Chapter 17
Jodie Marshall
Jodie woke up to the smell of hot coffee. She took in a long breath, happy to know that Carl was in the kitchen making breakfast. He was spoiling her and she loved it. She got up and wandered into the kitchen. He smiled broadly when he saw her.
“I knew the smell of coffee would get you up,” he said.
“Yes, it does smell good. Did I smell bacon too?”
“Yes, you did,” Carl said handing her a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon. “There’s toast coming too.”
“Good. I’m famished.”
“I’ve made plenty so eat as much as you want.”
“You trying to fatten me up?”
“No. You can eat a big breakfast without fear of getting fat, it’s lunch and dinner that you have to watch out for.”
“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper or something like that,” Jodie said.
Carl raised his eyebrows. “That’s pretty good.”
“I read that on the wall at Poor Richard’s Restaurant.”
“Right. . . .So, what’s on tap today?”
Jodie sighed. “Well, I need you to drop me off at Enterprise Rent a Car. After that I need to do some more research on Wilkinson Properties.”
“I thought you were done with them?”
“I’m just going to be talking to people who have done business with them in the past. I don’t think it will be dangerous.”
“You’re going to have Brandon with you, right?”
“Yes. Don’t worry.”
Carl’s cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the display. “It’s Cindy our dispatcher. Give me a minute,” Carl said as he walked a few steps away to take the call. After a moment he hung up and shook his head. “They found your car.”
“They did?” Jodie asked.
“Yes. Unfortunately, it’s been totaled. Someone torched it.”
“Oh, my God,” Jodie moaned. “I can’t believe this.”
“Well, look on the bright side. Your insurance company will have to buy you a new car.”
“No, I’ll be lucky if they give me enough to pay off the loan on it,” Jodie said bitterly.
“So, you’ll have to buy a new car. Your credit is good.”
“Sure, but I’ll have to come up with a down payment and my new car payment, I’m sure, will be a lot more than what I’m paying now.”
Carl sighed. “I’m sorry, honey. I wish there was something I could do.”
“It’s not your fault. I’ll get Turner & Waters to pay the difference since I was on the job when it was stolen.”
Carl laughed. “Are you serious?”
“No. I can’t prove Sutherland or Wilkinson had anything to do with it.”
Carl thought about that a moment. “Maybe, maybe not. You should go to the crime scene and see if there were any witnesses or evidence left behind.”
Jodie thought about that a moment. “That’s a good idea. Someone may have seen something.”
“Exactly,” Carl said. “You might get lucky.”
Having settled that issue they ate breakfast and got ready for work. After Carl dropped her off at the office, Brandon took her to her first appointment with a dentist named Carl Brooks. It was his day off so she met him at his home.
“So, why are you interested in the sale of my property to Wilkinson?” Brooks asked.
“I’ll be happy to answer that question,” Jodie said. “But first I need to make sure there isn’t any conflict.”
“Conflict?”
“You’re not related to anyone at Wilkinson Properties are you?”
“No.”
“So, you don’t have any allegiance to them?”
“No. Not at all.”
“Good. What I’m going to tell you is of a very sensitive nature and I wouldn’t want anyone at Wilkinson Properties to know about this conversation.”
Brooks laughed. “Well, I’m not going to tell them.”
“Good. So, were you happy with the sale of the property to them?”
Brooks shrugged. “Yeah. I got paid the sales price. What’s not to like?”
“Did you want to sell?”
Brooks hesitated. “Not exactly. We had to sell it.”
“Why?”
Brooks took a deep breath. “I needed the money.”
“Can you elaborate?”
“I could but it’s personal.”
Jodie nodded knowing whatever he was about to say would probably be embarrassing. “Listen. Whatever you tell me I’ll keep confidential.”
“How can I be sure of that?”
“Do you have a dollar?”
Brooks frowned. “Sure. I have a dollar.”
“Give it to me and then I’ll be your attorney. Whatever you tell me will be protected by the attorney-client relationship.”
“What am I hiring you to do?”
“To reevaluate the sale of your property.”
Brooks took out a dollar and gave it to her. He thought a moment and then began. “There was an incident. A young girl accused me of sedating her and then touching her improperly. It wasn’t true, but the accusation would have been enough to ruin me.”
“So, what did you do?”
“My attorney negotiated a confidential settlement with her. Unfortunately, I had to pay the $250,000 settlement out of my pocket, since I couldn’t report the incident to my insurance company without it becoming public knowledge.”
“So, you sold your property to raise the $250,000?”
“Exactly. I was really fortunate that Wilkinson came along and bought it so quickly. The girl’s attorney only gave us thirty days to fund the settlement.”
“So, how did you get connected with Tom Wilkinson?”
“The girl’s attorney referred us to him.”
Jodie couldn’t believe her ears. She was sure Brooks had been defrauded.
“How much did you have to discount the property to get a quick sale?”
“Oh, gosh. I’m sure I could have got another hundred grand for it, had I had more time.”
“Would you have sold the property had this incident not occurred?”
“No. I’d been at that location for twelve years. I lost a lot of customers when I moved.”
Jodie stood up. “Okay, I appreciate the information. You’ve been very helpful.”
“Wait a minute. What about my consultation?”
Jodie sighed. “Well, there is a possibility that Tom Wilkinson hired a woman to become your patient and then falsely accuse you of sexual misconduct. I’ll need to do more investigating to know that for sure.”
“That bastard! I’ll kill him.”
“I’m not a hundred percent sure that’s what happened, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Just stay cool for right now until we know for sure.”
“If it is true, what can I do about it?”
“You can help put Tom Wilkinson behind bars for one thing.”
“Can’t I sue him?”
“Yes, but suing someone like Wilkinson would be dangerous and probably a waste of time. Dangerous because he might send someone to put a bullet in your head and a waste of time because he’s a professional money launderer, so his assets will be tucked away somewhere out of your reach.”
“Jesus. I can’t believe this.”
“I know. It’s not right. I’m afraid putting him behind bars is the best you can hope for.”
Brooks shrugged. “Well, that’s better than letting him get away with it, I guess.”
“I’ll need a copy of the settlement agreement,” Jodie said. “I want to check out this girl and her attorney.”
“Sure. I’ve got an extra copy upstairs. I’ll go get it for you.”
Brooks left to get the settlement agreement. Several minutes later he returned with a copy of it in an envelope. He handed it to Jodie and she thanked him. When she got back to the office she found Paula and told her the situation with her car.
&nb
sp; “A total loss, huh?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid so.”
“That’s too bad, Jodie. I’m so sorry.”
“Ah well. At least I wasn’t in it.”
“Yes. Too bad Mike wasn’t, huh?” Paula interjected.
Jodie laughed. “Yeah. That would have been poetic justice.”
“So, what did you find out from Carl Brooks?”
Jodie told Paula what she had learned. “Well, that’s two cases we’ve identified where Tom Wilkinson has tricked or coerced people into selling their properties. I think this definitely strengthens our theory that Wilkinson was behind the murders.”
“I felt so sorry for this guy,” Jodie said. “Can you imagine the mental anguish he went through being falsely accused of sexual misconduct? Oh, my God. Wilkinson is a demon straight out of hell.”
After lunch Jodie had Brandon take her out to the place her car had been torched. It was in the country near Lake Lavon. The car had been pushed off the highway and had rolled under a big oak tree before it was doused in gasoline and set on fire. Jodie began walking the perimeter of the burnt area as Brandon looked on. She stopped when she saw a trail of burnt grass stretching ten yards toward the highway.
“It looks like the perp poured gasoline on the car and then poured a line of it away so he could set it on fire from a distance.”
Brandon nodded. “That’s what it looks like.”
“I wonder what he used to light it?” Jodie asked.
“A match,” Brandon replied.
“Or a cigarette.”
Brandon’s eyes widened. “Right. So if we found a cigarette butt we’d have DNA evidence.”
“Exactly.”
“I’ll search down here and you follow the trail of crushed grass up to the highway. He could have dropped the cigarette butt anywhere along the way.”
They searched without finding anything for twenty minutes. Jodie was about to give up when she heard Brandon yell.
“Eureka!”
She looked up and saw Brandon all the way up on the highway. “Did you find it?” she yelled.
“I think so. He must have thrown it away when he got back into his car.”
Jodie rushed up to the highway and peered down at the single cigarette butt. “Let me call Carl and have him send out a sheriff’s deputy. We don’t want to mess up the chain of custody.”
“What if one of the Sheriff’s deputies or the wrecker driver tossed this cigarette butt?” Brandon asked.
“Well, anything’s possible, but I would assume they would have rules against smoking at a crime scene.”
“You’d think.”
An hour later the deputy showed up to pick up the evidence. He didn’t seem too thrilled about being dragged all the way to Lake Lavon to pick up a cigarette butt, but Jodie didn’t care. She felt good about their discovery and thought it would turn out to be important. She didn’t think a sheriff’s deputy or even the wrecker driver would have been smoking on the job. She prayed the cigarette butt belonged to the asshole who had stolen her car.
When Jodie got home that night she thanked Carl for all his help in handling the Collin County Sheriff’s office. She knew they wouldn’t have sent a deputy out there had Carl not asked them to do it as a matter of professional courtesy. And if she had called Assistant DA Brian Rutledge, he would have laughed at her.
“Oh, I have more news for you,” Carl said while he stirred a pot of boiling pasta.
“What?”
“I had some free time so I researched prior police reports regarding the Jewelry Mart.”
“Oh, what did you find out?” Jody asked.
“There were three other robberies in the last five years.”
“Seriously? Isn’t that a lot?”
“Yeah. It seems like it to me, but I don’t have any way of comparing it to other jewelry stores.”
“So, anything interesting in the reports?”
“Well, in each of the cases the robbers were satisfied with what was out on display. They didn’t attempt to get in the safe.”
“Robbers, plural?”
“Yes, in each case there were two robbers—one who watched the employees and the door and the other one who collected the loot.”
“How much was taken?” Jodie asked.
“$132,000 in the first heist, $145,000 in the second, and $160,000 in the third.”
“Did anybody get hurt?”
“No. The robbers just took the jewels and left.”
“Did they ever apprehend any of the thieves?”
“No. The cases are still unsolved,” Carl replied. “I bet Stein got reimbursed by his insurance company for his losses, though.”
“That’s a safe bet,” Jodie agreed. “If they hadn’t paid him he would have sued them. Insurance companies have to prosecute claims in good faith or they can be liable for additional damages for unfair claims settlement practices.”
“So, how do you think this is relevant to your case?” Carl asked.
“Well, the value of jewelry isn’t easy to determine. I would bet he inflated the value of what he lost and actually profited from the robberies. That would explain his displeasure with Larson for interrupting the heist.”
Carl laughed. “Oh, right. He thought he was about to turn his entire inventory at a nice profit until Larson showed up.”
“That’s right.”
“So, now he wants the lost profit from your client.”
“Exactly.”
Carl turned off the burner, grabbed a colander, took the pot to the sink and dumped the pasta in it. While it was draining he went over to Jodie and put his arms around her. “I missed you,” he said. “I was worried about you. I know you had Brandon with you but with Mike the Maniac loose anything could have happened.”
“I know. I missed you too. I kept looking over my shoulder expecting to see someone lurking about ready to attack us.”
“That was the point of all these dirty tricks, I guess,” Carl said. “But, I promise you one day he’ll pay for what he has put you through.”
They kissed for a long moment and then Carl broke away. “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.”
Jodie nodded and smiled warmly. “Me too. And when we’re done I’ll provide dessert.”
Carl’s eyes widened. “Okay, let’s hurry then.”