Page 70 of Smooth Talk

“Everything’s traceable. Just because I haven’t done it yet, doesn’t mean I won’t,” Buddy mumbles.

“Why didn’t he come to the police? We could’ve helped.”

Presley turns a stink eye on Jake. “He didn’t trust law enforcement, especially after the way they’d treated him in New York. Also, they threatened to kill his mom if he went to the police. Anyway, he did what they asked, and the funds were wired into an account. He removed the drive and placed it back in the envelope and put it on the back doorstep. Someone came and picked it up that day.”

“Did he see who it was?” Jake asks. She shakes her head.

“Did he make a copy?” Buddy wonders aloud.

“He didn't say. He thought he was done, that he got them what they wanted. They’d leave us alone. We’d be safe. But then they called.”

“Who called and what did they want?” Jake asks with something that looks awfully close to apprehension on his face. What does he know that he’s not telling us?

“The same guy as before, Tony. He wanted more money. Said the first attempt was just a trial run to make sure they could get away with it. That three million was only for one of their accounts with the firm; they had had several, and they wanted all of their $40 million back. He knew if he helped them, he’d go down for the theft. They’d pin it on him, and if he didn’t help, they’d kill everyone he cared about.”

“They threatened him?”

She nods again and starts crying, “he said they’d kill me and make him watch. Then they’d kill him. They’d blame the theft on him; all the evidence would point that way and he’d be dead, so he couldn’t refute any of it. They’d have their money, and no one would be the wiser. But Jamie said he had an insurance policy. After today, everything would be settled and taken care of.

“I asked him how, and he told me not to worry, that he’d worked everything out. We needed to leave. It’d be the only way we’d be safe. He said he was done stealing for them and we needed to get out of town. I think it was the reason he’d surprised me with the babymoon trip to Belize yesterday morning. I thought it was so romantic, but he’d been planning to run all along. I didn’t think he’d do it again. He told me he wasn’t going to.” Pres is in tears again. Terrified for herself, her baby. For Jamie.

“Jesus! What a cluster fuck!” my thoughts exactly, Jake.

And am I the only one who doesn’t know what in the hell a babymoon is?

“He wasn’t as good at covering his tracks as the mob hacker,” the first positive news coming from Buddy in a hot minute. “He put the money into an account in the Caymans, in the name of Archie Black. Fuck, this guy needs better aliases. There was $65 million in there, so I’m assuming the other $25 million came from other clients at the bank. All the funds were transferred at the same time. Forty million were transferred back out immediately (I’m trying to trace it now), I’m assuming that was the mob’s cut, and if they only needed forty, why is there an extra twenty-five in there?’ Great question. ‘The account was used to purchase a first-class ticket to Argentina two hours ago.” Finally! We have something.

If Jamie’s this shit at covering his tracks, I’m glad Pres didn’t go with him. They’d be caught within hours, and then what would have happened to them? But he could be cleverly leading us on a wild goose chase. He knew someone would look for him, and we’re not the only ones. Plane ticket to Argentina in one hand, bus ticket to Canada in the other? I snap out of my thoughts to find Buddy talking again.

“I found some info on Costent as well. Cost Enterprises is a shipping conglomerate owned by the DeCosta crime family based in New York. They own several factories and warehouses in Chicago, Boston and Trenton. It looks like they invested with SandFord, but not to the tune of $40 mill. Surely, they wouldn’t go through all this trouble, just to drop their name in the transfer and give the game away. Looks like a frame up.”

It certainly does. But it still doesn’t answer the question, if Jamie was terrified for his life, for Presley’s and their baby’s, “why didn’t he take your offer?” She looks at me confused. “Earlier, you said you would’ve given him all of your money, you had to have offered, once you knew the amount of trouble, he was in.” It definitely would’ve simplified everything. The mob would have their money, everyone would be safe, and I wouldn’t have to defend allegations of fraud and misuse of campaign funds.

“He said he didn’t want to take a penny from me. And he never did. Still hasn’t.” Well the part about him being in love with her definitely seems real. At least she has that.

“Okay, so a couple more questions here. Was he Rusty’s source? And why did he target me?”

“He didn’t. The drive they gave him had an algorithm or something that chose the accounts that were targeted and how much money was taken. He noted that the largest amount was from that biker gang. If they’re anything like those guys on tv, I wouldn’t want to mess with them. But we are talking about mobsters here, so maybe they don’t care.”

“And Rusty?”

“Tony told Jamie to make something up. If he could give the paper a salacious story, they wouldn’t be so apt to ask him a lot of questions. He said he’d help him. Jamie was nervous and scared. He knew if enough people started digging, they’d uncover something. Then he saw you talking to that guy out front of the bank that day, knew he was the president of the club, knew Rusty had a healthy hatred for you, and an idea struck. So, after talking it over with Tony, he called in an anonymous tip that would keep Rusty busy working that angle. He fed him a few more details over the next few weeks to keep him on the trail and mailed him the photo he’d taken of y’all at the bank. Rusty ate it up, apparently. When nothing panned out, I guess he ran the story about Poppy. I’m so sorry, G. I didn’t know anything until last night, I wanted to tell you earlier, but I thought I wouldn’t have to tell everyone everything. I thought I could protect him.”

“Jesus, Pres.”

“I’m sorry. I… I love him. I don’t know what to do.” Cannon’s rubbing her back again, looking shellshocked as hell. I’m guessing she left out a few specifics when she saw him this morning too. I wish she’d told us all this sooner.

Jake’s making a call for one of his officers to pick up Rusty for questioning. He lost all credibility when he ran that story about Poppy, what if he got desperate to revive his career and got in bed with the mafia. There was no doubt that Jamie was a source, but was he the only one? He claimed to have more.

“Jamie’s logical, but scared. He’s on the run. People on the run get desperate. And desperate people make mistakes. I say we follow the money.’ My brother pauses, looking at Buddy. He doesn’t look up from his screen, just gives him the thumbs up. ‘But we can’t give up on the drive. Jamie was banking on Presley’s affection for him to buy him a little time; no doubt he’s on his way out of the country, probably somewhere other than Argentina. If we lose him, we may never find him without that drive. It has something on it, hopefully clues to where he’s going or a way to track him or who is really behind everything.”

“Unfortunately, the FBI will want that drive come Wednesday. Now that there are assumed mafia connections, I have a feeling they’ll be taking this case more seriously. And I’ll need to deliver all evidence with a clear chain of custody for their investigation. We wouldn’t want any screw-ups on our end to fuck this case up should it ever make it to court.” Jake says trying to bore holes in the top of Buddy’s head with his eyes.

Buddy nods his head, still not looking up. “Got it boss man, I’ll have the CoC paperwork delivered to your office Wednesday morning with the drive.” O shifts focus from Buddy to Presley.

‘No offense Pres, but Jamie could’ve lied. All we have is your word that he said all this shit went down,’ he waves her dad off when he starts to defend her honor. “Nick, this isn’t about Presley. It’s about Jamie. What do we know about him? He could’ve taken the money for himself and concocted this whole elaborate story about ‘the mob.’ And if he is telling the truth, ‘the mob’ means a lot of different shit to different people. It doesn’t sound like he gave you many specifics and without any records or proof, we may never know the truth.

“He could’ve spun this whole story about mafia ties in order to save face with you after he came down here to settle a score with Poppy.” That gets a growl out of me and reminds me that I need to get the fuck out of here, so I can make sure she and Harp are okay. Not that I don’t trust Jake’s people, this is just something I need to see for myself.

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