“They’re flagged, and the IRS will look at anything that is abnormal, but many businesses move millions of dollars every day. So it’s not going to be noticed right away and depending on the account history may not have caused any red flags if there were typically large transfers.”

“What was her demeanor like?” Lucy asked. “Did the manager say she appeared distressed?”

“I don’t think so. I would have put something like that down in my notes.” She frowned, as if thinking. “All I remember off the top of my head is that he didn’t think anything was unusual because Denise was a regular customer.”

“What are you thinking?” Nate asked Lucy.

“We agree that they didn’t leave the country and were killed on the twenty-first, correct?”

Nate nodded.

“She was party to the embezzlement, but she didn’t actually embezzle the money.”

“I don’t understand what you mean,” Laura said.

Lucy pulled out one of Laura’s spreadsheets. “These are the days and times of each transaction you tracked. Friday, the twenty-first, at four forty-five p.m. the funds were taken from the Kiefer account and transferred to the first shell corp. On the morning of Monday the twenty fourth—after we believe they were already dead—the money was transferred again. And then again and again until the twenty-eighth. Each layer making it more difficult to track.”

“Yes,” Laura said, but she didn’t see what Lucy was trying to show.

“She had a partner. Someone who she worked with on this, or who forced her to do it.”

“Forced her how?”

“Threatened her family. Her kids. Maybe she had committed a crime and didn’t want to go to jail. Or maybe she uncovered a crime by one of her other clients and wanted the money to disappear—but they got to her first. I don’t know. That’s why we want all the client information. If she was privy to a crime, maybe she was being blackmailed and used the money to pay a blackmailer.”

Nate said, “She was probably dead the minute she transferred the money at four forty-five.”

“Her and her entire family?” Laura said. “That seems— Well, tragic just doesn’t cut it.”

“Maybe the kids walked in when they weren’t supposed to. Maybe they saw something. Maybe the killers thought Denise shared the information with her husband. This is a lot of conjecture right now,” Lucy said.

“I think I know what you’re getting at. I can follow up personally with all her clients, they already know me.”

“Tread carefully there,” Nate said. “We may be heading into the territory of organized crime. Don’t interview anyone solo.”