I'd been dead drunk from the moment I'd heard about my dad's disappearance until... well... pretty much until Evelyn Christian walked into my office. Reading my dad's file sober for the first time was tough. Too tough for Motli. She started crying all over the clippings and police reports as soon as I cracked the manila folder. I sent her down to Wong Fat's for some takeout.

Still, browsing through the file I didn't find anything that set off any internal alarms. Could be my brain was numb from my lesson on depreciation. Dad had been hired by an unknown client to investigate some alleged international espionage, or some such thing. He wrote in his own secret code, Jack did, that probably would have made more sense if I WAS drunk. With that in mind I got my own takeout -- I took out a bottle of Jack from my desk and hit it two times. Better. A couple of drops splashed on the paper I was reading. I pulled it out of the file and heard a small tear -- the top page had been stuck to the page beneath it by... unbelievable. It has been struck together with what looked like a glop of purple mascara.

Motli. No doubt weeping like a willow when she filed the pages.

I didn't recognize bottom page. It was list of dad's contacts and meeting times, starting with a character named Murph the Mouth, followed by Billy the Butcher, and ending with dad's parish priest, Father Flanagan, owner/operator of St. McDougal's Drive-Thru Church. And there was a date on the page -- the day he vanished.

"You Murph?" I asked the decrepit old man sitting in front of the bait shop on the Santa Monica Pier.

The old man was reading a book, from which he didn't look up. I only caught part of the title, something about a Fool's Investment Guide. Now that sounded like the kind of investment book I could use. "Who wants to know?" the old man asked.

"Name's Diamond. Ace Diamond. I'm Jack's boy."

That got his attention. "Well I'll be dipped and pickled!" he said, exposing two rows of shattered brown teeth. "Heard ye were bobbing for butts in motel ashtrays these days."

"My reputation precedes me." I showed him the paper from the file. "Says here Jack was supposed to meet with you the morning he disappeared. Did he?" The old man got scary-eyed, shook his head, then went back to his book. I grabbed him by the collar of his threadbare pea coat. "Don't mess with me, old timer. I want to know what you told him, and I want to know now."

"I told him he was over his head, which is what I'm telling you if you're investigating his death. I don't know who his client was, but the guy he was checking out was bad. Bad news. Connected, laddie. Heavy money from here and abroad. And that's all you'll get out of me, so start to beating me if you like. Or, you can try the next name on your list. Billy's got big ears...he might help you."

"I'll do that, old timer. Just as soon as you tell me who dad was checking out."

Murph shook his head. "Not a chance. But you might want to look THERE..." he said, pointing to the bottom of the page I held. I stared at the page. There, in small, neat lettering, were two initials: C.C.

The old man tittered, reading his book. "Tell me, laddie, d'ya know anything about investing?"

I kept staring at the initials. It couldn't be. "Sure," I said. "I'm a whiz at that stuff. Ask me anything."

"Okay, smart guy. Paying dividends to stockholders is:

1) An operating activity.

2) An investing activity.

3) A financing activity.

4) None of the above.

Cash flow statement information provided by Joe Louderback.

The answer is 3) A financing activity.

Dividends are not operating items. They are distributions of earnings to shareholders, the alternative being to retain the cash and use it for some other purpose. Therefore, decisions about dividends are financing decisions because they relate to how the company is going to finance itself. For example, many companies pay dividends, then turn around and borrow cash to make investments. Such companies could forgo dividends and borrow less cash, but for various strategic reasons want to pay dividends. Regardless, cash used to pay dividends is found in the financing activities portion of the statement of cash flow.

Hey, I thought as the old man rambled on, I KNOW that one! But as I answered him I caught a twinkle in his eye. Why had he asked THAT question? Why a dividend question when paying dividends seemed to have something do with the TechTek investigation?

I wasn't gonna get any more out Murph, so I slipped him a $20. "Here, buy yourself a tooth." I walked back to my car. It was time to go see Billy the Butcher.

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