AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And that meant trying to find Pottinger’s assets by way of her cyber-sleuthing.
She obtained some of Pottinger’s personal information from his purchase of Stormfield. She used this to start building a baseline of the man’s financial activities.
And then, surprisingly, the Batphone rang. She answered it.
Clarisse said, “I apologize for being so abrupt before. Ididhave something else on my mind, but it was no excuse for rudeness.”
“Okay,” said Gibson grudgingly, taken aback by this abrupt turnaround.
“As for Trask, here is some advice. He has an army of aides and bodyguards and all the entourage of the king he thinks he is.”
“Which was my point. So how can I—” began Gibson.
“Why do you think he built a place in Virginia Beach when he could live anywhere in the world?”
“Okay, why?”
“His father, Sam Trask, lives in Virginia Beach, too,” said Clarisse.
“What! And you didn’t tell me this before because why?”
“I like to see people find out things for themselves.”
“Trask Senior obviously knows what his son really is,” noted Gibson.
“He does. Apparently during his career at the Bureau, they built a formidable case against his son. His father, of course, would have been no part of it because of conflict rules, but I heard that he was actually the leading force behind the scenes. But the case fell apart when a group of women, who could have sent Trask to prison for sex trafficking, were burned up in a hotel fire in San Antonio.”
“Trask’s work?” asked Gibson.
“Obviously, but nothing could be proven. Sam Trask retired from the Bureau at age fifty-seven, which is mandatory for special agents. After that he worked at Kroll International for over a decade. You know them?”
Gibson said, “Of course, one of the biggest and best known private security and investigation firms in the world. They’re a competitor of ProEye.”
“He did specialized work for them, using his breadth of knowledge and Rolodex acquired at the Bureau. His cases took him all over the world, and there was overlap with the sort of crimes his son was engaged in.”
“So you mean the father was still trying to take down his son?”
“It’s almost biblical, isn’t it?” remarked Clarisse. “Sam Trask is now eighty years old, retired, widowed, and has lived for five years at The Feathers, an assisted living center in Virginia Beach. He has some health issues, but word is the man still has his mental faculties.”
“And his son built that monstrosity after his father moved there?” said Gibson.
“Sort of like, ‘Look at me, I have this awesome place andyou’rethe one imprisoned at an assisted living facility.’”
“If I were Sam I’d up and move somewhere else. Make his son shell out the bucks to build another place.”
Clarisse said, “I’m not sure Sam Trask would give him the satisfaction of knowing that his son is still getting in his father’s head.”
“Does Nathan ever visit him?”
“His father obviously wants nothing to do with him, so he has refrained from trying. So maybe there’s your in.”
“What do you mean?” asked Gibson.
“Sam Trask knows more about his son than maybe anyone alive.”
“If that’s so, why hasn’t the son taken out the father?”
“He would be the prime suspect if that happened, and that would turn the FBI’s attention to him again. His father can’t really hurt him now, so why make that sort of trouble for himself?”
