chapter Thirty Three
"What've you got for me, boys?" Ram said as he walked through the bull pen.
Paul and Ted were still working the credit card fraud case and had discovered Bewitchments was also taken a hit through their online sales.
"Buying sex toys online?" Ram asked.
"Yeah, Chief. Very lucrative business. Had over half a million in online sales last year," Ted explained.
Ram whistled.
"I know, right?" Paul said.
"Do you know if anyone else in town does business through the internet?" Ram asked.
Paul and Ted looked at each other, knowing where their Chief was going with the question.
"I think Tammy, from The Bakery, does something with her cupcakes and stuff," Ted said.
"We'll check it out, Chief," Paul promised. "But we don't really have the knowledge or resources to track this if its online."
"There's a guy up in Denver we can call if we get enough info. He's an old buddy of mine and a Goddamn whiz on the computer," Ted added.
"Sounds good. Call me if you need me," Ram said, knowing both Ted and Paul were like Pit Bulls when it came to resolving cases.
Ram moved through the room before dropping into the chair next to Tim's desk.
"How's it going, boys?"
Jeff was working on the computer but stopped what he was doing and came over to Tim's desk.
"Marianne's mom was right. The perp used a trophy to hit Mrs. Gibson but the M.E. thinks she also hit her head on some kind of table. We were able to get a print and had it fast tracked. We should have results pretty soon," Tim said.
"The house was torn up just like Marianne's with everything ripped to shreds and drawers upended, things like that. We think we've got all we need from the scene and we're going to release it back to Greg," Jeff added.
"Yeah. He gave us a list of things he needed to bury his mom and I took them to him. Weird, though. Greg didn't seem to be grieving as much as he was mad," Tim said looking at his notes.
"How's Marianne holding up, Chief?" Jeff asked.
"To tell the truth, I don't think it's really hit her fully yet," Ram replied. "But, to be honest, with her mother talking about 'dark angels' who told her about Estella Gibson's death, Marianne understandably has a lot on her mind."
"Any chance of getting the secret agent twins off our backs?" Tim asked with a smirk. Jeff shook his head remembering how Agent Grant had yelled and screamed at the detectives when he learned of the break in at Mrs. Gibson's house.
"You think you've got it bad? Agent asshat has even tried to advise me about my love life!" Ram said with his own smirk.
All three of the men shook their heads in frustration. They'd never had Federal involvement before and for some reason they'd thought the people working for the federal government would be smoother, more unemotional and provide help in resolving the crimes.
But all the two agents seem to do was berate and point fingers at the Grantham P.D.
"Let me know when the print comes back," Ram advised before going back to his office. The boys had a point about the agents but Ram was getting just as much heat from his higher ups as he was from the Feds.
Hopefully the print would help solve this case and the 'secret agent twins' could go back to where they came from.
*.*.*.*.*
"Marianne?"
"Hey, Steve," I answered. "You never showed the other night. Are you okay?"
"I need the CDs. I need them now, Marianne," he begged.
I glanced at the clock on my computer.
"Steve, the bank is already closed. I can't get them until tomorrow morning."
"F*ck, Marianne. I need them tonight! "
"There's nothing I can do, honey. The bank is closed."
There was silence but I could hear background noises so I knew we weren't disconnected.
"I'm a dead man if I can't get the CDs tonight, Marianne. Do you f*cking know what I mean?" Steve was shouting into the phone.
"Let me see if there's something I can do and I'll call you back. What's your number?"
"No, Marianne. I'll call you in thirty minutes. Please get them, Sideshow. I'm a dead man without them." Steve said in a soft voice. I was confused by the emotional rollercoaster he was on. Steve used to be pretty even tempered, but as I discovered the night he came to my apartment, the here - and - now Steve wasn't the man I married.
I called Ram on his personal cell.
"Honey? Got a minute?"
"Yes, Pyari," he said and I heard a door close.
"I just got a call from Steve…"
"The ex-husband?"
Huh? 'The' versus 'Your'. Interesting word choice.
I heard Ram sigh as I gave him the highlights of Steve's call.
"How and when are you going to be in touch with him again?"
"He said he would call me back in thirty minutes," I explained.
"I'm going to have to call Jamison and see if he'll let us in so you can access your safe deposit box. Then we need to have a talk with your Steve."
"He's not my Steve. But, I'll see what I can do to meet with him and get him to talk to you."
"I'll call you back, Marianne, after I get in touch with Jamison."
"Okay, Ram," I said softly. I had f*cked up. Badly. It never occurred to me that my break in could have been for the CDs, mainly because the break in was done before I got the mail.
Wait a second.
Ram picked up the mail for me the day after the break in. The Fed Ex envelope was in the bag for a while before I even deigned to open it.
Was my aunt killed because of those stupid CDs?
Because of the stupid CDs that Steve asked me to hold for him?
I could feel the tremors start just about the same time my breathing accelerated.
*.*.*.*.*
In the best of circumstances, Ram avoided Layton Jamison, President of Grantham Saving and Loan, like the plague. He had been warned of Jamison's connection to the old Police Chief as well as a Judge who had both been convicted and were currently serving time on a full portfolio of corruption charges.
Jamison and Stuart McBride, one of the only attorneys in town, were implicated but from what he read of the various reports, there wasn't enough intel on either one of them to make a case against them.
Ram had been the one that had to tell Jamison of his daughter's murder and her side job as a topless dancer at Fuego's which he unequivocally denied saying he was in Fuego's 'all the time' and had never seen his daughter there.
Which was a sad state of affairs when you thought about it.
Mrs. Jamison was, for all intent and purposes, nonexistent. Ram had met her when he had advised them of Renee's death, but the alcohol fumes and her glazed, unfocused eyes told him that she had checked out of real life a long time ago.
With Layton Jamison as a husband, Ram could understand why.
Ram called Agent Grant with an update before calling Jamison. So by the time Ram got him on the phone, Ram could use the FBI card to ensure the bank president's full cooperation. Tim and Jeff said Jamison liked to believe he was a real mover and a shaker in their small town and telling him he would be instrumental in helping to solve a major Federal case had the older man practically salivating to open up the vault outside of banking hours.
Ram shook his head when he got off the phone.
Yeah, it's good they were in a small town, because he knew for a fact that a lot of the large banks had their vault on a timer and nothing or no one could access the vault outside of the scheduled hours.
Ram and Agent Grant were waiting outside the bank when Ram's cellphone rang.
"Marianne?"
"Yeah, honey. Steve wants me to get the CDs but doesn't want to meet with anyone else. Specifically no law enforcement. He sounds seriously stressed, Ram."
"So he wants you to come down to the bank, get the CDs and take them to him?"
Ram didn't like that at all.
"Basically. The only part that is different is he will pick them up from me at my place," Marianne said on a sigh.
Ram really didn't like that idea.
"And if he doesn't get the CDs?" Ram hated to ask the question knowing , by doing so, he was putting her, his girl, in the middle of it all.
"He said he's a dead man."
Tap Dance (Dance Series)
Judy Hornbuckle's books
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