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Randy studied Deckard long and hard. “I’m sharing this because I trust Harper, and she obviously trusts you.”
“Thank you,” Deckard said. “Truly.”
“You’re sure you want to see this?” Randy said, tapping the lockbox. “The responsibility will shift to you—to do something with the information. You have to promise you’ll leave me out of it.”
“I promise,” Deckard said, and he’d hold true to his word.
“Don’t think I’m handing away the only copies. I kept this set close in case I had to run in a hurry, but I have two more sets hidden throughout the city.”
“Wise man,” Deckard said.
“And you swear you’ll do the right thing with the information?”
“I promise.” Deckard nodded.
Randy took a deep breath, then looked to Harper.
“He will.” She nodded. “Whatever the right thing is, Deckard will do it. I promise.”
He warmed at the steadfast belief she had in him. Now, if Randy would just believe him. They needed to see what was in that box.
“All right,” Randy said, inputting the combination to the lockbox. A click sounded, and he lifted the lid. “I have proof that Mitch Abrams and Councilman Markowitz have been working together on a big land deal to build new condos, stores, an entire planned community.”
“Okay,” Deckard said, unsure where this was going. “That alone is not illegal.” Though Mitch, a real estate developer, working with the councilman who lobbied for the land deal was unethical.
“It might not be, but I bet the fraud department at the Bureau might feel differently. However, whatisillegal is the fact that they’ve never built it.”
“What?” Harper frowned.
“They got big money from investors and money from people, families that bought houses and plots of land.”
Deckard slumped back. That was the last thing he’d expected. “Mitch is running a Ponzi scheme, and the councilman must be getting kickbacks by lobbying for the projects.”
“Oh, he’s getting kickbacks, all right. I have a friend ... a hacker,” he said. “I’m not proud of going that way, but I didn’t know who else I could trust.”
“And?” Deckard prodded as all the pieces shifted into place. A murderous place. Anne must have seen or overheard something. She probably confronted them or tried to break things off with Mitch, and he’d killed her for it—trying to set Judge Simmons up in the process. If Simmons hadn’t had last-minute company, he might have gone down. A wife’s alibi was always questioned.
“Markowitz’s kickbacks are hidden deep in his offshore financials but they’re there. Wire transfers, the whole nine yards. And the man who retrieved the shirt is William Richards. He has loose ties to the mob.”
Deckard dipped his chin, arching his brows. “Are you serious?”
“There’s dirty money involved from the backers. It’s no wonder they wanted Mitch out of jail. They needed him. He held the land rights to the whole complex in his name. They stood to lose millions if their plans didn’t go through.”
“What plans?” Harper asked.
“It’s an elaborate scheme my friend explained. They pay the first lien of investors with the newest investors’ money, pretend they’re moving forward....”
“They probably have a trailer and some equipment on site. Give the impression they’re just waiting on whatever issue they make up. Then it’s one thing after another,” Deckard said.
“Exactly.” Randy nodded.
“So they expected Judge Simmons would be convicted for Anne’s murder and Mitch would be home free. And he probably would have been if it weren’t for Andi being so good at her job and finding his skin cells,” Harper said. “They probably had Todd there that nightto watch her results, and when the only DNA came back as Mitch’s, they freaked. He couldn’t do anything about her results, but I bet he corrupted the sample that very night. And Andi took the fall.” Red flared in her cheeks.
“I owe Andi a huge apology,” Deckard said.
“You were going up against a lot of evidence pointing to her.”
And he fell for it. Rage burned through his limbs. How could he have been so duped? Mitch had played it so well. Like those people who are so twisted they lie like it’s the truth. Like Satan in the Garden of Eden. He swallowed. “What do you have for me to take to the Bureau?”
