Page 111 of After All The Wreckage
“We have a good lead on Walden’s shooter. But he wasn’t the person who messed with your mom’s car or pulled the stunt at Shady Lane tonight,” Sheila said.
I barely bit back my angry retort at her poor word choice. Thatstunthad ended my mom’s life.
G watched me closely, the action grating on my already shredded nerves. As an undercover agent, it was her job to be good at reading people. Her life depended on it, but I couldn’t afford for her to see through me. I didn’t want her to see my anger or to figure out my next steps, so I fought harder than I’d ever had to keep a straight face.
“The person who was responsible for my mom is a hacker. A really good one. That’s a short list.”
G nodded. “Yes.”
“You going to share?” I asked.
The two women exchanged a look before G responded. “All we can tell you right now is that the signature on the order at your mom’s facility was pulled from one of your canceled checks. This person gets in and out of banking systems, car navigation systems, and more without leaving a trace.
“We’ve been trying to find them for several years. Every time we think we’ve narrowed down their location, they move. We’ve trailed them to Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and the Caymans. What we know for sure is they have a role in almost every aspect of the Lovato business. We find them, we get to take them down.”
I wanted to offer to help track them. I knew my way around every backdoor and code out there, but I also knew the FBI had plenty of experienced technophiles at their disposal. I doubted I could find anything they hadn’t already uncovered. I hadn’t even known the Lovatos were involved whereas my mom had.
I could try to give myself some grace for the limited amount of time I’d had since Friday. Finding Monte had been the priority, and ever since, I’d been chasing down different leads.
But deep in my soul, I felt like it was my inability to do the job on time and in the right way that had cost two people their lives. I’d never forgive myself for Mom… Tears welled, and I barely held them back by focusing on the bourbon in my glass. I swirled it around, unsure if I could even swallow liquid with the tightness in my throat.
“Are you going to put Walden’s sister-in-law and nephew in protective custody?” I asked.
“We’ve got agents going to talk to her now.”
It really wasn’t what I’d asked, but I moved on. “What about Gage and Monte?”
“The Palmers weren’t at their apartment when we went by. But my understanding from talking to the local police is that they sent a car over to River Kane’s home. Is that where they’re staying?”
How would Gage’s family react to more agents showing up to question him?
My stomach turned. “Gage was my client. He didn’t have any say in what went down today. He shouldn’t even have been withme. I take responsibility for anything you want to charge me with but leave him out of it.”
The women stared, and I tried not to give them an inch. Tried not to show the way my heart pattered and ached. How the love I felt for Gage made me want to shield him from any backlash. I couldn’t have him hurt. I couldn’t have him taken from his family.
“He was there. We’ll still need to debrief him,” Sheila said.
I didn’t respond.
Instead, I started toward the door, signaling we were done. It took a minute, but they followed me.
“I wish you’d called me sooner, Rory,” Sheila said.
“Tell that to Dad. He’s the one who knew about Mom all along. He even knew the Lovatos were involved.”
Her cheek tightened, but she didn’t respond. Maybe she’d get more out of him than he’d been willing to share with me, but I doubted it.
I closed the door behind them, set the alarm, grabbed my things, and headed down the hall. Nan’s lights were out. I doubted she was sleeping, just like I doubted I’d ever close my eyes tonight.
I went directly to the office and stared at the corkboard for a long time. Then, I added the new information we’d gathered today using handwritten sticky notes and printed images. Last, I put pushpins up for the locations of all the warehouses on the printout from the Argento Skies office.
One of them near the water could be where Monte had been held, but I couldn’t necessarily be sure his impressions had been right. The sounds and smell he’d experienced could have been a fountain or a pond.
But he’d said he’d only been in the trunk for about fifteen minutes before they’d pulled him out. And about the same amount of time when they’d dropped him off at the policestation. I drew circles for the distance they could have gone based on what I knew about D.C. traffic.
I plugged in my computer, set it up, and started my research on the locations in the overlapping area. Of the five in the circles, Gage and I had checked out one, and only two others had transferred hands within the last month. One of the purchasers was a corporation and one was a privately held company.
I pulled bank statements for all the board members and owners. Then, I logged into our private investigators’ database and ran background checks on everyone involved.
