He started with the names on Sunshine’s corporate papers. His old law firm hadn’t canceled his access to the expensive research services they used for investigation. One of these days, he’d have to afford the subscriptions on his own, but for now, he took advantage of his old firm’s carelessness.
Once he’d compiled a file on each of the corporate officers, Jax sent the dossiers to Reuben to compare with what he was digging out of Marlene Gump’s computer files. Contrary to Evie’s problem-solving approach, most investigations were tedious grunt work—
Plus good memories for making connections, Jax decided a moment later as he ran across a name he recognized: Lucy Murkowski, the administrator of Mrs. Gump’s retirement apartments was listed on the board of directors of Sunshine Home Healthcare Services.
Come to think of it—there was Ursula Stanislaus, the HR director. Was this a completely employee-owned business?
The sticky web tightened.
Fourteen
Roark appropriatedAriel’s desk chair the instant she went to bed. Bent up in this cramped tiny chair, his injured leg as well as his back ached, but it was better than the porch.
He could hear her tossing and turning in her room, probably as uneasy as he was with this cage they were trapped in. He needed to be out and about, slapping mics on walls and phones, tracking his father and his buddies... but that required funds he’d blown by going home in the first place. He couldn’t even ask Reuben to help him out. The dude had to earn his own way and didn’t need an albatross weighing him down.
So Roark had to think like the computer prof, except technology wasn’t an easy way of infiltrating his da’s gang. Computers didn’t feature in their lifestyle. Still, he might work out how to get his hand down the throats of the puppet masters pulling his father’s strings.
He’d learned intimidation at an early age and at the hands of an expert.
First, though, Roark set up a social media account for one of his dimwitted cousins who didn’t own so much as a dumb phone. Using that account, he “followed” all his family to keep an eye on how they were doing. His sisters were pretty active. They didn’t seem to be making funeral arrangements for Da or even visiting him at the hospital, so he must have survived the explosion.
His family posted enough to keep him apprised of what his brothers were up to. It wasn’t enough. His brothers weren’t stupid and didn’t tell everyone everything. But online, the only concern seemed to be about him. He couldn’t help them there. Better that Da thought him dead. And their conjectures that he was hiding in the swamp or hiring special forces to invade amused him.
Next, he began the tedious task of identifying his father’s victims from their phone numbers. As he suspected, all of the victim information was out there on the darknet. He narrowed down the ones to investigate further by checking their zip codes for the wealthier zones. Then he ran their credit reports, using the account Ariel had apparently set up and paid for. He didn’t want to know her reasons for checking people’s credit. If he and Ariel could do it, the puppet masters could too. The victims with money in the bank would be the ones they pursued hardest.
From the variety of numbers used, he deduced his da’s scammers had burner apps and VPNs. Those prevented Roark from tracing their numbers and phones. Somebody knew their tech. If even the FBI couldn’t track these criminals, he was nuts to try. But he had all the time in the world. They didn’t.
Beside him, Ariel’s cellphone pinged a text message. He picked it up and hesitated only half a second. He’d listened and watched her hit her security code enough times to guess she was using Jax’s birth date. He tried it and the phone opened so he could read the message from Pris. Apparently Evie’s cousin was either desperate or didn’t realize Ariel slept all morning.
boyfriend!the text exclaimed in all caps, followed by angry, weeping emoticons.
That might make sense to the Enigma Twins but meant nothing to Roark. Since Ariel was already prepared to make mincemeat of him, Roark typed back:ariel sleeping. she tell you plan?
That stopped her cold. Oh well.
He set up a search/comparison for the scammer phone numbers he was collecting, then began checking each number individually in hopes at least one might slip up and use their real number. Roark knew the IQ levels of the people working for his da. Half of them had barely made it through sixth grade. They existed on charm and good looks.
Which made him uneasy in lieu of Pris’s message. One of the prime phone and internet scams was dating app fraud. With a good template, his father’s buddies might pull off an internet email fraud, but their specialty was sweet talking, which required phone calls. He’d learned that much from his brothers. At least they weren’t pulling any of the intimidation calls where they threatened their victims—that they knew of.
Pris’s mother had landed on his da’s list with the magazine scam. That made her an easy mark for his other cons. Roark had added her to his investigation because her credit report showed she had substantial unused credit and a decent savings account.
He wasn’t too surprised when the security alarm buzzed half an hour later—he’d heard the bike coming up the drive. He glanced at the camera. Evie’s weird cousin leaned against a bicycle and waited. She wore all black today but her hair was all red. He was gonna guess that meant she was flaming mad.
Bored playing with numbers, he sauntered out to the porch. “Well, did Ariel tell you our plan?”
She narrowed her eyes and studied him. When he’d first arrived in Afterthought, Roark had thought Evie’s cousin spacey. There wasn’t an ounce of vagueness to her today.
“You block me,” she announced, sounding suspicious. “Only my family can do that.”
Roark shrugged, not having any idea what she was talking about. “I don’t have time for games. Do you want help or not?”
“Some jerkoff is sending my mother photos of himself next to a Cadillac and text messages about how much he enjoys talking with her.” She quit there, as if expecting him to understand.
“Can you send us the photos?”
She nodded and continued to wait expectantly.
Roark grimaced. “Your best alternative is to smash her phone and get her a new number.”