Come Home: a novel Part 39

"You know who that sounds like?" Jill let Sam go and hurried from the kitchen just as the doorbell rang. Sam and Steven were right behind her, and she opened the door wide.

Standing at the threshold was Abby, next to Special Agent Harrison, who held a pet carrier.

"Abby!" Jill cried, throwing open her arms.

Chapter Seventy.

Jill, Victoria, and Megan embraced Abby as Beef ran around them all in excitement and the entrance hall became a whorl of hugs, wet eyes, and wagging tails. A smiling Sam and Steve stood wisely off to the side, next to Special Agent Harrison, who set down the pet carrier on the floor.

"I'm so happy to see you all again," Abby said, with a teary grin. "I missed you guys!"

"We missed you, too." Jill grinned, but she was bewildered. "What are you doing with Special Agent Harrison? Did he pick you up at the airport?"

"No, he's my new best friend, along with Special Agents Tella, Leonard, and Palumbo." Abby counted off on her fingers. "I've been living with FBI agents for the past week."

"Real FBI agents?" Megan's eyes popped. "Like on TV?"

"Better," Abby answered. "They're women FBI agents and they even make quilts, for fun. They call themselves the Needle & Gun Club, and they meet every Monday night. How cool is that?"

"What? Why?" Victoria asked, confused, and Special Agent Harrison turned to Jill.

"We picked Abby up for her own protection. We've had her in a safe house with some of our female agents." Special Agent Harrison paused, glancing at Megan. "This may not be the right time for details, but I will fill you in."

Abby turned to Victoria. "I'm sorry, you were really worried about me, weren't you?"

"Of course I was." Victoria's eyes brimmed, too. "I love you, you idiot."

Jill was slowly coming up to speed. "Abby, does this mean you weren't in L.A.? And there's no Brandon?"

"Right." Abby nodded. "None of that was true. But you believed it, right?"

"Yes," Jill answered, secretly relieved.

Victoria nodded. "Totally."

Abby pursed her lips. "I knew what you'd expect to hear, so I said it, and you know what? It taught me something. I don't want to be like that anymore."

"Aw, Abby." Victoria embraced Abby again, and Jill held Megan close to her side.

"Anyway," Abby said, "know what I decided? I'm going back to college, to study criminology. I really loved the agents, and it might be weird to say now, but I think I'm good at it."

"That's wonderful, honey." Jill felt bittersweet, sensing why Abby had made that choice. "I'm so proud of you."

Sam came over, putting his arm around Abby. "Great idea, kid. If there's any way we can help you, let us know. We're here for you."

"Thanks, Sam." Abby grinned. "You guys are the best, and I think I'll be fine."

Victoria smiled. "Of course you will. We already decided we're all going to be fine. We have each other."

"Right," Jill added. "Family is forever, and so are pets." She gestured to the pet carrier. "And that, I bet, is Pickles. I knew it was strange that you didn't mention him."

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Abby bent down and opened the wire door, and out of the carrier flew an adorable corgi puppy, scampering around like a bunny rabbit out of h.e.l.l. Everybody laughed as Beef gave chase, barking.

"Wait, don't I know that puppy?" Jill asked, astonished. "It looks like Nina D'Orive's dog."

"It is." Special Agent Harrison nodded. "We were on the scene that night, and I noticed the puppy. The locals wanted to bring it to a shelter, but I knew my wife would love it, except that our son turned out to be allergic."

Abby smiled, sadly. "So I took her, and I call her Hobo, short for Hoboken. I named her in memory of Nina."

"Way to go." Jill patted Abby on the back, touched. "I'm proud of you."

"Thanks. Now here's Pickles." Abby went over to the carrier, cooing, and just then an orange tabby crept out, meowed loudly, and bounded off. "Great. Good-bye, Pickles."

Special Agent Harrison turned to Victoria. "Ms. Skyler, I made you a promise that I'd answer your questions, and I always keep my promises."

"I remember." Victoria turned to him, her smile vanis.h.i.+ng. "I'm ready, if you are."

"Let's all go have that talk, shall we, folks?"

Chapter Seventy-one.

A thunderstorm raged outside, but Jill, Sam, Victoria, Abby, and Steven were safe and warm, if not exactly happy, in the family room, gathering on soft couches and chairs with Special Agent Harrison, watching the eleven o'clock news. The screen showed men in suits being led in handcuffs from an office building on Wall Street.

The voiceover was saying, "The FBI made arrests late today in Operation Hedge Clippers, for alleged acts of insider trading and securities fraud by an individual and a manager at Piper, Flanagan, one of the largest hedge funds on Wall Street. The Justice Department says that the indictments will begin to clean up illegalities on Wall Street, in the wake of the Galleon Group case and wave of Occupy Wall Street protests. And in other news..."

"Okay, we've seen this twice now." Jill aimed the remote to turn off the TV and put her arm around Megan, who sat with her, Victoria, and Abby on the couch. "Special Agent Harrison, can you explain what's going on?"

"Of course." Special Agent Harrison straightened up. "Before I begin, you asked me to confirm or deny your theory in the hospital, and now I can confirm it. You didn't have the whole picture, but you had a piece. Nice work, for a doctor."

Sam winked. "That's my girl."

Abby smiled. "She's Dr. Watson."

Megan looked up at Jill, her eyes s.h.i.+ning. "Wow, Mom."

Jill waved it off with a smile. She hardly felt like celebrating, after all the people who had died, including William.

Special Agent Harrison continued, "Operation Hedge Clippers started a few years ago, when the SEC notified us that Piper, Flanagan was showing a suspicious trading pattern, short-selling Pharmcen stock before recalls of two drugs, Deferral and Riparin. We investigated whether Piper, Flanagan was engaging in insider trading, and we learned that the trades in question were made by the same fund manager, Skip Priam, who was indicted today. We investigated and were able to gather sufficient evidence that Priam was trading on the information that he bought from Joe Zeptien."

Jill asked, "Was Zeptien a drug rep?"

"No, he's a former stockbroker." Special Agent Harrison turned to Victoria. "We then were able to connect Zeptien to your father, as a result of visual surveillance at Zeptien's homes and electronic surveillance on Zeptien's cell phone. We gathered evidence that Zeptien was buying the inside information from your father, whom he first knew as Neil Straub. Zeptien was paying your father with money he got from Skip Priam."

Only Abby seemed calm, maybe because she had been living with the truth. Victoria's eyes glistened, and Megan remained quiet, her lips over her braces. Jill suspected that Megan wasn't understanding much, except that it was bad for William.

Victoria shook her head. "Our Dad really did this? So it's true?"

"Yes. You may be wondering why your father didn't trade on the information himself, and we believe the answer is, because he wouldn't have made as much money that way, as he obviously lacked the capital that a hedge fund can commit, and also, it wouldn't have been possible to hide it from the IRS." Special Agent Harrison paused. "In addition, by merely selling information, your father wasn't technically in violation of federal securities laws, because insider trading is only unlawful if the trader is a fiduciary. The cla.s.sic case, as you may have learned in law school, is of someone overhearing a tip in a bathroom. The listener can trade on that information, legally."

Victoria nodded, and so did Jill.

Special Agent Harrison s.h.i.+fted in his red-checked chair. "We were uncertain, however, as to how your father was obtaining the information, and we didn't as yet have his New York apartment under surveillance. We needed to learn more, so we placed Brian as a securities lawyer at Creed & Whitstone, because it represents Piper, Flanagan, and at the bar downtown that night, in order to meet you, Victoria."

Victoria looked stricken, her hands clenched together in her lap. "Why me? I'm not the one who lived with Dad. Why not Abby?"

"Frankly, Abby already had a boyfriend, at the time. You introduced Brian to your father, and they began to meet, without your knowledge, and they developed a relations.h.i.+p."

"Why did my Dad do that?" Victoria shook her head, dazed.

"Your father wanted to expand. He knew that Pharmcen could only have so many drug recalls, and he told Brian that he wanted to find other hedge funds to which he could sell inside information about other drug companies." Special Agent Harrison tempered his tone, knowing he was on difficult emotional ground. "Nor did your father want to be tied to Zeptien. The two men disliked each other, and we know this because we have Zeptien telling Priam as much. Zeptien told Priam that he suspected your father would eventually go off on his own and find other middlemen and other hedge funds."

"You know that by wiretap, on Zeptien's phone?" Victoria asked.

"Yes. So Brian offered to serve as the new middleman and let your father know that he had significant contacts at other hedge funds and investment banking houses."

Jill could imagine how much the prospect would appeal to William, and she realized that he wasn't evil incarnate. That gave him too much credit, and power. Ultimately, he was merely an opportunist, and he denied the harm that he caused as a result.

Special Agent Harrison continued, speaking mainly to Victoria, "That plan would have cut out Joe Zeptien, and we believe he may have found out about it, or that the friction between the men became too much. We know Zeptien feared losing control of your father, whom he viewed as a potential loose end, and we believe Zeptien murdered your father." Special Agent Harrison paused, and the family room went silent. "Unfortunately, we can't prove that, so we didn't include that in the indictment. We didn't have your father's house in Philadelphia under visual surveillance that day, or from the start. Your father did an excellent job keeping his ident.i.ties separate, and our best information is that even Joe Zeptien didn't know he was William Skyler, until a little over a year ago, which is how we learned it."

"But how could you not know that?" Victoria gestured to Jill. "She figured it out in a week."

Special Agent Harrison leaned forward. "You have to understand the way we really work. Like any government agency, we're tasked with a mission, in this case, to investigate a Wall Street hedge fund. We have resources and budgets to expend toward that mission, but they're not infinite. On the contrary, they're limited, especially now, in view of the sluggish economy and the demands of domestic terrorism. So we direct all of our resources toward our mission. Piper, Flanagan was our priority and we started there. We maintained visual surveillance on Skip Priam's office and his homes in the Hamptons and Greenwich, Connecticut, as well as on Joe Zeptien's office in New York and his homes in north and south Jersey."

Jill understood. The FBI couldn't be everywhere at once, but it wouldn't be easy to explain that to Victoria.

Victoria's eyes narrowed. "So my Dad falls through the cracks? And Zeptien gets away with murder?"

"No, not at all." Special Agent Harrison frowned. "Joe Zeptien is going to jail for a long, long time. Our case against him for insider trading and tax evasion is rock solid. Believe me, he'll be punished, and we don't need to make a deal with him, so we won't."

Abby turned to Victoria, shaking her head. "He's right, Victoria. Zeptien will rot in jail, and that's all I care about. I wish I knew how he did it, but I saw how hard the FBI works, with my own eyes."

Sam looked over, from his chair. "It's like those Mafia cases, isn't it? The government doesn't charge mobsters with murder, it charges them with tax evasion. Either way, they're in jail for decades."

"Yes, exactly." Special Agent Harrison turned to Victoria again. "In addition, you have to put this in a proper time frame. Your father was killed only a week ago. No murder case gets put together that quickly, even if we weren't involved. In fact, we did liase with the Philadelphia police, and they still don't believe it was a homicide."

Victoria nodded, mulling it over. "Okay, I guess I see your point."

Jill felt the same way as Victoria, vaguely unsatisfied, but she kept that to herself. "Special Agent Harrison, I have a different question. Did Zeptien kill Nina and her husband, or did Nina's husband really do it?"

"Neither," Special Agent Harrison answered. "We believe that Zeptien and Skip Priam hired contract killers to do it, named Richard Deyaz and John Hutcheson. Deyaz and Hutcheson were the ones who posed as Special Agents Donator and Cohz."

Victoria glanced over at Jill but said nothing, undoubtedly for Megan's sake.

Jill turned to Special Agent Harrison. "Did I lead them to Nina?"

Special Agent Harrison shook his head. "No, they already suspected she was the source. We knew it, too, by that point. It took us some time, because your ex-husband dated a number of women as Neil Straub, and he and Ms. D'Orive had an interest in keeping their relations.h.i.+p under wraps."

Jill thought that made sense. "Did you indict Zeptien and Priam for those murders?"

"No, to be precise, the indictment against them would have been for conspiracy to solicit, because they didn't commit the murders themselves. But, again, we kept the indictment as clean as possible, with only the insider-trading allegations, and of course, Deyaz and Hutcheson are dead."

"Who was following me, all this time?"

"Deyaz and Hutcheson, and we were, too. That's why we all came together today, in Parkertowne. We think Deyaz was following you in a black SUV until you spotted him in Manhattan, then we believe he switched vehicles."

Jill masked her shudder. "Why follow me, at all?"

"We theorize that Zeptien got wind that Abby was asking questions about her father's death. We believe that he thought she was a loose end, so he hired Deyaz and Hutcheson to follow her. When she came to your house, they started to follow you. They were together in the silver car that tried to run you off the road."

Jill was processing the information. "Deyaz and Hutchison told us that Brian was undercover. How did they know that?"

"They saw him. Brian blew his cover to save you, and that's why we indicted so quickly tonight, before Piper, Flanagan started erasing computer files and shredding doc.u.ments. The Bureau tends to move slowly, like any government agency. We at the Philadelphia office call it Eastern District time." Special Agent Harrison smiled, briefly. "We were going to take Mr. Skyler's computer when we picked up Abby, but she had already given it to you. You actually helped us, though you were at great risk."

Megan nestled against Jill's side, and Jill gave her a rea.s.suring pat.

"Piper, Flanagan made $75 million short-selling Pharmcen stock over the past three years. If Skip Priam decides to cooperate, which we believe he will, we'll likely issue an indictment against the top dogs at Piper, Flanagan." Special Agent Harrison leaned back in a final way, as if he were about to conclude. "We're trying to clean up Wall Street, to bolster the nation's economy and get the public investing again. That's what Operation Hedge Clippers was about, from day one."

Victoria raised her hand half-way, almost as if she were in cla.s.s. "I have a last question. Did Brian pretend to be my friend? Because of my Dad? Is that the way you work, undercover?"

Special Agent Harrison puckered his lower lip, slightly. "Brian's job was to get close to your father, but his friends.h.i.+p with you was genuine. He felt conflicted about having to deceive you, and he'll explain that to you. You can visit him tomorrow in the hospital, if you wish."

"But who is he, really? Is he even a lawyer?"

"Yes, he is, and it aided us immeasurably in this operation. His real name is Brian Prendergast. We usually choose a name close to the original, in case he gets recognized on the street."

Abby looked over at Victoria with a sly smile. "And guess what? He doesn't really have a girlfriend in Paris. They made that up, because he wasn't allowed to get in a relations.h.i.+p with you."

"Oh, there's a silver lining." Victoria rolled her eyes. "Brian's a liar, but he's single. Count me out." She returned her attention to Special Agent Harrison. "Why did my Dad have a double ident.i.ty?"

"I'll tell you what I know, because you may find it some comfort." Special Agent Harrison's expression softened. "He told Brian that he wanted to protect you and your sister, in case things went wrong. He wanted you completely screened off from trouble. He loved you both and he didn't want you in danger."

Victoria's face fell, and Jill got a lump in her aching throat, not knowing if it were true but sad just the same. For a minute, n.o.body said anything, giving William a moment of silence, all of them lost in his or her own thoughts. Megan looked down, playing with her fingers, and Victoria sat motionless, her eyes filming.

Sam was the one who broke the silence. "We'll help each other through this, as a family. That's my promise," he said, simply.