Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 144

Unknown Person POV

'What do you mean the card was denied? It's impossible,' I yelled at the person on the other end of the phone.

'Sorry, boss. The card was rejected again, and according to the woman, the report said the account was closed. The employee replied nervously as he returned the third card to me, which was rejected again. This cannot be happening. 'Leave it with me; I will check it out. In the meantime, use Joe's card. I was angry and frustrated. Who would cheat me? I phoned to find out if any of the others had the same issue but could not reach anyone. This was so strange; I should have been able to get someone.

I hung up in frustration as this call went to message bank, just like many of my other attempts, and did something I vowed never to do. I logged onto the internet and tried to check out the account. The man on the phone was correct; the internet said the account did not exist, and neither did the other four I tried to log into. That was over one billion dollars; Peter and Bret had better not have cleaned out the accounts and gone into hiding.

I called my man from another country, who should have been able to track them down if they had done a runner on me. 'Sir? What is your pleasure?' The deep voice asked.

'Find out what is going on with Peter and the others. Something is going down, and I want to know what it is. I hung up the phone, not waiting for an answer. He would do as needed, no questions asked.

I surfed the internet but found nothing about the woman or Peter and Bret in the news. Sure, it won't be their names, but the organization's name as the people running the event. Please visit J o b nib.com and search the book title to read the entire book for free. That was strange. There is usually a wedding or other event on the internet that they had arranged; we had a code word for each event where we were laundering money. It has been over a month since there has been any action.

Is the heat on them, and they have to go quiet? But that does not explain the money disappearing.

What is going on?

Where is my money? It is too much to disappear, and I cannot just phone the bank. I have to avoid any noticeable contact at the banks, but not knowing what is happening is hard. I want my money back, fast. I am shocked it could move without my noticing or being contacted about it. The guys usually tell me when significant transactions happen or the bank contacts my accountant.

If I do not get good news soon, it is time to go on an overseas holiday and find out for myself. Jacko POV

Pam came knocking at my door, which was still early in the morning. Only a few were in the office, just a few working on a case requiring them to do some overtime. I looked up when she knocked, and she raised her hand to show off the coffee and muffins. I waved her in, and she placed a coffee and blueberry muffin on my desk and sat opposite me. Taking a sip of that elixir of life this early in the morning and moaned a sign of pleasure.

'What's the occasion for this early morning surprise?' I asked, my curiosity piqued. I took a bite of the muffin, knowing it would be a while before I could call down to get breakfast. 'Toby, is the one you want me to take to meet Bethany to teach the coding?'

'Yeah, Toby's the one. He has some decoding experience, so he'll pick it up quickly. Plus, he has yet to learn much about Bethany and her link to the case, which is good. I don't want him to form preconceived notions about her based on gossip. It's easy to judge someone before you know the facts, and I don't want that for Toby and have that get in the way of his learning from a reliable source. Not that Bethany would allow it to be a problem; she would most likely just shrug it off and let him make an i***t of himself. 'I can take him to her at lunchtime; she should finish her work at the hospital by then. I will call her and confirm it before talking to Toby!

'Sounds good, make it happen. The sooner we decode those last few books, the sooner we'll have all the facts. And the sooner we have all the facts, the sooner we can resolve this case as being completed. My gut says something else is missing, and I just can't put my finger on it, but I can't waste more time thinking about the what-ifs and need to get back to the facts and find a trail, and that is what I am hoping these last few books will do.

'There is something else I wanted to talk about. Pam looked nervous about this following conversation, and I get the feeling this is the true reason she is here in my office, not the Toby issue.

'Go on.' If I had not looked at her, I would have missed the sudden flash of embarrassment in her eyes and the flush of pink in her cheeks before it was gone. Interesting.

'I am not transferring to the FBI here in town. I phoned my boss, and we discussed it. I can be a consultant if needed and keep in touch; he is okay with me retiring from the FBI once Toby is ready to go it alone, or he can retire earlier and be called in if you feel he needs more training in an area. I did not see that coming. I thought she would be in the FBI until she retired at a ripe old age.

'Why is that? My dear.' My curiosity peaked. Did something change in the relationship with Bob, and being in the FBI is frowned upon? But that does not make sense; the FBI would have taken her out of fieldwork and into a desk job, which might not suit her, but then, if she is a consultant, desk work is more or less what she would do. Wouldn't it?

'I am getting married and working on having a family. It has been agreed that we both do not need to work, and I can set my sights on my future domesticated life. She looked like she was glowing, which told me that the family part was already on the way, but I was not going to ask. Well, something good has come out of all of this.

'Bob? I asked, hoping I was right. He deserved a life change, and he and Pam seemed to hit it off almost immediately.

'Yep, he proposed last night.' She raised her hand and showed me a ring on her finger; he must have brought that secretly. I thought he shared everything with me.

'Congratulations, that is good news. You will make a good team. Do you have any clue when the big day will be?' I hope I am invited.

'We are looking at a day in September. So clear your calendar. We both expect you to be there,' she demanded, and I laughed at her. My phone took that moment to ring.

'I will let you get that!' Pam almost skipped out of my office, leaving me shaking my head in amusement.

'Morning, this is... I did not get to finish my greeting when the excited person jumped in.

'The bait has been nibbled; I repeat, the bait has been nibbled. The excited voice of my watcher called through the phone, almost bursting my eardrum.

'I take it someone has logged online to check where the money has gone, or should I say, someone, we did not expect.' I felt this might be my gut feeling I have had, just getting real.

'Yeah, it is, and you will never believe who it is. I am so ready to take this person down. My man was still almost shouting down the phone.

'You need to get out of your office more; you are too excited about this. I chuckled, trying to think who it was to have my fellow so worked up. This sounded more like something personal and not just catching a kingpin.

'Yeah, I hear you, but I am so glad I hung around. I was about to log out and go to bed when the alert came in. He was not shouting any longer but was still sounding super excited.