“Yes. The wound, the body, the single round, and shell casing all support that interpretation. But given the remoteness of Parker’s mountain home, it took close to thirty minutes before other federal law enforcement arrived. Jonathan was well aware that Parker had siphoned off a substantial sum of his company’s funds. Maybe Parker was leaving his computer to be packed last. He would have also kept the KryptoFold device near or on his person. With the device and the computer program, Jonathan could have quickly accessed the virtual wallet and transferred the funds into his own account, all using Parker’s computer. I imagine there was a way to even reprogram the KryptoFold device.”

“Wouldn’t it look suspicious that Parker’s computer was wiped clean?”

“Not really. Jonathan said Parker had done it to eradicate incriminating evidence. I expect Parker had some kind of sophisticated program to destroy the drive. Jonathan simply activated it and then waited for reinforcements.”

“Why would he risk a peer-to-peer transaction with fellow agents?”

Ethel sighed. “That’s an ironic twist. We know the basic fact that Jonathan got access to Parker’s virtual wallet. As I said, that’s key fact number one. We know the basic fact that Norwood and others got access to half a million dollars in counterfeit bills. That’s key fact number two. I think they planned to sell those bills to a buyer, rip the buyer off, and then return the bills to evidence without anyone knowing they were gone.”

“Jonathan meeting Norwood is a big coincidence,” Jesse argued.

“Really? We have Jonathan wanting to sell Bitcoins, and Norwood wanting to buy. This so-called Dark Web would provide a means to arrange a transaction, right?”

“Yes.”

“And probably some kind of filter for geographical locale and size of transaction. If Norwood puts out an offer of cash for Bitcoin, how many DC-area takers do you think he would have for a half a million dollars?”

“Not that many,” Jesse conceded.

“You see, I think neither Jonathan nor Norwood knew they were dealing with another Secret Service agent. That didn’t become evident until Norwood tried to reclaim the counterfeit dollars.”

“So Jonathan’s final words to me were cut off. ‘Tell Ethel the secret’ was meant to be ‘Tell Ethel the Secret Service.’”

Ethel took a moment to answer. “Maybe. Or maybe he was going somewhere else with that whisper. Why didn’t he say, ‘Tell Ethel it was Norwood’?”

“Then what?”

“I don’t know. Speculation would put the theory ahead of the facts. What we do know is Norwood and company took Jonathan’s laptop. Probably to make sure nothing incriminating was on it. A link to whatever dark site they used to set up the anonymous exchange. Then they discovered what you found on the backup drive. And now they want the Bitcoin treasure that makes their half-a-million scam look like chump change.”

“Why murder Norwood?”