“And the phone SIM?” I asked.
“I have a friend in Rome, a gray hat called Valentina who I’ve collaborated with a couple of times,” Mo-bot revealed.
“Gray hat?” I asked. Mo-bot was referring to the kind of hacker who did legalandillegal work. “How gray?”
“Pretty dark gray,” Mo-bot replied. “But her heart is in the right place.”
I frowned. She didn’t like it.
“How long have you known me, Jack Morgan?” she asked. “You think I would send you to someone you couldn’t trust? I’llmessage you her details. Stop worrying and focus on getting answers off that SIM.”
I nodded. “Okay. No need to take it personally. I’m just a little wary of strangers right now.”
“Because you’ve been shot at?” Mo-bot asked.
I smiled. “That might have something to do with it. Can you give me and Justine a minute?”
Mo-bot and Sci exchanged knowing looks.
“So you can do some smooching?” Mo-bot teased.
“So we can talk,” I replied.
“Good to catch up, Jack,” Sci said, rising. “Speak soon.”
He and Mo-bot left the conference room and Justine drew closer to the camera.
“How are you doing, honey?” I asked.
“I’d be better if you were here.”
“I know. Me too, but someone shot at me today, which makes this personal. It also tells me there’s probably something to my suspicion that Matteo’s innocent. I don’t think he murdered that priest.”
“Me neither,” Justine replied. “It doesn’t fit his profile. Speaking of which, Mo-bot ran background on Christian Altmer, and he isn’t as squeaky clean as you might expect of one of God’s bankers. I’ll send you the file and my psych workup, but keep an eye on him, Jack: he has many of the hallmarks of a sociopath. Trouble in school, jail time for minor offenses in his late teens and early twenties.”
“Anything recent?”
She shook her head. “He cleaned up his act ten years ago.Finished an economics degree in London, joined the graduate program at an investment bank and climbed the greasy corporate pole.”
“You think people don’t change?” I asked.
“Do you?”
In my experience it was rare for people to undergo genuine transformation, but it could happen.
“I’ll keep an eye on him,” I replied.
There was a moment’s silence, and I knew she was building up the courage to say something else.
“I don’t like you being shot at,” she confessed at last. “It’s becoming a habit, Jack.”
“So is surviving,” I replied. “I’m being careful. I’ll come back to you in one piece.”
“You’d better,” she said.
“I will. I promise.”
CHAPTER20
