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Book One: Green’s Way
It was a frightfully cold morning, but Samantha reminded herself it was almost the middle of November. There was frost on the ground, yet the trees still held the last remnants of their stunning fall colors. Sam loved this time of year, but it was all she could do this morning to keep from screaming out loud. The last week with Mark had been brutal, culminating in their final good-byes not more than half an hour ago. He had spent the week packing his stuff and making arrangements to move back to Florida, all the time exclaiming how sorry he was for hurting her and protesting that he really did love her. But Samantha wanted him gone no matter how much he protested. Seeing him kiss that woman outside of the bar had totally disgusted her. The woman was a waitress Mark had been seeing while Samantha was on assignment in Seattle. Bad form, Mark, she thought to herself. Really bad form.
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In her experience, Samantha found that successful children of wealthy parents were sometimes involved in this type of crime. But unless there was a lot of family animus or a history of drugs, gambling, or debt among the children, it wasn’t all that common. And there was none of that indicated in the very extensive report from Heartland in this case. Practically every single bloody nose or skinned knee any of the kids had ever suffered was in this report. The family seemed very tight. The whole clan would get together for birthdays, vacations, Christmas. They traveled together, celebrated together, and seemed genuinely close as a family. They all seemed to spend a lot of time together at the family “compound” in the Bahamas. Even though this appeared to be some kind of inside job, Samantha figured she would be looking outside the family for the thieves.
Before going to bed that night, Sam remembered to call Wanda and warn her about the screaming skull on the porch and how it might turn Teddy into a screaming ball of fur on Halloween. After talking with Wanda, she dialed the familiar Chicago number.
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