Page 148 of Matteo

“Give me a minute.” We've barely stepped inside when I step back out of the room, not bothering to offer Elizabeth an explanation. I take the stairs and head down to the lobby, where I find a quiet corner and call him back, heart racing.

“What did you find about Vuković?” I pace around. It’s late, and I’m the only guest here. A receptionist sits at her desk out of earshot.

“Who?”

“Vlad. Vladimir Vuković.” I assume that’s the reason he's calling me. Yesterday, when I left Elizabeth in the room, I needed time to myself to collect my thoughts, but I also needed Alex to do something for me. I needed him to look into Vlad.

“Oh, right, yeah, so ...uh ... this guy originally lived in the States. About five years ago he got caught up in a cybercrime investigation.”

I knew something was shady about him. I felt it in the pit of my stomach. “Go on.”

“He wasn't some basement-dwelling script kid. According to the records, he was considered one of the organizers of a group that illegally accessed a corporation's systems. The feds painted him as the strategist.”

Fuck. But I’m also not surprised. “Was he convicted?”

“Yeah. He went to prison for a little under a year.”

Vlad. Elizabeth's dear friend, is a criminal. And she knows that. I know she knows it, and she's been hiding it from me.

“And now?”

“That's where things get weird,” Alex says. “After he got out, he disappeared for a while. Then he turned up in Croatia. Hey—” He stops. “That's where you are, isn't it? You said Elizabeth had a wedding—”

“That's not important right now,” I say, irritated. “Go on.”

“Uh ...where was I?”

Alex seems a little ... off. Hesitant. Distracted. Like he’s choosing his words carefully, and doesn’t want to upset me. The whole office must suspect something about me and Elizabeth, what with us both going on vacation together.

“Uh ... yeah, he started a couple of companies. Nothing illegal that I can find. This guy pays taxes. He owns property. He has legitimate business interests.”

“Doing what?”

“Investment holdings, consulting, technology ventures. Crypto. The usual vague rich-guy stuff.”

That's not what I was expecting. At all. I frown. “You think he's clean?”

“He’s either clean …” Alex pauses. “Or he's very good.”

“That's not an answer.”

“That's all I got.” He clears his throat. “There are also donations. Children's charities. Rehabilitation programs. Medical equipment funding. More than you'd expect from someone with his history.”

It doesn't make sense. I need it to make fucking sense. “What about recent activity?”

“Nothing jumps out. But he could be really, really good.”

I sink back onto one of the couches.

“Honestly, if you're asking whether he's behind the issues we're having, I can't see it. Not from what I've found. Why do you want to know about him?”

That’s not why I asked him to check Vlad’s background, but he has me thinking. “Just a hunch. Something I needed to know.”

I don’t give him specifics, but the pieces start to fit together as everything slowly falls into place. It explains Elizabeth’s evasiveness about her past. Inconsistencies in what she says, or chooses not to say.

It explains her technical knowledge and the ease with which she navigates around the secure systems, the way she reacts around certain conversations. Most of all, it explains the conversation with Takumi, and how Takumi and Vlad both seem to operate in the same hidden world.

Alex says he’s either clean or very good, and I can see that this guy is very good. But he’s not going to pull the wool over my eyes. More than that, it shows that Elizabeth is somehow connected, but I don't know how. Her resume was clean.