by Robin Mahle
Evan slowly opened his eyes and looked pleased but wary of her affections. “Oh, Claire, do you think I’m stupid?”
***
Agent Huffman was growing very concerned that no one had yet heard from Claire and she wasn’t answering her phone. They’d informed Colin of this new development regarding the security tapes and now was the time to get her out. “I think we may need to head over to Winters Financial. We’ll need to meet Gordon there too.” They got back into the car and pulled away from the McKenna home.
It seemed there was finally some good news. “Thank you. We’ll be down shortly to take a look at the findings.” Huffman disconnected the call that had come in as Detective Vance drove them back to the station.
“I think we’ll need that warrant after all. That was Gordon. They found something on the flash drive. The security system was taken down manually, through an override command, input at the system’s terminal. Someone would have had to have access to the control room and, according to Jim Hart, only the guards and two others have codes to access that room.”
“Is Chris Goyal one of those people?” Detective Vance asked.
“No. Frank Winslow and Evan Winters. We’ll need you to get a warrant so we can determine whose code was input into the keypad to access the room and shut the system down.”
“I’ll drop you at your office and head back to the station to work on the warrant. It should only take a few hours to get, if that.”
This was good news, but they still didn’t know where to find Claire and the afternoon was slipping away.
CHAPTER 19
EVAN WAS PATIENTLY waiting for her reply. His chin raised and his eyes lowered as if looking down on her, dominating her. The hand that had rested just above her breast now raised. He looped strands of her black hair, appearing almost crimson in the sunlight, around his index finger; silent, waiting.
There were still others aboard the boat; servers and the cook. He wouldn’t try anything. Not while they were around. It was her only saving grace. She’d pushed too far, asked too much, and it seemed he wasn’t buying it.
“I don’t think you’re stupid, Evan. I just thought that was what you wanted.” Her voice was soft and delicate.
He yanked on the clump of hair twirled on his finger, shaking his head slowly and deliberately. “My God, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I could have given you everything, Claire.” He continued to pull her hair tight.
She could not afford to show her discomfort. Weakness was the reaction he wanted.
“I had such high hopes for us, Claire. The promotion, working hand in hand. I knew that eventually you would see that I was the better man for you. Even going so far as to have your husband fired. I really thought that would deepen the rift I’d carefully introduced into your marriage.”
The extent of his obsession was growing much clearer. She could feel it on the plane that day, but chose to ignore it. She ignored Charlie’s warnings. Maybe it was because for a just a moment, she was taken in by his charms. He’d been behind everything and now she was stuck on a boat with a man who was capable of doing just about anything to get what he wanted. If he had the ability to get Colin fired, to orchestrate blackmail and possibly murder, his reach was boundless.
“Charlie was supposed to seal the deal for me; put the final nail in the coffin, as it were. But he couldn’t do it. I suppose I could have, but I couldn’t let you see me as the enemy. I was supposed to be your savior, your confidant.” The longing expression, a plan that had failed, a desire that had been unreturned, soon changed to resentment.
How carefully he crafted his words, never once admitting culpability in anything that could bring him down.
“I’m sorry you felt as though you had to go through such extremes, Evan.” Her emotions became increasingly difficult to control at the revelation of just how deeply he desired her. Claire was changed now. Determined. Her blue eyes sharpened, pooling with seduction in an attempt to lure him in a final time. “It seems you have little faith as to my intentions. What do I have to do to convince you of my loyalty?” There was still a chance to use his affections to her advantage. Her last attempt to convince him was executed so beautifully, she almost believed herself. But more importantly, would he believe her now?
Evan released her hair and dropped his hand back to her shoulder, lowering it further; down to the almost indiscernible outline of her cell phone tucked in the lining of her jacket. “I’ve been watching you for a while now, Claire. Listening to you. In your home, in your office. You’ve been very careless with whom you collaborate.” He patted the phone. “I even watched you in my office earlier this morning. Did you enjoy having a look around? You’re very smart, finding that ring. Lucas Abbott is a spoiled child whom I should never have trusted with such tasks. If it weren’t for him, things could have turned out much differently for us.” He grasped the phone through the jacket. “Why don’t you take this out of your pocket?”
She’d been defeated, watched every step of the way, having no idea. Her home had been bugged too? And now, he saw through to her intentions and she had just exhausted her final bargaining chip. Claire reached inside her jacket and removed the phone, holding it out for him to see.
“You frightened Beth into keeping quiet and you know they have nothing on you. Nothing I’ve said has amounted to much of anything for them. I’ll do what you ask. I’ll leave without saying a word.”
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that. I need assurances, Claire. You have no idea what’s at stake. So, I’ve had to take precautions.” Evan tossed her phone overboard. A radio was attached to the wall of the bow. He lifted the receiver. “Yes, you may leave now. We won’t be needing anything else. The meal was wonderful; thank you for coming on such short notice.” He set the receiver back down on its cradle. “Now, we can be alone. Won’t that be nice?” Evan raised from the bench and looked towards the water. “The clouds have rolled in quickly.” He glanced at his watch. “I’d say we’ve got time for a little stroll around the bay, maybe even head out a little further, if weather permits.” He turned back to Claire. “You didn’t have any pressing matters this afternoon, did you?”
***
Agent Huffman entered the ground floor lobby of the field office. It was teaming with colleagues from other departments working on their own cases, purposefully heading in one direction or another. There were several other departments occupying this office and it was almost always bustling. Huffman pressed the elevator button to the third floor, where their unit was housed. He’d hoped the team had furthered their investigation into the corporate financials enough to expedite a warrant. They needed to get into WFC, find out where Claire was, and find out who had accessed the control room the night Charlie Monroe went missing.
Huffman entered the lab where Sanchez patrolled between three different team members working the case. “What do we have?” he asked his partner.
“We’ve got a deposit that came from a bank account owned by Winters Financial that went to Beth Graves.” Sanchez got straight to the point.
“Is it the money from Sea-Tech?”
“No. It looks like they paid her off.”
“From a corporate account? Pretty obvious, don’t you think?”
“Yes. But not if it came from someone who was having second thoughts. Someone who maybe was trying to help Claire out of this mess. Hell, maybe he wanted to try and bring the big man down himself. He would’ve known it’d be an easy transaction to spot and would give us enough to move forward.”
“Charlie Monroe.” Huffman revealed a thin smile. It was what they needed. The connection had been made. “They could claim it was an advance, except that Graves was on unpaid leave.” Huffman needed to play devil’s advocate, work out the reasons a judge might say no first. “With what we already know, the password Abbott had in his possession, what Vance is working on regarding the security logs, and now this? It’ll be enough to get a warrant to seize their files. We’ll han
d them enough red tape to sort through that in the event they can claim it was something else, we’ll already have their information, be able to find something of greater substance.”
Sanchez agreed. “We need to track down Claire before we approach Evan Winters. I still haven’t been able to get a hold of her. Let’s process the request and head over to WFC. If we can’t find her, someone probably knows where she is.”
***
After an unexpected delay in getting the warrant, they were finally ready to get inside WFC’s office. Late afternoon was approaching and still no word from Claire. No one wanted to admit it, but they were growing concerned by her absence. Colin had been on the phone with Sanchez more than a few times in the past couple of hours. It was all the agent could do to keep the man calm. He had stood in the same room with Vance and Huffman last week, all assuring Colin that Claire would be safe; a fact of which Colin had repeatedly reminded him during the course of the day.
Agent Sanchez was on the phone with Detective Vance, while Huffman started the car. “Can you meet us at WFC’s office? We’re heading there now.”
Having Seattle PD behind them was a necessary call. No telling what the situation would be once they got inside the building. The two warrants had been issued separately: one that expanded on the FBI’s existing Sea-Tech case, allowing for access to all client accounts, banking transactions and assets, which included any and all electronic equipment; the other, Seattle PD’s warrant to search the security control room and system logs. Because they pertained to two distinct investigations, Vance would be serving that warrant on behalf of his Monroe case.
Detective Vance pulled up in front of the WFC building first, followed by two patrol cars. Agents Sanchez and Huffman arrived only minutes behind. This was it. Several other agents arrived and moved quickly, retrieving boxes from their cars to carry the evidence.
The agents stood at the entrance. “We’ll start on the fourth floor. Follow my lead. We’re taking everything.” Sanchez led the way into the building, donning his navy blue jacket with the bright yellow FBI initials embroidered on the back. The others followed, each easily identified by their windbreakers.
When they entered the building, Erik jumped from his seat at the security desk. He expressed a wide-eyed excitement as the agents filed inside. “Holy shit.” The smile on his face was almost comical as if this was the coolest thing he’d ever seen.
Agent Sanchez approached with a warrant in his hand. “Special Agent Gordon Sanchez. I have a warrant to search the offices of Winters Financial Consultants.”
Erik glanced at the paper. Having no idea what an official warrant looked like, he assumed it was legitimate by the seal stamped at the bottom. “I’m sorry, but Mr. Winters isn’t in the office. I can call his assistant. I’m sure she knows where he is.”
“Thank you, but if it’s all the same to you, we’ll go on up ourselves.” He preferred not to alert Winters yet anyway, wanting to make his way to Claire’s office first, although it wasn’t sitting right with Sanchez that Winters wasn’t in his office either.
“Certainly.” Erik gestured towards the elevators.
The two elevators took the twenty-odd agents up to the fourth floor first.
“Start here. Seize all electronic equipment with the exception of personal cell phones. Take every file in every file cabinet. And find Claire McKenna.”
As the agents spilled out into the lobby, the receptionist yanked off her headset and stood frozen behind her desk.
Sanchez stepped back into the elevator, leading Huffman and Vance to the top floor.
Sheri gasped when she saw the three men walking towards her with definite purpose. “Can I help you?”
“I have a warrant and I’d like to see your CEO, Evan Winters,” Sanchez began.
“I’m sorry, but Mr. Winters is not in the office. What’s this about?”
“I need to know where he is, ma’am,” Sanchez said.
Sheri glanced at the time on her desk phone. She’d expected him back already, as it was past three o’clock. “Mr. Winters is at the marina on a business lunch.”
“Can you get a hold of him please? I’ll speak to him on the phone.”
Sheri began dialing Evan, but he did not answer. In fact, it seemed he might have had his phone turned off. “He’s not answering. It’s gone straight to voicemail.”
Sanchez looked at Huffman. “Stay here with her. I’ll take Vance back down to the fourth floor. We need to talk to Abbott, find out where Claire is.” He turned back to Sheri. “Ma’am, this warrant allows me to seize all files and electronic equipment associated with Winters Financial Consultants. That includes Mr. Winters’ office. I’d appreciate your cooperation in letting Agent Huffman inside to do his job.”
Sheri swallowed hard, seemingly to steady her nerves. Her hands trembled as she reached for the keys to Winters’ office. “This way, please.” She struggled to get the key in the lock.
“It’s okay, ma’am. There’s no reason to be frightened.” Huffman gently touched her shoulder.
“What’s he done?” Sheri’s voice quivered as she continued to struggle with the lock.
“As you know, we’ve been looking into the matter of stolen funds. We believe Winters and others are involved in a much larger corruption scheme that could also involve other clients.”
Sheri finally managed to open the door. “There you go. Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay. If you’ll just stay out here, I won’t be long. Thank you.”
“We’re heading down to detain Abbott,” Sanchez said.
When they stepped back onto the elevator, Sanchez grew increasingly concerned that Claire might be at the marina with Winters. “We need to get some people over to the marina ASAP.”
The doors opened to the fourth floor. The scene had grown chaotic. Employees on their cell phones, some taking pictures and video, others making calls, groups forming, discussing the situation. The team of agents continued to pull CPUs and files and place them into the boxes. Lucas Abbott stood next to one of the agents, looking as if it had been against his will.
“Lucas Abbott?” Sanchez asked as he and Vance approached.
“You mind telling me why this man refuses to let me move?” Abbott looked as though he was above the fray, incensed that he’d been asked to stay where he was and wait for instruction.
“I need to know where Claire McKenna is, Mr. Abbott. Have you seen or heard from her today?”
“No. I’m not her boss. Maybe you should try Frank Winslow.”
“Thank you, Mr. Abbott. I’d hang around for a while if I were you. We may need to ask you some questions.” Sanchez turned to Vance. “Are your people in the control room yet?”
“I’ll go down there now. I’m sure the security guard opened it up for them. But let me find out what’s happening. You gonna talk to Winslow?”
“It’s my next stop, after I have Huffman question the assistant as to who went with Winters. Might be Claire.”
Sanchez radioed Agent Huffman. “Can you find out who Winters was having lunch with at the marina?”
“Hang on.” Huffman stepped out of Winters’ office. “Ma’am, do you happen to know who your boss was having lunch with today?”
“Yes, sir. Claire McKenna went with him.” Sheri was still trembling and her voice cracked at the mention of Claire.
“Do you know when they left?”
“Somewhere around twelve, one o’clock. As far as I know, they’re still on his boat. Claire was very upset about Charlie Monroe. She worked for him for a long time. I think Mr. Winters was trying to help take her mind off of it.”
“Thank you, Sheri. I appreciate your help.” Huffman pressed down on the radio. “Claire is with Winters on his boat. Someone needs to get down there.”
“Vance is sending a car. Once we get things under control here, you and I need to get down there,” Sanchez replied.
“Ten-four.”
It wasn’t long before other ra
nking members in the company arrived on the fourth floor, demanding to see the contents of the search warrant. Liz Sherman, the VP of Accounting, appeared erratic. Sanchez could only guess that she might have something to be worried about.
“Ms. Sherman, if there’s something you’d like to say, I’d be happy to take a statement from you. I believe Beth Graves worked for you, didn’t she?”
Liz seemed to consider his words carefully. She’d overlooked certain accounting discrepancies for the better part of two years and it wouldn’t be long before they realized that her oversight was intentional. Her proceeds from the scheme went directly to the Caymans and tracing them back to her would be all too easy. The only saving grace was that she never tried to have the funds brought back into the US, either through fake entities or otherwise. So, she could be charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, but not money laundering. A difference when it would come down to sentencing. Which, perhaps, if she decided to cooperate, would be minimal. “I’ll help in any way I can, Agent Sanchez.”
Next stop would be Frank Winslow’s office. Since Winters wasn’t there, Frank was the only other person who had a code to the security control room. It would be useful for Vance’s case if it could be determined who had accessed that room that night. There was little doubt that once access was gained, Goyal was the one who had entered the override command to shut the system down while they left unnoticed. But what hadn’t been determined was whether or not Charlie went with them.
***
The security control room was below the first floor and just above the parking garage. Vance was already inside with forensics to assess how the system had gone offline. His cell phone buzzed. “What’ve you got?” No point in engaging in anything other than the task at hand. He knew it was Sanchez and needed an answer.