Chapter 6 The Flanagans

"Nothing related to any of this, I promise. It's just...look, my mom and dad came from wealthy families, and that wealth wasn't always from...strictly legal sources on mom's side." He just stared at me, waiting for me to continue.

"My mom never had anything to do with it. Her parents shielded her from that side of things growing up. After my dad was killed in the car accident when I was a kid, my grandparents worked even harder to distance my mom from the family, at least in public. I've barely seen any of them since my dad died. My mom assured me that the money from my trust fund came from the legal side of things and that it had been routed through various accounts so that any ties to her family were erased, but I don't know that for sure. If the police dig too hard into the original source of the trust fund money, it might not be pretty. I would really like to reach out to my uncle or cousins to make sure it's safe before I agree to it."

Chris stared at me slack-jawed before giving a nervous chuckle. "It sounds like you're taking about the mafia, honey," he joked.

"No, the Mob," I corrected matter-of-factly. "They're Sicilian. We're Irish. There's a difference."

"Holy fuck, are you kidding me?" he asked in an incredulous whisper-shout.

"Why would I kid about something like this?" I huffed, rolling my eyes.

"You mean to tell me that our sweet little Lila is a Mob princess ?" I could tell he still wasn't quite sure if I was being serious.

I rolled my eyes again. "Hardly. I'm Mob-adjacent at best. The Family is very much a patriarchy, so my mom wasn't in line for the throne. Leadership passed down to her brother when her father died. My dad's family had some legit business interests with Mom's family. They met and fell in love, and with everyone's blessing, my dad pulled out of everything even remotely associated with the Flanagan's to keep her safe.

"Flanagan?" He asked, eyes going even wider. He ran his fingers through his hair. "Fucking hell, Lila, Patrick Flanagan - the 'King of Chicago' - is your uncle ???" He couldn't have looked more shocked if I'd hit him with a brick.

"Yes. Now do you see why I want to double check with his people that it's OK to have the cops poking around my family's money?"

"Well... shit . OK then, we'll offer to authorize access to David's accounts plus the joint accounts you had. That will buy you some time to contact whoever you need to. I don't need to know who that is, nor do I want to know who that is, by the way. Do not contact them from any phone or email account associated with you or David. Buy a burner phone. Actually, I'll have Sherry go out to buy one after Horton leaves."

"Thanks Chris. I'm sorry to drag you guys into this mess."

"Not your fault, honey. None of this is your fault."

We went back into the dining room and Detective Horton was pleased when I signed the authorizations for him to access David's accounts as well as our joint accounts. He accepted Chris's reasoning for denying access to the other accounts but did remind us that they may still need to access the rest if they uncover any red flags.

"I would strongly encourage you to contact your accountant, investment advisor or whomever manages those accounts for you and ask them to initiate an immediate audit.Make sure everything is accounted for to the last dime. And Lila, you will need to notify me immediately should they find any discrepancies. We don't want to invade your privacy any more than necessary, but we do need to determine what, if any, fraud or embezzlement may have been committed."

"I'll get people started the audits as soon as we finish here," I promised him.

"I will need to take David's laptop in as evidence, since it was likely used for the fraudulent transaction Saturday evening.Do I have your permission to do that?"

"It's fine with me.I don't have it here though, it's at my house. Wait...it's a company-issued laptop so I'm not sure I have the authority to do that."

"Technically, it is in your possession, in your home, so you do have the legal right to allow me to collect it," Det. Horton assured me.

"He's right, Lila. However, I would like to suggest that we at least alert the company's senior partner that his company property will be in your custody. After all, there is proprietary business information on the system, I assume. Would you allow us to contact him as a courtesy, detective?"

"I'd already planned to contact him myself, Mr. Decker. If David had access to any company funds, they should do an internal audit immediately as well."

Well shit.That had never even occurred to me. Judging by the look on Chris's face, it hadn't occurred to him either.

"You're right, detective. I should have thought of that."

"That's why I get paid the big bucks, counselor," Det. Horton joked sarcastically.

Chris chuckled and rolled his eyes as we walked the detective to the front door.

"One last thing. I'm sure Mr. Decker will go over this with you as well, but the details of this investigation should not be shared with anyone else at the time, especially Scott Montgomery or Vanessa Caldwell. I know the temptation may be strong to confront them with what you've learned today, but I must warn against that. It could hinder our investigation at the very least."

I nodded. "I understand completely."

After he left, Chris gave Sherry instructions to go out to buy a burner phone, using cash. At her look of confusion, I sighed, knowing she was going to lose her mind when I explained.

"Sit down for a minute, Sher, I need to tell you something." By the time I was finished repeating what I'd told Chris, her mouth was hanging open and her eyes were bugged out of her head.

I laughed - a real laugh - for the first time since Saturday evening. "God, Sherry, you look like a fish. Stop that!"

Chris laughed, and Sherry sputtered at me. "What the hell...I've known you...why didn't... What the hell, woman ?"

Chris laughed again. "Shit, I think you broke her."

"I've known you for over ten years. I knew your mother. How in holy hell did I not know that you're in the Mob???"

"I am not in the Mob. My extended family is, but I am not part of that. My mom wasn't involved with any of that either. I barely even know them. I've literally only seen my uncle twice since my dad died. Once when he came to visit me in the hospital a week or so after the accident, and then at the funeral home when Mom died. He and a couple of cousins slipped in the back door before the visitation started. I didn't even try to contact any of them when she died. They just knew. They apparently kept an eye on her to make sure she was safe when she moved back to Chicago a few years ago."

"Holy shit. My mind is absolutely blown," she sat back and just shook her head.

"Did David know?" Chris asked.When I said no, he asked why.

"For the first year or so that we dated, I just honestly didn't think about it. I hadn't seen or heard from them in over ten years at that point, and rarely even saw them before that. They just weren't part of our lives at all, and I kind of forgot they existed unless something reminded me." I shrugged and continued.

"After a while, once I'd met his Aunt Jenny and his cousins, it occurred to me that I had extended family that he might want to know about, but I was taught from a young age that we didn't talk about Grandpa Flanagan or Uncle Pat. I discussed it with Mom when David proposed, because I felt bad keeping it from him, especially knowing that the trust fund would be released and he might have questions. But Mom convinced me that the money was all from legitimate businesses of my father's, and reminded me that we were kept separate from the Family to keep us off of everyone's radar. The Mob isn't exactly safe to be affiliated with, and my Mom's cousin back in Ireland had actually been kidnapped at one point because of it when they were kids. So, I just never told him."

"Wow, I had no idea." She blew out a breath, shaking her head. "Ok, so I need to pay cash for a burner phone. Should I wear a disguise?" she asked, completely serious.

Chris and I both burst into laughter."No, you nut, you don't need a disguise. We just don't want to draw attention to the fact that Lila has to call the capo."

I snorted."Capo is Italian. Irish here, remember? I'm not sure what they're called.Boss, I think.I'm not up on the proper Mob vernacular, sorry."

Right after Sherry left to buy the phone, the coroner's office called and said they wouldn't be releasing David's body until tomorrow. Chris wasn't surprised that they were delaying a day due to the investigation and said he would discuss it with Det. Horton in the morning.I called the funeral home and pushed the service back to Friday.

Sherry wasn't gone long. When she got back, I went into their guest room and called the number that Uncle Patrick had given me after Mom's funeral.He had made me memorize it, which had seemed very cloak-and-dagger at the time.As expected, he didn't answer an unknown number, but I left a message with my name, asking him to call me. He called me a few minutes later and I gave him a quick rundown of the situation. He assured me that the trust fund was all from my dad's businesses, which were completely legal and had nothing to do with anything Flanagan-related.

"Your mom's trust fund is a different story, but I know you haven't gotten all of that yet since it's still in probate. But don't worry, even that money is clean now - has been for years - and there is absolutely nothing to connect it back to us. If the cops ask for access again, give it to them. There's nothing to find and it will keep you on their good side.You let me know if you need anything else, girlie. My sister would want me to look out for you."

"Thanks, Uncle Pat. I really appreciate it. You take care."

I relayed the pertinent information to Chris, who advised me to go ahead and get the audits started on my accounts.

"Remember, you can't mention anything about David or the investigation. Just let them know that you discovered some irregularities on another account and decided to audit everything."

I spent the next hour talking to my accountant and the broker who managed my investments.Both agreed to begin full-scale audits immediately once I'd given them Chris's explanation. I also put in a call to the real estate attorney who handled my property portfolio.I didn't have a real estate empire or anything, but I did own three houses and a luxury condo which were all rented out, and a small eight-unit apartment building, along with two small office buildings. I left a message asking her to confirm that no loans had been taken out against any of the properties.

Shortly after we ate dinner, my cell phone rang. It was Scott. I let it go to voicemail, and then put it on speakerphone so that Chris and Sherry could hear his message.

"Hey, Lila, I wanted to see if you'd heard anything from the coroner's office. Just wondering if they had released him to the the funeral home yet.I'm trying to let everyone know about the funeral arrangements and I wanted to be sure you were still able to have it on Thursday.Let me know and...uh, I hope you're doing OK"

"What an ass!" Sherry exploded. "Asking if you're OK like it was a fucking afterthought!"

"Should I call him back?" I asked Chris.He shook his head.

"No, let me do it. I'll tell him you're resting and not up to taking calls.I'll let him know that they are delaying by a day, but I'll just say they're backlogged or something."

My phone rang again, and it was my real estate attorney returning my call. I walked into the living room to answer it since Chris was calling Scott from the kitchen.

"Lila, I received your message, but had a quick question. Did you want me to include the Meridian Street condo in this or just the holdings in the portfolio itself?"

"I'm not sure what you're asking. The condo is part of the portfolio."

"No, since the deed transfer was finalized two months ago, it's no longer part of Montgomery Properties, LLC."