Chapter 21 #2
“We’re considering a couple of guys, but nothing definite enough to mention,” Abby said. “That’s why I’m here. Kelsey said you can begin recovering evidence from the grave. We’re hoping you can locate something to identify this guy.”
“As soon as my assistant finishes dusting the exit doors, she can take over here. Then I’ll get right on it.” Sam picked up a large roll of clear tape and ripped off a three-inch piece.
“I’d like you to start by collecting the victim’s belt buckle,” Burke said. “We want to show it to Victor. Hopefully he knows who owned it.”
“No problem. Give me fifteen minutes, and it’ll be packaged and ready for you to sign out.” Sam pressed the tape over the dusted prints. “By the way, you left this morning before I could give you an update.”
“What do you have?” Burke asked.
“First, I got up early this morning and ran the prints from the boat and the Tylenol package. Bad news is, I searched AFIS but didn’t return a match for any of them.”
Bummer. Not what Abby wanted to hear. The Automated Fingerprint Identification System database managed by the FBI contained fingerprints from known criminals. No match, no suspect.
“So they’re all a dead end, then?” Abby asked.
“The ones for the boat, yes, until you have a suspect and I can compare their prints to the ones I lifted.”
“But what about the Tylenol?” Burke asked.
She smiled. “The prints were a match for Sylvia and Ugo.”
“Kinda skipped over the best part, didn’t you?” Burke grinned.
Abby wasn’t in the mood to laugh. She looked at him. “So Sylvia and Ugo were in the cellar at some point when they both lied and said they weren’t.”
Burke’s smile vanished. “They obviously need to be called on their lie.”
“While we meet with Victor, Gabe could interview them. He can also ask Ugo about Estelle’s and Victor’s financial records.
” Abby looked at her watch. “But before we do anything, I’d like to get a quick status update from the team.
They could’ve learned something to help determine our next priority. ”
“Sounds like a plan, but we can’t lose sight of talking to Victor. He could very well know who the belt buckle belonged to.”
She nodded, excitement burning through her. Not long and they could know the murdered man’s name. Whether or not his identity had any bearing on locating the missing crown remained to be seen, but it could very well be the answer to Estelle’s disappearance.
Burke sat next to Abby in the dining room and waited for her team members to arrive in their conference room and connect to the call. He assumed they would be as surprised as he and Abby were about not only locating remains, but that they were for a man whose identity they didn’t have a clue about.
Gabe yawned and set aside the ferry logs Abby had received last night from Hayden.
“Thanks for monitoring the cameras we installed here last night,” Abby said. “Especially when there was nothing on them.”
“Not nothing. The deer who set off the French door camera was interesting to watch.” Gabe laughed and stood. “I’ll do the rest of these logs when I get back from Ugo’s and Sylvia’s interview.”
“Anything so far?” Burke asked.
“I’m compiling a log of swiped data for Dr Shore, Ugo, and Sylvia so you can compare them to their stories and decide if they told you the truth.”
“Looking forward to seeing that,” Abby said. “Hopefully it’ll give us the answers we need, and you won’t have to move on to other visitors.”
Gabe nodded. “Unfortunately, it’s a long shot when we can’t determine who a visitor came to the island to see. I’ll have to further investigate. It’s tedious work but far better than babysitting.”
He laughed and strode to the door, his usual confident posture in place. He had that macho man, law-enforcement-officer look and attitude at times, but Burke had discovered there was much more to him.
Gabe looked back at Abby. “Be sure to update me on the meeting highlights, and don’t talk too badly about me.” He grinned and left the dining room.
Burke shifted to face the laptop screen. “I really didn’t like Gabe when I first met him, but he’s grown on me.”
“A lot of people feel that way about him, but it usually doesn’t take long to see he has a heart of gold. Not that he would ever willingly admit it.”
Burke understood the guy. He didn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve either, but he thought he had a far different reason than Gabe. Still, Gabe showed his affection for Abby, and Burke suspected he wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding his feelings for her either.
The team’s individual photos appeared on screen, and Abby clicked to enter the meeting. “We’re pressed for time. Can we quickly go down to your follow-up items? Hayden, let’s start with you. What have you found on background information for the people we asked you to look into?”
He grabbed something from the table. “I’ll send you the official reports, but the short version is Sylvia and Ugo seem to be on the up and up.
Sylvia has lived in the same house since working for Victor.
Ugo lost his family in a car crash, but he still lives in the house he bought when he got married. ”
“Oh, man.” Abby shook her head slowly, almost in disbelief. Recently having lost her mother, she probably could sympathize with him. “The poor guy. He didn’t mention it, but it’s probably too hard to talk about.”
“Yeah, it was an unfortunate accident—drunk driver.” Hayden took a deep, shaky breath and exhaled sharply.
“But moving on, both of their mortgages are paid off. Their finances might not be perfect, but neither one of them are in any serious debt. However, looks like Sylvia is living paycheck to paycheck. Her husband has cancer, and their insurance is through Victor. Could be why she hasn’t retired. ”
“Makes sense, and for the first time, I’m feeling bad for Sylvia,” Abby said. “What doesn’t make sense is that she didn’t mention the cancer. Could be too tough for her to talk about too. Did you uncover anything about their daughter?”
“She’s twenty-seven and a loan officer at the local bank.
She still lives at home with her parents.
” Hayden looked directly in the camera. “I couldn’t find anything to suggest she did or even might do something unethical with Victor’s safety deposit box.
I did, however, discover Victor gave her a reference to get the job. ”
Burke was impressed with what this guy could find. “So you don’t think there’s anything there?”
Hayden shook his head. “And nothing suspicious about Vidal and Viviane either. All three grandchildren belong to Viviane. Vidal is an engineer, married to a highly successful defense lawyer. Viviane is a stay-at-home mom, her husband a highly respected financial planner. Neither family lives beyond their means, and their finances are in excellent shape.”
Since that line of questioning was a bust, he moved on. “Did you find anything about their relationship with their father?”
“I located a few internet stories connecting them together, but nothing showing if they got along with one another. Of course, with as private as Victor is and never leaving the house, it would be pretty hard for a reporter to do a story on them.”
Abby sighed. “On the surface, it doesn’t seem like either child would need to steal the crown.”
“Exactly,” Hayden said. “I do have some additional algorithms running. They might tell us more, but I don’t think there’s anything to find here. Also, I haven’t located any information on Vincent except for a few articles in French newspapers scanned from the eighties.
“Odd,” Burke said. “A guy from such a prominent family might not have an online presence in social media, but I find it hard to believe he hasn’t appeared in more current articles too, unless he’s a hermit like Victor or deceased.
“Me too,” Hayden said. “I didn’t find an obituary either.”
“So with Victor’s hatred of his brother, Vincent could be our victim,” Abby said.
Murmurs of agreement traveled around the table.
“Anything else you have for us?” Abby asked.
Burke held his breath, hoping Hayden’s extensive research would turn something up to move the investigation forward.
“I’m still working on compiling a list of potential fences in Portland.
This isn’t the sort of information you find on the basic internet, so I’ve been searching the dark web.
Not as easy. I’ll let you know as soon as I have anything.
” Looking frustrated, he sat back. “That’s it for me, but knowing you, you have something else for me to do. ”
“You know it!” Abby laughed. “Do a deep dive for two people. Juan López first. He served as Victor’s live-in gardener for many years until Victor fired him. The only thing we know about him is that he came from California forty or so years ago and was in his fifties when he worked for Victor.”
“Hmm.” Hayden frowned. “This one could be tough. His name is extremely common and without any other information, it could be a challenge to find something. I can start by searching for an obituary for him. Might narrow things down.”
“I actually hope you don’t find one,” Burke said. “If he died, we won’t be able to interview him.”
“You said he was a live-in gardener,” Jude said. “Means he might’ve used the estate’s address for his driver’s license and other mail. Could help locate him.”
“Good point.” Hayden’s eyes filled with determination, then he looked at Abby. “You mentioned a second person?”
She nodded. “Dr. Melanie Shore, a retired local botanist. She’s been friends with Victor for many years and provided him with a biological toxin for pest control. It’s possible either she or Victor used the toxin to kill someone. We discovered skeletal remains on his property today.”
“Hold up!” Nolan raised his hand. “You casually drop the news of finding a body like it’s nothing?”
“Sorry,” Abby said, and told them about the lichen and grave Kelsey discovered.
“And you have no idea who this man might be?” Reece asked.
“Maybe López, but the victim is much taller than a typical Mexican immigrant back in the day.”
Reece angled her head. “So because the doctor told Victor about this toxin it makes her a suspect too?”
“Not an official suspect,” Burke said. “But using such organic and biodegradable pesticides that are hard to detect in a body is suspicious. Plus, she admitted to being in love with Victor and he doesn’t return her feelings. Gives her a motive to do away with Estelle.”
“And you’d like Hayden to get the 411 on her.” Jude laughed.
“Yes,” Abby said. “Everything he can find, including any sign she acted on her feelings for Victor and had an affair with him. Not only is it a motive for him to kill Estelle, but if she discovered his plan to kill her or his affair with the doctor—if he was having one—are solid reasons for her to take off.”
“You got it,” Hayden said.
Abby gave him an appreciative smile. “Sorry, but I have one more thing. Victor mentioned he inherited the mansion from his father, and Vincent inherited their family’s French estate. I want to confirm his statement.”
Hayden snapped his fingers. “Piece of cake. Anything else?”
“Isn’t that enough?” Abby chuckled.
“Trust me, I’m not asking for more to do. Just don’t want to let you down.”
“I can almost see Hayden’s shoulders, collapsing under all of these requests,” Reece said. “Is there anything the rest of us can do to help?”
Hayden laughed. “Thanks for caring about me, Mom.”
“It’s what I do.” Reece grinned.
“Don’t worry,” Hayden said, “it’s a lot, but not more than I can handle.”
Abby glanced at Burke. “Do you have anything to add for Hayden?”
He shook his head.
“I second Reece’s thanks, Hayden.” Abby gave her teammate a broad smile. “Get back to me as soon as you can. I’m especially interested in the list of potential fences.”
He nodded.
“Then we’ll sign off.”
“Before you do,” Nolan interrupted, “don’t get so caught up in this investigation that you forget your deposition.”
“I won’t,” she said, but sounded as if it had already slipped her mind.
After she ended the call, she turned to Burke. “The deposition Nolan mentioned is for our last case. I’ve had to put it off twice, and the defense attorney is threatening legal action if I don’t show up. It’s scheduled in two days, and I’ll have to go.”
“No worries. I get it—juggling several investigations is part of the job.” And he did get it. He lived it—usually balancing multiple cases at once without blinking.
What he didn’t understand was the heaviness creeping in at the thought of Abby not being there with him. Not just on the job, but in his life.
Three days. That’s all they’d had together. And somehow when he looked ahead, she’d become part of the picture.
Was that crazy? Maybe.
But real.
The thought of moving forward without her left a hollow space in his heart.
Still—was he really ready for something more?
Just as important… was she?