Page 65 of Dirty Looks

“Well, that’s enough to get a warrant for a lot of unpleasant things. Let me make a phone call and check in with Doug. Then let’s go make a scene.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Doug calledbefore Jack could reach out to him.

Warrants could usually be processed through an online app, but with someone as high up the chain as Robert Lidle, a judge had to be called and persuaded. Fortunately, it didn’t take much persuading.

Jack and I had stepped into the music room like we had the day before so Jack could talk to Judge Wisner, and Doug called seconds after they’d disconnected.

“Doug,” Jack said. “What’s up?”

“Got a hit on Astrid Nielsen,” Doug said. “I saw her appointment before the judge pop up and her release on bail. I thought it was odd because she’s not from here, so I’d consider her a flight risk. She still has family in the Netherlands.”

“The judge is friends with Robert Lidle,” Jack said. “He assured the judge that she’d be under house arrest on Lidle property, so the judge agreed.”

“Yeah, well, I started digging anyway,” Doug said. “I found some inconsistencies with her background. And then I found sealed files. Astrid Nielsen didn’t exist before twenty-five years ago. She’s got a birth certificate and all the necessary documentation. But when you peel back the layers things getmore interesting. She did graduate from the University of Copenhagen. Four years before her profile says she did. She’s also did a master’s degree in linguistics.”

“That tracks with what she said about the Lidles wanting staff who spoke multiple languages,” I said.

“You know who else likes people with degrees in linguistics?” Doug asked. “Government agencies and terrorist organizations. When you look at some of the black-bag missions that Alan Goble was on, they coincide with places Astrid traveled too. But get this, that travel also coincided with trips Robert Lidle and his family made together.”

“So you’re saying that Robert Lidle, Astrid Nielsen, and Alan Goble have a history that far surpasses their relationship as employer and employee,” Jack said.

“That’s what I’m saying,” Doug said. “This is an international trafficking ring. And these guys are nobody. They’re just people assigned to be in a certain position. Someone who has ties to Congress and is a lobbyist, and a couple of people embedded in different alphabet agencies. Whoever is at the head of this organization will have people in every major area of society—churches and clergy, law enforcement, judges, the postal service, and your local real estate broker. The money just flows between them. These kids that are taken are just commodities, no different than any business deal they’re making.”

“So why would Robert Lidle muddy his own pool by using his own family members?” I asked.

“My guess is money,” Jack said.

“And bingo,” Doug said. “Kitty’s father acquired Robert’s father’s company to keep them from going bankrupt. Robert came to Kitty with nothing, and he started getting spousal payments starting the first month after they married. He’s worth a few million dollars at best. Margot is sending you some information on some of his property. He’s got basic stocks andinvestments, but he’s not great at it and he’s a big spender, so he’s not accumulated as much as he should have over the forty years they’ve been married. At least not in the easy-to-find accounts. Kitty is worth three billion dollars, and all the Lazarus money and holdings can only pass to blood descendants.

“Phin was given the company as the oldest male child, but the remainder of the estate, including all the real estate and the family homes, is divided between the three equally. Each of the grandchildren has a trust that includes company stock, real estate, and cash money.”

“So it wouldn’t have paid for Robert to kill Kitty,” Jack said.

“Definitely not,” Doug said. “He essentially had unlimited funds to do what he wanted with her alive.”

“And with her dead, there wasn’t much point of him living,” Jack said. “The noose was tightening around his neck if rumors got started about Emma and Evie. And with Kitty dead her money and influence would have been nonexistent to cover it up. He wouldn’t have had a purpose for living by his way of thinking.”

“And his funding for his extracurricular activities would have dried up,” I said. “He would have been useless to whoever the Great and Powerful Oz over this whole thing is. You said he was only worth a few million in his regular accounts?”

“Yeah,” Doug said. “Like I said, on the surface he’s boring and bad with his money. No red flags with the SEC or IRS. Makes some money and spends a lot like the kept man he is. But he’s got other accounts. A lot of other accounts. He’s got millions overseas and in accounts in the Caymans. But get this, he doesn’t spend from these accounts, at least not on a personal level. Millions of dollars move in and out quickly, and they’re transferred so far up to seventy different accounts I’ve found.”

“Payment accounts,” Jack said. “A girl is sold, money goes in, she’s transported to another country, and money goes out. He’s not running those accounts. He’s just the scapegoat.”

“That was my take too,” Doug said. “Robert Lidle is the only traceable name I could find. He’d go down hard if they were discovered. The difference is, the money being transferred into Alan Goble’s and Astrid Nielsen’s accounts in large amounts aren’t coming from the international accounts. Once I peeled away the layers I found other accounts under Robert Lidle’s name. It looks like he’s spent the last forty years siphoning money from his wife. There’s upward of a hundred and fifty million in those accounts.

“He’s got a whole payroll of people for his sick operation,” Doug said. “I’ve identified Astrid Nielsen’s and Alan Goble’s accounts, because I had a comparison, but it’s going to take time to match names to account numbers for the rest of them. But my take is that Robert Lidle was doing his own trafficking side business, and he was using his family name to drive up the price.”

“So basically he’s such a perv he wasn’t satisfied with raping other people’s children, but he had to start on his own too. A bullet to his head isn’t punishment enough.”

“Sometimes you just have to let hell deal with them,” Jack said, squeezing my arm. “Thanks for the update, Doug.”

“Don’t forget to look at the info Margot sent you,” he reminded us. “I think we might have an origin location for where Evie was taken. You’ll want to send a crime-scene team.”

“Very good work,” Jack said and disconnected.

“How do you want to handle this?” Jack asked Martinez.

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