The smile drained from the agent’s face.
‘This is one of the biggest fraud inquiries in US history, not some free-for-all Easter egg hunt.’
‘Some of that money belongs to my family, Mr Stanton,’ said Sophie evenly.
‘You sure about that?’ he replied.
Sophie swallowed. Was Stanton telling her he knew about her father’s involvement in the scam? No, he couldn’t – if the federal agencies knew about Peter Ellis’s role as the ‘bag man’, as Josh put it, they would have shut down Sophie and her mother just as they had done with Miriam Asner. They would have seized assets, frozen accounts, gone through their homes with sniffer dogs and X-ray machines. What Stanton was doing was warning them off.
‘Is that a threat?’ she said.
Stanton shrugged.
‘Take it any way you like, Miss Ellis. All I’m saying is that the stakes are high in this case. If you want to have any hope of going back to London and living a quiet life, I suggest you co-operate with us in every way possible.’
‘That does sound like a threat,’ said Josh.
‘So sue us,’ said Stanton with a twisted smile. ‘In the meantime, perhaps you could tell us everything else Mr Ellis found out about the Asner case.’
Sophie repeated the version of the story she had given to Andrea Sayer, the one where her father was playing amateur detective in the slim hope of recovering some of his investment, all the time becoming more and more convinced that Josh was right: she had to keep going, had to get to that money before the authorities, before the Russians, because without it they had nothing.
‘So you’re sure that’s all you know?’ said Stanton when she had finished. ‘Just a random name your father had written down in a file?’
‘My father was an accountant, not a policeman, Mr Stanton,’ said Sophie. ‘He had no real idea if Asner had hidden that money, it was just a hunch.’
‘A hunch,’ repeated Stanton.
‘Yes. I know it sounds stupid,’ said Sophie, ‘but we lost everything to that man. My mother is having to sell our family home. I thought my children would play on the garden swing just like I did, but Michael Asner took that from us. So excuse my father if he was clutching at straws – he was just trying to get back what was ours.’
She could hear the words coming out of her mouth but she could barely believe it was her. Was she morphing into Josh, she asked herself, able to weave a line, a story at the drop of a hat? What was it that Andrea Sayer had said back in New York? If they find out you have been withholding information, they will find a way to hurt you.
But she couldn’t stop now. She met Stanton’s gaze directly.
‘Please, Hal. Find the money. I can’t speak for the rest of Asner’s victims, but it killed my father and now it’s broken my mother.’
Hal Stanton nodded and handed her a business card. ‘Do you have a number I can reach you on?’
She wrote her own mobile number on a napkin, knowing her phone was sitting waterlogged in Josh’s lock-up.
‘I’ll be in touch,’ he said, getting up. ‘And kids? Please stop with the Scooby-Doo shit, okay? If we catch you on our turf again, we won’t be so nice.’
They watched as he left, followed by the other anonymously dressed men, and got into the black town car in the parking lot.
‘I don’t believe that,’ said Sophie, cupping her hands around her cheeks. Josh put his finger to his lips. ‘Don’t speak,’ he mouthed. ‘Let’s go.’
They walked outside into the hot, humid air. The town car had gone. Josh led her away from the diner into the car park, where the noise from the highway would stop anyone from overhearing them.
Her heart was pounding. ‘Oh my God, Josh, what have I done?’ she said, struggling for breath. ‘I’ve just spent the last ten minutes lying to a government agent.’
‘You did well,’ said Josh.
‘Well?’ she stammered. ‘The Commission has resources. How difficult is it going to be for him to find out I’m not poor Miss Innocent-Michael-Asner-Victim and that I’ve been questioned in connection with the death of a high-profile American in London?’
She looked at him with wide eyes. ‘What if he arrests me? In Florida? I could end up in jail like Michael Asner, and Ty and Uri the Bear.’
Josh turned to face her.
‘Pull yourself together,’ he ordered, gripping her arms. ‘You did what you had to do.’