Ethel reached out and squeezed Jesse’s forearm. Her grip was strong, almost painful as she forced him to focus his attention on her words. “They sent this message to us for a reason. I think they’ve determined Susan and Davie know nothing about Jonathan’s actions. Yet they saw the ten thousand dollars disappear from the smaller wallet, proving that someone has access to the clone of Jonathan’s computer, and we’re the likely candidates.” She released his arm. “At least I hope that’s the case.”

“Why?”

“Because they’ll keep Susan and Davie alive, as long as the mother and son have value. The fact that O’Hara has openly disclosed his culpability tells me their game is drawing to the final stage. They must have an exit strategy, and there’s still the half million they’ve already collected. With Norwood’s death, maybe that’s now split only two ways. They might have run other scams or shakedowns and have a nest egg somewhere offshore or in virtual currency.”

Jesse’s hand trembled as he gave Ethel her phone. “But we don’t have anything to give them.”

“They don’t know that. They’ll contact us again. We’ll admit we have Jonathan’s backup drive, his KryptoFold device, and the private key to the smaller wallet, where we’ll return the ten thousand dollars. We’ll exchange everything for Susan and Davie. Nothing virtual, a face-to-face meeting. No involvement by the Secret Service or the FBI.”

“Not even as backup?”

“Jesse, I learned a hard lesson when my father was betrayed. We don’t know where the tentacles of this conspiracy are reaching, so we can’t trust anyone beyond our own team. That means you text Tracy to put the Bitcoins back as a sign of good faith that they can verify. Then you drive us to Richmond, and we reclaim what we left there. I expect O’Hara to settle somewhere soon and be in contact. Somehow, he’ll use burner phones or route untraceable messages.”

“Probably a Virtual Private Network,” Jesse said. “With a VPN, he could be in Virginia but appear to be in Mexico City or anywhere else in the world.”

“That’s your area of expertise, not mine. As long as our phones are working, we should be good. I’ll call Bradshaw and share that O’Hara has gone somewhere with Susan and Davie. He can figure out how O’Hara got that assignment.”

“Unless it was Bradshaw that made the switch,” Jesse said.

Ethel shot him a sharp glance. “God, I hope not. But I won’t bet Susan and Davie’s lives on him. Now text Tracy and let’s get to Richmond. It’s time we became the hunters, not the hunted.”

***