by Misty Malone
He continued spanking her as he talked. “If a spanking is what you need to settle down, if that's what will help you, that's what I'll do.”
“Ow! Bryce, no, please. It hurts. I'm so confused right now.”
“I understand that, Sunshine. But treating the people who care about you the most like dirt isn't going to help that confusion at all. As a matter of fact, it will only make it worse. You're a good person, Janelle, and soon you'll be asking yourself why you're treating us like this.”
He knew she was sore by now, but although she was crying, she hadn't yet been able to release her frustrations and anger. He'd stopped too early once, he wasn't going to do it again, so he kept spanking. “You know Lena, Landon and I are friends. You know we'll all do whatever we can to help you out. We also plan on doing whatever we can to protect you. You know that taking your frustration or anger out on us is wrong, and I know you'll regret it afterward. Therefore, I will not allow you to do it.”
Those words must have been what she needed to hear, because she slumped over his knee and stopped squirming. He gave her six harsher swats on her sit spots and stopped. “Honey, I care way too much about you to allow you to do that.”
He rubbed her back gently in comforting circles while she caught her breath, then stood, taking her with him. He picked her up in his arms and carried her to a rock close by and sat down, placing her gently on his lap. He hadn't even gotten his arms around her yet before her face was buried in his chest and her hands were wrapped around his waist.
He held her tight, whispering in her ear while she calmed down. When she could talk again he asked, “Are you okay?”
She nodded and whispered, “Sunshine.”
“What?”
“You called me Janelle once. I like it when you call me Sunshine.”
He chuckled and pulled her to him again. “Sweetheart, you will always be my Sunshine.”
“Promise?”
“Promise. You'll have a hard time getting rid of me, Sunshine. I hope you never want to.”
“I can't imagine that I would,” she said in between tears.
He had to laugh. “I believe you, Sunshine. If you can say that right this minute, the way your bottom has to feel right now, I believe you. Thank you.”
He held her in his arms while they talked a few more minutes, before she sighed and looked up at him.
“What's the matter?” he asked.
“I can't believe I'm about to say this again, but thank you.”
“You're welcome, Sunshine.” After a few moments, he said, “It takes a very smart, brave, honest person to do that, you know.”
“To do what?”
“To admit that you needed that spanking, and to thank me for it.”
“I'm thanking you for helping me feel so content,” she said with a grin.
“I know,” he said with a grin of his own. “I made you feel so content with the spanking you needed. And you're very welcome for that.”
She chuckled. “Are you always this obnoxious?”
“Yep,” he said playfully. “And that's one of the reasons you love me.” Her eyes opened wide as she looked at him. He caught her eyes with his and held them. “And I love you, with all my heart, Sunshine.”
Tears started streaming down her cheeks again. “I do love you, Bryce, in spite of how obnoxious you can be at times.” He chuckled and held her face in his hands gently while he gave her a kiss that spoke of his love for her.
Over the next week her emotions were up and down, depending on what she was remembering, but now she went to Bryce, or Lena, or all three of them during a meal, and they helped her talk through her feelings.
She also spent a great deal of time in the ranch hospital. Now, though, she treated the animals instead of just petting them. She enjoyed that even more. When one was brought in they called her, if she wasn't already out there. Bryce loved watching her work. It was obvious she cared a great deal for the animals, and was very good at what she did.
During this time Sheriff Hollinger and Agent Bill Caldwell kept them updated regularly as to what was going on. Agent Caldwell had eight more pictures of people known to be on the congressman's payroll or suspected of working for him. Janelle easily picked out one of the two men who had chased her. They were looking for him, assuming the two would still be together, and they could have agents following them until they were ready to make all the arrests at once. So far, however, they hadn't found him.
They had better luck tracing the horses. They indeed found the horse owned by multiple corporations, many of which were subsidiaries of another corporation. This indeed made it hard to trace the true ownership, but with persistent digging, one of the agents was able to trace all the corporations back to the congressman. In so doing, he stumbled onto what looked to him to be an accounting mess. He couldn't find where any money from the horse's winnings was ever accounted for in his taxes. Money transferred through several corporations he had set up, but when the agent double-checked against the IRS, the money never appeared.
He turned that over to another FBI agent who specialized in tax fraud, who looked at it carefully. He then called a personal friend of his in the IRS, who did a closer, more in-depth search of the congressman's tax returns. They found several instances of money going into and out of corporation after corporation after corporation, and in so doing it appeared to get lost. It ultimately never showed on his taxes as income. They added tax evasion to the things they could charge the congressman with.
They also found a corporation the congressman had set up as a charitable fund and donated large chunks of money to. When the IRS agent looked closer at the fund, however, he found that a large portion of the money in the fund was paid out in administrative expenses for running the fund. The administrator getting the large salary was a man who had died twelve years earlier. The agent was finally able to route the money back to the congressman's campaign fund. They had enough on him now to put him in prison for years. Ironically, poisoning the horses to enable his horse to win was one of the smaller offenses he would ultimately be charged with.
They had what they needed on the congressman and they knew where he was. They had enough on several people working for him to put them in prison for several years, as well. The problem was that he seemed to keep his people hidden well. They suspected a few of his employees that were seen on a routine, sometimes daily basis in his office of knowing what was going on, but they had no solid proof of it. But the people who did his dirty work, like poisoning the horses, were nowhere to be seen. They didn't want to arrest the congressman without having the four people they had solid proof of wrongdoing.
His organization was so deep, so full of twists and turns, that things were hidden well. They found hidden alibis for several of the crimes he'd committed. If arrested, he could pull up one of these alibis and it would confuse the case so badly they may not be able to get a conviction. Agent Caldwell was afraid if they arrested him without the cronies working for him, these hidden alibis could appear, getting him off much easier, if not off. And as long as they were still out there, Janelle wasn't safe. So they kept looking.
In the meantime, another man appeared, claiming to be Jane Doe's long lost brother. He had paper evidence, his birth record, a notice in a small town newspaper announcing the anniversary of their parents, according to him, wherein it listed the couple's two kids. He had photos of his little sister when she was smaller, and pictures of the two of them together. Sheriff Hollinger knew the information was false, but was surprised when he saw it. He told the man he'd check it out and get back with him. The man was staying at the local motel.
Sheriff Hollinger called Bryce and Janelle and met with them the next morning, along with Agents Caldwell and Finnetti. He showed them the proof the man had given him.
“I'll give him credit for one thing,” Agent Caldwell said. “He was thorough, and this stuff is good.”
“It looks so real,” Bryce said. “What do we do now?”
“We have to prove it's all fake,” Agent Finnetti said.
“This might be the break we've been looking for,” Sheriff Hollinger said quietly, thinking out loud.
The others looked at him thoughtfully and the room was quiet. Finally, Agent Caldwell agreed. If we can prove these are forgeries we can arrest him. As part of his plot to get Janelle he's staying in a public place, trying to prove his innocence. If we can get evidence against him, enough to prove a crime like forgery and attempted kidnapping, we can tell him we've checked the information he's given us out and invite him down to the station. I'm sure there are men watching him, or at least keeping in touch with him. If he goes down to the station on his own, thinking he's getting Janelle, it won't set off any alarms. No one will know he's about to be arrested.
“Then we can hope he talks once he's in the station and we arrest him. If he tells us where we can find the others we're still missing, we can swoop in yet the same day and get them all, including the congressman.”
Agent Finnetti didn't look convinced. “Do you think he will talk? And what if he doesn't know these other people or where they are? If he's lower on the ladder he may not know much about the congressman's organization and the people involved. Then what do we do? If he doesn't leave your office with Janelle it will set off alarms.”
“But if we're ready for those alarms we might still be okay,” the sheriff insisted. All eyes were on him as he continued. “If he sets off alarms we'll see movement by the other players. Admittedly, we don't know who all those players are, but we do know some of them. If we have agents watching all of them that we know of when this guy goes into your office, presumably to get Janelle, if he doesn't come back out and it sets alarms off, things will happen. People will be doing things. They may be trying to cover things up, they may be leaving the area, hiding. It's hard to say what they'll do, but they'll do something. If our agents follow them they may lead us to something or someone that can be useful.”
Heads started nodding in agreement, and he continued. “And worst case scenario, if they don't lead us to someone else, we still have enough information on all of them to make a case stick. We can arrest the ones we do have and hope they tell us where the rest are. That's not a far-reaching idea, either. I think we have the big guys of the organization, like the congressman and two of his aides. They're the ones giving the orders. Who we don't have yet is the ones that actually do the dirty work. These big guys aren't going to like the idea of facing prison, and if we offer one or two of them a lighter sentence for information, I think they'll jump at the chance. All they'll be turning in is the people under them.”
“I think it's worth a try,” the sheriff said. “This has been going on far too long. We have to get Janelle's life back on track.”
“That sounds good to me,” she said. “Bryce says we're dating now, but he hasn't taken me out for dinner once yet.” They all saw the grin on her face, but they all knew there was truth in what she was getting at. She'd been hidden away long enough. It was time she and Bryce could get on with their lives.
Bryce picked up one of the pictures. “Boy, these things sure look real. And the resemblance to Janelle is amazing.” He turned to the sheriff. “How did they do that? Did they really find someone who looked enough like her that pictures when she was small would pass for her?”
“It's possible,” the sheriff said. “And they've had long enough to look for someone, too. They may have gotten a picture of her from the news, and found someone with similar features.”
“And since it was years ago, no one can say exactly what she looked like then,” Agent Finnetti added.
Bryce was still studying one of the pictures. “Whoa, wait a minute.”
Agent Caldwell picked up on the urgency in his voice. “What's wrong, Bryce, what did you find?”
“This picture has the scar on her forehead.”
Agent Caldwell looked at the picture he was holding. “You can see it in this one, too.” He held the picture up, looking from it to Janelle. He looked at the other law officers in the room. “He's right. These do show the scar. Do you suppose he had the scar added to the pictures as further proof that it was her?”
“Could have,” Agent Finnetti said. “And if he did, I think our lab will be able to prove the photos have been tampered with.”
“That's what I was thinking, too,” Agent Caldwell agreed. “Let's get these pictures to the lab right away.”
“You don't understand completely,” Bryce said. “Janelle, when did you tell me you got that scar?”
“While I was in vet school.”
Eyes went up all around the table and smiles appeared. Agent Caldwell was the first to speak. “That's great news. That means he probably had a picture of her, probably from the news, and they had someone use the computer software to generate the age picture.”
“I don't understand,” Janelle said.
“They can take pictures of missing children and enhance them to give you an idea of what he or she may look like eight years later, if they're still missing.”
“Yeah, I've seen them do that on the news when they're looking for children who have been missing for years,” Janelle agreed.
“They can do the same thing in reverse. They can take a picture of an adult and go back to what they may have looked like when they were younger.”
“So if they did that here, why is that such good news?” Bryce asked.
“That can be proven in a lab,” Agent Caldwell explained. “We need to get these photos to the FBI lab.”
Sheriff Hollinger looked worried. “How long will it take? I don't know how long I'm going to be able to put this guy off.”
“Play your hand,” Agent Finnetti suggested. “Tell him there were two men in there trying to claim her and they weren't related. You don't know what they wanted with her, but it's made you suspicious, so for her safety you feel you have to check things out. Tell him there was an accident or a robbery or something somewhere in the county that took most of your time yesterday and you haven't had a chance to look at them yet. That put you behind, so you'll be playing catch up today, but hopefully you'll get to it tomorrow or the next day, and you'll get back with him.”
The sheriff chuckled. “He won't be able to argue with that because he'll know it's true. Okay, that'll buy me a little time, but how long will it take the lab to get whatever they need?”
“We'll take these over there today yet and explain that we need them right away. This case has a top priority rating since it involves a politician, so they should have what they need by tomorrow evening. You should be able to call him tomorrow evening and tell him you can meet with him in the morning.”
“I'll tell him after those two came looking for her we moved her out of the county to keep her safe, and I'll have to go pick her up.”
“Good idea. You said those two are still asking about her in town. Maybe that'll get rid of them, too,” Agent Caldwell said.”
Their plan made, they hammered out the details before leaving. They promised to keep Bryce and Janelle informed via their burner phones.
Chapter 12
Within a couple days they had the evidence they needed from the lab to prove the pictures and other documents her alleged brother had presented had either been tampered with or were outright forgeries. They made arrangements to arrest him the following day.
All the FBI agents were in place, following the congressman and the five employees they had rounded up, so that when her 'brother' went to the sheriff's office these six people would be watched closely. When he didn't come out or report in to the others, they would suspect something went wrong. Sheriff Hollinger and the FBI agents were hoping once they suspected something was up, one of them would lead the agents to the rest of them. They were prepared to follow them for up to three days, unless it looked like one or more were getting ready to flee. If that happened they would all be arrested at once.
The brother showed up at the sheriff's office right on sched
ule, smiling, happy and anxious to be reunited with his sister who had been missing. He was shocked when instead of being taken to a room with his sister, he was taken to an interrogation room, where there was a man waiting. “What's going on? Where's my sister? He asked.
“I don't know if you have a sister or not, but it's certainly not the lady in these pictures,” Sheriff Hollinger said. “This is Agent Caldwell with the FBI. We have some questions, and I suggest you give us some answers.”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” he insisted. “What kind of questions?”
“What's your connection with Congressman Bartello?”
“With Congressman Bartello? I don't even know the man.”
“Your face says otherwise,” the sheriff said. He explained to him that the lady he's been claiming as his sister regained her memory and knows exactly who she is. She also knows about the race horses they'd been poisoning. He informed him that the FBI had taken over the case and that they will be arresting the congressman, along with close to a dozen of his employees.
“For what? I don't know what you're talking about,” the man insisted.
Agent Caldwell asked a few questions. “They'll be charged with trespassing, poisoning a race horse, tampering with the outcome of a race, money laundering, tax evasion, and numerous other charges. You're actually fortunate because you're the first one that's been arrested. So far you haven't done too much. You've shown up here with forged documents, asking about a Jane Doe. That's not too serious a charge, and it could even be dropped to include just the forgery.”
“If I talk?”
“If you talk,” Agent Caldwell confirmed. “If not, forgery may not be too bad, but tampering with evidence, interfering with an investigation, and attempted kidnapping could give you some problems.”