A Deeper Fear

by Allison Brennan

  Megan tapped her watch. “Lucy and I have a meeting, we need to go.”

  “I almost forgot.” Lucy turned to Sean. “It’s the SAC of Sacramento FBI talking to all agents at the conference. I don’t have to go, but I should.”

  “Go,” he said, then leaned over and kissed her. “We came here for the conference. We’ll meet up later.”

  John said, “Thanks for the breakfast, it hit the spot.”

  “That was all Sean’s idea. I would have been happy with coffee.”

  After Megan and Lucy left for the conference center, Sean walked with John and Jack across the street to the 1201K Tower. Riley Knight was standing outside with a detective John introduced as Stan. John explained the theory, and then went inside to talk to security. It didn’t take long before they were all cleared. Riley and Stan started at the bottom, and John took Jack and Sean up to the top floor where Omni was located.

  After they gave a brief explanation for their visit at the front desk, Richard Lesko came out and greeted them. He was a large, imposing man in his sixties who dressed impeccably with subtle wealth. The kind of man you would think of as an old-time banker, and one you would automatically trust with your money.

  “Jack, Sean. I’m glad you’re here.” He shook each of their hands firmly. “Good to meet you, Detective. Please, come to my office.”

  Most of the staff members were already at work, not unusual for a business that ran on eastern time, even on the West Coast. Omni filled the top floor and had a staff of more than fifty—investors, portfolio managers, accountants, support personnel. It was one of the top investment companies in the country, with offices in Sacramento and New York.

  Richard led them to his corner office, which was a misnomer. Because the building was round, his office was round. He looked out at the K Street Mall and they could even see the capitol building two blocks over. Though Richard was the CFO and not the president of Omni, he clearly had the best office.

  He motioned for them to sit at a conference table.

  “You told my assistant we may have a security breach.”

  John described Ellen Dupre’s assault and why SPD was investigating, and then let Sean take over to explain his theory on why someone had been on the roof.

  When Sean was done, Richard said, “Our accounts are all in order, but you are welcome to check for any attempted hacks.”

  “Thank you,” Sean said. “May I use your computer?”

  “Of course.”

  “While Sean does his thing,” Jack said, “Detective Black and I are going to the roof to look for evidence that anyone unauthorized was up there.”

  They left, and Sean worked. Richard stayed with him but didn’t ask questions—which helped Sean work faster. He logged into the admin account that was set up specifically for RCK to manage their clients. He started running security logs, looking for anything out of the ordinary. There were of course standard attempts from bots trying to hack in, but those were all bounced back. He could find no malware hiding in the system, but he would need to run additional reports on individual computers to ensure that no one accidentally downloaded a virus to their own hard drive.

  By the time John and Jack came back, Sean had completed a good analysis of the system. Before he could say anything, John said, “You were right, Rogan. The same marks are on this roof. I called my boss, and he’s going to send a crime scene team over to look for trace, but it might be too late.”

  Richard looked worried. “We have a security system over and above building security. We follow all the protocols your firm established.”

  Sean said, “I can see that, but as we said then, nothing is a hundred percent foolproof. The good news is that there are no external threats to your system. I verified that the firewall is solid, it prevented anyone from getting in from the outside. There is no malware on the network. I’ll want to run a virus scan on each computer, however, in case it’s hiding on an individual hard drive to be deployed later.”

  “It sounds like a military operation.”

  “Exactly,” Sean said. “Computer viruses can be dormant and virtually undetectable until a certain time, or until they are activated by a third party. But based on what I’m seeing here, the only way that someone can hack into your escrow accounts is through one of five accounts—you, the assistant CFO, the two accountants, and the vice president.”

  “Correct.”

  “Meaning, from my perspective, I believe that one of these passcodes will be used, if you’re in fact the target.”

  “Are you implying that one of my most trusted staff members is trying to steal from our clients?”

  “No. But one of their logins would be used. Or yours.”

  “Impossible.”

  Nothing was impossible, but Sean didn’t state the obvious.

  “Your office may not be the target,” John said. “We’re talking to every business here.”

  That didn’t appease Richard; he still looked concerned.

  Jack asked, “Is there a client who will have an unusually large sum of money in escrow tonight?”

  “I can’t divulge confidential client data.”

  “I’m not asking who, just if.”

  Sean said, “If Omni is the target, the thieves know that there will be money in a specific escrow account tonight. They may know the client and be planning to steal the money. For example, a relative or employee or someone with access to client information.”

  Sean didn’t contradict Jack, but they needed the client list to determine who in that person’s life might have cause to steal from them. A disgruntled employee. An ex-spouse. A grown child left out of an inheritance. A colleague.

  “I can get a warrant,” John said.

  Richard was skeptical. “I understand you’re doing your job, but I have to protect my clients’ privacy. With all due respect, I don’t think you have enough to get a warrant. Is there any way you can protect our system without violating privacy laws?”

  “Set up a sting,” Sean said.

  “What?” John said. “Did you say a sting?”

  “Whatever you want to call it. But someone can be waiting here, inside.”

  Richard nodded. “I’ll hire a security officer.”

  “Jack and I should do it,” Sean said. “These people are determined. They put an innocent civilian in a coma because they thought she might have seen something. A standard security guard isn’t going to cut it.”

  “I agree,” Jack said.

  “I’m okay with that,” Richard said. “I’ll be at the Hyatt tonight for my daughter’s wedding—the rehearsal dinner. Her wedding is tomorrow at the cathedral.”

  “I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” Jack said.

  Richard frowned. “I don’t understand.”

  “You’re going to be across the street and Omni may be a target for theft?”

  “I don’t see what one has to do with the other. This wedding and the rehearsal have been planned for months.”

  “Like I said,” Sean said, “a great hacker might be able to get into your escrow accounts, but it’ll be difficult. Your passcode will cut the time from potentially hours to minutes. Do you have your passcode written on anything in your office or on your person? Like in your wallet?”

  “No—well, yes. But we secure them in my assistant’s office.”

  “Nothing is foolproof,” Sean said.

  “It’s a safe.”

  “Fingerprint?”

  “No, there’s a code.”

  “I guarantee I can break into that safe in five minutes or less.”

  Richard was skeptical. Jack said, “Richard, I believe RCK is still contracted with Omni for security maintenance.”

  “That’s correct,” he said. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “We signed confidentiality statements when you hired us to update your security. I think Sean’s right—we need to know who may be the target. We need to look at the client list and every client who has a lar
ge transaction going through tonight or Monday.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that. Give me five minutes, I’m going to run it by our counsel, she’s just down the hall.”

  Richard left. John asked, “You think you can make that determination? Just by looking at a list of names?”

  “We can narrow it down,” Jack said, “but it’s also about asking questions—once we see who is potentially a target, Richard might have more information.”

  John said, “My techs are here, I’m going to take them to the roof. I shouldn’t be long.” He left, and only a few minutes later Richard returned.

  “Our lawyer verified that your agreement is still valid.” Richard handed Jack a folder. “Based on what you said, I printed out a list of each client who currently has more than one million in escrow. Most of those funds will be transferred or invested by Monday morning.”

  Sean immediately homed in. “Why does the name Feliciano sound familiar?” he asked.

  Richard looked surprised at the question. “Nick Feliciano is my daughter’s fiancé.”

  “There’s a fifteen-million-dollar transaction scheduled for Monday. What’s that?”

  “His trust fund,” Richard said. “The money was put into escrow this morning, and he receives it once they are married. He asked that Omni manage the trust. I won’t be in charge of the funds—Nick and Laura interviewed three financial advisers here and picked who they wanted to work with.”

  “What happens if the wedding is canceled?” Sean asked.

  “It won’t be,” Richard said emphatically. “Laura and Nick have been together for three years now. And—” He hesitated.

  “And what?” Jack pushed.

  “Laura’s ten weeks’ pregnant. No one knows—she and Nick told me last weekend when we went over some final wedding details. They said they would be telling Nick’s family after the honeymoon—Nick isn’t as close to his family. They are deeply in love, and Nick is ecstatic about the baby. He treats Laura like every father wants their daughter to be treated. He’s my son in every way but blood.”

  “Was anyone upset that Nick moved his trust fund for Omni to manage?”

  “I wouldn’t know. It’s Nick’s decision. He received control of his trust when he was twenty-five, but kept it with the family because he didn’t care much about the management end. But he had some questions about some of their investments and he wasn’t pleased with the answers. He asked if Omni would take over management, and I said yes, and they chose Desiree Holden to manage their account. We set this up months ago, it’s not a surprise to anyone.”

  “But the money was just transferred this morning.”

  “Correct.”

  Sean looked over at Jack, who nodded. They were thinking the same thing.

  “We need more information about the Feliciano family and Nick’s trust fund,” Sean said.

  At that moment John Black came back in. “My techs are up on the roof, but we can’t figure out how they plan to come in. The door has a secure key card system.”

  “Easy to steal,” Jack said.

  “But it’s alarmed after hours.”

  “Easy to bypass,” Sean said.

  “And the ventilation system is too small for a person bigger than a child to pass through.”

  “Sean and I are going to be here,” Jack said. “But in case we’re wrong, we need someone on Richard, his daughter, and her fiancé tonight.”

  “Is that really necessary?” Richard asked.

  “Yes,” Sean and Jack said simultaneously. Sean continued, “Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to get into this building, and Omni is a ripe target.”

  “There are other businesses here,” Richard said.

  “We’re talking to all of them,” John said. “But right now, you’re the most likely target.”

  Reluctantly, Richard agreed. “But I don’t want Nick or Laura knowing what’s going on. If you’re right and someone plans to steal Nick’s trust fund, it’ll put undue stress on my daughter and a cloud over their entire wedding.”

  Jack said, “My wife and sister are FBI agents. Can they pose as guests?”

  “It’s a wedding rehearsal, only two dozen people—wedding party and significant others.”

  “They can’t be staff,” Sean said. “They would be distracted.”

  Richard frowned. “I have an idea, for one person,” he said.

  “We’re listening.”

  “Brandy is my older daughter. She’s a wedding planner, and she’s been putting this all together for Laura. She’s also the maid of honor. I can talk to her, explain the situation, and she’ll understand. She can tell Laura that one of your people is her assistant. Laura won’t question it.”

  “That works. Lucy will be with Brandy and Laura, and Megan can act as a staff manager or support with the hotel, just observing,” Jack said. “Back Lucy up if necessary.”

  “Do you really think my daughter is in danger?”

  “No,” John said, “but at this point, we don’t know exactly what their plan is or how they intend to access these accounts, so it’s best to cover all our bases.”

  * * *

  Doug saw his life flash before his eyes.

  They were fucked.

  “Did you hear me?” Beth said.

  “We’re dead.”

  “I have a plan.”

  “We can’t go through with this, Beth. The police are everywhere. They must have figured it out. We have to disappear.”

  “They haven’t figured it out, and we don’t have the money to disappear.”

  Beth needed to realize that this was serious! “We leave, go to Canada maybe, lay low for a while. We have enough money for new identities.”

  “What about Frank?”

  His stomach tightened. He must have an ulcer by now, he was tense all the time. Why had they agreed to this job? They’d never done anything this big before. Or for someone who had the money to hunt them down if they failed.

  “I have a plan,” Beth repeated. “It’ll work. Then we disappear. Disappear with enough money that no one will find us.”

  “How?”

  “Richard Lesko will take us inside.”

  He knew exactly what she was thinking, but he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t put someone at risk—even if he knew they’d never hurt them. What would be the penalties if they were caught kidnapping? Far greater, that’s for sure. They already had an assault—or maybe an attempted murder charge—because of the drone lady. Kidnapping the CFO? That was . . . “No,” he repeated.

  “The police were all over the roof, they’re talking to everyone in the building. My guess is they’ll have someone on the roof of both the Sheraton and Omni. Probably inside as well. I can convince Lesko to go in after hours and transfer the money. He’ll do it, he’ll make it believable, even if there’s a cop sitting in his office. Remember, he’s a widower. I’ll be there with him.”

  “What? How?”

  “I’ll pose as his girlfriend. He’ll know I’m serious.”

  “Someone might recognize you. You can’t do that.”

  “No one really sees me, Doug, and I’ll make sure I look completely different. Hair down, makeup, nice clothes. No one will recognize me.”

  “It’s far too risky.”

  “We can’t get in the way we planned, we have to do it this way. You know it, I know it.”

  “No one gets hurt.”

  “Agreed.”

  His stomach flopped. He didn’t believe her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Putting together the Friday night operation took time and detailed planning. John Black and Riley Knight were situated on the roof of 1201K. An unmarked car with two plainclothes officers was parked on J and 12th. Two other plainclothes were in the lobby of the Hyatt to back up Megan and Lucy, if necessary. Jack and Sean were in the Omni offices. Sean had modified the security system so that if and when the thieves came, they wouldn’t see anything different than what they expected, but Sean and Jack could
move around freely inside. Sean had already worked with the FBI and the bank to get a lock on the escrow account—no one could touch it for seventy-two hours. Just in case they were wrong and the hackers had found a way to access the account from outside the network.

  Sean didn’t think he was wrong, but he didn’t want to take the risk, not with that kind of money at stake.

  At the Hyatt, the wedding rehearsal dinner started at six that evening, beginning with a cocktail party. Brandy Lesko was an amazing planner, Lucy realized—someone she would have been happy having organize her own wedding, though Sean had done an amazing job. Brandy made it seem so easy.

  Brandy was on board with the plan from the beginning, and Laura didn’t even question Lucy’s presence when Brandy introduced her as her assistant and said, “So I can enjoy tonight.”

  The dinner was a buffet and the food was plentiful. Lucy made a point of identifying each of the guests. Most were either mutual friends of the bride and groom, or Laura’s family. The only person from the groom’s family who came was his mother. She asked Brandy about it—out of Laura’s earshot, but where she could keep an eye on Laura.

  Brandy scowled. “I don’t know where Nick came from, because he is nothing like his family. They’re stuffy hypocrites. His sister is in Europe, can’t be bothered to come for his wedding; his brother is in rehab—not because he wants to quit drinking and drugs, but because he was arrested for drunk driving and got rehab over community service and jail time. Nick’s dad will be at the wedding, but isn’t flying in until tomorrow morning. I doubt he’ll make it on time. Nick’s mom is okay, I guess. Kind of regal and queenlike, but she’s the only one who’s actually been nice to Laura. And then his uncles—they are just jerks. He didn’t want to invite them to the wedding, but his mom and I convinced him that not inviting close relatives would create more problems for the family down the road. Sometimes we do things we don’t want to do to keep the peace. But fortunately, this party is just close friends.” She looked at Lucy—practically glared. “Do you really think that my sister could be in danger?”