Page 86 of The Cinderella Secret
“No, not really, I just haven’t had to lay it out yet.” Aiden stared into his glass for a moment, trying to figure out where to start. “OK, twenty odd years ago, Bo Zhao, his wife, and Ella were all living in here in New York. We’ll ignore for the moment that he and his wife were probably headed for divorce, but hey, you know, more or less everyone was happy, and Bo was working for DevEntier.”
“I thought that was in dispute? Or at least whether he was a contractor or an employee was in dispute.”
“He was definitely an employee. What we found proof of today at the house was that he was working with Randall on, among other things, a Department of Defense project called Frixion. It’s just, that is not all he was doing. During his business trips I think he was also networking and setting up the foundation for the solar power production pipeline that Bai Zhao is currently trying to muscle into place.”
“I’ve looked into that,” said Jackson. “It’s too bad Zhao is set on a hostile take-over because they’d be a natural ally for DevEntier.”
“Agreed,” said Aiden. “But we’ll get to that in a minute. Aside from using his DevEntier business trips to network himself into a new business, Bo Zhao was also financing his dream by working with someone inside DevEntier to sell military secrets, probably to the Chinese.”
“And then Randall caught wind of it. That email was him and Owen discussing what to do about it, right?”
“Right,” agreed Aiden. “But then someone killed Bo and scared his wife so badly that she took Ella and fled the country. And while industrial espionage is a pretty good motive for murder, we’re really, really hoping that Randall, Owen, or anyone else we’re related to wasn’t responsible.”
“I can help with that,” said Jackson, pulling out his phone and flipping open an email. “The police eventually labeled it a mugging gone wrong, but the detective at the time was less than happy about that. He suspected that it was a targeted attack. Bo Zhao had ligature marks around the neck and two stab wounds in the back, and to cap it off, a bullet to the temple.”
“Other than overkill, what does that mean?” asked Aiden.
“It means, someone grabbed him around the neck, and stabbed him twice in the back once through the ribs into the heart and once down low into the liver area. It’s immobilizing and a good way to kill someone. But the killer wanted to be extra-super-duper sure. They drug him back further into an alley and used a silencer to finish the job.”
Aiden grimaced. “That doesn’t sound like a mugging.”
“That’s because it’s not. It’s a hit. Sure, they tossed the body and took his wallet, watch, et cetera. But no, that’s not a mugging.”
“And we don’t think Randall or Owen could have done that?”
“Not saying they couldn’t have,” said Jackson. “But the body was found in Chinatown where a couple of tall blond dudes would have stood out. The police turned up zero witnesses and no one even admitted to having seen Bo that day. The detective at the time thought it was a triad hit.”
“Randall and Owen could have hired out,” said Aiden.
“Plausible. However, one of the giant piles of bullshit we unearthed from the boxes was all of Owen’s bank statements and his tax filings for about five years before his death. They looked pretty legit. I’m currently having a guy go over them to look for any cash withdrawals, because that kind of hit is a good solid ten grand. If he paid for it, it will show up.”
“Even fifteen years ago?”
“Yeah, a hit is like a blow job. The prices have been pretty consistent through-out history. Just adjust for inflation and the Romans were paying about the same.”
“I…” Aiden didn’t know where to go with that. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that. So it probably wasn’t Owen, but it might have been Randall?”
“Might have been,” said Jackson, “but I mentioned having someone go over Owen’s taxes to Eleanor and she said the reason he’d probably kept all of them was because Randall was undergoing an IRS audit at the time. Kind of hard to make money go missing when someone is going over all of your receipts.”
“This is good,” said Aiden. “This fits.”
“Fits what?”
“Evan surprised me. I should have been able to walk through it with him, but my brain was fuzzy and talking to Ella helped.”
“Yeah, talking. I’m sure that’s what helped.”
“You are such an asshole.”
“I truly am,” agreed Jackson with a grin.
Aiden decided to ignore him. “OK, so from the email we discovered, we’re pretty sure that Bo was selling secrets to the Chinese. Ella’s mom says the same thing. But from the same email, we know that personwasn’tRandall, otherwise he wouldn’t have been surprised by it. But Ella’s mom says itwassomeone at DevEntier.”
“OK, I’m with you so far.”
“Then everyone died. The problem appears to go away. But five years ago there was a DOD audit on DevEntier before they awarded a new contract. They went back twenty years and examined every fucking document in the place and DevEntier passed with flying colors.”
“OK?”
