Past Tense

Chapter 2



“Brian, have you got your income tax receipts ready for me?” Ted asked as he entered Brian’s office at Kinnetik the following day.

“Shit!”

“I take it that’s a no?”

“I fucking forgot all about it,” Brian said with a frown.

“Well, it is the first of April,” Ted reminded him.

“April Fool’s Day, how appropriate,” Brian snarked.

“I need your receipts ASAP.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll look for them tonight when I get home,” Brian snapped. “I can’t even fucking remember receiving any this year.”

“You must have,” Ted said patiently. “You have some interest that has to be declared.”

“I guess so,” Brian said wracking his brain to remember what he would have done with them. “I’ll find them.”

“Good, because we’re running out of time.”

“You have two fucking weeks left.”

“I’m doing the business taxes right now. I need a little lead time for your personal taxes.”

“I’m paying you the big bucks to take care of this shit, so figure it out.”

“Um … yes Boss, sure, I will.”

Brian scowled at Ted who beat a hasty retreat out of the office before he ticked off his boss anymore.

Brian directed his attention back to his computer screen. He was still working on some ideas for Hammond Foods. Suddenly he remembered that he wanted to get some train cars and track for Gus. He was going to get Ted to look into why his credit cards weren’t accepted on the Lionel site.

He buzzed Ted’s office and waited. There was no answer. He hit the button for Cynthia who answered almost immediately.

“Where the fuck is Schmidt?” he demanded.

“I think I saw him go into the staff room for a break.”

“More bear claws in all likelihood,” Brian snarked remembering when Ted had gone on his fat binge. “Tell him to get in here.”

“Yes, Boss.”

Brian didn’t have long to wait. Before he could even focus on the computer screen, Ted appeared in the doorway of his office.

“You called, Boss?” Ted asked.

“Yeah.”

“What can I do for you?”

“I tried to order some toy trains last night,” Brian began.

“New hobby?” Ted asked with a chuckle. “Justin not keeping you busy enough?”

Brian glared at his friend and associate. “You’re pressing your luck, Schmidt.”

“Sorry, please continue. You were ordering toy trains.”

“For Gus,” Brian stated emphatically. “When I tried to check out, the site wouldn’t take my credit card.”

“That often happens,” Ted observed. “Did it tell you why?”

“No, it just said that the order could not be processed.”

“Were you using American Express? Some sites don’t like that card.”

“I fucking know that, so I tried my Visa as well. Same result.”

“That’s strange,” Ted said rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“I know it’s fucking strange. What I want to know is why. Can you find out?”

“I’ll check into it,” Ted said. “Give me one of your cards.”

Brian handed him his Visa, thinking that would be the most likely one to work.

“What site?” Ted asked.

“Lionel trains.”

“I’ll see what I can find out.”

Brian nodded curtly as Ted left the office.



*****



“Hey, Brian, I’m in the Big Q and they have trains and cars. Do you want me to pick up some for Gus?”

“I don’t want the crap from the Big Q,” Brian said immediately.

“I know how you love brand names,” Justin laughed into his cell phone. “These are Lionel trains.”

“Must be a knock-off.”

“They say genuine Lionel on the box,” Justin assured him.

“Of course they do.”

“I’m getting a couple of cars, Brian,” Justin said.

“Oh, all right. They’ll probably disintegrate in a few days, but go ahead.”

“What were you going to buy for Gus?” Justin asked, remembering Brian’s tirade about how his credit card wouldn’t work on the Lionel site.

“I ordered some more track and a caboose … and a station,” Brian replied trying to remember what he had tried to purchase.

“I can get a caboose and track, but they don’t have any stations.”

“Okay, that’s better than nothing,” Brian conceded. “If they have any other interesting cars, get one of those as well.”

“Will do,” Justin said before cutting the connection.

Brian leaned back in his chair. It would be good to take Gus some trains on the weekend, but he had wanted to buy him the biggest and best. Fucking crap credit cards! With a sigh he went back to his Hammond Foods ads on the computer.



*****


Brian stretched and leaned back away from the computer. He had just about finished his campaign for Hammond Foods. Tomorrow it would go to the art department for finishing touches. Brian yawned and smiled. This was a good campaign, make that a great campaign. Chase Hammond was going to be blown away.

Brian looked at the time on the screen of the computer. It was almost 7:30. He vaguely remembered Cynthia telling him that she was leaving, but that had been … a while ago. He wondered if anybody else was still around. Probably everybody had left. Justin would probably be wondering where the fuck he was. He hoped that Justin hadn’t made them dinner and was at the loft cursing him out.

He was about to call Justin’s cell when Ted walked into his office.

“You still here?” Brian asked.

“I’ve spent most of the day trying to sort out what’s going on with your credit cards.”

“And what did you find out?”

“Not much of anything,” Ted replied.

“You’re just the model of efficiency, aren’t you?” Brian said sarcastically.

Ted cleared his throat and ignored the barb. “I tried your card on the Lionel site and got the same message you did,” Ted explained. Brian nodded and shrugged. “I sent them an email message asking if they were having problems with their site or transactions.”

“And?” Brian asked impatiently. That would provide a simple solution.

“They’re not.”

“So, it’s something with my card?”

“Must be.”

“Then find out what the fuck it is,” Brian ordered.

“It’s your personal card, Brian. I don’t have the password or your answer to the all important question to get into the credit card information. Only you can do that.”

“And how the fuck do I do that?”

“Just telephone them. They’ll ask for your password, et cetera, and then they can tell you what’s going on.”

“Where do I call?” Brian asked rubbing his fingers across his eyes. This was a colossal pain in the ass.

“You mean you’ve never done this before?”

“No, I fucking have not,” Brian replied. “I’ve never needed to. I buy stuff, the bill comes in, I pay it. What else do I need to know?”

“What did your last statement say?” Ted asked. He wondered how Brian could be so clueless about his own finances. But, when you made the kind of megabucks that Brian did, he supposed you didn’t need to pay too much attention.

Brian was frowning and staring off into space. “I … I can’t remember when I last got a statement,” Brian confessed, getting a sinking feeling in his gut when that realization struck him. “If I haven’t paid my card off for a couple of months, then maybe that’s why it got turned down,” Brian said slowly.

“That would make sense,” Ted agreed. “You should call them right now.”

“If I must,” Brian said getting a horrible feeling about where this was going.

“I have the Visa number right here,” Ted said handing a small piece of paper to Brian. Brian dialed and hit a few buttons on the prompts. “Hello, David,” Brian said as he got connected to a real person.

“How may I help you?”

“I’ve had my card not be accepted a few times lately, and I was wondering what the problem is,” Brian explained.

“Give me the number, please.”

“I just entered it,” Brian said testily.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I need it again to access your account.”

Brian read the numbers and the expiry date and all the other shit that was needed. Then the password was asked for. Brian glanced at Ted before he turned partly away. “Justin17,” he half whispered into the phone.

Ted couldn’t help but smirk. He could hear every word. When Brian turned back, the smirk was gone, but Ted blanched at the look on Brian’s face.

“Try it again,” Brian ordered.

“Sir, I have the password in front of me. The one you gave me is incorrect.”

“The fuck it is!” Brian exploded.

“Brian, let me talk to the man,” Ted requested.

Brian handed the phone to Ted. That was his password. He used it for all his personal passwords. It was the right one, so what the fuck was going on?

“Brian, Brian,” Ted was saying. “Is there any chance you gave the wrong password?”

“Absolutely not.”

“I need to speak to your supervisor,” Ted said. “It’s nothing against you, but I’m sitting here with Brian Kinney, the real Brian Kinney, and he knows that the password he gave is the correct one. I need to speak to someone who can clarify this situation. … I’ll wait.”

“Nice going, Schmidt,” Brian said.

“Yeah, well, I’m on hold at the moment, so don’t get too congratulatory.”

“That’s farther than I would have got. I’d have flung the fucking phone across the office by now.”

“That’s why I told you to hand it to me,” Ted chuckled.

“What do you think is going on?” Brian asked. “I know that’s my password.”

“I’m not going to speculate,” Ted replied. He had a good guess as to what the problem might be, but he didn’t want to voice it. He was praying it wasn’t true.

“Yeah, I’m here,” Ted said. “I’m Mr. Kinney’s financial advisor. We’re trying to find out what’s going on with his account…..No, his password didn’t work…..He knows it’s the correct one…..Then somehow it’s been changed…..Proof? Yes, we can provide proof. Is there an office in Pittsburgh?”

“What’s going on, Ted?”

Ted shook his head telling Brian to be patient and not interrupt.

“Give me the number and we’ll call in the morning,” Ted told whoever he was talking to. “Okay, thanks for your help.” Ted placed the receiver back on the base on Brian’s desk.

“What?” Brian demanded. “What the fuck did he say?”

“It doesn’t look good, Brian. All he’d tell me is that the card is maxed out. That’s why they wouldn’t accept it at the toy train site.”

“Maxed out!” Brian repeated. He had this look of horror on his face.

“What was the max on that card?” Ted asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

“Fifty thousand.”

“Fuck!” Ted gasped. “You … you haven’t been on a major spending binge lately, have you?”

“No, I fucking have not!”

“I didn’t think so,” Ted said shaking his head.

“What … what does this mean?” Brian asked, his voice quavering. He was unable to stop it.

“I don’t know for sure,” Ted said carefully. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be the one to give Brian the bad news.

“You have some idea, Ted. I can see it in your eyes. Tell me.”

“Identity theft,” Ted replied in a small voice.

“Identity theft,” Brian said sounding like he was in a daze, which was exactly how he felt. He swallowed hard around the huge lump that was constricting his throat. “But, how…?”

Ted shook his head. “There’s no way to know. We need to talk to Visa tomorrow. I’ll make an appointment in the morning.”

“But what about right now?” Brian demanded. “Don’t they need to be doing something about this immediately?”

“They’re going to put a stop on the card, but it looks like the damage is already done.”

“I don’t fucking see how…” Brian’s words died on his lips as another thought suddenly struck him. “The Lionel site wouldn’t take my American Express card either,” Brian informed his right hand man. “You don’t suppose…?”

“Fuck, I hope not,” Ted said quickly. “Give me your card and I’ll call them.”

Brian pulled out his wallet and handed Ted the other credit card.

“What’s the limit on this one?” Ted felt compelled to ask.

“A hundred thou.”

“Shit!” Ted said before picking up the phone and starting to make the inquiries.

Brian closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. His head felt like it was going to explode. How could this be happening? It wasn’t like he was careless about his personal finances. He was just the opposite. Everyone said he was anal, about that and everything else. This was fucking crazy.

Brian could hear Ted going through the same litany of questions and answers with American Express. He was asked for his password for that card, and said it was the same as the other one. It didn’t work either. Same shit as with the Visa.

“Maxed out,” Ted said as he hung up the receiver.

“Fucking shit!” Brian responded, pounding his hand on the desk. “This can’t be happening.”

“I’m afraid it is, Brian. We’ll have to get appointments with each credit card company in the morning.”

Brian’s eyes got very big all of a sudden. “What about the business, Ted? Is it compromised? Have they got into the finances here too?”

“I’m sure they haven’t, Brian. I’d have noticed something,” Ted said trying to be reassuring. “But I’ll go check on it right now. Everything’s on my computer. Do you have any other credit cards?” he asked after a moment’s thought.

“You don’t think…?”

“I don’t know, but maybe I better check them out. What ones do you have?”

“Discover and Diner’s Club, but I don’t use them very often,” Brian said fishing them out of his wallet.

“What are the limits on these?”

“Nothing too large, ten maybe twenty thousand,” Brian said with the feeling of dread starting to engulf him completely.

Ted nodded and hustled out of the office, leaving Brian in a state of shock.

“This can’t be happening,” Brian said out loud. “A hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and maybe more with the other credit cards.”

He laid his head down on his arms on the desk. If he had a gun, he’d shoot himself. And when he found out who the fucker was that had stolen his identity, he’d fucking shoot him too.