CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The apartment complex in Mechanicsville was exactly what Kate had expected after seeing Margaret Ellis's bankruptcy filing.
It was a sprawling two-story building with faded beige siding and a parking lot full of older vehicles.
The kind of place people lived when they were rebuilding after financial disaster.
Sloane knocked firmly on the door. She waited less than two seconds before she announced: "We're looking for Margaret Ellis. This is the FBI!” It was another of those decisions Kate wouldn’t have made, but there was technically nothing wrong with it—just blunt and to the point, much like Sloane.
There was movement inside, the sound of voices, and then the door opened.
A man in his early forties stood in the doorway, wearing jeans and a Virginia Tech sweatshirt.
He had the cautious expression of someone who'd been interrupted during a quiet evening at home.
His beard was thin but ragged and his eyes looked a bit tired.
He looked very confused to see two female FBI agents at the door… and, Kate supposed, rightfully so.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
Kate and Sloane both held up their credentials. Kate wondered if it would ever stop coming to her like second nature. "We need to speak with Margaret Ellis," Kate said. "Is she here?"
"Yeah, she's here." The man looked back over his shoulder. "Maggie, there are FBI agents at the door."
A woman appeared from what looked like the kitchen area, drying her hands on a dish towel.
She had dark hair that fell past her shoulders and wore comfortable clothes that suggested she'd been home for a while.
Her face showed confusion more than fear.
She looked even more confused than the man—a boyfriend, Kate assumed; she saw no wedding bands on either of their fingers.
"FBI?" Margaret Ellis said. "What's this about?"
"May we come in?" Sloane asked. "We have some questions about your time with Second Act Success."
Ellis's confusion deepened, but she stepped back and gestured them inside. "Yeah, I guess,” she said, though it sounded more like a question than a statement. “I'm sorry, I'm just trying to figure out why the FBI would be asking about that."
The apartment was small but tidy. A couch and television occupied most of the living room, with a small dining table visible in the adjacent kitchen area. The decor was minimal, the kind of space that suggested people were acquiring their furniture piece by piece and had decided they had enough.
The man who'd answered the door introduced himself. "I'm Kevin Murphy, Maggie's boyfriend. Should I… I mean, am I okay to be here?"
"You can stay," Kate said, trying to keep a cool facade. "We just have a few questions."
They all settled into the living room. Ellis and Murphy sat very closely together on the couch while Kate and Sloane took the two mismatched chairs across from them.
Kate noticed Sloane pulling out her phone, ready to take notes, and decided to let the younger agent take the lead on this interview.
She wanted to watch how Sloane handled it.
They waited as Ellis picked up the TV remote and switched it off.
"Ms. Ellis," Sloane began, "can you tell us about your employment with Second Act Success?"
Ellis glanced at Murphy, then back at Sloane. "That was nearly three years ago. I worked there for about eleven months as a program coordinator just as they were starting to get off the ground. But… forgive me, but why are you asking about this now?"
"We're investigating some incidents connected to the program," Sloane said, being deliberately vague. "We found records of a comprehensive business framework you developed. Can you tell us about that?"
Kate watched as Ellis's expression shifted to something between embarrassment and resignation. The woman clearly wasn't thrilled to be discussing this period of her life. She was also clearly hung up on why they were there, asking about what, for now, seemed like trivial things.
"I created that framework before I started working for David Crawford," Ellis said. "I'd spent months developing it, thinking I was going to start my own consulting business. When Crawford hired me, I showed it to him as an example of my capabilities. I thought it might be useful for the program."
"And Crawford used it," Sloane said.
"He did. He incorporated elements of it into the participant materials.
" Ellis paused. "Look, I know there was some confusion about ownership.
Crawford insisted that anything I created while employed by him became program property.
We disagreed about whether the framework qualified since I'd developed it before I started working there.
But honestly, I was just glad to have a steady paycheck. I let it go."
Kate noticed how Sloane leaned forward slightly, her voice taking on a sharper edge. "You let it go? Even though Crawford went on to use your work to create multiple success stories while you got nothing?"
"It wasn't like that," Ellis said, but there was something defensive in her tone now.
Murphy put a hand on Ellis's knee, a gesture of support. "Maggie gave Crawford permission to use the framework. She signed a document releasing any claims to it."
Kate filed that information away. If Ellis had officially released the framework, it changed the dynamic significantly. But Sloane wasn't backing down. But she also took note of the slight cringe Ellis showed; this was apparently a piece of information she wasn’t necessarily proud of.
"You started your own business after leaving the program," Sloane said. "Ellis Consulting Solutions, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“But it failed within a year and left you bankrupt."
Ellis's face flushed. "Yes. It did."
"While David Crawford was using your framework to help other people build successful businesses," Sloane pressed. "Businesses that are still operating today. How did that make you feel?"
Kate almost intervened. The question was too direct, too aggressive. But she held back, curious to see where Sloane was going with this. The last thing a developing agent needed was to be course-corrected in front of a potential suspect.
"It made me feel disappointed," Ellis said.
Her voice had gone quiet. "But not because Crawford used my work.
I failed because I was in over my head. I refused to accept that at the time, but it was the truth.
Having a good framework doesn't mean you know how to run a business. I learned that the hard way."
Murphy squeezed her knee again. "But you're doing great now. The bookkeeping business is steady, and we're making progress on the debt."
Ellis smiled at him, grateful for the support. "I work as a freelance bookkeeper now. It's not glamorous, but I'm good at it. I'm slowly paying down what I owe from the business failure. It'll take another year or so, but I'll get there."
Kate watched the interaction between Ellis and Murphy. There was genuine affection there, the kind of partnership that develops when people support each other through difficult times. It didn't fit the profile of someone consumed by rage and revenge.
But Kate wasn’t all that surprised to find that Sloane wasn't done. "When was the last time you had contact with David Crawford or anyone from Second Act Success?" she asked.
"Not since I resigned," Ellis said. "That was almost three years ago. I haven't spoken to Crawford or anyone else from the program since then."
"Have you followed the program's success? Maybe just checking them out online to keep track of which participants succeeded?"
Ellis shook her head. "No. I’ve wondered about it from time to time, but kept my distance. That part of my life is over. I made my peace with it and moved on."
Kate could see Sloane's frustration building. The younger agent had been certain they'd found their killer, and Ellis wasn't reacting the way a guilty person should. But Sloane pushed forward anyway, undeterred.
"Where were you on Thursday night?"
Ellis took a moment to think about it and finally answered: “Here. I finished my last bookkeeping appointment at five, came home, and Kevin made dinner. We watched television most of the evening."
"Can anyone verify that besides Mr. Murphy?"
Ellis thought for a moment. "I video-called my sister around seven. We talked for maybe twenty minutes. She can confirm the time."
Murphy nodded. "I can verify all of it. We were both here all evening. I stay here most nights, too."
Sloane looked at Kate, and Kate could see the younger agent struggling with what to ask next. The interview wasn't going the way Sloane had planned, and she was losing her momentum. Kate decided to step in before it started to take its toll on Sloane.
"Ms. Ellis," Kate said gently, "we're investigating the murders of three women who graduated from Second Act Success. All of them built successful businesses using elements of your framework."
Sloane looked over to her with a slight look of surprise. Maybe a bit of disappointment, too.
Ellis's hand went to her mouth. "Oh my God. Who?"
"Rachel Thornton, Patricia Holmes, and Susan Hayes," Kate said, watching Ellis's reaction carefully. “They were all quite successful with the program. Do you know the names?”
Ellis's shock appeared genuine. "Holmes… Patricia Holmes sounds familiar but I couldn’t tell you why." She looked at Murphy, her eyes wide, and then back to Sloane. "This is about murder? You think I killed those women? That I was… what? Angry about my time with Crawford and his program?"
"We're simply investigating all connections to the program," Kate said. "Your framework was used in their business plans, so it was only natural that we needed to talk to you."
"I didn't kill anyone," Ellis said firmly, showing a spark of anger for the first time since they arrived.
"I've been working sixty-hour weeks trying to rebuild my life.
I don't have time for revenge even if I wanted it.
And I don't. What happened with Crawford and the business failure, that was my own fault for being unprepared. "
Murphy put his arm around Ellis's shoulders. "Maggie's been through enough. Her piece of shit ex-husband cheated on her, her business failed, she went bankrupt. She's been working incredibly hard to put her life back together. She doesn't deserve to be accused of murder."
Kate noticed the detail about the divorce and the cheating. Another loss in what had clearly been a difficult few years for Ellis. But none of it added up to the kind of focused rage that had driven someone to kill three women with personalized letter openers.
Sloane had gone quiet now, typing notes into her phone but clearly unsure how to proceed.
Kate could see the younger agent's frustration, the way she kept glancing at Ellis as if trying to see past some imagined facade.
It was both impressive and irritating. Sloane's instincts had led them to Ellis, which showed good investigative thinking.
But her aggressive questioning style had pushed too hard too fast, revealing their hand before they'd gathered enough information.
"What about yesterday afternoon around three or four?" Sloane asked, apparently deciding to push forward despite the setbacks.
Ellis shook her head in disbelief. "I was at work, downtown in my little hole of an office. I can give you the name of the client I was working with, as well as electrician that was in there pretty much all day working on some faulty wiring.”
Kate stood up, and Sloane followed her lead.
The interview was over. Someone guilty was not going to offer up two different people who could confirm alibis.
Ellis wasn't their killer. Kate had been so certain when they'd found the framework in Crawford's files, so sure that they'd identified the connection.
But Ellis had moved on, rebuilt her life, found someone who supported her.
She wasn't hunting down Crawford's success stories to kill them.
"Thank you for your time," Kate said. "If you think of anything else that might be relevant, please call us." She handed Ellis a card with her contact information—one of a small stack she’d been keeping in her inner jacket pocket for nearly a decade.
Ellis took it with a shaky hand. "I hope you find whoever did this. This is… well, this all sounds awful.”
Kate and Sloane left the apartment and walked back down the exterior stairs to their car. The night air was cold, and Kate could see her breath in the glow of the parking lot lights. Behind them, apartment 2C's curtains were drawn, Ellis and Murphy's silhouettes visible as they moved around inside.
"She's not the killer," Sloane said quietly. It wasn't a question.
"No," Kate confirmed. "She's not." She nearly commented on the brash way she’d handle the line of questioning but decided to let it rest. She was already deflated enough by the fact that Ellis wasn’t their killer.
They got into the car, and Kate sat in the passenger seat trying to process what they'd just learned.
She'd been so sure. The framework, the bankruptcy, the stolen concepts.
It had all pointed to Ellis. But Ellis had been genuinely shocked by the murders, genuinely moved on from her time with Crawford.
And she had an alibi that Kate knew would check out of they chose to follow up on it.
Which meant they were back to having no suspect and three dead women with a killer who was still just outside of their grasp.