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JAMES PATTERSON

If Epstein's legal team had wanted to remove Weiss from the case, this would have been a good way to do it.

Nine days later, Detective Recarey met with ASA Lanna Belohlavek, who told him that her boss, Barry Krischer, had asked her again to take the case to the grand jury. Recarey told Belohlavek that he had already requested arrest warrants for Epstein, Sarah Kellen, and Wendy Dobbs. The Palm Beach PD had finished its investigation months earlier, he said, and had been waiting since then for the case to move forward. He asked her once more to issue the warrants. Once again Belohlavek declined, saying that the original offer her office had made to Epstein's old lawyer had been resubmitted to the new lawyer. When Epstein's reply came, she would call.

While waiting for that call, Recarey received several calls from Mary's father, who told him that he was being followed by a green Chevrolet Monte Carlo—tailed so aggressively that other vehicles were being run off the road. Recarey ran the plates and found that the Chevy was registered to one Zachary Bechard of Jupiter, Florida.

Bechard was a licensed private eye.

"A funny thing happened in Palm Beach," says Tim Malloy, who was working as a TV newscaster in South Florida at the time.

"This would have been right around the time that Michael Reiter sent his letter asking Barry Krischer to recuse himself from the case. I didn't even know what Epstein looked like, really, at the time. We had pictures taken by the British tabloids, where the link to Prince Andrew first broke. But we didn't have too many of them. What we did have was a contact in the hangar where Epstein kept his 727.

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"I don't know how much y[ou know about Palm Beach Inter]national Airport. It's the kind [of place that has] valet parking, and waiting lou[nges like] you'll see in Manhattan. It's a[lso a place for] Saudi princes, heads of state. P[rivacy is key]. vacy. You can bring limousine[s right up to the plane]. out Epstein was very secretive a[nd didn't] want anyone to know the tail n[umber].

"But our contact didn't like how young the girls around Ep[stein were]. had the 727's tail number, an[d told us] someone I won't say too muc[h about the] flight plan for a certain trip h[e was] going to land at the airport. A[t that time] the station's traffic helicopter a[pproached] hundred feet a quarter mile sou[th].

"Our cameraman had a tele[photo lens] tight shot, on video, of Epstein did get the shot: Epstein, with flipped up over his neck, about that was waiting for him.

"Then he saw our helicopter "I was doing a live voice-ove first video anyone had on him u run back onto the plane. The break, my producer told me Epstein wants us to stop taking talk to you.'

"The cameraman kept rolli[ng] out, got into a car with tinted w[indows].

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