Allison Brennan - Fatal Secrets

Something clicked and Dean went through his mental checklist on this case. It suddenly became crystal clear. Dean knew exactly how Jones was laundering his money. If he was right, it was brilliant-Dean could almost admire the man for his criminal intelligence. Proving his theory would be difficult. Unless someone talked-and Dean knew how to work the system and cut deals better than most.

He said to Gleason, “Is there anything you want to tell us?”

Gleason was now visibly rattled. “Xavier was a much sought-after lobbyist. He brought me on because he couldn’t manage all the clients who wanted to hire him.”

More likely Jones brought in Gleason to hide the volume of cash moving through his then-small company.

Dean wanted to wrap up the conversation and get back to FBI headquarters, but there was still more information he needed about Jones’s clients. He didn’t want to rush it, because if Gleason did know about the money laundering and was involved in any way in human trafficking, he was in a perfect position to continue Jones’s operation, business as usual.

“But you do all the work,” Dean continued. He forced himself to sound impressed. “You’re the lobbyist of record for the overwhelming majority of clients. You have more clients than the two junior lobbyists-Eric Daniel-son and Rich Mercer-and Jones combined. You’re the top gun.”

“Mr. Jones is in charge,” Gleason reiterated.

“You wouldn’t know it looking at the lobbying reports,” Dean said. “Your name is on virtually everything.”

“I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

Sonia spoke up. “Has Mr. Jones received any threats that you know about? Has he seemed preoccupied lately?”

“Threats? Of course not. He’s always preoccupied. He’s busy. I know the raid yesterday upset him greatly.” Gleason fidgeted. “Maybe he killed himself. He was really upset about the situation. He was afraid word would get out and his associates would be concerned. Any hint of impropriety in our business is severely damaging to our reputation.”

Sonia turned her BlackBerry around so Gleason could read the screen, then handed it to Dean. “Really hard to kill yourself with five bullets.”

Dean read the message from Trace Anderson that had come in ten minutes ago, after they’d sat down at the table. He hadn’t even seen Sonia checking her messages.

Divers found Jones on the bottom of the river. The current pushed him farther downstream than the unknown victim. Five entry wounds. Call me .

“Wait,” Gleason said after Sonia showed him the text. “Wait a minute. Mr. Jones was murdered? Who’s this other victim?”

“We don’t know.” Sonia pushed over a photo of the first bloated corpse pulled from the river. “Have you seen him before?”

Gleason was obviously disturbed by the photograph, and Sonia made no move to take it away. “No,” he whispered.

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“I don’t know him.”

“Do you know who would want to kill Mr. Jones? Maybe a client who didn’t get his bill through?”

Gleason was shaking his head before Sonia even finished her sentence. “This is America. People don’t kill over legislation.”

Dean said, “Did you know that XCJ Consulting has twice the revenue of any other lobbying firm in California, and more than any in Washington? That tipped my office off that there might be something else going on here.”

“That something else,” Sonia said, “is human trafficking.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

Gleason said the right things, but his mannerisms told Dean that this wasn’t news to him. Why was he talking? Why hadn’t he called an attorney? The guy couldn’t be that arrogant, or that stupid.

Gleason continued. “What proof do you have?”

Dean pulled out the client list of XCJ Consulting. Driving over they’d decided to go through the list alphabetically. There were two or three they were specifically interested in, but they didn’t want to tip their hand.

“Astor Manufacturing. Owner, Dale Trevek. Has Mr. Trevek spoken with Mr. Jones in the last two weeks? How satisfied is he with the work you’ve done for him?”

Dean and Sonia alternated between names, running through them as quickly as possible to get to the key companies Sonia felt were most likely involved with human trafficking, or were already on her radar like Omega Shipping.

Sonia asked, “Omega Shipping. One of Mr. Jones’s personal clients. How long have they been a client?”

“Omega? Since before I started,” Gleason replied. He was agitated and tired, and no longer stole looks at Sonia’s chest. “Hasn’t this gone on long enough? You still haven’t told me why you want to know all this.” He ended with a whine.

“As we said at the beginning,” Sonia answered, “Jones was suspected of being involved in several illegal activities. We are completing the investigation, because the likelihood is that whoever killed him benefits from his death. So, please, let’s talk about Omega. They’ve been a longtime client of Mr. Jones. Owned by George and Victoria Christopoulis. According to shipping records, they transport cattle, poultry, and other perishable goods from the United States-mostly California-to China, Japan, Russia, Brazil-all across the globe.”

“And?”

“The single most common method of transportation in international human trafficking is by ship. Omega is in all the right places to bring illegal immigrants into this country.”

Gleason laughed, wholly out of place considering the conversation, and said, “You don’t need to bring them in by boat. There’re tens of thousands willingly crossing the border every day.”

Sonia slammed her fist on the table and Dean saw that the anger was not an act. “Do not make light of this situation, Mr. Gleason.”

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on. You’re the people who raided Jones’s house. You didn’t come up with anything, or you wouldn’t be asking such stupid questions.”

Dean pushed on through the list. There were two other entities that had been with Jones since the beginning of XCJ. “What about Rio Diablo Rancherita? According to Fair Political Practice reports, the tribe spent over $100 million on a statewide referendum related to a gaming agreement. A huge chunk of that money came here.”

“It was a political campaign. They’re expensive. Why are you interested in Rio Diablo?”

Not that expensive. “We’ve asked you about all of XCJ’s clients,” Dean said innocently.

“There’s only two more on the list,” Sonia said. “Weber and Sons Trucking and Zing Productions. Why would a local moving company need a lobbyist?”

“Joel Weber is a friend of Xavier’s. It wasn’t a major account. His son Jordan runs the day-to-day business.”

“They paid over $100,000 to XCJ last year,” Dean said.

Gleason shrugged. “Xavier charges a lot for his services. And maybe there was a special project. I don’t know, it wasn’t my account.”

“And Zing,” Sonia said, “I haven’t found any films they’ve produced.”

“Again, not my client.”

Dean was surprised at how quickly Gleason went from shock over Jones’s murder to spending nearly an hour running through XCJ’s client list. He was someone to watch, closely.

“Thank you for your time,” Dean said, standing. Sonia looked irritated, but there was nothing else they could learn from Gleason. If he knew more, he wasn’t talking now. They’d have to bring him in to FBI headquarters or arrest him before they could pressure him to squeal. But Gleason definitely knew more than what he’d said. Dean would put two of his agents on Gleason, separate cars, to track him.

Dean’s theory that had nudged him earlier took on substantial weight. He just hoped he could prove it.