Wrapping Up
Arriving at the bureau, Peter was relieved to find Diana waiting for him. Meeting her on the way to his office, she walked along with him and filled him in as they went.
"We found proof! Mozzie directed me to look at a camera a little further from the storage unit, and we found a clear image of Alex Hunter driving a box truck towards the building. Then using a side reflection from a camera closer to the storage unit we got a backward image of the same truck parked by the storage unit. Combine that with the female image inside of the unit and we have enough evidence to prove it was actually her who cleared out his warehouse," she bounced in excited determination.
"That sounds like a great start, but it doesn't prove she stole the treasure." Peter hated to burst her bubble, but it was necessary to get the case progressed enough for a good close. They had made enough mistakes on it already.
"I'm not finished," she redirected his attention from starting up his computer by slapping down a picture. "This shows her leaving the country via a private plane. Then following Mozzie's directions, I was able to track her through a random route to Europe where she is holed up. Although she has herself hidden behind a wall of protection, we should be able to catch her eventually." Holding up her hand and shifting her folders, she kept Peter from interrupting her happy reveal of information. "Following another route to the same destination, we found a large container that shipped via freighter. Mozzie asked around and was able to confirm that it was filled up with valuables, but wasn't able to confirm what exactly via the transport community. Most are paid to move the merchandise, but they don't want to know what it contains as plausible deniability. Still, he hopes he might be able to trace who her hired help was through the criminal community."
Nodding along, but with an expression that was eager for her to get to the point, Peter waited for the really good news that they could solve the case. Even if Hunter was using some front or had paid for political strings to hide behind, they would get her eventually.
Smiling wolfishly, Diana was thrilled to have the key information. It had taken her a lot of work and several meetings with the little conspiracy theorist, but a good closure to resolve this case was totally worth it all. "We traced the container backward! Following it through the transfer process from the docks, through a handoff, and all the way back to a warehouse conveniently located across the alley to where Adler was keeping his sub."
"So we have it traced to the treasure location, but can we connect it to Hunter?" Peter was struggling to be patient with this one.
Allowing for the circumstances, Diana wasn't too upset by the interruption. "A street camera caught her truck pulling into the warehouse and then later pulling out a few minutes before someone else left transferring the container. Combined, the evidence gives us proof she robbed the storage unit, took the supplies to the warehouse next to the treasure, we found a scrap of a painting in the debris, she then left while someone was hired to transport the container, and it ended up in the same location she did. She has the motive of family history, a record of means, and the evidence to tie her to the crime including pictures placing her in key locations."
"Do we have something to prove she was still in the truck when it entered the warehouse, or anything to tie her to the sub?" Peter asked as he really wanted to have a leak-proof case after their previous blunder in accusing Caffrey.
"We're working on cleaning up a few images that could prove her in the truck when it entered the warehouse, and the team is looking for anything to tie her to the sub beyond the known abduction." She hoped for results within a few hours, but until then, it was more than enough to take the primary focus off of Bryce.
Talking through a few more official details to the case, Peter didn't take long to send her on her way. He was proud of her work and glad they were finally on the right track. Hopefully, it wouldn't be much longer before the case could be closed, or at least set aside until they could apprehend Hunter. She was a tricky one so that resolution would be a challenge.
Pulling out his phone, Peter was happy to reveal that Bryce was officially not a primary suspect and was as good as cleared of the treasure case. The case itself wasn't quite complete, but at least they had a growing pile of evidence against the right suspect.
Changing his focus, Peter had his own work to get too.
Having cleared Bryce's name of the crimes he had been accused of, and with Diana working to resolve the last of the treasure case, the team moved on to the Larkin case.
Blake had been working on the curator, so he updated them on his progress. "My research concurred with what you had found before, that she appears to be squeaky clean. However, in repeated interviews with her, I did finally manage to find her fear, someone is threatening her. Whoever is behind it, they have been leaving messages through varied methods threatening her husband and children if she doesn't comply with their demands. Each time a message is left, she finds a series of instructions soon after and complies out of fear in an effort to protect her family. She doesn't know who is behind it, and she has tried to write down as many of the instructions as she can remember. The instructions usually ended in an order to destroy them, but she still has her latest list for evidence. We are planning for her to follow through with the instructions and destroy a fake copy so we can try to catch the person behind them." He projected the list of demands, "As you can see, they have several random orders to obscure the intent, but it's obvious they intend to do another forgery."
That cleared up the mystery of why the woman seemed to be wrapped up in the crime, but it also meant she was going to be scared until they figured out who was tormenting her and stopped them.
"Have you sent the list in to be studied?" Hughes questioned.
"Yes, sir, there is a line up at the lab, but they will get it back to us as soon as they can," Blake confirmed.
Moving on to the next one, Hughes directed for Franklin to fill them in on what he had found investigating Kendrick's information.
"Peter is right to say his finances look funny, but they are such a tangled mess I'm still unwinding them. If he wouldn't mind, I could use his accounting skills to help sort it all." Franklin requested assistance; he knew Peter was the best one for it too.
Agreeing to help, Peter asked if he had managed to work anything out through his research.
"Mostly, the information just keeps pointing to Kendrick having a secret source of income that he shouldn't have. It's suspicious enough to keep him ranking as the prime suspect." There wasn't much to share on the financial front for income, but he could discern the man's spending habits easier. "I did discover that he has a romance going on. Over the last few years, where we believe the forging started, he has been buying things like expensive necklaces and fancy dresses. He isn't married or advertising a girlfriend, but there is definitely someone special in his life that he is lavishing his ill-gotten gains on."
"Is that his motive, to afford to keep the attention of a woman with expensive tastes?" The question was asked to get a better sense of their suspect.
"It seems to be the case for the forgeries. His purchases for her showed up about the same time the forgeries were dated back too. However, the embezzling started years before there were any signs of her, so there was a different motive there. My theory is that he chose to embezzle because the Larkin family didn't pay as much attention to how their money came in as to how it was spent. The extra finances slowly gave him the means to enjoy his preference for finer foods and afforded him a nicer home bit by bit. Then when she came into the picture, he felt he needed more money to afford her, so he got into the forgeries. Maybe she even encouraged or helped him in the crimes."
Suddenly getting a gut feeling, Peter followed his intuition. "Did Kendrick ask around, or talk to anyone when he was here?"
One of the younger probies seemed reluctant to admit it, but he confessed to having talked to Kendrick about 'Neal' and several of the theories that had been going around about him. "He just seemed to be worried about what kind of influence Neal would have on the Larkins. I didn't imagine Neal would actually be Bryce, or that Kendrick might be looking for something more than the obvious."
"No one saw Bryce coming, and he even gave me clues. As for Kendrick, you always have to be careful, because you never know who is guilty until all of the evidence is in." Peter soothed the flustered young agent. Then in response to Hughes' prompting, he shared where he was going with his questions. "I think I know the identity of the lady fair Kendrick has been buying things for." If he was right, he might find the man's accomplice as well as answer some questions that had been hovering in the background for a while.
Closing down his desk for the day, Peter had one final meeting with Diana as she brought up the final pictures.
"We were able to clean up the images and they clearly show Hunter entering the warehouse next door. We are only missing proof that she was actually in the warehouse to steal the treasure, but the team is still going back through evidence from the explosion. Although there might be something in there, it would have to be in a suitable condition to be applicable in court." To finish up, she gave him notice that Mozzie was going to contact her if he managed to find any confirmation on the street. If he could find the driver of the second truck, they could get a witness statement to strengthen their case.
"How is Mozzie handling this? He is actually a criminal, but Alex has been a friend of theirs for years," Peter wondered. Mozzie and he hadn't crossed paths recently, so he hadn't been able to talk with the little man himself.
"I think he is disappointed on one side, but understanding on the other. Something about a conman taking their loot where they can? It's hard to follow some of his convoluted reasoning, but the gist seems to be that he understands why she would steal the treasure, even if he isn't certain why she would frame them." She didn't understand the conman's world or their codes, but she had learned that they generally looked out for number one, even if they might take their friends into consideration during some circumstances.
Understanding, Peter had gotten a lot closer to their friends and crossed paths with Hunter more than Diana had. "Alex would do nearly anything to get a hold of the treasure, and Bryce just happened to have the perfect distraction for her to get away with it. I guess she figured he would be suspected, but that the evidence would burn, which would only damage his reputation with us. That might have been a double motive actually. You see, if he wasn't working with us, then he would presumably be back in the crime community. They could work together, and she might even be willing to give him something of a share for his trouble if he were to track her down. We all know Neal would have discovered his empty storage unit and narrowed it down to her being his likely suspect. Then there is their romantic and working history to bond them, even though I think she would be looking more professionally than personally." Shrugging, Peter couldn't prove his theory until they managed to catch the elusive thief.
Amused, Diana laughed lightly, "I wonder what she would think if she ever discovered he is actually an agent undercover. Would she be so willing to take advantage of him then?"
Seeing her point, Peter could only speculate. "Maybe, but she would take much greater care if she tried. Otherwise, the risk of being caught would be more than if he was just a consultant."
Turning back to the more serious matter, Diana and he had a brief conversation towards concluding the evidence that had been collected. Although Diana was going to wait and see if any further evidence came in, she had accumulated enough information to prove, beyond coincidentally, that Hunter had in fact been the primary suspect behind the theft of the treasure. If more evidence came in she would have a stronger case, but if not, she had enough to make a good case anyway.
Thank you, everyone, for reading, reviewing, and leaving kudos :D
