A Deadly Fall

by Carol Lee

  “Nice to meet you. Shall we get started then?”

  We all gave nods of approval and took seats on the couch and chairs in the living room.

  I was surprised at all of the legal jargon and was glad that I wasn’t the only one giving a blank stare when I didn’t understand what was going on. Jack also looked lost. Sam stayed quiet, but I could tell he was paying close attention to how Jack reacted to every minute detail.

  “I need this all dumbed down,” Jack finally said and I was thankful I wasn’t the one who had to jump in to request an explanation.

  “Basically, Sarah is leaving everything to Marissa. She’s been named as the benefactor for the house, which was solely in Sarah’s name, and the savings that were in her own account, as well as her retirement savings and life insurance policy,” Mr. Tolliday explained.

  “That can’t be right,” Jack said, shock and anger mixing on his face. “I was with her when we set up the life insurance and we made each other the benefactors.”

  “When was that exactly?” Mr. Tolliday asked, looking at the paperwork.

  “We bought the policies in 2007, after Sarah had her first miscarriage.”

  “I see that the policy was bought in August 2007, and Jack was listed as the beneficiary. However, in March 2008, that was changed to Marissa, and it was never changed again after that.”

  “I can’t believe she would do that!” Jack nearly shouted.

  “Marissa, the full payment will be $250,000.”

  I was in shock. I watched Jack’s face turn red with anger.

  “The initial policy had been bought for $100,000, and in August 2009, just one month before her death, it was increased to $250,000,” Mr. Tolliday continued. “The increase was requested and authorized by Jack.”

  Jack was looking at his feet now, giving in to his oversight. He hadn’t checked the benefactor when the policy had been increased, and now he had to live with the consequences.

  “As for the house, it was bought in 2006, under Sarah’s name only. The benefactor was also changed to Marissa in March 2008. Marissa, what would you like to do with the house? It’s not fully paid off.”

  “I want to sell it,” I said without having to think about it. I couldn’t live here.

  “I’ll get you in touch with a realtor. In the meantime, I’d recommend you deal with the contents of the house,” he suggested. “Jack, I’m sorry, but nothing has been left to you. Are there any questions about the will?”

  Jack and I shook our heads.

  “Well, I’ll be on my way then. Marissa, Jack, Sam, thanks for coming out this morning. Here’s my card in case you need to contact me. And again, I’m very sorry for your loss,” Mr. Tolliday said again and left.

  “Jack, I had no idea this was how things were going to turn out,” I said quietly. “If you want to stay in the house for a while, or keep anything that belonged to you and Sarah, that’s fine with me. You can have as much time as you need.” I wanted to keep Jack close. Now there was a clear motive. I just had to find out where he really was that Sunday Sarah died.

  He didn’t seem to react, just kept staring at his shoes.

  “Jack?” I asked.

  “This wasn’t how it was supposed to turn out. We were married. We were supposed to take care of each other,” he said, his voice slowly rising with each sentence. “And now she just wants to take care of you! What about me? Her husband!”

  “Jack, we’re going to go,” I said before he let himself get into a complete rage. Sam and I headed toward the door.

  “This isn’t over!” Jack yelled as we closed the door behind us.

  “No, Jack, it’s not,” I said only loud enough for Sam to hear.

  Sam – February 2010

  “Thoughts?” Marissa asked me as I drove her back to my house after meeting with Jack and Mr. Tolliday.

  “You’re right, something’s not right,” I agreed.

  “I need you to do something for me,” she started. “I need you to pull Sarah’s credit card and bank statements for me leading up to her death. From May through her death. She knew something wasn’t right and she knew she had to get away. I think there’ll be something there to help my case against Jack.”

  “I’ll look into it,” I promised. “Did you ever talk to his boss about him leaving or his business trip in September?”

  “No. But I know someone at the TSA. I’m going to have her look into Jack’s September flight. I don’t think he left. His reaction wasn’t a grieving husband. Who cares where her assets went? She’s gone. I don’t want this money! He shouldn’t care either!” I could hear Marissa’s voice fill with resentment toward Jack. But I couldn’t deny that she might be right.

  “Marissa, be careful when you go digging in the TSA,” I pleaded.

  “Sam, this is my sister we’re talking about. When I talked to Jack the other day, he did a good job at making me think he was depressed. But after today, he doesn’t miss Sarah. He wants her money. Let’s talk about motive. He had just increased her life insurance policy to a quarter million dollars! And now he’s pissed that he’s not getting it! And he told me he didn’t know she was pregnant. In any trial, he’d say he increased the policy because Sarah was pregnant, or at the very least that they were trying again.”

  “I know what this looks like. But his wife is dead. He’s irrational right now. Just be careful, that’s all I’m saying.”

  “I will,” she promised, with the sting of betrayal in her voice at the lack of support I was offering.

  “I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “I know. Can we drop this for now? I have to get ready to drive home,” she said as we pulled into the driveway.

  “Let’s at least eat lunch together,” I suggested.

  “OK,” she said and I leaned over to kiss her before we got out of the car.

  ***

  I couldn’t drop the thought that Marissa might be right. That would be a huge oversight for our department when we didn’t investigate Sarah’s death further. But at the time, all signs pointed to a simple hiking accident. I wasn’t ready to bring this up at work, so I stayed late the next few nights to dig into Sarah’s credit card and bank statements like Marissa had asked.

  I was shocked at what I found and called Marissa right away.

  “Sam,” she said with relief in her voice when I called after ten one night the same week she left.

  “Marissa. Are you OK?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I just don’t get too many calls this late, so I was worried you weren’t.”

  “I’m fine. I’m still at the office, actually.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “I was able to pull all of Sarah’s spending for May through September 2009, the months leading up to her death. She had quite a significant amount of savings. Do you know where that came from?”

  “When our parents died, we both inherited a chunk of money. We hadn’t known they even had that savings, so it was a surprise. That was after she and Jack were married. I didn’t know she had kept it in her name.”

  “It looks like she did. And she was spending it down over the summer.”

  “What was she buying?”

  “Plane tickets. She had a ticket to California for a week after she died. For a month. Alone. Do you know what she might have been planning to go there for?”

  “No. Unless she knew she was pregnant and she was getting away from Jack because she didn’t trust him. How many months pregnant was she when she died?”

  “Six weeks.”

  “When did she buy the ticket?”

  “Three weeks before she was scheduled to leave, two weeks before she died. When was her doctor’s appointment when she found out she was pregnant?” I asked. I heard her shuffle papers in the background.

  “A week before she bought the ticket. Isn’t that too early to know? She was only three weeks pregnant then.”

  “I bet she was extra in tune to her body’s changes because of her past miscar
riages so she got in to see the doctor as soon as she was even suspicious,” I told her.

  “So she thought she was pregnant, saw the doctor when she was only three weeks along, bought a plane ticket at four weeks, got killed at six weeks, and was supposed to leave at seven weeks.”

  “Died at six weeks,” I corrected her. Jack was still innocent until proven guilty.

  “Yeah, whatever. Where was Judy around that time?”

  “Home with me. She’s the one who found Sarah’s body. Someone must have been in California.”

  “Unless she was buying a ticket for somewhere she didn’t know anyone so Jack wouldn’t look for her there. Can you see if she booked any hotel rooms or anything?”

  “I don’t see that,” I told her, looking through both her bank account and credit card statements. “But she did have several withdrawals of cash in the weeks leading up to her death. She could have been planning to pay for things in cash so she couldn’t be tracked.”

  “I need to find out about Jack’s flight. I’ll call you tomorrow after I talk to the TSA,” she said and nearly hung up before I could say good night.

  Marissa – February 2010

  I could barely wait until eight the following morning before getting on the phone. Eleanor was a friend from college who’d thought she wanted to work for the FBI. She loved snooping and being able to tell stories about a life she wasn’t living. We’d barely kept in touch, but back in college I’d baled her out of plenty of questionable situations, so I knew she’d be there for me today.

  “Hello?” Eleanor said when she picked up after the fourth ring. I thought she was going to let it go to voicemail, if I even still had the right number for her.

  “Hi, Eleanor?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “This is Marissa. Marissa Buratto from college.”

  “Marissa! How are you? It’s been so long!”

  “I know. Sorry about that—”

  “Nothing to be sorry about. I didn’t keep in touch either. Are you still living in New York?”

  “Yeah. But I’m moving back home actually in June.”

  “Really? Why? You always hated that place.”

  “I didn’t hate it. I was just ready for changes,” I justified.

  “Sure. But that’s not the way you portrayed it.”

  “Well, some things have changed recently and I’m moving back. I’m quitting my job and moving in with someone I met in September.”

  “That’s great! Congratulations!”

  “And right now I’m looking into my sister’s death. Remember Sarah?”

  “Yeah. Remember that time she visited when we were seniors and she got drunk?”

  “I remember all too well,” I said with a smile. Eleanor always remembered the things I wanted to forget.

  “She said it was her first time drinking and you were so paranoid about her getting too drunk and being taken advantage of.”

  “She was a freshman in high school! Of course I was worried!”

  “I would have loved it if I’d had a little sister to corrupt!” she said, laughing.

  “You would have loved that,” I agreed. It would have gone much better with Eleanor’s personality.

  “You said she died?” she asked, suddenly getting serious.

  “Yeah, in September.”

  “What happened?”

  I told her about the hiking accident, how I didn’t think it was an accident and now I wanted to know if Jack had really gotten on the flight he said he had taken. “Do you have video surveillance that you can look through to see if it was really him?”

  “We do, but that would take a while. Why don’t I look up if he boarded the plane based on whether his ticket was used first. Then we can worry about the video.”

  “That’d be great. Can you do it now?”

  “I’m on my break, give me a second to log back into my computer.”

  “Thanks, Eleanor.”

  “Hey, no problem. You always had my back in college, this is the least I can do for you. What did you say his name was?”

  “Jack Greene.”

  “And he was flying out of Manchester in early September, do you remember the date?”

  “Yeah, it was Friday, September 4th. Headed to Denver.”

  “OK. Give me. . .five more. . .seconds. . .” I could hear Eleanor putting in the information I’d provided. “Yup, ticket bought and used. But. . .wait. . .this is weird. There’s another ticket for him on Monday, September 7th. Same itinerary and everything. But no return flight. And both were used.”

  “Do you know if one was a different Jack Greene?”

  “They’re both the same credit card number. We’ll have to take a look at those tapes. I can look up his license to get a photo, but I’m not sure that’ll be good enough to ID him from the security tapes. I’ll have to give you a call back this afternoon, is that OK?”

  “That’d be great,” I told her. “Thanks a lot.”

  “No problem. I’ll give you a call as soon as I can find the videos we need. Bye.”

  “Bye,” I said and hung up. I knew I wouldn’t be able to focus on work, but I had to get ready to teach two back to back classes.

  ***

  I waited until my second class was just about finished before I even dared to look at my phone. Two missed calls—one from Sam and one from Eleanor. I was totally distracted for the rest of the lecture, and the students could tell.

  “Don’t forget, your paper is due in one week. I have office hours every afternoon if you have questions. And the writing center is a place that should be used!” I stressed to them before they left. One of my biggest pet peeves was getting papers with terrible grammar. The resources were available, and I wanted them to use them.

  I called Eleanor on the walk to my car.

  “Marissa, you’re not going to believe this,” she said as soon as she answered, this time half way through the first ring.

  “Try me.”

  “Both tickets were used, and both video surveillance show Jack Greene going through security.”

  “He has a twin brother, identical twin brother,” I told her, realizing how easily it would have been to fake one of the boarding passes.

  “That explains it. The document used for the September 4th flight was a passport. I would guess that’s actually his brother. A license was used for the September 7th flight, which I would guess is really Jack.”

  “That’s great. I’ll find out if cars were rented, or hotels, under either Jack or his brother’s names during that time. This is a huge help, thanks.”

  “I hope things turn out OK,” she said and hung up.

  I called Sam immediately.

  “Sam, I don’t think Jack used his flight the Friday before Sarah died,” I blurted out before he even said hi.

  “And why not?” He sounded skeptical.

  “I talked to my friend Eleanor at the TSA and there was a second ticket bought and used for September 7th. Both tickets were used by people using Jack Greene identification, but one was a passport and one was a license. Can you look up his brother’s credit card purchases—Mark Greene—for the weekend of September 4th?”

  “Yeah, I’m actually still at the office, so let me see what I can find right now. Hang on,” he said and I could hear him breathing into the phone as he typed. “Mark Greene—” he started, and then paused. “This is bad.”

  “What’d you find?” I could hardly keep waiting. I squeezed the steering wheel in frustration. It was a good thing I wasn’t driving.

  “He rented a hotel in Denver for the night of September 4th, rented a car the next day and had a room at Canyon Lodge in Yellowstone for September 5th and 6th. I’m looking at flight purchases, and he only bought a one-way ticket from Charleston, South Carolina to Manchester, New Hampshire on September 4th, then another one way ticket from Denver to Charleston on September 10th. He never bought a ticket to Denver. And Eleanor said he flew under Jack’s name?”

  “Yeah. And this
means Jack was in town when Sarah died. Can you check his credit card spending?”

  “Let me pull that back up,” he said before a short pause. “He doesn’t have any expenses for the 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th. He was probably hiding out at home so no one would see him. Can you get the video surveillance sent to me?”

  “I hope so. Where is Jack now?”