Johan's Joy (Heroes for Hire #22) - Dale Mayer Page 0,42
stored goods just around the corner?” Johan pointed the direction of the rooms to him.
The foreman looked in that direction and frowned. “That shit’s been there since forever,” he said. “It was part of the other company.”
“What other company?”
“That was Barlow’s deal too. He was struggling to get some of the stock he needed, so he bought a company that would allow him to import larger amounts of it at one time. But he couldn’t get credit, overextended himself, and ended up going broke. And most of the stock that he had here, for whatever bloody reason, he didn’t even ship out.”
“So it’s all just wasted old merchandise?”
“And that happens more than you think,” he said. “I got a buddy who did something similar. He started a business and had a ton of stock stored. He didn’t have room, so he moved the stuff off the premises, couldn’t pay his bills, and ended up losing everything. The lenders came in, taking what they could, selling it for pennies on the dollar. When he turned around a few years later, he remembered he’d put a truckload of stuff in a couple storage lockers that he’d paid for with cash because he needed another place back then. Yet now it had all gone past its expiration dates.”
“And why did he do that?”
“Because he got in over his head and didn’t think about it. He was just looking for short-term answers. It went to pot, and he figured that for sure the contents of the storage lockers would be taken too. He was just so angry, he let the creditors do whatever they would do and signed the papers to be done with it. He got the bills later for the two storage lockers, that he’d paid upfront for three years, cash money, and it had come due again. He went over there, took one look, and found all that shit was still there.”
“Damn. Did he sell it?”
“He did, and then he got in trouble because, according to the paperwork he’d signed, he hadn’t declared the contents of those storage lockers.”
“So it’s possible that the stuff is sitting here because nobody knows what to do with it?”
“Makes sense to me,” he said. “And, depending on how much theft you’re talking about, it’d be pretty easy to move a bunch of boxes in and out of those rooms, and nobody would know because really nobody has any idea what’s in there to begin with.”
“So somebody could have completely switched out those boxes, and nobody would have known?”
He shrugged. “Yep. But it’s got nothing to do with me.”
“Unless the boxes come in here through you.”
He frowned at that. “If they come in through here, then it’s just straight inventory that’s either coming here for additional storage—because we have a warehouse already for the research center—and then they’re being shipped back out again.”
“Ah, so you do ship to the research center?”
“Yes,” he said. “We have most of our product come here because we don’t have enough space at the other place to hold everything.”
“That makes sense. But didn’t you tell me earlier, if it comes in on a truck, it might as well go to the intended destination?”
“Sure, for this company, in this building, but the research center is under a different company name. It’s typical. They have an umbrella company, and they have companies under it,” he said. “I just get the orders in and put the shit where it belongs per the address on the shipping label.”
“Does this building have different sections by company?”
“For bookkeeping purposes and deducting the utilities, yes,” he said. “But, as far as we’re concerned, it’s not a big issue. I keep everything over here for the research center.” He pointed behind him. “Off to the side is stuff for this company.”
“How many other companies are there?”
“Two more, but one is a property management company, and I don’t get stuff for them delivered here,” he said. “I don’t even know what the other company does. Again I don’t deal with that.”
“So you have rooms and rooms of stuff for the research center?”
“Sure. Come on. I’ll show you.” He got up and headed to the office door.
Chapter 9
Joy looked over at Kai. “Is there anything constructive we can do while Johan and Galen are at the office?”
“Like what?” Kai asked curiously.
Joy bounced to her feet and paced back and forth in her small living room. “I don’t know,” she said, “but it feels wrong to have started the whole ball rolling