Chapter 62

 

Pen liked Dave Fresnell almost immediately when she met him. In addition to being young and handsome in his well-made suit and trim haircut, as they spoke she saw many of the same qualities that appealed to her in Benton Case. Honesty and a forthright manner, along with a winning smile, told her he would perform his job with integrity, do the legal thing—and he would do the right thing.

Along with outlining the reasons they believed Clint had hidden his income and stashed money in offshore accounts, she was open with him about the original reason for their mission: that Clint had cheated Mary all the way to homelessness and they wanted justice done.

“Right now we think Clint Holbrook is making his final maneuvers to gather all this money he has accumulated and disappear forever. Once he gets away, he’ll leave two wives and numerous employees abandoned.”

“My heart goes out to your friend, Ms. Fitzpatrick, but I’m afraid spouse-abandonment doesn’t fall under our office’s mission,” Fresnell said. “What you’ve said about his attempting to cheat the insurance company out of a million dollars, setting up unreported offshore accounts, and using false documents to avoid his legal obligation to pay taxes—those are things we can go after. We’ll work together with the FBI and Internal Revenue.”

Pen felt a surge of irritation. Stand up for the IRS or a mega insurance firm, but think nothing about the struggling woman who is barely surviving every day? But she tamped down the emotion. At this moment, she was after results and Fresnell at least had a kindly manner. If he managed to get his agency moving and they caught Clint, the bottom-line result would be the same.

Her phone rang before she could think what to say next to Fresnell. The name on the screen showed it was Gracie.

“I’m in a meeting, Gracie. Can you make this quick?”

“The FBI just showed up at Amber’s apartment and took her away. She was tracking Clint.”

“Hold on a moment,” Pen said. Looking across the desk at Fresnell she aimed her words at him. “Very fast work. The FBI came for one of my friends, apparently because she was making progress toward finding Clint Holbrook.”

He flinched slightly at her accusatory tone.

“I’m afraid I had nothing to do with that,” he said. “You’ve been sitting right here. I haven’t made any calls.”

It was true.

She turned back to Gracie, who said, “Clint is traveling along the I-40 corridor, and we think he’s in touch with Derek Woo. But we’re not sure about that part. He’s contacting someone, though, at each stop along the way.”

Names flew through Pen’s head. Maybe Woo, maybe Kaycie? It could even be someone at the offices of Holbrook Plumbing. Just because the women had debunked the image of his huge office suite downtown, the other shop was still up and running. Of course, Clint could only trust someone who knew the story of his death wasn’t true.

Gracie was talking to her left ear while Dave Fresnell was saying something else.

“Gracie, let me call you back in a moment. Dave, can you find out who at the local FBI office has Amber Zeckis in custody? For that matter, I’d love to know who ordered her taken in and on what grounds.”

He nodded and picked up his phone. After a good ten minutes of noncommittal um-hmms and silent nods as Fresnell jotted notes on a pad, he hung up and faced her.

“Three agents were sent to Ms. Zeckis’s apartment with a warrant issued by Homeland Security when they discovered she had recently traveled to China and hacked the computer of an American citizen working there. The whole thing came on their radar because the Chinese were also keeping tabs on this man and our government was watching both of them. Sort of the spy watching the spy, watching the other spy.”

Pen felt her face go pale. “Is Amber in serious trouble?”

“Depends on what she learned. If there are matters of national security at stake, you bet. She’s in deep.”

“But it wasn’t that at all. She’s been watching Clint Holbrook to keep track of his movement of money.” She fidgeted slightly in her chair. “We had hoped to make a case on behalf of his ex-wife, to get some of his money given to her.”

“In China? Seriously?”

“Well, it’s where he went.” She sat up straighter and squared her shoulders. “We managed to ferret out valuable information, if you’ll just give us a chance.”

“At this point, I think you ladies have done enough. With all due respect to you, Mrs. Fitzpatrick, and to Benton Case as a longtime friend, this is where you need to step back and let the authorities handle the matter.” He stood and extended his hand over the desk.

Pen shook it, steaming at the brush-off.

All right, she thought as she left the building and walked to her car. You go through your little bureaucratic procedures and get your paperwork all lined up and assemble teams. You’ll discover Clint Holbrook supposedly died, and then you can go through all the steps to confront and arrest him. Meanwhile, we Heist Ladies aren’t waiting around.

She climbed into her Mercedes and called Gracie’s number.

“Now, Gracie, tell me everything you know.”

Gracie went into a story about how Amber had figured out Clint’s moves from the Philippines back to the U.S.

“He’s here in Arizona right now,” Gracie said with urgency in her voice. “But according to Amber, he could easily head for California or Nevada, maybe the Grand Canyon.”

Mary said something in the background.

“Oh—that’s right,” Gracie said. “Amber shouted out just before they took her away, something about Sedona. It must be where he’s headed now. Amber thought he was most likely in contact with Derek Woo. We don’t know what Clint is driving, though, and all of Amber’s fancy little trackers are gone with her computer and phone. How can we find him?”

Pen thought for a moment. “If the two are planning to meet up, maybe I can follow Mr. Woo. His office isn’t far from here. Do we know what type of vehicle he drives?”

Mary spoke up. “The day Amber and I went into his office, I saw car keys on the credenza behind his desk. The emblem on the fancy keyring was … let me think … I’m pretty sure it was the Lexus emblem.”

“I’m on my way,” Pen said, starting her car.