Simon Says Die

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    â€œSame printer . The exact same machine. The techs said there’s something called metadata they can use to identify the exact machine that printed out the note. Mrs. McKinley’s printer is a match. And that’s not all we found.”
    â€œYou know that doesn’t make sense that she’d print out the notes. Someone else, the same person who abducted her, had to have had access to the house and used her printer.”
    â€œWhy would they risk discovery by sneaking into her house to print something?”
    â€œI haven’t figured that part out yet. What else did you find?”
    â€œOut techs were able to recover several interesting files from Mrs. McKinley’s hard drive, files she thought she’d deleted. That’s why we have a warrant. Turns out, Mrs. McKinley performed several Internet searches and kept files about a certain toxic substance called Maxiodarone and how it can simulate a heart attack. We looked into her past and lo and behold, her daddy died of a heart attack. The same father who left her millions. I also got a warrant to exhume her father’s body to see if he really died of a heart attack. His body is already on its way to the New York City OCME.
    Office of the Chief Medical Examiner—OCME. The sick feeling in Pierce’s stomach grew. This was so much worse than anything he’d imagined might happen. “I know Mrs. McKinley, and her family. She’s not a murderer. And her father had a history of heart disease.”
    â€œOkay, I’m a reasonable man. Give me a theory that makes sense. Give me something I can sink my teeth into. What explains those files? What explains the printer? The bodies in the backyard?”
    Those infamous puzzle pieces Logan was always talking about started clicking into place. “I know it sounds crazy, but I think Damon is trying to frame his former wife. For some reason, he wants her in jail.”
    â€œWhy would he want her in jail?”
    â€œI don’t have all the answers yet.”
    â€œWell, until you do, I have to go with what matches the evidence. Right now, all the evidence is telling me that the woman you’re working so hard to protect is a black widow.”
    â€œWhat? Where did that come from?”
    â€œShe searches for how to fake a heart attack and her father dies of a heart attack and leaves her a fortune. Her husband dies in a car crash a week later and leaves her a million dollars. Do the math.”
    â€œWhere does the stalker fit in to all this? If he’s not Damon, then who is he?”
    â€œThe only evidence I have about a stalker is a couple of notes printed on Mrs. McKinley’s printer. The shooting was self-defense, unrelated, as far as I can tell. I’ve got no evidence to tell me otherwise.”
    â€œAnd the abduction just never happened, is that your stance?”
    â€œThe lab results came back from the blood the EMT drew after Mrs. McKinley’s abduction. Want to guess whether they came back negative for chloroform?”
    Pierce narrowed his eyes. “There are other drugs equally capable of knocking her out, fast-acting drugs that could have been out of her blood by the time the sample was drawn.”
    â€œTrue,” Hamilton agreed. “But we’ve all seen the photos from the motel. Mrs. McKinley is having an affair with someone, probably a married man who doesn’t want anyone to know about it. She had to lie when she returned, because the police were here, and she couldn’t let her lover’s identity get out.”
    Pierce shut his eyes and drew a deep breath before opening them again. “Everything you said can be explained without marking Mrs. McKinley as a suspect in any crime.”
    Hamilton shrugged. “That’s how circumstantial evidence works. Each piece, by itself, can be explained away. But put them all together and you have a mountain of evidence that points to only one logical conclusion. Mrs. McKinley has been lying to the police all along, and could very well have murdered both her father and her husband. And once I get the medical examiner’s report on those bodies in the backyard, we can add two more murders to the charges against her.”
    â€œCharges? You’re actually going to arrest her?”
    â€œNot yet, not until I have some physical evidence to back up my theories. I’m not an unreasonable man, Agent Buchanan.”
    Since Pierce knew Madison