Chapter 20
Two months later, Pedro and Myrna were relaxing on their front porch with a cool drink, enjoying their Sunday afternoon when a car came down the driveway slowly.
Pedro immediately looked at Myrna, who jumped to her feet and hurried inside.
Pedro had stopped wearing his gun a week after they had returned from her home and were safe.
He rushed to their bedroom, and returned while strapping the gun onto his side, and looked at her.
“I’ll stay,” Myrna murmured, and stood behind the door when Pedro stepped back out onto the porch. In less than a minute, he opened the door and stuck his head in.
“It’s okay, it’s Ilsa.”
They both went out on the porch, and stood as two people exited the vehicle and looked up at them.
“Do you wear you gun all the time?” the man asked.
“No, we didn’t recognize the vehicle.”
“Ah, good that you’re on top of things,” the man said, and grinned. “I’m Jason Black, Ilsa’s fiancé, and I’m also a federal prosecutor.”
“Do I need one?” Myrna asked.
“No, I’m here because I’ve never been to New Double, and Ilsa has some news for you.”
“Come on in, coffee or something cold?” Pedro asked as they walked into the cabin, and he turned toward them. “We have iced tea, lemonade, and water.”
“Lemonade,” the two of them said, and that was when Myrna saw that Ilsa carried a briefcase with her. No one said anything until the drinks were passed, and they settled at the kitchen table.
“What’s up?” Myrna asked as she cradled the glass in her hands, and leaned her elbows on the table.
“Agent Wilson called me a couple of hours ago. We’ve been going over the case, and I’m here to tell you about it.”
“Okay, what happened?”
“First, the warrants came through, along with others once they started digging. Where do you want me to start?”
“Damn, there’s a lot to unpack here, isn’t there?”
“Yes.” Ilsa saw the looks exchanged between Pedro and Myrna, and reached out to lay her hand gently on Myrna’s. “You are not in any trouble. Once I explain what’s been going on, to the best of my knowledge, Jason will tell you the next part. It’s not bad.”
“Okay,” Myrna said as she drew in a deep breath and let it out in a rush. “Hit me.”
“Okay, first, there was a theory tossed out that somehow your work was shipping automotive parts to the Godwin’s’ garage.
One of the warrants was to get their hands on the inventory information.
It turns out, that theory was correct. Agent Wilson had someone go undercover to work in the shipping department.
The area where boxes were shipped out, not brought in. ”
“What did they find?”
“When the undercover agent went to break, the regular clerk would go to the warehouse, take items off the shelf, box them up, make the label, and put them on the truck.”
“Can we ask what type of parts?”
“Brake pads, rotors, spark plugs. Little things, but it adds up over time. When it was discovered what was going on, management opened all their books to the FBI. Not that they could say no, but a forensic accountant went in. It turns out that over the course of five years, a substantial amount of parts have been stolen.”
“How substantial, and do they think I had anything to do with it?”
“Substantial enough that there are felony charges pending against the shipping clerk. No, there were other agents that talked to the person you replaced, and the one that replaced you, and it was determined that you had nothing to do with the thefts. Hell, the two of you worked on opposite sides of the building, and after following the person who replaced you, they knew you wouldn’t have had time to do anything wrong.
According to all the research, interviews with everyone, and the forensic accounting, the blame is all on this one person.
No one else. Not even the upper management of the factory are involved. This person acted alone.”
“Can we ask who the other shipping clerk is?” Pedro asked as he took Myrna’s hand in his.
“Marie something,” Myrna said and looked at Ilsa. “That’s who it was when I was there.”
“Yes, Marie Powers, it turns out that she was a step-sister to the Godwin’s at one time.”
“What’s that even mean?”
“Randy and Gus Godwins’ father married four times. Their mother was his first wife, but she died when they were young, three or four.”
“Was it foul play?”
“No clue, and at this time, I don’t believe they are looking into it.
Anyway, Marie Powers came into the picture when the boys were eight and ten, she was four.
As they grew older, the Godwin’s convinced her to do things for the greater good of the family.
Guilt tripping her, but whenever she was caught, they disowned her.
When her mother caught wind of what they were doing to her daughter, she packed her shit and left, divorcing the father.
His next two marriages didn’t have any children coming into the marriage, nor were there any during it.
They didn’t last because the three of them were all bastards and believed the world revolved around them.
If it didn’t, then anything that went wrong was the other person’s fault. ”
“Got it. So, if Marie was taken away, why is she helping them now?”
“This is the interesting part. Mark Griffin is the Godwin’s’ cousin, and when the repair shop faced hard times, the father told Mark that if he wanted to continue to cheat on his wife, Mary, with Avery, then Avery needed to put pressure on Marie to help out the family again.”
“Jesus,” Pedro said. “What type of power do these people have?”
“Not much, other than brute force. Think of the movies where gangs would put pressure on the shop owners for them to pay for protection. Brute force and stupidity along those lines. When Mark refused, they broke his leg, then threatened to go after both Mary and Avery, to do worse. Even though Avery was a second cousin to Randy and Gus, and a police officer, they still threatened her life.”
“Damn,” Myrna said. “What else?”
“That’s the first theory of the theft of the automotive parts, and it panned out. Once Agent Wilson had Marie’s statement, they got her to safety. I can’t tell you if she’s in Witness Protection or not, because I don’t know. All I know is what I was told, and that was that she was safe.”
They all paused to sip their drinks and take in what they had learned so far. It didn’t take long before Ilsa continued.
“Based on the findings at the factory, and Marie’s statement, a warrant was issued for the Godwin’s’ garage.
Without getting into too much detail, I can tell you that the three of them are in jail, their shop is closed, and every single part in their inventory is being gone over with a fine-tooth comb.
I can say that the theft by Marie, and the inventory from Godwin’s’ are large enough in monetary value that they are facing felony charges.
” She saw their expressions, grinned as she spread her arms as wide as they would go.
“Hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen car parts, and on the father’s property, over a dozen stolen cars were found. Whole cars, not used for parts.”
“Damn,” Myrna said. “Were they running some sort of chop shop?”
“Not really, they still fixed cars, they just did it with stolen parts. They don’t know for certain, but they believe the cars on Mr. Godwin’s property were going to be sold and shipped overseas.”
“An auto theft ring, then?” Pedro stated.
“That’s what it looks like.”
“Okay, what else, because I still don’t know why Sally was stolen, and why Officer Mosher would steal my horse trailer.”
“That’s not totally clear yet, but Agent Wilson has a team on it. They have a working theory, but that’s all it is right now, a theory.”
“Can you tell us what that is?”
“Basically, what we thought when I went up to Lakewood to discuss this with you. During her affair with Griffin, Mosher was promised she would get Sally after the divorce. However, there was no divorce, and Mary had already sold Sally to you. Since she had possession of Sally before the marriage, Mark had absolutely no claims on the horse. Even though he had told anyone who would listen that he could get her in the divorce.”
“But then Mary died, so there was no divorce.”
“Correct. Based on the journal you found, and the evidence left behind, tests were run, and more warrants were issued.”
“To?”
“Officer Avery Mosher’s home was tossed by the Feds. Nothing was left untouched. They even tore up the floorboards.”
“Why?”
“Because we didn’t see it, but in the journal there were papers slipped into the binding that pointed the finger at Mosher being the one to provide the drugs that killed Mary, and Mary had overheard her talking to Mark about storing them beneath the floorboards.”
“Did they find anything?”
“Yes, they found containers holding large amounts of what was found in the samples Mary provided. She was arrested, and is being held in a federal facility.”
“Will she be tried and imprisoned in a federal facility?”
“No,” Jason spoke for the first time since they sat down.
“Yes, her crimes are federal, however, I’ve talked with the DA, and we both agree that she needs to have her trial and do her time where she did her crime.
People have joked that being in federal prison is like a country club, and there are some like that, however, Officer Mosher used her power to benefit herself.
She will be tried in Lakewood, but if there’s too much outcry, we’ll move it to Denver.
I won’t be trying it, but I will be second chair to the DA.
I know we haven’t discussed it all yet, but one of the reason’s I’m here is that the DA would like to speak with you to get your statement. ”
“Okay, I can do that, but what about Mark? What about exhuming Mary’s body?”