by Maria Pease
“Unfortunately, I’m positive.”
“I’m calling Frank.” I fumbled with my phone.
When he picked up, I blurted out, “Frank! You have to get down here. You’re not going to believe what Ted found.”
Chapter 52
Alana and I headed to the cafeteria to get some coffee so Ted could continue working. As we sipped, we anxiously waited for Frank. My phone buzzed, and I rummaged for it in my purse. It was the cell I’d been given to communicate with Chanel, so before I picked up, I braced myself.
“Laci, I’m so sorry we didn’t have the opportunity to talk at the luncheon.”
“That’s okay. I know how it is. I had to get back to the paper.”
“So, when should we get together?”
“I’ll have to get back to you. I’m waiting to hear about an assignment,” I lied.
“Well, the anniversary is coming up soon, so we really do need to get together.”
“I’ll give you a call soon.” I disconnected and threw the phone in my purse. “What a bitch!”
“What was that all about?” Alana asked.
“Chanel. She has some nerve!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sam.”
“I was… well… I mean, Laci was supposed to do an exposé on her, but every time we got together, she made something else a priority and basically wasted my time.”
“Wait. You’ve been meeting with her?”
“I thought it might be the only way we’d get to the truth, but now, I’m not so sure.”
“So, no dentist appointment?”
“Nope.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to spill the beans to Frank.”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
“Look, it was to protect you from having to lie for me. That’s all.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Alana, the last thing you want while starting your own career is something like that in your file. Trust me, you’d regret it forever.”
“I get it, Sam. I do.”
When Frank arrived, we made our way back to the lab.
Ted started with how he discovered the information about Stacy Carson and went over the evidence to support his findings.
I watched Frank’s expression change as he listened to Ted and looked at all the evidence. “Jesus Christ! His own mother?”
“Frank, this has been in the making for months.” Ted shook his head.
“Let me know if you find anything else, will you, Ted?” I asked.
When we left the lab, Frank stopped us. “Head back to the office and I’ll meet you there shortly. There’s something I need to do.”
Alana and I ran to the Jeep as the rain pounded down. Driving proved to be difficult, so I slowed down as thoughts of Michael and what he’d been through weighed heavily on my mind.
I turned on to Front Street and pulled into the lot, spotting Chuck’s car. Oh, shit.
Alana and I made a run for it, sprinting up the stairs and into the office. Chuck was on the phone, so Alana and I grabbed the roll of paper towels and dried off as well as we could.
Chuck dropped the phone in the cradle and closed the file in front of him. “It’s really coming down out there, huh?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I muttered.
“Any idea when Frank will be in?”
“He said he’d be here soon.”
“I’ve got to head out. Will you ask him to call me when he has a minute?”
“Sure.”
Chuck stood, put a pile of files in his briefcase, and moved past us to the door. “See you later.”
“See ya.”
“You two have such a weird vibe between you,” Alana said.
“It’s called hatred.”
Checking my messages, I found Alex had called, requesting we come to the Special Enforcement Team lab as soon as we could. I was eager to see what he had but knew Frank wouldn’t be happy if we left. I sighed.
“Can you check Facebook while I do some research?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
I was just shutting down my computer when Frank arrived.
“What took you so long?” I asked.
“I had to wait on someone. Let’s go in the conference room.”
We trailed behind him and sat around the table. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but Frank seemed off. I watched him as he scanned the file in front of him.
“This new information on Stacy Carson is quite the development. I’ll never understand how a mother could do this shit to her own son.”
“No wonder Michael didn’t want to come with us. He probably thought he was better off with Wally.”
“So, what do we do now?” Alana asked.
“Unfortunately, we step back and let the cops finish it.”
“Frank…” I stared at him.
“Don’t start, Sam. This order comes from the captain.”
“So, after everything we’ve done, that’s it? I’m supposed to just forget it all?”
“I understand your frustration, but we don’t have a choice.”
I stood up. “I’m out of here!”
Alana hesitantly followed me out of the conference room and watched as I packed my bag.
Frank came out and stood at his desk with arms crossed.
I grabbed my jacket and moved to the door. “We’re taking the rest of the day off. Ready, Alana?”
“Sam,” Frank said.
“Oh, and Chuck wants you to call him.” I slammed the door on my way out.
When we hit Murrieta Hot Springs Road, my cell rang. Instinctively, I picked it up. “This is Sam.”
“Where are you?” Alex asked.
“Be right there.”
We found ourselves back at the Special Enforcement Team lab, listening to Alex as he explained his plan of attack. He’d developed a program called Memex, which was used for surfing the dark web and targeting criminals and criminal activity.
“So, how can it help us?” I asked.
“This program has a variety of capabilities. We can find and identify criminal activity of every kind, and target specific types of activity, such as trafficking. It also has facial recognition capabilities, so we can scan a photo of an unidentified person and find out everything we ever wanted to know about them. The program also tracks, in real time, all digital footprints and attaches to mobile devices, even when they are powered off.
“Holy shit! You developed this?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re really smart! Any chance you’d be interested in taking my finals for me?” Alana asked, flashing him a big smile.
Alex grinned. “Not a chance.”
Alana and I stayed out of the way as Alex went to work, telling his program what to search for. I sent him the photos I’d taken and the names I’d uncovered, including the victims. It was interesting to watch him work. He seemed to disappear into a space that only he had access to. Although he explained how the program worked, I was pretty sure he understood he was dealing with amateurs whose tech skills didn’t go very deep.
Alana looked at me and smiled. “This is really cool, Sam.”
“Yeah. Who knew?”
“Do you think Frank’s going to be pissed?”
“Probably. If he isn’t, I’m not doing my job.”
When Alex finally looked up from his computer, we’d been there for more than two hours.
“Would you like to do the honors?” he asked.
“Sure. What am I doing?”
“When you click on this, we’ll be connected to the satellite.” He pointed to an icon.
“A satellite? Like in space?” Alana asked.
“That’s right.”
“That is so cool.” Alana’s eyes widened.
“Okay. Does that start the search?”
“Yes.”
“Are you guys ready?”
“Go for it,” Alana said.
I clicked on the icon and bre
athed in deep.
“Game on!” Alex said. “You can run, but you can’t hide!”
“So, when should we know something?” I asked.
“It won’t take long before it starts collecting data and filing it. We just need to monitor it and let it work. You don’t want to rush this. It will need some time to search. Why don’t you two get out of here and I’ll let you know when we have something of value.”
It was cold and raining when we headed out, and it didn’t look like it was going to let up anytime soon. As we drove back to Temecula, I remembered I needed to stop at Mrs. Bennett’s and check on things.
“Do you mind making a quick stop?” I asked.
“That’s fine with me.”
I pulled in the driveway and got out, searching for the key. Stepping inside, I put the newspapers on the table and went to check on the plants. Finding them alive, relief moved through me. I knew Mrs. Bennett was due back soon, so I watered the ones that were dry and tried to remember where they all went.
Alana had been milling around while I cared for the plants, looking at photos and checking out the bookcase. She removed a book from the bookshelf and opened it.
“Um, Sam?”
“Yeah.”
“You’d better see this.”
I moved to the bookshelf and Alana held up a hollowed-out book. Inside, we saw two stacks of one-hundred-dollar bills, placed side by side.
“Holy shit!” I said.
Alana handed me the book and chose another book in the series. It was also hollowed out and contained more hundreds. “Sam, she’s loaded.”
“Put them back where you got them.”
I made sure everything was in its place, removed the flyers from the porch and locked up.
As I drove, I couldn’t help but wonder why Mrs. Bennett had all that cash? And why it was hidden in her books and not in a bank?
We stopped to pick up a pizza and headed back to my house. We found a good movie and watched as we stuffed our faces. All the excitement must have made us hungry.
When Alana headed out, it was after 9:00 PM. Despite the fact it was still relatively early, I went upstairs, got into my pajamas, and went to bed. Although I was exhausted, sleep eluded me and I tossed and turned until after 2:00 AM. When my alarm went off, I hit the snooze button and fell back to sleep until my ringing phone jolted me out of bed. I picked it up, instantly regretting the decision.
As I listened to Jake’s voice, he tried to explain his logic for taking my case away. Heading down for coffee, I let him talk, offering an occasional, Uh huh so he’d know I was still on the line.
“So, are we okay?”
Without a word, I disconnected, poured a cup of coffee and headed to get a shower. Although the rain had stopped, the clouds looked dark grey. Unsure of what the day would bring, I decided on jeans, a long sleeve red shirt and sneakers. Pouring another cup of coffee, I dialed Alex.
“I was just going to call you. Can you head over?”
Alana said she’d meet me there, so I put the finishing touches on my hair and make-up, grabbed my bag and headed out. The traffic seemed unusually light and I realized it was most likely because I had gotten a late start. When I found Alex, he was sorting through a database with some co-workers.
“Sam, wait until you see this!” He pulled up the Memex screen, just as Alana arrived. The screen showed search results from the scanned photo of Montgomery. “Here’s your guy. His name is Frank Monty.”
“Montgomery is Frank Monty? That name sounds so familiar,” I said.
“That’s probably because he’s part of the Genovese mob family.”
“Are you kidding?”
“No. He’s what’s known as an emissary or ambassador for the family,” Alex said.
“What’s his role in this?”
“From the information we’ve collected so far, it seems he isn’t happy being an ambassador and wants to run his own business. He and Chanel met and along with a romantic relationship, they decided to go into business together. The thing is, he’s still not the boss, and apparently, he’s been making plans to rectify that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Unfortunately, we need to wait until more information surfaces to get a clear picture. Hopefully, it won’t be too long. I just hope it’s not too late.”
Chapter 53
Alex had to get back to work and told us he’d keep us updated on any new information that materialized, so Alana and I headed out. Frank had left a message that he’d be out of the office, so we decided to head to my house to work. Arriving home, I found Mrs. Bennett about to ring the doorbell.
“How was your trip?” I asked her.
“Very nice.” She handed me an Orchid. “I want to thank you for taking care of things for me.”
“It was no problem.”
I re-introduced them and prayed Alana wouldn’t say anything about finding the money. The last thing I needed was more drama. I hadn’t killed her plants, and that was all I cared about; The rest was none of my business. Once Mrs. Bennett left, we went inside.
“That was so sweet of her to bring you that,” Alana said as I set it down on the kitchen table.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“She’s not that bad, you know.”
I looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t seen her in action.”
“Where’s Frank today?” She asked.
“I don’t know, he just said he was going to be out of the office.”
“What do we have going on?”
“If you could check out the social media channels for any activity and make copies for the file, that would be great. I’m going to go back through everything I have and see if I can clear up some of my lingering questions.”
I took out my notes, the list of possible evidence, and my note cards and laid them out on the floor. I hung up the chart I’d made and read through my notes. I added new information to the chart and tried to fill in some of the blanks.
When I came across the notes on Michael Carson, I noticed something that, at the time, I didn’t understand. When I’d spoken with him about driving Chanel Pinkay at the fundraiser, he’d said he didn’t know who that was. He’d told me he was driving Kennedy Sinclair. Like a lightning bolt, it hit me, and I realized the connection. I fumbled for my phone and dialed Frank.
“Sammy!”
“You need to get over here. Now!”
I was so excited, I could barely breathe. The connection was clear as day now, yet at the time, none of it had registered. As I added the information to the chart, I couldn’t help but scream with excitement. “Look at this!”
Alana looked at the chart, trying to make sense of it. “Who’s Kennedy Sinclair?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s Chanel,” I said. “Montgomery is really Frank Monty, and I expect that Chanel is Kennedy Sinclair. The barcode tattoos on Michael, Melody and the others have the initials KS right in the middle. It has to be her!”
When Frank knocked on the door, I swung it opened and pulled him inside.
“Holy shit, Frank! We’ve got them. We’ve got them all!”
I went through my investigation from top to bottom and showed Frank my notes and the chart. As he reviewed it all, he kept mumbling to himself. I couldn’t make anything out and to be honest, it was starting to annoy me.
“Frank, what the hell?”
“This is great work, Sam.” His voice held a hint of hesitation.
“But…”
“I need to you to back down.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“There is more to this than you know, Sam!”
“Well then, why don’t you explain it to me like I’m a five-year-old so I can understand.”
He shook his head and pointed his finger at me. “You’re fired, Sam!” He stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
I didn’t move for what felt like a long time. I felt sick to my stomach and thought I might pass out.
&n
bsp; When I looked at Alana, her mouth was open. Shock was splashed across her face. “Shit, Sam,” she said quietly.
“What did he say? I don’t think I heard him right,” I muttered.
“I’m so sorry!” She moved in to hug me.
When she stepped back, I felt my head spin and I moved to the couch. I fell back into the cushion and tried to clear my head. Where was all the yelling coming from? Trying to breathe, I looked at Alana, who was standing over me. All at once, I realized the loud voices were in my head.
“Are you going to be okay?”
“What – what just happened?”
“I’m pretty sure you just got fired.”
“Shit.”
Alana got me some cold water and turned on the movie White House Down. We didn’t talk, but every few minutes she looked at me, maybe waiting for me to cry. I stared at the screen but couldn’t get the visual of Frank out of my head. Was I really fired? My cell rang and Alana grabbed it, handing it to me.
“Yeah.”
“It’s Alex. You need to get back here.”
I was about to tell him it was game over, that I’d been fired and couldn’t continue, but I decided to get myself off the couch instead. I went upstairs to freshen up and stared at myself in the mirror. What I saw looking back wasn’t pretty. It was a deflated woman who’d had the wind taken out of her sails. Is that really me? Seeing myself like this made me mad. I’d worked too fucking hard to let this case go. If I got fired because of it, too fucking bad. I took in a deep breath. This wasn’t how I’d go down. I headed downstairs, grabbed my bag and opened the door.
“Let’s go.”
As we got in the Jeep, Alana looked at me. “Where are we going?”
“To see Alex.”
“Sam, you can’t…”
“Why? What are they going to do? Fire me?”
“I guess you have a point.”
By the time we pulled into the lot, I was starting to feel like myself again. Inside, we found Alex studying a holograph. As I observed it, I attempted to decipher what exactly I was looking at but decided I really had no idea.
“What are we looking at?”
“It’s a barn in Anza. You had notes on it relating to the text message guy.”
“Oh, yeah. We followed Archie there. The barn was set way back from the house. Why does it look like a jail?”