Chapter Thirty
To save time, Sam decided to call Janet rather than visiting her in person. Since she was looking only for background, she could do that over the phone. She used her cell so the MPD number wouldn’t show up on Janet’s caller ID.
Janet answered on the fourth ring, sounding winded. “Hello?”
“Janet Milton?”
“That’s me. Who’s this?”
“Lieutenant Sam Holland with the Metro PD in Washington.”
“The vice president’s wife.”
“Yes.”
“Is this about Ginny?”
“It is.”
Janet sighed. “What can I do for you, Lieutenant?”
“I’m looking for some insight into your sister.”
Janet’s harsh laugh echoed through the phone. “You and everyone else.”
“Talk to me about her relationship with each of her kids.”
“What about them?”
“Was she close to them?”
“She was before she decided to become a criminal. After that, things were a bit strained, to say the least.”
“Before that, was she closer to one of her children over the other?”
“She always had a special bond with Mandi. Ken Jr. was independent from a young age. He didn’t ‘need’ Ginny the way Mandi did.”
“How so?”
“Ginny referred to Mandi as her Mini-Me. They did everything together. At times, she would say she worried that being so close to Mandi was making it difficult to be her parent. She hated saying no to her but knew she needed to so she didn’t create a monster. Have you spoken to the kids?”
“I have. I’m going to be honest with you, Ms. Milton. I have them both in custody and suspect one of them might’ve killed your sister.”
A long silence met her statement.
Sam was about to ask her if she had any thoughts on whether one or both of Ginny’s kids would be capable of murder when Janet started talking.
“I can’t see Ken doing that, because as far as I know, he hadn’t seen either of his parents since before the federal charges were filed. But Mandi… I don’t know. She says she hasn’t seen them, but I have a hard time picturing her not seeing Ginny on a regular basis.”
“Even after Ginny stole from the parents of Mandi’s friends?”
“Even then. I was with Ginny two months ago at her house, and we were talking about what’d happened and what she’d been trying to do with the investment opportunity and how she hadn’t intended for it to go the way it did.”
“What did she intend?”
“She genuinely planned to go through with the purchase of a property that would be the next high-end planned community, but endless red tape and unexpected zoning challenges had messed up everything. She said no one understood how difficult it was to put together something as complex as what she was trying to do, and with people getting anxious about their money and what’d become of it, she’d run out of time.
While I was there that day, Mandi came into the kitchen and stopped short when she saw me. ”
“She told us she hadn’t seen either of her parents since before the federal charges were filed.”
“That’s not true. This wasn’t that long ago, and she was definitely there. Don’t get me wrong, Lieutenant. I love my niece—and my nephew. I loved my sister despite her many flaws. I’m not trying to get either of them in trouble.”
“I understand. We’re trying to get at the truth. What are your feelings about Ken Sr. not knowing about the scam?”
“I think he’s full of shit, but then, I’ve always thought that. He’s a blowhard. Has a big opinion of himself and isn’t afraid to share it with anyone who’ll listen.”
“So you think he knew about the scam.”
“No question. I’ve always believed that, but the Feds couldn’t prove it, which is why he wasn’t charged along with Ginny.”
“What did she tell you about his involvement?”
“That he didn’t know. She never deviated from that throughout the investigation.”
“Do you think he threatened her in some way?”
“I wondered that, but she was adamant that everything was fine between them and that he had nothing to do with the scam.”
“Would she have told you if things weren’t good between them?”
“I don’t think so. She never had a bad word to say about him in all the years they were together, even to me, and we talked about everything. Sometimes, I’d wonder how she could stand him because he was so pompous, but that didn’t seem to bother her.”
“Is he close to the kids?”
“To Ken more than Mandi. He used to joke about how he didn’t ‘get her’ and how it was a good thing he had a son, or he might think he was the problem.”
Sam had already gotten an asshole vibe from Ken Sr., and Janet’s insight only added to it. “Wasn’t he angry to find out she took money from their family members, colleagues, friends?”
“If he was, I never saw that, which is another reason why I believe he knew exactly what she was doing. How else do you explain why he stayed with her after she took money from his brother, his former coworkers, their mutual friends? Would you stay with your spouse if he did something like that?”
Since Nick would never do such a thing, that wasn’t something she needed to worry about, but she wasn’t about to say so. “It does seem odd to me that he didn’t raise more of a stink.”
“He didn’t raise a stink because he knew, Lieutenant. He knew what she was doing and maybe even endorsed it.”
“What I don’t get was their end game. So they steal from everyone, stash the money somewhere and then stick around long enough for the investors to get squirrely and report them to the authorities. Why weren’t they long gone? They had more than enough to live comfortably forever.”
“It was probably because of our mother. Her health has been declining over the last year, and Ginny always took care of her. She wouldn’t leave her.”
“Even if it meant getting caught in a web of her own making?”
“Even if. She was very devoted to our mother and vice versa, especially since Mother has been in an acute care facility for dementia.”
“Are you devoted as well?”
“My mother and I have never once seen eye to eye on anything. We aren’t close. I visit my parents once or twice a month, but Ginny was there every day. She was the one who followed my mother’s plan for her life. I had my own ideas and wasn’t afraid to express them.”
“Does she know your sister is dead?”
“She does. I was there yesterday to share the news with both my parents. After basically accusing me of lying about what happened to Ginny, she finally understood I was telling her the truth when I showed her an online story about Ginny’s murder.
Mother was devastated and asked me to leave.
That about sums up our relationship. But then again, she refused to believe her precious Ginny did anything wrong with the investment either.
She kept saying it had to be a misunderstanding, because Ginny would never do something like that. ”
“Do you believe she could do something like that?”
“I loved my sister, Lieutenant. We were always close despite being two very different people. But I do believe she was capable of scamming people. She had a taste for the high life, and after Ken lost his job—”
“Wait. When did that happen?”
“Just over two years ago. He got ‘reorganized’ out of a job after thirty years with his firm.”
“Huh, isn’t that around the time that the Feds allege Ginny’s scheme began?”
“Right around then.”
Sam consulted her notes. “He was an estate attorney.”
“Right.”
“How does a guy his age in that profession get reorganized out of a job? Wouldn’t he be a partner in his firm by then?”
“In most cases. He never achieved partner status. It was something that made him—and Ginny—bitter. They sued his firm when they let him go, but it didn’t go anywhere.”
“He told me she had a gambling addiction.”
“No, she didn’t.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“One hundred percent sure. She never gambled in her life. Ginny liked money—gathering it, having it, spending it. No way she’d ever gamble it. That wasn’t her nature at all.”
Now Sam knew Ken Sr. and Mandi had both lied to her. That was enough to charge them with impeding her investigation, which would buy her time to figure out the rest of what they’d lied about. She had a feeling there’d be additional charges coming their way.
“Thank you for your time, Ms. Milton. This has been very helpful.”
“Do you know who killed my sister, Lieutenant?”
“I’m not completely sure yet, but we’re getting closer.”
“Will you let me know when you do?”
“I’ll do that. If you think of anything else that might be relevant, please call me back on this number.”
“I will.”
“Thanks again.” Sam ended the call with the usual satisfying slap of her flip phone and sat back to ponder what she’d learned from Janet. Then she picked up the phone on her desk and put through a call to Patrol, trying to remember who had taken Hernandez’s place after his arrest. She had no idea.
“Patrol. Officer Baker.”
“This is Lieutenant Holland. Could you please ask someone to pick up Kenneth McLeod at his brother’s home in Chevy Chase?
” Sam recited the address. “He’s apt to be confrontational, but I don’t expect him to be armed or dangerous.
Read him his rights and tell him he’s being charged with interfering in a homicide investigation. ”
“Yes, ma’am. We’ll get right on it.”
“Thank you.”
Sam hung up and thought it through from every angle.
The call to Janet had been illuminating in more ways than one.
Not only did she know for sure that Mandi and Ken Sr. had lied to her, but she also knew Ken Jr. was most likely innocent of any involvement in his mother’s death.
She needed Archie to confirm that for her.
An hour later, the man himself appeared at her door. “I’ve got the cell phone data you requested.”
“Gimme,” Sam said.
He handed over several pages that had names on the top. “I did the daughter, the son, the husband and Ginny’s phone, too.”
“Perfect, Archie. Thanks.” As Sam tried to read what was written on the page, the words swam before her eyes into a mixed-up jumble of letters and numbers. Goddamned dyslexia reared its ugly head at the worst possible times. She glanced up at Lieutenant Archelotta. “Give me the gist?”