Chapter 6 - The Mistress at the Terminal
While Noah and I were being monitored in the trauma ward, the dragnet closed around Daniel’s co-conspirator.
At 3:15 AM, at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, twenty-eight-year-old Vanessa Cole—the chief logistics coordinator at Daniel’s company—was seated in the VIP departures lounge for a red-eye flight to Zurich, Switzerland.
She was dressed in a tailored cream coat, holding a leather designer tote bag, sipping a glass of champagne.
Her phone buzzed on the glass side table.
She picked it up, smiling as she typed: ‘Is it done? The private escrow transfer clears at 8:00 AM.’
Before her finger could hit send, two plainclothes FBI agents and two armed airport security officers stepped around the leather armchairs, flanking her seat.
"Vanessa Cole?" Special Agent Karen Hayes asked, flashing her gold badge.
Vanessa’s smile froze. Her champagne flute trembled in her manicured hand. "Yes? Is there an issue with my boarding pass?"
"Set the glass down, Miss Cole," Agent Hayes commanded. "Under Federal Warrant 411, you are placed under immediate arrest for Interstate Wire Fraud, Conspiracy to Commit Premeditated Capital Murder, and Fiduciary Embezzlement."
Vanessa dropped her phone onto the carpet. Two female agents pinned her arms behind her back, clicking heavy steel handcuffs around her wrists.
"Wait! This is a mistake!" Vanessa shrieked, drawing the attention of dozens of travelers. "Daniel handled everything! I was just his logistics manager!"
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"We intercepted the encrypted text thread from your phone twenty minutes ago, Miss Cole," Agent Hayes informed her coldly. "You were the one who procured the clinical-grade Succinylcholine from a veterinary supplier in Indiana."
Vanessa’s face turned the color of wet chalk as federal agents confiscated her tote bag containing two forged passports and $140,000 in banded cash.
