Chapter 10 - THE MAN WITH THE SILVER RING
Prosecutors did not grant Marcus Voss blanket immunity.
They offered a proffer arrangement allowing him to explain what he knew before any final cooperation agreement was considered. His statements could be evaluated against independent evidence.
Voss admitted that Lena had been forced into his van.
He claimed he had been hired to frighten her, take her laptop, and leave her in an empty warehouse outside Mapleton.
“Who hired you?” Reyes asked.
“A security consultant.”
“Name.”
“Gideon Shaw.”
Shaw had worked intermittently for Warburton Holdings during labor disputes, property acquisitions, and executive protection assignments. Victor approved most of his invoices.
Voss said Shaw provided Lena’s schedule and instructed him to use a sedative obtained through another person.
“I didn’t inject her,” Voss insisted. “Shaw did.”
“Why was she placed in the dumpster?”
Voss looked toward his lawyer.
“The warehouse plan changed.”
“Who changed it?”
“Shaw got a call.”
“From whom?”
“I heard only his side.”
“What did he say?”
Voss hesitated.
“He said, ‘Yes, Mr. Warburton.’”
I listened to the recorded interview beside my attorney.
The name made me physically ill.
My phone records, vehicle location, café receipt, home security system, and multiple witnesses supported my movements during the relevant period. I had been in Oakwood Ridge when Lena was abducted.
That did not prevent Voss’s statement from damaging me publicly.
There was another Warburton.
Possibly.
Or someone wanted Voss to believe there was.
Voss claimed Shaw ordered him to place Lena inside the market dumpster at 1:06 Saturday morning. Shaw said the truck would arrive before sunrise.
“Did you believe she would survive?” Reyes asked.
Voss stared at the table.
“I thought someone would find her.”
“Bound, gagged, drugged, beneath commercial waste?”
“I didn’t put the bags over her.”
“Who did?”
“Shaw.”
“You closed the lid.”
Voss did not answer.
His attempt to shrink his responsibility did not change what the physical evidence showed.
The prosecutor charged him with kidnapping, aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, evidence-related offenses, and conspiracy allegations. Whether an attempted murder charge would be filed depended on further review of intent evidence and state law.
Voss identified Gideon Shaw from a properly administered photographic array.
A search began.
Shaw’s apartment was empty. His phone had been discarded near an interstate rest area. His passport was missing.
Victor admitted authorizing payments to Shaw but denied knowing he had been used against Lena.
“What did you hire him to do?” I asked during a board-investigation interview.
“Assess leaks.”
“Lena was a leak?”
“Lena was downloading protected files.”
“Files documenting fraud.”
“I did not know that when Shaw was engaged.”
“When did you know?”
Victor looked toward his counsel.
“After she disappeared.”
“Then why didn’t you tell police?”
“I was trying to determine what happened.”
“You were protecting yourself.”
“Yes.”
The word landed heavily because it was the first answer he gave without decoration.
Victor also disclosed that Shaw had been paid through Northline Consulting, not directly by Warburton Holdings. Victor approved reimbursement requests submitted by an outside administrator.
“Who was the administrator?” Reyes asked.
Victor wrote a name on a legal pad.
Evelyn Price.
My aunt.
May you like
When investigators reached her house, they found the front door open, her phone on the kitchen floor, and a trail of blood leading into the garage.
Evelyn was gone.
