Love Remains (40 page)

“You are Mr. Vaughan’s direct supervisor, aren’t you Z—Dr. Mitchell?” Bobby had his notepad out.

“I am. He’s an archaeologist who works for us as basically an independent contractor. He works in the field but comes in twice a week to report on his activities and bring in his findings so we can analyze them in the labs here.”

“How would you rate his work?”

“He seems to do a good job. He’s discovered quite a few promising pieces at the riverfront property.” She searched Bobby’s face—that handsome, beloved face—for any sign of what he was thinking, but either they’d been apart too long and she’d lost the ability to read him,
or else he had developed the skill of hiding any shred of emotion or reaction.

Dennis’s phone buzzed. “Yes, Debby? …Thank you.” He returned the handset to the cradle. “Mr. Vaughan is on his way up.”

Zarah tucked her hands under her thighs and rocked back and forth slightly. She glanced at Bobby, but he kept his gaze cast down on the notebook in his left hand.

She jumped at the knock on the door.

“Come in,” Dennis called.

Glenn Vaughan, a slight, nondescript man in his forties, paused and eyed Zarah and Bobby. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“You’re not interrupting. Come in and shut the door behind you.” Dennis motioned him to the only remaining chair in the room. “Glenn, this is Special Agent Patterson from the Tennessee Criminal Investigations Unit. He’s here to ask you a few questions.”

Zarah watched Glenn Vaughan’s face carefully as Bobby asked him about his background and experience. A line of perspiration formed across Glenn’s forehead. Her heart sank. A sign of guilt?

Guilt of what?

“Mr. Vaughan, have you ever accepted money to falsify your reports and submit items stolen from protected federal and state land to the Middle Tennessee Historic Preservation Commission?”

Zarah clenched her teeth together to keep from showing a reaction.

“I…I don’t know what you mean.”

“Did you, on the night of October 18, enter the grounds of Fort Negley illegally and take pieces of brick and masonry work which you tried to pass off as archaeological finds from the property the commission is currently contracting you to examine?”

Zarah closed her eyes a moment. How could she not have known? She’d remarked upon the similarity between what Glenn had sent to be studied and the stone and masonry work at Fort Negley. How could she have been so naive?

“I…I think I need to contact a lawyer.”

Bobby stood. “You can call one from the police station after they book you. Glenn Vaughan, you are being arrested for desecration of county property, with other charges pending.” Bobby recited the Miranda rights as he escorted the archaeologist from the office.

Zarah stared at Dennis. “Glenn Vaughan? Taking bribes to make us think there was something of historical value on the East Nashville property?” She pressed her fingers to her temples, trying to alleviate the forming headache. “Did you know?”

Dennis ran his fingers through his steel gray hair. “I suspected—and told Agent Patterson.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want him to know he was a suspect. They’ve had him under surveillance for several weeks now. That’s how they know about Fort Negley.”

Her stomach twisted. “I cannot believe an archaeologist would agree to such…treachery against such a significant historic site.”

“You’ll need to bring the rest of the team in. I’ll explain to them what happened, but unfortunately, the aftermath of this will fall on you. The agents will question each team member to find out if any others were involved. With those who were not, you will have to put together a new team. Put Justin and Reina in charge. Their field projects are on hold until the spring, so they can head up the team to go out and see what’s actually been done on the East Nashville site. When they tell you what they’ve found, I’m going to depend on you to help me prepare a report for the Metro Council and the senate committee. This is going to wreak havoc with our funding for next year.”

“Yes, sir.” She stood, almost surprised to find her legs would support her weight.

“And Zarah?”

“Yes?”

“It’s almost over. Very soon, we’ll be able to get back to doing
what it is we’re supposed to be doing around this place. And that’s preserving history, not making it.”

As soon as Bobby returned to his office from the downtown police station, where Glenn Vaughan was even now being booked, he called Captain Carroll’s office.

Julie answered the phone. “Yes?”

“Is everything set for the meeting with the director this afternoon?”

“He’ll be here at two, and he said he’s anxiously awaiting your report. He’s ready for this case to be closed.”

“Aren’t we all? Thanks, Julie.” He disconnected, then called Gage and Milligan. They spent the rest of the morning reviewing every detail, every fact of the case. Shortly before noon, the state district attorney’s office called to tell Bobby they had his warrants ready.

He sent Gage and Milligan to lunch, then went and stood over the fax machine in the common area outside his office while copies of the arrest and search warrants slowly printed. Once the transmission ended, he jogged up the stairs.

Julie sat at her desk eating a sandwich. “Go on in. He’s been expecting you.”

“Thanks.” Bobby knocked on the open door.

“Finally.” Captain Carroll left his lunch of what looked like leftover Italian on his desk and moved around to the small conference table.

Bobby closed the door and joined him. They started collating the copies of the several warrants—those which they needed and those which needed to be sent on to other regional unit offices.

After the warrants were straightened out and the necessary copies given to Julie to fax, Bobby reviewed everything for the meeting with the director. Captain Carroll helped him refine a few areas but deemed everything ready.

“He’ll be here in less than an hour.” Carroll stood. “Let’s be on
our toes with everything. I’ll call the regional captains and get the ball rolling there so you can finish what we talked about.”

“Yes, sir.” Bobby took the warrants back to his office—where Gage and Milligan waited, looking for all the world like two fathers-to-be sitting in a maternity ward waiting room.

He gave them the warrants they needed for the tasks they were assigned and sent them out.

At 1:55, he gathered up all his files and paperwork and headed back to Captain Carroll’s office.

The director, who had apparently just arrived, turned upon Bobby’s entrance into the office. “Agent Patterson, isn’t it?”

Bobby shook the man’s hand. “Yes, sir. Thank you for taking the time to come in today. I know the week before Thanksgiving can be hectic.”

“Not a problem. I can always make time to come by when we’re ready to close an investigation.”

Bobby and his two direct superiors sat at the table. Captain Carroll nodded for Bobby to start as soon as they were all settled.

“Captain Carroll explained to me that it is not usually necessary for a special agent in charge to review the entire case and his investigation methodology. However, since I’m new to the unit and we’re all still trying to get to know each other and how we work, the captain and I wanted to review everything just to be sure we’re all on the same page. He suggested calling you in, sir, since you do have an interest in the case.”

The director gave a swift nod. “I appreciate the consideration. I have been reading your updates with interest, and I am very impressed by how thorough your investigation has been.”

“Thank you, sir.” Bobby looked down at his notepad to refresh his memory on how he wanted to start this briefing. “As you know, when we first opened this investigation, we initially focused on the director and the assistant director of the Middle Tennessee Historic Preservation Commission. We pulled background and financials on
both of them and began our investigation….”

He reviewed the investigation methods, including the forensic accountant’s involvement, and what they had learned in general. “We also pulled all of the financial information for the commission. It was at this point in the investigation we started seeing some transactions that raised flags for us. So we went deeper as well as broadening the scope of our investigation.”

As best he could, he described verbally what was still drawn on the whiteboard in his office in concentric, overlapping, and arrow-connected boxes and circles. At one point in the investigation, Milligan had joked that the board was starting to look like a very complex game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, as they had discovered a multitude of layers of interconnectedness amongst the parties involved.

Bobby paused when a buzzing sound drew the director’s attention away from them. The director pulled out his smart phone and read a message. The skin around his eyes tightened and he pressed his lips together, shoulders stiffening. Bobby threw a questioning glance at Captain Carroll, who urged him to continue.

“As we looked deeper into the commission’s financial records, we began to notice what looked like connections between several large donations to the commission and private real estate transactions by the commission’s director, Dr. Dennis Forrester.”

“Are you telling me”—the director leaned forward—”that Dennis Forrester was using the commission for—for what?—for laundering money?”

“That was what we wanted to find out, sir.” Avoiding any mention of Zarah, Bobby described their renewed investigation of Dennis Forrester, his relationship with the MTHPC, and his several and varied real estate transactions over the past three years that seemed to relate with some of the red flags in the commission’s financial reports.

After an hour, Captain Carroll called for a break and asked Julie
to bring in coffee. Bobby excused himself; and as soon as he cleared the office door, he made a dash for the nearest restroom. He braced his hands against the edge of the counter and took a few deep breaths before leaning over to splash water in his face. The first hour had been the easy part of the report. He did not look forward to what was coming next.

Collected once again, he returned to the captain’s suite. Julie handed him a bottle of water on his way through her office.

When they resumed their seats at the table, the director seemed even more uptight than he’d become after receiving the text message earlier. But he entreated Bobby to continue, so continue he did. He talked about the genuine leads as well as some of the rabbit trails their investigation had followed in the wake of discovering what looked like evidence pointing to Dennis Forrester’s guilt.

“But once we realized the connection between the financial irregularities in the commission’s accounts and Dennis Forrester’s real estate transactions were not connected, we had to redirect our efforts.”

The director reeled back in his chair, face slack with shock. “You are certain it is not Dennis Forrester? All the evidence you discussed so far seems enough to convict him of embezzlement or money laundering.”

“That’s what we thought, too, sir. So we kept digging.”

As Bobby talked about the long, tedious weeks he’d put in on the investigation, some of the stress from them began to lift. Soon this would all be in the hands of the state district attorney.

Soon he would be able to get on with his own life. A life that included Zarah.

Now he was coming to it—the most difficult part of concluding this investigation. “Since the last update I submitted, there have been several breakthroughs in the case. Because of a suspicion that one of the field researchers at the commission might be involved, we placed him under surveillance. He was booked at nine o’clock this morning
on charges of defacing public property, trespassing, and falsifying state documents. Other charges are pending.”

Bobby stole a glance at Captain Carroll, who gave him an almost imperceptible nod. He turned his gaze back to the director. “But I imagine you already know that, Director Vaughan, as I assume someone else in your family sent you a message a little while ago informing you of your nephew’s arrest.”

The director blanched, his eyes swinging between Captain Carroll and Bobby. “My…my nephew was involved in this?”

“Yes, sir. Once we were certain of his involvement, the other pieces started falling into place. You did a good job of hiding the money and eliminating the paper trail, sir—and setting Dennis Forrester up to look guilty.” Yes, Vaughan had been good…but Bobby, with his own future on hold, had been spurred to be better.

“As we speak, agents from this unit are serving an arrest warrant on your brother-in-law, Judge Doddridge, as well as executing a search warrant on the judge’s home. A team from the Memphis division is searching your home and office there, and a team from the Knoxville office is searching your chalet in the Smoky Mountains—the one I expect you never thought any one would track down. The state district attorney’s office is working with the FBI to seize your domestic and international bank accounts.”

Bobby stood and pulled the last warrant from the folder atop the pile he had brought with him. “And I am executing this arrest warrant. Samuel Vaughn, I’m placing you under arrest for bank fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, bribery of public officials, and money laundering.”