Page 112 of Mission: Possible

"Is there such a thing?" Solomon stopped. "We're here. Are you ready for this?"

"Nope," I said as I pushed the door open. When we stepped in, I was surprised to see Austen perched on Sophie's bed, one foot on the floor, her hands folded in his and resting in his lap. Maddox and Farid both leaned against the wall and Jord was sitting in an uninviting chair.

"Hi," I said, trying to temper my curiosity. "You're awake. It's so nice to meet you, Sophie."

"Yes, I am," said Sophie, her voice hoarse. Austen reached for a tumbler of water on the stand next to the bed and held the straw to her lips. She sipped and rested her head on the pillow. "You must be Lexi Graves. Apparently, you worked everything out."

"I'm not sure I worked outeverything. I'd like to hear it from you."

"We've already talked," said Austen. "I think you'll be interested to hear what Sophie has to say."

"Then let's get started," said Maddox.

"I am Sophie Gallo," she said, "But you're right, I'm not Sophie, the sister. Zach was my husband until I supposedly died. Officially, anyway. His sister stole my car one night. Not the first time, I should add, and I know she was high because I saw her earlier that day and she was already wasted. She came by the house, demanding money and I said no and told her to leave, but on the way out, she must have grabbed my keys because minutes later, I saw her peel out in my car. Zach and I went after her. She was going so fast that she crashed and we watched my car blow up. Zach said we should pretend she was me. She was my height, my size, and driving my car. It would solve all our problems, but he really meanthisproblems. I didn't want to go along with it but there was a small life insurance policy for me and we were broke. Zach was a dreamer but a gambler too. He spent everything we had and then some. He owed money to loan sharks. One turned up at our door and grabbed me by the neck and said the next time he came around, he'd take off my finger. Zach said it was the only way to get everyone off our backs. I was so isolated and scared of him, I just obeyed whatever he said."

"You never considered leaving him?" asked Jord.

Sophie shook her head. "No. I already lost my job and most of my friends had distanced themselves so Zach convinced me it was just the two of us. My mom recently died and my dad remarried and our relationship was never good anyway. I was just tired. No, I think I was depressed. And Zach hit me a few times too. I just wanted everything to stop. A new start seemed like a good idea."

"Did you know about the bank robbery in Milwaukee?"

"No. I found out later, but at the time, no. I thought Zach was contracting for an old Army buddy. He was, I guess, just not in the legal sense. After we left, we kind of bummed around a while, looking for somewhere nice to live but Zach didn't like anywhere. He always managed to do something that riled people's hackles, so we just kept moving. And then we found this little town in upstate New York. I liked it and wanted to stay. Then I found a whole sack of money! I confronted Zach about it, assuming it was the money from my life insurance policy, except it was too much. Zach confessed he gambled the insurance money and lost it so I asked him where the hell this money came from and he started to hit me and hit me again. He broke my wrist." She stopped, breathing hard as she regained her composure. "I knew he stole it and after I looked online, I found out about the bank robbery so I knew that had to be it. He didn't want to start a new life anywhere or even try to solve our problems. He robbed a bank and just wanted to live on the run with me. Faking my death turned out to be a bonus."

"Sophie hid the money," said Austen.

"Why?" I asked.

"It was wrong," said Sophie. "It was stolen. I couldn't... I couldn't let him keep it but I didn't know what to do with it. I thought about mailing it back but I was afraid I'd leave my fingerprints or something. Then Zach burned down the cabin we were renting. He smoked sometimes and lit a cigarette and set the place on fire. I was in the bedroom when I awoke and smelled the smoke. I got the money bag and threw it out the window before I climbed out and ran to the car. We were already mostly packed up to go. I just put the cash in the trunk when Zach came staggering out, drunk as always. I think he expected me to die in there, for real. He started raving about going back inside to get the money but the fire was too intense. He said we had to get out of there. He went crazy, saying everything was ruined and that money was the key to our future. I didn't tell him it was stashed in the trunk. As soon as I could, I repacked the money into my bag and threw the other bag away while he slept off the booze."

"Where did you go next?"

"We kind of wandered around for a while, picking up odd jobs that paid cash here and there, not that I could work because of my broken wrist. We slept in motels but Zach got paranoid. He said people were looking at us funny and he didn't like anyone talking to me. He decided we should go to a small city where we could become anonymous. The best place to hide, he said, was in a crowd of people, and I was getting so tired of running."

"You came to Montgomery," I said.

Sophie nodded. She paused to sip the water Austen offered her. "We had no money except for the little bit we made doing odd jobs. Zach didn't want me to work anywhere. He hated seeing me work anyway. He always said I was rubbing his face in his shortcomings since I landed better jobs than he could but I was still less than nothing to him. Plus, he used to turn up at my old job and embarrass me. What could I do now?" She stopped, coughing, and Austen wrapped his arm around her. "I was pretending to be theotherSophie Gallo. My sister-in-law barely had any qualifications, no resume, and nothing that said she could do anything. I couldn't bemeanymore. Then Zach came up with a brilliant idea, a scheme so crazy that he claimed without a doubt, it would solve all our problems. I should have left him the moment he announced it."

"He was abusing you," said Austen. "Where would you have gone?"

"I could have gonesomewhere," she said, holding back a sob. "I should never have done what I did."

"What did you do?" asked Maddox.

"This," she said, glancing at Austen. "I nearly ruined an innocent man's life."

"Tell them everything," said Austen.

"Zach saw Austen’s picture in a newspaper. He read a report about his business and realized Austen was a big deal. He started researching him and soon became obsessed. He learned that Austen was single and pieced together all the things Austen liked. He decided Austen would like me." She stopped to catch her breath again and I wondered if we should take a break but Sophie seemed more eager to talk. Plus, no one was stopping her; we were all rapt.

"Zach said Austen had so much money it wouldn't hurt him to share it. At first, he just wanted me to get to know him and introduce them. Zach planned to tell him about some non-existent business deal and hoped Austen would invest. Then Zach realized Austen was a bigger fish if he married me. He said I had to convince him to fall in love with me. I had to get a job that would appeal to Austen's status and interests and start doing things he liked and... I wanted a job! I wanted to work again so I got a job volunteering at the museum.

I figured I could do that for a little while before getting a real job. Zach stopped hitting me and I started feeling better. I thought about ways to leave him but I knew I couldn't."

"Why didn't you?" asked Maddox.

Sophie’s gaze flicked to him then back down to the blankets again, shame filling her face. "I was trapped. Zach said I would go to prison if the insurance fraud came to light. And he threatened to tell the cops I gave his sister the alcohol and drugs so I would be prosecuted for manslaughter since my car was the one she was driving. I was so afraid I just did what he told me to do." She tightened her grip on Austen's hand. "We set up both opportunities for me to meet Austen. For a while, I thought, maybe I could convince him to loan me the money to escape, but every time I opened my mouth to ask him, I thought about what Zach said. And... and I liked Austen. I didn't want him to think horrible things about me. That I was a thief or a killer. Austen was, is, so kind to me. He always has been. He's had nothing to do with this, you must believe me! He didn’t know anything about the money!"

"We know," I said. "I also know you signed a pre-nup that precluded you from getting a penny from Austen. If Zach's plan was to take his money, why did you do that?"

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