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“Not all hits are for money.”
“You’re going dark side here. Donovan doesn’t work in the field; she can’t let someone off in exchange for a hit, or screw with an undercover op.”
“All I’m saying is that there are a lot of unanswered questions. Morton was up to something—there’s no other reason he would come to D.C. in violation of his probation unless there was something big going down. We need to know what that is. There’s more here than a simple murder.”
“You got me there. Maybe he left a diabolical master plan for world domination in his motel room.” She winked.
“Let me know if you find it.”
After Abigail left, Noah picked up the phone and called SSA Monica Guardino.
Guardino answered the phone brusquely, and it was obvious by the background noise that she was in the field.
“Armstrong in D.C. returning your call.”
“Your dead guy was a prick, just want you to know.”
“I know. What did you find?”
“Morton was re-creating his old enterprise,” Guardino said. “His cousin Mr. Skinner, being cooperative after I pointed out he could be considered an accessory, said Morton maintained a studio apartment his probation officer didn’t know about. We popped the lock, found a high-end computer and dozens of boxes of pornography—DVDs and photographs mostly—including some photos that I’d wager my pension are of underage girls. But the kicker is, our e-crimes expert says Morton was downloading the DVDs and preparing them for Internet file sharing. Something about minimizing file sizes for bandwidth issues. The whole how-tos and why-fors are a bit over my head, but I trust my guy. I can hook you up with him—”
While Noah was technically competent, high-end cybercrimes were beyond his scope. “If you could box up everything and send it to me, I’ll have our cybercrimes team go through the files with a fine-toothed comb.”
“Already started boxing the files.”
“Excellent. Any chance you can get it on a military transport today?”
“Where’s the urgency? Isn’t this a low-life scumbag murder? Hardly a top priority.”
“It’s top priority for Assistant Director Rick Stockton,” Noah said.
“Well, shit, Armstrong, you didn’t say the director’s office was involved.”
“I appreciate your help,” he said. “I owe you.”
“I may take you up on that. But I have more,” Guardino continued. “Morton was broke. We went through his finances—he had less than three hundred dollars in his bank account. His cousin paid him for working in his autobody shop, but not much more than minimum wage, and all his money is accounted for. Nothing in or out that is suspicious.”
“Any sign he had money stashed elsewhere?” Noah asked. “He’s well-versed in money laundering.”
“No luxury items, no trips, no cars. The only thing he spent money on was this computer system, and it’s in line with what he earned. He even had the receipts in his file cabinet.”
“So was he going to run his operation from there?” Noah wondered out loud.
“Can’t say, but he definitely had something going on. You want us to boot up the computer? See what we can find?”
Noah considered letting Denver work that end, then decided against it. He didn’t know what was on the computer, and while he trusted the field offices completely, after talking to Lucy Kincaid this morning he wanted to keep any files that may have her information as private as possible. The fewer people who saw them, the better, if Morton had anything on her he’d planned to exploit.
“No, but thanks.”
“Good—it looks like it’ll take a shitload of time.”
Time. How was Noah going to convince the cybercrime squad that this case was a priority?
“Thanks, Monica, I appreciate the help. Let me know when the transport is scheduled so I can send an agent to collect the evidence.”
“Bring a truck,” she said with a half-laugh. “We’ll dig around a little more, but I think this is the bulk of what he was up to. If you need me, call.”
After Noah hung up on Denver, he called Rick Stockton. He was surprised when the assistant director himself answered.
