Page 49 of Pitbull
“So, it might have nothing to do with prostitution?”
Tex shrugged. “All I can tell you is what I found. Maybe he could be the mysterious man who called Abigail.”
“Maybe.”
“What I don’t get is, how did Abigail meet Claudia…” Tex paused but then shook his head. “What does it mean for this whole deal anyway?”
Pitbull rubbed the back of his neck. “We went into this whole thing thinking it had something to do with prostitution and the girl.” Pitbull took another swallow from his coffee. “Could it have been some elaborate scheme?”
“None of this makes any sense.”
“How did you find Penrod anyway?” Pitbull asked.
“I followed the money.” Tex tapped away at his keyboards. “I went through the banks, searchin’ for every large withdrawal someone was tryin’ to hide.”
“Trying to hide?”
“Yeah. They didn’t report it.”
“Um—but that’s not possible to hide in Germany. Everything is computerized—those reports are automatically sent.”
“True.” Tex beamed proudly. “I never said anything about Germany. I looked into Germans still livin’ in Germany who’s made some big withdrawals or transfers in the last six months out of offshore bank accounts.”
“I don’t wanna know how you did it and how many international laws you’ve broken.”
“Fourteen, but shhh. Behold my genius.”
Pitbull had to chuckle. “Okay, Boy Wonder. Dazzle me.”
“I believe you misspoke—I think what you were going for was Man Wonder?”
Pitbull groaned. “Tex!”
With a smirk, Tex explained. “I traced those to find how many of them had major dealings in Germany. Only three came up,” Tex continued. “Out of those, one had money transferred back into Germany, twice in the time we’re looking at. The money disappeared but showed up again being transferred to a numbered account for a shell company. Once it was there, it was split in two and withdrawn in cash. So, guess what I did next?”
Pitbull sighed. “Um—I don’t know.”
“Traced the bills.”
“You can do that?” Pitbull asked, wide-eyed.
“Well, yeah. Each bill has a serial number,” Tex explained. “Every time you pull money out of the bank, the machine or teller’s computer keeps track of the bills they expend. All I had to do was follow the serial numbers for those withdrawals.”
“And…”
“See this euro bill?” Tex asked pointing to the screen. “We found it in Abigail’s things after she confessed to helping these thugs. It came from one of the large withdrawals. The person who brought it back into German was Tavart Penrod.”
Pitbull suddenly felt as if his whole world had been turned upside down. The more information he received the more things made absolutely no sense. Where would Penrod get that kind of money? Why would he have an offshore account? Why would he have paid some shell company fifty thousand euros? Why would he go after Claudia?
He rubbed his temples.
“I’m a genius, huh?” Tex patted his shoulder.
“Yeah—a certified Kevin Mitnick. But all this just gives me more questions than answers. Why go after Claudia? If he wanted to get to me? And I had nothing to do with him being expelled from CIRO—why come after me at all?”
Tex inhaled loudly then exhaled. “Because he may have only worked with you for a short time, Pitbull. But he knows, no matter how angry you get at family, you won’t let them suffer.”
“And what if Claudia was in her car?”
