Page 39 of Gator

“Ian, I spent a lot of time overseas, learning about other cultures and their customs. Mostly their food, but I paid attention to everything. Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Nepal, Malawi. They all have their versions of witchcraft, and the people believe in it. Anything that cannot be explained by logic is attributed to witchcraft. I’ve heard what happened with Jak and Mattie. Voodoo isn’t just something we hear about in New Orleans. It’s in all parts of the world. Sometimes it’s feared. Sometimes it’s revered.

“I don’t understand any of it. I wasn’t taught to believe in a certain religion, and I wasn’t taught tonotbelieve in things I didn’t understand. I was always curious. I saw what Sadie was going through in there, and that was real. I just hope that Ham will be okay.”

“Ham is strong,” nodded Gator. “He’ll make sure she’s safe out there, and hopefully, with a little help from our spirits, he can make sure she’s doing alright.”

“What about me? What about us?”

“What do you mean?” he frowned.

“I mean, she’s still out there, and so is Hanz. We can’t just hide from the world forever. I’m still not sure what he wants from me.”

“I think we can help with that,” smiled Jean, standing in the doorway. Beside him were Rose and Ella. They took a seat around the table, Cam, Luke, and Eric watching as they opened up their laptops.

“Let me guess, you followed the money?” smirked Luke.

“You know I did,” grinned Jean. “Rose and Ella really dug into this, though. They were the ones that figured it out. Your father warned you about Hanz and that he was stealing from companies, money laundering, everything, yet you said there was no inheritance for you from your parents.”

“Oh,” said Dylan in surprise. “No. I mean, there was a life insurance policy, but Hanz said he used it for my education and upbringing. I didn’t question anything else.”

“Right. But if all that stealing was going on, there would have been considerable holdings belonging to your father since he was the primary business owner, not Hanz. Except, your father was smarter than Metzger. His portion of the holdings would only go to you at age twenty-five, not back to the business. If you died before then, the holdings were to be reviewed and appropriately divided amongst several charities.”

“But of course, Hanz couldn’t have that,” smiled Ella. “If he allowed an independent counsel or accounting firm to look at the money and the holdings, he would be exposed.”

“So,” smiled Rose, “he used the considerable life insurance policy to give you everything you wanted or needed, thinking that once you reached twenty-five, he would just kill you and inherit it all or, if you were exceptionally compliant, get you to hand it over to him. But you threw a monkey-wrench into his plans. You were going to leave and take the job in New Orleans. That meant you would most likely find someone to have in your life before he could get a will written up.”

“That’s right,” said Ella, “which is when he had the brilliant idea to impregnate you. Except there was one problem.”

“He was sterile,” whispered Dylan.

“He was sterile,” smiled Jean. “So, instead, he paid the bodyguard to impregnate you, then killed him.” Dylan’s eyes went wide, and she turned, staring at Ian.

“He’s dead?”

“His body was found off the coast of New Jersey early yesterday morning. He was shot in the head. Hanz thought that if he kidnapped the baby, you would either find a way to give him the information he needed or you would come and get the baby yourself. He never counted on you connecting to Ian.”

“So, what do I need to do now?” she asked. Jean nodded at her, pushing forward a document.

“Our suggestion is that you sit with legal and draft a new will. Make sure that whatever is in the holdings legally goes to you or to Joey upon your death. Anything that was not there legally should be returned to any living descendants of those that Hanz stole from.”

“You need to make sure that our legal team excludes Hanz from any possibility of touching that money,” said Ella.

“All this was about money? He raised me, sent me to private boarding schools, the best colleges, gave me anything I asked for, all so he could get what he stole? I don’t understand. I mean, I do understand, but why wasn’t all that in his name? Why was it in my father’s name?”

“He thought he was being clever,” said Rose. “If he put all the holdings in your father’s name and the FBI came knocking, he’d be found guilty. Metzger could claim innocence, that he knew nothing of it. Your father would go to jail. Metzger would be out the money, but he’d be free.”

“How does someone get so evil?” she asked, shaking her head.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen it before,” said Jean. “Greed is a powerful thing, and if you combine that with the need for power, it grows exponentially. What little we know of Metzger’s marriage to Matilda, we can only assume they were both self-absorbed, narcissistic people.”

“We won’t have to worry about her any longer,” said Hex, standing with Eric in the doorway.

“What now?” frowned Gator.

“Matilda’s body was just found in the trunk of her rental car at Nationals Park. A maintenance worker was sweeping the parking lot and smelled something horrible. To top that off, Xi left the country three days ago. He boarded an Air China flight to Hong Kong and then another to Beijing. As far as we know, Messina and Metzger are still in the country.”

“Why?” asked Dylan. “Why stay in the country? I mean, Matilda’s dead, probably killed by Hanz. Whatever her plan was, they ended that. Xi is gone, Romanescu was removed from the country. So, what are those two planning, or what do they think they’re going to accomplish?”

“That’s a great question,” said Jean. “Unfortunately, I do dollar signs and Excel spreadsheets. I don’t do secret squirrel stuff unless I have to.”

---