Fatal Fraud: A Fatal Series Novel

by Marie Force

  “How did you know her?”

  “We played tennis together at a racquet club in Gaithersburg. We had friends in common. They introduced me to her, and she seemed thrilled to hear I was a Realtor. That first day, she told me she’d been looking for a good Realtor in our area to work on some deals she had going. We exchanged cards, she called me the next day, and we began working together shortly after.”

  “What did working with her entail?”

  “She’d identify a property and ask me to show it to groups of people.”

  “How did you get paid?”

  “By the showing. She paid me five hundred per.”

  Sam let out a low whistle. “Five hundred bucks to do a showing? And you never thought there was anything odd about her showing properties that never sold?”

  “Ginny said she was putting together a group to purchase the buildings, and that was going to take some time. She asked me to show the properties. I showed them.”

  “How many showings did you do for her?”

  “A couple thousand over three years.”

  “How many thousand? Two, three, four?”

  “Maybe two.”

  “Two times five. I’m no math whiz, but that’s, like, a million dollars. Am I right?”

  Cheri squirmed in her seat. “Something like that.”

  “That’s a lot of money to do showings. Did you follow a script that Ginny wrote?”

  “I told people about the properties, their potential, the comps in the area. That kind of thing. Basically, I made it seem like an attractive investment.”

  “When you knew it was all part of a scam.”

  “No! I didn’t know that! Not until the Feds arrested Ginny. I had no idea.”

  “How’d you find out that you’d been part of a scam?”

  “When the Feds came to my office and told me. I honestly didn’t know. I’d take a polygraph if you wanted me to.”

  “Stop talking, Cheri,” the lawyer said.

  “I would! I didn’t know what she was doing!”

  “Fair enough,” Sam said, “but you had to suspect there was something hinky about it.”

  “I didn’t. She asked me to do showings. I did showings. I’m a Realtor. That’s what I do.”

  “Not once, ever, did you ask yourself what Ginny might be up to?”

  “No.”

  “Well, I suppose if I was making that kind of easy money, I might not ask questions about it either. Or wait, maybe I would because I’d want to know why I was making the easy money and how it might come back to bite me in the ass, but that’s just me. I’m skeptical that way.”

  “Is there anything else you need to ask my client, or is she free to go?”

  Sam eyed the woman for a full minute before she said, “Where were you on Sunday afternoon?”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because I’m wondering where you were when someone took a garden tool to Ginny’s neck. So… Where were you?”

  “I didn’t kill her,” she said, sending a frantic look toward the attorney, who patted her arm reassuringly.

  “She knows you didn’t kill her, Cheri,” the lawyer said in a condescending tone that infuriated Sam.

  “Is that right?” Sam asked him. “And why do you say that?”

  “Because you would’ve led with that if you suspected her,” he said smugly, as if he was some sort of expert in interrogation techniques.

  “Actually, that’s not true. I tend to save the big questions for last, when the person thinks I’m done with them. Like now. Cheri thought we were done, but, oh wait, not so fast.”

  The lawyer scowled at her. “She didn’t kill Ginny.”

  Ignoring him, Sam focused on Cheri, who shriveled slightly as Sam glared at her. “Where were you on Sunday afternoon?”

  “I had two open houses, one from twelve to two and another from three to five.”

  “And where were you from two to three?”

  “In the car, driving from one to the other.”

  Sam slid her notebook across the table. “I need addresses for each open house.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m going to check. So make sure you tell me the truth, unless you want to end up right back here again. And I’ve got to say, orange really isn’t your color.”

  Cheri’s hand shook as she wrote down the addresses and pushed the pad back to Sam, who scanned what she’d written.

  “How long did it take you to get from Bethesda to Germantown?”

  “About… half… half an hour.”

  Why was she stammering? “You had an hour, and the drive only accounted for half of it, so what did you do with the other half?”

  “There was a lot of traffic, so it took longer.”

  “But you just said it took half an hour.”

  “I meant that’s how long it should have taken.”

  “Are you trying to get arrested for murder, Cheri?”

  “No! I didn’t kill her!”

  “By my reckoning, you have thirty unaccounted minutes right around the time someone was bashing Ginny with a garden tool.”

  “I was driving!” Cheri directed a wild-eyed look at her attorney. “Tell her to listen to me.”

  “Lieutenant, my client didn’t kill Ginny, and this interview is over.” He stood, gathered his belongings and lifted his chin to tell Cheri to get up and follow his lead.

  Sam sat back and waited to see if he’d actually try to walk out of the room. Wisely, he stopped short of that.

  “Is my client free to go?”

  “For now.”

  “What does that mean?” Cheri asked in the shrill tone that was beginning to grate on Sam’s nerves. “For now?”

  “Just what I said. I reserve the right to speak to you again if I need to, and if I find out you used those thirty minutes to kill Ginny, I’ll be coming for you.”

  “I didn’t kill her!”

  “Did you spend all the money she gave you?” Sam asked.

  “Most of it. I paid off my house, paid my kids’ tuition.”

  “And you understand there’re people out there who’re in danger of losing their homes because of the money they lost, right?”

  “That’s not my fault! I didn’t take their money. Ginny did.”

  “So you said, but if I find out you lied to me in here, I’ll make you very sorry.”

  “I didn’t lie,” she said, her voice wavering and her eyes filling. “I wish I’d never met Ginny.”

  “But I bet you’re awfully glad that mortgage is paid off, am I right?”

  “We’re through here,” the lawyer said.

  Sam looked at Cheri with utter disgust, got up and left the room. These people were so fucked up. How could Cheri not question the reason she was showing those buildings, or why Ginny would pay her five hundred bucks to do showings? How could she never ask why?

  The more she found out about Ginny and her scheme, the more she felt for the people who’d been taken in by her. Maybe they’d been stupid or greedy or whatever you wanted to call it, but they hadn’t deserved to lose everything.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Per the instructions she’d received by email the day before, Christina waited for Tommy in the rehab facility’s reception area. She’d left Alex with Clara, an older woman who lived in their building who’d become like a grandmother to him, because Christina needed some time alone with her fiancé. It’d been a very long few months without Tommy at home to help with the parenting and everything else. But it’d been an even longer ten months since his partner had been killed, sending their lives into a downward spiral.

  The loss of Detective Arnold had been devastating. The collateral damage to Tommy had been almost as devastating. He’d gone from a healthy, productive, fully engaged partner, father and detective to a shell of his former self, a man so shattered, he could barely function. He’d turned to pain meds for relief, and for a time, Christina had feared she’d lose him forever to either death or addiction.
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  Now he seemed more like his old self than he had since that terrible January night when Arnold had been gunned down feet from Tommy. Christina was full of foolish hope that they might actually get their happily ever after, despite the many roadblocks they’d encountered over the last two years.

  At some point in the last few weeks as she counted down to the day he’d be released from rehab, she’d begun to think of herself for the first time in months. She’d taken the time to figure out what she wanted most from this second chance and had a few things to talk to him about if the time was right.

  That was the thing with him lately. It was all about timing, and it never used to be that way. Before Arnold had been killed, she’d never had to tiptoe around Tommy or choose the right moment to discuss something with him. They’d had their ups and downs, but their relationship had been solid until that fateful night upended their existence.

  Sometimes, she felt selfish for focusing on how Arnold’s death had impacted her family, but she never forgot the wonderful young man they’d lost that night. And neither did Tommy.

  She checked the time on her phone. Four o’clock. He should be out anytime now, and they could restart their lives. Drawing in a deep breath, she tried to calm her out-of-control nerves. That was another thing that was new—being nervous around him. The last time they’d been together, when he came home for Skip Holland’s funeral, she’d experienced a bit of the old magic that had been so present between them from the start. She’d clung to the memories of that night ever since and was desperate to find out if they could recapture that magic once he was finally home to stay.

  The door from the inner sanctum of the rehab center swung open, and there he was.

  Christina stood to go to him, but found herself frozen to the spot as uncertainty assailed her.

  Then he smiled, his handsome face lighting up with pleasure at the sight of her, and everything in her relaxed somewhat as he came toward her, dropping his bag on the floor and putting his arms around her. He held her as only he could, and as she breathed in the familiar scent of him, she exhaled the deep breath she’d been holding for months now as she waited to see if he would survive the loss of his partner, if they would survive as a couple and a family.

  “Hey, baby,” he whispered. “So happy to see you.”

  Christina clung to him. “Same.”

  “Where’s my buddy?”

  “With Clara. I thought we could use a minute to ourselves.”

  “Good thinking. I can’t wait to see him, though.”

  “He can’t wait to see you either.” She pulled back to look up at the handsome face that had become the center of her world since they met at Sam and Nick’s New Year’s Eve party almost two years ago. “Are you all checked out?”

  “Yep.”

  “Good.”

  He took her hand, bent to retrieve his bag and nodded for her to lead the way. They emerged into cold air and encroaching darkness.

  Christina hated November most years. So cold and dark, with the long winter stretching out before them. But this year, November felt like spring to her as she and Tommy hopefully got their long-awaited restart.

  “Do you mind if I drive?” he asked. “I can’t believe I actually miss driving.”

  “I don’t mind at all. I’m sick of driving.”

  He held the passenger door for her. “Thanks for coming up to see me so often and for bringing Alex. You guys saved my sanity.”

  “Of course we came to see you. We missed you so much.”

  “I missed you too.” He leaned in to kiss her before he went around to get into the driver’s seat. For a long time, he didn’t move, and then he turned to her. “I know I’ve said this to you before, but it bears repeating. I’m so sorry for what I’ve put you through.”

  “You don’t have to apologize to me, Tommy.”

  “Yes, I really do. I let my grief take over every aspect of my life, including my relationships with you and Alex. I shouldn’t have let that happen.”

  Christina reached for his hand and cradled it between both of hers. “You didn’t let anything happen. An awful thing was done to your beloved partner. Every ounce of the blame belongs on the shoulders of the man who killed him. I don’t hold you responsible for any of it. No one does.”

  “Some people do, I’m sure.”

  “No one who matters blames you, Tommy, and that’s what I want to talk to you about. You’re not taking that plea deal.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “No, you’re not.

  “How do you even know about that?”

  “I hear things. Things I should be hearing from you, I might add.”

  “I was going to tell you.”

  “When? After you signed something that would effectively end your once-promising career?”

  “I need to take responsibility for what I did so I have credibility with my colleagues.”

  “Okay, so take responsibility without pleading guilty to a crime that’ll ruin your career.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There’re other ways you can take responsibility without pleading to a crime. Tell me you realize that.”

  “Um, well, you may have to fill in the blanks for me. How am I supposed to do that?”

  “You give an interview to a reporter you trust. You come clean on what the last year has been like for you since that awful night in January and confess to the mistakes you made in the name of grief. You own it without letting it ruin you.”

  “And what do I do about the people within the department who think I need to pay for breaking the law?”

  Christina leaned in toward him, looking him dead in the eyes. “Fuck. Them.”

  He laughed. “Well, all righty, then.”

  “I’m dead serious, Tommy. Anyone in the department who’d criticize how you handled the murder of your partner can go fuck themselves. They don’t know what you’ve been through unless it’s happened to them, and thank God it hasn’t happened to them. Skip understood what you went through because he lived it too. He’s the only one I know who could possibly get it—and he did understand. Better than anyone. The rest of them don’t matter to you or to us. If they never respect you again, so what? You can’t control what other people do. You can only control how you react to them, and if you take that plea, you’re giving them power over you that they don’t deserve. They haven’t earned it by having their partner killed right in front of them.”

  “You’ve given this a lot of thought.”

  “It’s all I’ve thought about since I heard you were considering the plea. Please don’t do it. You may think it’ll fix things, but it’ll only make everything worse in the long run. When you get a few years out from the horror of this last year, you’ll regret having signed away your career.”

  “You make good points. There’s a meeting about it tomorrow with the chief, Malone, Sam and the AUSA overseeing the case.”

  “I want to be there.”

  “We can make that happen.”

  “Good. And just so you know, I’m going to say the same thing to them that I said to you.”

  “I figured as much.”

  “Someone needs to fight for you, Tommy, and that’s going to be me—and Sam. She’s as upset about this as I am.”

  “With you two on my side, I can’t lose.” He leaned across the center console and reached for her, kissing her the way he used to before disaster struck, with hunger and tenderness and sweetness. “I love you so much. You’ll never know how many times thoughts of you and Alex saved me.”

  “We love you too.”

  “Thank you for not giving up on me, Christina. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had.”

  “I love you too much to give up on you, but I’m ready for things to be different, Tommy. Even before Arnold was killed, we’d gotten a little off track, and I’ve made a few decisions for myself that I hope you’ll agree with.”

  “Like what?”

  “I’m going back to work part-
time, mostly from home, doing some stuff for Nick. He’s wanting to ramp up his school visits, and I agreed to coordinate that for him and to accompany him on some of the local ones. But he wants to expand his visits into other parts of the country, so I’ll be working on that.”

  “That’s a great opportunity for you.”

  “I love being Alex’s mom and taking care of him and you, but I’m ready to get back to work. I need something that’s all mine.”

  “I understand that completely. I wondered when you decided to stay home if you’d be happy doing that in the long term.”

  “I’m happy, but I could be happier with a little outside stimulation.”

  “What else is on your agenda?”

  “I want to have a baby.”

  “That we can do. In fact, I’d take great pleasure in making that happen.”

  Christina laughed at the suggestive way he said that. “I’m sure you would.”

  “What else?”

  “We’re going to need to find a bigger place to live.”

  “Let’s make sure I still have a job before we do that.”

  “You’ll still have a job. If they fire you for things you did after you lost your partner on the job, you’ll file the biggest lawsuit in the history of workplace injustice lawsuits, and they know that. There’s no way they’ll fire you. And let’s not forget you’re a damned good detective who they’d be crazy to let go. And they know that too.”

  He tipped up her chin and kissed her again. “I gotta say, this fierce side of you is a huge turn-on.”

  She snorted out a laugh. “You haven’t had sex in weeks. It probably doesn’t take much.”

  “Nah, baby, it’s all you. I can’t wait to sleep with you in my arms tonight. I’ve missed you so much, and not just since I’ve been here. For months now.”

  “Everything is going to be okay now, Tommy. I know it is.”

  “Let’s get out of here. I’ve had more than enough of this place.”

  “I’ll be forever grateful to them for giving you back to us.”

  “I’m back, and everything will be better. I promise.” After he’d driven out of the parking lot and headed them toward home, he looked over at her. “When are you going to marry me?”