office, but he needed to relay this information as soon as he got it. He pressed the only entry in the address book and waited for line to be connected.
“He knows Carl’s gone,” Mason said immediately.
“And? Carl is gone.”
“He thinks someone else is involved and wants me to eliminate the threat.”
“Oh, come now, he didn’t say those exact words.”
Mason gaped at the air before him. “How the hell do you know that?” But he knew. The reality slammed into him just as he asked.
“We have your office tapped.”
“Fuck!” Mason’s head was reeling. “Why all the secrecy then? Why give me a phone to update you when I learn something if you’re just going to listen in on my conversations? And why is my office tapped when you can just plant bugs in his? You can go to the fucking source.”
“It’s all for your protection.”
“Bullshit. You’re not worried about me. You want William almost as bad as I do.” Mason growled as his thoughts turned back to the man in question. He was screwing over the company. Mason had no doubt about it. He just couldn’t prove it. Yet. Once he was able to, he’d be sliding into William’s job before he knew what happened. “The man practically ordered me to off someone. He has a God complex and needs to be dealt with. I don’t have time for this shit. Take him the fuck out!” Mason whispered heatedly.
“God complex? That’s a good way to describe you. I know you’re only in this for personal reasons. Don’t try to convince me otherwise. You were the one who came to us, remember?”
“Only because you came highly recommended, and you assured me you’d take care of him.” Mason took a deep breath, trying to calm his ire. “Have you and your resources found anything out?”
“Yes. We believe the threat to the Culpeper Hedge Fund is real. We got our hands on Carl’s reports before he was dealt with, and from what we can deduce, this has the makings of a major Ponzi scheme. We also believe William Baxter is correct in his assessment that someone else was the brainpower behind tampering with it. We believe that person is William Baxter.”
Oh shit. Mason shut his eyes. “That’s impossible.”
“Why? You were the one who found possible erroneous expenses on a small open-ended fund he managed.”
“That, and he was kiting. I thought he was trying to screw over F and B, not bilk investors.” If William was stealing from clients, Mason was in much deeper than he’d realized. It went way beyond bogus expenses and delaying transactions. “I know he’s dirty enough to skirt the law, but what you’re suggesting is in another realm.” If there was any truth to this and word got out, it would destroy the company. Hell, even if it wasn’t true but suspicions came to light, it would be almost as damaging. All of Mason’s work would be for nothing.
The man laughed. “So murder isn’t a big stretch, but stealing millions is?”
Mason swallowed and tried to slow his frantic thoughts. “Okay. For the sake of argument, let’s say this is true. That Carl was working something big, and William was the brainpower behind it. Why would he order me to kill the man working with Carl if he’s that man?”
“I never said Carl was working on this. He’s just a pawn in William’s game. But if he has you believe Carl was involved and has you searching for someone else, it’ll throw you off his trail. Not to mention, make you focus on something where his name isn’t directly attached. He knows Carl is gone, and now he has you chasing a ghost.” There was a pause, and Mason was momentarily speechless while he waited. “We need you to confirm this, of course. ”
“Damn it! I didn’t sign up for this.” Oh no, this definitely changed things. A fucking lot. “How the hell am I going to get him to admit anything?” If William was even slightly smart, he’d have covered all his tracks.
“We’ll leave that up to you. We can’t take him out without knowing what he did or how involved he is.”
“That doesn’t help me.”
“Sorry. You have a job to do, and so do I.”
The phone went dead, and Mason threw it on his desk. How the hell did this get so big so fast? If he was being honest, he wasn’t too surprised about William being involved in something bigger than tampering with a small hedge fund, but