“No thanks,” Elise said.
Virginia wandered over, handed Sam his cup, sat down and hummed with pleasure at the first sip. On the computer monitor were two open audio files. One named Rachel Murphy and the other, David Perry.
Gulping hot, black coffee, Sam studied the screen. “You said you found it?”
Elise grinned. “Sure did. Child’s play. I thought you said these people were smart?”
Virginia looked at him, a vacant expression on her face.
Sam said, “I asked Elise to hack into Rachel Murphy and David Perry’s cell phones.”
“She tapped their phones?” Virginia asked.
“It’s surprisingly easy these days if the target uses a smartphone,” Elise said. “With landlines we need to tap specific telephone cables, but even then, we’re only really capable of eavesdropping. Whereas with smartphones it’s more like hacking a website. Once you’re in, you have control. I can issue my own texts from either of the cell phones, delete texts I don’t want them to receive, and even send digitally enhanced audio files.”
Virginia asked, “Digitally enhanced audio files?”
“Basically, we take a collection of the known audio files, or recordings of their conversations, and then use individual words to make them say certain things.”
“Like a mashup?” Virginia grimaced. “Wouldn’t they see through that in an instant?”
Elise shook her head. “Amateur versions, sure. But we can do something a little more professional here.”
Sam asked, “So what did you find?”
Elise said, “They’re retrieving it now for us.”
“Retrieving what?” Virginia asked.
Sam turned to Virginia. “Do you remember when we were in Dog Lake, Ontario and we first met David Perry, he mentioned his father had a small army of private detectives dig up information on Rachel Murphy’s involvement with organized crime?”
“Yeah, he said that his dad had a copy of every single connection she had with organized crime in New York.”
“Right.
“Yeah.” Sam looked at Virginia. “Well, it got me thinking, if David was telling the truth about that then it stands to reason that his father probably made some record of his own involvement in corruption and organized crime.”
“Why would he do that?” Virginia asked, crossing her legs.
“Because his way of life was all about leverage. Arthur Perry needed to know who knew sensitive information about his family business. That way he could control any vulnerabilities. More important still, he needed to have leverage over anyone who had something on him.”
Her intelligent blue eyes widened. “Senator Arthur Perry kept a database on every single person within his organization and any competing organizations — AKA Rachel Murphy’s New York operation!”
“Right. Find those dossiers, directories, and documents. Then we’ll shut down our adversaries, and get your father back at the same time.”
“But how will you do that?”
“Elise took an in depth look at the lives of Rachel Murphy and David Perry. It turns out little of what we’ve seen is true. Senator Perry told us that his son was a nobody who, though born into riches, never achieved anything on his own.”
“That’s not true?” Virginia asked.
“No, far from it. Turns out David Perry was the smartest of the Chestnut descendants. He went to Stanford University like his father and grandfather before him, but he didn’t fail or drop out as reported — he was an A+ student. But he wasn’t the only gifted student that year. He shared the University Medallion for highest achievement in the field of Law with a woman.” Sam looked at Virginia. “Any guesses what her name was?”
Virginia frowned. “Rachel Murphy?”
“You betcha. It turns out that Rachel and David didn’t just go to Stanford together, they were lovers.”
“Seriously?” Virginia’s mouth dropped open. “Two star-crossed lovers from feuding families? It’s a modern day Romeo and Juliette, except David — the traitor — after what he did to us, is playing the role of Macbeth. Did David’s father know?”
“Yes. From what we can tell Arthur Perry hated the idea, but unable to suppress the relationship outright, he tried to use his leverage to make Rachel break it off. Three weeks ago, he threatened to reveal incriminating evidence proving her criminal involvement.”
Virginia nodded, it was all coming together.
“David found out and decided to do the same thing his grandfather did — topple the head of the family and take his place as the boss of a newly organized crime family. A joining of Murphy and Perry. Kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of his father who had him on a tight leash by controlling his finances, then integrate the two businesses into one.”
Elise sighed. “But to do that, they would need Senator Arthur Perry’s um, Leverage Records.”
Virginia bit her lip. “So Elise, what did you find?”
“I’ll show you.”
“This was a message I spotted about three hours ago, when the three of you escaped Minnestra.” Elise pressed play on an icon of David’s cell phone.
It read: What went wrong? Sam Reilly escaped. You were supposed to kill him. RM
David then wrote back: He got away. You’ve still got Virginia’s father. Sam will negotiate. The Confederate treasury is still ours.
Elise said, “This is where it got interesting. You see, I looked into the Meskwaki Gold Spring. Previously, shipments would only pass through the secret tunnel every month or so. But three weeks ago — the same time David Perry attempted to make a bit extra from his father’s company — someone started to make dives of the J.F. Johnson every night.”
“I thought that was strange, too,” Sam said. “Then Tom pointed out that inside the hull were potentially hundreds of barrels of Prohibition era rum that would fetch a small fortune. We wondered if that was what the divers were searching for.”
Elise smiled. “Sure, but they might make a million or two if they’re lucky, but nothing to warrant the risks they were taking. Particularly when you think about the fact that David Perry planned to usurp his father’s throne and an illegal kingdom worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”
A wry smile formed on Sam’s lips. “So what were they looking for inside the Meskwaki Gold Spring?”
“I’ll show you,” Elise smiled and scrolled down to the next set of messages. “First, I set the hook with Rachel Murphy, by making her think that Sam Reilly had found the Leverage Records.”
Sam smiled. “How could you possibly achieve that?”
“Easy.” Elise stood up and began to pace up and down the room. Sam and Virginia, entranced, followed her movements. “You see, I knew Murphy had deep financial ties with senior members of the New York Police Department. I had no idea how deep the network went, but what I did know was that the two detectives who were there when Virginia found the drug dealer’s money — which turned out to be Malcolm Bennet’s son. They were also the same people who kidnapped Virginia’s father. So we know they were both involved, and highly trusted by Murphy.”
“You hacked their phones?”
“Yeah. Then I sent Murphy a single message from Detective Eric Greentree’s cell phone. It read: Sam Reilly knows about the Leverage Records. He’s retrieving it tomorrow. Murphy of, course, replied immediately that she would make sure they were no longer there to be taken.”
Awed, Sam and Virginia both stared at Elise.
Elise paused, gave them a wry grin. “I deleted both messages before Greentree had the chance to read them.”
Sam laughed. “You set Murphy up to convince David to retrieve the documents?”