Stone Investigations (Stone Series Book 4) by Bob Blanton (open ebook txt) 📗

that bag.  Now, one bag has pillsthat are half the strength as the ones being sold by the dealers sending youmoney.  Another has pills that are fifty percent stronger, and the last bagcontains pills that are six times stronger, guaranteed to kill anyone who takesit.”

Now Graham was really sweating.

Detective Vaughn leaned forward.  “Now, that got myattention.  You see, a woman was killed a few weeks ago.  We found a bottle ofpills that were a mixture of those four strengths.  Not a random distributionof strengths that you might find from a poorly controlled process that moststreet dealers use, but exactly the four strengths that were found in yourhouse.  And Ms. Frye was killed after taking one of those pills.”

“I’ve never met anyone named Frye,” Graham hissed, finallybreaking his silence.

“I’m sure you’ve never met.  But you are the one whoinstructed Mr. Velazquez to take a package of pills and place it under the hoodof Ms. Frye’s car, right up against the windshield, along with a flyer to alerther that the pills were there.  We have a surveillance video showing the pickupthat Mr. Velazquez drives making its way down the street where Ms. Frye lives.

“Now, he’s alternating between saying he didn’t know therewere drugs in the bag and saying that he didn’t drive down there, but how longdo you think it will take him to settle on one story?”  Detective Vaughnpointed at the photographs that he’d laid on the table.  One showed the pickupwith the license plate clearly in view.  A second showed the driver wearing abaseball cap and some glasses that helped to obscure his face.

Agent Peters slapped the table with her hand.  “You know, Irecognize that pickup.  It’s the same pickup that you drove to Dana Pointbefore you took the ferry to Catalina.  How much would you bet that yourfingerprints are in that pickup?  It’s pretty hard to recognize the driverhere.  Maybe Velazquez is telling the truth.  Maybe you drove down there anddropped those drugs under Ms. Frye’s hood.  Detective Vaughn, what do youthink?”

“Maybe.  It makes sense that he wouldn’t want someone to beable to tie him directly to the murder.  I’m sure Velazquez would be happy totestify that Mr. Graham here borrowed his truck on the 13th ofSeptember and returned it the next day.”

“I agree.  We should definitely pursue that line ofquestioning with him.  Well, Mr. Graham, I think you and your Lawyer have a lotto discuss.  I’m sure the federal prosecutor will be happy to help youunderstand your situation vis-à-vis how the criminal prosecution will workbetween the federal charges and the state charges.  They might even be able totell you about how your sentences would be handled, which facilities you’dserve your time in.”

With that, Agent Peters and Detective Vaughn left the room.

“She nailed him.  Did you see that look on his face?!”Matthew laughed and slapped the kitchen table.

“I did.  Do you think he’ll cop a plea before he finds outthey don’t have Hector in custody?”

“Maybe, but they definitely have enough to hold him for along time while they continue to search for Hector.  Sooner or later he’s goingto want to see his daughters.  Then they’ll have him.”

Chapter 18Wrap Up

The next Friday, Matthew and Emily met with Agent Peters forwhat they all hoped would be the last time.

“How are you two doing?”

“We’re doing fine; we’re on Christmas break.  We’ve finishedour term papers.  So life’s good,” Matthew said.  “How are you doing?”

“Good.  I assume you’ve heard that Graham has agreed to aplea deal.”

“Not really, what did he plea to?”

“Second-degree murder and smuggling of illegal drugs.  Thefederal prosecutor and the state prosecutor have agreed to recommend concurrentsentences to be served in a federal penitentiary.  They’re asking fortwenty-five years.”

“Will the judges approve it?”

“Probably.”

“What about Hector?”

“Oh, you didn’t hear.  He came in.  Agreed to testify.”

“What will happen to him?”

“Five years.  He didn’t know Graham wanted to kill Frye.  Hejust assumed he was closing the deal that was broken up at the Starbucks.”

“What about Dante?”

“We seized his money, although I suspect he has more hiddensomewhere.  He agreed to testify and took a three-year suspended sentence.”

“And Frankie?”

“Nobody wants to go after him.  Too big a mess.  The SanDiego Police don’t want to drag up the police brutality issue again.”

“Cool,” Emily said.  “Now, Matt, how about you tell us whatyou did with the property in the Cayman Islands?”

“Umm . . .”

“Totally off the record,” Agent Peters said.  “I’m as curiousas Emily is.”

“Well, I moved the assets to a new digital corporation.  Ihad Vicente send a notice to the four women that changes their terms ofemployment.

“First: it tells them that their escrow will no longer begetting payments and that they should at least wait the four weeks until thefirst party defaults and it pays out.”

“You mean, Graham won’t be signing off on their carryingmoney to his bank for him?”

“Yes, I think he’s otherwise engaged.”

“How much is there?” Agent Peters asked.

“The first woman, the blond, has a little over three hundredthousand in the account.  She might opt to take the money and do somethingelse.  The second woman has about half that.  The third woman had seventythousand and the fourth woman has just over thirty.”

“So what else did you have him tell them?”

“He told them that the company is going to go back tomanaging the properties as exclusive rentals.  They can still stay employed,but the salary has been lowered to five thousand a month plus free use of theguest house and the cars.  He’ll also cover legitimate expenses.  One car is tobe made available to the guests when there are any.  They are to maintain theproperty, arrange cleaning after the guests leave.  They also get five percentof whatever the company rents the place for, including if it’s just some partyevent.”

“What about the one who’s having to manage the constructionof the house?”

“She gets an additional four thousand a month.”

“Do you think they’ll take it?” Emily asked.

“I bet they do for at least a year.  They would wantsomething lined up before they gave it up.  Also, they’re going to get vacationtime, so they’ll be able to travel.  They were tied to the