Page 59 of Juan

“It is,” Sabina said. “But proving that an overdose of scopolamine had a hand in their deaths, and maybe even that the drug came from Johanna’s lab, doesn’t prove Anthony was involved.”

Amber leaned back and huffed. “Proof, shmoof. We all know he did it.”

Spencer took a seat on the arm of her chair and set a hand on her shoulder. “Yes, but justice is rarely served on the wealthy, and I’m only partly joking when I say that.”

“I want to find the drug on Anthony. In his possession,” she grumbled.

“And if we can couple that with a money chain leading from the victims’ family members to him, even better,” Callie said. “And good news there, we’re one step closer on that front.”

“Not to be picky, but how many steps are left?” Mantis asked.

“Hard to say,” Callie answered. “We’re still working on the consolidator algorithm, but I have, as of forty-five minutes ago, managed to track outgoing payments from family members of the victims. Together, the eleven people Clara and Adrian identified paid out five million dollars.”

Spencer choked on his coffee, then cleared his throat. “Okay, that’s a lot of money paid to Anthony in a year. But if you can track the money out of the family’s accounts, and we know the consolidator paid it into one of Anthony’s shell companies, what’s the holdup in tying that thread off?”

“We know the money left their accounts, and we know where it went, but we don’t know where it went after,” Callie responded.

Amber blinked. “Is anyone else losing the thread here? How many layers are there between Anthony and the people paying him?”

Callie wrinkled her nose. “Remember me saying I wasn’t sure how many more steps there were? Well, yeah, that. The money was paid into a holding company, and the amounts match what we know the consolidator paid into Anthony’s shell companies, but we don’t know how it made it from the holding company to the consolidator. That’s the piece of the puzzle I’m still working on.”

“We’re looking into a few things, though,” Sabina said.

“Such as?” Spencer prompted.

“The holding company buys and sells—and imports and exports—several goods such as art and antiques—”

“Items frequently used to launder money,” Philly said. Sabina nodded. “But it doesn’t sound as if they are laundering money,” he continued. “The cash is exiting legitimate accounts and eventually making its way back into a legitimate account. For nefarious purposes and through questionable means, but is there any doubt about the origin of the money?”

“And that’s the hang-up,” Callie said. “Don’t get me wrong, we’re on the right track, but what we’ll find, I don’t know. I suspect we’ll discover that some tangible good is fraudulently being sold as something it’s not and that ‘sale’ is triggering both the incoming and outgoing payments.”

“Like, I tell you a car is worth sixty grand, you pay that, but really it’s only worth thirty?” Spencer asked.

“And the person who sold it gets the benefit of the extra thirty,” Amber said, turning the idea over in her head. “It’s a way to transfer money for illegal purposes that I imagine is very hard to prove. After all, if someone is willing to pay sixty grand for a car that’s worth only thirty, then clearly, for whatever reason, it’s worth sixty to the buyer. Or at least that would be the argument.”

“And that’s the crux of the issue. Or one of the issues,” Callie said. “But we’re getting ahead of our skis here. That scenario is a possibility. A strong one. But we have more digging to do.”

“At the risk of sounding ungrateful, any updates on the timeline?” Spencer asked. “And is there anything we can do to help?”

“We’ll know more from the lab tomorrow,” Sabina replied.

“As for the money trail, the thing about unwinding a ball of deceit is that the more threads you pull loose, the fewer there are holding the whole thing together,” Callie said. “It was slower going when we started, and while I can’t put a hard timeline on it—and I know this is mixing my metaphors—I expect the rest of the puzzle pieces to fall into place pretty quickly.”

“And you’re doing what you can be doing. This is kind of our thing, not yours,” Sabina said. “Stay out of our way and focus on what you can impact,” she added, shooting Amber a look.

“The lawyer,” she said.

Sabina nodded. “And building a relationship with your daughter.” She paused, a glint flashing into her eyes. “And maybe figuring out that whole adoption thing.”

“Pushing it, boss,” Leo said, sending both Spencer and her an apologetic look. “She means well but doesn’t always know where the boundaries are. Or she does but decides to ignore them.”

“It’s the latter,” Sabina said. “Mostly. Although admittedly, people sometimes get touchier about things than I expect.”

“On that note,” Philly said, rising. “Why don’t we all work on the things we can impact. Monk, Kendall, and Helia invited us over to their new place for dinner tonight. They still have a few more things to do before moving in full-time, but there’s a park down the street Kendall thought Zoe would like, and Helia wanted Amber’s opinion about something in the kitchen. I think the rest of us are just pity invites, but since they live four blocks from my favorite ice cream place, I told him we’d be there.”

Chapter twenty-eight

Juan sat on a stool, staring at the live feed from Anthony Ely’s house. A slow afternoon at Rita’s left him with little to do, or rather little that had to be done, so instead, he’d popped one AirPod in, pulled up the feed, and taken a seat behind the bar. The two women having a quiet conversation in the corner and the three guys spread out along the bar would signal him if they wanted anything.