And Frank Block, the assistant director who ran the southern AREA office. Matt had casually known Frank for more than a decade. It wasn’t until a week after Emma’s death that Frank learned she’d collected and sent several dead birds to Game & Fish under his name without his knowledge. Game & Fish performed a necropsy on the birds and determined they’d died of both lead and arsenic poisoning—byproducts of copper refining and other manufacturing processes. The amounts had been too large to occur naturally. AREA immediately inspected Southwest Copper property but found no on-site violations in their storage of hazardous waste.
Frank didn’t look at Matt when he stepped in; the dark circles under his eyes told Matt that he wasn’t sleeping well.
“Sorry to keep you,” Matt said as he closed the door behind him. “I appreciate you making the drive up here again, Wyatt.”
Matt didn’t want a formal meeting in Patagonia. It was too small a town, and locals might remember him from his time in the Tucson office. Even though Matt had gone down there a few times as the face of the Emma Perez investigation, it would be better not to draw too much attention to himself—especially since he had two agents working undercover.
Wyatt nodded. “Well, you have better coffee.”
Christine said, “One of my old army buddies started a coffee business and gives me a hefty veteran’s discount. I wouldn’t drink the crap headquarters ships us.”
“I only have three full-time deputies,” Wyatt said. “Maybe you can get me into that program.”
“You’re a vet, not a problem.”
She made a note on her calendar. One of Christine’s strengths was building coalitions.
Matt said, “I know everyone is frustrated by the lack of movement the last couple weeks. Joe Molina just told me that the next scheduled A-Line Waste Disposal and Trucking shipment will be discussed at today’s staff meeting. I’m going to work on getting a warrant to track the truck. In open terrain it would be nearly impossible to follow the truck and avoid being seen, even if we worked a tag team. If I can get a tracker on the truck, then we can discreetly follow.”
“How soon?” Wyatt asked.
“Most likely early next week. Zack, you have some new information?”
“I need to go to Vegas,” Zack said.
Matt stared at him. This was exactly the kind of communication problem he had with Zack. Without showing his frustration, Matt said, “Why?”
“I need to pull A-Line’s financial documents on-site, and they are housed in Las Vegas.”
Because Matt rarely worked financial crimes, the reasons eluded him.
Christine said, “Is A-Line based out of Vegas?”
“No, they’re out of New Mexico, but I traced ownership to a shell corporation that was established in Las Vegas. And that shell corp is under a second shell corp.”
Matt waited for more, but Zack was silent.
“Are you talking about the Commercial Recordings Division?” Chris asked.
“Yes. And the recorder’s office. They’re housed in the same building but are two different entities.”
“They can’t fax the documents?” Matt asked.
“They did. That’s how I know that the first shell corp is under another. But the name on file is the same, and I think that name is bogus. I mean, not bogus—the person is real—but he’s a lawyer, a front maybe. Lawyers won’t give us shit over the phone, and maybe not at all—”
“Stop,” Matt said. “So you are saying that A-Line is itself an illegal corporation?”
White collar was not Matt’s strength, which is why Tony Greer, his boss in DC and creator of the mobile response team, wanted to add a financial expert.
“Shell corporations are not in and of themselves illegal,” Zack said. “There are a lot of legitimate reasons why a business may want to protect itself, or might want to use one name for one region and another name in another region, for marketing purposes. Plus—”
“I don’t need a business course,” Matt said. “Bottom line.”
“I want to pull the records of companies that have similar attributes as A-Line.”
Christine asked, “You mean other waste disposal companies or trucking companies?”
“No, not specifically. I’m looking for shell corporations with the same law firm or lawyer, or corporations with the same principal shareholders or the same filing address. I can do some searches online, but they are not always complete and you can’t search by address. The recorder is not going to want to indulge me and pull a hundred files when only three or four might meet my specs.”
“Purpose?” Matt asked.
“Information. Who’s who. Who knows who. See where it leads me. Every name I’ve gotten off the paperwork is a dead end. But they all lead somewhere. They have to. There is a beginning, and I can find it—”
“If you’re on-site.”
“One day, maybe two. Once I get all the businesses that are attached to the lawyer on record, I can look for something to pull him in on. If we can get him on another charge, we might be able to parlay that into more information on A-Line.”
Now Matt understood Zack’s thinking. Cut a deal with a low-level middleman to get the big fish. White collar did that far more often than violent crimes, but it was a tactic Matt was familiar with.
“It’s an hour flight,” Zack said. “If I leave soon, I’ll have all day tomorrow. I can even start this afternoon.”
Matt considered Zack’s request. Zack was right—more information might be gleaned if he had access to the physical documents.
“Go. Set it up. Check in with me regularly, with every relevant piece of information you find. It may or may not be important, but I need to know.”
“Of course.”
“The faster you get there, the faster you get back.”
“Now?”
“Do you have anything else to share?”
He shook his head, then gathered his files and practically ran out.
While Zack was obviously smart—with an advanced degree in accounting plus ten years of experience in the FBI—Matt wasn’t convinced if he fit on his team. This would be a good opportunity for Zack to prove himself.
“Ryder?” Matt prompted.
“Michael’s workplace report has nothing of significance. He’s made inroads in befriending several staff and employees, including David Hargrove.”
Michael Harris had been working undercover at Southwest Copper for the last three weeks.