the longest time, they did nothing more than cuddle and touch and kiss, which was more than enough for her. It was so relaxing, in fact, that they both dozed off after a while, and because it was so rare for him to actually sleep, Sam had to sneak out of bed an hour later so she wouldn’t disturb him.
He’d left his laptop on the dresser, and after she put on Nick’s discarded T-shirt, she retrieved the computer and brought it back to bed, moving carefully, hoping he’d stay asleep.
She checked her email to see if there was anything from Lindsey, which there wasn’t, but there was a message from Detective Cameron Green.
LT,
Took the liberty of a deep dive into the case against Virginia McLeod and summarized the details for you below. I also made a very LONG list of the people we need to speak with. I figure we can maybe divide and conquer tomorrow? Hope this helps.
Cam
“God bless you, Cameron Green,” she whispered as she scrolled down to read the details of the scheme Ginny had perpetrated against her family and friends.
The gist, Cameron had written, was that she got them to invest in properties, such as old warehouses and run-down apartment buildings, that would be rehabbed and sold at a profit, though many of the properties didn’t even exist. She used photos of properties located in different parts of the country to build detailed prospectuses about the possibilities for each one, along with projections for profitability for each development. Working with a local Realtor, she’d shown potential investors properties similar to the ones she had in mind for rehab. And the money came pouring in, to the tune of twenty-two million dollars from four hundred and eighty high-end investors.
Ugh, Sam thought. That gave them four hundred and eighty people with motive to kill.
The scheme was uncovered, Cameron wrote, when the FBI was tipped off by one of the investors, named Brett Haverson, who’d spotted some cracks in the scheme and asked an FBI agent friend to check it out for him. That had led to a full-blown investigation by the FBI and IRS that found Ginny was collecting the money, living large, not paying taxes and not rehabbing anything.
Sam composed an email to Cam.
This is fantastic work! Thank you so much for getting a jump on it. You saved me a ton of time. Questions:
How do people think they will get away with this stuff?!?
Don’t they know that eventually the investors are going to be asking for progress reports on the properties?
How do they explain their new extra lavish lifestyle to the friends and family whose money is being used to pay for it?
He wrote back a few minutes later.
I wondered the same things. If you’re going to do something like this, there’re smarter ways to get your friends to invest in something less tangible. And if you’re an investor, don’t you view the property in question BEFORE you turn over a shit ton of money?! But people who have shit tons of money in the first place probably don’t do the same due diligence ahead of time that you and I would do. Which also leads to the fact that she was asking friends and family to invest, and that lends a certain credibility. Who would suspect a FRIEND or FAMILY MEMBER of blatantly stealing from them? In that way, it’s kind of brilliant…
Diabolically brilliant, Sam replied. We’ll talk to Haverson to start with in the a.m. Divide up the rest of the list among the team. And thanks again for getting a jump on this. You earned multiple gold stars!
Ha-ha, how do I cash in on these gold stars you speak of? Also, we need to talk about the OTHER THING in the a.m. I might have something for you.
I’m intrigued. Gold stars to be redeemed as the LT sees fit. The system is somewhat arbitrary and undefined. Have a good night and thanks again.
The “other thing” was a side investigation into Sergeant Ramsey they were conducting completely off the books. They believed he reported Gonzo for buying drugs on the street and was looking for any way to discredit Sam and her squad.
She’d asked Freddie, Jeannie and Cameron to do some digging into Ramsey, leaving no paper trail that could come back to bite them. She couldn’t wait to hear what Cam had uncovered.
She read through the reports Cam had forwarded to her from the FBI investigation into Ginny’s scheme and how it had