Page 35 of Cold Silence
“No sunning going on here,” Gage said.
“Hmm, right.” She laughed. “If you come back with a tan we’ll all know the truth.”
“Hey, I arrived with a tan so you can’t measure that.” Gage chuckled. “You have something to tell me?”
“Boy, do I.” Her excited tone had Claire leaning closer to the speaker. “I finished my report on Warren White. The guy is not who he says he is. Figured I should call on this one before I send it.”
What? Not who he says he is?What did that mean? Claire needed to know.
“Okay, now you’ve got my interest,” Gage said.
“What do you mean not who he says he is?” Travis demanded.
Claire appreciated him demanding the answer she wanted too.
“Just what it sounds like. His real name is Fitz Ellwood. He assumed Warren White’s identity in 1997 when White died.”
Claire had to be in on this discussion. She ran out the door and into the room with the men. “How can that be? Everyone goes through a deep background check before we hire.”
“Eryn, meet Claire Reed.”
“Oh, sorry,” Claire said. “Sorry to barge into your call, but I have to know what’s going on in my own team.”
“No worries,” Eryn said. “I’d want to know too.”
“Give us the details,” Gage said.
“White and Ellwood were college roommates. They actually became friends because they looked so much alike and people were mistaking them. The real Warren White died in a boating accident. Ellwood was drunk and piloting the boat. White had no family so Ellwood assumed White’s identity to escape a potential manslaughter charge. By the time the police recovered the body, he was decomposed enough that the only ID they could make was from what they found in his pocket and from Ellwood’s confirmation of what White was wearing.”
“What about DNA?” Gage asked. “Didn’t they run it for ID?”
“No,” Eryn said firmly. “The real Ellwood reported the boating accident pretending to be White. He claimed Ellwood was driving and White was washed overboard. Then said that Ellwood jumped in to try to save him, but he got a cramp and disappeared underwater. White couldn’t save him. So the police didn’t think there was any foul play and didn’t run DNA.”
Claire stared at the phone. “But how did you find this out when our government background check failed?”
“First, they had no reason to think he was lying about his name, so they only investigated Warren White.”
“But what about fingerprints?” Travis asked.
“Not a problem. Neither men had been printed before so Ellwood’s prints became the first ones registered for White and checked out as having a clear record. They both had the same degrees and worked similar jobs, but Ellwood quit White’s job right away so he wasn’t found out by the people he worked with. It’s been clear sailing since then.”
“Okay, so the prints checked out fine,” Travis said. “But how did you learn about it?”
“The secrets of the dark web,” Eryn said, her tone holding a smile. “Apparently, he’s a Boy Scout leader, and his picture was included in an Orlando newspaper article. A hacker, Ross Garland, saw it and recognized him as Ellwood. Garland went to college with Ellwood and White for a year, but flunked out. Blamed Ellwood for some of his problems. Garland found Ellwood in a chat room on the dark web, bad-mouthing Ellwood and threatening to go public unless Ellwood paid up.”
“Did he?” Claire held her breath in wait for the answer.
“Not sure on that, but I am sure that Garland was murdered the same week, and the murder remains unsolved.”
Claire gasped. “Warren. You think Warren did this?”
“Could be.”
“But the police don’t know about White or Ellwood or whatever we want to call him?” Gage asked.
“No, which is not unusual as the dark web is a whole different animal to navigate and local police don’t usually have access. And the background check was done long before this murder or dark web chat happened.”
Claire could hardly believe all of this. A man she worked with day in and day out wasn’t who he said he was. What else might he be hiding? “What about Fitz Ellwood’s family? Didn’t they report him missing?”
