Scammed

by Morgan St. James

  A red flush of embarrassment crept up from Cameron’s neck onto her face as she sputtered and assumed her ditzy blonde pose. “OMG, wow, you caught me. I feel so foolish.”

  “Don’t. It takes one to know one, and I’ve stuck my foot in it like that more than once.”

  As if to respond to her comment about being hungry there was a knock on the door that could be none other than the food delivery. Matt said, “I’ll get it,” took a few long strides and opened the door.

  23

  The young delivery man entered carrying large insulated bags inscribed with KIFUNE on the top flap. Judging by the size of the bags, it looked like Matt had ordered enough for an army. A mixture of savory and spicy aromas filled the room as the flaps were opened.

  Matt said, “We’ve had Chinese and pizza, so I figured I’d order some Treasure Ship dinners from that great Japanese restaurant on Washington. I told them to deliver the food in the wooden craft boats they use in the restaurant to keep it authentic. I’ll bring them back to the restaurant later. Hope this is okay.”

  While Cameron placed plates at each place with Kate’s help, Margaret watched the young man remove three large wooden craft boats attractively filled with beef teriyaki, chicken teriyaki, sesame chicken, shrimp and vegetable tempura, salmon teriyaki, snow crab, seafood kushiyaki. He positioned the boats along Cameron’s large dining room table, adding little containers of sauces and packets of condiments at each place. There were also containers of rice. Then he went over to Matt and gave him his receipt. After Matt palmed a nice tip to him and thanked him, he walked the young man to the door, then came back to the table and sat down.

  The energy in the room telegraphed everyone’s curiosity about what the information that had delayed Margaret could be, but they all tried to concentrate on devouring the mouthwatering feast.

  Margaret was the first to say anything. “This is incredible. I’ve passed that restaurant so many times when I’ve come here to meet with Danny, but I never tried it. You know how it goes. You see something that you file for future reference, and for some reason or other never do anything about it. Thank you, Matt. This is delicious.”

  The Colonel agreed, adding, “Even when I was in Tokyo years ago, I never tasted anything this good. I wonder if this is an American version of Japanese food. If not, I guess I just didn’t find the right restaurants when I was in Japan, but then we had more than food on our minds back then.”

  Clarence positioned himself right next to the Colonel’s chair and seemed to be patiently hoping for a shrimp or piece of salmon. Finally, patient no more, he began to paw his master as if to say, “Hey, me, too. Where’s mine?” The Colonel broke off a few pieces of salmon and fed them to his dog. Satisfied, Clarence went under the table and moments later his snores signaled that he had settled down for a snooze.

  Margaret savored a few more mouthfuls of the salmon. Then it appeared she was ready to fill in some of the pieces of the puzzle surrounding Al Shady’s murder and Barbara’s disappearance.

  She cleared her throat, placed a set of chopsticks on the rim of the plate, and said, “I’ve kept you in suspense long enough. I think you will really like this.” She fingered the gold necklace at her throat in a bit of a nervous gesture.

  They all eyed her with anticipation.

  “I know Danny told you I had the ability to find out things about the Shadys, and that’s why I’m here. When he told me what was going on, I couldn’t resist. Although I didn’t know them personally, they didn’t live that far from me. In fact, another realtor beat me to the listing when they put their house on the market. Anyway, I remembered that some of my friends also knew Barbara. One of them was friends with Al’s first wife and was pretty surprised a few years back when he married someone who appeared young enough to be his daughter. Of course, whispers of gold digger floated through our little community, and like the telephone game, eventually did reach me. I saw her with him at some events, but really didn’t have any desire to get to know her. Probably why I missed out on their listing.”

  Margaret concluded by saying, “After reading the accounts in the newspaper and putting everything together with what I’d heard from friends, when Danny called I couldn’t wait to be part of this. Maybe I should have been a sleuth in a different life. Anyway, I think down the road there could be a best seller in this whole scenario, and as you well know, Danny and I have written some blockbuster true crime books. Now, I suppose you want to know what I can contribute.”

  Just then Clarence ventured out from under the table and stared up at the Colonel, getting his attention by pawing his leg. He let out a plaintiff whine.

  The Colonel folded his napkin on the table, slid his chair back and said, “Sorry folks. Maggie, can you hold the information for a moment or two. Clarence is trying to tell me nature calls. Now that he’s an oldster like me, he can’t hold it like he used to. We’ll be right back.” By now the dog was hopping around like a frog on fire. The old man didn’t even bother putting on his leash, sensing that his dog’s need was urgent. “Come on, Buddy. You’re a good boy for letting me know.”

  They headed for the door and left it slightly ajar.

  Loud quacks came from the courtyard. Margaret said, “For goodness sakes, what’s that racket? It sounds like you have ducks in your—”

  She didn’t get to finish her sentence, because Maxie and Mini strode into the house through the open door like they owned it, quacking all the way. Cameron collapsed in laughter. “Oh my goodness. That pair gets bolder and bolder every day. I suspect they came out of the canal when they saw Clarence and the Colonel go out and tried to beg some treats but didn’t get any. It’s unusual for them to march into the house to demand food, but here they are.”

  Mini went over to Kate and rubbed against her leg. Kate said, “Yeah, and this little girl thinks I’m a big duck. Stay put. I’ll go out and get some bread bits from the container on the patio.” She got up and the two ducks followed her like she was a duck master. Mini wiggled her tail feathers just before they went out into the courtyard.

  Kate and the Colonel came back a few minutes later with Clarence following. They settled into their chairs while the big dog returned to his lair under the table.

  Everyone looked at Margaret waiting for her to begin.

  24

  She looked at the anxious faces around the table and cleared her throat.

  “As I’m sure Danny has told you, I’m proud to say I’m one of the most successful realtors in the Beverly Hills area. As such, it was easy for me to call some of my most knowledgeable contacts and ask innocent questions about the Shadys. The fact that I lost out on their listing when they sold the house on Canon didn’t hurt. It made me look like I still harbored a little bit of unresolved remorse. Particularly when I had lunch with Landon Hunt, the realtor who beat me out. He was only too happy to rub my nose in the lost listing and share details about them, particularly about Barbara. Landon and I have been friendly rivals for years, and I know how much he loves to gossip.”

  The room was absolutely still as the others fixed on every word, waiting for the payoff. Occasionally, the silence was broken by one of Clarence’s snores, but other than that there wasn’t another sound. To her credit, Margaret played it for all it was worth. Among her other talents, it became clear that the woman had a knack for drama.

  She inhaled deeply. “Danny tells me that all of you suspect she was a stereotypical Black Widow, so you know that one of her talents was getting wealthy old men to marry her and probably speeding their journey to the happy hunting ground earlier than anticipated. Of course, before that happened, she got them to leave her very generous amounts in their wills. She even bragged about that to my friend Sarah, when Sarah dared to ask her why a beautiful woman like her only seemed to marry old men.”

  The Colonel said, “That’s all well and good, Maggie, but it’s also something we already know. I’m waiting for the earth-shattering revelations Danny referred to. Something so imp
ortant it even caused you to be late tonight.”

  Margaret said in a soothing voice, “Patience, my dear man. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed. This is my way. I start slow and build to a dramatic finish.” She took a sip of water and a last bite of sesame chicken.

  “The good stuff is about to come.”

  Kate interrupted. “I don’t want to steal your thunder but will speed it up a little. Thanks to one of my researchers and Danny’s FBI contacts, we already know about her originally being Barbara Overbeck from Poway. We also know that at one point she was known under the married name Briana Hanley and still has a bank account and safe deposit box maintained in San Francisco under that alias. The woman got around.”

  “Good, good. That saves me a little time. Here’s something that you apparently might not know. Joseph Hanley was her fifth husband. As far as I can tell, she used a different first name each time, but always with the initial B. When he met her, the eighty-two-year-old Hanley was a grieving widower, his longtime wife having passed only a few months before after a courageous fight with brain cancer. Barbara told Sarah, who had become a close friend, that she arranged to meet him after reading a half page article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the memorial service for his wife who was a great philanthropist.”

  Kate had often come across the use of aliases in the fraud cases she investigated. She had to ask the question. “Maggie, I’m surprised she told your friend all of this. I mean, there was a reason she was using aliases. Why reveal what she was doing?”

  “Well, she never told Sarah who he was. Never really mentioned his name which Sarah thought was strange, but figured Barbara was entitled to her privacy. However, I did want to know who it was because it could have direct effect on the reason we are all sitting here tonight. I discovered it was Hanley. He was the founder and CEO of Hanley Innovative Technologies, a billion-dollar company. That wasn’t that hard to figure out for an inquisitive mind and ardent researcher like me. From there, with her experience, it was easy to conclude she immediately knew he was ripe for the picking. Incidentally, she had buried husband number four, a seventy-eight-year-old Chicago art collector, only six months before meeting her new target.”

  “So,” Kate said, “let me guess from there. Either she showed up at the memorial service and managed to get close to him, or she figured out a way to meet him before a gold digger swooped him up.”

  “Right on the second count. She wasn’t amateurish enough to do the chance encounter. Instead, Sarah said, she used the ploy of her own comfortable net worth from husbands one through three to arrange for a mutual friend to introduce them. Apparently, she shared all of this with Sarah after the two of them had what my friend likes to call a 3-D lunch. In other words, three Tequila Sunrises will certainly loosen tight lips. I doubt she would have revealed so much otherwise.”

  The Colonel had perked up. His voice held an element of excitement when he said, “Well, this certainly is beginning to clear up my question of what a woman like her was doing married to an arrogant sourpuss like Al. Sorry, I guess it’s not cricket to speak ill of the dead.” He had a moment’s hesitation before saying, “But, the guy was a real bastard. From what you’re saying, it looks like she wasn’t much better.”

  “Not only wasn’t she much better, but extremely clever. Unlike some of the others who might have had their sights set on this ‘catch of the day,’ she didn’t have to be manipulative because she had a rather substantial net worth of her own. She decided to start out by asking him for investment advice relative to his own company’s stock. Her plan was to say she had about a hundred thousand to invest and their mutual friend had suggested introducing her to Hanley. A little white lie, but she was relatively sure he wouldn’t check her story out. Truth be told, she had specifically asked for the introduction because it was the lynch pin of her plan.”

  Matt contributed his thoughts. “One of the oldest tricks in the book. A financially independent beautiful woman snags a wealthy old dude with extremely big bucks by making it look like it’s him or his advice—not his money that she’s interested in. Man, I’ve played the part of the son who tried to buy off one of those clever money-grabbing types, and also, the one time I consented to play a villain, I was the lover scheming with my girlfriend to get the guy to marry her, change his will and then we were supposed to knock him off.” He paused for a moment.

  “I know that one, Matt,” Garrett commented. “I believe you’re referring to the movie One Fatal Flaw.” He appeared to be visualizing it, then said, “Yeah, that’s it. That one was a breakthrough part for you—before you were the consummate action adventure star you are today if I’m not mistaken. As I recall, it was a perfect plan and they almost got away with it except for one small detail they overlooked. I do confess, though, I don’t remember what the detail was. I was still with the Bureau when that came out and upset at myself for not picking up on it. Right till the end, I thought the two of you got away with it and lots of his money.”

  Matt gave Garrett a nod. “That’s the one.” He added in a joking tone, “Maybe if you’re good, I’ll share what the flaw was. But, right now I’m more interested in the rest of what Maggie, here, has to offer.”

  He made a hands-out gesture, effectively turning the floor over to their guest.

  “Oh, Barbara had a lot up her sleeve, alright. Landon filled me in on this part. So, picture this—she’s married to Hanley for just under a year. By the way, he was in extremely good health for a fellow his age. He played racquet ball three times a week, was an avid skier and surprisingly enough, didn’t take any medications. In other words, he was in top form and probably would have lasted several years with either no health problems or minor ones. She told Landon about this one night over drinks. I should mention here that Barbara also had no qualms about cheating on Al and had an affair with Landon who is a very good looking, charming guy.”

  Cameron said, “I’m not surprised. I always said there was something about her. But, if this Hanley was in good shape that must not have fit into her plans of him kicking the bucket and leaving her even wealthier, did it?”

  “Exactly. I did a little more research myself once I had those facts and found a few more tidbits I think you will find extremely interesting. Amazing what you can find online these days with computer skills and perseverance. Just before their one-year anniversary, Hanley suffered a massive, fatal heart attack. Of course, as soon as they were married, she had convinced him to leave her well cared for should he die. He must have been cautious because according to one piece of information I found he did that to the tune of two million dollars, but no more than that if he died before they were married five years.” Margaret snickered. “Apparently five years was way too long for her to wait for her inheritance to be sweeter, so two million was quite enough to do the deed. But, as in your movie, Matt, there was a fatal flaw.”

  25

  Her next words were a pretty good indication of their Black Widow theory.

  “And, that was?” Matt asked.

  She lowered her voice. “And that, my friends, was his grandson. A man who adored his grandfather and apparently had seen clear through her. He insisted that his grandfather was in unbelievable health and had just had a checkup three weeks before his death, but the cops didn’t want to listen.

  She took a sip of water, then continued. “Meanwhile the grieving widow collected her inheritance and disappeared. As we all know, she moved to Los Angeles using yet another alias. After months of trying to get the police to investigate, he ordered a private autopsy. The medical examiner had determined that it was a natural death and would not waver, nor would he order an autopsy. So, according to the accounts I found written by an investigative reporter, because the grandson was convinced something was off, he paid for the autopsy and the body was exhumed. He was right. The private pathologist was very thorough. Traces of morphine were identified in the skeletal muscle which he ruled to be the cause of death. He also discovered small pun
cture marks, confirming that the morphine had been injected. Enough of a dose to kill the old man.”

  Margaret removed a file from the leather tote bag at her feet and placed it on the table. She tapped the file with her index finger and said, “All of the articles I found by the investigative reporter are here. The prime suspect was none other than Briana Hanley, or Barbara as you knew her. Although the cops searched, she was not found. Also, because to all intents and purposes she vanished, my feeling is that she doesn’t really know the cops were looking for Briana Hanley. Back then she was a blonde. One more thought, Cami. Danny said you mentioned she must have had a lot of plastic surgery. Perhaps it was not just to look younger, but to significantly change her look each time.”

  Garrett looked at his friend with admiration clearly evident. “Maggie, you outdid yourself. This certainly was worth waiting for. I’m guessing some of the things in that file folder were what held you up tonight.”

  “And you guessed right. The last piece of information should really be of interest to you. I’d found little indications but couldn’t confirm them until a contact of mine in San Diego dug deeper than I could. She may have claimed to be a CPA, and perhaps she really was, but as a young woman Barbara Overbeck graduated from the School of Nursing at San Diego State University. She moved to Cleveland, Ohio where, as Barbara Overbeck, she pursued a career as a registered nurse. It didn’t take too long for her to marry her first husband—a fifty-three-year-old doctor she met at the hospital where she worked. She became a nurse practitioner while married to him, so she knew plenty about medicine and how you could kill someone and make it look natural. It appears he was her first victim, and her first significant inheritance. Shortly after his death, as in the Hanley case, she disappeared never to be found.”