Love Inspired Suspense May 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: Trail of EvidenceGone MissingLethal Exposure

by Lynette Eason

  Clay gave her a one-armed hug and felt her body trembling from recounting her story.

  “Is Amelia all right?” Fiona asked.

  “She’s fine,” Clay said. “She’s staying with her boyfriend.”

  “I didn’t want to stay with her for too long because I didn’t want to put her in danger, but it gave me the idea to go to Gabe’s family’s cabin to hide out. I figured it would make it harder for anyone to find me.”

  “We didn’t put it together until Gabe talked about the hiking trips he and Amelia go on all the time.”

  “I know.” Fiona made a face. “Ew. Hiking.”

  Clay and Joslyn laughed. It felt good to have something like that to laugh about after the danger and chaos of the past few days.

  “So you went to Amelia because you didn’t trust your father’s people?” Joslyn asked.

  “Yes. But I didn’t know who wanted me kidnapped or why and the men who took me didn’t offer any clues.”

  “We’ve had two guys after us for the past few days, because we came to Phoenix looking for you,” Clay said.

  “Oh, no.” Fiona’s hand tightened in his.

  “Hey, we’re okay.”

  “Oh, yeah.” She poked at his cast. “Sure. You’re great.”

  It probably wasn’t the best time to talk about the bomb at her house and at Joslyn’s apartment. Clay cleared his throat. “Anyway, we got a photo of them and Joslyn has some spider web program—”

  “It’s a web-crawler,” Joslyn said. “A friend and I have been working on a facial-recognition program that looks for photos on the web.”

  “Whoa,” Fiona said. “You need serious processing power for that. Did you—”

  Clay cleared his throat. “Remember, Neanderthal in the room.”

  “I’ll tell you later,” Joslyn said to Fiona with a smile.

  “The two guys work for Roman,” Clay said. “You seem to know him?”

  “I’ve heard of him. Before I started working for Dad, they were rivals. But then Dad outsmarted him in some business deal and Richard Roman was livid.”

  “We think that one of the reasons he wants you is because of your knowledge of the offshore accounts in Bara,” Joslyn said.

  Fiona’s brows furrowed. “But it’s been three weeks. Dad must have contacted his private banker to arrange to transfer the Bara money to some other account by now.”

  “I don’t know if Martin knew you were gone right away, especially if one of his people arranged for Roman’s men to take you,” Joslyn said thoughtfully. “We went to Bobby’s house in Tahoe, and he said Martin came around looking for you only two weeks ago. Perhaps the money hasn’t been moved yet.”

  Fiona thought about it. “Maybe not. He might still be in the process of transferring it. Once he does, the accounts I know will become obsolete.”

  “He might still come after you,” Clay growled. “You know about Martin’s finances and contacts, and Roman might want to target you just out of revenge against Martin.”

  Fiona gave a short, hard laugh. “Like Dad would care.”

  “What do you mean?” Clay asked.

  “Dad doesn’t care about me,” Fiona spat out. “Do you know what he said when he saw me at the museum? It was all about his money, and how his accountants had betrayed him. He knew I’d never betray him because I was his blood and so I’d feel the same way about his money.”

  “He cares about you because you’re his blood,” Joslyn said.

  “He was like that even when I was working for him in LA. He was never interested in me, or my friends, or anything in my life. It was all him and his business and the work I was doing for him. It’s another reason I wanted to leave and not tell him where I was going.”

  Fiona looked at Clay. “I was always so sorry for how he treated you when he and Mom divorced, for how he just didn’t seem to care. I made excuses for him because it seemed like he loved me. But he didn’t—he was grooming me to work for him, or maybe eventually take over his business, I don’t know. He only cares about himself, and I’m sorry I never saw that.” Her arms tightened around him, and tears fell down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry for all the arguments we had back in Chicago. I was so hypocritical. I was too ashamed to contact you again.”

  “Hey, it’s okay.” He squeezed her tight, resting his head against her hair. “No matter what you’ve done, Fi, I will always love you.”

  “You have to,” she said in a muffled voice. “You’re my brother.”

  “I will always love you, too,” Joslyn said. “I’ll be here for you.”

  “We’ve spent three weeks looking for you,” Clay said. “That’s got to prove it to you.”

  “But with everything I’ve done,” Fiona said. “I feel so awful.”

  “Love covers over a multitude of sins.” He said it automatically, without even thinking, and he remembered it was Patrick’s favorite Bible verse. And he suddenly understood. It summed up how he felt about his sister—the things she had done didn’t change the way he felt about her. So then, wouldn’t God feel the same way about Clay and his past?

  The O’Neills had accepted him, Joslyn had put her trust in him. Maybe he wasn’t as worthless and unlovable as he’d always thought he was. As Martin had made him think he was.

  Maybe he wasn’t as alone as he always felt.

  “So what happens now?” Fiona asked in a small voice.

  “We find out how to stop Roman from coming after you,” Joslyn said.

  Fiona shuddered. “The past three weeks have been awful, looking over my shoulder all the time.”

  Joslyn nodded gravely. “I understand.”

  Clay wanted to know the story behind the empathy in her words. He wanted to protect her.

  He also wanted to protect Fiona. He wasn’t going to lose her again. There had to be a way to eliminate the threat against her and keep her safe.

  But how?

  SEVENTEEN

  “I’m sorry,” Fiona said. “I don’t have any additional information on Richard Roman.”

  Joslyn realized that for some reason, she’d been hoping that once they found Fiona, suddenly all the answers to their dilemma would appear. Perhaps exhaustion was clouding her judgment.

  “Then we need to take you to Sonoma to protect you,” Clay said.

  “No.” Fiona shook her head violently. “I left Amelia because I didn’t want to get anyone else involved in this. I even tried to keep aloof from the neighbors here, but they were so friendly, and then they needed help with their computers…” Fiona shrugged helplessly. “I don’t want to put anyone else in danger.”

  “The O’Neills aren’t just anyone,” Clay said. “They can handle themselves and anyone else Roman throws at them. And it doesn’t hurt that they’re friends with a local detective.”

  “Your friends here can handle themselves, too,” Joslyn said, “but my bosses are trained for stuff like this.”

  “Why can’t I just hide out here until Dad has moved his money?”

  “Like I said, the problem is that Roman might still target you even after the money is gone, if only to get revenge on Martin,” Clay said.

  “I’m not sure it’ll make a difference to Dad,” Fiona said bitterly.

  “It’ll make a difference to me,” Clay told her fiercely. He wasn’t angry—he loved her. He didn’t want anyone to hurt her.

  Tomas…Tomas had hurt Joslyn himself.

  It was such a contrast, these two strong men, one an ugly memory who still seemed to have her in a choke hold as she walked through her daily life, and the other who had burst into her life like a whirlwind, who made her laugh, made her feel brave, made her feel safe.

  “I just can’t be comfortable until you’re out of danger,” Clay told Fiona.

  Fiona sighed. “I know that, but if Roman is going to come after me no matter what, then what do we do?”

  Joslyn sighed and admitted, “We don’t have a game plan other than hiding you with my friends. We were hoping yo
u’d have some information on Roman.”

  “How about we have lunch,” Fiona said. “I’m starving and even if I’m coming with you two, I’m not going on an empty stomach.”

  While Fiona made quesadillas for them, Joslyn called Liam and Elisabeth.

  “We found Fiona,” she said.

  “Praise God,” Elisabeth said. “So she’s at Gabe’s family cabin in Santa Cruz? That’s pretty smart of her.”

  “But she didn’t even know Roman was the one after her.”

  Elisabeth sighed. “Well, Liam and I have been researching Roman since you were on the road. I’ll email you what we have.”

  “Thanks.”

  They sat down to lunch, and Clay was so obviously happy to be with his sister again that it nearly made Joslyn ache for him. He wanted to know what she’d been doing, all the little details of her life. Whenever she asked him about his life in Illinois, he shook his head and said, “I want to hear about you, first.” It occurred to her that this was who he was, enthusiastic about life, loyal, giving.

  Finally they finished lunch and they had to discuss what would happen next.

  “I think it would be safer to take you to Sonoma,” Clay said to Fiona. “Even if we don’t know yet what we’ll do, at least you’ll have people around you who know how to protect you.”

  “These people know how to protect me,” Fiona said. “And you said yourself that Roman’s men are in Sonoma. How will that be any safer?”

  “She has a point,” Joslyn said. Then something else occurred to her. “Hiding might spur Roman on, too, like a treasure hunt. Some men are like that.”

  Fiona said, “So if I can’t hide, then what?”

  “We need to make it so that if Roman so much as touches you, it would cause terrible repercussions for him,” Clay said. “Something so bad for him that it would be enough of a deterrent to keep him away.”

  “I’ve been reading what Elisabeth dug up on Roman,” Joslyn said. She’d gotten onto the WiFi in the house and logged in to her email to get the report. “One thing that stood out is that apparently Roman’s company is not doing as well as Martin’s. Actually, his company has been hemorrhaging money ever since Martin stole that bid from him.”

  “So taking Martin’s money isn’t just revenge, it’s a need,” Clay said.

  “That would make sense,” Joslyn said. “What if this is a long game?”

  “A big con?” Fiona asked.

  “Think about it,” Joslyn said. “Roman found out about the Bara accounts somehow, and that you were handling them. He decides to manipulate the situation so that Martin would move more money into those accounts. All he’d have to do is get the other accountants to start skimming, and then get caught—maybe he bribed them, or blackmailed them, or maybe he made sure Martin found out about the skimming by leaking the information. Martin would naturally move his money into the only account that wasn’t being mismanaged.”

  “That’s exactly what Dad told me he did,” Fiona said. “That’s why he wanted me to come back to work for him, because so much of his money is in Bara Bank and he trusted me.”

  “Roman would really go through all that trouble, wait this long?” Clay asked.

  “From what I’ve read about Roman, that’s something he might do,” Joslyn said. “Revenge is a dish best served cold, right?”

  “So what do we do?”

  The million-dollar question. They were silent as they thought about it, then Joslyn said, “What if we take away Martin’s money?”

  Fiona and Clay looked at her.

  “We move the money from the Bara accounts?” Clay asked.

  “No, not legally,” Joslyn said. “And no, not move it from Bara. We make it inaccessible to both Martin and Roman in one fell swoop.” She gave Fiona a hesitant look. “What if you testified against Martin to the FBI?”

  Fiona was stunned, but Clay immediately picked up on what Joslyn was saying.

  “Fi, you can cut a deal with the FBI,” he said. “You get immunity, and you tell the FBI about Martin’s money laundering. If the FBI arrests him, they can freeze all his assets.”

  “There would be no money for Roman to steal,” Joslyn said, “not without a lot of high-tech work, and if he had those kinds of resources, he’d have already stolen the money from the Bara accounts.”

  “Roman would back off so he isn’t singed by the legal heat on Martin,” Clay said. “I’ve seen it happen before, although from the criminal’s point of view. The authorities take out a criminal’s victim or target—sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally—and so the criminal slinks away.”

  “It’ll give the FBI—or us—time to find more information on Roman so we can put him away for good,” Joslyn said.

  “It’s up to you, Fi,” Clay said gently to her. “Whatever you decide, you know I’ll be here for you.”

  Fiona chewed on her bottom lip. “It seems terrible to think about testifying against my own father.” She looked up at Clay. “But I know exactly how he treated you. I know how he views me—I’m just a tool for him to use. That’s the kind of person he is. He wouldn’t hesitate to turn against me if it served his interests. I’ll do it.”

  “You’re sure?” Clay took her hand.

  “I’m sure,” she said. “But what about Roman after all this is done?”

  “Let’s worry about Roman after you’re safe.”

  “We can ask Elisabeth to talk to her FBI contacts,” Joslyn said. “The problem is that we’re in a time crunch. Martin is moving his money.”

  “We have to act now,” Clay said urgently. “Trust me on this. If he moves the money, it’ll make Fiona’s information on the Bara accounts useless to the Feds, and they’ll have nothing to put a case together against Martin.”

  “How would he move it?” Joslyn asked.

  “There’s an underground banker he uses. Frank Devereaux. He’s just outside of LA in a pretty remote spot,” Fiona said.

  “How can we get him to postpone the transfer?” Joslyn asked.

  “You can’t,” Fiona said, her face turning pale. “But I can.”

  “No way,” Clay said immediately.

  “Maybe we can hack into his computers,” Joslyn said.

  “You’d still need to get close enough to do it,” Fiona said. “He has surveillance cameras. He would spook if he saw anyone within a hundred yards of his property. In fact, he’d spook even if a camera went out.”

  “Continuous loop?” Joslyn said.

  “We’d still need to get close enough to hack the camera feed. Look, he knows me. In fact…he’s met both of you, too.”

  “When?” Clay asked.

  “In Chicago. It was just before I left. Do you remember picking me up from school so we could go to the ballgame? There was a man I was talking to while I waited, and I introduced you. I said he was trying to recruit me for a job.”

  Clay’s brows knit. “Yeah, I think I remember. Old guy, gray hair, kinda grouchy?”

  Fiona smiled. “That’s him. Martin had sent him to talk to me to see if I had the computer skills to handle the money laundering and his Bara accounts. At that time, Martin was using Frank for several accounts, but it was taking too much of his time to run them all.”

  “So Frank knows I’m your brother,” Clay said.

  “He also knows about your mob connections and the fact you went to prison, which might make him less suspicious about seeing you again.”

  “But I don’t remember meeting anyone like that,” Joslyn said.

  “I didn’t introduce you,” Fiona said. “You walked me to the restaurant where I was meeting Dad for dinner because it was on the way to Mariella’s apartment. Frank was outside the restaurant talking to my father. He left after I’d gotten there, but he saw you when you waved goodbye.”

  “He’s not going to remember me from that.”

  “Before he left, he asked who you were. I told him and said you were the best hacker I knew. He said it was a pity my dad didn’t need any mo
re computer experts.”

  “Where are you going with this?” Clay said.

  “Don’t you see? The two of you could come with me.”

  Clay looked hopeful. Joslyn was wary, but at the same time, she knew what she had to do in order to protect Fiona. Still, she had to mention, “Do you think we should wait and let the FBI take care of this?”

  Clay thought a moment. “The problem is that we’re on a deadline. If Martin moves his money and we don’t know where it went, it’s Fiona’s word against Martin’s. There’s nothing to prove she’s telling the truth, and the FBI needs proof.”

  “Also, it’s only been about two weeks,” Fiona said. “If we go now and we find out the money’s already been transferred, there’s a better chance we can find out where Frank sent it before he erases the info from his computers. If we wait another day or two, it might be gone.”

  “Did you ever go see Frank with other people?” Clay asked.

  Fiona bit her lip. “Usually only with a bodyguard.”

  “Then that settles it. Joslyn’s not going.”

  “I am not staying behind,” Joslyn said.

  “I think we could use Joslyn’s help,” Fiona said. “Remember what I said about hacking his computers? It’s not impossible, if we can get close enough. If Joslyn’s there, either one of us can try to hack Frank’s computers. If he’s already moved Dad’s money, we might be able to find out where it’s gone. If he hasn’t, we’ll be able to slow the transfer.”

  Clay looked mutinous, but Fiona folded her arms as if to make her point.

  Finally he sighed. “All right, if you think this will finally get rid of this threat…”

  “It will,” Fiona said. “It has to.”

  “We can be there in a few hours.”

  “Joslyn and I need to create the hack, first,” Fiona said. “Just a simple virus, I think, will do the trick.”

  Fiona happened to have a virus that someone else had created, which she’d found and saved, and so they worked to reprogram it to slow the money transfer. Fiona was most familiar with Frank’s computer system, so she did most of the heavy lifting. It only took a couple hours, and Joslyn was glad that Clay took the time to sleep on the couch.

  While Fiona was finishing up the hack, Joslyn went outside. The mountain air was cleaner, smelling strongly of fir and faintly of leaf mold. All was quiet, and above her, clouds skidded across the azure sky.