Stone Investigations (Stone Series Book 4) by Bob Blanton (open ebook txt) 📗

should be able to get a fast read, she’sgorgeous.”

“And if the pattern holds, so are the next two,” Matthew saidas he pointed out two other women who were waiting for their luggage.  All fourof the women had movie-star looks and were dressed like movie stars as well.

“Let me see what they get in to leave the airport.”  Matthewmoved his portal to the outside of the terminal where the first woman wasstanding by the curb.  “What’s she doing, waiting for a taxi?”

“No, valet parking,” Emily said pointing at the sign.

“Valet parking at the airport.”

“Sure, it’s really convenient.”

Matthew shook his head as he concentrated on the woman,trying to get a read on her so he could open his portal on her later.

“Here comes her car,” Emily said.

“How can you be sure?”

“I’m not positive, but it’s a nice Mercedes SL55AMG withvanity plates.  I’ll bet lunch.”

“No bet, she’s already smiling at the valet guy.”

The driver pulled the car to the curb right in front of thewoman.  He had lowered the top when he got the car.  He hopped out right afterhe popped the trunk and ran around to the back to help her with her luggage,leaving the car running.

“Oomph,” he blew out as he lifted her bag into the trunk.

“Lots of shoes, sorry.”  She handed him a fifty-dollar billfor the tip and got into the car.  She waved at him as she drove off.  Thesecond woman was already handing in her valet ticket at the stand.  The guycalled her car in on the radio while she moved to the pickup point, smiling atthe valet driver who was running to take care of another car pulling up.

“I bet this is her car coming now.  A Ferrari 360.  I guessif you’re going to be handling millions of dollars, you should be driving anice car.  Did you get a read on the first woman?”

“Not sure yet, but I have the license of the car, so weshould be able to find her.”

The pattern repeated itself with the last two women.

“Did you notice that the brunette had a black Mercedes, theredhead had a red Ferrari, the blond had a yellow Corvette, and the platinumblond had a silver Maserati?”

“No.”  Matthew rolled his eyes.

“Hey, what kind of investigative reporter are you going to beif you don’t notice details like that?!”

“A male one.”

“Pfft.  Where is the first one now?  Do you have a fix onher?”

Matthew tried to open his portal on the first woman.  After aminute he gave up.  “Nope, I’ll have to look up her address using the licensenumber.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“Even the Caymans have a DMV.  I’m sure I’ll be able to finda free terminal on Monday.”

“So does that mean we’re done for the weekend?”

“Other than checking on Graham.  Maybe he’ll visit them.”

“Maybe, but wouldn’t that violate his separation rule.  Heavoids all contact with his network.”

“True, but like you said, they were gorgeous.”

Emily laughed at that.  “But you should be able to focus onskiing.  No more crashes.”

Matthew splashed water on her as he moved to the other sideof the jacuzzi.

Chapter 15Closing the Case

They’d flown back late Sunday night, but Matthew was up earlyon Monday to check on Mr. Graham.  He wasn’t scheduled to fly home until 10:00 fromthe Caymans so Matthew was very interested in what he had planned for themorning.  Plus he wanted to get into the Cayman Island’s DMV early to see if hecould trace the four women.

Matthew checked in on Graham.  He was mostly packed; Matthewhad been surprised on Saturday when he realized that Graham had two suitcasesthat looked like the ones he’d brought on the plane.  But instead of money, oneof them had normal-looking clothes while the other had a scuba mask and a pairof fins as well as a fishing pole.  Mr. Graham definitely likes to take care ofdetails.  Matthew assumed that the suitcases had been the women’s and thatthey’d simply exchanged them on the carousel.  When Mr. Graham went down tobreakfast, Matthew got in a quick workout and shower.  Mr. Graham was justreturning to his room when Matthew was getting dressed.

Mr. Graham set up a computer once he was in his room.  It wasa high-end laptop that must have been in the briefcase he was carrying onSaturday.  Matthew positioned his portal so he could observe the keyboard aswell as the screen.  Mr. Graham opened five separate browser windows and loggedinto a bank account on each window.  Of course, Matthew memorized the accountnumbers and passwords.

During the next hour, Matthew and Mr. Graham observed fourseparate deposits of one million dollars each into four of the accounts.  Thenthe money was transferred to the fifth account, Matthew assumed it was viamultiple other accounts.  When the process was complete, the first fouraccounts had one hundred thousand each while the fifth account showed a balanceof over five hundred twenty million dollars.

Matthew wondered, “Why only a million each?  Each of thesuitcases had to have had nearly eight million dollars in it.”

Mr. Graham closed his computer and finished packing.  Matthewwatched as he checked out and got a taxi to the airport.  He would have tofigure out what was going on with the rest of the money, but first, he had tofind the three women.

It took Matthew an hour using various unattended computers atthe DMV to find the four addresses.  Once he had the last address he needed, heheaded out for school.

◆ ◆ ◆

Matthew slid into the seat next to Emily in their Frenchclass.  “Hey, nice ski tan you’ve got there.”

“Same to you buddy,” Emily replied, then whispered, “Did youlearn anything this morning?”

“Yes, we’ll talk at lunch.”

“What about Agent Peters?”

“At lunch.”

Between classes, Emily tried to grill Matthew for details,but he refused to talk, saying that he didn’t want to be overheard discussingthe case.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Okay, how about you start talking,” Emily demanded as soonas they were in her car heading for the sushi place.

“I saw him log into some offshore accounts.  Four of them hadone million deposited into them.  It immediately moved to the fifth account;that one has five hundred twenty million in it.”

“Wow, the drug business sure has been