Page 58 of Done Dirty

“Her name is Melissa Strom,” Margot said.

“Then he was probably on very good terms with her,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“No debit card expenses out of that account?” Jack asked. “Nothing automated?”

“No,” she said. “But I did find another LLC listed in Wade’s name. It has no IRS filing records, but it has an active credit card and balance.”

“This guy was begging to be audited by the IRS,” Jack said.

“No flags yet,” Margot said. “But expenses show first class airfare to Mexico City in correlation with each fifty-thousand-dollar withdrawal.”

“Idiot,” I said.

“I concur,” Margot said. “I believe he used the tiny brain in his penis instead of the one in his head.” Then she added, “I saw that on an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

I stifled a cough to keep from laughing. She didn’t need any encouragement for her behavior.

“I dug deeper into Tecnología y Laboratorios and looked for connections with the medical personnel and our victim,” she said. “One of their assistant researchers is Dr. Ignacio Sanchez. Goes by Nacho. He’s got an active social account. Speaks English and Spanish. His father is a Mexican national and his mother is American. He attended the University of Virginia for his undergraduate and medical degree. Wade was also at the University of Virginia during the same time period for his degrees in business commerce. If you dig into social media accounts, there are pictures of Wade and Nacho together at various functions.”

“So he brought fifty thousand in cash across the border every four months to buy illegal substances from his friend. I’m assuming he didn’t declare the cash with customs?”

“There’s no record of any declarations.”

“Package everything on Sanchez and get it to the FBI,” Jack said. “That’s a federal case.” He looked at Derby. “Any luck with the warrants for his phone?”

“I’ve been working with the dedicated law enforcement team for his iCloud. We should have any recovered texts and emails by tomorrow. Verizon tells me I should have his phone logs by end of day tomorrow at the latest.”

Doug hadn’t looked up from the burner phone in twenty minutes. He had it connected to some kind of adaptor, and a bunch of code was spitting out across a second monitor.

“The self-destruct layer is more sophisticated than I expected,” he said. “Wade didn’t set this up himself. Someone who knows what they’re doing built this.” He finally looked up. “These things aren’t hard to get if you know where to look. Five to ten thousand on the street will buy you exactly this kind of setup. Could have come from anywhere.”

Jack nodded and looked at Derby. “What else do you have?”

“We’ve been cross-referencing the resident roster against the camera footage,” Derby said. “Trying to get a full picture of who lives there and what’s going on in the building.” He looked up from his screens. “Wade wasn’t sleeping with anyone inside the building. You don’t piss in your own pool. But what is going on in that building is something else entirely.”

“I told Doug it’s just like Melrose Place, and then he stole my line and told you like he has any clue what Melrose Place is,” Margot said waspishly. And then she added, “I’ve watched every episode as part of my pop culture education.”

“I might not have seen the show, but I know a soap opera when I see one,” Doug said. “And this place is crazy. Check this out.”

He pulled up the first clip. “Second floor. 201. We’re calling them The Newlyweds. Guy works from home. Wife leaves at eight every morning. A woman who is not his wife shows up at eight fifteen every Monday and Thursday.”

“He must set a timer,” Margot said. “She never stays more than thirty-seven minutes. Poor woman.”

I snickered and Jack shot me a look.

“202 is The Divorced Power Couple,” Doug continued. “Both attorneys. Neither would give up the condo in the divorce, so they both live there and date other people.”

“That sounds like a reality TV show waiting to happen,” I said.

“203 is The Influencer,” Margot said. “She’s got an OnlyFans page. Doug checked it out.”

“For research,” Doug jumped in.

“Mmhmm,” Margot said. “She’s got two million followers and her subscribers are enough that she bought a Lamborghini this year and launched her own cryptocurrency.”

“She smokes pot by the pool late at night with The Surgeon in 204,” Derby said. “The Surgeon is married to a Realtor and also has a gay lover who comes once a week when his wife goes into DC on the weekends to meet with clients there.”

“204 is busy,” Jack said.