Chapter Fourteen --
“His brother, the guy who went missing all those years ago?”
“Yes, Kyle is alive and well. It gets better. The new wife, Christine? She’s Kyle’s long-time girlfriend. It turns out she and Kyle have been plotting to kill Kevin for months.”
“Talk to me.” Now I was leaning forward. I couldn’t help myself. There was a much bigger story here, one the FBI hadn’t seen coming. I wanted to know why. “Where was Kyle all these years?”
“Kevin hired Michael O’Callaghan, an IRA gangster, to murder his brother back in 1993, when that million dollars plus disappeared. According to Christine, who has already agreed to testify against Kyle in exchange for not getting the needle, Kyle took the money because Kevin was cheating him. He made his way to Florida, put the money in a bank in Miami and then began laundering it, until it was clean enough to move to Key West, where he settled down to build his new life. Kevin tracked the money to that bank account, thanks to a forensic accountant he hired, and began stealing the money back, using a series of wire transfers he arranged over the space of a week. That flushed Kyle out of hiding and O’Callahan was waiting when Kyle showed up in New York to grab the money back.”
“No love lost between the brothers?” I asked. Will shook his head.
“That’s an understatement. What Kevin never knew was that Kyle got the jump on O’Callaghan and had tortured O’Callaghan into giving up the plan before he killed him. Kyle was unable to resume his life, so he just stayed out of sight and spent years plotting to rip off Frist and Company, using a number of associates to help him. And even after he got the money back, he kept going. All these years, he’s had his thugs sabotage the real estate projects, bleeding his brother dry to the point that Kevin couldn’t sustain the company any more. That’s when Kevin sold a good portion of the company to the venture investment firm and came up with the idea of blowing up Phase One to get the insurance money and cover up the shoddy construction.”
“Where does Christine fit in?” I wondered. “Did she break up the first marriage for Kyle’s benefit?”
“And then some. The idea was to use her to ruin Kevin. It looks like she was pretty successful. Not only was she feeding Kyle the financial information, she was meeting him regularly for sex.”
“Which must mean Kyle has been nearby all this time? How did he pull that off?”
“A lot of plastic surgery. And yes, he’s been living in Greenwich, Connecticut all this time. He’s called himself a venture capitalist.”
“Oh, let me guess. That investment firm that bought the controlling shares of Frist and Company is owned by Kyle?”
“You got it. Kyle is Blue Ridge.”
“Great. When do you get Kyle?” I wanted to know. I wasn’t going to rest easy until he was in a maximum security prison, under lock and key, without access to the outside world.
“The federal judge signed off on the warrant an hour ago. We’re just waiting for a special team to assemble and move in. The concern is that Kyle has his mansion booby-trapped to blow and an arsenal of weapons at his disposal to fend off any efforts to apprehend him.”
“Right.” I nodded, still processing the information. “How come Christine gave him up so easily?”
“Good question. Turns out Kevin treated her a hell of a lot better than Kyle did. She developed feelings for the bastard. Lately, she had a case of the guilts and started slipping up. Last month, Kyle beat the crap out of her during a visit. She told her husband she was mugged.”
“Nasty stuff, Will.”
“This case is going to be big, Gabriella. Very sad, but very big.”
“You’re going to be tied up for a long time,” I sighed. “Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
No wonder he was blue. Nettie was off-limits until the conclusion of the trial. The star-crossed lovers were separated by fate. Too bad, because this guy clearly had it bad for my cousin.
“What’s the plan for Annette?”
“The doctors want to treat her for psychological trauma. She’s likely to have nightmares for a long time,” I confided.
“No doubt.”
“But I have my own plan.”
“You do?”
“Yup. I’m going to arrange to transfer her to a hospital up in Vermont. There’s a great doctor up there who specializes in PTSD. When the Klarsfeld family was taken hostage last year, they needed a lot of psychological support after they were threatened and tortured. I have a lot of confidence in this particular doctor because I saw the results of her therapy. Annette and I had already talked about her moving up there permanently. We even talked about how she could earn a living. She needs to be with her family.”
“She does,” he conceded sadly. She was slipping out of his fingers. Say goodbye to the love that never got a foothold. “She really wants this?”
“I think so. There are a number of jobs to choose from on Black Forest Farm. She’ll have a nice, safe life,” I reassured him.
“Good.” He swallowed hard, choking up. His eyes were on the sleeping beauty in the bed. His fingers were gripping the end of the hospital bed like it was a raft in rough seas. The man was a study in miserable.
“What are your plans? Are you going to stay with the FBI?”
“That was always the plan,” he agreed.
“And now?”
“Still the plan,” he insisted, but I didn’t think his heart was in it.
“A cop’s wife has a miserable life. Always wondering if the guy is going to come home. The long hours on the job. Family holidays disrupted. The constant and unrelenting challenges.”
“I know.” There is was. Acceptance. He knew that he would be impacting Annette’s life in some really difficult ways. It didn’t change his feelings for her. He still wanted her. But he was willing to walk away from her to give her the life she deserved.
“A smart guy might figure out a way to minimize all that,” I said, tossing him a bone. “Maybe he’d ask for a transfer to the Albany office and start the romance out slow, while she healed.”
“Really?” There was that puppy dog hope in the eyes. Will really did care about my cousin.
“You might be able to get together once in a while to discuss the case, right? That would be legitimate.”
“Absolutely.”
“And since I got dragged into this mess, I could probably chaperone from time to time, if you two wanted to get to know each other better, especially if you managed that transfer.”
“It wouldn’t have to be Albany, you know. There’s Boston, Springfield, even the resident office in Burlington.” He was already working the possibilities. Suddenly, his career was less about the prestige and more about real life. He was willing to settle in as a career agent than a superstar. No executive service for Will. He was a man in love.
“You look tired. Did you want to get some sleep? I’d be happy to sit with her.” There was a plea in his eyes. I didn’t have the heart to shut him off cold turkey from his fix. “I’ll make sure she’s safe.”
“Sure. Maybe I’ll go back to Annette’s place for a bit.”
One of the FBI agents had handed me Annette’s dainty little purse when the ambulance arrived to take her to the emergency room. I had tucked it into my big hobo bag. Now I checked it for her house keys. The pair was tucked in a zippered pocket, building key and front door key. Holding them tightly, I went down to the hospital entrance. A security guard was stationed nearby.
“Any chance I can catch a cab at this time of night?”
“Sure,” she told me. “Let me get you the phone number.”
Twenty minutes later, I was dropped at the entrance of the building. I took the elevator up, let myself in, and groaned. My overnight bag was still in the parking lot at 1423, in Annette’s car. No toothbrush or clean underwear for me. I grabbed a seltzer from the fridge, helped myself to a dish of chocolate chip ice cream, and made my way back to the living room. Exhausted, I flopped on her sofa, flipped on
the television, and gasped.
This just in. A series of explosions leveled a mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut just about forty minutes ago during a raid to apprehend a man wanted for murdering his own brother. Kyle Frist, who disappeared....
My fingers were already flying through my contacts list. I punched the call button.
“Will!” I said breathlessly, “have you heard?”
“I’m watching it now.”
“Does this mean....”
“No trial. I think so. Maybe.”
“Merry Christmas to you, buddy. Looks like Santa came early this year.”
“Yes, indeedy!” There was relief in that voice. Hansel and Gretel were out of the witch’s oven and soon would be leaving the gingerbread house. Let’s hope they could find their way out of the forest without running into more predators.
I watched the news a little longer, hoping to find out if Kyle survived the blasts. Ironic that he planned to blow up 1423 with his brother’s body in the Phase One building. That dismembered body would have been incinerated, along with my cousin. I wondered how Kyle had hoped to spin that. Would Kevin have been accused of the financial fraud? Would the reinvented Kyle have raked in the bucks as Blue Ridge Investments? We might never know now.
At six-thirty, I called Will to find out how Annette was and to tell him I was going to swing by 1423 to retrieve her car.
“Talk to Lorenzo. He’s the agent in charge on the ground. If he tries to impound the car as evidence, have him call me.”
I did as he suggested and by eight o’clock, I was walking into Nettie’s room, where the new physician was checking her chart.
“Are you a relative?” he wanted to know. I introduced myself. “Could you excuse us, Agent Jondahl?”
“He stays,” I insisted. “He’s practically a member of the family.”
The psychiatrist went over the short-term plan for Annette. I shared my intention for the long haul, of moving her to Black Forest Farm as soon as possible. He thought so much change in such a short time was a very bad idea. I explained that my cousin was all alone in the city, she had just found out her boss was a snake, and I had already spoken to the head of the psychiatric department at Fletcher-Allen Medical Center in Burlington about the transfer.
“Well, I’m not sure I can sign off on this,” he said, bristling. I read his name tag.
“You’re going to have to, Dr. Hissam. I’ve sent other PTSD patients to this team before with great success. Besides, my cousin spoke about moving to Vermont before all this hit the fan. At the moment, not only does she no longer have a job, the second suspect in the case was just blown to bits when he tried to prevent the FBI from arresting him.”
“Taking a patient out of her normal environment and expecting her to recover from trauma is....”
“It’s not a matter of getting back on the horse, Doc. The truth is ever since her husband passed away, nothing in her world has been the same. She needs to be around people who love her. It’s about letting Annette sort things out in a safe environment. It’s about letting her come to terms with the horrific crime she witnessed in her own way. The farm is a very healing place to be. She can be busy and productive. The therapy will help her put the events into perspective. More importantly, since this involves organized criminals, she will have security to protect her.”
“You seem very determined, Ms. Grimm.”
“Deputy Grimm. Latimer Falls Sheriff’s Department.”
“Oh. That explains a few things. When do you want me to release her?”
“Sooner, rather than later,” I announced. “I want her to start therapy with her new doctor as soon as possible, so they can establish a relationship.”
The older man bit his lip as he considered the situation. He checked the notes on his clipboard.
“I would like to speak to the psychiatrist first. Do you object to that?”
“Not a problem.” I gave him the doctor’s phone number. “Tell her I suggested you consult.”
The doctor left us to consult with his Vermont colleague. Will offered me the chair, standing at the foot of Annette’s bed as he stretched. His eyes were blurry and there were suitcase-sized bags under them. The man was completely wiped out, emotionally, mentally and physically.
“Thanks, Gabby, for arranging the transfer. I really would feel better if she was somewhere safer.”