Preston actually looked impressed. "Planted one at the shooting scene." He shuddered. “The woman is smart, I’ll give her that. Glad she’s not my wife. She almost pulled this off.”
“What about the money? You should be able to trace any payments she received.”
Preston pursed his lips. “That’s the thing. There haven’t been any payments.”
Cory raised his eyebrows. “She was clear about doing this for the payoff.”
“The payoff she was planning to extort from MedFlight after she brought down Mountain Angel.” Debartolo jumped in. “Crazy woman did this all on spec. Figured she’d threaten MedFlight into paying up after the fact.”
"Ouch." Izzy couldn’t help the comment.
"Right?" Preston scrolled through more notes. "She knew Tom's schedule perfectly. Turned off his phone during key times so there'd be no GPS data. Started the hangar fire wearing his clothes. Even created that confession on his computer while he slept Sunday night."
"After years of filing his papers," Debartolo added. "She could forge his writing perfectly. Said Tom was so predictable, it was easy. Same routines, same passwords, same everything for decades."
Izzy watched Cory process this, saw him thinking about his own routines, his precise patterns. She'd learned his coffee preferences in just days. How well did the people closest to you really know your habits?
“She could retract her confession,” he said quietly. “Happens all the time.”
Preston shrugged. “Sure. But by then we’ll have a mountain of hard evidence. We know where to look now.”
“Starting with that watch that old guy found out by the Mountain Angel hangar,” Debartolo added. “One of her earlymistakes.” He paused, clearly relishing their interest. “It belonged to her father. Jameson Smythe. Those early Breitling’s were all registered.”
"Here's the weird part," Preston leaned forward, voice dropping like he was sharing gossip. "She thinks Tom will forgive her."
Izzy jerked upright, immediately regretting it as the room spun. "She thinks he'll forgive attempted murder?"
"Keeps saying 'He'll understand I did it for us,'" Debartolo mimicked Janet's prim tone. "Asked several times if she could share his hospital room. When we said no, she asked if we could at least put them in adjacent rooms so she could 'take care of him.'"
Izzy pressed her free hand to her forehead. "That's..."
"Delusional? Psychotic? Completely bonkers?" Preston supplied helpfully.
"I was going to say sad," Izzy admitted.
"Forty years of marriage, and she tries to kill him," Debartolo shook his head. "Some anniversary gift."
"Speaking of which," Preston cleared his throat, suddenly finding his tablet fascinating. "We may have been... overzealous in pursuing you as a suspect."
Izzy waited. That couldn't be all.
"Your frozen accounts have been released," Debartolo added, still not meeting her eyes. "Mountain Angel can resume operations once the FAA clears it. Probably by end of week."
Cory sat up, staring the men down with his stony Chief-of-Police face. “What about her license?”
Preston waved him away. “Already restored. Her file’s clean.”
“Better be,” Cory muttered.
Izzy blinked, muzzy head spinning as she tried to take it all in. The Feds backing down. Not quite an apology, but from the FBI? She'd take it.
"What about the FAA guy, Osgood?" Cory asked from his bed. "His daughter's settlement?—"
"All verified. Clean money, tragic circumstances. His only crime was depression and missing obvious sabotage." Preston stood, clearly done with emotional discussions. "He's agreed to retire quietly."
The agents left with perfunctory nods, and Izzy found herself staring at the ceiling tiles. It was over. Really over. Her accounts would be unfrozen, Mountain Angel would fly again, and Chantal...
"Chantalcan come home," she whispered.
