Sealed with Trust, page 13
Especially since he hadn’t paid any child support in over two years.
When she reached the end of the legal mumbo jumbo, she frowned at the signature.
Mitchell Werner?
That wasn’t the name of his lawyer. He had a female lawyer. She flipped back to the front page to see the name and address listed at the top of the page. Mitchell Werner, of Werner and Associates, was noted there too. Along with an address indicating the guy lived or worked in Austin.
A chill snaked down her spine. Had Tate really found a new lawyer to plead his case? Or was this another clue?
Was Mitchell Werner really a lawyer? Or something else entirely? The name didn’t ring any bells, but she didn’t remember Tate ever telling her the name of the guy he was working for either.
Since she still had Dallas’s phone, she did a quick search on “Mitchell Werner Lawyer.”
Two Mitchell Werners came up on the screen, but neither were lawyers specializing in family law, and even more telling, they didn’t live in the Austin area. She tried another search, using the words “Mitchell Werner Austin Texas.”
The top listing displayed a handsome guy in his midthirties. She clicked on the news article, lifting a brow when she discovered this Mitchell Werner was described as an up-and-coming entrepreneur.
A fancy way of saying a guy who invests in new business ventures.
Like selling the components for ghost guns?
Her cop instincts were screaming at her that this Mitchell Werner was the rich guy Tate claimed to be working for.
And if so, he was likely the same guy who’d hired the gunmen to kill Tate—and to come after her.
Dallas gritted his teeth against the throbbing in his shoulder. Stupid move to try fifty push-ups, but he’d needed to do something physical to burn off his anger. Leaving Maggie, Laney, and Sarah alone to run ten miles wasn’t an option.
“Dallas?” Maggie’s hoarse voice made him frown. “I found something.”
He quickly crossed to her side, peering down at the screen of his phone. “Who is Mitchell Werner?”
“I think he’s the guy Tate was working for. And the one who is behind the ghost gun enterprise.” She stared up at him. “I feel like an idiot, I never thought there would be another message within this legal paperwork. But Mitchell Werner isn’t a lawyer specializing in family law. He’s a businessman.”
He whistled under his breath. “Good job, Maggie. We need to let the ATF know about this.”
“It’s just a theory,” she said cautiously.
“At this point, they need every lead they can get.” He gestured to the phone. “Call your boss back and let him know what you found. He can pass it along to the ATF guys.”
She nodded and quickly thumbed through the screen to bring up the recent calls. She then put the call on speaker so he could hear too. “Fernando? It’s Maggie again. Listen, I found something else in the paperwork Tate sent me. The name Mitchell Werner is listed as the lawyer who drew up the paperwork, but Werner isn’t a lawyer. He’s an entrepreneur. I think he might be the person in charge of the ghost gun operation.”
“That’s very interesting, Maggie. Hang on, I want to write this down.” There was a pause, then he said, “Is that Mitchell with one L or two?”
“Two. And the last name is W-E-R-N-E-R.”
“I’m sure the ATF guys are going to love this. But how did you find it again?”
“I’ll send you a copy of the letterhead. I should have realized it sooner since Tate’s lawyer was a woman named Janice Monroe, not a guy named Mitchell Werner.”
“Hey, better late than never, right?” Fernando sounded happy. “This is a great lead, Maggie. Good job.”
“Thanks.” She took a quick picture of the legal letterhead and then sent it to him. “Make sure the image came through okay.”
“It looks great. I’ll get this to the ATF guy. Thanks again.”
She stabbed the end button and handed him the phone. “I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t notice the name difference sooner.”
“You’re the only one who could have figured this out. I would have no clue who your ex-husband’s lawyer was.” He lifted the paperwork. “Tate was pretty smart to use the legal stuff as a disguise.”
“I guess. Although I would have preferred that he’d have picked up the phone to give an anonymous tip to the ATF directly rather than sending it to me.” She rolled her eyes. “Taking the time to create this paperwork with the hidden clues and dropping it in the mail likely got him killed.”
He couldn’t disagree. “Maybe you should go through the information again. He may have included more than one clue.”
She nodded thoughtfully, taking the stack of papers back. “I’ll do that. Will you please call Laney in? She’s been out in the sun long enough.”
“Sure.” He didn’t mind going to get his daughter, although he was still irritated at how Maggie had pushed him away after their kiss and had decided against telling Laney the truth about his being her father.
He glanced over his shoulder to where Maggie had taken a seat at the table to inspect the legal documents more closely. Was postponing the conversation with Laney a stall tactic on Maggie’s part?
Or was she right to hold off for a while longer?
He had no idea what eight-year-old girls knew about sex. Just thinking about a girl Laney’s age knowing any of the details made him cringe. Heaven help him, he did not want to be the one to tell her more than she needed to know.
He shook off the disturbing thoughts and headed outside. Laney was out of the pool with Romeo, the chocolate lab looking happy and tired.
“Dallas, how come you’re not swimming?” Laney asked. “You said you loved the water.”
“I do, maybe later, okay? Right now, we should head inside for a while.”
“I need to think about something for dinner too.” Sarah rose to her feet. “We may have enough ingredients to make tacos.”
“But they won’t be Mateo’s Tacos,” Laney protested.
“Hey, I like tacos, so I’m giving the idea two thumbs-up.” He gestured toward the door. “Time to get changed.”
Laney sighed but walked toward the doors. Her swimsuit had already started to dry in the hot sun.
Romeo padded along too. As much as he’d spent time training the lab, he sensed Laney’s nonstop swimming and tossing the ball had worn the dog out. The way Romeo shadowed Laney made him smile.
He scanned the area around the property but didn’t see anything amiss. Then he took a moment to flip through the camera images. All was quiet there too.
Nico had done well. This place was an excellent safe house. The lake view was an added plus. He made a mental note to call his buddy later to check in on the latest lead regarding Ava’s disappearance. Not that he could help Nico find her until his current situation was resolved.
Maggie was still at the kitchen table when he headed back inside, closing and locking the patio doors behind him. “Find anything?”
“Not yet.” She didn’t look over at him, her attention centered on the documents. He was impressed with her skills as an investigator. Her ex must have known she’d pick up on the issues and uncover the truth he’d hidden within.
Hopefully, there were more clues that would come to light. Spending time with Maggie, Laney, and even Sarah was amazing, but he could do without the constant threat of danger. Every one of the ops he and his SEAL team had gone on could have been their last. He’d accepted risking his life for his country, as did the other guys who served with him.
But failing to keep Mags and Laney safe was not an option.
“I wish we could get some fresh ingredients,” Sarah murmured as she moved about the kitchen. “The tomatoes got squished in the cooler.”
“They’ll taste fine, Mom,” Maggie said absently.
“I guess they’ll have to do.” Sarah took out the ground beef and went to work.
With their security measures in place, he relaxed his guard. He went to his room to grab his laptop, then signed into the private internet access offered by the property owner.
“What are you doing?” Maggie asked, looking up at him.
“Searching for information on Werner.” He kept his voice low, hoping Sarah wasn’t paying too much attention. “Why, did you find something?”
“Not yet, but there are some strange things in here that may be part of the message.” She tucked a strand of her long, blond hair behind her ear, then scooted her chair closer. “See this? He mentioned child support payments of ten thousand dollars.”
Guilt hit hard as he knew he owed far more than that for the eight years she’d raised Laney all by herself. “That seems reasonable.”
“It’s not. Tate was supposed to pay $500 per month, so this doesn’t make any sense.” She tapped the page. “Unless he’s talking about ten grand in ghost gun sales.”
He lifted a brow. “Maybe. But you would think the amount would be higher.”
“Ten grand a month is plenty and could be just his piece of the pie. Or the starting point. We don’t know for sure if there’s more to this whole enterprise. Maybe there are illegal guns being sold along with these homemade ghost guns.”
“Illegal meaning weapons where the serial numbers have already been removed?”
“Yeah. Why not?” She scowled at the papers. “It’s hard to know if I’m overthinking this or if Tate had truly left more information for me to use against this guy. As it stands, I don’t have squat.”
“You’ve given us more than we anticipated, so stay focused on the positive.” He turned back to his computer screen. “I’m going back to those three addresses that matched the last three digits of the license plate. Maybe I’m the one who overreacted to the black sedan getting off the interstate in a hurry. For all I know, the guy’s wife was in labor or something.”
Maggie burst out laughing, which in turn made him chuckle. Then her smile faded. “We shouldn’t second-guess ourselves.”
“You’re right. As a cop, you need to absolutely trust your instincts.”
They worked silently for a few minutes, each following their own leads. He liked the camaraderie he shared with Maggie and tried not to think about how great it would be for them to live together all the time.
Enough. What was wrong with him? He wasn’t the type of guy to sit around daydreaming about stuff like this. He narrowed his gaze and concentrated on the task at hand.
He created a map to pinpoint the various locations that interested him. He wished he’d managed to check out all three of the addresses that matched the partial plates that Waylon had given them. Maybe there was another clue out there that he’d missed.
But they had another address to add now anyway, one belonging to Mitchell Werner. He started with that one, expecting to find a residential property in one of the upscale suburbs. Instead, the address appeared to be located in the center of the business district of the city, roughly two miles from the capital.
Did Werner have an office there? It didn’t make sense that he could sell his goods from that spot without attracting attention.
He moved on from that address to the other three residential ones. By the time he had found them all, he realized one of them was much farther outside the city than the others. It was tempting to cross that one off the list, then again, that may be the key location.
“Maybe I’m losing it, but I don’t see any other clues in this thing.” Maggie pushed the document away. “Please tell me you have something.”
“Not much, I’m afraid.” He turned the screen so she could see the map he’d created too. “These are the three addresses Waylon gave us. This one”—he pointed at the one dot on the map—“had the black car with the plates that didn’t match.”
She stared at the screen thoughtfully for long moments. “We focused on that one because it was closest to Tate’s old address.” She abruptly grabbed the papers. “Wait a minute, there was another address in here. Hang on a minute.”
He loved watching her work, her intense gaze scanning the documents. She muttered under her breath, then finally stabbed the page with her index finger. “Found it. I need you to put this address in too.”
He did as she requested. The most recent address created a triangle. The business address was the lower left, the address where he’d seen the car with the wrong license plates was almost directly parallel, and the last address was at the top, equal distance from the others.
“I’m not sure this means anything significant.” He glanced at her. “What do you think?”
She stared at the map for a full five minutes. “Zoom in on the new place. I want to see what it looks like on Google Maps.”
He complied with her request, and a very nice house bloomed on the screen. Google Maps wasn’t always perfect, sometimes the data was old, but the place looked pricey. Which gave him an idea.
He wasn’t the most techy guy on the planet, but he knew how to look up homeowners in the Austin listing. It was how he’d vetted the owner of the house he’d rented for the past eight months. Something he should have done earlier really.
“This house is owned by a company, not a person.” He felt his pulse kick up. “What was that website again?”
“We’ve Got Your Back dot com,” she answered.
“Freedom Fighters, LLC.” He nodded thoughtfully. “It makes sense, doesn’t it? We’ve got your back in fighting for freedom. You know how Texans love their Second Amendment rights.”
She stared at him incredulously. “You really think this property here is actually owned by Mitchell Werner under this LLC?”
“Yeah, I do.” He stared at the screen, wishing he could head over there right now to check the place out for himself. Instead, he knew he’d have to hand everything over to the ATF guys in charge.
Retirement was so not in his DNA. Once the danger was over, he’d really need to figure out what he was going to do for the next twenty to thirty years of his life.
Whatever that was, he hoped and prayed he’d be given the chance to do it with Maggie at his side.
Chapter Eleven
A rush of adrenaline hit hard. She and Dallas had found another lead in Tate’s homicide case. They were one step closer to putting the person responsible in jail for the rest of his life.
“I’ll call the ATF again,” Dallas said in a low voice. “They should know about this.”
It went against the grain to hand the evidence over to the feds, but it was also the right thing to do. She debated calling her boss again, then decided that would be redundant. The ATF would probably talk to him.
And if they didn’t, it was because they’d taken control over the entire case.
“Hang on a minute.” She put her hand on Dallas’s arm. “Find out who owns these other properties. Maybe we’ll find the one belonging to Tate.”
He nodded and set the phone aside. “Why not? The more information we’re able to give them, the better.”
That had been her thought too. Maybe it was partially her ego, but she wanted to give the feds everything they would need to find this guy so she could get back to living her normal life.
Or rather, her new changed life, one that would include Dallas.
“This is interesting,” Dallas said, interrupting her thoughts.
“What?” She leaned closer, breathing in his unique scent. Interesting how that scent took her back to their carefree days.
“This address, the one where I found the dark sedan, is owned by a person not a corporation or enterprise, and the man’s name matches the one listed on the DMV records Waylon sent us.” He turned to look at her. She was close enough to see the flecks of gold in his green eyes. “What doesn’t match is the license plate. I feel certain the gunman must have swapped them. This guy is driving his car with the wrong plate and doesn’t even know it.”
“I agree, it’s the only thing that makes sense. But what about the way he ditched you when you followed him?”
A dull flush darkened his tanned cheeks. “I must have overreacted. Maybe he was worried I had nefarious intentions. There are a lot of crazy drivers out there. Or he had some other emergency. I made us move to this place for no good reason.”
“It was the right call at the time, Dallas.” She gently squeezed his arm. “Neither one of us dared take a risk with Laney’s life.”
He grimaced, then gestured at the screen. “That’s true, but I jumped into action too quickly. If I had searched first, I could have saved myself some heartache.”
“Only because we know more now than we did earlier this morning. A lot has happened since then.”
She could tell he was troubled by his lapse, but really, he’d always done his best to put their safety first. “I’ll do better,” he muttered.
“You’re doing fine. We have time now, so check on the other addresses,” she urged. “And maybe you should also look at who owns the property where Tate once lived. I assumed he owned the place, but he could have been renting.”
Dallas briefly covered her hand with his, then went back to work. Sometimes the site was slow to load, but he finally said, “I found it. The house where your ex lived is also owned by Freedom Fighters, LLC.”
The news was enlightening while also making her feel sick to her stomach. “Tate was working with Werner while Laney was visiting,” she whispered.
“It looks that way.” He frowned. “It’s possible the license plate was switched right there on that same street. It would explain why the addresses were located so close together.”
“And it explains why the police didn’t go check out Tate’s house as it wasn’t in his name.”
“He should have had the address listed on his driver’s license, though.”
“Yes, but he may not have updated it.” She wished she’d had the chance to search Tate’s body when she’d found it. Had his wallet been left with the body? Or had the killer ditched it somewhere else? The latter was the more likely scenario. “I vaguely remember him saying he needed to renew during our divorce.”
