I walked them through the conversation with Winston.The embezzlement.Close to a million dollars missing across different areas of the organization.His visit to Henry’s and his loss of temper.
“Which lines up with what Estelle Pruitt told us,” Dottie said.“She watched the whole thing from her upstairs window.”
“Yes,” I agreed.“It sounded volatile coming from her statement.”
“Winston certainly had access to the money,” Hank said.“He probably had the easiest access.The only person who knows what was said between him and Henry that day is him.”
“You think he’s lying?”I asked.
“My dear, everyone lies when you’re dealing with murder,” he said.“Even little white lies get told without people thinking about it.Everyone wants to paint themselves in the best light.No, Winston can’t be ruled out as a suspect.”
“Who had full financial access to the foundation besides Winston?”Dottie asked.“Who were the people who could actually move money?”
The doorbell rang and Dash got up to greet the delivery driver with our food.
I got up to clear the table and answered, “Winston said besides himself, there was Henry and James.Then also a small executive staff—an operations director, a grants coordinator, and a logistics manager who handled the overseas supply chains.”
“You have names?”Walt asked, moving his papers to the side so I could put plates out from the sideboard.
“Winston didn’t give us names.But James would know them.”I looked at Dash once he came back in with the bags.
“Let me give him a call,” Walt said.
While Walt put his glasses on and dialed the number, Dash handed out cartons of rice and everyone’s orders.
“I got the shrimp,” Hank said.“I can’t have beef anymore.Gets caught in my teeth.”
“Y’all pipe down,” Walt said.“It’s ringing.”
James picked up, and I could hear noise in the background, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
“James,” Walt said.“Can you give us the names of the three executive staff members who had full financial access to the foundation’s accounts.It would have been the operations director, the grants coordinator, and the logistics manager.”
“Catching me just in time,” James said, and his voice had the warmth of a man in good spirits.“Josephine and I are heading to dinner.Hold on.Let me think for a bit.”He paused for a bit and the only sounds were the clank of forks and the cartons being passed around the table.
“Our operations director was a fellow named Gary Sharpe.Nice fellow.We kept him on after we expanded.He left us maybe five years after Henry died.Got a job offer he couldn’t refuse.Not sure where he is now.
“Our grants coordinator was Carol Simms.She just retired a few years ago and still lives in the Charleston area I think.And our logistics manager…I’m trying to remember.I believe it was Frank Delaney, but don’t hold my feet to the fire on that.He either left right before Henry died or right after.He oversaw all the overseas supply chains.”
Walt wrote down the names, thanked him, and hung up.
“Well, well, well,” Bea said, arching a brow.“James Everett and Josephine Wainwright Hale.”
“They’re old family friends,” Dottie said.
“People who are old friends go to dinner in groups,” Bea said.“Just two people going to dinner is something else entirely.”
“Bea,” Walt said.
“I’m just saying.”
“Lord have mercy, Bea,” Deidre said.“When you get as old as they are everyone in your friend group is mostly dead.They’re all they’ve got left.”
Bea nodded in concession.“Good point.”
No one bothered to mention that most of the people sitting around my dining table were in the same age range as the people they were gossiping about.
We all ate and talked about inconsequential things happening on the island, but Dottie eventually pushed back her plate and reported on her meeting with Edward Fairchild in memory care, and how he hadn’t had any recognition of Henry at all or of the time he’d spent as a board member.
