Page 65 of Stone
“And?” Simon prompted.
“They all three said the same thing. That they’d heard rumors of the gold, but nothing more. They said the exact same thing,” he repeated.
“Rehearsed,” Juliana mumbled, mostly to herself. Griswold inclined his head. “Why would Gregor let them walk away with it all, though?” she asked.
Griswold shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t want to risk getting caught—he didn’t have the best service record. Maybe Polinsky or Lowery threatened him. Maybe he was playing the long game and planned to use the information at some point. Who knows?”
“That strengthens our argument that what happened back then is behind what’s happening today,” Simon said.
Agent Parks held up a hand. When she had everyone’s attention, she spoke. “It sounds like you all have gathered enough information to paint a picture that spans over three decades. My focus has been on Gregor’s activities in the past four years. You all have a lot to catch me up on.”
Juliana looked to Simon, who nodded. Then leaning back in her chair, she took a deep breath and walked both visitors through everything they’d uncovered in the past few days.
An hour and lots of questions later, Agent Parks and Professor Griswold knew as much as they did. A moment of silence descended on the room and although notthatmuch time passed, a wave of exhaustion washed through Juliana. As if sensing her discomfort, Sherman rose and set his nose on her thigh. With a smile, she sank her hand into his silky fur, reveling in the feel of his soft warm body leaning against hers.
“What does ‘Barlow him’ mean?” Agent Parks said, fingering the transcript of the conversation. “Lowery asked Polinsky if they should ‘Barlow’ Gregor.”
Everyone but Griswold shook their heads. The professor drummed his fingers on the table, then dragged a beat-up laptopfrom his bag. Simon dutifully rattled off the Wi-Fi password when asked, but otherwise, no one spoke.
A few minutes passed, then Griswold grunted. “Private Ray Barlow,” he said. “Was deployed in the same unit as Gregor, Polinsky, and Lowery. He died three days before the stash was officially found—I’m assuming it wasunofficiallyfound by the triad before that.”
“Cause of death?” Agent Parks asked.
“Nonhostile,” the professor responded.
“Nonhostile?” Juliana asked. “What did he die from then?”
Griswold hit a few more keys, paused, then frowned. “According to the file, a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
“I’m going to take a wild guess and say that man didn’t kill himself,” Monk said.
Griswold inclined his head. “I can get a hold of actual records, but given what Dr. Morganstern?—”
“Call me Juliana,” she said.
The man’s startling blue eyes fixed on her; he nodded, then dropped his attention back to his screen. “Given what Juliana heard, I’d wager Barlow was either a part of the theft, or found out about it, and was killed to keep him silent. You are going to bring these men down, Agent Parks.” Not a question, not a suggestion, a statement.
“Yes, and it will be my pleasure,” she replied.
Griswold gave a curt nod, then closed his computer. “What do you plan to do now?” he asked, pinning Simon with a look. Juliana might have felt a little insulted that he’d directed the question at the men, but mostly she was glad his attention wasn’t fixed on her.
Simon crossed his arms and leaned back. “As Juliana keeps pointing out, everything we have is conjecture. It’s painting a clear picture, but we have no hard proof.”
“Wasn’t Philly going to look into the officers we suspect might be on Polinsky’s payroll?” she asked.
Monk nodded. “He got through a few yesterday, but I don’t know the specifics of what he found.”
“If we can follow the money trail from Gregor to Polinsky to the officers, that would help,” Viper said.
“But will there be a money trail from Gregor to Polinsky?” Simon asked.
“Polinsky mentioned payouts, but we don’t know if the dealers paid the cops directly or if Polinsky paid them,” Juliana said.
“We may not find enough evidence to support a warrant, but we have enough to bring them in for questioning. I have experience getting people to talk,” Agent Parks said.
“What was in the evidence sent to you?” Viper asked the agent.
“I can’t go into details, but he had unusual payments in the books. Both incoming and outgoing. Everything added up in the end, but the transactions were unusual.”
