“Eight A.M.”
“Fine,” she snapped. “I’ll be there.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Sean drove to HWI after Juan Casilla chewed him out. It was the end of the day and most of the staff was gone, but Gregor Smith was still there.
As soon as Sean entered the building, Gregor greeted him. “Is it true about Adeline’s campaign manager?”
“That he’s dead or that he’s a killer? Probably both.”
Gregor led Sean up to his office. “Was Adeline involved?”
“I don’t know,” Sean said as they both sat down.
“I’m stunned. I don’t know what to think. Why?”
“That’s the million-dollar question. The FBI thinks that Harper found incriminating information about his wife’s political corruption and that’s why he was acting peculiar for the last month.”
“Incriminating how?”
“She was on the Interior Committee. It oversees the Bureau of Land Management. She could have had inside information that would be profitable to her friends. Maybe Garza figured it out and decided to protect his boss. Maybe it was Garza who was sharing information.” Sean paused. “Whatever was going on, she’s certainly not innocent, even if she didn’t have Harper killed.”
“I got your report, I’m glad that our operation is clean—but I wanted to ask you about the BLM audit. You said that there was a problem, but didn’t elaborate.”
“I don’t think that there is anything wrong with the files you have. I think that everything is going to match up fine for BLM. But I’d like to look at the records again and compare them with a document that Harper kept on a private tablet.” Sean didn’t tell Lucy he’d made a copy of the dates and parcel numbers. She’d shown the pages to him, but the FBI didn’t have access to all the information. It would take them weeks to go through the files—because of manpower issues—and because Sean had access to HWI now, he could match them up in a few hours.
“Anything you need if it’s going to help clear Harper’s name.”
“He’s already cleared.”
“The press leaked that he was with a prostitute.”
“The FBI will issue a statement. It’s clear that he was expecting to meet someone else, not a hooker.”
Which was one thing that was bothering Sean, and if Lucy thought about it for one second she’d realize it, too. How did Garza find out about Harper’s meetings with Gary Ackerman and why was he worried? How did he set up the meeting with Harper the night he was killed? Harper had thought he was meeting with Ackerman. It was an anomaly, and Sean didn’t like it.
“They followed him,” Sean said suddenly.
“Excuse me?”
“Sorry, I’m just working through something in my head. I think Harper was being followed. It’s the only way his killer could have known he was meeting with the person who gave him information about the illegal land transactions.”
“You’ve lost me. Are you talking about the BLM audit? Or something else?”
“Both. I can’t explain right now, but if I can have access to Harper’s office tonight, I’ll tell you when I put it all together. Right now it’s just a mess of numbers in my head.”
“Go ahead—I’ll be here until eight, but I’ve also put in twenty-four-hour security on your recommendation. An employee, not a service, as you suggested.”
“Good. Loyalty decreases the chances of infiltration.”
Sean left Gregor’s office and went down the hall to Harper’s suite, then through to his colleague’s office where all the BLM files were. He didn’t need the physical files, because Harper had already created a spreadsheet. Sean hadn’t realized the importance of the spreadsheet until he saw the tablet files. Now it all made sense, but he had to merge the two data sets and then convince the FBI that they would match with Adeline’s financials—without hacking further into Adeline’s banking records to compare.
And, Sean thought as he quickly entered the data, if Adeline were smart, she’d do exactly what Mona Hill had done—create layers of shell companies to make finding the true source of the cash next to impossible. Maybe she had done it, but someone like Harper Worthington would be able to see the financial house of cards more easily than anyone else. Just like Sean.
Where did Tobias fit in?
Sean pushed that thought aside as he entered the data then created a calendar with the important dates—and realized that he needed names to go with each of these transactions. Fortunately, most counties had a database where you could look up basic property records if you had the parcel number. Sean plugged in the information. It was a painstaking process because he had to run each parcel number separately. But once he was done, he realized that each of the transactions was purchased by a variety of individuals all under the umbrella of a single entity. It didn’t take him long to trace the entity to James Everett.