Chapter Eleven
A young woman with wet dark hair came to the door, her eyes bugging when she recognized Sam.
“Famous,” Freddie whispered under his breath, earning an elbow to a gut full of steak bomb.
Sam showed her badge. “Lieutenant Holland, Detective Cruz, MPD. We’re looking for Mandi McLeod.”
“I’m Mandi. Is this about my mom?”
Sam thanked her lucky stars that they’d gotten lucky to find Mandi somewhat easily. “It is. Could we come in for a minute?”
“Sure.”
She stepped aside to admit them into a cluttered space with clothes and towels strewn about, books stacked on desks and colored lights strung on the wall. Mandi pushed aside a pile of clothes and gestured for them to sit on one of the narrow beds.
Sam had commuted to school, so she’d missed this part of college life, which was fine with her. Communal living had never appealed to her.
“Did you figure out who killed my mom?” Mandi asked.
“Not yet. I’m somewhat surprised to find you still at school. I’d think you’d be with your family.”
“I hadn’t spoken to either of my parents in months, not since I found out what they did.”
“They?”
“My brother and I believe my dad knew what she was doing. How could he not?”
That was an interesting development. “How did you find out about the scam?”
“When the FBI and IRS began investigating her and word started getting out that she might’ve stolen from people we know.”
“Before that, you had no idea?”
“None. And then the list of people she stole from began to go public… Friends, friends’ parents, our godparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors, people my brother and I have known all our lives.
We were shocked and disgusted and… We were so hurt.
How could she do this to people we love?
People who loved her? Our entire lives imploded, Lieutenant.
Everyone turned on us. It’s been a nightmare. ”
“Have you been in touch with any of those people?”
She shook her head, her eyes filling. “My own aunts and uncles won’t take my calls.
The girls I played soccer with in high school hate me because my mom stole from their parents.
It’s the same for my brother. None of the guys he played baseball with will talk to him.
He and I have been frozen out by everyone who matters to us, even those who weren’t scammed.
We’re guilty by association, I guess. I’ll have to get loans to finish my senior year of college. ”
“Your parents don’t help you?” Freddie asked.
“Their assets were frozen by the government. And besides, after this, I don’t want anything from them.
I’m working two jobs and holding down eighteen credits while everyone I care about, except my brother, acts like I’m dead to them.
That’s my life now.” Hurt and bitterness crept through every word she said.
“My mother was dead to me before yesterday.”
“How did you find out about her death?” Sam asked.
“My father called late yesterday afternoon, a few hours after he found her. I couldn’t imagine why he’d be calling me. I knew something bad must’ve happened for him to reach out. He knew I wanted nothing to do with either of them.”
“I’m surprised you took the call,” Sam said. “Or that you hadn’t blocked them both.”
She blinked but failed to stop tears from spilling down her cheeks. “I should’ve blocked them, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. They’re still my parents. And when he called me, I wanted to hear his voice.”
Freddie got up to get her some tissues from a box on the bedside table and handed them to her.
“Thank you.” She wiped her face. “I know it was weak, but I love my parents and hate them, too. I hate what they did and how they ruined our lives with their greed.”
“Do you know of anyone who might’ve been angry enough with your mom to kill her?”
“I know tons of people who are that angry. If you’re asking if I know who did it, I don’t. I’m sure I’d be among the last to know. Many people think my brother and I knew what they were up to, but we didn’t. No one believes that, though.”
“You’ve said ‘they’ and ‘them’ several times,” Freddie said. “You’re convinced it was both of them?”
“She’s the one the government charged, but I don’t believe he didn’t know. How could he not know? He swore to us that he didn’t and passed a polygraph, but we don’t believe him.”
“Has he lied to you before?” Freddie asked.
“Not that I know of. But if you’d asked me if my mom was capable of stealing from our closest friends and family members, I would’ve said no way. So who knows if they lied to us about other stuff?” She wiped away more tears before adding softly, “This has ruined my life, and I’m only twenty-one.”
“We’re sorry for what you’ve been through,” Freddie said, always the empathetic one.
“I have to ask where you were yesterday,” Sam said.
“I was here all day. I had study group in the morning. I was here by myself the rest of the day.”
“Can anyone verify that?”
“My roommate was here in the morning, but she left around noon and was gone when I got back from study group. She didn’t come back until this morning.”
“And you didn’t see anyone else for the rest of the day yesterday?”
“No, after my dad called, I stayed by myself. I didn’t want to see anyone.”
Sam gave Mandi her card. “If you think of anything else we should know, call me.”
“Did you talk to the Realtor? Cheri Clark?”
“Not yet. What about her?”
“She was in this thing up to her neck with my mother, even though she wasn’t charged. Without her showing the properties, no one would’ve taken the bait. I believe my mom was paying her kickbacks, but the Feds haven’t been able to make a case that she knew what my mom was doing.”
“Do you know where we’d find her?”
“Chevy Chase.”
Sam bit back a groan at the thought of more time wasted in traffic as they returned to the same area where they’d been that morning. “And your brother? Where is he this time of day?”
“Downtown.”
As Sam and Freddie made their way out of the dormitory, several students called out to Sam.
“I can’t believe your husband isn’t going to run.”
“How can he do this to us?”
“We need him.”
“Ugh,” she said when she and Freddie were outside. “Why do they gotta yell at me about him?”
“Um, because you’re sleeping with him and can deliver their messages?”
“That was a rhetorical question. You should know the difference by now.”
“Apologies.”
“Not accepted. Flip a coin. Heads, we go to Chevy Chase. Tails, we go downtown.”
“Why can’t there be a third choice of neither?”
“I know.” Even the walk to the car was annoying her because it took ten full minutes.
“I need a snack.”
“You just ate lunch!”
“That was, like, two hours ago.”
“It was forty-five minutes. No snack.”
“You’re mean when you have motive everywhere you look.”
“I’m mean all the time. All this motive makes me cranky on top of being mean.”
“That’s true.”
When they were in the car, Sam said, “I want to bring the husband in for a formal interview.”
“I was going to ask about him.”
“No, you weren’t.”
“Yes, I was! I was going to say we need to talk to the husband again.”
“Whatever you say, rock star.”
“I was gonna!”
“Shut up, call Patrol and ask them to pick him up at the brother’s house. You still got the address from yesterday?”
“Yes, I still have the address,” he said, sounding annoyed that she’d even ask.
“All right, then, get on it.” She directed the car toward Chevy Chase, full of resentment for the next hour on the road when she had far better things to do than drive through hideous traffic to get to the far northwestern part of the city.
Freddie made the call to Patrol and gave them the address of where Ken McLeod was staying.
“They’re on it.” He looked over at her. “Speaking of Patrol, I still can’t believe Captain Hernandez knew about Conklin’s role in your dad’s shooting.
I can’t even imagine what that must be like for you and your family. ”
“I can’t believe the people who stayed quiet when two of their own had been murdered.
” The men Conklin had protected had also been tied to the murder of her father’s first partner, Steven Coyne, decades ago.
“I’ll never get over that, but I’m thankful they’re getting what’s coming to them.
As for Hernandez, it was his own stupidity that did him in.
Sending me a note, written in his own hand, that the answers were closer than we realized… He screwed himself.”
“And thank God for that. Otherwise, we never would’ve known he was involved.”
“I wonder who else knew.”
“You think there’re others?”
“I’d bet my life on it.”
“Seriously?” He shook his head. “How’s that possible?”
“The same way it was possible that Conklin and Hernandez knew. The same reason Ginny McLeod did what she did. It’s about greed, pure and simple.
Money makes the world go round, young Freddie, and people will do anything to get more of it, even sell out a friend or allow that friend to nearly be murdered to protect their cash cow. ”
“It’s disgusting.”
“Yep, but it’s reality.”
“How can you be so matter-of-fact about fellow officers selling out your dad for money?”
“Because if I truly let myself go there, I wouldn’t be able to do the job anymore.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
“Karma is a bitch. Look at Conklin and Hernandez. They had it all. Deputy chief and captain, big pensions and all the perks of being high-ranking officers. Now they’re charged with felonies that’ll put them in jail for decades.”
“I want them to lose their pensions, too.”
“We’re working on that. The chief has the same goal, believe me.”
“What do you think the FBI investigation will show?”
“That there’s still some rot in our department that’ll need to be weeded out. We’re going to learn things about ourselves we might not like, mostly that we need to do better on a number of levels. Introspection is almost always painful.”
“I want to know who else knew.”