“Ever heard of Blackstone Capital?” I asked.
“No.”
I wasn’t surprised. It was a pretty generic name.
“Harlan also had a forensic accounting review when he was going through his fraud charges,” I said. “He used a different accountant than the receptionist mentioned—Victoria Ames.” I glanced at him. “She’s worth looking into.”
James stopped tapping. “Maybe we should pay another visit to Natalie.”
“To see if she knows anything about Victoria?”
“It can’t hurt.”
I considered it. “Do you want to do that now?”
He lifted a shoulder in a lazy shrug. “We’re already out.”
“Do we want to show up looking like this?” I asked, flicking my gaze over him.
“Sure,” he said. “It’s not like I’ll be dressin’ like this again anytime soon.”
I shot him a grin. “You really took one for the team by letting Harlan preen over his car for so long.”
He gave me a wry look. “He’s got such a hard-on for it, I suspect he’d fuck it if he could figure out how.”
I laughed. “He did say he could be creative.”
James’s mouth twitched. “True.”
I reached into the back, grabbed my laptop, and plugged in the external hard drive. When James gave me a questioning look, I said, “As much as there is to go through, I might as well start looking.”
“Good point.”
I started with a search for Blackstone Capital and came up with five current leases on houses, and about ten previous leases, although, who knew if Knox used more than one corporation to lease properties. If he were smart, he’d spread them out to reduce exposure.
Next, I searched for Blackstone Capital online but came up with nothing, which meant they didn’t have a public presence.
Since we were headed to talk to Natalie, I searched the hard drive for Victoria Ames. Multiple files popped up and I’d just started skimming them when James pulled into the parking lot of Natalie’s office.
I glanced up at the building, then gave him a pleading look. “There are two security people watching the office, right?”
His eyes narrowed. “Yeah…”
“You have history with Natalie,” I said. “She’s more likely to talk to you, so you don’t need me in there.” I lifted my laptop slightly. “Looking at these is a better use of my time. You can tell the security team to keep an eye on me while you’re in there.”
I expected him to put up a fight, but he pulled out his phone and made a call to Carter. After he gave a short explanation of why we were there, he said, “She’s in a dark sedan in Natalie’s parking lot. I want security to give her their undivided attention until I’m back in the car.”
When he hung up, I asked, “Wouldn’t it be faster if you contacted the guards yourself?”
“In this situation, it’s better to have a middleman,” he said. “I still don’t feel comfortable leaving you out here.”
“Don’t be such a worrier,” I said lightly. “The sooner you talk to her, the sooner you get back.”
He gave me a long look before he got out and shut the door. He turned and stared at the sedan across the street, where two men sat in the front seat. Then he headed for the entrance and walked inside.
I kept working, skimming reports and spreadsheets, dumping anything suspicious into a folder labeled Review Later.
James had been inside less than five minutes when a name I wasn’t expecting popped up in an email from Blackstone to Harlan.
