in a freak-out, asking her to get stuff for him from the hardware store and then meet him at the parents’ house. I need to know if that call happened and if you can put him in the area on Sunday. I’ll ask Malone to get the warrant.”
“Once we have it, I’ll get with Archie to track them,” Green said. “We can track the pings to isolate his location.”
“Do hers and the father’s too. Let’s figure out who’s telling the truth here.”
“On it.”
Sam ducked her head into the observation room. “Cap? Can you come here, please?”
“What’s going on?” she heard Mandi ask Dominguez. “I didn’t do anything! You need to let me go!”
Captain Malone stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him.
“We’re going to track the cell phones to see who’s telling the truth. Can you take care of the warrants?”
“I will. Good call, no pun intended.”
She handed him the paper Green had provided. “In the meantime, Green has found a corporation in Delaware worth fifteen million, and guess who’s on the board of directors?”
Malone scanned the sheet. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
“Let’s go ask Ken Jr. if he knew he was vice chair of the board.”
They went back to interview two.
“Got another question for you, Ken. Have you ever heard of a corporation called VMcL?”
“No. Why?”
Sam placed the paper on the table in front of him. “I assumed you would’ve heard of it since you’re the vice chair of the board of directors.”
“What? No, I’m not.”
Sam pointed to the place where he was listed. “Yes, you are.”
He looked up at her, shock etched into every corner of his face. “I know nothing about this, Lieutenant. I swear to God.”
Sam believed him.
“I can’t believe she’d use me this way.” He shook his head. “Who implicates their own kid in a crime of this magnitude? Who does that, Lieutenant?” He seemed on the verge of tears. “She was my mother. Wasn’t she supposed to protect me?”
Sam had heard Nick ask the same heartbreaking questions about his own mother. “Yes, she was.”
“I don’t know what to do. I had no idea she’d done this, and now I suppose I can be held criminally liable for things I had nothing to do with.”
“This may be an opportunity to fix some of the wrong your mother did.”
“How so?”
“As a director of the company, I’d imagine you’d have the ability to determine where the money goes.”
He brightened visibly. “I would, wouldn’t I?”
“I think so.”
“I’ll do anything I can to make this right for the people she stole from.”
“Hold that thought.” Sam retrieved the paper about the company’s board of directors. “We’ll be back.”
Sam left interview two, and while Malone went to see to the warrants for the phones, Sam returned to interview one. “What’s the deal with the VMcL Corporation?”
Mandi’s brows furrowed. “I don’t know any company by that name.”
Sam put the printout on the table. “That’s strange, because you’re the chair of the company’s board of directors.” She pointed to the place where Mandi could see her name.
“I am? How’s that possible if I’ve never heard of the company?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
“I don’t know either! She never told me anything about this.”
“The company has fifteen million in assets.”
“Oh. Well… I didn’t know.”
“Now you do.”
“I’m not sure what you want me to say about it. I didn’t know she made me the chair of a company I’d never heard of. I didn’t know she was sending me to the Caymans to deposit stolen money. I didn’t kill her.”
“You were pretty oblivious all the way around, huh?”
“I was in college, Lieutenant. Did you go to college? Do you know what’s involved?”
“I went to college and grad school—with dyslexia—so yeah, I know what’s involved.”
“I didn’t have time to pay attention to what she was doing with her business.”
“But you had plenty of time to take trips to the Cayman Islands whenever she needed you to.”
“Those were vacations. Since when are vacations illegal?”
“They’re not, unless you’re actually on the payroll to stash money in tax-free havens.”
“I wasn’t. She didn’t give me a dime except for my tuition. My brother and I were always expected to work, and we did. They even made us share a car in high school so we wouldn’t be spoiled. None of our friends had to share a car with their siblings. We were the only ones.”
Poor baby, Sam wanted to say. How did you ever survive such hardship?
After hearing how Ginny had raised her kids, Sam needed more insight