Lucy opened the door and Nate followed her out. They got all the way to the car before Nate said, “He was lying and you let him!”

“He was coached. Someone told him exactly what to say to the FBI three years ago to make us go away. He gave Laura what she asked for, nothing more or less. He has never been in trouble, so there was no reason to investigate him. Now there is. We need a warrant for all the records, because I think he’s the one who falsified the banking records that enabled the embezzlement. Bankers are under intense scrutiny, but they also are knowledgeable about how the system works and he could have made it look like Denise authorized the change to the account. He gave us that grainy photo plus his statement that she didn’t appear to be under distress—he did his part. Exactly what he was told to do.”

“Then where’s the money?”

“I think he was paid or blackmailed. I lean blackmail because he’s not living above his means and I don’t think he would have done it just for money.”

“That’s a quick moral assessment after a fifteen-minute conversation.”

Lucy was a bit hurt that Nate didn’t trust her psychological profile, but she probably should have given him more to go on.

“Yes, it is, and I shouldn’t have just walked out without discussing it with you. I want to watch him. Investigate him. If Max is right and Stanley Grant was threatened into confessing to Victoria’s murder, maybe Pollero was threatened into falsifying the financial authorization. Or blackmailed—because while Grant had been a gambler, Pollero could still be a gambler. And no one would want a banker to be a gambler … too great a risk to borrow money that doesn’t belong to you.”

Nate wasn’t completely appeased, but he no longer looked angry. “Maybe. But he might have talked if we pushed harder. He lied to us. I don’t like people lying to me.”

“Neither do I, Nate, and you’re right, he may have talked. But if he felt there was a threat to his family, I don’t think he would have given us everything, not without tangible proof of wrongdoing. And we can get it.”

“How?”