Finished, Sin uncuffed him and let Aria bring him upstairs to join his family.
She then started on Sawyer. She skipped over the basics. “How much are you into your bookie for?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The coin Becca gave you. No one flips a coin between his knuckles like you do except an experienced gambler.”
“So, I like to play poker, so what?”
Sin punched him in the gut. “I’m finished screwing around,” she seethed as he doubled over.
“I swear, I don’t owe anyone a thing,” he groaned.
“Who did you call in Calabria?”
“Aria.”
“Why?”
“Over the past year or so, I had arranged for her to come to Dartmouth to see Pia. When everything went haywire in Key West, I knew she’d be worried, so I called her to try and comfort her.”
“And the West Palm Beach number?”
“I was told to call the number if I wanted to find Becca.”
“By whom?”
“I don’t know. It came from an unknown number.” Sin curled her fingers into a fist to hit him again. “I swear that’s the truth. I just wanted to get Becca back safe.”
“Tell me about the night of the kidnapping. Why did you let Becca go out unescorted?”
“Those were my orders. I was told to give her some space.”
“Again, by whom?”
“Smitty called and told me that’s what President Lancaster wanted. That he wanted her to feel like a normal college student for just one night.”
“Why did you follow her?”
“Becca is my responsibility. There was no way I was going to let her go out without a tail. Even if it was just me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this when we originally met at Spanky’s?”
“Because I fucked up. Because I wanted to help you find her. I knew if I told you the truth, you would send me packing with the rest of my team.”
She continued to question him until she was satisfied with his answers. Finished, she stood to leave. “Wait, you can’t leave me down here cuffed like this.”
She bent down and stared him in the eye. “I can do anything I want. Stay down here and think about what you did. Because of you, Becca may have suffered needlessly. You think about that.”
She walked up the stairs while he tossed every swear word possible at her.
Upstairs, Danny was waiting for her. Her shoulders relaxed when he flashed his one-hundred-watt smile. She looked down and spotted his keys in his hand. “It looks like you’re heading out.”
“Yeah. I think it’s time. You seem to have everything under control. At least the part I can help you with.”
“Thank you for everything. You saved my life more than once.”
“That’s what friends do.” Danny’s face beamed. “Besides, now I have bragging rights. I fought beside the Angel.
Sin rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Listen, if you ever—”
Danny held up his hands. “I put that world behind me when I opted out of the Marines. I’m glad I was able to help, and I’ll be there if you ever need me, but I like the tranquility of normal life. Life on the swamp suits me.”
She hugged him. “I owe you. If you ever need me, all you have to do is call. I’ll be there.”
He nodded. “I know.”
64
Sin joined her team in the library and told them what transpired down stairs.
“You believe them?” Fletch asked.
“I do.”
“Where does that leave us?” he asked.
“It leaves us with a couple of suspects. Go get something to eat and get some sleep.”
Everyone but Fletch and Troy left. “What are you going to do?” Troy asked.
She sat behind the desk and pulled out the phones she had confiscated from Savio and Sawyer along with the ones with Lancaster’s cloned numbers. “I’m going fishing.” She attached them by way of USB cord to her computer and brought up the call lists from all four phones.
A half a day later, the desk was covered in paper. She cross referenced the numbers against one another, eliminating the calls that made no sense to the case. She made copies of the numbers she had left and gave a copy to both Fletch and Troy. “One of these numbers belongs to the one who masterminded this entire thing.”
“Two of these belong to Lancaster,” Troy said. “You don’t think he would put his daughter in danger, do you?”
“Lancaster is a lot of things. Greedy, egomaniac, snake, but he loves his daughter.” She shook her head. “I don’t think he would put her in danger. Not for all the money in the world.” The word money reminded her of something. Something Dominic had told her.
“Then this unknown number, that’s our perp,” Fletch said. “Call and see who answers.”
She dialed the number and just as she expected, the number was outgoing only.”
“Now what?” Troy asked.
“Now I do what I always do when I’m at a dead end. I ask Charlie for help.”
After she convinced Troy and Fletch to go get some rest, she went to work on what she remembered. She opened a new program and typed in an encrypted address. She closed every window that popped up warning her that this was a classified site until she tapped into Lancaster’s deleted phone records. She spent the rest of the day and part of the evening hunting for what she hoped to find.
Bingo,” she mouthed as she found a number listed to Grand Cayman Island. Searching further, she found another number listed in Switzerland.
As night turned to early morning, she found his off-shore accounts and accessed them. “That’s quite the retirement fund you have there, Mr. President,” she mouthed, looking at the monitor. She then searched for transaction information and discovered some interesting information.
“It looks like I’ll have to find another way to divest you of your money,” she said as she minimized all of the windows and brought up another, one she had never opened.
If you ever need a change of identity, use this program, Charlie had told her.
She sat back and stared at the monitors. “Unbelievable,” she said. “God only knows what you were up to when
