Chapter 23

“Are you sure you want the media to believe we have the killer and he is the man who hung himself?” Lloyd asked Brandon, looking at the newest edition of the community newspaper along with the newspapers from Austin and San Antonio.

Brandon nodded as he placed his copy of the San Antonio paper down.

The stories were mainly the same, they all pointed to the dead man as the main suspect in the Killing Fields, every story talked about the relief the town felt with the police finally closer to closing the case. Lloyd knew it was bunk, they were nowhere close to closing this case. Brandon might not trust Veronica and Curtis, but he did. Veronica had a friend who died at the hands of this monster. Lloyd threw the community paper down and looked up when he heard his name called.

“Lieutenant,” Veronica came in holding a copy of the Austin paper, “this is wrong.”

Lloyd looked at her, then looked around the station, everyone stopped talking to see what Veronica was saying. Knowing they had a leak, but not knowing who, Lloyd ushered her quickly into his office and shut the door before Brandon could react. Lloyd didn’t want the agent hurting the girl’s feelings. That was his job, he thought. He let her get too close to this case.

“I know what this looks like, Veronica,” Lloyd said quickly, “I know this looks like we are going to put a bow on this case and send it down to cold storage, but I assure you that is not what is going on. We just want it to look that way.”

Veronica quietly listened. She saw the papers say there was a break in the case and the police were going to name the man as the prime suspect.

“We want the killer to think we are looking away from him while we are also looking at him,” Lloyd said. “Look you have been helpful, and I do appreciate you, but you are now interfering with an open police investigation and I can’t have that.”

Brandon walked into the office, “everything OK here?”

Lloyd nodded while Veronica slowly processed what Lloyd was saying.

“Veronica, you have to let us handle this,” Brandon said. “I understand Casey was your friend. Hell, I understand you are an extraordinary girl, but you need to let us handle this. We have the training, not only do we want to nail the person who did this, we also want all the evidence to stand up in court.”

“He confessed to Curtis and Shorty,” Veronica said exasperated. “Talk to them.”

This was news to Lloyd and Brandon.

“When did you talk to Keith?” Brandon asked inching closer to Veronica.

“We didn’t go looking for him, if that is what you are asking,” Veronica said, moving slightly closer. She was taught not to let anyone intimidate her. If he wanted to get closer, then they were going nose to nose.

“OK,” Brandon said. “Why don’t you tell us exactly what happened?”

Brandon backed up, pulled out a chair for her to sit in and then straddled his chair. Lloyd sat down at the other side of the table. He knew someone should be recording or taking notes, but Veronica would insist that her uncle be present. He didn’t want Maxwell Conway anywhere near the police station right now. Veronica told them about the meeting at the coffee shop in the south side of town where they showed a lineup of people to the man who talked to Casey before she died. They both groaned when she told them about the man pointing to Keith who was standing across the street.

“The gang member didn’t even look at the lineup,” Veronica said. “He just pointed to Keith across the street and said ‘There is your guy’. Then Shorty started running after him and Curtis ran after Shorty. They ran into an alleyway and Curtis told Shorty not to do anything stupid, let Keith go and live to fight another day.” Veronica was smart enough to leave out the knives and Shorty openly threatening Keith.

“Did you see any of this?” Lloyd asked.

“I saw most of it,” Veronica said. “I was taken into a shop for safekeeping. The rest I got from Curtis.”

“I am going to reiterate what Lieutenant Phelps said earlier,” Brandon said in his sternest voice, “do not interfere with an ongoing police or, in this case, FBI investigation. You will not like the results.”

“Veronica,” Lloyd looked at her earnestly, “is there any way you and your brother can take a trip out of the area for a few weeks? We are really close, but if what you say is true, Keith is following you. You are no longer safe to go about the town by yourself. And, for your own health and wellbeing, you need to get away from all of this.

“Let me talk to your dad and uncle. I am sure I can persuade them of the rightness of this scheme.”

Veronica made her way home and knew right away that Lieutenant Phelps made good on his threat to call her family. Her father, mother, Curtis and Maddison were all waiting for her as she walked through the garage door.

“Well, there you are,” Judith said cheerfully, “we are all going to take a little trip. A long little trip. You can go upstairs and pack. I haven’t decided where we are going but we are going.” Judith started going through the food and placing it in a cooler.

Curtis and Maddison were both glaring at Veronica which made her feel very small. She just wanted to help find her friend’s killer, she thought. Now, her mother is upset and her siblings are mad at her.

“I will help you pack,” Maddison said aggressively. “I am sure we will need clothes for weeks, and weeks, and weeks on the road.”

Oh dear, Veronica thought, Maddison is such a homebody. Her younger sister didn’t like to go anywhere, nor could she fully sleep in a strange bed.

“I was made a part of this when I found those bodies,” Veronica said to Maddison’s accusatory stare.

“You were made a part of this when you befriended that girl,” Maddison spat.

“You two,” Curtis said sternly, “no. Casey was Veronica’s friend and a person too. She deserves to be missed, she deserves justice. Do I make myself clear?”

Maddison shrunk under Curtis’s open rebuke in front of her parents. She was being a little snotty and wasn’t happy that her whole world was threatened.

“Good,” Curtis said. “You can go help Veronica pack and she can help you pack.”

Curtis rolled his eyes as the pair trounced up stairs to get ready to go. Curtis turned to look at his mother who held a drink mid air and his father who froze mid step at his office threshold. He looked at both of them and squared his shoulders. Whatever spell he had woven with his stern rebuke of Maddison slowly lost its grip as his mother placed the drink into the cooler, and his father’s foot came down placing him in the door frame of his office.

“Curtis, come to my office,” Howard said. “I need help packing some of this office work up for a few weeks.”

“I know I overstepped back there,” Curtis started when he went into the office.

“No, I thought I raised my kid better than that,” Howard sat down in his chair. He looked genuinely hurt and confused. “I didn’t think I raised a snotty brat.”

“Sir?” Curtis was confused.

“I guess I am trying to say I am sorry you had to step in there,” Howard said. “It was my job and I didn’t get to them fast enough. I was just shocked at the callousness I heard coming from my daughter.”

“She is twelve and she is scared,” Curtis said. “She and Veronica are probably talking about it right now and Maddison is probably apologizing as we speak. You did raise her right.” Curtis put his hand on his father’s shoulder. “You raised us all right. I promise, after packing she will come down with a whole new attitude.”

“If she doesn’t?” Howard said as he wiped his glasses.

“Then you and Mom step in,” Curtis said simply. “Mom would say to give her a chance to figure it out on her own, if she doesn’t, then you point her in the right direction.”

They started packing a briefcase full of cases his father was working on that needed to be completed while they were out of town.

While Curtis was assuring his father that he didn’t raise a brat, Maddison was doing her level best to prove she wasn’t a brat. She silently moved through Veronica’s drawers but wasn’t taking anything out. She just moved underwear from one side of the drawer to the other. Veronica pulled a few sundresses from her closet and placed them on the bed, went back to the closet and grabbed a few matching shoes. She suddenly stopped when she noticed there were no undergarments for her and looked over at Maddison who was silently crying.

“So, things got a little intense down there,” Veronica said gently, “want to talk about it?”

Maddison turned to face her sister, and with tears streaming down her face said, “I am not a bad person. I am not mean. I just don’t know what to do.”

“Oh, honey,” Veronica went over to her sister, embraced her and they both sat down on the bed. “No one thinks you are mean or cold.”

“Dad does,” Maddison sniffed.

“I am sure he doesn’t,” Veronica started, then thought better of it, “Actually, I don’t know what he thinks. I think if you feel that way, you should ask him how he feels.”

“But what if he does,” Maddison started to sob again.

“Then we will all deal with it together,” Veronica said reassuringly. “You, me, Mom, Curtis, Dad, we will all deal with it together. I know this hasn’t been easy for you. I am taking a lot of Mom and Dad’s attention by getting involved in this. But that doesn’t mean they don’t care about you, or they don’t have time for you.”

“I know,” Maddison said softly.

“I tell you what,” Veronica said, “why don’t we finish packing, you go downstairs and into Dad’s office and have a chat with him and I will have a chat with Mom.”

“What are you going to talk to Mom about?” Maddison asked as she got up and went over to the same drawer, this time taking out the undergarments Veronica will need for each outfit and placing them on the bed.

Veronica stayed seated on the bed and watched Maddison move efficiently with her things. “I am going to ask her to let you pick where we are going to go.”

“You would do that?” Maddison asked as she placed the last of the socks on the pile of undergarments and placed them in the suitcase. She folded in the clothes and zipped up the suitcase.

Veronica zipped up her hanging bag and placed it on top of the suitcase.

“Of course I would,” she said. “Let’s get your things packed and we will go down together.”

Veronica moved her things to the door and walked with Maddison to her bedroom where they repeated the process in reverse. Maddison then carried her bags to the stairs while Veronica grabbed hers. They walked by Curtis’s room and noticed that he was about finished with his bags. He had a duffle bag and his hanging clothes. They waited for him to finish up, then the three of them placed their bags near the door.

Veronica went to her mother’s room where Judith was staring at her wardrobe. Judith pulled out a dress and then placed it back in, took out a pantsuit and placed it back into the closet. Veronica had never seen her mother work with such indecision.

“I just don’t know where we are going,” Judith mused. She didn't see her daughter standing at the entrance of her large walk-in closet.

“I came to talk to you about that,” Veronica said.

“Goodness child!” Judith jumped back. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

Veronica walked up to her mother and patted her arm, “You were deep in thought and I didn’t want to startle you. But I guess that didn’t work out.”

“All you fencers are so light on your feet, I can’t hear you when you walk in,” Judith smiled at her daughter. “Well, did you decide where you wanted to go?”

“I think Maddison should choose where we go,” Veronica said. “I mean she is the only one of us that really doesn’t like to travel and will have trouble sleeping.”

“That sounds fair,” Judith said. “I don’t think she took the news of getting up and out quickly well, did she?”

“She understands,” Veronica said. “She knows that we need to get away from all of this and we can come back and live a normal life.”

“Well, normal for us,” Judith said. “I will talk to her about where she might want to go. You know she doesn’t like the coast so that will be out.”

“I think I will manage,” Veronica said as she left her mother to pack.

“Send her in so I can know what to pack,” Judith said. “The longer I stare at this closet the more I want to get rid of everything and start afresh.”

Veronica laughed, walked out of the room and looked for Maddison. She found her sister in her father’s office and watched him hug her, pass her a bag and told her to put it near the door with her stuff.

“Everything go OK?” Veronica asked.

They both nodded.

“Mom is looking for you,” Veronica told Maddison, “she wants to know what to pack and you better hurry before we are headed to the stores for a complete wardrobe change.”

“We better go to her now,” Howard said as he started to move quickly. “That woman can spend thousands of dollars in a day.”

They both laughed as they went into the room.

Twenty minutes later, they were all in the car and on their way to Palo Duro Canyon. Maddison wanted to hike and Palo Duro was the closest thing to the Grand Canyon in Texas. The family settled into a nine-hour drive, Curtis listened to a crime podcast, Veronica listened to classical music and Maddison picked up a book from what she thought was her mother’s bag, but turned out to be her fathers. She quickly became engrossed with the book and pulled out the other two volumes to settle in for the long car ride.

“Things are really quiet back there,” Howard said. “Shall we stop and make sure they are all alive?”

“Let me look back,” Judith said. “I don’t want to break the spell.” She looked back at Curtis who was now reading a crime story, Veronica was sleeping, she always got a little car sleepy, and Maddison was reading a thick book. Judith thought the book was odd, but the angle didn’t allow her to see what the title was. She knew there was nothing in her bag that Maddison couldn't read, but she didn’t recognize that book.

“Maddison and Curtis are reading and Veronica is asleep,” Judith reported back.

Howard just nodded, “Palo Duro?” That is where she wants to go? How does a 12-year-old hear about Palo Duro?”

“She likes to hike and she wanted to go to the Grand Canyon,” Judith said.

“We will go to the Grand Canyon the next time someone wants to kill Veronica,” Howard said drily.

Judith gave him a disapproving look letting him know she didn’t think his joke was funny. Howard just smiled at her, took her hand and brought it to his lips. She shook her head with a slight smile on her lips. Howard always knew how to make things lighter and right now they needed things to be lighter. Veronica lost her friend, was threatened by the man responsible, and Curtis nearly got into a fight with the same man. Judith hoped that Lieutenant Phelps would have him charged and behind bars before they got home in a couple of weeks.

Nine hours later, they pulled into the Palo Duro State Park and checked into their large cabin. The house was a beautiful ranch-style house that had hardwood everywhere, and a stunning view. They had gotten to the house just in time to watch the sun set. Curtis set up a fire at the pit.

“We already pretty much slept in the car,” Curtis said. “We are not going to sleep anytime soon.”

“Speak for yourself,” Maddison said. “I was reading the whole time and I am exhausted. Veronica, be sure you are quiet when you come to bed at 2 a.m.”

“I could walk in with a marching band and you wouldn’t wake up,” Veronica muttered. She knew Maddison didn’t sleep and her sister was now in a foul mood.

Curtis laughed and looked over to his parents, “you going to bed too?”

“No,” Judith said. “I took a nap and your dad got some sleep when we switched.”

Curtis stoked the fire, Veronica made some strawberry lemonade and Howard grabbed some beef franks for a snack. They all sat around the fire and looked up at the sky.

“I don’t think I have seen so many stars in my life,” Veronica said. “They are beautiful. How did you find this place?”

“It wasn’t hard, once I knew where Maddison wanted to go, I just started looking for cabins that would fit us all.” Howard said. “I hope you don’t mind sharing a bedroom with your sister.”

“I don’t mind,” Veronica said as she took her frank out of the fire. “I think I will feel better with someone in the room with me. I know we are far away, but I can’t help but feel Keith can find me.”

“If Keith is here, that will be the biggest coincidence in the world,” Howard said. “We didn’t know where we were going until 11 this morning. I want you to give this a rest. I want you to give yourself a rest. As much as you can, put this out of your mind for right now. Just enjoy all the scenery and hiking.”

“Hiking?” Veronica said.

“Lots and lots of hiking,” Howard said sternly. “You are Maddison’s new hiking buddy. I think she will want to get up early, so I suggest you get into bed.”

“Good night,” Veronica got up. Maddison didn’t like bike riding, Veronica didn’t like hiking. She was in for a sore few days.

“What are you two going to do?” Curtis asked.

“I have some files I have to finish working on,” Howard said. “You are to accompany your mother. She will want to go shopping and horseback riding. She might want to check out Historic Route 66. We are not that far.”

“I thought we could do that as a family,” Judith said quickly.

Howard just nodded. “It has been a long travel day, so let's all get to bed.”

The next morning, Howard woke first and started some coffee, pulled out a file that was giving him trouble, and placed it on the table. He knew there was a problem with all the receipts and the ledger. They weren’t matching up, but he couldn’t figure out why or what was the trouble.

Maddison walked in and yawned. She walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out some eggs, butter and milk. She cracked the eggs into a bowl and made a batter for French toast. Howard decided to walk away from the file and grill some bacon. Maddison looked at the file and noticed right away what was giving Harold trouble.

“You will need a forensic accountant for that file,” Maddison said.

“Is that so,” Howard said absently.

“Yep,” Maddison said. “Your client is being embezzled. You can’t find the thread because they are paying the bills in the ledger, attaching the receipts for the checks but they also duplicated the check numbers. In other words, they are showing a check as paid and then drawing off the same check number. It is clever really.”

“What are you saying?” Howard snapped out of his reverie. “What are you saying about that file?”

“You have an embezzler,” Maddison said simply. “Call this consulting firm, I am sure it doesn’t exist.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because these check numbers are doubled, there is a payment receipt for this $500 payment to the electric company, a payment receipt for this $250 payment to this printing company and a payment receipt for $150 to this designer. These are all recurring.

“Then you have these,” Maddison picked up the vendor slips for a consulting company. “These all have the same check numbers and I bet you have the same amount taken out of the books without the payment receipts.”

Howard looked at the ledger and Maddison was right, three different check numbers were duplicated, and the duplicates were all for $25,000. That was what he was missing: $75,000. He just didn’t know it was happening. He would have figured it out, but Maddison saved him several hours.

“How did you notice this?” Howard asked.

“I read the accounting books you had in your bag. It took three hours to read and understand the first one, two hours for volume two and four hours for volume three.”

“You understood Tax Shelters and Other Asset Protections?” Howard asked, “in four hours?”

“What? Like it’s hard?” Maddison said. She finished cooking four pieces of French toast, grabbed two slices of bacon her father cooked, and made a plate for herself and her father. She sat down at the table, poured some syrup on her French toast, and placed Howard’s plate in front of him.

Howard accepted the food, sat down beside her and just looked at her. Having her father’s undivided attention, she started telling him what she understood about the book she read. She explained it better than his professor in school. Howard asked her pointed questions and Maddison answered them.

After she finished, Howard got up and hugged her, kissed the top of her head and went into his office.

“Where are you going?” Maddison asked. “You didn’t finish your breakfast.”

“I will finish it in a minute,” Howard picked up his cell phone, “I am going to call Maxwell, I have to apologize to him.”

“Why?” Maddison asked.

“I made fun of him when my twelve-year-old son pulled a legal brief and found a way to dismiss his case after Max had looked into the case for three days. Now, my 12-year-old daughter found a problem with my client’s file in, what, 15 minutes?” Howard dialed his brother’s number. “I was looking for that information for four days.”

“Glad I can help,” Maddison grinned around her French toast.

Howard just nodded and walked away to talk to his brother. It was a very humbling experience to admit he couldn’t find the problem and it took Maddison one look. He knew something was wrong, his client knew something was off, but they both couldn’t figure it out. Even now, the duplicated check numbers jumped out like a red flag, but he didn’t notice until Maddison pointed it out.

“Don’t worry about it, Howard,” Maxwell said. “You were looking at the file for days and everything was running together. I am sure that is what happened.”

“No, it was exactly the same,” Howard said. “She explained asset protection like she studied it for years.”

He and Maxwell talked for a few more minutes and Howard hung up. He walked back to the kitchen and started eating his French toast. Maddison was finishing up her breakfast and went to wash her plate.

“Maddison, can I ask you something?” Howard took a bite of his toast. “Did you like looking at that file and finding the discrepancy?”

“Yeah,” Maddison said as she washed the syrup off the plate. “I guess I did. I wanted to use what I learned. I really want to learn how to protect people’s assets. That is what you do, right?”

Howard nodded, “Do you want to spend some time with me and look at a few more files? Really turn all that theory in the books into some practical training?”

“Really?” Maddison turned from the sink, “you mean it?”

“Yeah,” Howard said. “If you like.”

“That would be cool,” Maddison said. “I am going to wake Veronica up real quick then I will be right back.”

“Why are you waking up Veronica?” Howard asked.

“She is having a nightmare,” Maddison said as she got some chocolate milk out of the refrigerator, poured it into a glass and walked to the bedroom she shared with her sister. Howard followed her.

Veronica, sweating, tossed in the bed. Maddison moved over quickly and quietly, she gently touched Veronica’s shoulder and woke her up.

“Here,” Maddison handed her the chocolate milk, “drink this.”

Veronica, still a little shaky, sipped the beverage, “thank you. I dreamed that he was in my bedroom and was attacking me.”

“Was that a dream or a vision,” Howard asked from the door.

“It was my imagination running away with me,” Veronica assured him. “I know the difference. Sorry I troubled you.”

“We were up already,” Maddison said. “We ate and are going to do some work. I get to help Dad with his accounting.”

“Well,” Veronica said, “I better get up and get dressed. No sense in trying to go to sleep again. When are we going hiking?”

Maddison shrugged, “Maybe tomorrow. There is no real rush to get outside today.”

Veronica nodded and watched her sister and dad walk out of the room. She was glad for the reprieve. She wasn’t really looking forward to the hike, but it was only fair. Maddison loved to hike and climb. Veronica took off her sticky shirt and went through her bag for another shirt. She was still shaken up from the dream, but didn’t understand why she had the dream in the first place. The police were on to Keith, they knew where he was, they just needed the evidence linking him to the murders. There had to be something, she thought.

She walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower, then she found herself in another house, in another part of town. The house was spotless, it was a small three-bedroom house with the living room leading into the kitchen. Veronica walked through the kitchen and into the backyard where she saw a small shed. She noticed it was unlocked and went inside. It was dark and there were rows of nails that had garments hanging on them. Fifteen garments in nice neat rows. Veronica looked closely at the garments and noticed they were all panties. Some were dainty, some were thongs and some were regular cotton pants. This was the link, she thought. This was how she could prove Keith hurt her friend.

A blast of cold water brought her out of her reverie, she inhaled, shocked and found herself standing in the walk-in shower with the water raining down on her shorts and bra. She started to look around and saw her mother, who pulled her out of the shower, turned off the water and wrapped Veronica in a warm towel.

“Cold water is not the best way to get me out of these trances,” Veronica said through chattering teeth.

“But it is effective,” Judith said as she rubbed her daughter’s torso. “Where did you go?”

“Nowhere helpful,” Veronica said. “I saw a part of town I am not familiar with and I don’t know which house I was in. If I was there a little longer, I might have seen where I was.”

“You were getting too emotional,” Judith explained. “You woke me up.”

Veronica just nodded, she wanted to get her mind off her vision and off her dream. This whole case was starting to take a toll on her, she was starting to get jumpy and saw Keith behind every door. She went back into her room, took off her wet shorts and sleeping bra, and pulled more clothes from her bag. At this rate, she may as well use the drawers in the bedroom. She quickly unpacked her things and unzipped her hanging bag. She placed all the hanging clothes in the closet and chose a sundress to wear. She got dressed and walked into the kitchen where her mother was frying up some eggs.

“Maddison and dad had French toast,” Judith said. “Does that sound good or do you want eggs and toast?”

“Eggs and toast will be fine,” Veronica said as she sat down at the bar. “Thanks for helping me this morning and I am sorry I woke you up.”

“You’re OK,” Judith said. “I was thinking we would hit up Amarillo and go shopping along Route 66. There are several stores there.”

“Are you going home with a new wardrobe?” Veronica asked, teasing her mother.

“No,” Judith said scowling at her daughter, “at least not from there. The clothes are touristy. I don’t want to look like a middle-aged woman with no taste. I am a middle-aged woman, but I have taste.”

Veronica laughed. She finished her breakfast and asked if Maddison was going to come along.

“No,” Judith said. “Maddison is going to stay with her father and learn about accounting. Seems she has quite the talent for numbers. I knew she would find her way.”