First Comes Death, Then Comes Marriage (Book 13) by Liliana Hart & Louis Scott

Author:Liliana Hart & Louis Scott [Hart, Liliana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 7th Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

The trek back across the street to the sheriff’s office was a lot easier since Heather had been nice enough to wheel him over. And his timing was perfect because Coil and Agatha were both sitting in the conference room with Springer.

The look on everyone’s faces when Heather wheeled him through the door was worth the price of admission.

“Don’t worry about me, Sheriff,” Heather said, letting Hank go so he could wheel himself toward the conference room. “I’ll do you proud. I’ll do my duty. And if I run into trouble, I’ve got a brand-new hot-pink Ruger that can take care of business if you know what I mean.”

“Uhh,” Coil said, but Heather was already back out the door. “Do I want to know what that was about?”

“Probably not,” Hank said. “It’s best to claim ignorance on this one. I do have some information we need to move on though.”

Hank rolled into the conference room with the others and said, “We already know that Ivan Marko came to Ft. Hood to attend a special military training class from Croatia. My contact at the Pentagon sent me a list of everyone stationed at Ft. Hood during the time Marko was there. I do believe, based on the location of the meatpacking plant, as well as the involvement of Gloria and Brad, that we’re looking for local boys who know the area. As you’ll see, there are eleven Texas boys on my list. We can start running them down by name and date of birth.”

“Great job, Hank,” Coil said. “I sure wish I knew who your source was at the Pentagon.”

“You too?” Agatha asked.

“I’ve wanted to know for years,” Coil said, grinning. “But Hank is a closed book when it comes to his sources.”

“Which is why I’m trusted with information,” Hank said, arching a brow. “Because I don’t blab about my sources.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Springer said, teasingly. “You sure have a lot of friends in high places.”

“My government clearance was high too,” Hank said, smiling. “What did you find out, Springer?”

“From what I’ve been able to decipher,” Springer said, “Brad Hartley’s funeral business looked legitimate on the surface. There were no suspicious financial transactions, revenue spikes, or patterns to raise a red flag, but the average amounts of his inputs and outputs rose significantly within a short period of time.”

“Meaning?” Agatha asked.

“Well, if you signed a big contract or launched a product or service and your business exploded overnight, then you’d see a big increase in revenue as well as an increase in expenses for personnel, materials, marketing, things like that,” Springer explained.

“Got it,” she said.

“First of all, Hartley shouldn’t have been hurting for cash. That funeral home made a fortune, and he filed and paid taxes accordingly, so it looks on the up-and-up from the surface. From the time he took over after his father died, Hartley’s records show a steady increase in overall volume.

“So I averaged the amount of expenses Hartley would incur for a funeral. He offers different price

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