Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
All Sandra wanted to do was get back on the phone with Ryan, listen to him and try to reason with him.
Ideally, she’d love to get a better handle on the situation inside.
But calling without a strategy was risky.
Just as she was considering one, a knock on the vehicle’s door stopped her from moving ahead.
Kreiger answered and took two bags and a small box from a uniformed officer and turned around. “I’ve got food.”
Sandra’s stomach was on the verge of rumbling its approval.
Making sure everyone was fed must have been one role Kreiger liked to take on.
He’d done the same during the standoff at Founders.
That day it had been pulled-pork sandwiches and mumbo sauce.
Today, she could only guess at half of the puzzle.
One bag had the logo for Georgetown Cupcakes.
Whatever was inside was bound to go over well.
“All right, I’ve got us burgers and fries. I figured no one was going to say no to that. And because I was feeling generous, I also got us a variety pack of cupcakes,” Kreiger announced, pulling out the bakery’s signature pink box. “Sodas and waters too.”
Generous or feeling the need for comfort food to ease his stress? Sandra wouldn’t blame him if it was the latter. Who hadn’t been there?
“Oh, I don’t mind if I do.” Donny stood and beelined straight for the sweets. He pulled out a peanut butter chocolate chip twist and bit into it. Mouth still slightly full, he spoke around the food. “I’ll never turn sugar down.”
Kreiger laughed, and so did Neal and Monica.
Gibson was too absorbed in his work to even acknowledge the arrival of food. “All right, so I’ve got a thread to tug.” He spoke while facing his computer. “Susan Crawford used to work for Hanson Property Development.”
“When was this?” Neal grabbed a burger and dug in, eating it right out of the box. Not even sacrificing any time to add condiments.
The food smelled heavenly, and Sandra couldn’t hold off any longer. She sat at the table, added some relish and mayo to the bun of one cheeseburger and sunk her teeth in. Heaven. She’d push herself extra hard on her next run along the Potomac.
Monica came over and helped herself to one of everything, including a soda, and sat next to Sandra.
“It looks like Susan worked there for a couple of years, but she left six years before the accident. So around the time she would have gotten pregnant with—” Gibson stopped talking and spun, sniffing the air.
“Damn. Burgers.” He got up and helped himself to one, which he took back to his workstation with a packet of mustard.
“Cupcakes too,” Donny put in.
“That’s a connection at least,” Neal said, focused on business.
“I want you to call Hanson Property, talk to their human resources department, and find out what position Susan held with the firm.” Kreiger pointed a finger at Gibson’s computer.
“I’ll get right on that, or can I…?” Gibson pointed at his burger.
“Of course. Eat first, but eat fast,” Neal teased him.
“Yes, sir.” Gibson unwrapped his burger, added the mustard, and chomped into it.
Neal walked to the coffee alcove and fixed one up for himself. “All we have is one loose connection between Susan and Timothy Hanson. Her employment at his company. How does that tie Ryan to Timothy? Or does it?”
The smell of Neal’s coffee was intoxicating, even over all the other amazing aromas battling for dominance. “There is obviously a connection. We just have to piece it together. Ryan wanted us to know that Timothy was out for himself and dangerous. There has to be a personal stake there.”
“Well, whatever the issue Ryan has with Timothy, it’s obviously compelling enough for Ryan to hold this generation of Hansons responsible. In their own home, for God’s sake,” Kreiger added, his voice taking on a note of pain.
Neal’s phone rang, and he pulled it out while balancing his coffee in his other hand. He set it on the table and eased himself onto the bench. “It’s Officer Moore,” he told the team.
“Put her on speaker,” Kreiger directed.
“You’ve got everyone on this end,” Neal told Moore after hitting a button for handsfree on his phone. “Tell us what you found out.”
There was a brief hesitation before a serious-sounding woman came on the phone. “Officer Moore here,” she said. “I spoke with Mary Ellison, Teresa’s best friend, as it turns out. We had quite an informative chat. Timothy Hanson is Ryan Crawford’s biological father.”
The vehicle fell silent.
A lump of burger and bun slid down Kreiger’s throat making him look like a snake that had swallowed a rat. “Come again?”
“Ryan was left a letter from his aunt. He went to Mary Ellison to get her take.”
The letter didn’t surprise Sandra. But Timothy Hanson actually being Ryan’s father… That sent a fresh dose of adrenaline through her veins.
Moore filled them in on her entire conversation with Ellison. “If there’s anything else I can do to be of help, please name it, sir.”
“Excellent job, Officer Moore. Just a second…” Neal looked around the vehicle and landed on Sandra.
She had one idea. “Special Agent Sandra Vos, here. The more we can find out about Ryan Crawford, the better.”
“I understand that, ma’am.”
“Earlier you told Lieutenant Coleman that Ryan worked at Bottoms Up Pub. You could talk to the people there and see if Ryan was close to any of them. We need to find out as much about his character as we can. He may even have confided his plans for today in someone, possibly how far he intends to take things, his motive.”
“Lieutenant?” Officer Moore prompted Coleman.
“Do it. Keep me posted on what you find out.”
“You got it, sir. I won’t let you down.” With that, Moore was gone.
“Wow.” Donny bunched up the paper liner from his cupcake and tossed it into the recycle bin in the alcove, then claimed a burger.
“Timothy Hanson being Ryan’s father? I, for one, never saw that coming,” Kreiger put in.
“I don’t think any of us did.” Sandra felt confident in saying that much.
“So he had an affair with Susan Crawford, got her pregnant, then she stops working for him,” Neal theorized. “I can understand why he’d want to keep an affair under wraps. That would be quite a scandal for a generational company that prides itself on family values.”
“More than that. I’m quite sure Timothy was married to a wealthy socialite thirty-three years ago,” Monica said.
“And those types are going to insist on nasty prenups,” Kreiger put in.
“Exactly.” Monica popped a fry into her mouth.
Neal waved his hand. “Okay, all that aside for now. Let’s say that Timothy is somehow behind Susan’s accident, why would he bother to come for her six years after she left his company? Was it really all triggered because she’d asked him for money? I mean, he had a lot of it.”
“It’s the principle of the thing. Who knows how many affairs he had. Also, he could have just found out about the kid,” Donny suggested. “That could have sent him into a tailspin.”
“Sure. Maybe. But unless, or until, we have actual proof Hanson orchestrated the crash that killed Susan, we need to focus on actionable steps.” Kreiger wiped his hands on a napkin, bunched it up in his empty burger wrapper, and left it all on the table.
Typical Kreiger… When Sandra first met him, he’d tossed his empty coffee cup on the ground. He was always leaving his messes for others to clean up.
“If we could find out what was going on in Susan’s life at the time, we might find motive for Timothy Hanson,” Monica said. “I say we track down her friends and coworkers at Hanson Property. See what they have to tell us.”
Kreiger pulled a sour face. “We’re talking about thirty-eight to forty years ago.”
“I think it’s worth a try,” Sandra said, stepping in, and earning a smile from Monica. “All we can do is ask questions.”
“Talking. Your favorite thing.” Kreiger shot her a side-glance.
She might take offense if she wasn’t proud to wield words as her weapon. Though it hadn’t taken long for his good mood to evaporate. Clearly, he’d taken her agreement with Monica as her siding against him.
Neal bit into a cupcake and sipped on his coffee. He weighed in with, “I think we stand a better chance tracking down Susan’s coworkers from back in the day.”
Donny was bobbing his head. “They could have been her friends too. Once Gibson finds out Susan’s position at the company, we’ll track down who she worked with and go from there.”
“Hey, can’t a guy take five minutes to eat?” Gibson whined.
“Nope, get back to it.” Donny pretended to crack a whip.
“I’m all for this, even if it’s a long shot,” Neal said. “Gibson, keep us posted.”
Gibson’s mouth was full of food, but he gave Neal a thumbs-up.
While many of them might be waiting impatiently on Gibson, Sandra had her own reasons for wanting everyone to finish eating. Thanks to Officer Moore, she had information she could use with Ryan, and wanted to get on the phone with him.