Fatal Connections

Chapter 81

The next day, I reached out to my old friend Special Agent Phipps. He sounded pleased to hear from me. I brought him up to speed about my recent travails, hoping that empathy might move him to open up to me or at least not shut the proverbial door in my face.

"What can you tell me about the case against Embrace the Wild?" I asked.

"I've heard about it, but I wasn't involved in the investigation," he said. "There are various charges. Endangered Species Act violations, the Lacey Act, that sort of thing."

"Right. I've seen the filing. Do you know if my late clients were implicated at all?"

"No one has mentioned them."

I thought that over and decided to ignore the fact that he hadn't exactly answered my question. "How long has Embrace the Wild been the subject of investigation?"

"I don't know, but I imagine it's taken quite a while to gather all the evidence."

And find willing witnesses? I imagined the Harcourts would have been good ones. "Were the Harcourts important to proving the charges?"

"Look, I'm only privy to so much. It's not my case, and not my subject area. And I only know what I hear."

Continuing to question Phipps seemed like a waste of time. Based on what I'd been told about the Harcourts, they didn't seem like the type to sit idly by if they became aware of an ethical or legal problem with their business. I was fast reaching the conclusion that their decision to hire a bodyguard and to hire me to check his background may have been prompted by threats, overt or otherwise, from people they had come to trust.

"How about Phyllis Atkinson? Or Joan Atkinson?" Or God knew what other name she might use. "Either name mean anything to you?"

"No," he said.

I couldn't come up with any great follow-up questions that would allay any doubts about the Harcourts or my own personal safety. So I thanked Agent Phipps, said goodbye, and hung up.

If Phipps really knew nothing about Phyllis Atkinson, the prospects were dismal for making sure she never bothered me or my friends again. Then again, why would she? Probably only if I got in her way again. I checked my shoulder bag and found Parker Adams' card. I wondered how much I could trust him.

If the Harcourts had offered to or been persuaded to be government witnesses, that would have provided a motive for any business associates of Embrace the Wild to kill them, including Reverend Leland and his handy helper Hannah. It could even include the Harcourts' handlers Marge Calhoun and Ryan Douglas. By not playing along, their attorney Aaron Gallagher had sealed his fate. When you got right down to it, anyone with a vested business interest in Embrace the Wild had a motive to, at the very least, warn the couple off. Perhaps Amy spoke the truth when she said Phyllis wasn't hired to kill them. Even so, the fact that they were dead kept them well out of the matter.

Later, I had a conference call from Detectives Gordon and Sully, which actually went fairly well. Some of what I had discovered might provide a lead on Phyllis's whereabouts, including everything I'd found in the houses. I wasn't at all sure it would help, but Gordon promised to pass all my intel on to the feds, who were also scouring the earth for Amazon Woman. Or so they told the local police.

"So, who actually gets charged for murder here?" I asked.

The line went silent a moment. "This is still an ongoing investigation," Detective Gordon said. "We need to nail down more specifics before deciding exactly who to charge for what."

Gordon then explained that while the church, Reverend Leland, Benjamin Mulligan, and Hannah Broomfield might be subject to all manner of federal prosecution, the matter of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that these people hired a mercenary to kill two witnesses to their malfeasances required evidence of conspiracy.