “The expense for plumbing doubled in the last two years, but gross income remained about the same.”
“Why would plumbing costs increase that significantly without a corresponding increase in revenue?” Matt set down the page he was reading and leaned over the desk. “Did he have one particular job with a plumbing disaster?”
“No. It’s spread out over time and jobs.” Bree pointed to the line item, and he pulled the corresponding bank statements for the first quarter. “Let’s take a look at the plumbers Paul used.”
Matt made a list and began researching. “This plumber doesn’t seem to exist. Or this one.”
Dana leaned over the papers on the desk. “How much of the plumbing expense went to those two companies in the first quarter?”
Matt grabbed his phone and opened his calculator app. “Almost half.”
“What about the fourth quarter of last year?” Dana asked.
“Same,” said Matt.
Bree drummed her fingertips on the desk. “So, Paul was paying two plumbers who don’t seem to exist.”
“Is it possible the companies operated under different names?” Dana asked.
Matt shrugged. “Holly did the books, and it was Paul’s company. Who else could we ask?”
“Deb Munchin?” Bree suggested. “She helped Holly with the accounts sometimes.”
Matt frowned. “Didn’t she say she went to Paul with questions and he wouldn’t answer?”
“She did.” Bree grabbed her phone and dialed Deb’s number. She explained her question.
“Funny you ask about that,” Deb said. “There were multiple plumbers assigned to several jobs. For most residential work, we usually use one plumbing subcontractor per job, unless something unusual happens. I thought someone messed up the invoices.”
“What did Paul say?” Bree asked.
Deb snorted. “He said to pay the fucking bills. If he wanted me to think, he’d let me know.”
Nice.
Bree highlighted the line item on the statement. “What do you think happened?”
“I think he was funneling money out of the business,” Deb said. “To cheat on his taxes and/or take the money out of play in his divorce. Knowing Paul, he would love the two-for-one aspect.”
“But the Becketts just split up a couple of months ago,” Bree said. “And Angela left Paul, not the other way around.”
“Paul planned everything.” Deb paused. “He knew exactly how to make her leave him. It wouldn’t surprise me if he started hiding money from Angela years ago.”
“Why would he do that?” Bree asked.
“So there would have been less in total assets to split. He reduced his salary over the past two years. If she sued him for alimony, his monthly income would also be lower, so he’d have to pay her less. The business was still profitable, but just enough to maintain his standard of living. Paul wouldn’t want to sacrifice his lifestyle.”
Bree ended the call and related Deb’s responses to Matt and Dana.
“According to Angela, Paul told her the company was having financial trouble,” Matt said. “But that could have been a lie. We need to follow the money. Pass me that laptop.”
“One minute.” Bree emailed Todd to request yet another subpoena to track the financial transactions. “It’s almost always about money. People are so predictable.” She hit “Send,” then handed the laptop over the desk to Matt.
He typed on the keyboard. “What do you want to do about the building inspector?”
Bree leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. The ibuprofen had eased her headache, but the pain radiating up her arm was growing tiresome. She wanted to put on her pajamas, take a pill, and go to bed. “I can’t think of any reason the building inspector would kill Paul. Why eliminate the source of your extra cash flow?”
“But it’s more evidence that Paul was engaged in illegal business practices.” Matt scrolled on the laptop touchpad.
Bree tapped the statements in front of her. “We have plenty of proof of that right here.”
He smiled. “And here.” He clicked the mouse. “Is your printer on?”
Bree reached behind her and switched on the machine. It whirred and spit out two pages. She plucked them off the tray. “What is this?”
“Guess who owns those two plumbing companies?” Matt asked.
Bree skimmed the printout from the NYS Department of State Division of Corporations Business Entity Database. She skipped down to the section that named the chief executive officer. “Noah Beckett.”