“This is the interesting part. Mark Griffin is the Godwin’s’ cousin, and when the repair shop faced hard times, the father told Mark that if he wanted to continue to cheat on his wife, Mary, with Avery, then Avery needed to put pressure on Marie to help out the family again.”
“Jesus,” Pedro said. “What type of power do these people have?”
“Not much, other than brute force. Think of the movies where gangs would put pressure on the shop owners for them to pay for protection. Brute force and stupidity along those lines. When Mark refused, they broke his leg, then threatened to go after both Mary and Avery, to do worse. Even though Avery was a second cousin to Randy and Gus, and a police officer, they still threatened her life.”
“Damn,” Myrna said. “What else?”
“That’s the first theory of the theft of the automotive parts, and it panned out. Once Agent Wilson had Marie’s statement, they got her to safety. I can’t tell you if she’s in Witness Protection or not, because I don’t know. All I know is what I was told, and that was that she was safe.”
They all paused to sip their drinks and take in what they had learned so far. It didn’t take long before Ilsa continued.
“Based on the findings at the factory, and Marie’s statement, a warrant was issued for the Godwin’s’ garage. Without getting into too much detail, I can tell you that the three of them are in jail, their shop is closed, and every single part in their inventory is being gone over with a fine-tooth comb. I can say that the theft by Marie, and the inventory from Godwin’s’ are large enough in monetary value that they are facing felony charges.” She saw their expressions, grinned as she spread her arms as wide as they would go. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen car parts, and on the father’s property, over a dozen stolen cars were found. Whole cars, not used for parts.”
“Damn,” Myrna said. “Were they running some sort of chop shop?”
“Not really, they still fixed cars, they just did it with stolen parts. They don’t know for certain, but they believe the cars on Mr. Godwin’s property were going to be sold and shipped overseas.”
“An auto theft ring, then?” Pedro stated.
“That’s what it looks like.”
“Okay, what else, because I still don’t know why Sally was stolen, and why Officer Mosher would steal my horse trailer.”
“That’s not totally clear yet, but Agent Wilson has a team on it. They have a working theory, but that’s all it is right now, a theory.”
“Can you tell us what that is?”
“Basically, what we thought when I went up to Lakewood to discuss this with you. During her affair with Griffin, Mosher was promised she would get Sally after the divorce. However, there was no divorce, and Mary had already sold Sally to you. Since she had possession of Sally before the marriage, Mark had absolutely no claims on the horse. Even though he had told anyone who would listen that he could get her in the divorce.”
“But then Mary died, so there was no divorce.”
“Correct. Based on the journal you found, and the evidence left behind, tests were run, and more warrants were issued.”
“To?”
“Officer Avery Mosher’s home was tossed by the Feds. Nothing was left untouched. They even tore up the floorboards.”
“Why?”
“Because we didn’t see it, but in the journal there were papers slipped into the binding that pointed thefinger at Mosher being the one to provide the drugs that killed Mary, and Mary had overheard her talking to Mark about storing them beneath the floorboards.”
“Did they find anything?”
“Yes, they found containers holding large amounts of what was found in the samples Mary provided. She was arrested, and is being held in a federal facility.”
“Will she be tried and imprisoned in a federal facility?”
“No,” Jason spoke for the first time since they sat down. “Yes, her crimes are federal, however, I’ve talked with the DA, and we both agree that she needs to have her trial and do her time where she did her crime. People have joked that being in federal prison is like a country club, and there are some like that, however, Officer Mosher used her power to benefit herself. She will be tried in Lakewood, but if there’s too much outcry, we’ll move it to Denver. I won’t be trying it, but I will be second chair to the DA. I know we haven’t discussed it all yet, but one of the reason’s I’m here is that the DA would like to speak with you to get your statement.”
“Okay, I can do that, but what about Mark? What about exhuming Mary’s body?”
“Again, the warrant came through, they did exhume her body, ran more tests, and found what she had written in the journal to be true. She had beenslowly poisoned over three years. It started around the time Mark started his affair with Mosher.” Ilsa saw Myrna slump in relief. “Mark is also in jail, and because of the results of the new autopsy, he’s in even more trouble than what he thought.”
“How so?” Pedro asked as he put his arm across the back of Myrna’s chair and rubbed her shoulder.
“It turns out that the life insurance company took exception to being told she died of natural causes, then learned it was foul play. They are suing him for the five-million-dollar policy he had taken out on her seven months before her death.”
“Shit, so he knew she was dying, and he cashed in on it, even though he was the one poisoning her.”
