Page 29 of His Undercover Wolf

Ishaan clicked on the mouse and the screen filled with what looked like a bank account statement listing several deposits. I leaned closer to study the figures.

“Look at this, boss.” Ishaan placed a finger on the screen, and I read three deposit amounts totaling almost sixty thousand dollars. The money had been deposited three days earlier. Ishaan gave me time to read before scrolling upward. “Look…There are several deposits totaling two hundred and sixty-three thousand dollars that were banked a few days before the official release of Matilda, three hundred and eighty-two thousand dollars before the official release of Byron, and four hundred and twelve thousand dollars before Krista. Each release period has between six and nine deposits so we can expect more before Panda hits the market.”

I noted most of the money had been withdrawn, leaving only enough to keep the account open. “Where did the money go, and how were you able to find this information in less than two days when Evan’s team couldn’t in fifteen years? It doesn’t seem like something beyond their abilities.”

“Didn’t you say Evan was refused access to the executive staff?”

“Yes, but he had their names and the means to do some cursory checks,” I argued.

Everyone turned their eyes on me, and I leaned against the desk, facing them, while they explained.

“We all spent a few hours speaking with our contacts on the streets and a couple said there was a real buzz about the Worlds Apart shares exchanging hands even though no release date for Panda has been announced. None of them seemed to know where the chatter was originating so they were pretty much a dead end,” Hunter advised. “I called the others to come back here so we could regroup on what to do next.”

“We each picked a couple of the executive staff and took a close look at their activities on the company servers. We weren’t coming up with anything that raised red flags. There were no suspicious deletions of history and that kind of thing, so Ophelia suggested we delve into their backgrounds online, including checking for information on the dark web since they all have the intelligence to use the facility. It was after an hour or so that Ishaan discovered a son of one of the Bennett’s staff that no one knows about, or we assume they don’t. There is no record of him anywhere except for a few articles on the dark web,” Declan explained.

Ishaan continued on with details of his discovery. “The son is in care down in Florida and has been for the past nineteen years. He suffered a brain injury following a drug overdose. I hacked into the facility’s server and found his parents were struggling to keep up the payments for his care and the facility had warned, they would have to take him elsewhere if the money wasn’t forthcoming. A little over fifteen years ago, they paid out what they owed and deposited enough to pay for their son’s care for another five years. They have made large payments every five years since.”

Ishaan pointed to the computer screen. “I found this account that was opened in the son’s name fifteen years ago and knew he couldn’t have opened it himself. I did some more digging and a few minutes ago I found who has been making the deposits and withdrawals as caretaker of the account.”

“Who is it?” I was almost afraid to ask because I knew having to tell Xavier that it was indeed one of his executive staff was going to be difficult.

Ishaan clicked on one of the latest deposits and pulled up the details. I gasped. Xavier was going to be devastated when he found out who had betrayed him.

“Fuck. There’s not much room for doubt is there? Print off the information and I’ll call Bennett to set up a meeting with him first thing in the morning. Excellent work team. This has to be a record for how fast we have solved a case, but I still don’t understand why Evan’s team didn’t find this information. I mean, this is investigative procedure 101.”

“Um…we can explain that,” Ophelia admitted.

“Are you going to tell her, Hunter, since it was you who found the information?” Declan asked.

I waited for the bomb that was about to drop…

“Evan is the other son that no one knows about. It looks like he’s been sabotaging his team, making sure they wouldn’t find anything unusual, and even paid off the judge so he’d rule in Bennett and Groves’ favor about investigating the executives years ago.”

“Fuck…Fuck…Fuck…Has Landon been told?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“We pretty much only just finished figuring it all out, and besides, Landon won’t shout at you…You’re the boss,” Elouise deadpanned.

“Yeah, well he’ll be the one telling Keith. Landon will try to convince me he doesn’t want to be the one to hurt his good friend, but I’m not doing his dirty work for him,” I shot back.

Keith Murray was Evan’s boss and head of the securities division of the government. He and Landon had been friends since their days on the beat as junior cops. After Keith left to join the securities department, the two men stayed in touch and often discussed difficult cases in order to gain the other’s perspective. When the Worlds Apart insider trading case hadn’t been solved, Keith refused to continue to accept Evan’s excuses, and it was handed to Landon who in turn handed the case to me and my team. It was interesting that Evan had shown no animosity or wariness when handing over the file. Was he confident evidence was buried so deep on the dark web that he wouldn’t be found out?

“Landon in his office?” I asked no one in particular.

“Yep,” Declan confirmed.

“Wrap it up and put the file and your reports on my desk. You can all take off early. Good work, I’m proud of you all.”

The team grinned on hearing my praise before moving to their own desks. I sighed and headed to Landon’s office to tell him everything we’d learned.

Chapter Ten

Xavier

“7 am in the morning?I can meet you tonight if you prefer.”

Otsana didn’t sound quite right, there was hesitation, even a tone of dread in her voice, and when I’d asked if she’d found something relevant to the case, she’d brushed my question off by saying she would tell me everything the following morning.

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