I was back in the hangar at Joint Base Andrews less than two hours later, standing with Ned Mahoney and Susan Carstensen. We were all once again looking over Keith Karl Rawlins’s shoulder.
The FBI cybercrimes expert was hacking into bank accounts that, according to British intelligence, belonged to Senator Walker’s killer. The accounts in Sean Lawlor’s name—gleaned upon request from British MI6—were all in known money-laundering centers: Panama, Seychelles, and the Isle of Jersey.
“There we are,” Rawlins said when the screen jumped to the electronic ledger on Lawlor’s account in Panama.
He scrolled down. “Empty.”
“Find recent transactions,” I said.
He did and we saw that more than a million euros and a million British pounds had been transferred out the same day Lawlor was strangled.
“Where’d it go?” Mahoney asked.
“Bank in…” Rawlins said, typing frantically. “El Salvador.”
“Can you hack it?” I asked.
He looked at me as if I’d insulted him and soon had the account open on the screen. It, too, was empty.
“Whose account?”
“Esmeralda del Toro,” he said. “Address in Madrid.”
“Send it to me,” Carstensen said. “I’ll dispatch agents.”
Rawlins did, and then Mahoney said, “Where’d the money go from there?”
“Probably another empty account, probably belonging to a shell corporation, and on and on,” Rawlins said. “I’m betting Esmeralda is not at home in Madrid.”
“Or that she even exists,” I said.
“Humor me,” Mahoney said. “Push the ball ahead a few times.”
Rawlins sighed and gave his computer an order. Nothing. He gave another order. The screen didn’t budge.
“Interesting,” he said. “There’s a firewall around recent transactions that…”
The FBI contractor cocked his head, rattled away at his keyboard, and hit Enter. The screen didn’t change at first, but then it blinked to a new document.
“Ahhh,” Rawlins said. “The money went to an account on Kraken. It’s an exchange for cryptocurrencies in…Singapore.”
“Can you hack that account?” Mahoney demanded.
He cringed a little. “That will take time. Those crypto-exchanges have hired the best in the world to build their security systems.”
“I have faith in you,” Mahoney said. “Alex?”
I was staring off, blinking, trying to see what was bothering me through the fog of fatigue and ignorance. And then I flashed on the inner back cover of that Bible and saw a glimmer of hope.
“Can you call up the Kraken Exchange home page?” I said.
Rawlins did, and I saw more than hope. I saw possibility.
“What are you thinking, Cross?” Carstensen asked.
“Forget following the money,” I said. “Let’s play follow the Bitcoin.”