by ghost, we’ll figure out how to overcome whatever’s in his past and deal with the consequences together.
Time ticks by until Claire returns. She looks paler than when she left and is holding a stack of papers and a laptop. “Is there a place I can spread this out to show you what I’ve found?” she asks.
Nathan leads us all into the dining room where the additional change of scenery does us all good, I think. The holding pattern of waiting in the living room was getting to me without my even realizing it.
Claire takes the spot at the head of the table, opening and booting up the laptop as she speaks. “I found bank statements from an account Matt didn’t have on his emergency list with me. It’s an offshore account, with way more than he should have as an FBI agent in it.”
“How much?” Kyle asks, and Claire’s lips press together. “I see.”
In seconds, Claire logs into the computer. “How’d you know his password?” Nathan asks.
“I know him. And paid attention every time he’d lecture about password security,” Claire says, her voice still pained. We haven’t discussed it, but that conversation is coming. Hopefully, it’ll be between just the two of us. “For all his righteousness, I figured it out in three tries.”
The screen fills with a beach wallpaper and surprisingly few icons. Matt was neat and tidy, apparently. Claire clicks to open the file explorer and then finds what she’s looking for.
Moments later, Claire is showing us a bank statement.
“Look.” She points at an account owned by John Mattison. She reaches into the papers she brought with her and holds up a passport and driver’s license with Matt’s picture, but the name on both is John Mattison. “Seems he was using an alias for the account and for his travels.”
Nathan and Kyle stand, moving behind her to peer intently at the screen. “Travels?”
She points at the screen again, highlighting a handful of airline charges. “Once you get somewhere, you can use cash and be untraceable, but you can’t book a flight without some form of account tracing. There’s always a record.”
Kyle locks onto Claire, his voice tight. “Where’d he go? Italy?”
“I already thought of that,” Claire says, her voice bitter now. “He was here tonight and had insulated himself and me into this case so well that it was my first thought.” She clicks a few times, getting further and further back in the transactions and then stopping, a sad look on her face. “Here.”
Kyle’s choked cry is gut-wrenching as he collapses into a chair, and Carly is instantly in his lap, holding his head to her chest as he breaks down.
Claire’s voice is soft, sympathy lacing through it. “Eighteen months ago, he made a trip to Nice, France. Seventy-two hours later, he flew out. From Nice to Rome, there are trains . . .”
Her voice catches, and she sighs. “It matches the timeline for Anna’s death. It tracks that he killed Anna, or at the very least, was there.”
Kyle’s grief washes through the room, stopping us all in our tracks as our hearts break for his loss.
He sobs quietly, and Carly whispers against his hair, “He’s gone. She’s at peace now.”
Kyle slams his hand on the dining room table, his voice rough with fury. “I want to bring the fucker back to life so I can kill him again. Nice and slow, the way he deserves.”
But Carly soothes him, kissing his brow gently. “She wouldn’t want that and you know it. You’ve done her memory justice. Now let her be. Live for her. Live for me, Kyle.”
It feels voyeuristic, but none of us look away. His arms wrap around her waist and he squeezes Carly so tight, I’m surprised she doesn’t break, but it seems to ground him and his shuddering exhale is one of release and relief.
Before our very eyes, though, his shields come back up, muscles coiling, shoulders broadening out, and jaw clenching. It’s like his moment of vulnerability never happened, and while Carly maybe still sees it, the man who stands before me is professional, detached, his eyes once again revealing little.
He nods and Carly looks back to us. “What else?”
Claire takes the cue and keeps scrolling. “There are payments, more influxes of cash well beyond what an FBI agent makes. A handful over the last couple of years. But there are two incoming payments last year. The timelines mesh, so I think one is payment for services rendered for Michael and the