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“You got it,” Jack said.
They disconnected, but Wolf still had calls to make.
Special Agent Colin Ramsey was still at the office. The agents on the case were in a conference room in front of their murder board, talking through updates and adding info regarding the crash as they went.
Things were falling in place too fast to waste time sleeping. The background check on Fiona Rangely had turned up some shocking facts, and Colin was sharing them with the team.
“Here’s what just came in on the background check,” he said, and aimed a remote at the big screen on the wall. Pictures immediately appeared. “This is Fiona FayeWhitley at her college graduation. She has a master’s in engineering and runs a company called BioMed in Miami. She makes one-of-a-kind surgical instruments for doctors, and she’s buried three husbands prior to her marriage to Wolf Outen. He would have been her fourth. All of her prior husbands were anywhere from twenty-five to forty years older than her. They were all wealthy and had no living heirs. One died in his sleep. One in a car crash. And one died during a sky-diving event when his chute didn’t open. That’s way too many ‘accidental’ deaths for my comfort.”
Colin paused for effect and changed the screen to a wedding photo of her and Wolf cutting the wedding cake. “Here’s where her routine began to vary. She did not take Outen’s name when she married. She kept Rangely. And according to Wolf, she went ballistic when she found out he’d taken an Ancestry test and put his DNA in their database. None of her prior husbands had heirs, and they were all wealthy. Each time, she inherited everything. And I just found out that Wolfgang Outen learned via Ancestry that he has a daughter. He’s worried Fiona might try to take her out, so she won’t be sharing the inheritance.”
Before he could add further details, his cell phone rang. He glanced at it and frowned. “I need to take this,” he said, and walked out of the room.
“This is Colin.”
“Shit’s hit the fan,” Wolf said. “Fiona not only found out about my daughter, Amalie Lincoln, but she’s stalkingher. She showed up at an open house Amalie was holding for her new business venture, introduced herself as Mary Ingalls, and chatted briefly before wishing her well and disappearing. But they had pictures at the event, and I have seen them. It is her. I just revealed myself to my daughter via a Zoom chat, so that she’s aware of what’s happening. Now I need to come out of hiding so that Fiona knows I’m not dead. If I’m still alive, I’m hoping she’s going to switch her focus back to me. What’s that going to do to your investigation?”
Colin’s head was spinning. “We are close. So close.”
“Then I advise bringing her in for questioning. Searching her private quarters at our house and her office. She built that bomb somewhere. It was in my house at one time because she put in it my fucking suitcase when she packed my clothes,” Wolf said.
“I’m briefing the team on updates now. We’ll figure it out and get warrants tomorrow. How are you making the announcement?” Colin asked.
“I’m not. You’re making it. You announce I’m alive. You tell them the whole story about the switch between me and Stuart Bien. His people need to know what’s happened to him. I’ll appear in public later. But first thing tomorrow, I’m contacting my lawyer, changing my will, calling banks and having her name taken off of the accounts. Then I’m going to see my daughter. I just don’t need my whereabouts advertised. I’ll show up when I’m ready.”
“We can work around that,” Colin said. “You do whatyou have to do and so will we. Now I have to go back to the team and let them know what’s going on.”
“Sorry. Prudence and safety took precedence here,” Wolf said, and hung up.
Colin sighed and went back into the briefing room.
“Game plan has changed,” he said, and then began explaining what had happened.
But even as they were scrambling, other reports were coming in that kept thickening the glue they needed to make a murder charge stick, and one involved bank accounts under the name Mary Ingalls, but with Fiona as the owner of the accounts. And in those accounts, they found two specific cash withdrawals that coincided with the timing of the deposits into Ellis Townley and Vincent Romo’s bank accounts.
And another investigator found records of Fiona purchasing a burner phone with a credit card in the name Mary Ingalls only five days before the chopper crash. The agent also told the team that they had received security footage from the store where she bought the phone, and it was Fiona using that card. She already had two separate cell phones with two different numbers with her carrier, so why a third with a number that couldn’t be traced? If she still had it, she was going to have to produce it to clear herself, and if she didn’t, was it part of the crime scene debris?
By the time the team session ended that night, they had submitted requests for search warrants at the private residence, as well as Fiona’s office. They were alsobringing her in for questioning at the same time as Colin Ramsey’s press conference.
Humpty Dumpty’s wall was coming down.
Detective Muncy’s investigation into Ellis Townley’s murder had just gained serious traction. Agents from the Federal Ministry of Mexico had located Vincent Romo in Guadalajara and taken him into custody at the request of the American FBI. The agencies were arranging paperwork for transfer and pickup, and Romo was in a panic. He didn’t know how the hell the cops had fingered him, or how they’d found him, and for the first time in a long time, Romo was scared. He’d screwed up the job he’d been paid for. That was why he ran.
His head was spinning. If Mary Ingalls found out he’d been arrested, he’d give his chances of surviving prison as less than ten percent. He’d worked for her before. She didn’t play nice, and she didn’t play fair. When the transfer happened, he was ready to make a deal. He was coming back to the United States to testify in a federal murder investigation, in exchange for a life sentence for killing Townley.
Even though Romo was Miami Homicide’s suspect, Special Agent Ramsey would be on hand to take his statement to seal their case.
After being gone all day, Fiona was up early the next morning. She didn’t like to get behind on work.
The chef had bacon, waffles, and coffee on the breakfast buffet when she came down to eat, and Dee had all three of Wolf’s newspapers on the breakfast table.
Fiona eyed them as she walked in. TheNew York Times, theWashington Post, and theMiami Herald. Visible reminders of Wolf. She picked them up and put them in the trash. When she saw the shocked expression on Dee’s face, she quickly explained.
“They make me sad.”
Dee’s face crumpled. “Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t think.”
“It’s okay,” Fiona said. “We’re all having to adjust.” Then she served herself a healthy portion of everything and began scanning through texts on her phone as she ate.
