Fatal Fraud: A Fatal Series Novel

by Marie Force

  Freddie nodded and left the kitchen.

  “Are you guys going to ruin my life in the process of figuring out who killed my wife? I watch TV. I know you always think the spouse did it.”

  “Not always, and we’ll only have to ruin your life if you lie to us.”

  “Everything I’ve told you is the truth.”

  “Then we shouldn’t have a problem.”

  Chapter Three

  After sending Mr. McLeod off to his brother’s house with Patrol, Sam stayed with the body and waited for the medical examiner while Jeannie and Freddie conducted a canvass of the neighborhood. On a search of the grounds, Jeannie hadn’t found anything that might be the murder weapon, but Crime Scene would do a more thorough search of the house, yard and surrounding area.

  Dr. Lindsey McNamara, the District’s chief medical examiner, arrived with her team a short time later. With her long red hair up in a ponytail, Lindsey looked much younger than her thirty-seven years. “Sorry, I was out at the farm with Terry when I got the call.” The family of her fiancé, Terry O’Connor, lived in Leesburg, Virginia. “I got here as fast as I could.”

  “No worries. We were on the way back from Baltimore when we got the call.”

  “How is he?”

  “He seems really good.”

  They walked into the garage together.

  “Did he say when he might get released?”

  “In the next week or so and then back to work part-time at first.”

  “I’m glad for him and all of you that he’ll be back soon.”

  “We are too.” Since Lindsey was alone, Sam filled her in on Gonzo’s plan to plead to misdemeanor drug charges. “If you ask me, it’s total bullshit.”

  “I agree with you.” After putting on gloves, Lindsey squatted for a closer look at the bloody wound to Ginny’s neck. Lindsey moved the woman’s hair. “Looks like death by sharp object, but not tidy enough to be a knife. I’ll know more when I get her cleaned up.”

  “I’m going to need a time of death as soon as possible. We’ve got motive up the wazoo here. Apparently, she was running a scam that bilked people out of millions.”

  “I read about that in the Star this morning! Terry and I were talking about it. How do you scam your own family and friends?”

  “We were saying the same thing on the way to Baltimore. I guess we need to inform the prosecutor on the fraud case that his case just became mine.” She’d get someone on her team to take care of that detail.

  “Probably so.” Lindsey took some photos and then signaled to one of her assistants to bring in the gurney for transport to the morgue. “I’ll get on this right away and have a report to you by morning.”

  “Thanks, Doc.”

  Sam caught up with Freddie and Jeannie in the street. “Anything?”

  “Of course no one has seen a thing,” Freddie said, “but they’d all heard about Ginny being charged with fraud.”

  “Hmm, well, I guess that’d be big news around here.”

  “We’ve still got one house.” He pointed to the last house in the cul-de-sac.

  “Let’s do it,” Sam said.

  They knocked on the first door, and an older man with thick white hair and glasses answered, seemingly taken aback to see three cops on his doorstep. “What can I do for you?”

  “We’re investigating the murder of Virginia McLeod,” Sam said.

  “She was murdered? Well, I suppose that’s not surprising in light of what she did.”

  “Did you invest with her?” Sam asked.

  “I did not. She came after all of us, though.” He waved his hand to encompass the neighborhood. “I don’t know of anyone who actually went in with her around here. If they did, they didn’t tell anyone.”

  “Why weren’t you interested?”

  “Her proposal didn’t pass my smell test.”

  “How so?”

  “Long on big ideas, short on details.”

  “Did you know of anyone who might’ve been angry enough to kill her?”

  “Based on what I read in today’s paper, that’s a very long list.”

  And Sam could hardly wait to talk to all of them. Ugh. “Did you see anyone around the McLeods’ home today?”

  “I just got home after being out for most of the day. So no, I didn’t.”

  “Do you have one of those doorbell-cam thingies?” His front door was the only one that had an unobstructed view of the McLeods’ house.

  “No, I don’t.”

  Because that would’ve been too easy. Sam handed him her business card. “If you think of anything relevant, give me a call.”

  He glanced at the information on the card. “You’re the VP’s wife, right?”

  Sam hated when people stated the obvious. “I am.”

  “I hope he doesn’t run for president.”

  She didn’t want to ask. She honestly didn’t. “Why’s that?”

  “I don’t think he’s got the experience required to be president.”

  “I’ll pass that on to him.”

  The man gave her a curious look. “Is he going to run?”

  “I’ll ask him and get back to you on that.” To her team, she said, “Let’s go.”

  “It’s no wonder you hate people,” Jeannie said when they were across the street, far enough away that the man wouldn’t be able to hear them if he was still in the doorway.

  “Eh, whatever. Does he honestly think I care? That Nick would care?”

  Freddie shrugged. “Who knows? People are weird.”

  “I tell you that every day.” Sam noted that Lindsey’s team had left with Ginny McLeod’s body and Crime Scene was on the job. They’d pore over every inch of the place looking for evidence. Sam took a minute to confer with CSU Lieutenant Haggerty. “We’re looking for a murder weapon, something sharp and lethal, but probably not a knife.”

  “On it.”

  “I’ll check with you in the morning, or call me if anything pops.”

  Always a man of few words, Haggerty nodded and headed inside.

  “What’s the plan, LT?” Freddie asked.

  “Let’s go home and pick it up in the morning. I’ll dig into the coverage of the case against her and figure out who we need to talk to. I’ll drop you guys.” After she’d delivered them to their homes, she headed for hers, thinking through the new case in the context of what she’d learned about her victim in the last hour. A deep dive into the coverage of Ginny’s fraud case would help to frame Sam’s next moves.

  At a stoplight, she opened her new cherry-red flip phone and put through a quick call to Malone to update him. “Will you have someone notify the prosecutor on her fraud case as a courtesy?”

  “I’ll take care of that,” Malone said.

  She could check that item off her list. “Great, thanks. See you in the morning.” Next, she called Nick.

  “Is this my lovely wife?”

  “No, it’s the sidepiece.”

  “Remember—my wife can never know. She’s vicious and possibly a bit feral.”

  “I hear she’s got one hell of a steak knife too.”

  “Indeed. How’s it going?”

  “I’m on my way home. I called so you could get your sidepiece out before I get there, but somehow, it all went wrong.”

  His rich, lusty laugh was among her favorite things. “Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll send her packing before you get home.”

  “Good plan. So my vic is the woman who swindled her friends.”

  “Seriously? Where do you even start with that?”

  “With the swindled friends, I suppose. By the way, one of her neighbors thinks you shouldn’t run for president because, and I quote, you don’t have the required experience.”

  “Well then, that’s it. I’m out.”

  Sam laughed. “I thought you’d like that.”

  “What I would’ve liked was to see your face when he said it.”

  “He almost got himself a throat punch, but I’m on my best behavior th
ese days.” After nearly being indicted for assaulting Ramsey, who’d totally deserved it, Sam thought first and punched second these days.

  “What’s your ETA?”

  “About ten minutes. Is there food?”

  “There is. I grilled burgers and saved one for you.”

  “Look at you.”

  “I’m capable of feeding myself and our children, even if I don’t have the experience to be president.”

  “Almost to the checkpoint. See you in a few.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  Sam ended the call, smiling as she always did after talking to him. He was so fun and funny and sexy and the full package, as far as she was concerned. “And he has a full package,” she said, laughing at her own joke. Maybe it was weird to be cracking herself up or flirting with her husband after leaving a murder scene, but that was how she stayed sane while working an insane job.

  After being waved through the checkpoint, she parked in her Secret Service-assigned spot on Ninth Street, locked her car and headed up the ramp to home, thankful she’d made it in time to see the twins before bedtime.

  Henry opened the door for her. “Evening, Mrs. Cappuano.”

  “Evening, Henry.”

  She walked into the usual after-dinner chaos of the twins wrestling with Scotty and Nick standing watch over them to make sure no one got hurt.

  Scotty had both of the Littles captured in his arms as they tried to get away, screaming their heads off as they laughed as hard as they screamed. “Do you surrender?”

  “Never!” Aubrey said.

  “That’s my girl,” Sam said. “Never give in.”

  Scotty tightened his hold on the squirming twins and shot a grin in Sam’s direction. “Is there any concern for the older brother?”

  “None,” Sam said.

  “Ha! Good to know.”

  “Two more minutes, little people, and then it’s bedtime.”

  “If we go now, I’ll read you an extra story,” Scotty said.

  “Let’s go,” Alden said.

  Scotty released them, and they started to get up before diving back on top of him and taking him completely by surprise.

  “We win!” Alden declared.

  “Oof,” Scotty said. “I’ll give you that one, but no fair ganging up on me. You better start running, because I’m coming for you.”

  They went screaming up the stairs with Scotty in hot pursuit.

  “Another night in paradise,” Sam said to Nick, who put his arm around her and led her into the kitchen so she could eat.

  “That’s the best word I can think of to describe it,” he said. “Absolute paradise.”

  “Nothing makes me happier than to walk in that door and see you watching over our three kids and obviously enjoying every second of it.”

  “I do enjoy every second of it.” He poured her a glass of wine and sat with her while she ate a burger and fries while picking at a side salad.

  As always, the burger and fries were far more interesting to her than the salad would ever be. “This is good. Thanks for cooking.”

  “No problem. It’s funny you mentioned what that guy said about me running for president, because I’ve kind of made a decision about that over the last few weeks.”

  Sam glanced at him, noting his unusually serious demeanor. Usually, he was at his most relaxed when it was just the two of them. “Am I going to like this?”

  “I think so. I’m not going to run.”

  While she wanted to stand up and cheer, she forced herself to consider him first. “Are you sure that’s what you want?”

  “I’m sure that I want to be here—all the time—and I can’t do that if I’m on the road campaigning for months on end.”

  “Is it okay to say phew?”

  “Yeah,” he said, laughing. “It’s okay.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “There’s not much to say other than it came down to you and the kids and how I don’t want to be away from you guys for more than a year to campaign for a job I don’t really want. You know how much I always wished for a family of my own. Now I have it, and the last thing in the world I want is to miss anything.”

  Sam reached over to put her hand on top of his. “I think you’re doing the right thing and not just because I’m a selfish cow who doesn’t want you anywhere but right here with me and the kids. It’s also because of the scrutiny and the nastiness and the vitriol and the haters. The thought of even more of that aimed at you and us makes me queasy to think about, let alone live with.”

  “That’s part of it too. If my insomnia is as bad as it is now, I can’t fathom what it would be like with that job.”

  “It’d be unbearable. Have you talked to Graham yet?” Retired Senator Graham O’Connor had been a father figure and mentor to Nick since he befriended Graham’s late son John as a freshman at Harvard. Graham and John had played critical roles in Nick’s career, and no one wanted Nick to be president more than Graham did.

  “Not yet. He’s going to be bummed. I hate to disappoint him or anyone, but this feels like the best decision for our family right now. I was already leaning toward not running when the Littles came into our lives. Now I know for sure it’s the right thing to be here for them.”

  “It might upset people, but I have to say I’m thrilled. No one wants to see you succeed more than I do, but there’re so many other things you can do besides that. Remember how you said you wanted to go to law school?”

  “Because that’d be no big deal with three kids underfoot.”

  “You could do it. Whatever you want.”

  “I might want to teach, actually.”

  “Really? You’ve never said that.”

  “It’s something I think about.”

  “College?”

  “High school.”

  “Get out of here. Are you serious?”

  “I might be. I love the time I spend with kids when I visit schools. I think I could do some good there, get them excited about public service. That’s my thought, anyway.”

  “You’d be amazing at it.”

  “You really think so?”

  “Hell yes.”

  “We’d have to take a bit of a pay cut.”

  Sam shrugged. “We have what we need.”

  “I’d probably have to go back to school to get certified.”

  “You and Scotty can do your homework together.”

  He laughed. “I’d trade him help with algebra if he writes my papers for me.”

  “I bet he’d jump all over that offer.”

  “You really think this is a good idea?”

  “I think it’s a great idea. You know what it’s like to meet someone like Graham, who opened your eyes to all the possibilities at a critical time in your life when you could’ve gone in any direction. You could do for your students what he did for you.”

  “That’s kinda the idea.”

  “I truly love this, and I think you will too.”

  Nick’s phone chimed with a text. “From Scotty. The Littles are fading fast if we want to say good night.”

  “Let’s go.”

  They went upstairs to tuck in the twins, who were cuddled up to each other in the big bed they shared. There would come a time when they wouldn’t want to sleep together anymore. Until then, Sam and Nick supported whatever gave them comfort in their grief after losing their parents to murder. And they drew tremendous comfort from each other.

  She kissed them both, and then Nick did the same. “Have sweet dreams,” she whispered on the way out of the room. In the hallway, she said to Nick, “Could I borrow your laptop? I need to do some reading about what my vic was charged with.”

  “Sure. I’ll run downstairs and grab it for you.”

  While he did that, she knocked on Scotty’s door.

  “Come in.”

  He had homework spread out on his bed. “You saved it all for the last minute again, huh?”

  “Why should I ruin the rest of the weekend?
”

  “True.” She sat on the edge of his mattress. “I did the same thing when I was in school. Always the last minute for everything. It drove everyone crazy.”

  “And look at you now. Two degrees and a gold shield.”

  “That’s right, but with hindsight, I can see I made things harder on myself than they would’ve been if I’d chipped away a little at a time rather than trying to write an entire paper the night before it’s due.”

  “I can sorta see that, but I can’t bring myself to actually do it.”

  “You should try it for the next big thing. Do thirty minutes a day for two weeks before it’s due, and see what you think.”

  “I’ll take that under advisement.”

  “That’s my line, and you’re not allowed to use it.”

  “The last time you used that line, we were talking about the dog this family needs. What’s the status of that?”

  “Still under advisement.”

  “How long does advisement take, anyway?”

  “Depends on the issue. Taking on another living, breathing thing that would be dependent on us to feed and care for it requires some time.”

  “You took on five-year-old twins without even five minutes of so-called advisement.”

  A snort from behind her let her know Nick was listening.

  “Am I right?” Scotty asked him.

  “When you’re right, you’re right.”

  “Whose idea was it to send him to school so he could outsmart us?” Sam asked Nick over her shoulder.

  “It was most definitely not my idea,” Scotty said. “I want to be homeschooled. That sounds like fun.”

  “Not happening,” Sam said.

  “But the dog is, right? See what I did there? The dog looks pretty good compared to homeschooling. And P.S., I call Dad for my homeschooler.”

  “That’s a good call, and nice try with the outsmarting of your parents.”

  “Back to the dog…”

  “We’re thinking about it.” Sam leaned in to kiss his forehead. “I swear we are.”

  “Think faster. I’m not getting any younger over here.”

  Sam tried not to laugh, but failed miserably. “You’re too much, Scott Cappuano.”

  “You know I’m only joking, right?” He looked up at her with a vulnerable expression that tugged at her heart. Even after all the time they’d been together, did he still worry about doing or saying the wrong thing with them?