Fatal Connections

Chapter 74

I spent the rest of the day poring over and processing everything you never wanted to know about the Harcourts. Ingrid Swenson's significant other, Lu, had emailed me digital photos of pages she deemed significant from Ingrid's journal. There were a few mentions of Aunt Phyllis, who I now knew was more than just a friend of the family.

Along with the absence of anything to suggest that the Harcourts knew of any illegal activities at Embrace the Wild, the family connections suggested some very interesting shit was going down here. For one thing, the Harcourts had adopted Amy.

The birth certificate identified Amy's biological mother as Joan Atkinson. The father was listed as "unknown." I checked my notes on the one conversation I'd had with Amy. Back in the beginning, the day after her parents died, she had told me about an Aunt Joan in New York, who she claimed she had never met. Amy said quite a few other things that didn't quite square with what I now knew. I had searched for intel on Phyllis Atkinson. She did not appear anywhere on social media. She might have been one of the few remaining humans on earth with no digital footprint whatsoever.

However, thanks to Alex's ability to dig up sealed records, I had copies of Amy's adoption papers on which the birth mother was identified as Phyllis Joan Atkinson—Phyllis Atkinson, who was more than just an aunt. And according to Adams, she was "bad news." How bad? And why?

Whatever threat she may have posed to national security, it was clear that Phyllis had placed career above motherhood and family, but not so much that she could completely let go of them. I pictured an unplanned pregnancy and an upbringing that frowned on abortion and maybe valued a family caring for its own.

In letting her sister adopt her child, maybe Phyllis saw a way to give her daughter a ready-made perfect childhood with all the right components: a dad, a mom, and a brother. The perfect family. But why the big blow-up? And what had brought Phyllis back? Was it Amy or something else?

Was their falling out the result of the Harcourts' choice of lifestyle as internet influencers? Did the Harcourts' belated concerns represent a threat to something bigger than Embrace the Wild and their particular malfeasances?

Phyllis didn't strike me as one who would work at a desk job. I thought about tapping old sources from my active duty days. Everything about Phyllis suggested military training, as in paramilitary groups, private armies, or government-supported private armies. That kind of work could cause problems with your family life, the kind you can't discuss. Then I wondered how much Amy actually knew about Phyllis. Were they just close as aunt and niece? Or did she know Phyllis was her mother? And who was her father? Could it have been Ron Harcourt? Seemed unlikely, but you never know.

My head became something of an echo chamber as various potential scenarios bounced around inside it. Did Phyllis break off from the Harcourts because of their career or did the Harcourts push her away because of her career? Had Phyllis wanted Amy back? If Ron was really the father, could it be jealousy on Phyllis's part? Or was Marian jealous of Phyllis?

Then it dawned on me. I was fishing for a motive here, when it could have been a simple business transaction. What if Phyllis had been hired to kill them? Surely, there was no assassins' code against killing one's own relatives. Had Phyllis used Amy to get at her parents? Did Amy, God forbid, arrange it? Did they both arrange to set me up? For a moment, I couldn't move. Thinking about this case made me itch. Deep breath. The itch calmed down.

I called Amy, only to get voice mail. "Hi, it's Erica Jensen," I said. "We need to talk. Please call me."

It took almost 30 minutes for Amy to call me back. "What is there to talk about?"

"Listen," I said. "Can I meet you?"

"Sure," she said, her voice neutral. "I'm at the house now. How about we meet here?"

I took a breath to steady my voice. "Your parents' house?"

"Yeah."

"I'll be right over."

I hung up and made another call. Time to bring in serious backup.