“Yeah, but it took a while to ferret that out. There were layers of shell companies, fake names—” he waved a hand—“but we figured it out. All the money trails lead to Beck. But it was talking to our adult victim that opened the floodgates. Chevy—that’s what she likes to be called—was brought to Beck’s brothel when she was fifteen. She became his favorite. That is, until she turned eighteen and was too old for him. She wasn’t being altruistic or brave when she stole the iPad; she was jealous because she knew she was about to be replaced. Our raid coincided with her theft, and the tablet is now in our custody.”

Tess frowned. “He left his tablet out where one of his victims could get to it?”

“No, she stole it.”

“That sounds too convenient.” Tess hated coincidences, especially when they were attached to such a large and complex operation. Right now rule #7 said, “Trust but verify.” Should it be “Trust but verify every coincidence”?

“I’ll take it, whatever you want to call it. We have the cause to ask a judge to issue a warrant for Beck. Evidence is stacking up. We’re hopeful that once we retrieve the information on the tablet, there will be enough evidence to arrest him without bail as a flight risk. While there’s a lot of circumstantial evidence, Chevy is the icing on the cake. She can tell a jury firsthand who Beck really is.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am. And I’ll tell you, Beck has been at this for a long time. Do you remember the name Porter Cross?”

Tess leaned back. The name was familiar, and then it clicked. He was a movie producer who, years ago, fell in a hard, public way. “Yes, I do remember that name. I think I was in the academy when he killed himself.”

“Remember the name Isaac Pink?”

Tess nodded. “Every cop in Southern California knows that name. He and his family were murdered in their home. The killer or killers were never caught.” She sat up. “Wait—Pink was sheltering a witness, a woman who supposedly had testimony to implicate Cross in a prostitution ring. Are you drawing a parallel here?”

“Not necessarily a parallel. More like a straight line. That case was the bureau’s first stab at Cross and the first time Cyrus Beck came to our attention outside of environmental issues. The witness had been arrested for prostitution in San Pedro. Pink was a vice sergeant; he interviewed her. Heather Harrison was her name. He believed her when she told him she was being trafficked and forced into prostitution against her will. He contacted the FBI because she claimed she’d been moved from state to state, which made it a federal crime. She gave him the name Porter Cross and mentioned someone named Cyrus she didn’t know as well.”