Chapter Thirty-One
As Sam left the chief’s conference room, a disturbance in the lobby had her running to find out what was going on. Two young Patrol officers had Ken McLeod Sr. in custody and were attempting to get him to Central Booking. He was fighting them every step of the way.
“You stupid bitch!” he screamed when he saw Sam. “What’re you thinking arresting me? I’ll have your badge and your ass! I have an alibi!”
“That’s full of holes,” Sam replied.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.” To the officers, she said, “Get him booked and take him to interview two.”
Ignoring the man’s continued diatribe, Sam walked to the pit.
“McBride,” she said, “spring Ken Jr. from interview two. Tell him he’s free to go and thank him for his cooperation.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
While Jeannie took care of that, Sam went into her office, downed half a bottle of water and took another look at the cell phone reports Archie had compiled.
This time, the words behaved themselves so she could read them.
She focused first on Ken Sr. The pings put him on the golf course from noon to one ten.
At one forty, the phone registered a ping at his home, and by two ten, he was back on the golf course.
“Hey, Cruz!”
Freddie popped up from his cubicle and looked into her office. “You bellowed?”
Sam signaled for him to come in. “The three men who said Ken Sr. was playing golf with them all afternoon—can you please make arrangements to have them arrested?”
“All of them?”
“All of them.”
“Who’s gonna do those reports?”
Sam sent him a salty look. “Who do you think?”
“Why did I know you were going to say that?”
“Why do you ask questions you already know the answers to?”
“What am I charging them with?”
“Obstructing a homicide investigation by lying for their friend.”
“I’ll take care of it. Does this mean we’ve found Ginny’s killer?”
“I believe we have—along with most of the money she stole from her victims.”
“I thought the Feds couldn’t find it.”
“They couldn’t, but Green did.”
“Wow, that’s awesome.”
“It is, and it’s what we need right now.”
“No kidding. All right, let me go start arresting people.”
“It’s going to be that kind of day. We’re charging Ken Sr. and possibly Mandi, too. Stand by for paperwork.”
“I’m standing by,” he said. “I live to serve you.”
“That’s why you’re the best partner I ever had.”
“Yeah, yeah, save the charm, Lieutenant. I’ll still do your paperwork whether you charm me or not.”
“I am rather charming when I’m about to arrest a bunch of scumbags.”
“Arresting scumbags does bring out the best in you.”
A red-faced young Patrol officer appeared in the doorway to her office. “Mr. McLeod is in interview two, Lieutenant. My partner is watching him.”
“Thank you, Officer…”
“Daniels, ma’am.”
“Officer Daniels. Appreciate the assist.”
“I’d say it was no problem, but Mr. McLeod put up one hell of a fight.”
“Guilty people tend to put up the biggest fights.” Sam couldn’t wait to square off with Mr. McLeod. After Officer Daniels took off, Sam said to Freddie, “I’m taking Green in with me. He did some great work on this case.”
“He does great work on all of them.”
“I like to spread things around when I can.”
“No worries. I’ll be buried in paperwork.”
“You’re a good sport, Freddie Cruz.”
“I have to be to put up with the likes of you,” he tossed over his shoulder as he left the office.
Sam picked up her folders and notes and prepared for battle. “Green!”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“You’re with me. Let’s go.”
Cameron seemed surprised, but he responded quickly, walking with her to interview one.
“Follow my lead,” Sam said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Sam burst into the room, once again startling Mandi. That never got old.
“Can I leave now?” Mandi asked.
“Not so fast.”
“Why not? I told you I didn’t do anything.”
“Well, you lied to us.”
“No, I didn’t!”
“Yes, Mandi, you did.” Sam put the cell phone report in front of Mandi. “See this? The proof is in the pings.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Your cell phone disproves your story.”
“What? How?”
“Look here.” Sam pointed to the ping at Mandi’s dorm.
“That’s you at one o’clock on Sunday afternoon.
” She pointed to a different ping. “That’s you at two thirty at the hardware store near your parents’ home.
That’s you at your parents’ home, and then that’s you back at campus at three thirty. You had a busy afternoon.”
“I told you I went to the store and my parents’ house after my brother called me in a panic.”
Sam put yet another report in front of Mandi. “That’s a printout of your incoming calls for Sunday between noon and five p.m. There’s no call from your brother, but interestingly, there’re two from your father.” Sam took the cap off a highlighter and colored the two numbers.
Mandi looked down at the pages and swallowed hard.
“What I’d like to know is why you pointed the finger at your brother for a crime you know your father committed?”
“I… He… My father… He threatened me.”
“Threatened you how?”
“He said he’d tell everyone that I knew where the money was all along unless I did everything I could to protect him.”
“Including implicating your brother?”
“His instructions were very clear. By any means necessary. He would’ve ruined my life if he told people that I knew where the money was and never said anything.”
“Even though it was true, right? You knew where it was and never said anything.”
Mandi broke down. “I didn’t know that until after the charges were filed.
I pleaded with her to do the right thing, to return the money, but she kept saying that wasn’t the plan.
We had to stick with the plan. Except it wasn’t my plan.
It was hers, and when I deposited those cashier checks in the Cayman Islands, I didn’t know where the money came from. If I’d known…”
“What would you have done?” Green asked.
She swiped at the tears that slid down her cheeks.
“I… I don’t know, but I wouldn’t have done that to our family and friends.
She… She was my mother. She asked me to do this for her, and it was a bunch of free vacations.
It never occurred to me why she was sending me there.
I didn’t know the Caymans were a tax shelter until you told me that. ”
Sam wondered if she’d ever been as stupid or na?ve as this young woman. No, she’d been born smarter than Mandi McLeod would ever be. “Do you know the account numbers?”
She hesitated before she nodded. “She made me memorize them so there wouldn’t be a paper trail.”
Too bad Ginny hadn’t also told her to stay off social media while she was “on vacation” in the Caymans. Her Finsta posts had been her undoing—whatever Finsta was. Sam was clueless about such things. Thankfully, Cameron was hip to it all. “Write them down.”
Sam waited, feeling breathless with victory, as Mandi wrote down the account info. Between that and the money associated with the Delaware corporation, they’d found most of what’d gone missing. After Mandi pushed the notebook back across the table, Sam said, “Stay put. We’ll be back.”
“But…”
Sam sent her a quelling look that had her thinking better of what she’d been about to say. With Green in tow, she left interview one and went into interview two, startling Mr. McLeod. That too was satisfying. “You’ve been apprised of your right to an attorney, Mr. McLeod?”
“I have. I don’t need one. I haven’t done anything.”
“Detective Green, please record this interview.”
He shifted on the recorder and noted who was present in the room.
“Mr. McLeod,” Sam said, “have you waived your right to an attorney?”
“I have because I haven’t done anything that would require the services of an attorney.”
Stupidity apparently comes naturally to Mandi McLeod, Sam thought. “Mr. McLeod, you’re being charged with the murder of your wife, Virginia, as well as numerous other obstruction charges resulting from the lies you told me and other officers during our investigation.”
For a second, his arrogant demeanor slipped, but then he recovered himself. “I didn’t kill her.”
“We can put you at the house at her time of death.”
“No, you can’t. I was playing golf with three of my friends—the only friends I had left, because they didn’t have anything for my wife to steal.”
“They’re being arrested as we speak for lying to us and obstructing a homicide investigation.”
Another chink appeared in his armor. “They didn’t lie.”
“Yes, they did. They lied when they failed to tell us about the nearly forty minutes you were gone from the course during your round of golf.”
“I went to use the bathroom.”
“At home?”
“No, at the clubhouse.”
Sam put the cell phone report down in front of him. “Funny, but the location of your phone tells a different story.”
“What?”
She pointed. “See that right there? That’s you and your cell phone at your house at the time of your wife’s death.”
“I didn’t take my phone to the club with me that day. I always leave it at home when I’m playing golf so I won’t be disturbed.”
“That, too, is a lie.” Sam pointed to three lines on the report.
“That’s you at the golf course, that’s you at home, and that’s you back on the course after you killed your wife.
The pings don’t lie, Mr. McLeod. You’re under arrest for the murder of Virginia McLeod.
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney—”
“I’d like to call my attorney,” he said, looking scared now, which was thrilling to Sam. The most pompous people were always the most fun to take down.
“Write down the name and number, and I’ll reach out.”
“I, um, I no longer have a personal attorney.”
“Shall I call the public defender’s office?”
He blanched at that. “Absolutely not.”
“You should know Detective Green here has also managed to track Mandi to the Cayman Islands, where she helped your wife stash money, and he also uncovered the VMcL Corporation in Delaware. We’ll be turning that info over to the Feds, along with the account numbers in the Caymans that Mandi gave us. ”
Cameron smiled and waved at Mr. McLeod.
She loved to see him enjoying this victory.
McLeod’s mouth fell open in disbelief. “Mandi wouldn’t dare.”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong, Mr. McLeod.
When faced with a long prison sentence or doing the right thing, your daughter chose the right thing.
It’s a lesson she somehow managed to learn while growing up with you and your wife as her role models.
Congratulations on raising a daughter with a conscience.
Too bad you don’t have one of your own.”
“Ginny ruined my life! She got what was coming to her!”
“I’ll remind you this interview is still being recorded, Mr. McLeod.”
“I don’t care. You tell me what you would’ve done if your wife stole from most of your friends and family members and then refused to tell you where the money was hidden or to leave town because her shrew of a mother had fallen ill.
When forced to live among the very people she stole from, what would you have done, Lieutenant? ”
“I think we’re finished here, Detective Green.
” Sam made a big production out of shaking Green’s hand.
“Congratulations on the great work you did on this case. You were the one to tie Mandi to the deposits in the Cayman Islands. Without that, we might never have gotten her to flip on her father. We might’ve let her blame her brother, who’s completely innocent of any crimes. That would’ve been truly tragic.”
Though that wouldn’t have happened, because they could prove he never called his sister that fateful afternoon.
But Ken McLeod Sr. didn’t need to know that.
Not to mention, restitution would be made to Ginny’s victims, which made for a satisfying end to a revolting case. “Our work here is finished.”