Page 52 of Devil
“Amy’s.”
“Want me to look at Tina’s?”
She glanced up. “Can you get a secure connection with your computer?” He nodded. “Okay, let me send you some files. Other than the most recent transactions, which is how we knew about things like the trip to New York, we haven’t really gone through them. I don’t know if we’ll find anything, or how far back we’d need to gotofind anything, but between the two of us, hopefully, we can uncover something.”
He rose and retrieved the computer from the bag that he’d set down in the mudroom. By the time he was online via the secure connection, the files were in his inbox. He pulled up both sets of documents and scanned Amy’s before diving into Tina’s.
For as young as the Lam sisters were—Tina was only twenty-six and Amy twenty-eight—they had a remarkable number of charges on their accounts. Most of Tina’s weren’t large—a coffee here, a lunch there—but there were a lot of them. Seeing the monthly statements for the past six months made him wonder if money was the reason she and her sister were doing what they were doing. He couldn’t imagine she made much working for the Chinese Council.
“Do you have access to their bank accounts?” he asked.
“Cyn does,” Lily answered. “If you call her, she’ll get you what you need.”
He did as suggested, and a few minutes later, Tina Lam’s bank statements for the past year were in his inbox. Opening those, the first thing he looked at were the deposits. As predicted, she didn’t make much in her current role. Based on her living arrangement and spending habits, she wasn’t quite living paycheck to paycheck, but it was close.
“What do you think of this?” he asked, sliding his computer over to Lily.
She looked at him, blinked, then shook her head before pushing her computer to the side and pulling his in front of her. Her eyes scanned the information on the screen, and a little frown danced on her lips. “You think maybe she’s doing this for money?”
He shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t know. I know she’s barely living within her means. I know the political angle is the most obvious reason the sisters would want to harm the president. We haven’t found any real evidence of that, though, so I thought this was worth considering.”
Lily’s expression turned thoughtful, then she pushed the computer back to him. “You’re right. The political angle is the most obvious, but we shouldn’t discount other possibilities. And based on the data you found, money could be one of them. That said, I can’t shake the idea that this has something to do with Uyghurs. Which would mean the plan is politically motivated.”
“Maybe it’s political for Sonia and Nadia, but about the money for the Lam sisters?” he suggested.
Lily wagged her head. “Possible, but while Nadia and Sonia don’t seem to have the same financial constraints as Amy and Tina, they don’t have the funds needed for something like this. Which makes me think the outcome is a shared goal of all four women.”
“So if it’s political for Nadia and Sonia, it’s probably political for Amy and Tina, too,” he finished.
She grimaced. “I know the logic isn’t completely sound, but for lack of a better phrase, itfeelsright. At least for those four women. I’m not sure about Jennifer.”
Despite his earlier suggestion, he agreed. Millions of people had died and were killed under the banner of their religion. Money was always a good motivator, but so were one’s beliefs.
“Fair enough,” he said. “Are you finding anything?”
She shook her head. “Other than the fact that Amy likes the sushi restaurant near her office, no.”
“What about the parents?”
She paused before answering. “You think the parents could be behind it, and we should look into them? Not a bad thought.” She paused again, then smiled. “Given how fucked-up my family is, it seems like I should have considered that.”
He smiled back, then shrugged, although her words twisted something dark inside him. He hadn’t said anything in response to her earlier revelations about her parents. He wouldn’t have been able to keep the anger, and disgust, out of his voice, so he’d opted to say nothing.
The conversation had given him a huge insight into her character, though. And based on what he’d heard, it was no wonder she avoided relationships. Lily was an overachiever, a woman who liked to get things right. But she had no positive experience to draw on when it came to connecting with others. And probably very little trust in herself that she’d be able to figure it out. He wondered how long it had taken Cyn, Six, and Nora to convince her there were alternatives to the life she’d known. Years, probably.
“I can look into the parents,” he offered.
“Do you have the right access?”
He’d been given a certain level of access to both the FBI and CIA databases when he’d taken this assignment. It wouldn’t let him look into things like black ops, but it would give him a start. “Some. If I need help, I’ll text Cyn.”
She studied him for a moment, then nodded. “You know, it’s not a bad idea when it comes to Nadia and Sonia, too. I’ll look into their families as well.”
They fell back into silence as they each picked up their new tasks. The minutes, then hours, flew by. The wine bottle was slowly drained and when Darius next looked up, it was close to two o’clock.
“Find anything?” he asked.
She tilted her head as she studied her screen. “Both Sonia’s and Nadia’s parents’ homes were vandalized after 9/11. They are Muslim and were swept up in the rash of anti-Islamic fervor after the attacks. Both events were documented in police reports and in the newspaper. The attack on Sonia’s family home even made it into the national news. But based on those articles, it doesn’t look like either woman came from a family that was particularly religious. It’s not conclusive, but if we look at the articles and compare them to the women’s current social media accounts, I think the women are more religious now than they were twenty years ago.”
