22
FRIDAY, JUNE 8
1:52 P.M.
U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, FEDERAL COURTHOUSE
DOWNTOWN MINNEAPOLIS
Brook leaned her head back, took a deep breath, closed her eyes. She stretched her fingers and opened her eyes once more to the list her boss had given her the day before.
“Hello?”
Chloe was standing in the doorway, her eyes bright. Brook was so bored that for an instant she was actually glad to see the Energizer Bunny of a law clerk.
“How’s it coming?” Chloe asked.
Brook shrugged. “Two hundred seventy-seven potential individuals and businesses that could have deposited twenties at a Wells Fargo branch on Tuesday. I’ve called eighty-eight so far. No luck.”
“Isn’t this detective work?”
“Usually it is,” Brook said. “But Agent John Soukup is our assignee from the FBI stolen-art section, and he’s been out interviewing tellers at the branches where the bills were received. So Eldon asked me to do this.”
“Did they check the bills for fingerprints?”
Brook’s initial pleasure at an interruption was already fading. “Yes. Nothing.”
Chloe had to have detected the tone, but pressed on anyway. “You know, I could look over the list if you’d like. Take some of the names to call.”
“No,” Brook answered instinctively, then more civilly said, “No, I really shouldn’t do that. Eldon dropped this on my plate. It wouldn’t look good to assign it to anybody else.”
Chloe looked like she might question that logic, but didn’t. “Okay,” she said. “Let me know if you change your mind.” She turned and disappeared.
Guilt trickled in at her treatment of the clerk—even one she found annoying. Something about Chloe made her reluctant to get involved in another project with her. Ambitious law students came and went, but there was more to it with Chloe. Definitely more.
Still, she could probably muster more patience for Chloe if she was having any luck on her new project. Finding a depositor who recalled receiving and depositing a group of twenty-dollar bills, based on nothing more than that they were stiff and over thirty years old, was proving very hard. So much so that Brook’s heart was barely in the effort. The task had also proved too boring to push from her mind the previous day’s encounter with Ian.
With an effort, she picked up the master sheet of depositors once more.
All right, where was she? Until now, she’d simply been working her way from the top of the page down, dialing depositors. That method took no imagination at all. Maybe there was a way to organize the list to reduce the number of calls required, eliminate the obviously weak contenders.
Brook began reviewing the entire list. An ice cream shop. Unlikely. Probably not a lot of twenties there. She made a mark. Car dealer? Not a lot of cash transactions there. Her eyes stopped at an entry:
Wells & Hoy Law Office—6/5/18—4:27 p.m., $12,000
Weird, she thought. The biggest share of the hot money deposits they were investigating went into the downtown Wells Fargo branch on Tuesday, June fifth. This showed Ian’s firm depositing into the same branch that same day.
It also happened to be just after she’d visited Ian’s office. That was a strange coincidence.
That was the day Ian got the new client with the trust, the one she’d overheard Katie and him discussing. Then on Wednesday Ian stopped by to ask her for investigation reports he had no business seeing. It was for the trust case involving beneficiaries who might have been involved in criminal activity.
She looked again at the deposit list. Retainers were typical with new cases. If Ian had just gotten this case on Monday, this could be the deposit of a new cash retainer from that client the next day.
Brook opened the desk drawer where she’d kept a copy of the ICR reports she’d given Ian. The pile was thicker than she remembered. Until she recalled that Chloe had delivered a few new reports after her adventure at Kieran’s. Strike Force and FBI papers, she’d said.
Uncertain what she was looking for, Brook started paging back through the pile once again. Nothing piqued her interest as she neared the bottom.
The final report was an FBI memorandum dated June 9, 1998. Brook hadn’t seen it before. Clearly it was one of the records Chloe had delivered after Brook was with Ian at Kieran’s. The summary page was titled St. Louis Park Robbery and Homicide—January 14, 1983.
Brook stopped abruptly. That was the cold case she was working on for Eldon. She kept reading, more slowly now.
Surveillance of Potential Suspects—Funeral of Christina Doyle—Port St. Lucie, Florida.
Her pace began to increase.
Particular attention has recently been directed to Rory Doyle as a person of renewed interest, based upon reports of spending inconsistent with his present employment. Mr. Doyle arrived at the funeral in a late model Mercedes . . .
She skipped to the bottom of the report and its conclusion.
Persons attending the Christina Doyle funeral who have been positively identified and were previously persons of interest include . . . Rory Doyle . . . Edward McMartin . . . Sean Callahan . . .
She felt her pulse picking up. These were the three names Ian had asked her to check. Names that likely represented the beneficiaries of the trust Ian was working on.
Brook looked up at the open door of her office. She rose and closed it, then returned to sit again. Reluctantly she lifted the phone, her other hand hovering over its keypad.
This was relevant information to the art-theft case. No, critical information. Eldon had to be told immediately.
She paused. Dropped her hand. Raised it again.
Punched in a number. No answer.
She tried a different one. This time a familiar voice answered.
“Wells and Hoy Law office.”
“Katie,” she said softly. “This is Brook. I have to talk to Ian. Right away.”