Animal Instinct

by Rosenfelt, David

  As if to prove my point, Simon suddenly sits up, alert. I look out the window and see them pull up, just behind my car. There are two of them; they get out and look around quickly. Determining that nothing is out of the ordinary, they walk to the house.

  They don’t bother to knock; the door is open. The two of them come in … Don Crystal and the man who pretended to be Steven Landry, son of Doris. Steven, or whatever his real name is, is the one holding the gun.

  “Well, well … I didn’t expect you to be here yet,” Crystal says to me. “I thought we’d have to kill him and then wait for you.”

  I frown. “I’ve got to tell you, you look better in pajamas. Although, the truth is, you look like an asshole either way. In any event, where you’re going, they’ll tell you how to dress. And you can trade cigarettes for Tang.” I then turn to his partner. “Steven, so sorry to hear about your mom.”

  I’m pretending to be calmer than I am; I wish the bulletproof vest that I’m wearing could cover my entire body and head, but they don’t make them like that.

  Simon is less interested in acting amiable. He starts to growl.

  “Shut that dog up,” the fake Steven Landry says.

  “Simon. Easy,” I say to calm him down. I don’t want Landry taking a shot at Simon.

  “Hello, Jason,” Crystal says, turning to Musgrove with a smile on his face. “Sorry it had to end this way.”

  “It doesn’t,” Musgrove says, his voice shaking.

  “Oh, but it does. You know far too much.”

  “My lawyer and partners also know everything,” I say. “The jig, to coin a phrase, is up.”

  Crystal smiles. “Doesn’t matter what they know. We will have ceased to exist.”

  “Amazing,” I say. “You create people on a computer, give them full lives, then kill them off and collect the insurance. What a world. And I can barely send an email.”

  Crystal smiles. “You are indeed in the presence of genius.”

  “On the other hand, you were too stupid to realize that I used Stephanie Downes to call you and send you here. And you’re too stupid to realize that right now there are at least three sets of guns pointed at you.”

  “Freeze! Drop the weapon!” I think it’s Pete Stanton’s voice coming from the doorway, but it could be that of Robbie Lillard, standing at the open window.

  But Landry does not drop the gun; he raises it to fire. This time I’m certain that it’s Pete who centers two bullets on his chest; I watch him do it.

  I look at the obviously deceased Landry and shake my head. “I’m just glad his poor mom isn’t here to see this.”

  I watch as Lillard and two officers come in and place Crystal and Musgrove under arrest. I’ve been calm this entire time, but suddenly my heart starts to pound when I realize that I’m about to find out whether I’m going to prison.

  I call Andy on his cell, and he answers with two words.

  “Not guilty.”

  It takes me a little while to reduce the lump in my throat enough to thank him, then I walk over and hug Simon. “Looks like you’re stuck with me for a while, buddy.”

  IT’S been just two days, and already the FBI has completely taken over the investigation.

  That is no surprise; the conspiracy has not only crossed state lines, but it probably operated in every state in the country. One of the first things the Feds did was ask to interview me, and I spoke to them for four and a half hours yesterday.

  They expected it to be a one-way informational street, but I quickly set different ground rules. In return for providing them with the information I had, and which they desperately needed, I demanded and extracted information from them.

  The local mop-up went quickly. Laurie detained Stephanie Downes until the police arrived to place her under arrest. Marcus was at Don Crystal’s house, and when he and Landry left, Marcus moved in to detain the two other members of Crystal’s cyber team, who were working inside.

  Marcus’s method of detaining people is slightly different from Laurie’s, but both men had regained consciousness by the time the police arrived. Inside the house was a cyber war room from where the entire conspiracy was implemented and directed.

  Downes and the two men, in addition to Don Crystal and Jason Musgrove, have all been indicted for multiple counts of murder and a whole bunch of fraud charges. Federal charges will follow, and I imagine they will supersede most of the local indictments. But the system will handle it, and one way or the other, Crystal and the others are going away for a long time.

  According to what I was able to get from the Feds, coupled with what I already knew, the conspiracy was remarkable in its scope and planning. Yet it was also simple in its concept: they created virtual people and then killed them off to collect the insurance. They also created virtual beneficiaries, who were them under different aliases.

  Their reach was amazing. Simply by infiltrating and manipulating the cyber world, they gave these fictional people full lives. Some of them were even receiving and cashing Social Security checks. In every respect, they were alive in the cyber world, and the line between that cyber world and the real world has blurred to the point where it doesn’t really exist.

  Other people like Lisa Yates and Jana Mitchell, working at other companies that are in the same business as Ardmore, were also part of the conspiracy. They were at least partially duped, and while they knew what they were doing was wrong, they didn’t realize the scope of what was going on. And they certainly never signed on for murder.

  It’s been a wild forty-eight hours for me. In addition to answering questions from the FBI and local police, I had to go to court with Andy and do a mea culpa to Judge Wallace. I think down deep he understood my position, but he seemed to think it was his judgely duty to reprimand me and threaten me with contempt of court, before pulling back.

  I’ve also done a lot of media, making the rounds of local stations and cable news outlets. The press has done a lot of digging, and there are estimates that the conspiracy was aiming to bilk a vast array of insurance companies out of between $150 million and $200 million.

  Part of the reason that it has become such a big story and will get bigger as more information comes out is that Crystal and his people are showing, to the horror of a nation, that people don’t actually have to exist to exist.

  Starting tomorrow, Dani, Simon, and I are going to go into relaxation mode. Tonight is the traditional party Andy throws after winning a case. It’s at Charlie’s, a sports bar that Andy frequents regularly. He says he used to frequent it nightly before he got married.

  Andy’s whole team is here, and I give a brief toast, thanking them all for their effort, and for my freedom. The entire K Team is here as well, meaning Marcus, Laurie, and Simon. And Dani is here and smiling a lot; she has been through a hell of a lot, just putting up with me.

  We have the private upstairs room at Charlie’s, and they have agreed to let Simon and Tara attend. Laurie says that Sebastian has chosen to sleep this one out.

  We haven’t had a chance to talk much, so Laurie and I each grab a beer and sit at a corner table to compare notes. “Leaving the scene when Marcus killed Gardener is still bothering me,” she says.

  I nod. “I know. But the world is better off with him not in it, and you are better off not having your throat slashed. Marcus did the only thing he could; and you both did the right thing by leaving.”

  I know she doesn’t fully believe that, but maybe she will over time. Andy comes over, his own beer in hand, to join us at the table.

  “You’re looking pretty serious considering we’re at a party,” he says.

  Laurie nods. “We’ll get over it.”

  “You guys saved my life,” I say. “I can’t thank—”

  Andy cuts me off. “I believe we’ve beaten this subject to death.”

  Laurie smiles. “Andy doesn’t do well with thank-yous. So on behalf of both of us, you’re welcome, Corey. It truly turned out to be our pleasure. Now, I’ve got some questi
ons for both of you. To start, why did they kill Lisa Yates?”

  Andy says, “She must have found out what was going on. She was complicit to a point; Kline recruited her and got her to input information outside the normal procedures. But once she understood the real nature of it, Kline probably threatened her and told her what they were capable of. So she got scared; maybe she was going to go to the authorities; I don’t know. But she never got the chance.”

  “How did you figure it out?” Laurie asks me.

  “It was obvious that we were being manipulated; sent in different directions that led to nowhere. And it was all online; they were actually watching Sam trying to watch them. But a key was realizing that the email from Lisa to Doris Landry was faked. There was no Rico; in fact, there was no Doris Landry. Once we found that out, it was just more evidence of their reach and ability to send us into cyber oblivion.” I take a sip of my beer before continuing.

  “But Steven Landry and his nonexistent mother was the clincher. When she had no emails in her account, and when Sam couldn’t connect her to anyone at Somers Point, it was clear she was fabricated. Yet Steven collected on her insurance policy. If they could do it with her, why not on a broad scale?”

  “Add to all that the obituary coming out the day before the date on the death certificate. It was a mistake that they made, probably the only one,” Andy says.

  “And Richard Mahler? Where did he fit in?” Laurie asks.

  “Mahler was a patsy; he was set up to take the fall from the beginning, whether we were in the picture or not. Once we became a factor, they led us to the Rico email to shine a light on him. Then Stephanie Downes clinched it with that high school nickname bullshit.”

  “I believed her and I thought you did also,” Laurie says.

  “I did, but then I started to think it seemed too convenient. And there was one other thing about her that bugged me. She talked like she and Kline couldn’t stand each other and had completely separate client lists. But their assistant told me that they never scheduled seminars at the same time, that they would alternate. It didn’t seem to fit.”

  “So what pointed you toward Crystal?”

  “I just realized that this operation had to have begun long before Mahler was hired to replace Crystal. They couldn’t take out life insurance policies and then cash them out a few months later; it would be too suspicious. I also didn’t buy that he would spend a year in his goddamn pajamas without looking for work.

  “One other thing: The first time I met Crystal, he joked about my asking my former buddies in the department to give him a job. But I had never told him that I was an ex-cop. I realized that later.”

  “And he and his pals were going to ride off into the sunset,” Andy says. “They would have had new identities, full new lives created in cyberspace. There would be no connection to their former selves. If the scam was ever discovered, Musgrove would go down for it. He wouldn’t even be able to turn on them because he would have no idea what their new identities were.”

  “Brilliant,” Laurie says. “And scary. Nothing is as it seems; no way to tell what is real.”

  Dani comes over and hears Laurie’s comment. “Friends are real. Look around.”

  Laurie holds up her beer. “I’ll drink to that.”

  Dani turns to me. “So now that you have no GPS bracelet and can go anywhere, what do you want to do tomorrow?”

  “How about a barefoot walk in the dirt?”

  She shakes her head. “No, I’m too scared of the riptide. How about hanging out at home, just you, me, and Simon?”

  Andy says, “Corey, I think she might be a keeper.”

  “I actually figured that out a while ago.”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I haven’t done an acknowledgment page for a long time. Basically that is because I live in the world of the famous, and when I mention my celebrated friends, uninformed, bitter people accuse me of being a name-dropper. Well, I’m here to tell you that I am not a name-dropper, and LeBron and Barack would be the first to tell you that.

  In any event, that all ends now. I have received tremendous emotional support from many people as I have climbed to the peak of the literary world, and they deserve mention, whether the jealous among us like it or not. So a sincere thank-you to:

  Beyoncé; Willie Mays; Willy Loman; Grace and Machine Gun Kelly; Tom Brady; Jan Brady; Marcia Marcia Marcia Brady; the Lee siblings, Bruce, Peggy and Robert E.; Leo DiCaprio; Leo Durocher; Kelley Ragland; Arthur and Sienna Miller; Richard Kimble; Cosmo Kramer; Cosmo Politan; Ben, Paul, and Colonel Hogan; Scott Ryder; Bruno Tattaglia; Vin Scully; My Cousin Vinny; Robin Rue; Bette, Sammy, and Jefferson Davis; Bradley Cooper; Bill Bradley; Bill Parcells; Elizabeth and Opie Taylor; Madeline Houpt; Jeff Bezos; Jeff Daniels; Stormy Daniels; Beth Miller; D. H. and Jennifer Lawrence; Marie Barone; Latka Gravas; Doug Burns; Ken Burns; Third Degree Burns; Rosalynn and Hurricane Carter; Hillary Strackbein; Alex Trebek; Sylvia Schnauser; Joan Crawford; Rita, Mookie, and Woodrow Wilson; Frank Pentangeli; Debbie Myers; Atticus Finch; Jim and Open Carrey; Eli Manning; and Tom and Tape Delay.

  ALSO BY DAVID ROSENFELT

  ANDY CARPENTER NOVELS

  Silent Bite

  Muzzled

  Dachshund Through the Snow

  Bark of Night

  Deck the Hounds

  Rescued

  Collared

  The Twelve Dogs of Christmas

  Outfoxed

  Who Let the Dog Out?

  Hounded

  Unleashed

  Leader of the Pack

  One Dog Night

  Dog Tags

  New Tricks

  Play Dead

  Dead Center

  Sudden Death

  Bury the Lead

  First Degree

  Open and Shut

  K TEAM NOVELS

  The K Team

  THRILLERS

  Black and Blue

  Fade to Black

  Blackout

  Without Warning

  Airtight

  Heart of a Killer

  On Borrowed Time

  Down to the Wire

  Don’t Tell a Soul

  NONFICTION

  Lessons from Tara: Life Advice from the World’s Most Brilliant Dog

  Dogtripping: 25 Rescues, 11 Volunteers, and 3 RVs on Our Canine Cross-Country Adventure

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  David Rosenfelt is the Edgar Award–nominated and Shamus Award–winning author of twenty-two Andy Carpenter novels, most recently Silent Bite; nine stand-alone thrillers; two non-fiction titles; and The K Team, the first in a new series featuring some of the characters from the Andy Carpenter series. After years of living in California, he and his wife moved to Maine with twenty-five of the four thousand dogs they have rescued. You can sign up for email updates here.

  Thank you for buying this

  St. Martin’s Press ebook.

  To receive special offers, bonus content,

  and info on new releases and other great reads,

  sign up for our newsletters.

  Or visit us online at

  us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup

  For email updates on the author, click here.

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Begin Reading

  Acknowledgments

  Also by David Rosenfelt

  About the Author

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  First published in the United States by Minotaur Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

  ANIMAL INSTINCT. Copyright © 2021 by Tara Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.

  www.minotaurbooks.com

  Cover design by Rowen D
avis and David Baldeosingh Rotstein

  Cover photographs: German shepherd © James Thomas/Alamy; bulldog © Eric Isselee/Shutterstock.com; man © Dean Drobot/Shutterstock.com; chair © Who is Danny/Shutterstock.com; lamp © Pormezz/Shutterstock.com; handcuffs © bestv/Shutterstock.com

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Names: Rosenfelt, David, author.

  Title: Animal instinct / David Rosenfelt.

  Description: First edition. | New York: Minotaur Books, 2021. | Series: K team novels; 2

  Identifiers: LCCN 2020048550 | ISBN 9781250257208 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250257215 (ebook)

  Subjects: GSAFD: Mystery fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3618.O838 A83 2021 | DDC 813/.6—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020048550

  eISBN 9781250257215

  Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.

  First Edition: 2021