Faye Kellerman - Sanctuary

“Yeah, they figure Honey purposely shot the body, trashed the office to make it look like a robbery, then told everyone that Gershon was out of town in Israel.”

“Then Honey called up Rina,” Decker continued the story. “She made arrangements to be out of town when the body was discovered.” He became angry. “She chose to stay with a woman whose husband’s a cop. Got to give it to her. That took balls.”

“Or some screws loose,” Marge said. “Honey had to have been stupid to think that someone wouldn’t catch on.”

Decker said, “You know, Margie, dead bodies aren’t easy to maneuver. Drowning the guy, then dragging him into a car and up to his office…shooting him and tossing the place. That’s a lot of physical exertion for one little woman.”

“My thoughts to a tee. She must have had help, Pete. Unfortunately, the police can’t finger an accessory.”

“An accessory before the fact,” Decker said. “Someone had to have helped her with the drowning. She couldn’t have taken down a grown man by herself.”

“Unless the guy was drugged.”

“Anything in the blood?”

“Sturgis didn’t say anything so I assume the tests were negative. Unless the guy was pumped with some rare poison that didn’t show up in a normal chemical profile.”

“Honey had help,” Decker stated as fact.

“Probably. Could have been a member of her community. Maybe even one of her kids…the teenaged boy.” Marge was quiet for a moment. “Didn’t you tell me that the kids looked like abused children?”

“I was thinking out loud, but the signs are there.” Decker paused. “So they think Honey drowned him, then shot him in a panic to make it look like a robbery. Something’s missing, Marge.”

“Agreed. So all you have to do, Rabbi, is find the woman and ask her a few questions. Shouldn’t be too hard. Israel’s a very small country. I know because I looked at a map.”

Decker laughed. “It’s bigger in the flesh, Dunn. I’ll ask Rina if she has any ideas.”

If I can find her!

Marge said, “Department said as long as they paid your transatlantic way for the Yalom thing, you should look into Klein, too. Davidson was very excited about the latest developments. He’s going to ask Manhattan to kick in for some of your overseas expenses since you’re working on their case.”

“Our Loo likes things fiscally sound.”

“Our Loo’s a jerk.”

“Has he been giving you a hard time?”

“Not really. Simply because I’ve been producing.” Marge took a breath. “Are you ready?”

“Yep.”

“We finally found the airline tickets for the Yalom boys. They took a flight from LA to Vancouver. Another one from Vancouver to Toronto. Then a third from Toronto to Israel. We finally have confirmation that the boys are in Israel.”

“I’m looking for them as we speak. Nothing so far. But I’ve only been here a day. Anything else?”

“Yep. I’ve been doing a little research on our friend Katie Milligan.”

Decker felt himself gripping the receiver. He tried to quell a rush of anxiety, but it was a lost cause. “What?”

There was a moment of silence. “Are you okay, Pete?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. What about Milligan?”

Marge couldn’t understand the sudden harsh tone in his voice, but maybe he’d explain himself afterward. “It seems that Katie made some interesting recent investments for her pension plan. Namely Southwest Mines and West African Consolidated.”

“The companies Arik Yalom had invested in.”

“Pete, she bought Southwest Mines after it went bankrupt.”

Decker thought a moment. “Maybe Milligan was bottom fishing. Or it may be that Milligan had insider’s information that the company was going to be picked up and restructured.”

“And just who would pick up the company, Pete?”

“VerHauten.”

“On the nose, Rabbi,” Marge said. “VerHauten is listed as the majority shareholder of the recently defunct Southwest Mines with Milligan and Yalom listed as prominent minority shareholders. Would you like to hear some of my theories on what came to pass?”

“Shoot.”

“Milligan was intrigued with Arik’s stockholdings. She thought he just might literally be sitting on a diamond mine with all his shares in this Southwest. But there was a glitch.”

“The company was going bust,” Decker said.

“Exactly,” Marge said. “It takes a heap and a half of capital to mine diamonds. The company simply didn’t have the wherewithal to see it through. They made overtures to VerHauten for a buy-out, but Milligan knew they were in big trouble. She told VerHauten to sit on the offer and wait until the company went bust.”

“Which it did.”

“Which allowed both VerHauten and Milligan to buy it out at a fraction of its worth.”

“With VerHauten in the picture, Arik’s stock could be worth a bundle,” Decker said.

Marge said, “If VerHauten ever decides to move on it. Which is a big if. According to my spies, VerHauten isn’t developing Southwest Mines for two reasons. Arik Yalom owns too much of the company, and secondly, VerHauten isn’t doing any development right now. It seems to have enough diamonds out of its other pipes. Pete, Arik’s stock is worthless as long as VerHauten keeps the land fallow.”

“And so are Milligan’s shares of the company.”

Marge said, “Pete, what if Milligan had insider’s info that VerHauten would move if they could get hold of Yalom’s and Milligan’s shares at a reasonable price? Now Milligan could have afforded to sell cheap. She bought at rock bottom. Arik, on the other hand, didn’t buy at the low. He was holding out for more.”

“But the company went bust. A little is better than nothing.”

“Maybe not to Arik. Suppose VerHauten began to lose interest. Milligan grew anxious. She wanted her money and needed Arik out of the picture. She offed him and his wife, figuring it would be easier to deal with the heirs-the boys-than with the parents.”

And suddenly things began to click into place. It was time to lay his news on Marge. “Milligan’s in Israel, Detective. And so is Gold.” He filled her in on the details, conveniently leaving out Rina’s foray into policework.

Marge said, “So Gold’s looking for the boys and Milligan’s asking about Gold. You gotta wonder why she’s searching for him. I tell you, they were in on it together.”

“Maybe, but maybe not. I think she’s hunting him down. You want to hear my theory?”

“Shoot.”

“Remember when you spoke about the inequality of the partnership. Arik seemed to have so much more money than Gold.”

“Yes.”

“Gold claimed Yalom had used Dalia’s money when Yalom first started investing in his African schemes. But I say no. I think Yalom wanted Gold to believe that the business wasn’t doing so hot when in fact it was doing fine. I think Yalom was draining some business money to pay for personal investments.”

Marge stated, “Then Arik covered his ass by saying the money came from Dalia.”

“Some of that may have been true. But not all of it.”

“Only got one quibble with your theory, Pete. Gold’s a sharpie. If Arik was dipping into the till, Gold would have found out real quick.”

“Agreed. I think Gold did find out about it. And I think he allowed Arik to use business money for personal expenses.”

“Pete, why would he do that?”

“Because Gold was in love with Dalia-had been for years.”

“He was willing to be ripped off for love?”

“Why not? Sure as I stand here, I know they had something going on. As long as Gold thought that the money Arik pilfered was going for Dalia and the kids, for her house, for household expenses…that was okay with him. But eventually Gold found out that Arik was using the money for stock and land purchases in Africa. He hit the roof and demanded payment. And I think Arik capitulated, Marge. I think Arik paid him back.”