“You suggested Claire may have worked with some clients,” Trent began. “Could you get us their names?”
“I’m not sure if there’s an official list somewhere to print off, but I remember a couple.” Louise named a few people—all of whom had been victims of robbery.
Too much to be a coincidence…“Please have Malachi email me the employee list to the address on the card.” Amanda pointed it out.
“Will do.”
Amanda thanked her again, and she and Trent left.
“It can’t be a coincidence that Claire’s clients became marks,” she said, snapping her seat belt into place.
Trent had the car running, but warm air was still spewing from the vents. She turned hers away, so it wasn’t directed straight at her face.
“I don’t think a lot of this is coincidence. And Rita…” He pecked on the keyboard for the onboard computer. “Yeah, Rita Flynn and Rita Cartwright are one and the same.”
“Rita stretched things when she told her husband she and Claire were friends. Rita was involved in whatever heist ring Claire got pulled into. That’s how they met, why Rita didn’t elaborate to her husband.”
“I think so too. The fact they are both dead, within a day no less, seems to back up that theory.”
Amanda felt chilled, but it wasn’t the car’s air conditioning. “Rita died the day before Claire… Did Claire tamper with Rita’s car? Payback for all the years of being used on heists?”
“You make it sound like Claire hated the life, but we can’t assume she did. Even after all the grief her secret caused her, she spent money on designer jeans. That tells me she liked having money.”
“All right. Payback for Logan’s accident then? She could have held Rita responsible—or maybe she was for all we know.”
“I certainly don’t think we have enough to go there yet.”
She hated she agreed with him. How much wheel-spinning were they doing? “So far we can’t even put Claire in recent contact with Rita.”
“Maybe if we track Claire’s movements, we’ll come up with something.”
“The hotel video might help, but first, it’s past time we visited Claire’s last foster parents.”
“Shell said that Claire stayed with the Hamiltons the longest, and until she aged out of the system.”
“They might have something to say about Rita. Also a boyfriend Claire may have had. The mystery man from the robberies?”
“And Roo. Assuming that’s not the nickname of her boyfriend and/or the mystery man.”
“Hey, I never considered they could be the same.”
“Just came to me at the gallery. Now this mystery man could be the final piece we need. He could be who really stands to lose everything. He could have been the one who shot Lawson. The women knew it…”
“Then somehow he found out Claire was going to turn him in. But how does that account for Rita? Was she also going to turn on this person?”
“And I can’t believe I’m going there again, but could there be more people who could point their finger at the shooter?”
“We better hope not, because I’m not sure we’ll be able to save them in time. Not at this rate.” She hated how defeated, yet accurate, that sounded. “Let’s hit up the Hamiltons, and we’ll go from there.”
“You got it.” Trent clicked on the keyboard and found Claire’s last known childhood address and the names associated with the property. “Looks like Sylvia and Albert still live there.”
“What are you waiting for?” Amanda gestured toward the road.
As he drove, her mind spun. How elaborate was this heist team? Had they uncovered the extent of it or was there far more yet to unravel?
TWENTY-SEVEN
Amanda and Trent grabbed a quick bite to eat and arrived at the Hamiltons’ house about two thirty in the afternoon. From the records, the couple never had children of their own, and they’d stopped fostering a few years ago. They had a modest, two-story vinyl-sided home in Dumfries. A car was in the driveway, so there was a good chance she and Trent would catch at least one of them home.
