Page 17 of Ghost of You (Haunted Souls #24)
Thankfully, there hadn’t been any other violent incidents at Frankie’s funeral. Jude, Cope, and the others had attended the private burial, which Oliver and Angie skipped. After everyone had thrown red roses into the grave, they’d gone to the Hawthorne Hotel for what Cope called the mercy meal.
It had been much more sedate than the funeral. Cope and Ten had done their best to literally read the room and hadn’t been able to add anyone else to the suspect list. Grief was the strongest of all emotions, according to Ten. It was also the hardest one to read through, which frustrated Jude.
After the meal, Ten and Cope had gone home to be with the kids, while Jude, Ronan, and Fitz headed back to the office.
Ronan wanted to look into Angie’s background, Fitz updated Cisco Jackson of the goings on at the funeral, and Jude had finally gotten the police file for the investigation into the stolen million dollars.
Jude felt like the key to the case was in this file.
If he could figure out what happened to the stolen money from start to finish, he was sure he’d find the embezzler and possibly Frankie’s killer.
Setting himself up at the large table, Jude spread out the contents of the file.
Most of it was financial records, but Ambrose Watson’s police file was inside, as was Frankie’s.
Jude sighed. It was going to be a long afternoon.
“How’s it going?” Ronan asked, taking a seat at the table and opening his laptop.
“All these financials.” Jude shook his head. “I hate math, and accounting. How the hell do people do this for a living?”
“Beats the hell out of me, but here’s the thing.” Ronan grinned. “Frankie was murdered within a few hours of being kidnapped. She didn’t steal this money and she sure as hell didn’t move it offshore. I think we both know that.”
Jude nodded. He hadn’t thought she’d stolen the money in the first place. “I would assume that the real embezzler is shitting their pants right now, waiting for us to show up on their doorstep.”
“Ambrose Watson wasn’t at the funeral today. The undercovers at the service were specifically looking for him. What does that tell you?” Ronan asked.
“Well, first off that Watson’s a world-class prick. Secondly, it tells me that he’s trying to lay low, assuming we’ll forget about him if he flies under the radar. Not on my fucking watch!” Jude waggled his eyebrows.
“Agreed.” Ronan turned back to his computer. Jude could hear him typing.
Not wanting to dig into the file, Jude did it anyway. Someone else’s math phobia could very well be the reason Watson wasn’t caught originally. First off, he grabbed Frankie’s police report. Aside from a decades old speeding ticket, her record was clean. No big surprise there.
Next up was Watson’s rap sheet. It had more heft to it than Frankie’s.
Skimming through the pages, Jude saw that Watson had been arrested on a couple of misdemeanors and had several petty shoplifting charges fifteen years ago when he was in his early twenties, which somehow didn’t bother his constituents enough to vote him out of office.
There had been no other arrests in the ten years that Watson had served, which didn’t mean he hadn’t been up to his old tricks, but that he had high-placed friends who could help him get out of trouble.
Which brought Jude to the missing money. He picked up the bank statement for the account the stolen money had been funneled into. It had been opened at the First Salem Bank and was under Frankie’s name. “Talk to me about opening a bank account.”
“What do you need to know?” Ronan asked.
“For starters, can I walk into a bank branch today and open an account under your name?” If it was possible, it would have been a snap for someone to open an account under Frankie’s name. All that would be left to do after that was transfer the stolen money into it.
“Under certain circumstances, yes,” Ronan agreed
“What kind of circumstances?”
“After Everly was born, Fitz and Jace gave her a large check to start her college fund. We had to get her a social security card and since Ten and I are her parents, we were able to open an account in her name. Ten is the trustee for the account, meaning that he can make deposits and withdrawals on the account. That ends on Everly’s eighteenth birthday and she’ll be in full control of the account. ”
“Gotcha, but that isn’t exactly what I was hoping you’d say.” Jude needed to know if it was possible for one adult to do it for another.
“You can also open an account for someone else if you are their legal guardian, conservator, or if you have the person’s power of attorney,” Ronan said. “I also suppose it would work if you had a person who looked like Frankie and had her driver’s license and social security number.”
“Okay, that’s more in line with what I was thinking. Someone managed to get a hold of Frankie’s license and personal information. That has to be how this account was opened. Do we think there’s any way Frankie did this herself.”
“What, like she was part of the embezzlement?” Ronan asked, shaking his head. “If that was the case, wouldn’t she have used the money to get out of being kidnapped? One million dollars would be a powerful motivator to keep someone from killing you.”
“You’re right.” Jude grabbed his phone and called the branch location where the account had been set up. He put the call on speaker for Ronan to hear. As the call connected, Fitz walked out of his office to join them.
“First Salem Bank, Troy speaking.” Troy’s voice was high-pitched and lyrical. Jude didn’t need Cope’s gift to know the man was gay.
“Hi, Troy, my name is Jude Byrne, I’m a detective with the Salem Police Department. I need a little bit of information I’m hoping you can help me out with.” Jude flirted with Troy, hoping that would gain him a bit more cooperation.
“I might not be able to give you much without a warrant, but let’s hear what you’re looking for.”
Jude heard the interest in Troy’s voice. “My team is looking into the murder of Frankie Adams.”
“Oh, that poor little lamb,” Troy said, his voice thick with emotion. “My sister and I knew her from the food bank. She never judged my mother for needing help feeding her family. When Frankie went missing, Suzi and I volunteered to help with the search. It’s terrible that she was murdered.”
“Indeed it is. Are you familiar with the million dollars that went missing from the Salem City Treasury?”
“I am. There’s no way in hell Frankie stole that money, Detective Byrne.” Troy practically purred Jude’s name.
“I agree with you completely, Troy.” Jude waggled his eyebrows at Ronan. “What I’m hoping you can help me out with is information about who opened that account in her name. Is there any way you have signed documents we could compare to Frankie’s real signature?”
“I can do you one better. There’s closed circuit film from that day. It’s one more layer of security we use to protect ourselves from liability.”
Jude couldn’t believe his luck. “Can you send that to us or do we need to get a warrant?”
“Hold on.” Elevator music filled the room.
Fitzgibbon took a seat at the table. “If he can’t send this to us, I’ll write the warrant myself. We can have it for Judge Patterson to sign in about an hour. Let’s hope we don’t need to take that step.”
“Detective Byrne?” Troy asked, when he came back on the line.
“Yes, I’m here.” Jude’s heart pounded in his chest.
“You’re in luck. When the original search warrant was given to us four years ago, security video was included, but for some reason was never sent to the Salem Police. My branch manager said we can send it to you without a new warrant being issued. Where can I send it?”
Jude gave Fitzgibbon’s email address. “That address belongs to the Cold Case Captain.”
“Oh, Captain Fitzgibbon is-” Troy stopped.
“He’s what?” Jude asked, the smile in his voice apparent.
“Like a fine wine.” Troy sighed dreamily.
It took all of Jude’s self-control not to burst out laughing. “I agree, Troy, he’s definitely gotten better with age.”
Fitzgibbon flexed like he was competing for Mr. Universe.
“One last question. The money was transferred out of the account online the day Frankie went missing.”
“Yes, I see that here in the file. The million dollars went to an offshore account. I have no information about that account, not whose name it was under or what country it’s in.”
Jude knew Troy was going to say that. He’d read it in the file, but there might be another way to get around that. “Any chance that transaction has an IP address associated with it?”
“Genius, Detective Byrne,” Troy said with a small squeal. He read off the numbers, which Jude wrote down. Hopefully this information would be able to tell them the location of the computer that transferred the money.
“Troy, this is Captain Fitzgibbon.”
Troy gasped. “Hello, captain, how long have you been on this call?” For the first time during the call, he sounded nervous.
“Long enough to know you’re excellent at your job.” Fitz winked at Jude.
“Thank you, sir. I hope the information I’m sending can help find the person who stole the money.”
“I’m sure it will. I have one last question before we let you go.”
“Sure.” Troy sounded positively giddy.
“Was the driver’s license used to open the account scanned into the file?”
“It sure is. The license is Frankie’s alright.”
“Perfect, can you include that scan in my email?”
“I sure can. If there’s anything else you need, anything at all, be sure to let me know.”
“I will, Troy, thank you.” Fitzgibbon tapped Jude’s phone to end the call. Fitz stood tall and made like he was straightening his tie. “I’ve still got it.”
Ronan rolled his eyes. “What you’ve got remains to be seen.”
“Prick,” Fitz muttered.
“If the ID on file belongs to Frankie, what good does it do us to have a copy of it?” Jude asked.