Death of a Bankster Read Online Free PDF

came from the doorway. “Agent Powell, may I proceed?”
    “Mrs. Crawford, Ms. Roth, this man is the local medical examiner. Agent Withers took the liberty of calling him before we approached the house. The need for him was obvious. We saw the whole thing.” Then Agent Powell turned to the medical examiner, “Yes. This is now officially a crime scene. You go right ahead. I assume you’ll be taking the body to your lab?”
    The medical examiner nodded. “Yes. Should be there and booked in within an hour or so. Your surveillance establishes causation and the time of death. So, this one’ll go rather quickly.”
    Agent Powell turned to Agent Withers. “You have the entire crime on tape, correct?”
    “From start to finish,” Agent Withers said. “It all happened right in the doorway. The angle of the shot suggests the shooter was somewhere along the ridge near Camelback, about four-to-five-hundred yards. We saw enough dust right after the shot to suggest the shooter got away on an all-terrain vehicle of some sort. We called the locals. They have people who know that ground so they’ll assist us in finding the exact sniping position.”
    “Agent Withers,” SAIC Powell said. “Don’t bother to call for an evidence response team. We’ve got it all on tape so we know nothing happened on the premises or inside the house. However,” he turned to Paige, “with your permission, we’d like to search your home. Perhaps you could go to Ms. Roth’s home to stay while we do that? We’ll need about two hours, I’d say. If you have any locked file cabinets, doors or drawers, or password protected computers please unlock those before you leave. We’ll be looking for clues to why and by whom your husband was killed. Given our video of the event, we will not be doing any forensics so a couple of hours should be fine. We’ll try to be neat as we proceed.”
    “Paige can stay with me tonight,” Carla said. “I’m off work tomorrow. I’ll stay with her.”
    “That would be excellent,” Agent Powell said. “That way we won’t need to rush. If you’ll give me the key, I’ll personally lock the door when we’re done looking around and the medical examiner has … ah, finished. I’ll bring the key next door. Would that be all right?”
    “I guess so,” Paige said, in monotone, a blank expression on her face.
    Carla Roth nodded. “We want whoever did this to be found. Agent Powell, if you need anything here’s my card. In the short term, call me and I’ll talk with Paige, just for the next day or two. Would that be okay?”
    “Thank you, Ms. Roth. The Bureau appreciates your help.” Then he turned to Paige. “We understand your husband had been out of town the last few days. You were apparently waiting for him when he got home. You saw him when he entered?”
    “Yes,” Paige said, feeling a bit uncomfortable still wearing the bustier under her robe. She had noticed the men looking at her before she realized that in the hubbub her robe tie had again loosened. At least she still wore her slippers and not the platform heels she had planned to wear later. She again wondered why she felt concerned with that right now.
    “Tomorrow morning, we’ll want to go to the bank where Sam worked,” Agent Powell said, “without them knowing the situation before we arrive. So don’t call anyone, no one at all. This is important. We’ll want to judge whether or not people at the bank are surprised when they learn of his death. We’ll want to deal with it the same way here in your neighborhood, and in your family. So, again, please tell no one. That goes for you too, Ms. Roth.”
    “Agent Powell,” Carla said, “Sam’s parents are dead, also Paige’s father, but not her mother. How long do you expect her to remain silent about … this?”
    “I understand. This part of it never runs smoothly. This is Thursday night.” He glanced at his watch before turning to Paige. “It’ll be close to Friday morning by the