He made his way back to his office and booted up his computer. One thing he had discovered rather easily was that Zane Carter came from serious family money. It appeared that he might be estranged from his wealthy father, but that hadn’t changed the amount of money Zane received from the family empire. The interesting thing from the cash flow that Hunter examined was that it didn’t seem like Zane ever touched the money. It was spread out among multiple accounts with various banks, but the amounts only increased in time with interest—there were no withdrawals. He figured there was a deeper story there, but it wasn’t one he needed to jump into, because he’d found out what he needed: Zane was clean. He had more money than he seemed to know what to do with and no cash influxes from any other source. Hunter couldn’t be certain that Zane wasn’t the mole, but his gut told him no on that score.

He’d finished rummaging around in Mason’s and Cass’s finances as well, and so far there was nothing tying anyone on the team to the missing money. Cass did have money troubles, it appeared, but he hadn’t yet found any evidence connecting her to the cartel money.

He’d learned early on in his career as a PI that paper trails could be hidden, especially when dealing with offshore accounts. He intended to focus on the dark web and other means to ferret out the real thief. It wouldn’t be easy, but they needed answers.

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN

That evening Layla sat in Hunter’s SUV in the driveway of the CIA safe house in Arlington. The two-story light blue colonial didn’t give any sign that it was an Agency property.

“We have to assume there’s audio surveillance inside,” she said. “So we need to be careful what we say.”

Hunter nodded. “I’m going to bring in my detection equipment to sweep for bugs so we can speak more freely inside.”

“That’s a great idea. We can sweep daily to be on the safe side. How did it go with Bryce?”

“He’s pointing the finger at some guy named Nick—and he said to talk to you about it because it’s complicated.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Who is Nick?”

“Nick Foster’s one of the deputy chiefs in the DO. He’s about ten years older than me, but he’s on the fast track to be at the top. He reports directly to Riley Brown.”

“You can’t be serious. How does Nick play into all of this?”

“Nick has been the loudest advocate for getting me into the field. He’s been taught by Riley that the real top people at the Agency need to be in the field, not behind a desk.”

“Okay. Well, at least this sounds like it may be a promising lead.”