Chapter Fifteen

Handing John an evidence bag and Kleenex from her purse, Natalie watched as he bagged the shiny black gun that had been facing them.

"Are you okay?" Natalie asked softly, knowing that it was likely they had just found the gun that had shot his father and the person that did it.

John said nothing, but pocketed the gun in his jacket. Grabbing another tissue, Natalie began to go through the contents. Seeing a stack of hundred dollar bills, Natalie also handed them to him.

"There has to be close to ten thousand here," he remarked, also putting the money into an evidence bag.

Hearing Natalie gasp, John put the bills aside and made his way over to her. "What is it?"

Wordlessly, Natalie handed him a stack of passports from various countries. Opening them up he saw each of them had a different name, but were all of the same man. "Is this Walter?" he asked.

"Yes, But that's not the thing… look at the issue date of the Canadian one."

Opening it up the passport that was listed as Ryan Jones, John glanced down, his eyes widening. "March 12, 2002."

Equally shocked, Natalie nodded. "He died in 1982. Someone has been to this box since his death…"

Raking a hand through his hair, John took a second to try and let everything process. "You said it was a car crash?"

"Yes, his car exploded outside the hospital as he was coming home. Apparently it was the result of a faulty gas tank. Do you think he staged his death?"

John shrugged. "It's not impossible. Let's see if there is anything else." John said as he began to take out all the contents of the box. There were a few useless papers, deeds to their old house in AC, some bank records, but finally John found something useful.

After skimming it over, John handed it to Natalie who read it aloud. "This is a purchase agreement from 2001 under the name of George Styles."

"Yeah, for a place in the Cayman islands. The address is listed at the bottom."

Now completely overwhelmed Natalie lowered the paper. "I can't believe this."

"Let's bag this all and get back to the station."

Nodding, Natalie helped him gather everything up, her mind racing.

The spent the entire drive back to Llanview going over every piece of the case, and analyzed everything carefully. When they got to the topic of the property in the Cayman Islands and Walter possibly being alive, both were clueless as to what it meant. Finally, Natalie threw out what they had both been thinking.

"We have to go down there and check it out."

John sighed and kept his eyes on the road. "I don't know if that's going to be possible Natalie. Bo's already being pretty lenient letting me chase this case, but I'm not sure he'd approve that, especially since the Cayman Islands are a country that openly refuses extradition."

"You have some vacation time saved up don't you?"

Realizing she was serious, John glanced over at her. "Yeah but I'm not sure I have the money to go running down to Grand Cayman for a few days."

Natalie smiled. "Either do I, but I know someone who not only has his own plane, but also a place down there. Listen; drop me off at Asa's. You head to the station, talk to Uncle Bo and get the gun analyzed. I'll call you once I talk to my grandfather."

Though John wasn't completely comfortable with using the Buchanan resources, he realized this could be the only way to find out who had killed his father. "Nodding, he made the turn toward the Buchanan property.

Once John dropped her off, Natalie strode up to the mansion and let herself in. Seeing Nigel lurking by the stairs, she smiled.

"Hey Nigel, is grandpa busy?"

The older man shook his head. "You know Asa; he always has time for family. He's in the study."

Natalie thanked him and let herself into his study. Seeing he was on the phone, she quietly took a seat and patiently waited. Asa didn't make her wait long as he abruptly ended the call and looked across at her.

"Hey Grandpa, do you have a few minutes?"

Asa smiled. "Always for my granddaughter. What brings you by?"

"Actually I am here to ask you for a favor."

Surprised since Natalie was his only grandchild that hardly asked for anything, Asa nodded. "What do you need?"

Natalie took a deep breath. Despite being a Buchanan for nearly five years, she still wasn't used to everything that came with it. "Well, I have been helping John in finding his father's murderer and we just got a lead to a place down in the Cayman Islands. I was hoping that we could use the BE jet and maybe the place you have down there."

Asa nodded. "Of course, when do you need to leave?"

"Tonight?"

Asa leaned over and picked up the phone off his desk. After dialing a number, he waited for a second and began to speak. After telling the person on the other end what Natalie need, he nodded and hung up.

"Done." Suddenly Asa's smile faded and he fixed Natalie was a hard look. "So you're helping McBain with this? Even after everything he put you though?"

Natalie sighed. "Grandpa, don't start. John's a good guy…"

Asa just snorted. "Darlin', he's a cop… and if that wasn't bad enough he made an adulterer out of you and almost got you killed…"

"Yeah, but he's saved my life about a dozen times, I think it cancels that one time out." Seeing Asa was about to argue with her, Natalie held up a hand to stop him. "Grandpa, I don't want to talk about this. I am twenty-eight years old, I can make my own decisions."

Asa sighed. "Fine, let's talk about the fact your uncle mentioned something about you trying for some police job. Are you out of your mind…"

"Grandpa!" Natalie's voice was warning, "Enough. I have to talk to you about something else anyways."

"What?"

"Spencer Truman."

Asa's eyes narrowed and he visibly tensed. "What about him?"

Her face deadly serious, Natalie stared directly into his eyes. "I need to know what he has against this family and I want the truth."