Chapter Sixteen
Maddox, Garrett, Solomon, Lily and I met up a mile from the farm.
Following the directions, we pulled onto a quiet country road, slowing to a crawl as the car rocked on the uneven dirt. Finally, as my headlights showed the dirt road narrowing, headlights up ahead flashed twice. I pulled the steering wheel right and parked in between the two dark vehicles waiting.
We hopped out, careful not to slam doors in case the sound carried across the open countryside and rounded the front of the car.
Solomon alighted from his SUV and wrapped his arms around me before kissing the top of my head and letting me go.
Garrett arrived a few minutes later in a black sedan with a large dent in the passenger door, crowding our impromptu parking lot, and headed towards us.
Maddox and his FBI partner, Special Agent Sadiq Farid hopped out of their van and walked over to us.
Both wore jeans and T-shirts with their FBI issue jackets.
Farid had recently gotten a haircut, his black hair trimmed close to his head.
Maddox looked like he’d glanced at the barbers’ price list and kept on walking.
“New wheels?” I asked, nodding at the beat-up van.
“This hunk of junk is our surveillance van. It has all the mod cons. CD player, cup holders…” said Maddox.
“It’s got a CD player?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“Yeah. There’s a Dolly Parton CD stuck in the slot so she’s our only entertainment,” added Farid.
“I love Dolly,” said Lily. “She’s a national treasure. If you’re going to complain… one word. Don’t.”
“I loved her too until I had to listen to her for six hours straight,” said Maddox. “Now we’re in the ‘it’s complicated’ phase.”
“Why didn’t you just switch it off?” I asked.
“The “stop” button is missing. We’re going with the flow and calling it the Dolly Tank while we’re working nine to five.”
“I see what you did there,” I said, grinning.
“Unfortunately, we’re working hours way beyond that,” continued Maddox. “Let’s compare notes.”
“Our car doesn’t have a CD player,” said Lily.
“No need to show off,” grumbled Farid.
“Bet being stuck in that thing is like being back at MPD,” said Garrett, grinning.
“Unfortunately, and I meant, let’s compare the case notes, not our vehicles,” said Maddox. “Let’s cut to it. We’re investigating a cross-state gambling ring and there’s a suspicion the farm is involved.”
“We’re investigating a possible homicide and if it is, then the farm is definitely involved,” I said.
“You?” Maddox asked Garrett.
“So far, I’m not officially on any case. I was called out to a vehicular accident where we found Mrs. Casey deceased. Her death is going to be ruled an accident unless something compelling comes up to suggest otherwise.”
“Like the back protector?” I asked.
“I’m heading over to Mr. Casey after this,” said Garrett. “My captain found your tipoff interesting enough to justify another look so he’s not willing to hand off the case yet.”
“Did you get a warrant?”
“The judge disagreed on that count. Told me to go ask Mr. Casey nicely, and not waste his time again until we had something concrete.” Garrett shrugged, like it wasn’t too bothersome.
“Any chance your cases are related?” asked Solomon, looking from me to Maddox.
“That’s what I’d like to find out,” said Maddox. “We’ve had the farm under surveillance for the past week.”
“Anyone in particular?” I asked.
“You first.” Maddox waited.
“Joel Casey and Yvette Lyndsey are my top suspects,” I said. “They were having an affair. Joel stands to gain the most financially by Jessica’s death, but Yvette gets a scandal-free pass at Joel without her sister in the way.”
“No suspects here because it’s still not a case,” said Garrett. “Tox screen was clean, death was brain hemorrhage caused by blunt force trauma. We’re taking a closer look at the vehicle. I’d like to know why the airbag didn’t fully deploy but otherwise it’s a precautionary measure.”
“I’m not looking at either of your suspects for the gambling,” said Maddox, heaving a disappointed breath. “Do you have other suspects?”
“Possibly. There’s an employee that was fired recently. We’ll check it out tomorrow,” I said.
“Any threats made towards Mrs. Casey?” asked Garrett.
I shook my head. “Not so far as we know, but it didn’t sound like a pleasant parting of company. The employee was fired for stealing even though she protested her innocence. There’s something strange about it. One of the other stable hands vouched for her trustworthiness.”
“Harvey Greenwood came up as a person of interest for us,” said Maddox.
“We’ve met him,” I said. “He seems close to Joel and pretty involved in the running of the farm. He’s in charge of the rehab too. We overheard him making a strange phone call but we haven’t been able to ascertain exactly what it was about yet.”
“Rehab?” asked Farid. “We didn’t see any kind of rehab in the property’s filings.”
“Where the injured horses are nursed back to health,” said Lily. “They’re injured, not druggies drying out in rehab.”
“Was that an injured horse that arrived last night?” asked Maddox.
“It was a horse. I don’t know about injured. It looked okay so I don’t know what the injury was.” I glanced at Lily and she shook her head and shrugged. “Harvey put it in a stable in the rehab yard so it must be recuperating somehow,” I added. “How is he linked to your gambling ring?”
“We think the ring is fixing bets, ensuring their syndicate gets a big payout. They started small, only one of the group places a big bet at a time, but a strange pattern started emerging and one of the race courses called us in to take a closer look.”
“What kind of pattern?” asked Garrett.
“Horses winning when the odds were against them. Horses that should have won, failing. And a couple of wins where the horses never won before and shouldn’t have now.”
“A coincidence?” I asked.
“The occasional underdog can triumph but the pattern suggests too many occurrences that shouldn’t have paid out.
The same names started to come up as placing big bets, bets they shouldn’t have realistically made, given the odds, then winning big payouts that should never have materialized,” said Maddox, leaning against the hood.
“Then we think the group wised up. Someone smarter took charge. The bets changed. We’re trying to figure out what they’re doing now and how extensive the ring is and if it’s connected to laundering. ”
“There aren’t any active racehorses at the farm,” I said. “There’re some ex-racehorses so if someone is messing with the horses, it’s not happening here.”
“That’s one avenue we’re looking at, but the horses come far and wide to compete.
What links the race yards is Harvey. We’ve found links between him and almost all of the suspicious horses.
He either knows the owners, has a professional relationship with the trainers, worked at the farms, or is friendly with someone who does. ”
“He’ll say that he’s in the industry so it’s natural he knows everyone,” added Farid. “Any physical visit or phone call can be written off as professional or personal. We have some names of suspects we think make up the betting ring and they’re linked to him too. He could be our ringleader.”
Maddox nodded. “Problem is the bets seemed to have stopped. He’d have the smarts on how to evade tipping off the betting industry, and how to hobble or soup up the horses.
We were hoping he might lead us to a meeting, or host one, so we could identify the rest of the players but so far, no such luck. ”
“Maybe you can entice them into a bet,” said Solomon. “Present something they won’t want to miss.”
“Like what?”
Solomon shrugged one shoulder. “Let me think about that.”
“What if they realized they’ve accidentally sent up a flare, and called off the betting?” I asked.
“It’s a possibility. Or they’ve been warned. Maybe someone tipped them off that they’d attracted attention. It could be a combination of those,” said Maddox. “With financial crimes like this, it’s a case of pulling at a lot of strings and seeing what pops up.”
“If he has the knowledge to pull off a betting scam, why would he be behind placing bets that raise alarms? That doesn’t sound like something a knowledgeable person would do,” said Lily. “That’s like me trying to scam my bar’s alcohol suppliers when I know they’d notice.”
There were some murmurings of agreement and a frustrated sigh from Maddox.
“It doesn’t sound like there’s much cross-over between us currently,” I decided. “Jessica wasn’t involved with racehorses, and it doesn’t seem like there were any issues between her and Harvey. She didn’t say she suspected him of being behind her incidents.”
“We did overhear that weird call though,” said Lily.
“What was that?” asked Maddox. Clouds drifted past the evening sun, casting a dark pall over our meeting spot. Maddox zipped up his jacket. I zipped up my vest and wished it had sleeves too.
“Harvey took a call shortly before that horse was delivered and he said Yvette didn’t suspect anything and Joel and she were home for the night so they weren’t a problem, or something like that.
He said they were distracted, which must have referred to Jessica’s accident.
He was on his way to get the horse. We followed him,” I said.
“He could mean they don’t suspect gambling,” said Farid, glancing at Maddox, who didn’t look convinced.
“Can you get close to him?” asked Maddox.
“My investigator is busy with her own case,” said Solomon. He crossed his arms.
“I’m not asking Lexi or Lily to put themselves in any danger,” said Maddox. Then to us, “Just keep your eyes and ears open.”
Lily snorted. “That’s how Lexi gets into danger,” she said.
“It’s not,” I said. “Danger just follows me around.”
Solomon looked at me, eyebrows rising. “We’re going to speak to Harvey anyway, as part of our case,” I said. “And how much danger can we really get into on a horse farm?”
Solomon sighed. “I’ll consider posting someone nearby.”
I chose not to comment on that vote of no confidence, given that I was exceptionally mature these days. I’d just prove them wrong. Again. And if that didn’t work, I’d simply try again.
“I have to go,” said Garrett, checking his watch. “Traci and I are going out tonight and I want to speak to Joel Casey before then. If I’m late, my wife will be pissed.”
“Who’s babysitting?” I asked.
“Jord. He and Poppy are sleeping over. They’re doing a cousins movie night. Whatever the latest animated movie is, popcorn and sodas, which I pretend I haven’t seen.”
“You’ve been replaced,” said Lily, looking aghast at me. “Jord has taken over your babysitting responsibilities.”
“That’s right,” confirmed Garrett. “You can’t bribe me with babysitting again.”
“I would never!” I protested, clasping a hand to my chest in mock flabbergast, even as I frantically searched my brain for any other bargaining chips I could use to trade for Garrett’s favors.
No, babysitting was all I had. I’d been the childless aunt for so long, I’d become accustomed to being the default babysitter.
Even better, it was my ultimate bargaining chip since who didn’t want a night out without paying for a sitter too?
The favors had paid off time and again. What would I do now if Garrett had another option?
Even better, an option who was a serving police detective and happily married dad of one?
“We always knew this day would come,” said Garrett, clasping my shoulder with a warm hand.
“I’d ask my oldest to look after his brother and sister, but he said he would lodge a complaint with the school counselor for parentifying him.
I don’t even know what that means but apparently, it’s a big deal. ”
“I think he’s testing boundaries,” I said. “I don’t think you need to be worried.”
Garrett shrugged but didn’t look overly concerned. Perhaps my babysitting for favors days weren’t behind me after all.
“We should go too,” I said, checking my watch. “It’s time for Lily’s bath.”
“Hurrah!” said Lily.
“I’m not going to ask,” said Solomon.
“Me neither,” said Maddox, turning on his heel and heading for the Dolly Tank.
“I… no, me neither,” said Garrett with a shake of his head. As he headed for his car, he waved, calling, “I’ll check in with you all tomorrow.”