"Jesus, Ray," I said when my old friend, Sgt. Ray Raymond, had herded me into my car and we'd started back to the Techtek gate, "what the hell are you doing here? And what's with the fill-you-full-of-bullets routine?"

Ray lit a Lucky Strike and took a long drag. "Drive around the lot. Sorry about the gun. Had to be done. What happened to your hand?"

"I cut myself shaving the hair off my palms. And those cancer sticks will kill you, pal."

"No faster than the fumes coming up from your engine. And the last time I saw you, Ace, you were face-down drunk in a motel ashtray, bobbing for butts. And I can smell Jack on your breath. Now the question, Diamond, is what are YOU doing here?"

"Actually, you're smelling it on my hand. And I asked first."

With the quickness of the former Golden Gloves champ that he was, Ray pulled out his service revolver, slammed back the hammer, and shoved the barrel in my eye. "Okay," I said, "why don't I go first?" I pulled the Lucky from his face and took a drag. "Gee, Ray, I'm a private eye. So what do you THINK I'm doing here?"

Ray frowned, looking at me from the corner of his eye. "You're getting too old and slow for cute, Diamond. And I hope you're not still working on your dad's case. If Evelyn Christian is your client, I'm going to have to insist you tell me what's going on."

I drove around the far side of Techtek, where there were no windows. I didn't want Mr. Off-the-rack receptionist to see his security guard driving around the lot with Evelyn's blood-soaked friend when he came back to find me gone. I stopped the Triumph and turned to Ray. "You insist? You INSIST? Boy, for a marginally clean cop you've got a lotta moxie."

"Moxie's my middle name," he said. "Now spill."

I gave him the rundown on the case, including meeting my new friend at the mistress' condo. "You ever hear of a guy calls himself The Wire?"

Ray shook his head. "Nope. I knew about the mistress, though. Long gone since the day after the murder. I heard the wife paid her off and told her to blow town. You know, I've been on this case since the week after Conrad Christian was killed, and so far I've gotten more questions than answers. You?"

I shook my head. "I just started, and the mistress was my only lead. That's why I was going to talk to Evelyn again. I've been chasing the money, Ray, and so far I don't like what I see. Just where the hell is it coming from? They got no cash flow from the business. So far the only reason I see them as profitable is rising, temporary cash flow from selling off stuff....but every machine in that factory is brand, spanking new."

Ray looked at me like I was still drunk. "That makes no sense. Those new machines have been here since I have. The expenditure would have shown up in the financials if they'd sold the old ones to buy the new ones. Something's up with that."

I nodded. "Yeah, that's what I said. I've got one more thing to check out, though."

"What's that?"

"Something Motli's been teaching me. Cash flow stuff. There're three components to a company's statement of cash flow. From operations, from investing activity -- both of which I already checked out -- and from financing activity. Which I'm gonna check out next."

Question: What sort of information will Ace be able to gather from learning about Cash Flow From Financing?

1) How much cash the company received from selling stock

2) How much cash the company received from selling bonds

3) How much cash the company spent on dividends

4) All of the above

The answer is 4) All of the above

The statement of cash flow from financing activity shows exactly how much cash the company received by selling stock, such as in an initial public offering (IPO), or by selling bonds. Likewise, it is shows how much cash the company used in buying back stock or paying off its long term debts. It also shows how much the company paid out in dividends to its shareholders.

I dropped Ray off at the Techtek gate with a promise to keep him up to speed. I couldn't go back to the factory and talk to Evelyn -- too suspicious. I'd call her later and make something up if I had to. Right now... right now I had a feeling I needed to dig a little deeper into Techtek's finances, and for that I was gonna need Ms. Fuell.

And then it hit me--what Ray said about still working on my dad's case. Now what the hell did he mean by that....

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