She pressed her lips and nodded, not trusting herself to speak. To do so would risk breaking her emotional dam.
“Glad to hear it. What can I do for you, ma’am?”
“I need to get in the house.”
He had her sign into the crime scene and let her into the house.
Crime scene…The words assaulted her again, echoing in her mind and tugging on her sanity. But she kept moving forward. One step at a time.
She flipped on the light switches and headed to the staircase. Her steps were hampered by paralyzing flashbacks that had her pausing to catch her breath.I’m overreacting… Trent is going to be just fine…Not only that but she would see him in less than a handful of hours. She exhaled the stress and shook her shoulders before entering the home office and going right to the wall safe.
Where people keep sensitive information…
She’d arrived armed with the combination code from calling the safehouse on the way there. The officer on duty woke Dominique Sharp, and he told Amanda she had only parted with it when threatened with interfering in a murder investigation. And begrudgingly at that.
Hearing that only made Amanda more interested in seeing what was inside.
She punched in the code, swung the door open, and looked over the contents. It didn’t take long to realize that Dominique Sharp had some explaining to do.
Sucking back caffeine would help Amanda carry on and see this day through. No matter what it threw at her. It baffled her mind how many conversations lay ahead of her though. Dominique Sharp was being brought over from the safehouse, and Sullivan Gabay was being pulled from the holding cell. She’d already spoken with Howard Gabay. Then, of course, she’d be chatting with the Anaconda Killer.
She missed Trent when she entered the interview room to speak with Sullivan, another coffee and a folder in hand.
Sullivan was seated across from the door with his lawyer, a man with a round face and brown eyes. He introduced himself, but Amanda didn’t even make a point of remembering his name. This interview would be over as fast as it began.
“We all know why we’re here,” Amanda began.
“We do? Then maybe you can explain that to myself and my client.”
“You will be charged with several felonies.” She listed the charges against him, including the latest addition of assault on an officer. Since he instigated the felony that resulted in Trent getting stabbed, he was liable. Neither Sullivan nor the lawyer said a word. “You don’t deny your culpability in these matters?”
Sullivan shook his head. “But I want you to leave Corey Shea out of this. Let him go.”
“We can’t do that. Because of what he did, two people are dead.”And almost a third…The thought fired through and made her clammy. If Sullivan thought she was going to let anyone involved walk away, he wasn’t too bright. “I’d like to know why you did all this, Sullivan. Why steal money from your family firm and order a hit on Dominique Sharp?” Seated across from him, Amanda remembered Sullivan had said he didn’t even know Dominique. So how did they get here?
“The reasons don’t matter,” the lawyer said. “It’s whether you can prove he’s done these things, and I, for one, don’t feel you have enough proof.”
She could point out that his client didn’t deny his involvement just a moment ago. But she also knew that wasn’t enough. The justice system demanded proof. Which they had. “Corey Shea is speaking with us. He admits to taking payment from Sullivan Gabay to contract a killer on the dark web to kill Dominique Sharp. As for the embezzlement, we have plenty of evidence. For one, the requisition forms to open fake customer and vendor accounts were submitted by Sullivan Gabay.” She produced printouts of what Molly had provided. One of these was a legit account requested by Harris Finch and another from Sullivan Gabay. She set these on either side of a form requesting the opening for one of the shell companies. The differences in the forged signature were subtle and easy enough to be missed by busy clerks. “As you can see, Sullivan, you scrollI’s like this. Mr. Finch doesn’t. Yet, there it is on the forms requesting the opening of several fake accounts.” She laid out more to support her statement.
Sullivan was refusing her gaze now.
Amanda steamed ahead. “We also found a Cayman bank account attached to you, Sullivan. The statements were in your home.”
“So what?” The lawyer balked. “It’s hardly against the law to have one.”
“It is if the funds in it were obtained illegally.” She turned to Sullivan. “Once Financial Crimes digs into the statements, are we going to find corresponding transactions that line up with the money taken from Gabay, Finch & Earnest?”
He said nothing, and his silence affirmed the allegation for her.
She continued. “You expressed your desire that we leave Corey Shea out of this. Is that why you bought your boyfriend a brand-new BMW? To get him to find a killer online instead of leaving a more obvious money trail? That was the only smart thing you did. It’s too bad he gave himself away when hereacted awkwardly at the sight of myself and my partner in your office. He was uneasy. It soon became clear why. He was hiding something. But why frame Finch for embezzlement?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“You don’t have to, but I’d like to wager a guess. You were pissed off at Harris Finch because he caused your parents’ marriage to fall apart.” There was just a slight tightening of his jaw.Jackpot!Amanda carried on. “You wanted to get back at him, so you had the idea to take money out of the company and frame him for it. What I don’t understand is why you started putting the money back six months ago. Would you tell me?” Amanda was banking on the fact most criminals had enormous egos and loved receiving credit for their work.
“Dominique started sniffing around the firm then, and I saw my opportunity to make the embezzlement more obvious.”
That worked against what she’d originally seen as motive for him to want Sharp dead. The fact he wouldn’t want the embezzlement found. Though given what she had taken from Dominique’s safe, she had another theory on motive. Time would tell if it was spot-on. “Why did you order a hit on Dominique?”
