Page 33 of Angel's Share

Aidan’s gaze swung to the former agent so fast that Jamie laughed out loud. “Did you miss the tan, babe?”

Sutton laughed too. “Go,” he echoed Matt. “I’ll coordinate on the Mafia angle. I may even give Mel a call for some of that off-the-books info she’s so good at getting.”

“She’ll have her claws in you then for sure,” Aidan said.

“Was only a matter of time.”

TWENTY-ONE

Jamie entered the office conference room ahead of Rick and Aidan. Among the three of them, he was the only familiar face to Tomás. They’d spoken on the phone not long ago and had met in person earlier in the day. The midthirties IT tech had been friendly each of those times. His smile now was friendly too, but his dark eyes, shifting between Rick and Aidan, gave away how nervous he truly was. As did the initial shake in his voice and hand as he held the latter out to Jamie. “Didn’t expect to see you back so soon.”

“We had some follow-up questions,” Jamie said, then introduced Rick and Aidan, the tech’s eyes growing wide at Aidan’s last name.

“I’m here as an agent first,” Aidan said. “A Talley second.”

That didn’t seem to make Tomás feel any better as he sank into the chair beside KJ. Before he could spiral into worst-case scenarios that would likely be proven correct by the time this conversation was over, Jamie drew Tomás’s attention back to him and the world Tomás knew best, even if it had been the one that had likely gotten him into trouble. “I wanted to chat more tech specs, specifically about the process of confirming off-loading instructions.”

“The bills of lading.”

“Right,” Jamie said. “KJ told us any paper bills are checked against the digital ones in TE’s system.”

“That’s correct.”

“And how are those digital ones submitted?”

“Through TE’s online portal, Steele. You know, the one you designed,” he said to Jamie with a chuckle that Jamie returned, keeping up the pretense of computer geeks in league together. Whatever it took to keep Tomás talking. “Customers can track their goods in transit, through customs, and make whatever pick-up or delivery arrangements they need. All our port operations and ships now have some version of the program you designed for the Ellen.”

“Each user still has to go through multi-factor authentication?”

Tomás nodded. “Unique IDs, strong passwords, two-factor, the whole bit.”

“And what about when someone needs to change something in the original bill of lading? Like for a new carrier on the delivery, a new destination. Is there a shortcut?”

Tomás straightened in his chair, his answer coming not so quickly, more deliberately. “No shortcut,” he said. “The user has to go through the same process.” He paused to wet his lips, maybe also to mentally run through his story. To check the lies against the truth. “Once an update is submitted, it’s flagged in the system and someone on our end checks and clears it.”

“And what’s your role in this?” Aidan asked.

“Well, sir,” he said, eyes shifting back and forth between Aidan and Jamie, “I run tech support for the port here and the one across the way in LA. So if one of our employees or users runs into an issue with our tech systems or equipment, they email or text the help desk, a ticket is created, and it’s routed to my team. Nine times out of ten the solution is to restart the program or device,” he said with a chuckle, albeit a weaker one than he’d given Jamie earlier.

“So you wouldn’t normally handle help desk matters?” Rick said.

Tomás’s gaze whipped to him, then, as if realizing how guilty the movement had appeared, shifted his body the same direction, crossing his legs. “Sometimes I have to if we’re slammed. Or if something important like this comes up.”

“Let’s go back to the change orders,” Jamie said. “Does your team review those?”

“No, that’s the transport agents.”

“And what’s that process look like?”

“KJ would have to answer that,” he said, sitting straighter and lifting his chin, thinking he’d found an out. “As I said, we’re not involved.”

KJ didn’t flinch when all eyes turned on her; she had no reason to. “The transfer agent double-checks the IP address, the authentication, and that all protocols were followed,” she explained. “And if the total value of the shipment being transported is over a certain dollar threshold, they call the client to confirm the change.”

“Was the dollar value of the shipment stolen yesterday over the threshold?” Aidan asked.

“Yes, it was.”

“Was the client called in this case?”

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