Ring of Lies (48 page)

‘
Jacobs
must be
involved in the
scam
and
either knows
where the money came from
or who’s running it
.
’

‘
Then I don’t understand
why Daniel
didn’t
use the name Latti
de when he purchased this house.
’

‘
Perhaps Lattide and Elliott are just aliases, and
Daniel
had another passport in
another
name.
They’re easy enough to obtain if you know how.
’

Grace carried her plate over to the di
shwasher and placed it inside, then put the coffe
e
maker on.
She swung round and faced Jack.

‘
If Daniel
had
a third passport, he kept it someplace else.
After the accident, Shaun cleared out Daniel’s office and brought me all his personal papers.
I went through everything
, and I’m telling you there was nothing else
.
’

‘
What about
the contents of his car?
’

‘
The police returned his briefcase
after the inquest, b
ut
his cell phone was missing.
’

‘
Daniel had a laptop
?
’

‘
Yes, w
hat about it?
’

‘
Did you examine the files, his
calendar
?
Was there anything to suggest he was up to something?
’

‘
I
-
I don’t know.
I couldn’
t get it to work.
’

Jack
shot her a penetrating look.
‘
Why di
dn’t you say something sooner?
I
t
might
have saved us
a lot of
time.
’

‘
How was I to know?
I assumed it had been damaged in the accident.
’

‘
W
here is it now
?
’
He held up his hand as she started to speak.
‘
D
on’t tell me, let me guess
—
back home in England.
’

‘
Actually, it’s upstairs in my
hand luggage
.
But I’m telling you it’s useless.
’

Jack bit back an impatient curse.
‘
Go and get it.
C
ould
just
be the battery
’
s
dead
.
If
not, I can turn it over to the
tech
department
.
They’ll scour the hard drive.
If there’s anything worth finding, they’ll find it.
’

Jack
finished
stack
ing
the dishwasher
while he waited for Grace to return.
He couldn’t blame her for thinking Daniel’s laptop was useless.

‘
Did you ever see Daniel
use it
?
Did he
use
a password?
’
he asked as
s
he handed
it to
him.

‘
I’ve no idea.
I
went into
his office once
when he was working—
’
She shivered as the image of that evening focused in her mind.
Subconsciously, she rubbed her cheek.
‘
But he threw me
out
and told me never to enter again.
He wouldn’t
even
let me
take him a cup of coffee.
’

Jack laid the Mac
B
ook on the table.
The case was battered and scratched.
He didn’t hold out much hope that it would work, but he pushed the power button anyway.
One of the LED lights briefly flashed then died.

‘
Yep.
Battery’s completely dead.
We’ll
take it to
Miami tomorrow
,
after we
talk
to
Jacobs
again
.
One of the tech guys might be able to get it to work.
’

He
spooned coffee into the pot and filled it with hot water
,
just
as
someone knocked on the kitchen door.
Reflexively his hand reached for his gun
and flicked the safety off
.
Uncertain, Grace looked at him.
He jerked his head, signalling
that she s
hould move away from the table.

‘
Go lock yourself in the
bedroom
and stay there until I come and get you
.
’

Unable to speak, Grace nodded her head and
ran for the stairs
.

With caution born from years of experience
,
Jack
stood by
the side of the door
and turned the key with his left hand.
The
handle turned and the
door opened
.
A man stepped
into the kitchen
, hi
s arms held away from his body.

‘
That’s an easy way to ge
t killed
,
’
Jack said,
holstering his gun.

Anderson
’s breath hissed between his teeth.
‘
Ye
ah.
Who’d you think it was?
’
A tall man, with sun-bleached hair,
Anderson
had the body and weary eyes of a fighter.
His clothes were typical Floridian garb—washed out T-shirt and cut off shorts.
‘
Where’s the widow?
I heard she’s a real
hot
piece of ass.
You sleeping with her yet?
’

‘
Watch the mouth, Anderson
,
’
Jack sa
id
.
He glared at the other agent
. T
he cool tone of his voice barely concealed his contempt.
He
reached for the
coffeepot and helped himself to cup
.

‘
I don’t suppose there’s
enough for another cup
.
’

Jack didn’t move.
‘
You suppose right.
What’s so important that you ha
d to risk blowing your cover?
’
Anderson was a decent enough agent when he wasn’t ass-kicking to get ahead, which was most of the t
ime.

‘
I’ve been asking round.
The word on the street is
that
Pete
Jacobs
has money worries.
His
wife filed for divorce last May
and was
granted
interim
custody of the kid
.
Since then
,
Jacobs
has been struggling to make ends meet
.
’
Anderson’s gaze shifted to the notebook lying open on the table.

Jack snapped it shut.
‘
What about the family home?
’

‘
Jacobs is
behind on the repayments.
T
he bank has threatened to foreclose if he doesn’t clear the arrears and his business overdraft.
He
put it
on the market
three months
ago, but so far no takers.
The realtor’s suggested
he
drop the price, but
Jacobs
has
refused.
A
ccording to the court
records
, he’s behind on his alimony payments
, too
.
’