Cut and Run

by Allison Brennan

  “Evidence at the scene proves that whoever killed Victoria Mills got into the passenger side of a vehicle in the driveway.” She put a photo down of the blood drops on the drive. “When Detective Reed returned two days after Victoria’s murder to question you about your alibi—if you remember, you originally told her that you were home all night and didn’t hear anything—you ‘remembered’ that you met Melissa for drinks.

  “According to Ms. Randolph, she was asked the day after Victoria’s murder to tell anyone who asked that she met you at Russo’s for drinks. Convenient, because Russo’s doesn’t have any security cameras. Or rather, they didn’t until a series of car thefts prompted the owner to put cameras in the parking lot. We went back and checked that night—neither your vehicle nor Ms. Randolph’s vehicle was in the parking lot at all the night Victoria was killed.”

  It was true that Russo’s had put in security cameras; however, they didn’t keep the footage this long. It was a bluff Lucy played well.

  Clemson didn’t say anything.

  Lucy put down a photo of Victoria’s body in the pool. It was bloated from floating in the water all night. Clemson closed his eyes.

  “Who did you pick up at the Mills house?”

  He didn’t speak.

  “Mr. Clemson, I’m getting a warrant to search your car. No matter how well you clean up blood, we will find it. Bexar County has the best CSI in the state. Did the killer touch the door handle? Inside or outside? The seat? Did a drop drip down between the door and the seat, hiding in the dark where you can’t see it? We will find it.”

  “Kincaid,” Nate said, and cleared his throat. He turned his phone to her. She turned back to Clemson. “We have the warrant. We’ll secure the car until the crime scene team gets here. Save us some time and energy. Who did you pick up at the house?”

  He still remained silent. He was thinking how he could get out of this. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

  “You’re not getting out of this, Robert,” Lucy pushed. “Would you like to see the warrant? Because it’s very clear that we can search your entire car, and if I find one drop of blood I will get an expanded warrant for your house, your property, your work, and all your financial records.” She stressed financial because of what Clemson told Sean at the bar the other night.

  His mouth opened and closed and opened and closed.

  Lucy took another photo out of her folder but didn’t show him yet. “I want to make something clear to you. We are your best hope at staying alive. Because you know what happens when you disobey orders? The people you’re playing footsie with are dangerous.” She slapped down the photo of Stanley Grant at the courthouse. He died at the hospital, but one of the cops had been smart and took a couple of pictures at the scene before he was transported.

  Lucy then slapped down a photo of the mass grave where the Albrights were buried.

  “Talk, we’ll protect you. Remain silent, you’re on your own. One drop of blood, and I’ll have your arrested for murder.”

  “Murder! But you said accessory—”

  Finally, he speaks.

  “Victoria’s blood in your car and you say you didn’t pick anyone up at the house? That tells me her blood is there because you killed her.”

  “Stop. Stop. Let me think.”

  “There’s one right answer, Mr. Clemson. That right answer is telling me the truth.”

  He looked toward Nate as if appealing to him, then quickly looked away.

  Nate said, “Kincaid, Ash’s crime scene unit is leaving the lab now. ETA ten minutes.”

  “I didn’t kill her. I didn’t even know the woman was dead!”

  “But you picked up someone at the house.”

  “I-I—”

  “The same person you let use your property to access the house. There is no fence, only natural barriers, along the property line. Easy enough to walk between two trees and end up in the backyard. Waiting for Victoria to come out. Or calling her and asking her to come out. But the killer didn’t leave the same way. Maybe because if the blood trail went to your house, you would be questioned and the killer knew you were a weak link.” Lucy slapped her hands on the photos she’d put in front of him. “This is what happens to weak links.”

  “I didn’t know,” he said. “I swear to God, I didn’t know. She came to my house at ten that night and said she had a problem to take care of, and to pick her up at ten thirty. I did. I didn’t see any blood. I didn’t see anything. I took her home.”

  Her.

  “How did she get to your house?”

  “I don’t know. Uber, maybe? A friend? I didn’t ask. She just came. And I owed her.”

  “Who.”

  “I-I—” He looked down at the last picture Lucy put there, the bones.

  Nate said, “Ash’s ETA is four minutes.”

  “Tell me, or when Ash gets here you don’t get my help with the AUSA. This is an FBI-SAPD joint investigation, and the SAPD already has Melissa Randolph on notice. She’s cooperating. She’s safe, in Chicago. You’re here, in San Antonio. Tell me who you picked up the night Victoria Mills was murdered.”

  “Faith. Parker.” His voice was a squeak.

  “Faith Parker Monroe?”

  He nodded.

  “How do you know Mrs. Monroe?”

  “She’s my lawyer in another matter…” His voice trailed off.

  “Would that matter have to do with a large gambling debt you owe to her husband?”

  He was shaking and sweating, his eyes pure panic. “She said she would take care of it if I let her go through my yard and then picked her up.”

  “Why would Faith want to kill Victoria? Was she worried that Victoria was going to turn state’s evidence against her husband? Against her?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t ask. You don’t ask that woman questions. I— Well, she said she couldn’t use her car because she didn’t want her husband to know where she was and he was, I guess, possessive. I don’t know. I swear to God I didn’t know she was going to kill that woman.”

  “Did you know Victoria Mills?”

  “No, not personally. I mean, I know the family. Her brother.”

  “Which brother?”

  “Simon.”

  “How?”

  “He, um, well, I-I need to know I’m not going to jail. And that you can protect me. These people—I-I just got in over my head. I was getting out of it. Faith was helping me, I just needed to do this one thing and I didn’t think it was a big deal, I didn’t know she was going to kill anyone.”

  “This is how we’re going to handle this,” Lucy said. “You’re going to come with Agent Dunning and myself to FBI headquarters. You’re going to give your statement, sign it, and I’m going to talk to my boss. If you give us something that convinces us that your life would be in danger, my boss is a reasonable woman. She’ll do what she can to put you in protective custody. If you lie to me about anything, all bets are off and you’ll be immediately arrested as an accessory to murder.”

  She stared at him until he looked down, but he couldn’t avoid looking at the photos on his desk. She picked them up and put them back in her folder. “Simon Mills?”

  “He’s Harrison’s partner. He ran the business here, Harrison ran it in Chicago until something happened, I don’t know what, and they closed down Chicago and came here. That’s how I met him and Faith. They run things a lot different than Simon. Simon was much more forgiving of, you know, losses.”

  “Why did Stanley Grant confess to killing Victoria?”

  “I don’t know. I swear. Faith doesn’t talk. She only tells you what you need to know. When I said SAPD was talking to me, that they might have seen my car, she said to tell them I had drinks with Melissa Randolph at Russo’s. That we’re friends and I was giving her career advice. That was it.”

  Nate said, “Ash is here with the van.”

  “Great. Shall we head to FBI headquarters, Mr. Clemson?” Lucy said.

  He got up, shaking.

 
Lucy said to Nate, “I need to make a call. Can you take him?”

  “My pleasure,” he said.

  When they stepped out of Clemson’s office, Lucy called Max to warn her about Simon.

  There was no answer.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Max first tried calling Ryan, but there was no answer. His phone went straight to voice mail. Probably in the middle of something, but she really needed to talk this through with him. She left him a message to call her when he had the chance.

  She’d found it. At least, she thought she found something suspicious.

  Like she’d told Lucy, Simon had sold the land that would have been impacted by the Kiefer project to Harrison Monroe and it would have likely been worthless—or at least substantially devalued—had the public works project gone through. It appeared to be the last parcel of land that Simon had sold to anyone.

  Six months after the Albrights were murdered—and less than thirty days after the Kiefer project was permanently halted, according to city council minutes—Monroe sold the land to a developer for nearly twice what he paid for it. A new commercial business park that leased property to both private and government entities was built up, and a new company was awarded a modified public works project that benefited the development and the new company.

  Max wanted to know if either of those entities was affiliated with Monroe.

  Max couldn’t figure out how Denise figured into all of it, unless Monroe had another plan to destroy Kiefer that she was privy to, a plan she couldn’t be party to. It would be motive. But how did she find out? Why didn’t she go to the authorities? Or had she planned to and that was why she was killed?

  Max remembered what Ryan had told her—that land transactions leave a paper trail—and while she was one of the best at research, the nuances of these transactions weren’t clear to her.

  She’d made copies of everything, hoping that between her, Sean, and Lucy—and maybe Ryan on Skype—they could put these pieces together.

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw something. She glanced in the rearview mirror and a large truck was barreling down on her. She was going seventy, and she quickly flipped on her blinker and moved to the right lane.

  “Jerk,” she muttered.

  He immediately got behind her. She sped up, but it was too late.

  He rammed her from behind and her car went out of control. The truck pushed her into the low railing, and at this speed she couldn’t stop. Her car flipped up and over the railing and the last thing she remembered was a sharp pain in her leg, then all she saw was black.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  “Hello, Mitch.”

  Sean had tracked Mitch to a hotel in Austin. It took him a while to find his room, but when he did, Mitch didn’t try to run or explain.

  “Come in,” he said, resigned.

  Sean was still cautious. “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know. I’m trying to figure it out.”

  “Let me help.”

  Mitch sighed and waved his arm to the bed. Paper was everywhere, and at first Sean didn’t know what he was looking at. Then he realized that they were all real estate contracts.

  “They’re all legal,” Mitch said. “But Harrison has been buying and selling land with no rhyme or reason.”

  “It’s not the land transactions,” Sean said. “It’s where the money is coming from. You know about his underground gaming operation.”

  Mitch nodded. “It was never supposed to be like this. It was a small operation, made a little money on the side. Simon was smart. Really smart. But then Harrison comes to town and it all goes to hell.”

  “Simon started it?”

  “They were partners. Harrison ran the Chicago operation, Simon ran the San Antonio operation. But when Harrison started getting some heat, he shut everything down and moved here. And then it went to hell.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he wanted more. He wanted big. He wasn’t content with the small profit they were making. I think it was his wife who was pushing him. Faith is insane. She came from nothing, put herself through law school, she’s certainly not an idiot. But you’d think they were on the verge of bankruptcy the way they expanded. More land, more money, more hidden accounts.”

  “You need to take this to the FBI.”

  He didn’t say anything.

  “Someone killed Victoria over this. And Stan. And Denise Albright. Were they all involved?”

  “In some fashion. Victoria handled all Harrison’s land transactions. She had him set up the LLC, and he opened it with legitimate money but funneled the gambling money into it, calling the income ‘consulting fees,’ but the people paying were fictitious. Victoria made one big mistake, she asked Denise to help with the LLC tax forms. Denise figured out the people were fake, and Victoria wanted her to just go along with it. Denise did … but she was upset when she saw some sale near where she lived. She went to Victoria, who went to Monroe and asked him to leave that project alone. Monroe wouldn’t and paid Denise to leave the country.”

  “Except she allegedly embezzled three million dollars.”

  “Monroe said that was to keep her from coming back. Victoria hated the plan, but she also didn’t want to be caught. She convinced Denise to leave.”

  “Except Harrison killed her instead. He didn’t trust her not to talk, so he killed her.”

  “Harrison is a lot of things, I just don’t think he could kill her. Or anyone.”

  “Someone killed Victoria, and even you don’t think it was Stan.”

  “I don’t know! I don’t know anymore.”

  “Was Stan gambling again?”

  “He had it under control.”

  Sean couldn’t believe that Mitch was lying to himself, after all this time. “Addicts never have their addiction under control unless they’re not participating.”

  Mitch didn’t say anything.

  “Look—you have two options: go to the FBI and give them everything you have and beg for their mercy, or don’t. And if you don’t, the FBI will figure this out and they will come after you. You’ll be an accessory after the fact to murdering the woman you love.”

  “I loved Victoria, that’s true, but I loved Stan more.”

  It took Sean half a second to realize what Mitch was telling him.

  “You’re gay. And Stan—”

  “I never came out. Stan was, sort of. I loved Victoria, but … the more time I spent with Stan, the more I knew who I was. Victoria figured it out when we were married and we agreed to get a divorce, but she was actually really cool about it. At least that’s what I thought at the time. But I think she was cool about it because she and Harrison had rekindled their relationship as soon as he moved to San Antonio.”

  “Victoria and Harrison were having an affair.”

  Mitch nodded. “I regret more than anything that I didn’t come clean with everyone about who I am so Stan and I could live the way we wanted.”

  “That’s why you visited him in prison, why you called Marie and told her that Stan was innocent. You never thought he killed Victoria.”

  “Stan didn’t kill her. He told me the first time I saw him in prison. Broke down completely but said he had no choice, that Marie and the boys would be dead. And he said something that has haunted me for the last two months.”

  “What?”

  “He said, ‘They’ve killed an entire family before, they’ll do it again. They have no remorse.’”

  “The Albrights.”

  “I honestly believed that Denise had left the country, so did Victoria. She even looked for them once, a year after they left, couldn’t find them, but didn’t think too much of it. She was Victoria’s best friend. Victoria loved those kids, she would never have allowed anyone to hurt them. If she knew—she would be a force. She had everything about the operation, from the very beginning. Scorched earth. Victoria did nothing subtle.”

  “Where is everything now?”

  “They’ve got it.”


  “Who are they?”

  “Harrison and Faith. And—and I hate to say it, I don’t want to believe it, but I think Simon knew. If he didn’t know, he was lying to himself. He and Harrison were close, they used to make every decision together … though when Denise left, something changed with them. I think it was because of the way Harrison was managing the gambling operation. But now…”

  “Maybe guilt over killing an entire family.”

  “I can’t see Simon being part of that. And there was no reason to kill Victoria.”

  “Except that the Albrights’ bodies were found. She would have known. If she knew that Harrison had them killed, would she have gone to the authorities?”

  He nodded. “No doubt in my mind.”

  “Who else knew about Victoria and Harrison’s affair?”

  “I don’t think anyone knew. They were discreet. I knew only because I walked in on them once. It was when we were separated, she was living in the house, but we were friendly. I came by without calling because I needed some files, and I saw them. We talked about it later, I just told her to be careful, because she deserved better than a cheating husband.”

  “And maybe she planned on telling Faith and he killed her.” It was a story as old as time.

  “That wasn’t Victoria’s style. She might leave him unless he told Faith, but I think she liked the way things were. She was very independent. She didn’t need someone all the time. And she liked the game, the fun of the affair.”

  Still, Sean could picture murder between the lovers, especially if Victoria had found out about the Albrights. The news reports on the bones were all over the media that Friday. It was only a matter of time.

  “Mitch, you have one shot at this—take this to the FBI now.”

  His phone rang; he wanted to ignore it, but caller ID was Ryan Maguire.

  “Hey, Ryan.”