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“I really don’t like that guy,” Cole said. “Why bother meeting with him?”
“Because he might let something slip,” Jack said. “The world of trafficking is vast, but the circles are small. A guy like Kirby is established at the state department, but I guarantee he’s not involved anyone in his work environment in his extracurricular activities. But he’s in a position to have a lot of international contacts. He’s out of the country more than he’s in the United States. He’ll have an established team. And then he’ll have lower-level guys like Sowers and maybe Jasmine Taylor who are expendable, or who could take the fall if things get too hot.”
“Speaking of Kirby’s travel logs,” Martinez said. “This guy is all over the place. And if you compare his travel to Sowers, there are some overlying patterns. They never arrive or depart on the same day. They might spend a day, at the most two, in the same city at the same time. I’ve got twenty-one occurrences over the last five years. I haven’t gone back any further.”
“Sowers’ widow knew about Kirby,” I said. “She pretended she didn’t, but she was lying. There’s no telling how far back Kirby and Sowers have been involved in this.”
“Well,” Doug said, “I’ve already connected William Kirby to one of the shell companies you gave me that David Sowers has been using. There are five members total on the board. My guess would be they’re on the boards of every company, but it’s slow going to peel back the layers. Mackenzie has to be very delicate so she doesn’t set off alarms. We don’t want to end up back under house arrest.”
“Can you do a deep run on Jasmine Taylor?” Jack asked.
“Sure,” Doug said. “I can do it manually while Mackenzie is working. What am I looking for?”
“Any glitches in her identity or credentials,” Jack said. “She hasn’t been working for Sowers that long. Just over two years. That in itself makes me suspicious that she was able to work herself into his network so quickly.”
“Maybe the cocaine addled his brain,” Cole said.
“Maybe,” Jack said. “Or maybe she’s working undercover.”
“For who?” Martinez asked.
“I don’t know,” Jack said. “But she’s not a stupid woman. Her file says she’s a Harvard graduate, just like Sowers. Attaching herself to Sowers would be career suicide, and she’d know that. She’s sat on national boards and has taught classes at the university. And four years ago she was tapped to sit on the president’s legal team. From what I can tell, she’s taken on most of the legal duties in the office since Sowers’ drug use made him unreliable. The trafficking might have been shoved under the rug, but it seems everyone knew about the drugs, and has known for a long time.”
“So what am I looking for specifically?” Doug asked. “If she’s working undercover with a fake ID, I could hack into the database. They have a separate system for undercover licenses.”
“I think she’s using her real identity,” Jack said. “Look at her training. I watched her the first time we met at the Purple Pig and then tonight. The way she kept distance between herself and us. The way she stood and angled her body.”
“Oh,” Cole said. “I see it now.”
“Someone want to explain to me since I don’t see?” I asked.
“She moves like a cop,” Jack said. “That’s all law enforcement training. The way she was constantly scanning the area instead of making eye contact. And she was wearing a weapon in the small of her back tonight.”
“She did eighteen months at Quantico after law school,” Doug said.
“So my guess is she’s connected with the attorney general’s office and the DOJ,” Jack said. “They’d have put her in the right places at the right times so she’d spark Sowers’ notice, and she’d still be able to use her real name. Anything come up on Alex Denaro?”
“He appears to have turned over a new leaf,” Martinez said. “I was just going through his financials. He’s part owner in a couple of different businesses. Makes a healthy income, but not crazy. Wife stays home with the kids. Has a mortgage. Pays taxes. Seems on the up and up.”
“What businesses?” Jack asked.
“Umm…” Martinez said, shuffling through papers. “A shipping container yard in King George Proper near the docks. And Miller Construction. He’s listed as a fifty percent owner in both.”
“Who’s the other owner?” I asked.
“Louis Giordano,” Martinez said.
Doug typed on his keyboard with lightning speed. “Looks like Giordano is a cousin. His mother was a Denaro.”
“So maybe he’s not as far removed from the family business as he wants us to believe,” Jack said. “Okay, we know the big players in this. Or potential big players if Denaro is involved. Let’s bring it down a level and look for the workmen. Denaro makes it a habit of hiring veterans. According to Darnell, there’s at least five or six who are employed in some capacity. Do we have Denaro’s employee list?”
“Right here,” Martinez said, shuffling papers. “And copies of his personnel files. He’s a real helpful guy.”
“I know,” Jack said. “Color me suspicious. Let’s pull them up on the computer and put them on the screen.”
Martinez took the files and moved to Jack’s desk to sit behind the computer there.
“You know Mackenzie could do that for you?” Doug said.
