Cut and Run (Lucy Kincaid #16) - Allison Brennan Page 0,130
at Russo’s. That we’re friends and I was giving her career advice. That was it.”
Nate said, “Ash is here with the van.”
“Great. Shall we head to FBI headquarters, Mr. Clemson?” Lucy said.
He got up, shaking.
Lucy said to Nate, “I need to make a call. Can you take him?”
“My pleasure,” he said.
When they stepped out of Clemson’s office, Lucy called Max to warn her about Simon.
There was no answer.
Chapter Thirty-four
Max first tried calling Ryan, but there was no answer. His phone went straight to voice mail. Probably in the middle of something, but she really needed to talk this through with him. She left him a message to call her when he had the chance.
She’d found it. At least, she thought she found something suspicious.
Like she’d told Lucy, Simon had sold the land that would have been impacted by the Kiefer project to Harrison Monroe and it would have likely been worthless—or at least substantially devalued—had the public works project gone through. It appeared to be the last parcel of land that Simon had sold to anyone.
Six months after the Albrights were murdered—and less than thirty days after the Kiefer project was permanently halted, according to city council minutes—Monroe sold the land to a developer for nearly twice what he paid for it. A new commercial business park that leased property to both private and government entities was built up, and a new company was awarded a modified public works project that benefited the development and the new company.
Max wanted to know if either of those entities was affiliated with Monroe.
Max couldn’t figure out how Denise figured into all of it, unless Monroe had another plan to destroy Kiefer that she was privy to, a plan she couldn’t be party to. It would be motive. But how did she find out? Why didn’t she go to the authorities? Or had she planned to and that was why she was killed?
Max remembered what Ryan had told her—that land transactions leave a paper trail—and while she was one of the best at research, the nuances of these transactions weren’t clear to her.
She’d made copies of everything, hoping that between her, Sean, and Lucy—and maybe Ryan on Skype—they could put these pieces together.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw something. She glanced in the rearview mirror and a large truck was barreling down on her. She was going seventy, and she quickly flipped on her blinker and moved to the right lane.
“Jerk,” she muttered.
He immediately got behind her. She sped up, but it was too late.
He rammed her from behind and her car went out of control. The truck pushed her into the low railing, and at this speed she couldn’t stop. Her car flipped up and over the railing and the last thing she remembered was a sharp pain in her leg, then all she saw was black.
Chapter Thirty-five
“Hello, Mitch.”
Sean had tracked Mitch to a hotel in Austin. It took him a while to find his room, but when he did, Mitch didn’t try to run or explain.
“Come in,” he said, resigned.
Sean was still cautious. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. I’m trying to figure it out.”
“Let me help.”
Mitch sighed and waved his arm to the bed. Paper was everywhere, and at first Sean didn’t know what he was looking at. Then he realized that they were all real estate contracts.
“They’re all legal,” Mitch said. “But Harrison has been buying and selling land with no rhyme or reason.”
“It’s not the land transactions,” Sean said. “It’s where the money is coming from. You know about his underground gaming operation.”
Mitch nodded. “It was never supposed to be like this. It was a small operation, made a little money on the side. Simon was smart. Really smart. But then Harrison comes to town and it all goes to hell.”
“Simon started it?”
“They were partners. Harrison ran the Chicago operation, Simon ran the San Antonio operation. But when Harrison started getting some heat, he shut everything down and moved here. And then it went to hell.”
“Why?”
“Because he wanted more. He wanted big. He wasn’t content with the small profit they were making. I think it was his wife who was pushing him. Faith is insane. She came from nothing, put herself through law school, she’s certainly not an idiot. But you’d think they were on the verge of bankruptcy the way they expanded. More land, more money, more hidden accounts.”