Page 127 of Burning Caine
“Oh my—”
Harry picked up from her, beaming like a proud father. “Good idea getting IT involved on the red flag report. We found a few that had been removed by Cliff, Hailey, and Mike, but we’ve spoken to them and put an end to that. However, over the last two years, we found sixty-three instances of Roger removing red flags from claims. So, Quinn tailed him yesterday. We expected it would take a while to get to the bottom of this, but—”
Quinn pulled a photo out of Janelle’s folder. Roger and Olivia on a sidewalk downtown, kissing. “Looks like we missed a fifth red flag on the claim, hun. An affair.”
My jaw dropped.
“Harry and I took this and the red flag report straight to the Brenton PD.”
Janelle tapped on the photo, on a box in Roger’s hand. “Olivia used a gift box with her own money for the blackmail sting at the Café. We’re fairly certain this is the same one.”
Harry said, “We suspect Roger’s involved with a group of contractors who aren’t on the up-and-up. He removes red flags so SIU doesn’t get involved in their claims, they get paid, and so does he. And yes, that includes the ball peen hammer claims. Our reinsurers have been notified and may press fraud charges against him. The police are questioning him now, but I expect he’ll be locked up before the day’s out.”
Oh, no. I got my ex-father-in-law arrested. “Wait a second. So Olivia promised to pay Roger off to get the claim pushed through?”
Quinn said, “I’m not sure if she was paying him or if they were just splitting everything. My bet is that Roger was in on the whole thing.”
“What whole thing?”
Janelle grinned, her eyes twinkling. “This morning, Kathy Becker met with her lawyer on a plea bargain. She’s claiming her call to Olivia was planned. Wait until the security system was offline and the painters had everything set up for the perfect fire. Pre-arranged signal, phone call, and bam. Everyone’s out of the house at the right time.”
“I was right about the painter!” I pounded a fist on the table. “Her argument with him was to bring his attention to the painting!”
Quinn and Harry grinned at each other.
“Oh my god.” I jumped out of my seat, shaking my head, as the final pieces fell into place. “Explains how Olivia ID’ed Kathy in the blurry video. She already knew who it was.”
“And it gets better.” Janelle counted off on her fingers. “One, Olivia’s cell phone records show she called her husband as soon as she was off with Kathy. Likely to have him rush home. Not sure yet the plan there, but we’ll figure it out. Two, no one’s seen Olivia or David since Roger cut them the twenty-thousand-dollar check yesterday. Three, she cashed all the insurance checks and hasn’t paid any repair contractors. She’s got over a million in cash on her.”
“Holy shit!” Iwasright about her not getting the repairs started.
“We expect they’re already out of the state, if not the country, so Special Agent Skinner’s liaising with us. We’re doing a press conference tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. We owe a lot of this to you, so we’d like you to be there, if you could say a few words?”
I sank back into my chair. What a whirlwind. “Yeah, of course. Absolutely.”
Elliot finally spoke. “Now that Sam’s up-to-date, can she and I have the room a moment?”
Once the rest were gone, he leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. “You know, your badge and creds are still waiting for you.”
“You were already in Lansing because of the stolen painting at the charity auction?”
“Precisely. The team had Dr. Ferraro’s name, and we tracked it back to you. Can’t say I was surprised, except to see you back in Michigan. Good news for me, I’m hoping?”
“Was anyone by the name of Paulette Johnson or Cam-ron Parker involved?”
“I can’t go into the details, but those names aren’t on our list. It’s still early days.”
I nodded, relieved. Cam-ron was clueless and an ass, but he hadn’t struck me as a criminal mastermind.
“I was hoping to speak with Dr. Ferraro—the younger, of course—while I was here. Do you think you could arrange that for me?”
My stomach lurched. “He’s in Naples.”
“Any thoughts on when he’ll be back? I’d like to shake hands with the man who helped you at the auction and with this case.”
“Sometime around Christmas?”
“Interesting.” He paused a moment, then plowed on. “Listen, speaking of Italy—I have a team shipping out next week to work with the Carabinieri, tracking down some leads on an artwork smuggling ring—”