Chapter 25
Liz called her sister as soon as she ended her conversation with Floyd. Thankfully, Gloria answered right away. “Did you find anything out when you talked to your neighbor?”
“Christi lied. She told me Darren didn’t get home until later in the day on Thursday. I checked the front camera surveillance. He got home shortly before Keller’s plane was shot down.” Liz told her about seeing him running around outside and to his field out back.
Gloria let out a low whistle. “Interesting. Maybe it was him.”
“Or, like Floyd who was also outside, heard the shots and thought they were coming from the back of his property. While I was at Christi’s place, I noticed she kept looking at her shed.” Liz stared out the window, half expecting to see the federal agent’s car pulling back into the driveway. “I was just visited by Simpkins, a federal agent. He and a group of others searched our place, the house, barns, Echo’s home.”
“The top dogs are on the case.”
“They are. I’m not sure if he was blowing smoke, but he told me Keller had hired an attorney and planned to challenge the property purchase.”
“Your property?”
“Correct. Can he do that?”
“I don’t know, but Lucy might considering she’s a licensed real estate agent.” Gloria’s voice faded. “We’re right in the middle of something. Let me call you back.”
“I’ll keep my phone with me.” Liz hung up and paced, waiting for Gloria to return her call.
Ting. Liz grabbed the phone off the counter. “What is Lucy’s opinion?”
“Under special circumstances, anything is possible, although she said most disputes occur before the closing. I’m not sure how much success Keller will have considering the sale already went through,” Gloria said. “It could be he filed a dispute just to aggravate you or make your life miserable.”
“Like he has from the moment he started flying over our house and throwing stuff at us? Seriously, I’m beginning to think the man is mentally unstable.”
“I would agree.”
“Do you think we need to check into Ivan Gregware’s and Darren Kravitz’s background?”
“You read my mind,” Gloria said. “It seems all the clues are leading back to them, Darren in particular.”
“Like I said, Christi kept looking at her shed and seemed nervous.”
“Ruth is here. I’ll hand over the phone, but first, I have a personal question to ask.”
“What sort of personal question?”
“Are you and Floyd all right…financially?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you haven’t spent all of his money yet.”
“No. What makes you think I spent all of Floyd’s money?”
Gloria mumbled under her breath.
Liz briefly closed her eyes. “Did you run a background check on Floyd?” The silence on the other end of the line answered her question. “You ran a check on him.”
“We did.” Gloria hurried on. “We had to eliminate him as a suspect. He doesn’t have a criminal record. That’s good news, right?”
“But he had financial difficulties?” Liz asked.
“Yes,” her sister said in a small voice.
“What kind of financial difficulties?”
“He filed for bankruptcy, but it was a while ago, before you were married,” Gloria said. “Probably before the first natural gas / mineral rights money started rolling in.”
“Gloria Kennedy,” Liz scolded. “Shame on you.”
“We wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t rule him out.”
“We’ll discuss this later.”
“Or maybe never,” Gloria said. “Let me go grab Ruth.”
Liz was on a brief hold until Ruth came on the line. “We have you on speaker. Gloria gave me the 411 on your neighbors. Let’s start with Ivan Gregware. What do you know about him?”
“Nothing, not even his address.” Liz could hear tapping on the other end.
“I’m getting some basic feedback. Standby.” Ruth grew quiet for several long moments. “As far as I can tell, Gregware is clean. Let’s move onto your neighbor.”
“Darren Kravitz. D-A-R-R-E-N K-R-A-V-I-T-Z.”
“Got it. How about a date of birth?”
“No idea.”
“Address?”
Liz rattled off their address and could hear clicking again on the other end of the line.
“Now we’re cooking. Darren Lee Kravitz is currently employed by West Michigan Premier Medical Supplies in Grand Rapids. Been there for five years. He’s bounced around and had a few jobs.” Ruth began humming under her breath. “He’s a jack of all trades—sales, tool and die, marketing manager.”
“So he has a hard time staying with one job,” Liz said. “I had a hard time keeping a job when I was younger.”
“Because no one wanted to pay you to look pretty,” Gloria joked.
“Very funny.”
“He’s moved around a lot too,” Ruth said. “Fort Bragg, Fort Bliss in Texas. Ah…it’s all making sense.”
“Darren Kravitz was in the military,” Liz guessed.
“Yep. There’s something else in his file. I can’t see it though. This is top secret stuff.”
“What do you mean, there’s something in his file?”
“In his military records,” Ruth elaborated. “They’re sealed. My guess is…”
“Is what?” Liz prompted.
“They’re medical records.”
“Is there any way to find out?”
“Nope. Sorry. I can’t help on this one.”
“Maybe it’s best we leave it alone,” Gloria said. “It would be an invasion of privacy and maybe overstepping the lines.”
“You mean like spying on your brother-in-law?” Liz pointedly asked.
“We’ve already gone over this. We had to rule Floyd out.”
“In summary, Darren has had multiple jobs and was a military guy.”
“Correct. I guess we know what our next step should be,” Gloria said.
“Sneak into my neighbor’s shed.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sure the authorities have already taken a look around,” Liz said.
“Before or after Christi was acting nervous?” Ruth asked. “My guess is they would have searched her place around the same time they did yours.”
“Which means she and her husband could have moved some things around.”
“Good point.”
“If they’re still moving stuff, we need to head over there ASAP, first thing in the morning,” Gloria said.
Liz swallowed hard. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”