Last But Not Leashed, page 20
“So she says. When the bodyguards spotted Henry James in the audience, they forced her to leave early.” Mari continued, “Chloe told me she’d never met Elaine, only Sookie and Posey.”
That was in line with what Elaine had said. Sookie kept the big jobs for herself and farmed the smaller projects to her assistant. Posey was the hired help. “Was Chloe satisfied with the closet design?”
“She loved it. The whole experience was fantastic. In fact, she planned to send three or four of her friends to Sookie.”
We reached the iron double gate. Sensors on each side allowed the panels to slowly swing open from the middle. A quick turn onto the road and we set off for the animal hospital. I felt a huge sense of relief getting away from those foreboding gates.
I’d briefly felt trapped too. Just like Chloe.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
As soon as we walked into the office, Cindy pounced on us.
“So, what was it like?” she asked. “A friend of mine said they brought a huge crew in from New York City to work on that house. It’s probably worth several million dollars, or even more.” With a quick move, she picked up the bag of medical waste we’d generated and followed Mari and me into the treatment room.
“Did you know I used to go camping up there in that meadow? Gorgeous spot. Mostly used for grazing because it was terrible in the winter. The wind is fierce on the mountaintop,” Cindy added.
“I guess we lucked out,” I told her. “The sun was shining, and winds were fairly mild. You could see an entire panorama of mountain ranges and the whole reservoir.”
Mari jumped in. “The house was fabulous. Inside it was all glass and stainless steel, and very modern, but not impersonal. Cool, clean lines. I wanted to dump all my stuff and start all over again.”
Cindy threw back her head and laughed. “I know that feeling. Sometimes I could include the hubby in that stuff.”
Getting back to the reason for our visit, I said, “Easy house call. Their Frenchie puppy had a pebble wedged up under his front pad. You couldn’t see it. I had to run my fingers around everything to find it. He wasn’t even chewing at it.”
“Well,” Cindy said, “I had some free time, so I did a little social media background check on our new clients. Very interesting.”
Oh, no, I thought. No wonder celebrities build houses in meadows on top of mountains. Celebrities balance their lives on a double-edged sword. They love the worldwide attention that fame brings, but they say goodbye to any privacy.
Mari eagerly asked, “What did you find out?”
“So, the husband is Arthur Gambino. He’s a self-made multimillionaire, one of those Wall Street guys who invests in start-ups and cutting-edge technology. He’s a workaholic but supposedly super charismatic. His stockholders adore him.”
“What about Chloe?” During the short time I was with her, she impressed me with her bubbly personality and emotional nature.
“Ah,” Cindy said. “Chloe is an altogether different person. Her family is one of the wealthiest in France. Private schools. Governesses.”
“Go on,” I said.
“She was on a school trip to Rome, when a French filmmaker saw her.”
“How old was she?”
“Only sixteen. He spirited her away from her school group and did a screen test with no one’s permission—except for Chloe’s.”
“She went all the way to Italy to be cast in a French movie?”
Cindy shook her head. “Strange, isn’t it? Anyway, the movie opened the Cannes Film Festival. Arthur Gambino was in the audience. He says he fell in love immediately. There’s a fifteen-year difference in their ages.”
“How old was she?”
“By the time the movie came out, she was eighteen, almost nineteen.”
“So they waited…”
“About six months. Supposedly, she told her parents on her birthday she was going out shopping. Instead, she met Arthur. They were married on his yacht in the South of France by a justice of the peace.”
“Very romantic,” Mari told everyone. “I’d like to be swept off my feet and married on a yacht.”
“Grow up,” Cindy abruptly said. “Fairy tales are just that.”
To avert an argument I asked, “Anything else about Chloe?”
“She’s been cast in a Broadway play. It’s only for a limited run, and she starts rehearsals soon. After that, it’s off to Hollywood to shoot a major studio production.”
From the lingo Cindy was using, I assumed she was directly quoting her source. “Anything else?”
“The people who’ve worked with her say she’s sweet, unsophisticated, sort of a wild child. One director said she’s maddening to work with, while another said making a movie with her was blissful.”
“Nice,” Mari said. “I guess.”
“Her husband is crazy in love with her and very protective,” Cindy quoted. “She had a stalker, and there’s also been a kidnapping threat.”
More and more details fell into place. No one was chasing Lucky. Gangsters hadn’t moved into town. Glenn Overmann most likely killed his wife. And Posey? The police say she committed suicide.
Was it a coincidence that Chloe’s husband thought these two local women may have stolen his Bitcoin? Two women who now were dead?
It felt like one coincidence too many.
That night I mentioned to Rainbow the Bitcoin theft from Arthur Gambino.
“That’s more like it,” said Rainbow, her eyes gleaming. “I assume this theft involved a substantial amount of money?”
“Forty million dollars, give or take a couple of million.” At least that was the figure Mari had said.
“I’m sure there’s an army of hackers and FBI people looking for that. The finder’s fee’s got to be at least a million plus.”
“I read somewhere it’s hard but not impossible to trace Bitcoin.”
My statement provoked a snort from Rainbow. “That’s what law enforcement would like embezzlers and drug dealers to believe. It all depends on how the money is being moved and stored. Whoever stole that ledger with the deposit codes could easily move the Bitcoin from one electronic wallet to another, then perhaps to Switzerland or the Bahamas.”
This new world of electronic money confused me. “Is it true some investor forgot their Bitcoin numbers and can’t retrieve their money? Or is that an urban legend?”
“No, it’s true,” Rainbow answered. She looked up from her computer. “This guy lost his password to open up his Bitcoin wallet. That’s where you store your funds,” she explained. “Personally, I don’t like random computer-generated passwords. They’re the worst. I think your password should mean something to you. At least then there’s a chance of remembering it if you need to.”
“We’re getting off track here,” I told Rainbow. “Our job is to find out what Sookie did with Glenn’s money so we can claim the reward.”
“Oh, that. I’ve found some of it, but so have two other guys, or so they claim on one of the hacking bulletin boards. It’s sort of odd, though.” Rainbow turned her monitor so I could see it. A complicated spreadsheet took up the entire screen. “It looks like Sookie began separating Glenn’s assets from hers at least two months ago. New York is a fair and equitable distribution divorce state, not a community property state. Their finances weren’t that entwined anyway. Sookie had a prenuptial agreement and most of the money.” Rainbow pointed to several columns before swiftly scrolling through a few pages to point out more statistics. “You can see where she created a separate account here”—she pointed to the screen—“then moved some assets into a diverse portfolio, and did some trading,” she scrolled away again, “over there.”
Keeping track of the numbers and different pages was giving me a headache. Her system complicated rather than simplified. “Can you use less technical words and explain this to me?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes, which obviously was her thing. “All right. I think Glenn put up this reward not to recover his assets but to take Sookie’s.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
After Rainbow left, hauling her laptops with her, my mind switched to a more pressing matter—something to snack on. The fridge held leftovers from our Chinese takeout binge, so I consolidated all the little cardboard boxes and settled in. After learning of other hackers making headway, whatever hopes I entertained of earning half of Glenn’s twenty-thousand-dollar reward money rapidly faded away.
I sat alone at the kitchen table, takeout containers littering the ancient Formica top. In the distance, the sounds of trucks and maintenance machinery clattered away. A gap in the living room curtains revealed only darkness.
At nighttime, now, I often thought about Luke. Did I make the right decision? Should we try to go back to being friends again? Even picking up the chopsticks reminded me of all the times Luke and I ate together at this table. As friends we were pretty good, but lousy with everything else at the end. To avoid mentally reliving our relationship second by second, I decided to continue immersing myself in someone else’s problems.
The stack of Posey’s notebooks beckoned, so I picked up where I’d left off. Skipping past more sexy scenes between the tutor/vampire and the servant, I went back to her story.
Inside the castle the servant, Pansy, begins scheming with the tutor/sexy vampire to steal gold from the duke. It was hinted that somehow Pansy was related to royalty and deserving of a portion of the duke’s wealth. The details on how the servant fit into this wealthy family remained foggy. Pansy meets a sorceress in the village who smuggles her inside a hidden room in the castle.
Unbeknownst to the sorceress, Pansy searched for the key to the golden coins. Her quest was righteous for she knew the duke and his kin to be black-hearted thieves.
Not sure where this story was heading, I kept reading. Then the plot slowed while Pansy and the tutor got it on for six pages. I skipped through the pulsing this and the throbbing that.
When the sorceress discovers Pansy wants to steal the duke’s gold, she insists on taking half for herself. This leads the servant to smite the sorceress in a fit of anger.
I paused and put the notebook down. Could “smite” be a euphemism for bashing someone’s head in with a snow shovel?
As Posey’s story continued, I found it hard to separate fact from fiction. Did she weave Sookie’s death into her fictional tale of the servant and the vampire?
Getting to sleep that night took a while. Dreams that turned into nightmares jarred me awake. A woman stalked my sleep, a woman who looked like a combination of Posey and Chloe. Regardless of which human form the apparition took, she always carried a broken snow shovel in her bloody hands.
***
I’d finished taking care of the dogs and put on my scrubs when unexpected visitors interrupted my morning routine. Even before the doorbell rang, early warning system Buddy growled, and then Desi began to bark.
A quick look outside led me to quiet the dogs and give Desi the okay command.
“Good morning,” Cindy said, walking in and heading straight for my kitchen table. “I brought us some chocolate croissants.”
Having breakfast with my receptionist wasn’t the surprise. It was her brother-in-law, Oak Falls Chief of Police Bobby Garcia, strolling into my home that was the wild card.
“Dr. Kate,” the chief said pleasantly, as though we often met this way.
“Chief.” As an excuse to get out of his way, I picked up a small bag of dog treats and made a big fuss over giving them to the eager dogs.
My eyes darted back and forth between Cindy and the chief. I was about to ask if I were in some kind of trouble when Cindy ordered everyone to come and sit down.
Handcuffs usually didn’t come with pastry.
“Sorry for the surprise, Kate,” Cindy began, removing three croissants from the oven.
“That’s okay.” The smell of coffee brewing perked me right up. How did Cindy get everything done so fast?
“Bobby has something he needs to talk to you about.” Cindy glared at her brother-in-law, who wisely averted her glance.
“You might want to stop trying to land that twenty-thousand-dollar reward Glenn Overmann has put up.”
Although I’d already come to that same conclusion, I asked him why.
“Let’s just say,” he said as his eyes met Cindy’s, “it’s doubtful he will be able to pay up.”
That interested me. I asked, “Is Glenn Overmann a person of interest in Sookie’s murder?”
The chief smiled and replied, “I don’t believe I said that.”
“No,” I smiled back. “I don’t believe you did.”
We paused to drink our coffee and munch on the croissants. Cindy asked me if anything interesting had happened lately.
“No, not in particular.”
This time the chief gave Cindy a side look.
What the heck is going on here? Knowing that eventually someone would say something, I went back to enjoying my breakfast.
It was Cindy who broke first. “Mari told me about one of your house calls that was a bit unusual. Up on the mountain?”
“Oh. Well, this French bulldog puppy…”
“I don’t want to hear about the puppy,” the chief blurted out, impatient with this charade. “Tell me about the people, and what Gambino’s wife, Chloe, said about the Bitcoin theft.”
“Are you investigating their Bitcoin theft? Aren’t those types of crimes investigated by the FBI?”
His face began to redden, like boiling shellfish.
Cindy came to the rescue. “Just tell Bobby what Mari told me.”
Since I suppose my job was verifying Mari’s account of her conversation with Chloe, I dutifully recounted our visit, from the very beginning to driving away from the property.
“For the record, Chloe Ramboulle is a very sweet person.”
“This has simply been an informal conversation among friends over breakfast,” the chief said, clearing his throat.
“Yes, sir,” I replied. Personally, I thought that was funny, but it didn’t get a laugh.
A quick look at her watch prompted Cindy to say, “Time to go to work. Thanks for the ride, Bobby.”
“You’re welcome, Cindy.” Bobby picked up his coat and made straight for the door. As an afterthought, he said, “Dr. Kate, have a nice day and stay safe.”
After he left, I asked Cindy, “What the heck was that all about?”
“Probably nothing. I’m not at liberty to say anything more.” A quick blot to her lips, followed by a sweep of a rosy-colored lipstick and she said, “Let’s get to work.”
I followed her into the hospital more confused than ever.
When I was about halfway finished with my morning appointments, Cindy texted me. I’d been entering some notes into a record, waiting for Mari to triage the next patient.
A FRIEND OF YOURS WANTS TO SAY HI
Not sure who it could be, I budgeted a quick five minutes to talk and made my way to the reception area. The thought occurred to me it might be Luke. Instead, Cindy was in the midst of an animated conversation with a different attractive man—Colin.
“What brings you here?” I asked him, conscious of my baggy white coat and makeup-less face.
He stepped over and landed a peck on my cheek. “Two things. I’m rehoming an iguana. It’s not mine. I sort of inherited it with my rental studio. Anyway, I gave Cindy a flyer to put up on the bulletin board.”
Cindy waved a brightly colored picture of an iguana before diplomatically excusing herself.
“What’s the second thing?” I asked him.
“I wanted to say a proper goodbye. I’m leaving for Finland next week.” He pushed a long strand of hair behind his ear.
“That’s right. Helsinki,” was my lame answer. Too bad kept running through my mind. It’s too bad you’re not staying longer.
Colin gazed at me as though expecting something. “Okay. Please thank Cindy for putting up that flyer. Take care, Kate.”
He began to move toward the door, but I called after him. “Wait. Maybe we can do lunch before you go?”
“How about dinner tomorrow? Seven thirty? At Bella Italia. I’ll meet you there.” Before I could react, he pulled on his hat and walked out the office exit to his car.
The empty reception area was still, only the sound of the fading door chime interrupting the silence.
I wasn’t sure how it happened, but I guess I had a date with Colin.
Mari squealed when Cindy told her my dating news during lunch. “He is sooo good-looking. Romantic, too.”
“He’s leaving next week for Europe,” I added. “There is no way I’m beginning anything with him. Would you?”
Our receptionist instantly replied, “Are you kidding me? If I were twenty years younger and not married, sure I would. Why not? You only live one life.”
They both watched me while they ate their lunches. This time, I nibbled at a veggie salad, in penance for all the ice cream and pie I’d been indulging in.
“Coffee anyone?”
“Of course,” I answered. My coffee consumption had steadily risen since I started drinking it as an undergraduate. At some point, I probably would need to cut back. Some point in the far distant future.
“Well, I’m sorry to see such a charming guy leave. Maybe he’ll be back someday.” Cindy took another discreet bite from her whole grain chicken and avocado wrap. “Why Finland?”
My fork speared a cherry tomato. “Something to do with a gallery showing, I think.”
Balancing three cups, Mari came back. “Watch out, it’s hot,” she cautioned and handed me my mug. Cindy reached out and snagged hers.
“So what were you talking about?” Mari asked as she sat down.
“Colin. Going to Helsinki.”
