Page 86 of You Know Why

“Do you believe him?” Drake asks.

“He’s controlling money from both sides of the family. I didn’t know Andrew’s parents were aware of the grandchildren. Makes this all even more sad, doesn’t it?”

They exchange a glance. Theresa knows exactly what’s going through Drake’s mind. She shakes her head. “No. No way. If Gussin was dirty, I hardly think he’d come to the FBI for help.”

“You’re right. Someone else wants access to those trusts. The Gussins are the logical choice, but so far they are clean as a whistle. Accounting has been going through the company files, and nothing has popped up that doesn’t fit.”

“So far.”

“So you do think there’s something hinky with them.”

She nods. “Hinky . . . yeah. I just don’t trust anyone with that kind of wealth. These people play by a different set of rules.”

“That they do.”

She thinks it through. “So Andrew stole money from Brook’s uncle, put it in a crypto wallet that only he has the passcode to, and ran. Without his passport, he can’t cross the border, but if he had the wherewithal to steal all this money from the Gussins, he probably could get himself new papers. Illegal as hell, but so is embezzlement. So why come back and try to eliminate his wife and parents? It makes no sense.”

“Either they know something he can’t afford to let out, or we’re missing something.”

“Yeah. And with Durov in the mix . . . Is there anything more about Andrew’s military service and how he managed to separate so early?”

Drake puts the car in gear and starts down the long drive back to the main road.

“Hitting a wall there. The Air Force has denied access to his records entirely, citing classified work. That could mean anything from him working with secret contracts with an aerospace company to being a confidential assistant to a general, and so far, they’ve not been willing to share.”

“It would really help if we could get access to those files.”

Drake nods. “I’ve been working on my bosses, but according to them, my security clearance isn’t high enough. They’ve released Andrew’s basic service record, but that’s as far as it’s gone. The rest of his file came back as need-to-know, and apparently, we don’t need to know. My next step is to contact the Department of Defense directly. I’m not taking kindly to being stonewalled.”

“If there was something nefarious in Andrew’s record that implicated him, a suspected wife murderer, don’t you think the Air Force would happily turn it over?”

“You’d think.”

“So either what he did, and why he severed and left, isn’t relevant to this investigation, or the military is covering something up, and that’s too much to contemplate.”

“It’s happened before.” He looks over at her like he knows something is up. “How’s your hand?”

She glances down at the bandage. “It’s fine.”

“You’d tell me if there’s something I don’t know, right?”

“Of course I would. Now, let’s go over the interview again. Gussin being the trustee of both trusts—maybe Andrew wants to wrestle the money from him for himself?”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“It’s not a biggie, seriously. Stay focused.”

Point of No Return

Chloe

Twenty Years Ago

That fated night of the Grand March and prom, the night that Eden died, Andrew left Chloe at the door with a kiss and a promise to come over in the morning so they could go for a run together. Chloe floated into the house, up the stairs, tiptoeing softly so she wouldn’t wake her parents. The night had been perfect. She was in love. She and Andrew had planned their future. Their future together! It didn’t matter that she was young, that her parents would say she was being silly, that you don’t meet “the one” in high school. She knew this was different. They both did.

Andrew was always going to be the love of her life. She would do anything to make sure nothing got in the way of that.

She felt so grown up that her parents weren’t waiting for her in the living room. And also relieved, because she thought her mother would probably take one look at her and know exactly what she and Andrew had been doing in the back of his truck. She was sore. Even with all his tenderness and precautions, it had hurt worse than she expected. She was also bleeding a little; she could feel the trickle between her legs. She needed a pad and needed to wash off the remains of her makeup. She’d deal with her teased hair in the morning.