Page 75 of Defenseless
She jerked and her spine hit the back of the chair when it clicked into place. She looked to Kara, who seemed to have made the same connection.
“Mad Libs,” they said at the same time.
“What?” Kevin said, but neither sister paid him any attention.
“Try it,” Kara urged, pointing to the phone Sabina still held in her hand. Unlocking the device, she pulled up the browser and keyed in the IP address from the note Benicio had left. When the password box popped out, she typed in “MadLibs.” The name of the game was actually two words, and it was possible they needed to be separated with a dash or an underscore, but she tried the one-word version first.
And two seconds later, they were in.
“All one word, and it worked,” she said. Kara could see that it had, but she wanted her colleagues at HICC who were listening in to know, too.
Kara leaned over. “What is it?”
“What the hell is going on?” Jacobs asked.
Sabina and Kara ignored him as they scanned the list of files that filled the small screen. “Open the video,” Kara said, pointing to one. Sabina complied, and when the image of Jacobs filled the screen, she knew they’d hit pay dirt.
The video was taken from behind a man sitting at a desk. They could see little of him except his receding hair and the shiny top of his head. But pacing the room in front of him was Kevin Jacobs.
“I never should have let my people let you in,” the man at the desk muttered. He had a slight accent that Sabina would place as either from New York or northern New Jersey.
“I want to know where my money is,” Jacobs said, pacing back and forth. “You know where it is. I want it back.”
The man chuckled. “Why would I do that, Kevvy?”
“Because your fucking accountant stole twelve million dollars from me, Lou,” Kevin all but spat. “I want my fucking money back.”
“We don’t always get what we want in life,” Lou said. To Sabina, he sounded like he was enjoying the conversation. She couldn’t be certain, but she’d guess he was the head of the crime family who’d allowed her father to steal the money to teach Jacobs a lesson.
“Just tell me where your accountant is,” Jacobs said, stopping in front of the desk.
Lou tipped his head to the side. “I’m not going to do that. If you want him, you find him.”
“I tried. His bitch of an ex-wife wouldn’t tell me.”
“She can’t tell you something she doesn’t know,” Lou said. Sabina would parse that statement later, but assumed it meant that Lou knew her father had cut all ties to Emer and his daughters.
Kevin laughed. “She can’t tell me anything anymore. I killed her.”
The air in Sabina’s lungs froze. For the first time since opening the video, she remembered Jacobs was in the room with them.
She lifted her gaze to him even as the video continued to play.
“Killing ain’t good, Kevvy. It’s harder to hide your tracks than you think.” Her eyes remained locked on Jacobs as Lou’s voice broadcast from the device. The senator had risen from his seat and was now leaning over his desk in much the same way he had in the video. Cold calculation simmered in his eyes. He looked so menacing that she found herself trying to remember if members of Congress were allowed to have guns in the Capitol building.
“It’s a lot easier than you think when your brother is the chief of police,” Kevin responded in the video. With evidence of George Jacobs’s corruption, Sabina considered how busy the Kentucky justice system was going to be cleaning up his mess. But that thought was short-lived when Jacobs shouted.
“Give me that!” He lunged across the desk. It was too wide for him to make it, but even so, Sabina and Kara leaped up and away. The files were stored in the cloud, and it wouldn’t matter if he managed to get hold of her phone, but she still pulled it protectively against her chest.
“Take this as a friendly warning, Kevvy.” With the device pressed against her sweater, Lou’s voice was muffled. “You try to play me again, it will be more than just your money missing.”
In front of her, Jacobs reached for a drawer. Instinctively Sabina knew what he was planning. “I wouldn’t,” she said.
“Why not?” Jacobs responded, retrieving a small revolver.
Sabina glanced at Kara, who was frowning but didn’t look particularly worried.
“Well, because it’s a cliché, to start with,” Sabina said. Jacobs frowned. “And we have two ex-military men sitting in your lobby waiting for a reason to come in here.”
