“Everything relating to Riverview was in the name of a shell corporation,” Victor added. “But we haven’t found anything that directly connects to Loring. No bank accounts. No credit cards. No cell phone. He was living as far off the grid as it was possible to get.”

“What about his car?” North asked.

“That was in the name of the Riverview corporation,” Victor said. “Just like everything else.”

North got a thoughtful expression. “He’ll have a safe house, not just for himself but for the devices that Rancourt stole. They’re all red-hot.”

“But somehow they’ve remained concealed all these years,” Sierra said. “There haven’t even been any rumors about them. Trust me—Mr. Jones, the serious dealers and the go-betweens who work the underground market would have heard about such a valuable cache of crystal tech. You just can’t keep something like that quiet, not for decades.”

“Unless,” North said, “the artifacts have been stored in a collector’s vault all this time.”

Lucas got a speculative look. “If you’re right, we’re talking about a collector who stole the cache before the lost labs were shut down.”

“Crocker Rancourt,” North said. “He took them from the lab vault shortly before he murdered my grandfather and evidently died without revealing where he hid them. Somehow Loring discovered the artifacts. They must have been stashed in a very secure vault, one that hasn’t been opened since Crocker Rancourt locked the relics inside.”

“We tore the Riverview hospital apart as soon as we moved the patients out,” Victor said. “We’ve still got a team there to secure Loring’s lab, but so far they haven’t found anything except the artifacts that were stored in the lab vault there.”

“I need to take a look at what the forensic accountants found,” North said. “Everything.”

CHAPTER 44

North walked into the crimson-and-gold living room of the Abyss. He had a sheaf of printouts in his hand.

“I’ve got it,” he said.

The satisfaction of the hunter who has picked up the trail resonated in his voice.

Sierra had been dozing on a red velvet sofa, a cashmere throw tucked around her. She sat up slowly, yawning, and glanced at the big clock above the fireplace. It was two in the morning.

“What, exactly, have you got?” she asked.

“I found Loring’s bolt-hole. With luck, he’ll still be there, because he has no reason to think we’ve located his hideout. If I’m right, the cache of weapons will also be in the house.”

“What house?”

“An old one on a private estate on Bainbridge Island.”

“Lots of old estates tucked away on Bainbridge,” Sierra said. “You never really notice them, because the island is still surprisingly rural.”

“An entity called the Riverview Trust has owned this particular estate since the days of the lost labs. The trust fund has paid the taxes on it every year since the purchase. Here’s the kicker—Victor’s forensic accounting people were able to discover that the trust was originally established by Crocker Rancourt. The property has never been sold.”