Reluctant Witness (58 page)

“Oh,” I sighed, feeling rather chagrined.
“That makes sense.”

“Spears made you not only the beneficiary of
an insurance policy worth two million dollars, you were also the
owner of real estate holdings worth somewhere in the vicinity of
fourteen million dollars.”

“That’s crazy!” I told him, pulling away. “I
never....”

He covered my mouth with his, kissing me
deeply, tenderly. When we came up for air, he touched my cheek with
his fingertips, stroking my skin.

“The biggest giveaway was when you read my
mother’s book. I saw you sitting there in the chair. You had such a
haunted look on your face, as if you had seen a ghost from your
past. It was Nora’s story that had you so upset. That’s when I knew
you were unaware of the scale of Spears’ operation.”

“But you still suspected me.”

“Actually, I believed you until I got to
Cinnamon Bay. But when those fake emails started coming and it
looked like you were playing Cornwall brother against Cornwall
brother, those doubts resurfaced. Your emotional meltdown was the
last thing I ever expected. I couldn’t for the life of me figure
out what was going on inside that head of yours. When Nancy
threatened to quit and take you home with her, I realized you were
still a victim. Spears needed us to cut you loose so he could grab
you and complete his scheme. That’s when it all came together.”

“Jeff, why did Jared need me alive? Why did
he keep hiring killers to kidnap me? Couldn’t he have just stolen
the watch?”

“It was more involved than just getting his
hands on that watch. Don’t forget, Chris, there’s a reason Spears
chose you. You look a lot like his fiancée, Leesa Braun. That’s why
he named you as his beneficiary. He didn’t actually intend for you
to inherit his estate after his faked death; he wanted Leesa to do
that, posing as you. Once they had the money, they were set for
life. They could disappear to some quiet little corner of the world
and live out the rest of their lives in relative comfort, but first
they had to wait for the estate to go through probate and that took
time. In the meantime, they had to keep you alive until they had
their hands on the money.”

“I still don’t understand why Jared made my
life miserable with all those tricks, Jeff.” I leaned against his
shoulder, loving the way it felt to be so close to him as we
walked. Every once in a while, his gait would change slightly, his
way of shifting the pain from one leg to the other, and I wondered
what it was like to have such a permanent disability. Jeff seemed
so used to it, he just moved along on auto-pilot, adjusting his
stride when it was necessary.

“In order to make sure you didn’t try to
collect the money, Jared kept you and the WitSec team busy,
convincing everyone that you were in constant danger. He was afraid
that the Marshals Service would get involved in the legal process,
helping you establish yourself as the beneficiary of Jared Spears’
estate, with no one the wiser.”

“And he knew that the moment that dead body
was discovered in my condo, I’d be moved to a new secure location.
The marshals would never risk giving up my identity just so I could
inherit from Jared’s estate.”

“Exactly,” Jeff agreed, squeezing my shoulder
affectionately. “But it was even more complicated than that. The
plan was to get you kicked out of the WitSec program, Chris, by
targeting your handlers with some very nasty tricks. By the time
you were attacked at the Gilded Nest, the marshals assumed you were
involved in the assaults and the security breaches.”

Chapter Fifty
One

“But someone killed that woman who snatched
me,” I pointed out. “She was shot while I was still in the trunk of
the Corolla.”

“Once Abajo was out of the picture, both
contract killers were promised extra money for capturing you alive.
That was their incentive. The loser would automatically die as they
fought over you. When you grabbed the woman’s phone and called the
cops, you interrupted the murderer’s plan. That’s what led to the
shootout in Windham.”

“The guy who showed up at the ski house
claimed to be a friend of Jared’s. Was he the killer?”

“No, he was the guy doing security for
Spears. He was supposed to follow the killers around and clean up
after them, so no one would guess Spears was still alive.”

“But why did Jared need me to sign for that
bank account if Leesa was the one who was going to access it?”

“Bottom line? He may have loved Leesa, but he
sure didn’t trust her. He kept her in the dark about a number of
things, including the details of that bank account. That was
Jared’s way of making sure she remained with him.”

“Why not just give her the watch with the
special inscription, instead of me?”

“That Citizen Chronograph was at the heart of
the puzzle for several reasons. It allowed him to stalk you as you
moved through the witness protection program, so he could set you
up, and it was the bona fide for his secret bank account
because....” Jeff was in the middle of explaining the scheme when I
broke in.

“...the watch had the GPS locator!” That
earned me another kiss, this one deep and demanding, leaving me
almost breathless.

“Such a smart girl,” he grinned at me.
“Brainy and beautiful; that’s a combination that’s hard to
resist.

“I’m so glad you find it appealing,” I
giggled, squeezing his hand in mine and feeling him respond in
kind. “So, Leesa didn’t know about the GPS?”

“No, she didn’t. You have to remember that
Jared only chose you because you looked so much like Leesa. He
planned from the start to kill you once they had the money, but he
knew that Leesa was cut of the same cloth as he was, so he made
sure she couldn’t cut him out of the deal.”

“That’s terrible. But how did Leesa find out
about the watch if Jared kept it a secret from her?”

“There’s more bad news, I’m afraid. Leesa had
an accomplice.”

“What?” I was stunned. “Who was it?”

“Eve was just arrested.”

For a moment, I thought I misheard him.
“Arrested for what?”

“Eve was the insider causing problems for the
WitSec team. She’s been in on this ever since Jared planned his own
fake death in Rhode Island.”

“But Eve was injured in the parking garage.
That’s why she went into labor and had to leave the job early.”

“Actually, she took oxytocin to induce labor.
That story about the fall was just to cover her fanny when the
other members of the team were attacked.”

“I...I can’t believe this. It’s....”

“Evil?” he suggested helpfully. I nodded.
There was no other explanation. “Leesa decided she didn’t want to
go into WitSec after she got out of prison, so she and Eve decided
to cut Jared out of the picture. Eve found out the FBI had
identified that private bank account in Curaçao and was in the
middle of working out the legal details to seize it. Someone from
the Justice Department started asking what the marshals knew about
it. Eve saw a photo of the inscription and memorized it, so Leesa
could have a jeweler make a duplicate for her, one that would fool
the private banker managing the account. The plan was for Leesa to
withdraw all the money and disappear. For her help, Eve would get a
hundred grand in untraceable cash.”

“But the banker would have refused to give
Leesa access because he knew the watch was a fake?”

“Exactly. But Leesa and Eve didn’t know that
when they hatched their plot to snatch you. Eve planned to show up
here in Kauai and con you into going back to the mainland with her.
They needed you to believe you were being readmitted to the witness
protection program. Eve would put you up in a safe house, hidden
from legitimate law enforcement. Leesa would collect the money in
Curaçao. Once the money was in their possession, Eve planned to
switch your files and then kill you, so your body would be
identified as Leesa’s. They would get rid of you and no one would
ever bother to look for Leesa again.”

“How did they get caught?”

“They didn’t realize the U. S. attorney in
Jacksonville requested an investigation into the mishandling of
your case. An internal review uncovered the fact that someone had
requested a copy of your entire WitSec file, going all the way back
to your childhood, long before the guano hit the fan, even though
there was no official review. That was highly unusual. Tovar and
Shaun nearly died when they were attacked, but Eve suffered only
minor problems. That made her the most likely suspect, so
investigators kept digging. Her phone records revealed she was in
touch with Leesa before, during, and after the plea deal. How did
Eve know the woman who was Jared’s partner before he faked his own
death in Rhode Island? Eve had to be in on it.”

“So it was just dumb luck that exposed the
plot? That’s the only thing that saved me?”

“Not really,” he smiled, tucking my arm in
his as we walked on as the moonlight leant a silver air to the
evening. “You never had any problems until you met Jared. You spent
almost fifteen years as a protected witness without an incident,
Chris. Your old WitSec teams vouched for you and your family; they
told investigators you were all good, decent folks as honest as the
day is long. What changed? You arrived in Rhode Island and met
Jared Spears. Under the circumstances, the sensible thing to do was
to start digging through any and all information pertinent to that
relocation and the man who became your fiancé. That’s when someone
finally spotted the resemblance between you and Leesa, his business
partner.”

“So how do you know it’s really over now,
that I’m no longer in danger? What if Leesa decides to hire someone
to kill me?”

“There’s no motive for retribution against
you, love. She didn’t get caught as part of our effort to protect
you. She got caught because the WitSec team was under review for
its own mishandling of your case.”

“Oh.”

“Leesa is no longer eligible for witness
protection when she gets out, which will be several years from now;
the prosecutors are filing more charges against her. As for Eve,
she agreed to cut a deal in exchange for letting her mother take
care of the baby while she’s in jail. Anything happens to you and
Eve permanently loses contact with and custody of the child. As for
Spears, he’s not going to do anything stupid, Chris. He wants out
of jail when he finishes his sentence and straight into WitSec. The
people he double-crossed have already sent word through criminal
channels that they have a contract out on him, so there’s no
benefit to harming you, not with so many angry investors out to get
him.”

“What I don’t understand is why I am able to
use my real name now.”

“That’s actually an interesting twist to this
story. Believe it or not, your old WitSec team got you a Social
Security number in your real name.”

“They did? Why?”

“A lot of thieves search for what they call
‘clean identities’; they troll for names of people who never
obtained Social Security cards and claim those identities for
themselves. To thwart that game, your original WitSec team obtained
a Social Security card for you, to keep your real identity out of
the hands of criminals. About twelve years ago, there was an alert
that someone was checking on your Social Security number in the
federal database. That set off alarm bells, so your WitSec team
tracked the action. The scam artist got rolled up with about a
thousand stolen Social Security numbers, some of which belonged to
protected witnesses. Your team made sure to keep yours active,
right up until you left Texas for Rhode Island.”

“Wow,” I sighed. “It’s all so complicated to
protect people like me, isn’t it?”

“Indeed. But now, with so much time passing,
and folks looking for Margot Floyd and Marigold Flowers, it seems a
good time for Chris Neeson to restart her life.”

“It feels so strange, Jeff.”

“I can understand that, but you won’t be
doing it alone. Your dad’s going back to his birth name, too.”

“I never thought that would ever happen, but
I’m glad it did. I’m looking forward to being me again.” I stopped,
ready to turn around. “Shall we head back?”

“In a moment,” he replied, taking me into his
arms once more. “Moonlight becomes you, Chris. You look so
lovely.”

“Do I?”

“You do,” he told me, his hungry mouth
hovering near mine. I pulled him closer, wrapping my hands around
the back of his neck.

“Kiss me, you fool,” I demanded, laughing,
“and be quick about it.”

Cooper waited patiently at our feet until our
lips parted and we came to our senses once more. The dull roar of
the ocean and the warm breeze on my cheeks felt heavenly, but it
was nothing compared to the nearness of Jeff. It was as if I came
alive at his touch.

Fifteen minutes later, we reached the resort,
dog in tow, when I realized I had no way of getting in touch with
my father.

“I don’t even know where he’s staying,” I
confessed.

Jeff laughed, hugging me. “Not to worry,
Chris. It’s all under control.”

“It is?”

“Look over there.” He pointed his finger at
the building next to mine. In the soft glow of landscaping lights
that illuminated the grounds, I could see four figures on a lanai.
Someone stood up and walked over to the sliding glass door,
disappearing inside. “Shall we join them?”

“Let’s,” I agreed.

As we moved forward, Jeff’s hand slipped away
from mine. I tried to grip it tighter, but it got away. “It’s show
time, Chris. Let’s not give ourselves away to the audience.”

“Right,” I sighed, feeling the weight of our
secret. It wasn’t time to share it with the world. We were still in
hiding, but for how long?

A moment later, I watched Cooper march
confidently onto the lanai to make the rounds of the assembled
crowd. He sniffed everyone in turn, curiosity getting the better of
him, before pawing me to pick him up.