Jesse followed her down the basement stairs, acutely aware of what had happened the last time he was on these steps. They sat together on the weight bench and he opened the laptop to show her the various wallets and their values. Then he told her about contacting Tracy to be a backup resource out of the country.

“Probably a good idea,” Ethel agreed. “Moving what money she can will at least keep us a step ahead. You say she can tell the history and present location of these coins?”

“Yes. That’s the beauty of cryptocurrency. Each coin is created with its own unique code. It cannot be duplicated. Even though it’s virtual property, just like a physical dollar bill, it cannot be in two places at once. Its location and movement through transactions are recorded by the blockchain, which are simply ledgers written by people called miners who independently confirm the accuracy of the data and create the records. They are paid in coins for their efficiency. The whole system is completely decentralized, which is why governments with central banks and taxing agencies are leery of them.”

“And you think Tracy can follow the coins into the future as well?”

“Yes, but that may not be of benefit for long. I expect the Bitcoins to be converted at an exchange into another cryptocurrency that provides greater anonymity. The original coins would then be held in the exchange until someone else bought them.”

“Why wouldn’t the embezzler Parker have converted them himself?”

Jesse shrugged. “Good question. My guess is that since Bitcoin is the oldest, he considered it the most stable.”

“And the prospects for finding the key to the wallet with Parker’s fortune?”

“Not good. I’ll go back through the photos and files on the laptop to see if Jonathan hid it in a similar manner, but I’m not optimistic. Our other option is to search through Davie’s LEGOs and Tinkertoys again.”

Ethel looked at the glowing KryptoFold device still plugged into the computer’s USB port. “There’s one other option.”

“What’s that?”

“We get Jonathan’s finger.”

***

Trevor Norwood had read the text with disappointment.

searched house. no key. what now?

His all-caps, one-word response:

WAIT

Wait for the woman and boy to come home. Wait for the internal furor over Finch’s death to subside. He knew he’d be questioned, maybe even by Bradshaw himself, but nothing linked him to the counterfeit bills and certainly nothing linked him to CEO Dwayne Parker. Let things play out. Then he would find out what the woman knew.