Page 41 of Ghostly Bother
"He's been missed by all of us, but I bet by you most." Carrie laughed. "We tend to forget how much he does behind the scenes."
"I didn't go to school to do this much paperwork. Remind me of that if his position ever comes open and I want to step into it. I'm happy being his assistant." Lance gave the body of the man in front of him a quick look. Carrie had already taken pictures and done the precursor examination before prepping it for the actual autopsy. A large knife would cut through the man's stomach along with several deep puncture wounds. The victim's hands had defensive wounds, showing where he'd tried to grab the knife before being stabbed. "Painful way to die."
"Yeah, it's not how I'd want to go." Brayden stepped up.
"Strangulation wasn't fantastic. Not being able to get a breath." Eden placed her hands on her neck. "I remember that."
Lance didn't respond.
"I was burned alive," Betty told them.
Lance's eyes widened. He'd never heard how Betty had died. He had so many questions. Leave it to Betty to bring it up when he couldn't ask her anything about it.
"Oh, yuck. That had to suck." Eden flinched.
"I thought the plane crash would kill me, but it didn't. I was already dying from my injuries when the fire finished the job." Betty shrugged.
"Plane crash?" Eden's eyes were wide.
"Yeah, engine issues. Not something I want to talk about." Betty waved her hand. "I was just saying burning to death is a horrible way to go. Can't breathe due to the smoke, bodyblistering in the heat. Smoke killed me before it got too bad, but I felt enough. I think my injuries from the crash would have killed me, even if the fire didn't."
Lance had to bite his tongue and force himself to focus on Brayden's work because all he wanted to do was get Betty alone and ask more questions. Did Angus know about this? He had to, right? After so many years around Betty, he had to have heard the story.
As he watched Brayden work, Betty and Eden continued to talk. It wasn't the onslaught of questions and demands he usually got from Eden lately, but it was just as distracting. He wasn't sure if having Betty there was better or worse. Nothing had changed. He still had ghosts distracting him from work, but at least now, they weren't talking directly to him. If he could just tune them out, maybe he could make it through the day.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Angus was having a hard time concentrating on the case. His thoughts were on Lance and replaying their phone conversation earlier. He was sure they'd get through this, but he couldn't help but feel like he'd done enough damage to their relationship that it was going to take time to recover. He wanted to be with Lance and not sitting in endless meetings and interviews, listening to the dead ends that all their leads were producing. This case was the worst. They had proof of crimes, but not a single lead to tell them who murdered Eden.
"This is getting us nowhere," Franks complained.
"We got a couple of new names to look at." Angus tapped the folder sitting on his desk. "Thanks to the charges being filed against the companies who were bribing the Mayor's Office, people are running scared. They're doing everything they can to give the appearance they're cooperating with us."
Franks shook his head. "Sharing information isn't going to help them. The charges of bribery are serious. I expect once the news picks up on this that several of those companies will be going out of business."
"Hopefully." Angus stood and poured another cup of coffee. As he sat back down, he rolled his shoulders, wishing the day was over. "I've requested warrants to look into the city council's personal bank accounts. That bribe money had to be going somewhere. Eden was smart enough not to put it in her name, but where the hell is it?"
Franks shrugged. "Maybe we should run her kid's names? Perhaps a trust or something we overlooked?"
"That should have shown on our initial investigation, but it's worth a shot." Angus sighed. "It would make sense that she'd put the money in a nest egg for her children. Still, knowing Eden,she'd want to have access to the money. She'd want to spend it on herself. I don't see her risking all this just to let her kids have it all when they turn eighteen or twenty-one. From what I've seen, she isn't very concerned about her children. If I died, I'd spend all my time with family. I'm not even sure she goes over there to check on them. She's almost constantly with Lance."
"From all accounts, she wasn't any more attentive to them while she was alive. It sounds like her husband and sister took care of the kids while she worked and played political games. Her husband dropped the kids off at school and picked them up, and her sister babysat on days the kids weren't in school and the parents worked."
Angus sat forward. "Where does Rachel work again?" He started tapping keys on his keyboard, searching the computer for notes on their interview with her.
"She works part time at the Fairway Gym. A yoga instructor or something. She also works from home. Some kind of graphic art or website creator, I think." Franks narrowed his eyes. "Why?"
"She's got that nice little house not too far from Eden's. She's single, so only one income. Unless she's very talented, I doubt she's making enough money to afford a mortgage on that home she has."
"Maybe she inherited it?" Franks suggested.
"Or maybe we shouldn't be looking for accounts, but property." Angus started searching for property records in Eden or her husband's name but came up with nothing they didn't already know about. He then searched for the sister's name and sat back. "Well, well…" He grinned at Franks. "Rachel has her house, a condo in town, and three other properties in the area."
"I went into the wrong business. I should have gone into graphic design," Franks commented. "Expensive properties?"
"Not extreme, but better than what you and I are living in. I need to do a bigger search and see if she owns anything outside this area." He glanced over at Franks. "This has bugged me from the beginning. We knew the bribes were in cash since she was killed while going out to receive one. Lucas Jenkin told us in his interview that he would pay her in twenty-thousand-dollar increments. It's small enough to handle, and not huge enough to raise too many eyebrows. You deposit a few thousand every few days and don't trigger anything on your bank accounts to alert the feds. Or you pay cash for large item purchases that you either let sit or resale. What bothered me was we weren't seeing any of those large, priced items in Eden or her husband's name. But what do you want to bet that Rachel has a few in her name?" Angus continued searching.
"Bingo." Franks pointed to his own monitor. "Rachel Reese has a brand-new Tesla registered in her name, along with a boat that was registered in her name about six months ago. I also see registration for several jet skis. That's just a simple glance at in-state registrations. Who knows what we'll find if we expand the search?"
