Read Leader of the Pack (Andy Carpenter) for Free Online Page A

investigator.”

 
    Richard Solarno’s company wasn’t Richard Solarno’s company.
    I didn’t know that at the time of the trial, but it takes Laurie about four minutes to find it out now.
    It was an easy mistake to make, since the company was called Solarno Shrimp Corporation. And according to Laurie, Solarno and his brother, Alex, had started the company almost twenty years ago, but sold it a year before the murder to a private equity company.
    Since both companies were private, the terms of the sale were not disclosed, but Laurie uncovers some of the relevant information. Alex Solarno and Richard sold their company to Capital Equity, run by a man named Edward Young. The terms of the agreement called for Richard to stay on in a management capacity for three years, but he only made it through one before he took a bullet in the chest. Alex did not stay on, but left with his very hefty payout.
    I vaguely remember an employee of Richard’s testifying to his character in the penalty phase of Joey’s trial, so I head to the transcript for some memory refreshment. His name was Larry Callahan, and he was a longtime employee of the company.
    All witnesses fill out contact information, and Callahan’s showed him having a home in Manhasset, Long Island. I call the listed number, and a woman answers.
    “Is this Larry Callahan’s residence?” I ask.
    The woman’s voice is hesitant. “Who’s calling?”
    “My name is Andy Carpenter. I’m an attorney.”
    That was probably a mistake; most people who seem to be talking tentatively generally don’t suddenly open up when they find out the other party is a lawyer. “Why do you want Larry?” she asks.
    I put on my nonchalant voice. “I just wanted to talk to him about someone he used to work with.”
    “Who?”
    This is one protective lady. “Richard Solarno.”
    She takes about twenty seconds before responding, and that feels like a long time to maintain telephone silence. “Larry passed away,” she finally says.
    “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Did that happen recently?’
    “No.”
    “Are you Mrs. Callahan?”
    “I was.”
    The famed Carpenter charm does not seem to be having its usual effect. “Did you know Richard Solarno?”
    “I met him. I’ve got to go now.”
    Click.
    That didn’t go that well, but I am undaunted, or at least only partially daunted. I call Sam Willis, my accountant, who also doubles as a member of my investigative team, during those infrequent occasions when I need a team.
    “I’m working on it, Andy. They keep changing the rules on 501 c’s.”
    Sam thinks I’m calling to ask for the income tax return he’s working on for the Tara Foundation. It’s a dog rescue organization that my former client Willie Miller and I founded and run, although he and his wife, Sondra, do a lot more of the “running” than I do. It’s a nonprofit operation. In fact, it’s about as “nonprofit” an operation as there could possibly be.
    “It’s not about that, Sam. I need some help on a case.”
    I can just about see him light up through the phone. Sam is a top-notch accountant, and a computer-hacking genius, but that is not how he sees himself. He sees himself as Mannix.
    I explain that I want a list of employees who worked for the Solarno Shrimp Corporation at the time of Richard’s murder. He’s disappointed in that; if he’s going to be called into a case he would at least want a chance to shoot someone.
    He promises to get me the information right away, and then asks, “You going out on the street?”
    “I have to in order to get home. I haven’t figured out how to beam myself there.”
    “You know what I mean,” he says. “Because I’ve got some free time on my hands.”
    Sam wants to go out on “the street” to do hands-on investigating. “That won’t be necessary,” I say. “But if you have all that time, I also want to know how Larry Callahan died. He worked at Solarno’s company. And tell me how I can get in