Not at all sure I might not puke right there.
When Leo finishes spinning this web to me nearly twenty minutes later, I can’t even…think.
I have to sit there and breathe, absorbing it, processing it.
For starters, becauseit doesn’t make a damn bit of sense. None of it.
The truck that ran Charles and Tory off the road has been located and traced back to David Gayle. It was discovered late last week, hidden under a tarp in an old barn on his uncle’s property, by—ironically—a crew from a TV show that hunts antiques. Someone noted that it looked like it hadn’t been there very long, because the tarp was newer. Butit had been covered with older stuff, like someone was trying to hide it. Once uncovered, they realized that the damage on it was unusual and specific, and when they looked inside the cab, they found, among other things, an old prescription receipt stuck under the seat with Gayle’s name on it, which prompted a call to authorities. There were no license plates on or registration papers in the truck,but running the VIN number confirmed it was last registered to Gayle.
Damage all along the passenger side of the truck matches the damage on Charles and Tory’s car, and there was paint transfer that matches both vehicles. There is zero doubt in the investigators’ minds that this is the vehicle that ran them off the road.
The uncle who owns the property is elderly and in a nursing home. Gaylewas, before shooting Kev, helping to take care of the place. The uncle’s brother-in-law called in the TV show to help go through things and try to make some money to pay the property taxes to keep it going for another year.
Likewise, the gun used to kill Lauren has been traced back to one of two guns that were reported missing by the uncle’s brother-in-law last week while in the process of helpingsort out the house’s contents ahead of the TV crew coming in. They’d both belonged to the uncle’s father, and he’d specifically asked for them to go to one of his grandsons.
Said gun was found in the cab of the truck. Which was the other reason they called authorities, because they weren’t sure if it was tied to the attack on Kev’s life or not.
And they found Lauren’s purse in there, too.
The second missing gun turned out to be the one recovered when Gayle shot Kev.
The ballistics test on the weapon recovered from the truck was rushed through because of the other circumstances, and a preliminary match was made early this morning, just before financial ties connected to Gayle and his family were starting to unravel.
“Where did this intel come from?” I finally manage. “Is it solid?Why haven’t we heard anything about this? They should have notified us!”
“I have a friend at Quantico. It’s getting passed along the food chain, even as we speak. But they know I work for your wife and that you’d probably want this news sooner.”
“But they should have—”
“It’s been keptquietbecause of the rapidly developing circumstances, and wanting to be sure.I’s andT’s. They were goingto question Gayle about it this afternoon, but apparently someone talked somewhere, looks like his attorney was tipped off, so now warrants have been issued. Portia will be getting briefed by the FBI director soon, which is why I ordered Secret Service confiscate phones until they’re brought back here.”
“They…they have proof of all of this? Did Gayle finally talk?”
Leo’s grim look grows evendarker. “Gayle killed himself in his cell ninety minutes ago. His last visitor was his attorney, Jasper Schoult, fifteen minutes before he did it.”
I blink, sure that I misheard him. “Wait…what? Can youpleaseback up, because what youshouldhave led with was, ‘Hey, Chris, the motherfucker who shot Kev offed himself.’”
But Leo is undeterred. “Three weeks before Charles and Tory were killed,Jasper Schoult formed a shell company. Yesterday, that company paid out five hundred thousand dollars to a shell company that was formed by yet another shell company and is listed in the name of David Gayle’s wife. This is in addition to other payments the first shell company made to additional shell companies listed in the names of Gayle’s oldest son and daughter. The money is still in those accounts,though, and court orders were issued less than an hour ago to freeze the accounts.”
“I…I don’t understand.”
“There were six payments last year—before and after Charles and Tory died, and before and after Lauren was killed. There was another one made before Kevin was shot—and then the last one yesterday.”
“You’re saying someonepaidto kill them?”
He nods.
I’m still not tracking. “That doesn’tadd up. You said six payments last year.”
“The other two payments last year were made before and after Stephen McDannig died.”
“Who?”
“The GOP candidate who challenged Kevin’s father in the primary.” But before I can finish turning that over in my brain, Leo plunges forward. “It gets worse. It turns out Gayle had terminal cancer.”
That was something that had not been revealed to us. “Wait,what?”
“He left a suicide note saying he had cancer, and was sorry for what he did, but that’s all it said. He apparently never told his family he had it. Not even his wife knew. His father and mother both died of cancer, and he swore he’d never go through treatments and suffer like they did.”
