“Maybe Phillips could have faked his own death but that doesn’t mean he’s still alive today. When you consider the type of life he led and the unscrupulous people he was involved with he could have tangled with the wrong ones and met his demise by some other means. Even if he stayed out of trouble he’d be in his seventies now. He could have gotten ill or died from natural causes. This elaborate plot might be part of Jeffrey’s scheme to send us on a wild goose chase to take the suspicion away from his self. He said that he never expected to be confronted with Maxine still being alive, so there’s no telling to what extreme he’ll go to cover up his involvement.”

“Jeffrey had to be telling the truth about what happened in New York don’t you think? I mean the safe deposit box thing checked out didn’t it?”

“We did visit the post office but could only ascertain that Rains was telling the truth about having a box, and that Maxine showed as a co-signer. Since she couldn’t produce a passport, birth certificate or government issued ID in the name Maxine Wolff; the post office manager would not give us any information on the second box that supposedly holds the $240,000 in cash.”

“Didn’t he accept the explanation about the amnesia? They have to know that Maxine Wolff and M. Elisabeth Matthews is the same person.”

“He sympathized with her predicament but was adamant about needing documented proof of identification. We were fortunate that the US Embassy in Canada allowed her re-entry into the United States using her assumed identity as M. Elisabeth Matthews. They acknowledged her illness with the medical doctor’s affidavit and psychiatric evaluation regarding her mental condition but now that she’s in the United States she’ll need to reestablish herself as Maxine Elisabeth Wolff. For security reasons and for their own protection against liability the banks and post offices will only release information to her once she can produce proof of identify and that could take some time.”

“So what happens now?”

“Peter has asked Tommy Reed to dig a little deeper into Rains’ and Maxine’s car accidents in Canada just to see if Jeffrey’s story checks out with the authorities. It’s very possible there might have been other witnesses that will either corroborate or dispute his claim that there was another car involved. Jeffrey could very well have been the one to bump their car and in his haste to escape on unfamiliar icy roads caused his own accident. His wife is dead so we can’t question her about the phone call or Phillips’ visit to their home. We only have his word about any death threats that Phillips might have made against either of them. We don’t know anything about whomever Phillips supposedly sent to Canada to do his dirty work. JMC’s other business partner Caroline Mitchell is also deceased. We can’t substantiate anything regarding Jeffrey’s business dealings with Phillips or the report to the SEC. Maxine’s limited memories about that time-frame doesn’t jibe with anything that Jeffrey told us. Our only hope is that Tommy can uncover the truth or that Maxine gets her full memory back. Once Tommy returns from Canada he’ll likely head to the South Pacific to see what he can find out about Phillips’ boating accident and subsequent disappearance.”