Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,68
nothing but white numbers on a black background.
“For fuck’s sake.” I pressed the spacebar on my keyboard and my computer screen lit up with a spreadsheet of names beside dollar amounts. The file was saved as DEBTS. I clicked away and found another file and another and a folder full of other documents. Eli gasped and Hunter leaned over my shoulder as I started opening up the other files.
“Wait, stop there.” Hunter jabbed the screen at a document that looked like a check register or record of banking transactions. This was basic bookkeeping, but Hunter’s eyes were wide. Matt and Sean leaned in too and made worried noises.
“What? What is it?” It took a second for him to answer. A long second that gave my stomach enough time to churn painfully. “What?”
“First of all, that one is an offshore account. These numbers are routing numbers. And you can tell their country of origin. This one isn’t American.” Hunter grabbed the mouse from me and opened a near-identical document we’d just seen earlier.
“Same dates.” Sean pointed to the columns on both documents. “Different amounts.”
I clucked my tongue. “Dodgy bookkeeping?”
Hunter nodded. “Probably to hide embezzlement. And this shows that there has been big money coming out of some companies and landing in this offshore bank account.” He shook his head and straightened. “I would bet my apartment Brother Ben has been siphoning off the top of his clients’ funds.”
“Did Seb say anything about this to you?” Eli asked.
“No, nothing about this.” I’d been at work all day, and if he knew before what was on the computer, he never let on.
“Bigger question is if he’s involved.” Hunter looked back at me, and I curled my fingers into a fist. I’d never hit one of them in anger before but Hunter was close. I shot him a warning look, and he held up his hands in surrender. “Okay! Just asking!”
“Wait, open that first spreadsheet again. All this money flying around, but there are debts recorded. That’s weird, right?” I used keyboard shortcuts to pull up the first spreadsheet when Hunter didn’t move the mouse fast enough.
Hunter hummed. “It’s harder to get money from an offshore account back into the US to pay off debts like these. Not as simple as wiring it back in, that sets off all kinds of alarms. Looks like Ben was squirreling away his clients’ funds into the offshore account so he could make an escape. Probably didn’t intend to pay back the debts with that money.” He cocked his head. “If his ‘creditors’ found out…they’re probably doing a lot worse than trashing his place.”
“And if not? What else could it be?” I didn’t want to think of Seb out there on the street, in danger, with guys who broke kneecaps for a living looking for him. But here we were.
Hunter pointed to the spreadsheet. “If they’re bookies, they’re paying out and being repaid in cash. These are all round numbers. This is an old-school street kind of debt. Maybe not gambling, maybe it’s drugs?” DC had its share of crime. Sometimes more than its share and I hated that Seb had gotten entangled in this. I had to believe he was innocent.
Matt grunted and we all turned to him. “It’s gambling. These are the names of the biggest bookies in town. Heavy hitters in the DC area. Real heavy.”
When it came to Matt’s mysterious career change, he’d put us all on a need-to-know basis, so I didn’t ask how he came to recognize the names on the spreadsheet. There was just one thing I wanted info on. “Do you know where we can find them?”
We split into three teams. Hunter stayed at the apartment to act as a central point of contact and get more intel on the bookies from whoever he could contact at the FBI. Eli and Sean headed to the north side of the city to check a backroom poker joint a few of the bookies were associated with, while Matt and I drove west to check out the residence of the infamous ‘Mr. Freo,’ the first name on the list. When we pulled up to the four-story mansion, the place was pumping loud music to a pool party visible from the street.
My gut told me Seb wasn’t there, but we needed information. This was as good a start as any.
I chewed my lip and tapped the wheel as a bikini-clad blonde fell drunkenly from a diving board into the waiting arms of four balding