Page 102 of Only the Devil

“Goodbye, Jillian.”

* * *

“Wow.” Brie pops her lips. “That was quite the exchange. Who was she talking to?”

Quinn, who is on speaker, answers, “The number traces to New York. Private cell. Unlisted. It’ll take me a bit to get the origin.”

“New York headquarters,” I say. “His half-brother’s name is Bennett. That has to be who Jillian was speaking with.”

Jillian Weaver’s voice comes back through the speaker playing on Jake’s laptop.

“Phillip. Call me back. You need to leave town tonight. You need to be at the hangar by eight.”

“She left a voicemail,” I comment to the room. “Who leaves voicemail?”

Jake points at his screen. “She’s tapping out a message. She’s backing it up with a text.”

“Do you have access to her messages?”

“Not on here. But Quinn,” Jakes asks, “You do, right?”

“She’s using an encrypted app. I can’t see those messages without her phone in hand.”

“What do you think he’s going to do? Ship him out of the country?”

Brie pulls out a kitchen table chair and sinks into it. “If I were to bet, he’s going to make it look like he fled the country and then eliminate him.”

Brie says it matter of factly; like she’s discussing her experience with an app.

“Which countries did you trace connections?” Noah asks.

“Singapore,” I say, visualizing the dead CFO’s photograph. “I think they used those entities to increase purchase volume on memes they wanted to pump and dump. I suspect they have connections to an entity in Cambodia, but it could just be a currency route—nothing significant.”

Noah snaps his fingers. “That’s where they’ll send him. That’s why he said if he knew the truth he wouldn’t go. Feds will track his itinerary to Cambodia, he’ll look guilty as hell, and it’ll be easy to eliminate him. If he goes missing, no one’s even going to look for the body.”

“But you realize what this means, right? If this guy is the one calling the shots, and Weaver is begging him to let her fix it, then…how likely is it that Sterling is the one responsible for the deaths?”

“Unsure,” Jake says. “But this is when we let the authorities take over. This is a full-fledged criminal investigation.”

He leans forward and taps my coffee mug again. “Good job.”

I hear what he’s saying, but I’ve lost my appetite for champagne. Maybe it’s because it seems we just heard plans hatched to eliminate yet another person. Or maybe it’s because I’m realizing that the guilty parties could still come out of this unscathed.

Jake holds a finger up in the air, his gaze locked on the monitor. “She’s got a phone to her ear.”

Jillian’s voice comes through Jake’s laptop speaker. “Phillip?”

“You spoke to him?” Sterling asks.

“Yes.”

“How angry?”

“It’s bad. You saw my message? He wants to send you away so the authorities can’t interview you.”

“You believe him?”

“That he doesn’t want you being interviewed? Yes.”