Jason stacked the papers into a neat pile and put them on the coffee table. “This is matching up with Stephanie’s account so far,” he said.
Max pulled out another sheet of paper and handed it to them. “This one, we can thank Sara for,” he said. She didn’t appear to appreciate being given the credit. Clearly, the tension between Sara and Max hadn’t improved since the last time she’d seen them together. She never had been able to figure out why the two people who Heidi considered her closest friends struggled to get along.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” Sara said. “I was happy to be useful.”
“Sara went in and sweet-talked the clerk,” Heidi said with a laugh. “Came out of the office ten minutes later with a copy of the marriage certificate.”
Everyone laughed.
“She still won’t tell us exactly how she did it.”
Sara winked at Caroline. “Every girl has her secrets.”
Caroline studied the paper. “This is Stephanie’s marriage certificate?”
“Yes. To Lee Baker. They were married in a small courthouse on the coast of North Carolina. The clerk remembered them. Said they were adorable and clearly in love. She heard him tell Stephanie he was sorry she couldn’t have a church wedding, and Stephanie told him she didn’t need a church wedding. Just him.”
That sounded like Stephanie. She’d always been a hopeless romantic. Caroline took a sip of her tea.
“Based on what we were able to piece together, Amanda Baker told Lee about his birth father prior to her death, but he wanted nothing to do with Frederick Larrabie.”
“How do you know that?” Caroline took another sip of tea.
Heidi cut her eyes over at Sara, and she flushed. “Because William Larrabie told me.”
NINETEEN
Caroline spilled tea all over her shirt. “What?”
Sara grinned. “We went to his office this morning,” she said. “I introduced myself and asked for a word. I showed him the picture of Charles Townsend, with the name hidden of course, and asked him if he recognized the man.”
Sara had met Henry’s uncle? The questions bubbled up before she could stop them. “What did he say? Did you tell him about Henry? Was he nice?”
Sara held out a hand. “Of course I didn’t mention Henry. And he was very nice. You may not want to hear this, but I think he genuinely hoped to find his brother and connect with him,” she said. “Apparently he only found out about Lee when he saw the will after his father’s death, but he’s been trying to track him down ever since. He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a file with a stack of pictures of Lee from childhood through adulthood that he’d found in his father’s personal belongings. He told us he’d hired an investigator, but that they had been unsuccessful.”
“Did you tell him what happened to Lee?”
“I told him the truth. That I was part of an investigation looking into a possible murder in a coastal jail. When he realized Lee had been killed, he broke down. I’m certain he had no idea.”
“We don’t have proof of this,” Heidi said, “but we suspect that the private investigator found Lee, but instead of telling William, he told Liam.”
“Why?”
“We have a theory. Just hang on. We’re getting there.”
Sara picked up the story again. “William Larrabie was quite forthcoming with me,” she said. “Based on what we talked about and what we found in court records, we’ve been able to determine that Freddie Larrabie did, in fact, include Lee Baker in his will. Because he didn’t know where Lee was at the time of his death, the will stipulated that most of his assets and a large sum of his money all went to William.”
Max pulled out a grainy photo from his stack. “This house, another property on the coast and a trust somewhere in the neighborhood of ten million dollars went to Lee.”
“Ten million?”
“Yeah, and this is where it gets interesting,” Heidi said. “The money is being managed by a local company in Raleigh. A company that does have some legit dealings for window dressing, but that we suspect is mostly a front for a large Central American gang that has moved into the East Coast.”
“Okay. I still don’t see how this could possibly be a motive to kill Henry.”
“It’s because of the gang,” Jason said. “Larry said he was mixed up with a brutal gang. If they have control of that money, they wouldn’t want to lose it. And if Henry was found—”
“The money would be turned over to him. Or to Caroline, for him.”
“I still don’t get it,” Caroline said. “How would the gang have gotten control of the money in the first place? Mr. Slater said that Freddie Larrabie was an honest guy and he believed William was, as well. Why would they have entrusted the money to a crooked company to manage?”
“We are still digging, but right now it looks like the connection may be with William’s son, Liam.”
“Mr. Slater said Liam was a nightmare,” Caroline said.
“That’s an understatement,” Max said. “Liam Larrabie has a serious gambling problem. At first we thought he might be trying to take Henry out in order to get his hands on the money he would inherit, but then we found out more about the terms of the will. Now we suspect he may have been influential in getting the trust in the hands of this particular management company so the gang would be able to control the funds.”
Heidi’s face was grim. “Like Max said, we are guessing at this point, but I’ve seen it before. Rich, spoiled kid starts playing around with some relatively minor criminal activity. Thinks he’s immune to anything really bad happening to him, and then gets himself in over his head. These gangs don’t play, and they wouldn’t hesitate to force Liam Larrabie into a situation where he would do whatever they said just to stay alive.”
Heidi paused a moment before she continued. “According to William, Liam began to have a much greater interest in the family’s affairs after Freddie’s death. We suspect it has more to do with protecting himself than really wanting to learn the business.”
“So why don’t we talk to him and ask him?” Caroline asked. “Don’t you have enough to bring him in for questioning?”
“We would, but we ran into a bit of a problem there.”
Caroline felt the nerves tingling along her arms. “What problem would that be?”
“Liam and Fern fled the country two days ago. Their passports were scanned in Croatia.”
“Croatia?”
“It’s a decent place to run to if you have plenty of cash. Nice beaches and no extradition policy with the US,” Kyle said.
Caroline thought she might be sick. “Another dead end?”
“Yeah, but that’s not the whole problem.”
“There’s more?”
Heidi nodded. “We were able to get a look at airport security camera feeds both at their departure point and arrival.”
“How—” Jason began, but Heidi cut him off.
“Don’t ask,” she said with a wink. “The point is, we have a few photos of the two of them. And while Fern Larrabie is definitely in Croatia, we don’t think she’s with Liam. In fact, we suspect Liam never left the United States.”
Max handed over a few more grainy photos. “We ran the images through facial recognition software. That is definitely not Liam Larrabie. His name is Lance Smith and he has a rap sheet we could use to wallpaper your entire living room.”
Dread settled in Caroline’s stomach. “You mean…”
The look on Heidi’s face confirmed her fears before she spoke. “He’s created a fake alibi to cover his tracks. We don’t know where he is.”
TWENTY
Jason couldn’t stand the look on Caroline’s face. He reached for her hand, and she clung to it with far more force than he’d expected. The only reaction from the trio across from them was one quirked eyebrow from Max.
“We’re looking for him,” Heidi said. “I have people tracking his known associates. It’s possible the gang had enough and took hi
m out, but that’s unlikely. It’s more likely that they have told him to fix the situation with Henry, and if he doesn’t, they’ll make him pay.”
Max leaned back on the sofa. “We have evidence of what these gangs are willing to do. They’ve tortured people. Most of them have ended up dead, but a few victims they left alive to spread the terror. They are not the kind of people you want to meet on a sunny day in a crowded place, much less alone in your home after dark. The fact that you are alive is nothing short of astonishing. The guy they used must not have been too closely associated with the gang, or he would have made sure he killed you both the first night.” While his words had been matter-of-fact, his eyes burned with compassion, maybe even pity.
“Jason,” Heidi said. He focused on her, unsure of what she might say next. “Max’s findings and assessment match up with the story your prisoner told you. Have you been able to confirm any of it?”
“I have. Haven’t even had a chance to tell Caroline yet, but Larry does have an ex-wife and an eight-year-old son who’s already had five heart surgeries. Our prisoner has a record, but he’s been clean for twelve years. Looks like when they were faced with losing their house, he took out an ill-advised loan from an old buddy and then started gambling to try to pay it back. The buddy turned out to be gang affiliated.”
Max was nodding. “Gangs don’t exactly offer a family-friendly payment plan. And a guy with a record? They’d want to make him use his skills to pay them back.”
“Exactly,” Jason said. “Larry was scared to death. He made it sound like he’d been hoping to do enough to keep them from coming after him or his family, but not enough to actually kill anyone.”
He squeezed Caroline’s hand tighter. “With Larry unable to finish the job, we have to try to anticipate what their next move will be.”
“There’s no way they’ll let this go,” Heidi said. “We’re speculating here, but it’s likely Liam made them believe this money would be available to them for a long time. Apparently the way the will was written, the money was to be held for fifty years. If Lee, or his heirs, hadn’t come forward by that time, then the money would revert back to the other Larrabie heirs. It’s a lot of money, and they aren’t the type to relinquish it.”
“And Liam is using that money to pay off his own debt to them?”
“It seems likely,” Heidi agreed. “He probably insisted that the trust be managed by that company. And we suspect he bribed the investigator to give him the information on Lee, which he then turned over to the gang. They would have arranged for the arrest, the fake identification, and then for Lee to die in jail. By having him arrested under a false name, they could keep William Larrabie from stumbling across a random news report about his death.
“My guess is that Liam has no idea how bad this is. He will never be free of them, but they are probably stringing him along, telling him if he takes care of this little problem, that will be the end of it. They may even insist he take care of it himself. If he gets caught, it looks like he was after the money for his own personal use and their little enterprise could possibly carry on unobstructed.”
“What if we get to him first?” Jason asked.
Heidi gestured for Max to take this question. “If he’s willing to testify against the people he’s involved with, he might have enough evidence to be able to land a spot in a witness protection program. He’d have to leave his family, his sister and definitely his lifestyle, but he’d be alive.”
“Unfortunately,” Heidi added, “he’s either too stupid to realize he has the second option or too arrogant to realize he could be caught.”
“So he’s going to keep trying to kill me and Henry, even though killing us won’t help him at all.”
“Yep.”
A heavy silence fell over the group. “What now?” Caroline asked. “I am not going to sit here and wait for someone to kill Henry, or me.” She glanced around, and her eyes widened. “You shouldn’t be here. Now that we know why I’m being attacked, you’re all in danger for absolutely no reason at all.” She stood up. “I’m serious. It’s me and Henry they are after, but if you stay, you’re putting yourselves in harm’s way.”
Was she out of her mind?
Heidi shook her head. Max sat back farther into the sofa. They both looked at him with expressions that said “She’s nuts.”
Sara stood and walked over to her. “Caroline,” she said in a tone so calm and controlled it must be her professional voice, “if you think any of us are going anywhere, then you and I are going to need to spend some serious time together.”
Caroline didn’t smile. “I can’t allow—”
“You are allowing nothing,” Sara said. “Jason wouldn’t leave you at this point no matter what you said. Heidi and Max don’t think they’ve had a fulfilling day unless someone tried to kill them at least once.”
Jason fought a smile. Heidi and Max had looks of fake indignation on their faces. They started murmuring to each other in stage whispers.
“Honestly,” Heidi said.
“What does she know?” Max glared at Sara. “At least once. Please. It’s not even worth getting out of bed for only one deadly encounter.”
Caroline’s lips formed an unwilling smile. She flopped back onto the love seat beside Jason. “Fine.” She turned to him. “How do we end this?”
“Right now, almost all of our findings are circumstantial. It would be great if we could take down some heavy-hitters in the gang, but that’s not our first priority. Our main goal is to protect you and Henry, so we are going to have to work on two different fronts. We’ll explain our findings to William Larrabie and have the funds transferred to a different firm. It’s possible that when they lose control of the finances, they’ll stop trying to come after you. There’d really be no point in it for them.”
“Okay. What’s the other front?” Caroline asked.
“The other thing we have to do is find Liam,” Jason said. “He’s the one we believe set all of this into motion, and even if the gang can no longer get to the money, he may still want to see Henry eliminated so the money will go to him and Fern.”
*
Even with nothing more than a few laptops, Heidi and Max had access to files and information that Jason could only dream about.
He’d called the sheriff and filled him in on the latest developments. He wasn’t surprised when he was told to stick close to Caroline and get to the bottom of this mess. The sheriff didn’t mince words. “You take care of that girl,” he said. “Jeffrey Harrison is one of my oldest friends. I’ve known Caroline since she was an infant. If anything happens to her or that little boy…”
Was he choked up? Jason held his breath until the other man cleared his throat. “You have permission to do whatever it takes. I’ll free up as many resources as I can. Protection details, extra patrols, whatever we need to do.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kyle came and went a few times as he made what he called “upgrades” to the camera system that let them monitor most of the Harrisons’ mountain.
As daylight faded, pizzas were delivered by two of Henderson County’s finest. Everyone had agreed ordering takeout was asking for trouble. Better to have the food brought in by people they could trust. The officers stayed on-site, patrolling the property and keeping an eye out for intruders.
Everything was quiet until 8:43 p.m. when a car entered the driveway. They all walked to the porch and waited. When the driver exited the car, the difference that came over Heidi was so noticeable Jason had a hard time making sense of it.
The all-business FBI agent ran straight for the man. He scooped her in his arms and spun her around. The kiss he planted on her lasted so long Jason had to look away.
“Newlyweds,” Max said under his breath. “I hope they get over this soon.”
“I don’t,” Sara said, a wistful smile on her face.
“Me, neither.” Caroline laced one arm through his. “They deserve it.”
“Yes, they do,” Ky
le said. “But where’s Maggie? I haven’t seen her in ages.”
“She’s at her other grandparents. With round-the-clock security until this is over,” Sara said.
“The agents Heidi called in were ecstatic to get to hang out with Maggie again. They’ll keep her safe,” Max said.
They all made their way into the house. Jason looked over his shoulder and caught the moment Blake pressed his forehead to Heidi’s. He held her face in his hands, and even in the dim light, Jason could see how much he treasured her. How precious she was to him. How he would do anything for her.
He patted Caroline’s hand, still tucked in his arm. Could they ever share a bond like that?
Her eyes met his. Maybe. All the reasons he’d had for staying away when he was eighteen—his fear of never knowing when his birth father would show up and cause a scene, his worries about what kind of father he would be that left him convinced he should never have children, and even his certainty that Caroline would be better off without him but that he couldn’t bear to see her with someone else—none of those reasons seemed valid any longer. Well, maybe they had been valid at the time, but they no longer seemed insurmountable.
Could he live with himself if he didn’t at least try?
*
Caroline stepped back into the house, Jason by her side. Max and Sara followed immediately. She expected Heidi and Blake to linger on the porch, but they entered seconds later.
Blake made a beeline for Caroline. She stepped away from Jason and let Blake squeeze her so tight her lungs struggled to expand.
“I’m sorry you’ve had to go through this alone,” he said in a whisper.
“I wasn’t,” she said.
Blake cut his eyes in Jason’s direction. He didn’t look thrilled with the idea of Jason being around all the time, but at least he kept things civil. He stuck his hand out, and Jason grasped it.
“Thank you for taking such good care of her,” he said.
Jason dipped his head. “Not good enough.”
“That’s not how I heard it,” Blake said with a glance in Heidi’s direction. “If my wife approves, that’s high praise. She’s a tough one to impress.”
Hidden Legacy Page 16
