The Eighth Sister (Charles Jenkins #1)(89)

“Taken care of how?”

“I don’t know how, but the investigation went away.”

“Went away? How?” Jenkins asked, knowing that the IRS rarely, if ever, went away.

“I don’t know how,” Traeger said, clearly on edge. “Mitchell told me he’d handle it, and I never heard anything more about it. I was right about the reporter, though. She wasn’t interested in our growth. She was interested in the names of our investors.”

“So then what’s going on now with the SEC?”

“I don’t fully know. All I can tell you is the shit has really hit the fan. They’ve assigned a bankruptcy trustee and they’ve seized all of our assets. Have you spoken to Mitchell?”

“No. You haven’t either?”

“I have no idea where he is. I haven’t seen him since yesterday afternoon. There’s money missing, Charlie.”

Jenkins looked to Sloane. “How much?”

“I don’t know for certain, but it’s millions of dollars. I went through my files before they seized our computers.”

“Who seized the computers?”

“Federal investigators came in this afternoon and told everyone to get out of the office.”

Jenkins paused, thinking, then he said to Traeger, “Where are you now?”

“I’m at home watching the television and waiting for my attorney to call. If this is true . . . I’ve got a wife and three kids, Charlie. I’ve got to go. Someone is calling me.”

Traeger disconnected. Jenkins looked across the table at Sloane and Jake. “We need to go,” he said.

“Go where?” Sloane asked.

“I’ll tell you in the car. Jake, pick us up outside the back of the building. I don’t want the FBI to follow me.”



Fifteen minutes later, Jake pulled into the parking garage beneath the Columbia Center and Jenkins led them up several sets of escalators to the building lobby. They stepped inside an elevator bank that serviced LSR&C’s business offices on the fortieth floor. Jenkins swiped his access card and pressed that button, then held his breath that access had not yet been shut off. The light illuminated and the elevator rose.

On the fortieth floor, Jenkins stepped off the elevator and came to an abrupt stop.

The office fixtures, furniture, and other equipment had been completely removed. He didn’t see a desk or a cubicle wall anywhere. Every computer had been taken. No prints or paintings adorned the walls. No nameplates identified the persons working in the offices. Jenkins did not see a scrap of paper, a pen, or a discarded paper clip anywhere. Even the carpeting had been removed, the floor now just bare concrete.





51



They returned to Sloane’s conference room and continued the conversation they’d started in the car. Jenkins told them the fact that LSR&C’s offices had been cleaned out within hours of the SEC news breaking changed things dramatically. This was no longer just about a leak at the CIA. This called into question the very existence of the company Jenkins thought he’d been protecting, and Traeger’s statement that money was missing triggered still more red flags.

“Explain to me again what you mean by a CIA proprietary?” Sloane said, clearly still trying to wrap his head around what Jenkins had been telling them.

“Simply put, it’s a company owned and operated by the CIA,” Jenkins said.

“But not on paper.”

“No, never on paper. On paper it looks like a legitimate enterprise. In actuality, it’s a means for the CIA to transfer funds to field officers working deep undercover all over the world. The company provides a cover for field officers by providing them with the legitimate employment they need to get into a particular country, and it allows the CIA to funnel them money. It would explain why LSR&C grew so quickly and had offices in Moscow, Dubai, and other foreign locations, and it would explain how an IRS investigation simply disappeared, and how the company’s offices could be cleaned out so thoroughly and so quickly. It could also explain why there are millions of dollars missing, as Traeger said. Those could be funds that were either funneled to field operatives or designated for that purpose when the company blew up.”

“That’s where I’m having difficulty,” Sloane said. “If LSR&C was a CIA front, why would the IRS and the Securities and Exchange Commission get involved?”

“Because the CIA doesn’t broadcast that these companies are proprietaries, not even to other government agencies,” Jenkins said. “To the IRS and the SEC, LSR&C was a legitimate company. I suspect that’s the reason why the IRS investigation ended so quickly. Goldstone must have made a phone call to Langley, and Langley called the IRS and told them to back off.”

“So why didn’t they do the same thing with the SEC investigation?” Sloane said.

“It could be that the SEC’s investigation was too far along, or that the story of a Ponzi scheme had already leaked to the media, and investors had become involved. Traeger said the Seattle Times reporter knew many of the company details before she set up the interviews.”

“So what happens then to Goldstone and Traeger?” Jake asked. “Will the CIA protect them?”

“Not likely. The fact that the offices were cleaned out is an indication the CIA is going to disassociate themselves from LSR&C and anyone who worked for it.”