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“I found a plane ticket in Gregory Aston’s name and an appointment for him to meet with a banker at the institution where the funds are being held,” Judy said.
“So…he was able to break Tawny Flores’ trust fund?” I asked.
Noah shook his head. “He’s been unable to do that. Judy and I found all the court filings and pleadings regarding the trust, and so far, nothing has gone his way. Benedict Flores was a savvy businessman. He knew what he was doing when he planted the cartel’s money in the Caymans, and it most likely got him killed for his effort.”
“So, Aston just thought he’d talk this Cayman Island banker into opening up the vault and handing him the cartel’s money?” I asked.
“He’s probably been feeling the pressure from Castillo for a long time,” Lincoln said. “Yes, he’s been the cartel’s attorney, but he also knows where some of the bodies are buried. Dave Reynolds death by a cartel bullet is proof of that, but we need more than speculation to arrest Castillo.”
“But still, it makes Aston dangerous to the man,” I replied.
Lincoln nodded. “Yes. Aston probably thought he had one last shot at staying alive, so he flew down there three days ago. That, Noah and Judy have confirmed.”
“That sounds like a Hail Mary,” I said.
“It’s probably the only shot he had,” Raven said. “If I knew I was about to get a bullet to the back of my head or worse, to die the way Dave Reynolds did, I’d sure as hell make the trip. I’d guess he has wealth of his own, so maybe he planned on bribing the banker. Who knows?”
I nodded, then said to Lincoln, “Following that logic, do you think Aston called Tawny to come down to the Caymans by telling her that he’d gotten access to the money?”
“That’s exactly what we think,” he said, nodding. “She, Brian Leopard, and her boyfriend, Salvatore Mancuso, took a cartel plane to the Cayman Islands the day after Aston was to meet with the banker. Our guess is that Aston met with pushback from the banker, who was then threatened, because Castillo is sick and tired of waiting. If the banker felt like he and his family were in danger, he agreed to open the account but only to her. She’d need to come down there in person to present documents and ID.”
“But they don’t have court documents because Aston wasn’t successful,” I said to Noah and Judy.
“Right,” Noah said, “but if your life is at stake, which the banker’s probably is, you’d do it anyway, even with obviously false court paperwork.”
“I don’t get something,” Raven said.
“What’s that?” Cassidy asked.
“Why didn’t Castillo simply threaten the banker before now? Why let this farce with Aston go on for five years?”
“I can answer that,” Judy said.
Raven and I both turned back to the laptop.
“Aston has been embezzling from his law firm for years.”
“What?” I asked.
She grinned, and Noah turned to smile at her. “I hacked into the law firm’s—” She stopped and squinted into the camera. “This is all off the record, FBI guys.”
Noah laughed. Lincoln and Mac nodded. “It might have been nice to ask for that disclaimer yesterday, Judy, but go ahead. You’re good,” Lincoln said.
“I…ah…obtainedbanking records from Aston, Summerfield, and Billings which show that a sizeable amount of money has been disappearing from the firm’s accounts for a while now.”
“He was stealing from his own firm,” I concluded.
“Yes, and we thinkthatmoney has been used by Aston to make incremental payments to the cartel to keep Oscar Castillo from killing him,” Noah replied.
“You’ve got to be joking,” Raven said.
“Actually, no, Raven, we have the records to prove it,” Noah said. “Mr. Aston has his own Cayman Islands account. Judy was able to trace withdrawals from one of the law firm’s trust accounts and equal deposits into Aston’s Cayman Island account followed by an immediate wire into a numbered Swiss bank account.”
“And you suspect the Swiss bank account belongs to the cartel?” I asked.
“Yes,” Judy said. “It’s impossible to trace without knowing the numbers, but I currently have a program running trillions of number combinations to isolate it.”
“How much money are we talking about here?” Raven asked.