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“I can tell you exactly what this is. Well,” he amended, “I can tell you what the ‘R. P.’ stuff is. I mean, that’s me, as I’m sure you guessed.” He looked back up at me. “And he loaned me fifteen thousand dollars.”
“Can you tell me why?”
“I want to open my own gym,” he said, leaning forward, suddenly earnest. “Not a fitness center like Magnolia, but a real gym for people serious about working out. No spa or any of that crap.”
“Surely you need more than fifteen thousand dollars.” Doubt colored my voice. “You have other investors?”
He sat back. “Not yet. No one’s going to want to invest in a nobody without any seed money. But Vic really believed in me, which was why he loaned me the money. He put me on to some really good investments, and by the time I’m ready to go forward with the gym, I figure I’ll have enough to be able to attract some serious investors.”
“What kind of investments?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Honestly, I’m not really sure. Vic said he’d loan me the money and would take care of all the investment stuff. He had me sign some papers for him so that he could take care of everything.”
I blinked. Was he truly this naive? “You mean a power of attorney?”
An expression of chagrin crossed his face. “Um, well, I guess it was kinda like that. I totally trusted Vic, though. And since it was his own money, it wasn’t like I was worried about him taking it, y’know?”
“Did you ever get the feeling that anything about the situation wasn’t completely legit?” I asked, doing my best to keep the dubious note out of my voice. It shrieked not legit to me, but then I was more cynical than most when it came to this sort of thing. Probably because I’d seen so many cases of fraud.
He shook his head firmly. “Never. Vic’s known about my plans for the gym for close to a year now, and has always said he’d support me any way he could.”
It was possible that there was nothing hinky about the whole deal, but now I was itching to find out more about these investments. “Roger, did Vic ever give you any paperwork showing you how he invested the money?”
The first shadow of doubt briefly clouded his face. “Well, no. But maybe he hadn’t had a chance to do anything with the money yet. I mean, it was only a couple of weeks ago.”
I nodded to let him think I accepted that as a possibility, even though I most certainly did not. “All right. One more question: Did you ask to borrow the money, or did he offer to loan it to you?”
“He ... offered,” Roger said slowly, then his face abruptly paled. He clearly wasn’t stupid—simply completely unwilling to consider that Vic might have had anything but his best interests at heart. “Shit,” he whispered. His eyes snapped up to mine in desperation. “Am I in trouble? Did Vic do something illegal in my name?” He groaned and dropped his head into his hands. “Oh my god. I trusted him.”
He’s not worried about being accused of murder, I noted. “I don’t know, Roger. I’m looking into it.” I paused. “But every bit of information you can give me will help me find his killer.”
He gave a vigorous nod. “Anything. God. Just ask. I swear, I have nothing to hide.”
“Would you be willing to allow me access to your bank and investment accounts?” I wasn’t surprised to see him nod again. Good, that saved me the trouble of getting a subpoena.
“What do I need to do?”
I glanced at my watch. Where the hell had the day gone? “It would be easiest for me if you could go down to your bank and arrange for me to have full access. Then I can simply swing by and pick it all up when it’s ready.”
“I’ll go down there right now.” He paused, swallowed hard. “Am I a suspect?” he asked, a slight tremor in his voice.
I knew what I was supposed to say. I knew I should say that I hadn’t ruled anyone out and that the investigation was ongoing.
“No,” I said instead. The look of relief on his face was almost painful to see. I hated that I had to prick that bubble of relief. “Roger, I should tell you that I also haven’t ruled out that Vic wasn’t the intended victim.”
Fear flickered in his eyes. “Oh, god. Because I work out there sometimes. And if he did something illegal in my name ...” He ran a shaking hand through his hair.
I touched his arm. “Look, I’m not trying to spook you. But be careful, all right? Try to be with someone else at all times until I can find out more.”
He took a deep breath. “Yeah. Okay. Watch my back.” He still looked spooked, but I hoped that was better than him being oblivious.
“How well did Adam Taylor know Vic?” I asked, as much to distract him as to dig for more information.
He blinked, clearly surprised at the question. “I wasn’t aware that they knew each other at all.” Then his eyes dropped to the paper. “Ooohh, you think ‘A. T.’ is Adam Taylor.”
I shrugged. “It’s only a theory at this point.” This was why I’d made a copy. I didn’t want to have his answer influenced by seeing the copies of the returned checks that had been on the other side of the original.
Roger pursed his lips into a thoughtful frown. “Actually, that would make a lot of sense. Adam’s been having a lot of financial problems. He owns the studio where we rehearse, and his business has kinda been sucking ass. I know he’s been wanting to find someone to invest in it so that he can upgrade and attract more business.”
