Chapter 3
Several days later he called his client and told her that he wanted to go over what he had found. She knew that, by the tone of his voice, he had found enough on her husband to confirm her suspicions. She made an appointment to meet with him in is office.
Beverly Swift sat opposite him waiting for him to speak. He arranged the papers in the order that he wanted to present them to her and put the package containing the pictures next to his hand.
"Mrs. Swift, we can forget this right now. Some of this stuff is very hurtful and if you decide that you don't want to hear it you can walk out of here and you won't owe me a thing. If you do walk out of here I'll destroy everything that I have here and no one except me with ever know it once existed."
"No, let's go on," she said tersely.
"As you suspect, your husband is having an affair with a much younger woman. He has bought her gifts of property, stocks, jewelry and vacations. We have pictures to confirm his trysts and recordings of his visits to his mistress. I'm afraid that your husband has been taken for a fool. The young woman has no feelings for him, she is just taking him for everything that she can get out of him. I'm certain that you can get back a lot, if not all, of what he has given the young woman."
Don shoved a pack of pictures to her, "These pictures will show the meetings that your husband has had with the woman. Some of the pictures are graphic, I must warn you."
Beverly Swift looked through the pictures with tears in her eyes. She looked at each picture several times. She put her hands in her lap and stared at her hands.
When she was able to speak she asked, "What about the money? Was he hiding any money?"
"So far we have found about fifteen million dollars in assets that he has hidden. There is a property in France that we have not identified yet. We estimate that he has given the young woman a little over three million dollars in property, jewelry and stocks. Most of the property that he's hidden is owned by companies that he alone owns."
Beverly swift looked at the pictures again and then looked at him, "What kind of jewelry has he been buying for her?"
Don shoved the pictures that he had taken of the jewelry box over to Mrs. Swift. He heard her gasp and then start crying. He let her cry for several minutes.
She slapped the pictures on the desk, "Three of those pieces belonged to my mother. They are supposed to be in a safe deposit box."
"Mrs. Swift, I'm sure that you're going to talk to a lawyer. Naturally I will cooperate with your lawyer completely. I would suggest that you meet with your lawyer today and freeze the assets of the young woman until she can prove how she came to own them on a receptionist's salary. I have a recording of the young woman telling me that she has no feelings for your husband and that when he stops buying her things she will be done with him."
"There's no fool like an old fool," Beverly Swift snapped.
"There are a few things that bother me greatly, Mrs. Swift. You told me that your husband took over your father's company and is now running it. How much of the company do you now own?"
Mrs. Swift looked at Don for a minute as if trying to fathom his motives for asking that question, "I own almost all of the stock. My husband was given eighteen percent of the stock as bonuses, but I own most of the stock."
"Mrs. Swift, do you have any bank accounts in your name only or do your own a joint account with your husband?"
"We have always had a joint account. My husband really takes care of the money. I've never wanted for money. I have my own checkbook and write checks whenever I need to. I let my husband know how much the checks are for and he has never questioned my spending."
Have you ever worked for the company or have you ever held a job with another company?"
Mrs. Swift leaned forward in her chair, "I've never had to work. Money has never been a problem with our family. I devote much of my time to our charities. By no means do I just sit at home and bark orders to my servants. What is the purpose of these questions?"
"In my investigation I've found that you do not own any stock. Over the years a small percentage of the outstanding stock has been transferred to your husband each year as bonuses. As of this date you own no stock in the company."
"That can't be," she gasped, "I own most of the stock."
"Mrs. Swift, you told me that you have never worked for the company. Would you be surprised to learn that you have been drawing a large salary from the company every week for the past thirty years and that this year your salary is thirty-five hundred dollars a week?"
"I've never seen a paycheck from the company. My husband has always taken care of the finances in the house."
"Haven't you ever questioned your husband on how he is running the company?"
Tears welled in her eyes, "I've never had to. Until recently Aaron was a caring husband and looked after the company as if it was his own. As I said, I've always had everything that I ever needed or wanted. I feel that your questions are leading somewhere that I don't want to go."
"Mrs. Swift I'm afraid for your life. I strongly suspect that your husband is going to have you killed. He cannot allow you to find out that he has taken over the stock of the company and he won't allow you to find out about the young woman he has been seeing. Your company is privately held so the SEC won't be involved but we can document corporate fraud, theft, IRS problems and a host of other charges. I'd suggest that you call your lawyer immediately and have him meet us here in this office. I'm afraid to even let you walk out of the office."
Beverly Swift slumped in her chair. She nodded her head weakly and pulled her lawyer's card out of her pocketbook and handed it to him. Don called her lawyer and briefly told him what he had found. Within an hour, the lawyer, three assistants and a stenographer were sitting in the office going over the information that the investigation had turned up. By seven o'clock in the evening the lawyer insisted on calling the police into it. They all worked until midnight before deciding to resume the discussions the next day. Mrs. Swift was put under a police guard at a hotel until her husband could be picked up.
At seven the next morning Aaron Swift was arrested as he left his house. Hannah Wright was allowed to get dressed and was then escorted out of her condo. All of her assets were sealed until the courts could sort it out and she was ordered not to attempt to access any of her assets without court permission. She was seen walking away from her condo and that was the last anyone ever saw or heard from her. She never made any attempt the access any of her bank accounts.
After the investigation became public, a seedy character that worked in the company for Swift went to the police and told them that Swift had approached him about killing Beverly Swift. The man swore that he had turned down the offer. Aaron Swift wound up getting twenty-five years in jail for his crimes. At fifty-eight years of age that was probably a death sentence for him.
Don Clark cleared over four and a half million dollars on the case. His name was in the papers for about two weeks and his phone began jumping off of the hook and he got several death threats. He began to take the cases he knew would be the most lucrative. He turned down many more cases than he took.
One newspaper had a headline about a corporate executive that had been the focus of one of the detective agency's investigations; it read "Stimpston CEO Clarkized!" The term became the local slang for the getting the evidence on a philandering husband or wife. New clients would often ask to have their spouses Clarkized. Out of necessity Don began to open offices around the world in selected cities. He purchased houses in several areas to house his detectives while conducting their investigation on the straying spouses. It seemed that the wayward spouses always tried to impress their paramour by taking them to the well-known vacation spots. It always made the investigations easier.
In time the agency had its own accounting department staffed by some of the best forensic accountants in the country. The accountants branched out into corporate fraud and employee theft. Don had two lawyers on staff to make sure that every investigation was conducted legally. Each of his investigators had a criminal science degree and made much more than they would have in law enforcement. Don made sure that every lawyer in the country had a one of his business cards.
One fact that surprised him was that just as many women cheated as men. His investigations were almost evenly split between men and women.
The first thing he did with his new-found wealth was buy a house that had some property with a guest house on it. He hired a nanny for his boys and the nanny lived in the guest house with her husband. The nanny was an older woman. She and her husband had never had any kids. The husband worked in construction and was gone during the day. Don often hired the husband to make minor repairs around the property and to keep the property manicured. Don made an attempt to be home in the evenings with his boys every evening but if an important investigation was in progress he had to ask the nanny to keep an eye on the boys. He could afford to send his boys to the finest private school in the area and both boys excelled in school.
His boys were the light of his life. They rarely gave him any trouble and he doted on them. When his oldest boy turned sixteen Don bought him a new Volkswagen Jetta TDI.
Don would often take his boys with him on routine investigations where he was sure that they wouldn't be in any danger. His fourteen year old had an analytical mind and would sometimes give Don suggestions on an investigation that often turned out right. Both of the boys wanted to come into the business with him and that made him proud.
Don never wanted for female companionship or someone to share his
bed but he was becoming more and more gun-shy when it came to a
commitment to any woman. He had seen too many women and men make a
mockery of their wedding vows.