Best Laid Plans(118)
Lucy continued. “But Tobias killed Garza, and Tobias sent the photo of Harper to Adeline and said he wanted his money. Why frame either of them?”
“Maybe he killed Harper Worthington as a threat. The letter gave her forty-eight hours.”
“And she didn’t pay, so Elise was the sacrifice. Maybe. To give us a witness to point to Garza. Because Garza and Elise had a connection in D.C. It’s convoluted, but it holds together.” Lucy frowned. “Then why kill Garza?”
“Because he knew something?”
“Or maybe because he was working with Adeline and Tobias makes a point to take out everyone in an organization. We have to find Elise.” She looked around. “Where’s Barry? How long does it take to get security tapes?”
As if on cue, Barry stepped off the elevator and strode down the hall. He showed Lucy footage of Elise in her hospital gown being wheeled into an MRI room by a man in a white coat. They couldn’t see his face well, but he wasn’t old—maybe twenty-five. Young to be a doctor. “We found her gown and IV drip in the MRI room, and then, about ten minutes before we arrived, this was captured at the main entrance.”
Elise was walking out arm in arm with the same man. Lucy could tell based on his height and gait.
“We know him,” Lucy said. “That’s the witness who said she’d run to his car while being shot at.”
“Peter Rabb,” Barry said. “I’ve already sent SAPD to his address and put a BOLO out on his car.” Barry looked at his watch. “They have a twenty-two-minute head start.”
Lucy’s phone rang. It was Juan. “Hello, sir,” she said, surprised he’d called her and not Barry.
“The two agents we had sitting on Adeline’s house said that you’d called and ordered them to check on her.”
“Yes, sir, I did. I’m sorry, I should have gone through Barry, but he was on the phone and—”
“Adeline Reyes-Worthington is dead. Joseph Contreras is gone. There was a door in the basement that went into a side garden, and they believe he used that to escape.”
“He’d worked for her for years. Are you certain he killed her?”
“I sent an ERT unit to process the entire house. Her neck was broken, there was no struggle. The agents searched the house, but there’s no sign of Contreras.”
“Adeline was our only lead—no, James Everett. Adeline and Everett were in business together, he was being blackmailed by Elise. With Adeline gone, Everett is the only one who knows where the money is. We need to find Everett immediately—he’s the next target. And considering he’s been giving information to the FBI—”
Juan interrupted. “Understood. Get to his house. He has a wife and two children. I’ll call SAPD and send backup.” He hung up.
“Tobias is cleaning up. Whatever this game was,” Brad said, “He’s starting over.”
“Not until he gets his money,” Lucy said. She hoped. If he didn’t care about the money, then the Everett family was already dead.
They rushed out of the hospital and Barry called headquarters for Everett’s home address. He sped out of the parking lot and toward James Everett’s Alamo Heights home. Because it was nearly nine on Wednesday night, the streets were relatively clear.
“What makes Tobias tick?” Lucy wondered out loud. Elise was a killer—she understood killers better than drug dealers or gun runners.
“Power,” Brad said. “A man like Tobias lives on his reputation, which is built on power and fear. If his enemies see that he let Adeline get away with keeping money that belonged to him, that emboldens his opposition. So he has to take a stand. Kill her husband. Pressure her.”
“And when she didn’t cave—oh, no.” Lucy realized Adeline’s mistake. “If Contreras is working for Tobias, he knew that Adeline was talking to us, and once we got her into FBI headquarters, she might tell us everything. So he killed her and ran.”
“He must have planned it from the beginning,” Brad said. “Tobias is not spontaneous.”
“He put Contreras in her organization to keep an eye on her. For years.”
“Or he recruited Contreras,” Barry suggested.
“True,” Brad said. “Either way, he must have figured out the FBI had an undercover operation. He had access to everything—her house, her finances, her friends, her campaign information.”
“What if,” Lucy said, “Contreras became suspicious of Harper? Contreras lived in the house. What if he saw the change in Harper’s demeanor? But he took it more seriously than Adeline and had him followed. He could have known he’d gone to the FBI in May. What if they thought Harper was the FBI informant? And didn’t know about Dunbar’s operation?”
Barry nodded. “At first I didn’t see where you were going with this, but now it makes sense. If they suspected Harper was working with the FBI, they would follow him, and that’s how they found out about Gary Ackerman. Harper needed someone he trusted, and the only person he could be certain wasn’t involved in Adeline’s criminal enterprise was an old friend from school with a loyalty to their mutual friend Roy Travertine.”
“So Ackerman helped Harper put together the details. Because of Ackerman’s work with Travertine, he’d know more about campaigns and campaign finance law than Harper, but Harper knew about money and numbers, and together they figured out what Adeline was doing.”