Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

" H ow far are you?" Abby asked.

Luke had called her to get an update on what was happening on her end and put her on speaker phone so the rest of the team could hear what she'd found out without him having to repeat it.

"We just passed through Norton and are on Virginia State highway six-nineteen heading in the direction of the last place Zoe's phone was on. The driving is going slow."

"That's because of the road conditions," Matt said from the front seat. "Not my driving skills."

"That's debatable," Dave muttered beside Luke and Abby softly laughed over the phone.

"Hey, if there's anyone who knows how to handle a car on ice- and snow-covered roads, it's probably the former Highway Patrol officer in the car," Matt defended himself.

They'd shifted positions in the car after breakfast to let Matt shoulder some of the driving and Katie help him navigate the roads. Dave dozed in the backseat while Luke searched online for anything he could find about the area they were headed. He really didn't need the high-tech GPS or satellite maps to tell him the area was very rural, but the mountainous terrain was hazardous, especially with the weather conditions in the area for the past few days. A sick feeling settled in the pit of his stomach, imagining what could've happened to Zoe, and what they might find when they located her.

"Have you heard from the others yet?" Luke asked.

"Their plane landed about half an hour ago," Abby said. "Jake said they were going to drop off their stuff at Castello's safe house, then head over to Zoe's place."

Jake, Castello and Ben were meeting in Washington to be boots on the ground to try and find out what Zoe had been investigating. Jake still had contacts from his years in the FBI and Frank had some from his time with the Marshals. Ben Hanahan, a former marine sergeant and new member of the team after helping in the fiasco at the inauguration ball a few years back, filled out the team in DC, which allowed Abby to remain safely back in Columbus working the computers.

"How's it going on your end?" he asked, hoping she knew he was asking about her condition, as well as Zoe's situation.

"Parked in Doyle's war room right now," she said. When EIS headquarters moved into one of Castello's many safe houses, Jake's old partner Bill Doyle joined the company and relocated his massive computer setup into half the basement, complete with leather sofas to stretch out on. "Got my feet up and a cup of herbal tea, going through Zoe's financials. I may have called on Brianna for some help."

He smiled. The tea comment and her safety was for his reassurance that she was taking care of herself and their baby. Brianna was her best friend and a whiz with numbers.

"Why Brianna? Something up with Zoe's finances?"

"Not that that would surprise anyone," Matt said.

"Girl always was shaky on what rules meant," Dave added.

Katie laughed from the front seat. "You guys make her sound like some sort of Mata Hari."

"More like an evil ninja tornado," Luke said.

"Lethal cat-four hurricane," Matt corrected.

"A troublesome tsunami," Dave concluded.

Abby laughed over the phone. "I think you guys missed the mark on your metaphors. She got lost in a blizzard."

"That's Zoe," all three brothers said.

"Zoe has several accounts," Abby said, bringing the conversation back to their mission. "I've traced the funds coming in and out and it looks like she has several shell companies with access by more than one entity."

"Entity?" Katie asked.

"If you and Matt have a joint checking or savings account, you are both an entity that can access the funds," Abby explained.

"So, is she married, and we didn't know about it?" Matt asked.

"I don't think so," Abby said. "The other entities are all female. I mean she could be a married lesbian."

Matt looked at Dave in the rearview mirror, then they both shifted their gazes to Luke, who'd been the closest in age to their cousins.

He shook his head. "No, she was into men. She would've told me otherwise."

"Why would she tell you?" Katie asked.

Luke shrugged. "Because she liked to shock me."

"He was a bit shy and a goody-two-shoes as a kid," Matt explained with a grin.

"Gullible," Dave said and chuckled.

"Luke?" Abby said, with incredulity in her voice. When they'd met at FLETCY he'd been a bit of a ladies' man. "The same man I'm married to? The one who hacks into any computer on the planet?"

"High school and my first computer changed things for me," he said, hating to be the center of the group's attention. "So, who do you think these other people on Zoe's account are?"

"Best I can tell, they're all her," Abby said. "I asked Brianna to run numbers and it looks like your cousin gets regular payments from some group with their money in banks both in the Caymans and in Zurich."

Luke nodded. "Off-shore accounts out of the prying eyes of the government."

"Why would she make up other people to access her own account?" Katie asked.

"Because she's playing spy," Luke answered. "When we were kids, it was her favorite game. She always wanted to be part of the Neptune's Five group."

"The what?" Abby asked.

"The Neptune's Five were a group ONI, Office of Naval Intelligence, that worked undercover in the early part of World War Two. They started out hunting Nazi spies on the East Coast prior to America entering the war, then worked in Africa and Europe once Pearl Harbor happened."

"I've never heard of them," his wife said.

"Well, they were undercover," Dave said, and Luke shot him a look that suggested he may be the big brother, but he wasn't welcome to disrespect his wife. His brother shrugged. "Just sayin'."

"You never heard of them because their missions were classified," Luke said.

"How do you know about them?" Abby paused. "Let me guess you hacked into some database."

"Nope, didn't have a computer or the skills when we were kids. We learned about them from our parents and grandparents. Grandpa Zach was the leader of the group. That's how he met Grandma Sophie."

"Oh, this is a story I want to hear," Katie said from the front seat.

"Me, too. Maybe later when you are all here?" Abby suggested. "But it makes sense. If Zoe is working for some dark clandestine government group, maybe the CIA, then she'd want her various aliases to have access to her money."

"Why bring in Brianna?" Luke asked. They all knew Abby's best friend was a savant when it came to numbers and statistics. It was her quirk just like Abby's photographic memory, both unique skills the EIS group routinely exploited for cases.

"I'm tracing where the money is coming from. Bri is working on where the money is going. Makes the trails easier and quicker to trace if we come at it from two different angles."

"Bill her hours to EIS, it'll give Jake a hernia," Matt said with a laugh, then took his foot off the gas as he maneuvered the SUV around a tight curve, something he'd been fighting for several miles as they went further into the rural mountains of southwestern Virginia.

"Has Brianna found anything?" Luke asked, willing his heart to go back to normal as the road straightened and Matt once again increased the speed past a crawl. There were no tire tracks in front of them and Matt was driving through at least a foot of fresh untouched snow.

"One of the accounts has auto pays going through it. Bri says it's for utilities and a mortgage on a townhouse in DC. I sent the address to Jake, so they can check it out for anything that might clue us into what she was working on. I'll let you know if they find anything. You guys be safe out there."

Hearing the worry in her voice, Luke switched the phone off speaker to talk to his wife in semi-private. "It's slow-going, but so far we haven't met any traffic on the mountain. I'll let you know when we get to the spot the GPS coordinates gave us. Try not to worry." A code phrase for her to take care of herself and their baby.

"We're both fine," she reassured him. "Doyle is acting like a pampering grandmother-to-be. He's tickled that he knows about the little one before the rest of your family."

"I bet. Tell him thanks from me. Love you."

"I love you, too."

He disconnected and was glad his brothers didn't tease him. As teens they would. But as grown men with families and dangerous jobs, they knew how important it was to always tell their partners they loved them. And if he was honest, how important it was to hear it from them.

They drove in silence for a few yards, Matt maneuvering the car around another curve.

"I hate to bring it up," Katie said finally breaking the silence. "But the likelihood we're going to find your cousin alive in this weather and these conditions, isn't good."

All three of the brothers nodded, no words necessary. They'd all known this was a recovery mission not a rescue.

Another reason Luke hadn't wanted Abby on this operation. Everything his wife saw was catalogued and stored somewhere in her brain, never to be forgotten. The last thing he wanted in there was the image of Zoe's frozen dead body.