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“Why so many?” frowned Luke.
“Because I had to do this in pieces. I used a different slip drive each time, thinking even if one was found, the others would still be intact.”
“Brilliant girl,” grinned Hex.
“Before we view them, we’d like to hear what made you do this. Was there one incident that made it all come to life?” asked Eric. He handed the drives to the tech team, turning back to Lyra for her explanation.
“Yes. Finding out that he killed my parents,” she said, staring at the room. “I wish I could cry about it, but I cried enough about it when I found out. I’m just bitter and angry now. It was the first time he asked me to join him and his clients for dinner. I was probably seventeen, maybe a few weeks before my eighteenth birthday. I was getting ready to leave for college the next week.
“I often never knew the names of the men and women who attended dinner. In this case, it was three men and a woman. Ironically, the men didn’t give me bad vibes, but that woman sure did. I never knew her name, but during dinner, she and my uncle began arguing about something. My uncle told her to stop, and she said, ‘why don’t we tell your lovely niece about her parents.’
“Obviously, that got my attention. I froze, staring at him. He calmly set down his knife and fork, turning to me,” she said in a whisper. “I can still see it all. Feel it all. I just looked at him, afraid to speak. He said, ‘I’m only going to tell you this once. Your mother and father were not loyal to this family. They violated my trust and the trust of all of our business partners. When that happens, the family bond is broken, and all bets are off. I was forced to dispose of my problem.’”
“Jesus,” muttered Razor.
“I couldn’t believe it. I just stared at him, then back at the woman who had this grin on her face. I looked at him and asked him point blank if he killed them. I’d been told they were killed in a carjacking. He very calmly, very casually returned to his steak, cutting a piece, and said yes. He said, ‘I had my men stage the carjacking. It was business.’
“I asked to leave the table, but he denied my request. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t move. They just continued talking about business. It was as if what he’d said meant nothing. When I was finally able to leave the table, my uncle grabbed my hand and asked me if the woman’s comments had upset me.Hercomments! I just said ‘yes.’ The next day, he said she’d never be at our table again.”
“I’m so sorry, Lyra. You left for college after that, right?” asked Luke.
“Yes. I thought I’d be safe. I thought I could find a way to stay away from him. After being gone a few months, he told me I had to return home and commute to school. It didn’t seem that I could do anything right. After that dinner, when I met Quetzalcoatl, I begged to be excused from them, but he seemed to delight in knowing that they made me uncomfortable.
“That’s when I made the decision to listen more intently. Listen to the low conversations at the other end of the table. Wait until my uncle was gone and search his office. He’s old school, lots of paper, but he had some things on an old computer.”
“He doesn’t have someone handling his books?” asked Jean.
“No. He trusts no one. You won’t be surprised to know that everything he does is a front for something else. His auto dealership ships high-end sports cars overseas with the trunk and tires filled with drugs. The convenience stores launder money for him. The hotel is where his guests stay,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“It’s also an active site for prostitution and trafficking. It’s open to the public, but only certain floors. One of the desk agents made the mistake of booking a young couple on the floor where my father’s associates were, and the woman was taken by them, assuming she was part of their package. They were both abused beyond recognition and left a few miles away on the beach.”
“We have to stop him,” said Abe.
“That’s what we’re trying to do, Abe. We have to know all the details, see all the evidence to figure out where we are on this.”
“What did the bureau say when you called?” Hex looked at Code and Sly. Sly looked toward Lyra, then out at the other men.
“They said they didn’t have anyone looking into Jessup Wolford. They had nothing on him to indicate that he was a problem. It seems that the protection of Lyra was unsanctioned by the bureau.”
Luke and the others looked at Lyra, who didn’t seem bothered by the statement. She just stared back at them, then up at the whole room.
“Oh. You’re surprised by that. Sorry. I thought you knew.”
“Knew what, babe?” asked Abe.
“The man who brought me here, Fontenot, and Carr were the only two men who knew the details of the case. Fontenot’s wife was killed by my uncle, and Carr’s sister was murdered by him. They had a reason to want him gone. When they tried to bring the whole bureau in on it, they were told that it wasn’t significant to the American people.”
“Not significant?” frowned Razor. “What the fuck?”
“See. The only two people who knew all of it are either dead or disappeared. After Fontenot and Carr dropped me off, they were going to go their separate ways and try to hide for a while. With Carr dead, I have no way of knowing where Fontenot is.”
“We haven’t been able to find him,” said Code. “Our contact at the bureau said that he asked for extended leave, and it was granted.” The leadership team stared at one another, then nodded at Lyra to continue.
“I did everything I could to protect myself. My uncle didn’t have cameras in the house. He was paranoid that someone else would tap into them. He checked for wire-tapping all the time, and he hated it when I had my cell phone out because he thought I might be recording him. With Quetz involved, I knew that eventually, my uncle would be angry enough to hand me over to him.”
“That won’t fucking happen. Not in this lifetime,” said Abe, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I hope it won’t happen even in the next lifetime,” frowned Lyra. “I think part of the reason that the bureau may have ignored this case is because my uncle met with men from Washington all the time. He was always driving up from our home to D.C. He hated it. Hated being away from the house at all. He would be gone only a day or sometimes a few days at a time. He would never tell me who he was meeting with, but I know it was usually the same men.”
