“He doesn’t care,” Sabrina said. “He’s focused. So am I. Plug that in.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Zane slid a laptop toward him, and Gil inserted the flash drive.
Sabrina, still working on the computer, asked, “Ivy, are you close to Preston?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Why is that good?”
Now Sabrina looked up. “He’s a con man on a mission to get your money. If you liked him, that would make it harder for you to believe the facts.”
“I like facts.”
Sabrina returned her focus to the screen. “You aren’t going to like these. Gil, I typed up my findings on the way here. I’ll clean it up if we need it for court.”
Gil stared at his own screen and the report Sabrina had prepared. He scanned through the bullet list of facts, and it was worse than he’d suspected.
“Tell me.” Ivy placed her hand on his arm.
“From the beginning, Preston and Abott have been my top two suspects. Abott has been open about his desire to have another shot with you. I can hardly blame him. But my concern was that he could have been using that as a ruse, to keep tabs on you so he could get what he was after—your money, and possibly your business.”
“I still don’t think he’s behind this.” Ivy gave a small shrug.
“I don’t either,” Gil said, “especially now. But you should prepare for the possibility that he might have been used.”
Ivy’s brow furrowed at that. “What?”
“We need more evidence, and we need to talk to Abott again, but I suspect Preston encouraged Abott to make an effort to win you back so he could keep tabs on you through Abott and not raise any suspicions.”
Ivy frowned. “That’s convoluted conjecture. What would make you think Preston has had anything to do with Abott?”
“You told me he and Preston got along. If Preston maintained contact with Abott, that could also explain how he connected with Oliver Teague. Oliver Teague and Abott served in the same unit. Preston may have used Abott to recruit Teague, and then he may have been afraid Teague would tell Abott the truth, so he killed Teague to keep him quiet.”
Ivy’s expression was a mixture of disbelief and horror, but she didn’t push back at his assertions.
“First things first. We need to find Preston. Two of the men who held you are dead—Larry Briscoe and Oliver Teague. We have Leon Parish from the restaurant and Billy from the hotel attempt. Both of them are in police custody. But since neither of them match your description of the third man, there’s a possibility he’s with Preston. Although, if that guy has any sense at all, he’ll get as far away from Preston as he can, because Preston is cleaning house.” Gil squeezed Ivy’s knee. “Regardless, when we find Preston, we can ask him about Oliver, Abott, the money, and everything else we need to know.”
“I’m with you on that, but can you tell me why you’re sure Preston is behind this?” Ivy’s body was rigid, clearly braced for whatever Gil was going to tell her.
He had no way to make this any easier, so he plunged ahead. “Preston is his middle name. His first name is Cornelius.” Ivy made a strangled sound at the mention of Cornelius. “I’m guessing the name Cornelius Johnson rings a bell?”
Her mouth tightened. “He was one of the designers of the equipment that failed. The one that cost Dad his arm.”
“Yes.” Gil had expected her to recognize the name. “When Sylvester Industries closed, Cornelius Johnson couldn’t get another job in his field because as soon as a company would call for a reference, it was all over. He was vilified in his community to thepoint that he moved away. From this”—he pointed to the screen—“it looks like when he moved, he stopped going by Cornelius and started going by Preston. Based on the photographs, it looks like he had some minor plastic surgery. He doesn’t look like the same guy unless you look closely.”
“Which I did,” Sabrina chimed in with a grim nod.
“While the motive remains cloudy, what’s clear is he decided to come after your mom and you. Maybe it was some sort of twisted revenge. He wanted the money but figured if he could make your mom fall for him at the same time, it would make his payback even sweeter. Who knows?” Gil said. “With what Sabrina has given us, we’ll get warrants and then we’ll get the police in Oregon to raid the house and look for evidence.”
“If he has a computer, he’s mine.” Sabrina spoke with quiet confidence, and a hint of malice.
37
IVY CAUGHT THE UNDERTONES in Sabrina’s comment. Sabrina wasn’t one for lavish displays of emotion, but endangered children were one of her hot buttons. Preston had made an enemy fiercer than he could have imagined. An enemy who was currently working on something with so much ferocity that it wouldn’t have surprised Ivy if the computer had burst into flames.
But Sabrina wasn’t ready to share what she was doing, and Ivy turned her attention back to Gil. “I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I don’t care why he did it or how he did it. As long as we get Tez back unharmed, I don’t even care if we catch him before he flees to Argentina, where he lives out his days sipping cocktails on a beach.”
