Vaughn shrugged.“I can’t control the weapon of choice of everyone who walks into my office.”
“You sure?”Cam said.“Desert Eagles seem to be popular.”
“I can’t imagine who you’re talking about, but I can assure you, whoever used or owned those guns”—he nodded toward the table—“they’re not on my payroll.”
“Let’s talk about that,” Nic said, reentering the fray.“We have money running from accounts that trace to you or your companies to at least seven different municipal employees.”
“Investors.”Vaughn sat back, crossing one leg over the other, looking intrigued.Or maybe relieved that Nic had chosen another door to open.
“Try again,” Nic said, determined to make him second-guess that relief.“There are no registered investments to these people.”
Everyone startled as a commotion erupted on the other side of the glass.
Just as Nic had intended.This line of questioning, this door, wasn’t only meant for Vaughn’s ears.The noise quieted and Nic prompted Vaughn for a response again.“Do you have an explanation?”
“Not every investment has to be registered, Attorney Price,” Patton replied.“I’m sure you know that.And dividends pay out regularly.”
“That’s correct,” Vaughn said.
“Lump sum payments, though, other than on a sale or IPO, that’s less common, wouldn’t you both agree?”
The door opened behind them.“Attorney Price,” Bowers barked.“A word, please.”
Vaughn didn’t bother hiding his smirk.“Problem, Dom?”
Nic pushed to his feet, with an “Excuse me” to Vaughn and Patton and a look at Cam, which the agent correctly read.
“I’ll stay.”Neither of them wanted to leave Vaughn and Patton alone in the room to confer.Granted, they had the right to ask for that, but if they weren’t asking, Nic didn’t want to give them the opportunity.
Nic barely left the room before Bowers jumped down his throat.“What the hell are you doing?”he demanded, loud enough for the whole bullpen to hear.
And loud enough to draw Aidan out of the observation room.Good, another attorney, another witness.“Let’s go to my office.”
Neither he nor Aidan gave Bowers the opportunity to object, heading in the direction of Aidan’s office and assuming Bowers would follow.Aidan closed the door and Bowers started right back in on where he’d left off.“Do you actually have anything, Price?”
“Enough that I got a warrant.”
“Who do the accounts trace to?”
“Not you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”He probably should have held that for another time, played the card when the timing was exactly right, but after twenty minutes of cat and mouse with Vaughn, his exhausted patience and Bowers’s righteousness got the better of him.
Bowers’s beady black eyes looked like they would pop out of his head.“What did you just say?”
“Oh, you heard me.”
He chose not to respond, deflecting the blame and accusations back on Nic.“You’re leading a witch hunt out of my office.”
“The witches were innocent, sir,” Aidan said with a smirk.“Duncan Vaughn is not.Are you?”
Aidan’s utter smugness, his going along with Nic’s play, tamped down Nic’s own frustration.Two against one, and they had Bowers and this case in hand.
“As I mentioned before,” Nic said, “the Deputy AG reviewed all of this and signed off on the warrants.”
“As did AD Moore,” Aidan added.“The FBI has been building this case for some time.”
“Well, I sure hope you have more than what you’ve put on display today.It might have been enough to convince our bosses and get warrants out of the grand jury, but indictments?”Bowers scoffed, hands on his hips.“There’s no smoking gun.You can’t win without.”
Nic straightened and stepped forward, towering over Bowers.“I’ve won plenty of cases with less.”
