Chapter Twenty-Four
Twenty-Four
Fort Bragg, California
“Who was Kerrigan hired to kill?” Ronan asked coldly. Ashton’s aunt had known so much more than he’d imagined.
Janice shook her head.
Ronan held up his phone. “I have local police surrounding your house. I’ll call them based on your answer. If you cooperate with me now, they will be discreet when they take you in for questioning. If you don’t cooperate, they’ll cuff you and drag you out in front of all your neighbors.”
Another swallow, then a soft snarl. “This is a nightmare.”
“Tell that to the families of the eleven people Ashton killed,” Elle said quietly. “I’m sure they’ll agree with you.”
Once again Janice seemed to deflate. “Judge Randolph.”
Ronan quickly glanced at Elle to find her pale and grim. He turned back to the woman on the screen. “You knew your nephew planned to kill a judge and you didn’t tell anyone?”
“I didn’t think he was serious.”
“You didn’t think he was serious.” Shaking his head, Ronan looked over the laptop monitor to his boss. Howard nodded once and left the room. He’d communicate all of this—including the attempted murder for hire—to their contact in the Sarasota PD.
Jessica held up a notepad. She’d written Get the name of his doctor and/or psychiatrist.
“Kerrigan said he never planned to kill for Ashton,” Janice was saying.
“He was going to take the money and run. I asked him if Ash would kill the judge himself, because if there was even a chance that he might have, I would have stepped in. Had him committed for observation. Something. But Kerrigan said no, that Ash was afraid that if he committed the crime, he’d be the first suspect. ”
“Did this Kerrigan know that your nephew was stalking Ms. Randolph?”
“I don’t know.”
Ronan thought she was telling the truth. “Did he know that your nephew had murdered people himself?”
“I…I don’t know.”
That was less decisive.
Hopefully Sarasota PD could find Kerrigan.
And then I need to find Ashton Dempsey and put a stop to this madness, once and for all.
“I’m going to need the name of his doctor. His psychiatrist if he has one.”
“That’s confidential. They won’t talk to you.”
“It’s confidential until he becomes a threat to himself or others. Both conditions are satisfied at this time. But we’ll get a subpoena if we have to.”
Her shoulders sagged. “Dr. John Kraft is his psychiatrist, but he hasn’t seen Ash since he was released from the rehab center. Sessions were mandatory there, but Ash hated them. Dr. Scott Jones is his primary care doctor, but I don’t think Ash has kept any of those appointments, either.”
“Thank you. I’ll call them. One more question. Did your nephew have access to your house before you changed the locks?” Ronan asked.
“Yes. He had a key. That’s why I changed the locks,” she added tartly.
“I’m sorry, but he may have hidden evidence in your house. We’re going to have to search that, too.”
“No,” Janice said. “Absolutely not. Get a warrant.”
“We already have one, signed by the judge who is not Judge Randolph. The officers are about to knock on your front door. Please let them in. They’ll be happy to show you the warrant.”
In the background, they could hear loud knocking on the woman’s door. Her face a picture of rage, she slammed the cover of her laptop down, ending the call.
Exhaling heavily, Ronan leaned back in his chair as Howard reentered the room, still on the phone.
“Putting you on speaker,” Howard said, placing his phone on the table. “This is Lieutenant Dixon, Sarasota PD. Lieutenant, I’m with Detectives Clarke and Simpson, our psychologist Dr. Bowers, and Ms. Randolph.”
Elle seemed to relax a fraction. “George, you got promoted. Congratulations.”
A chuckle came from Howard’s phone. “I did. I’m so sorry this is happening to you, Elle. You and your dad. Neither of you deserve this.”
“Thank you.” She turned to Ronan. “George was the lead detective on the investigation that cleared me of vehicular homicide charges. He’s a good cop. A good guy.”
Ronan would deal with the surge of jealousy he felt later. “Nice to meet you,” he said gruffly. “As always, wish it were under better circumstances. Do you know this Kerrigan?”
“Unfortunately I do. Good thing for you guys is that he’s currently in lockup, awaiting trial.
Tried to con several little old ladies out of their retirement money.
Messed with the wrong little old lady, who’d been a high-powered judge herself in Maine before retiring to sunny Florida.
She reported him and helped us get the evidence we needed.
He couldn’t make bail, so he’s stuck as our guest for a while.
He wouldn’t agree to a plea deal before, but he might now.
Conspiracy to murder for hire is a tad more serious than retirement fund fraud. ”
“You should find out who Janice Dempsey hired as her PI,” Ronan said. “He might have information on the fraud that you can use in your case.”
“I’ll definitely be doing that. Elle, your dad has a protection detail. I picked the officers myself. He and your mother are okay.”
“Thank you,” Elle said sincerely. “I can’t believe that woman knew her nephew was a risk and never said anything.”
“All too common,” Howard said. “Behind many criminals are their enablers. Nice job, Ms. Randolph. You were calm and got her talking.”
“Elle’s good at that,” George said warmly. “Ah. It seems Ms. Dempsey is being escorted to a cruiser.”
“Are you standing in front of her house?” Gary asked.
“I am. I also supervised the search of Ashton’s house. Place was a fucking arsenal. Not one of his firearms was registered.”
Gary met Ronan’s gaze. “I requested the TSA records for all of Bradley Albertson’s flights a few hours ago.
If he flew to any of the locations where he either stalked Elle or murdered someone connected to the case, he might have checked a gun.
I’d been thinking that he would have bought them in the cities where he killed people, but after hearing about his gun collection this morning, I thought he might have brought one with him.
I just got TSA’s reply. His Bradley Albertson alias checked a firearm on every flight.
It’s not going to tell us where he is right now, but when we catch him, it’s another nail in his coffin. ”
“Thank you,” Ronan said. “We also need to find out where he got that fake ID. It was a damn good one. Allowed him to get credit cards and to fly domestically for two years while checking a firearm. Had to have cost him a pretty penny, but it seems money hasn’t been a concern for him.”
“We gathered several boxes of paper from his house,” Lieutenant Dixon said.
“A lot of scribbles on notebook paper, some printouts of websites. We’ll be looking for the names of anyone he used to help him.
FYI, we didn’t find a passport. Not yet, anyway.
Just letting you know in case he tries to make a run for it. ”
“We’ve alerted all the border crossings and airports to his real name and alias,” Howard said. “He won’t be able to use that passport. Hopefully he doesn’t have other fake ones.”
“And on that cheerful note,” Dixon said, “I need to go. We’re ready to do the search of the aunt’s house. I’ll keep you posted.”
“We’ll do the same,” Howard said.
“Happy hunting.” The Sarasota lieutenant ended the call, and Ronan turned to Elle.
“You trust him?”
“I do. He’s got a good reputation and, like I said, he was very methodical when he investigated the accident and Todd’s death. Even Todd’s parents had to stop accusing me of killing their son. In public, anyway.”
Gary’s expression was sympathetic. “Your in-laws still think you’re responsible?”
“Yes. That I’d been planning to divorce him came out in the investigation. So even though he grabbed the steering wheel that night, they said my leaving him had driven him to it.”
And Ronan could see that, at least on some level, Elle believed that. No wonder she carried all that guilt for the lives Ashton Dempsey had taken.
Ronan tried to think of something to say that would change her mind, but surprisingly it was Howard who spoke.
“He was abusive, Elle. He hurt you repeatedly. You tried to help him. You tried to get him to stop drinking and he wouldn’t.
He exhibited classic abusive behavior, including making you believe that your choices ‘made’ him do things.
Your late husband chose to drink. He chose to hit you.
He chose to grab the steering wheel that night.
You are not responsible for any of those choices.
His parents enabled his drinking. Supported his leaving rehab before he was ready.
Said he was cured. That he didn’t need AA or any other support group.
Hear me, Elle, and listen. You are not responsible for his choices.
You are not responsible for what happened that night.
If you hadn’t taken the evasive action you did, you would have involved several more cars in that crash.
A lot more people would have died instead of only the three.
The Dempseys’ deaths were tragic, but you saved a lot of other people. ”
Ronan was staring at him. “What?”
Howard lifted a brow. “I called George Dixon two weeks ago, when I first learned about Elle’s involvement. I went straight to the source and got the facts of the case plus a fair bit of colorful commentary.”
“I thought you suspected me of being involved,” Elle said, her brown eyes still wide and stunned.