Chapter 31

 

 

Somewhere in a federal jail cell, a man in his early thirties rested his forehead on the cold concrete wall. Doubling both his fists, he pounded the wall in frustration. He should have been free by now, she promised. He was growing increasingly impatient waiting for her to get him a lawyer. She’d promised she would get him off as soon as he confessed. Looking back at the whole deal, of course this sounded ridiculous, but this woman had money. Tons of money. And with money, everything was possible.

He’d been locked in the jail cell over a month and she hadn’t visited once. He did everything she asked and named that woman as the one who hired him. Matthew Newman clenched his jaw as he raised himself up from the wall. He was due in court in a few days. How foolish he’d been to believe her.

Matthew stomped from one end of the small cell to the next. If he didn’t do something fast, he’d end up rotting in a federal prison. He stopped his pacing and gripped the bars of the cell. Peering down a passageway, he made out a figure sitting on a chair.

“Guard!” Matthew called. “Guard!”

“Stop shouting, I’m not deaf.” The guard got up from his chair and began coming down the passage.

“I need to make a phone call,” Matthew informed him. The man paused and frowned. “It’s important. It’s my right.”

“Alright, you’ll get your phone call.”

A few minutes later Matthew was standing at the desk down the hall. Holding the receiver to his ear, he dialed. The guard was standing a few feet behind him, waiting to escort him back to his cell.

A woman on the other end of the line answered, “Hello.”

“Where is the lawyer you promised me? You told me you would see to it that I was freed.”

“Are you out of your mind? If I hire a lawyer for you, don’t you think the feds will get suspicious?”

“What am I supposed to do? You promised!” Matthew hissed, trying to keep his voice low.

“I paid you well. Get your own damn lawyer… and don’t you call me again.”

Before Matthew could respond he heard a click and then silence.

“Hello… hello?”

The line came back empty. He settled the phone in its cradle and slapped his palm against the wall. “Fucking bitch!”

He’d already given his statement, if he changed it now, she could just deny it. He needed a lawyer who could help him.

Matthew turned to the guard whose eyes were fixed on him. “Can I make another call?”

“You just used your one call, buddy. Let’s go.”

“Please, I need to call my lawyer. Please.”

The officer relented, “Make it quick.”

Matthew eyed the desk, noticing a telephone directory, which he picked up. He quickly rifled through it and found a law firm in the yellow pages. He called the number and spoke with a man who promised to pay him a visit the following day.

With that settled, the guard escorted him back to his cell. Once there, he began plotting his strategy. One thing was for certain, he was not going to serve a prison sentence for this crime.

 

*

 

Agent Morris read the statement given him by Matthew Newman. He then scanned the report he had prepared for the case. The phone that made the calls to Newman was found in Camila’s room with her fingerprints on it. Everything seemed to point to her.

He was in the open office where several agents sat with their head down in paperwork. A few feet to his right, Agent Linda Bale had her eyes fixed on her laptop. He looked away and resumed his reading. Something nagged at Morris. He’d been doing this long enough to know when something didn’t add up. There was no motive and in his fifteen years of experience as a field agent, he knew that premeditated crimes always come with a motive. Especially crimes of passion.

Morris stood and walked the few paces to Agent Bale’s desk. She looked up from her monitor and perused him with soft baby blue eyes.

“I can’t find a motive,” he said. “The child’s mother swears Miss Lopez would never hurt her daughter, even with the evidence.”

Biting on her bottom lip, she squinted her right eye. “Did Kristen Broderick visit her recently?”

“Yes. She is standing by her friend.”

“Did you gather anything from their conversation?” she asked.

“I didn’t listen in, but we can view the recording.”

Morris moved away, Agent Bale following close behind to a room on the left. In it was another agent surrounded by monitors showing different sections of the department.

“Charles,” Morris said upon entering. “Can we view the tape of interview room two for when Mrs. Broderick visited her friend?”

“Sure,” Charles replied. He looked through several DVDs for the one with the correct information and then slipped the disk into the slot on one of the computers. They waited only about ten seconds before the interview room came onto a screen. Charles increased the volume in order for them to hear what Kristen and Camila spoke about.

“Who is this ‘she’ they are discussing? They said someone will take her baby?” Bale asked.

Charles looked up at Morris. “She did mention a Darnel Turpey, you think he’s involved?”

“Perhaps,” Morris said. “Anything is possible. But this other woman is who we need to find and figure out what’s going on.”

Bale looked thoughtful. “If Newman was paid to kidnap the child, why ask for ransom?”

“I think it was just a sham. He wanted us to find him. There was no resistance or pleading and he quickly led us to Hailey. In addition, he has no prior record of kidnapping.”

“It could be that it’s his first time and he was scared,” Charles remarked.

Agent Morris shook his head. “No, he didn’t look at all scared. On the contrary, he was very confident the whole time. I’m heading out. Wanna join me, Agent Bale?”

“Sure, where are we going?”

“To see a man about a phone.”

 

*

 

“No, I’ve never seen that woman before. But I can’t remember everyone that comes into the store.”

Agents Morris and Bale stood in the electronic store where the phone was sold. They’d traced the serial number back to this retailer. Morris had shown the man behind the counter a photo of Camila and received a negative response.

“What can you tell me about this cell phone?” Morris asked, placing the phone on the counter.

The man picked up the phone, turning it over in his hand. After examining it, he removed the back, then typed on his computer. He seemed to rifle through the data, stopping when he spotted what he was looking for. “Yeah, I sold it to a Camila Lopez. I remember her. She was some rich lady with an attitude.”

“Is that her?” Morris showed him the same photo as before.

“No, that’s definitely not her. Camila was older with blond hair and the most frightening pair of gray eyes.”

Agent Bale leaned forward, “Would you be willing to testify to that?”

“Sure.”

Morris’ eyes scanned the shop. There were two cameras he could see. If he knew what the woman looked like, it would make it easier to determine her identity. “Would you be able to find the security recording for that day?” Morris asked.

“I should. We store them on a hard drive. All I need to do is bring up the date,” the man replied. “Follow me please.”

Morris followed him to a back room. A younger man came out and went to man the front while the store owner searched for the footage.

“Here it is. Why don’t I just make you a copy of this?’

Morris looked at the screen and grinned. “That’d be great.”

When they left the store, Agent Morris was convinced that something was fishy. Either Camila sent someone to purchase the phone or she was being set up as her friend claimed.

“Where are we heading now?” Bale asked.

“The bank.”

Not ten minutes later, they were ushered into the bank manager’s office. The manager agreed to let them see the security footage of the time of the transaction when Camila supposedly transferred the money to Newman.

The recording showed the cashier who dealt with the transaction and the same woman as on the other footage from the cell phone store. And it apparently wasn’t Camila, which meant that this woman must have had a fake ID, which again wasn’t good news.

Satisfied that he’d followed his gut, Agent Morris returned to the office determined to solve this riddle. Next, he needed to find the woman on the video tape.