14
T he four regrouped inside the Sutter’s living room, opening their laptops and spreading out on the sofa and loveseat. They hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so Brogan fixed spinach dip and served it with crackers while Lucien threw together grilled cheese sandwiches.
They spent the remainder of the afternoon reviewing county tax records, trying to determine who owned the vineyard.
The tax assessor’s website listed the owners under three companies with overseas addresses where the tax bills were sent. Researching each company online ended with post office boxes for addresses in cities like London, Tokyo, and Shanghai.
While Birk linked several offshore accounts to the Bahamas, tying them back to Noir Hills Estates, Lucien connected the addresses to three shell companies, uncovering a web of suspicious activities disguised as a high-end winery operation.
“Looks like we’ve stumbled on something much larger than we imagined,” Lucien muttered, his eyes glued to the screen.
Birk nodded grimly. “This goes way beyond a simple case of fraud. We’re dealing with an elaborate scheme, set up with one purpose—money laundering.”
Brogan leaned over to snatch a cracker from the serving platter, her brow furrowed in concentration. “If Noir Hills Estates is just a front, we need to find out what illegal activities the Shepherd brothers are into that would require such sneaking around.”
“Drugs come to mind,” Lucien added. “Serious drugs like heroin or fentanyl. Keith Shepherd was known for dabbling in the local drug trade when he was with the force. There’s a possibility they might even manufacture the stuff onsite at the vineyard, then ship it overseas in containers marked as wine to one of Europe’s noted cartels.”
Brogan’s jaw clenched as she absorbed the information. “That would make the most sense. The Shepherd brothers aren’t just running a winery; they’re part of a much larger criminal network that stretches worldwide. And if that’s the case—”
“We need to tread carefully,” Birk warned. “If the person who tipped off the Shepherd brothers catches wind that we’re onto them, they’ll try to silence all of us.”
Jade, who had been quietly observing the unfolding revelations, spoke up. “But what does this have to do with Sam’s murder and Bethany’s disappearance? It’s not like Bethany showed up on their doorstep asking questions.”
“That’s just it. Bethany didn’t need to set foot near Ken’s winery to be in danger,” Brogan concluded. “Keith or Ken learned from someone inside law enforcement—an old friend maybe—that Bethany had been snooping into Connie Upland’s cold case. They decided she had to be paid off or eliminated.”
“More likely eliminated. These guys don’t seem to like parting with money,” Birk stated.
“That’s probably true. Either way, they made her disappear. And they decided Sam had to go when he showed up trying to find his sister.”
“It boils down to one thing. Bethany asked the wrong question and trusted the wrong person,” Lucien declared, suspicion burning in his eyes. “We should probably warn Trish. Otherwise, she could end up the same way. We did urge her to dig into the same files.”
“And Bethany’s phone records,” Brogan pointed out. “That could set off alarm bells to the wrong someone.”
“I’ll send her a text,” Jade offered, picking up her phone.
“No!” the other three shouted in unison.
“It’s best to leave a reply to Truthseeker22,” Birk suggested. “That way, we’re sure no one else reads her texts on her work cell phone or email messages using her official police account.”
Jade’s brow knitted in confusion. “Which blog post do I reply to then?”
“Go to your blog site,” Birk proposed. “Maybe ask her to email you directly using an email address no one knows about. Suggest she create a new one if necessary.”
“Once Trish replies to the initial comment, you’ll need to tell her what we discovered about the shell companies and offshore accounts,” Brogan said.
Typing furiously on her laptop, Jade posted the first reply to Truthseeker22 that read: Trust no one except those in your inner circle. Don’t use your work phone to send texts. Don’t use your usual email address. The wrong people are listening.
“That’s pretty good,” Brogan stated, re-reading the post. “That’s sure to get her attention. I only hope it’s sooner rather than later.”
“Let’s call in a pizza for dinner,” Birk suggested after hitting send. “Sleuthing makes me hungry. Dinner is on us. We’ve been mooching off you guys too often lately.”
It took two hours before they heard back from Trish. And it wasn’t an email or a reply online.
When the doorbell rang around five-thirty, Lucien checked the Ring Cam. Trish stood on the porch holding a box.
“Please tell us you didn’t get fired,” Brogan said as she opened the door.
“Not yet. Have I got lots to share with you guys or what?” Trish announced as she stepped into the entryway.
“Us too. But you go first.”
“I know what Bethany discovered that she wasn’t supposed to,” Trish revealed, setting the box down on the coffee table in the living room. She glanced around at all the laptops. “You guys have been busy.”
“Did you get my message I left for Truthseeker22?” Jade asked.
“I did. Very cryptic. I like that. I haven’t had time to set up a new email address yet. I was too busy looking for your home address. It was too easy. You really should do something about that.”
“And?” Brogan prompted.
“Ah, I think I know what Bethany encountered that got her into trouble.”
“We’re all ears,” Lucien said. “And we were about to order pizza for dinner.”
“Make mine a meat supreme. I’m starving.”
“Would you let her get to why she’s here,” Birk insisted.
“Sure,” Brogan said with a laugh, taking a seat on the arm of the chair. “You have the floor.”
“This is big,” Trish said. “Before he left the sheriff’s department, Ken Shepherd was assigned to a drug task force that arrested a foreign national, a major drug kingpin from Croatia who had been hiding out in Colombia. In hoping to expand his operations, he came to California, where he made a few mistakes along the way by underestimating how serious the local cops were about stopping the flow of fentanyl into the state.”
“That ties back to what we discovered,” Lucien stated. “That must’ve been the opportunity Ken had been looking for at the cartel level.”
“Yes, well, the case went nowhere when the evidence disappeared out of lockup. I mean, it just vanished. The entire bounty got logged in one day, and no one could locate it the next.”
“What disappeared? How much are we talking about?”
“Cash, product, a stash of untraceable phones, and boxfuls of illegal weapons, enough to fill a ten-by-ten evidence room.”
“Someone got quite a haul,” Birk noted. “What kind of product?”
“Drugs. Mostly fentanyl and lots of it.”
Lucien traded looks with Birk. “That sounds like a great start to his side business before the brothers make it their life’s work.” He told her about the shell companies and the offshore accounts. “They obviously ramped up their operation when they bought the vineyard. They ship cheap wine overseas in their bottles to hide the drugs in the shipping container. They probably pay someone off at the receiving end to get it through customs, smuggling it across Europe before reaping the rewards by massive amounts of money laundering.”
“Wow. Okay. Feed me, and I’ll tell you everything else I discovered,” Trish said.
Over a meat supremo topped with fennel sausage, pepperoni, salami, and bacon in honor of Trish and a vegetarian lover’s delight for Jade and Brogan, they sat around the dinner table, swapping tales of what they’d learned.
Trish took a bite of her pizza, savoring the flavors coming together before continuing. “So, get this: the drug kingpin from Croatia, known on the streets as ‘The Viper,’ escaped custody in Colombia with the help of his associates. That’s how the DEA got tipped off in the first place. In turn, the DEA tipped off the authorities in Santa Cruz, notifying them of his destination. It seems this guy picked Santa Cruz because it sounded Spanish.”
“He couldn’t be that stupid?” Birk remarked between bites.
“Does it sound like he’s a genius? Nope. Not to me. But it must have piqued their interest when Keith and Kenneth got wind of his arrival. After all, he was the right kind of stooge they were looking for to take their side business to the next level. Rumors surfaced that the Shepherd brothers had been looking for a way to tap into the drug trade. When the bust happened, there was gossip throughout the department and tons of speculation about the person who made the evidence vanish. All parties suspected Ken. And when he bought the vineyard, everyone wondered how he could afford the price tag. Now, I think we know.”
“Are you saying that Ken arrested this guy as part of his task force, took the evidence, and stole the drug trade out from under this Viper guy?”
“You can’t make this stuff up,” Trish confirmed with a grin. “Once the district attorney had to drop the case against Viper, the guy disappeared. Want to take bets as to what actually happened to him?”
Birk shook his head. “Ken or Keith or both killed him.”
“Bingo.”
“But even though Ken is no longer on the force, he still has his loyal allies,” Lucien assured her. “You can’t trust just anyone anymore.”
“I know. I had already taken that into consideration when I went to see Bethany’s parents. Someone followed me halfway there until I managed to lose them.”
“You were followed?” Brogan asked.
“Yep. Probably because I tried to get a warrant for Bethany’s phone records, it went nowhere. My captain pulled me into his office and chewed me out, reminding me that I’m not an investigator, that I’m a desk jockey. So, I decided to take more time off. This time, I asked for a week.”
“That’s a good move. Maybe I can find a workaround on the phone records,” Birk commented. “But getting followed is serious stuff. You need to watch your back.”
“Then it’s a good thing I was able to shake them off.”
Jade took a sip of her wine. “Why’s that? Other than the obvious.”
“Because Bethany’s parents found a set of keys among her belongings that went to a storage locker they knew nothing about. They dug through her things and found a receipt where she’d been paying for it since early August. And when they went to check it out, they found Bethany’s gold mine, so to speak, the stuff she’d been keeping from everyone. She’d made copies of all the files—Jill’s, Connie’s, and Cynthia Zepp’s—everything she’d connected to the same killer. And get this, Mr. and Mrs. Heywood found a working whiteboard with all the data she’d collected—crime scene photos, witness statements, neighborhood canvassing—you name it, everything you’d see on a working homicide investigation. She used that storage locker as an office to keep track of all the information she’d gathered.”
Brogan sat up straighter. “Have you seen it?”
“Not yet. But that’s the way it was described to me. I’m headed there after I eat.”
“You’re not going there alone. We’re not letting you go alone,” Brogan reasoned. “What if you’re followed again? What if you were followed here? Nope. We’re going with you.”
Trish grinned. “That’s what I hoped you’d say.”
When they rolled up the door on Bethany’s storage unit, no one was more surprised at the contents inside than Brogan. She stood back and stared at the entire space. Bethany had taken a storage locker and turned it into a detective’s office. Somehow, she had shoved a beaten-up old desk with an equally decrepit office chair into a corner. She had the information organized about each homicide in timeline order. Documents were organized on a side table, cataloging each crime. She had analyzed photographs of crime scenes, gone over newspaper clippings, highlighted details, and read countless witness statements taken from the murder book. Her whiteboard was an easy-to-follow trail of clues that led to the Shepherd brothers. Pictures of the two men were tacked next to the three victims. It listed their connections to Connie, Jill, and Cynthia Zepp.
Brogan reached for a stack of files labeled with the victim’s names. “Look at this. She outlined details in their background checks that linked them to Keith and or Ken.”
“Impressive,” Trish said.
Jade studied Bethany’s work as she circled the room with the others. “Can anyone tell me why detectives use a whiteboard versus a laptop and a software app? When will homicide detectives come into the twenty-first century?”
Trish scooped up several documents from the desk. “The investigative process changes a lot. A whiteboard is easier and quicker to update. Just erase what’s irrelevant, what changed, instead of booting up your laptop and mapping everything with a software database.”
“Oh. Okay. That makes sense,” Jade muttered as she realized Brogan kept staring at all the furniture and file cabinets. “What’s wrong?”
“Bethany didn’t do this by herself. There’s no way. She must’ve had help. My guess is she asked Sam. He must’ve known what she was up to and helped her arrange everything. He helped move her in here and never said a word to anyone about it because she had asked him not to.”
Trish nodded. “That would explain what got Sam killed. Maybe he knocked on the wrong door, asking questions someone didn’t want to answer.”
“Ken and Keith,” Birk mumbled. “Deep into the drug trade makes you feel invincible unless someone noses around and starts asking questions.”
“Even a file room clerk,” Lucien assessed. “These guys play to win.”
They took turns poring over the evidence, each taking a case file, following the clues Bethany had left behind, and unraveling the intricate web she had discovered. Clearly, she had stumbled on two men more dangerous than anyone ever anticipated.
A chilling realization settled over them as they delved deeper into the documents. The killer Bethany had been tracking wasn’t the lone wolf she’d thought but part of a sophisticated network linked to an organized drug trade. The pieces painted a sinister picture of money, power, and deceit.
“We need to approach this carefully,” Trish said, her expression grave. “No missteps. If we want to take down the Shepherd brothers and whoever else is involved, we need solid evidence to hold up in court. Whether you like it or not, we need to involve—”
“Theo,” Brogan finished. “We need to bring in the guy investigating Sam’s murder.”
“He’s already said he doesn’t need our help,” Lucien reminded her. “And Bethany copied files she probably shouldn’t have copied.”
Brogan nodded thoughtfully. “Are you suggesting we shouldn’t get her into trouble? She’s already disappeared. I don’t think she’s worried about her job anymore, more like her life is on the line.”
Lucien ran a hand through his hair. “I still think we should go back to the winery. We might find something incriminating.”
“I’m with Lucien on that,” Birk noted.
“I know. I’ll make a deal with both of you,” Trish stated. “You let me contact Theo Woodsong and find out what progress he’s made on Sam’s murder. Let me feel him out by bringing him here to sort through what Bethany put together. If he’s any kind of detective worth his salt, he’ll want to see this.”
“Fine,” Lucien mumbled. “But don’t be surprised when he blows you off.”