“Alright,” she said, still amazed at how far his network extended.
“Remember Special Agent Warner telling you that a top government official had died under suspicious circumstances and they needed to make sure his death was of natural causes as the first ME claimed? Well, what he didn’t tell you was that the official was actually a federal judge.”
“A federal judge?” she asked, now understanding why that information had not been provided.
“Yes. This crime ring was trying to pressure him into joining their side. When he refused, they put out a hit on him, intending to make it appear like a heart attack. But the judge had a good idea what was going on and had notified the FBI that he thought his life was in danger and why. So, when he died, the Bureau had a reason to be suspicious. However, when the ME ruled the death as due to natural causes, they then felt they had a reason to question the ME’s report.”
She nodded. “That’s when they selected DeWalt to do an independent autopsy?”
“Yes.” Roland took a sip of his coffee. “No one was supposed to know.”
“Then how did Steve find out? If it was classified information, DeWalt would not have told me or Steve about it,” she said.
“Dr. Steve Owens found out because federal authorities had reached out to him to recommend an ME that was oneof the best in the field, not knowing Owens had become corrupt. He was the one who suggested your fiancé.”
“That made sense. DeWalt worked at the VA hospital as a federal employee.”
“Yes, it seemed everything was falling in place. Dr. Owens gave the crime syndicate a guarantee that your fiancé’s independent report would agree with the one the first ME had put together.”
“I don’t know why Steve would assume he could do that. If there was any discrepancy, he knew DeWalt well enough to know he would find it.”
“Yes, but they had a plan in place if that happened. I’m sorry to say Dr. DeWalt Bellamy’s death was guaranteed, thanks to Dr. Owens. After Dr. Bellamy’s death, a false ME report, one that agreed with the first, was submitted, signed supposedly by Dr. Bellamy. It has since been determined that was not his signature.”
“So where is the real report? The one DeWalt submitted?”
“It was destroyed. However, there was speculation that Dr. Bellamy might have become suspicious of certain things and made a duplicate copy, placing it somewhere for safekeeping. When a duplicate report never surfaced, the crime syndicate figured there wasn’t one. They felt that if you, an ME yourself, had come across such a report in his belongings, you would have reached out to Dr. Owens. After all, he was a trusted friend to both you and your fiancé. The man who’d supposedly tried saving DeWalt’s life.”
Lennox nodded. “Then I stirred things up when I went to that convention and told Steve about that box of DeWalt’s belongings.”
“Yes. There was no way they could allow Dr. Bellamy’s official independent ME report to surface now, if there was one. That’s why they wanted that box and had no qualms about killing you to get it. The plan was to make it appear that your death was due to a home invasion.”
Shivers went through Lennox. “But if Steve was going along with their plans, why did they kill him? Why did he pass that note along to me with a warning?”
“I can only guess that he wanted to clear his conscience.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive him for what he did to DeWalt. What about the international cartel? Are they not worried about what I might find in DeWalt’s belongings?”
“It doesn’t look that way. It seems the domestic ring led by Meadows was auditioning to become part of the international cartel, whose main profit was human trafficking. If he had pulled this off, then joining the bigger operation was almost guaranteed and would have set him up nicely. But he didn’t pull it off and nothing he did was connected to the bigger operation. That’s why he was upset when that human trafficking ring was busted. He also failed by not getting Dr. Bellamy’s box of personal belongings. Overall, the whole situation made him look quite incompetent. Somehow, I imagine he died a very unhappy criminal.”
“Well, as far as I’m concerned, he got what he deserved.” She drew in a deep breath. “So when do we have to leave here?”
He leaned back in the chair and looked at her in a way that always made her heart skip a beat. “Do you miss Charlottesville, Lennox?”
“No, but I thought perhaps you did. I’m sure you hadn’t anticipated being away this long.”
“It’s all good. Since we’d planned to be here for two weeks anyway, I’d like to stay a while longer. If that’s okay with you, of course.”
That meant he wasn’t in any hurry to leave either. “I think that’s a great idea.”
Roland seemed glad that she was in agreement with that. “By the way when I talked to Stonewall, Joy wanted you to know that arrests had been made in that case you were working on, the murder staged as a suicide. The guy was killed by his nephew. He would have inherited everything after the man died but needed money now to pay off his gambling debts.”
Lennox shook her head. “That’s so sad.”
“I think so, too.” Tugging her hand, he eased her down into his lap. “I think we should concentrate on something else.”
“What?”
“This.” He slanted his mouth over hers, then stood and picked her up in his arms.