Shattered Glass(63)

Another nod. “No one else had access.”

Luis caught on. “Dench was going to turn on everyone? Or he could have been planning to run, leaving the kid here with the evidence to turn in. What will the diner records tell you?”

“Dench, Alvarado and who? If I can separate the legitimate businesses from the ones here on Alvarado’s spreadsheet, I can track the other partners.” I shook my head again. “No, I’m wrong somewhere. Missing something or someone. This much money? Monthly? How many people would he have had to smuggle?”

Peter shook his head vehemently. “Joe was not involved like that! Iss did all of Joe’s accounting. All of it. It was Iss’s idea to buy the diner in the first place. Joe couldn’t say no to him really. But Joe would never—”

“Never say never, kid.” Luis alt-tabbed on the computer and pulled up a list. “These are the disappearances or people who ‘moved away’ which match with Alvarado’s travel. I included unsolveds.”

Luis’s most valuable skills were his ability to find people, to acquire snitches and to recognize patterns in suspects. He could look at a case and figure out which scumbag was our most likely doer. I thought he had some geographical sixth sense—or instinct. Sort of how serial killer programs could pinpoint the radius of where a suspect lived. For this case, it helped that he was from Mexico City, too.

“There are two hundred and thirty names here,” I breathed.

“Two hundred and thirty-nine.” Luis added, “You’re right. Not enough to account for all that money.”

“How long ago did you go back?”

“Not how long. How far.”

“Huh?”

“This only covers the towns and cities I could cross check with Alvarado’s recent travel. Some of these towns have little-to-no telephone access and the local police weren’t helpful in a lot of cases. I couldn’t delve any further. There was a full-scale war between two cartels near where Alvarado was last seen. Some missing niece or daughter of the Jiménez cartel lord. I don’t see us getting more information from down there. But that’s not the important information. What is important is that even if there were five hundred, it still wouldn’t match up with the amount of cash rolling through Alvarado’s accounts every month.”

I scanned the amounts on the list again and concentrated on the sums less than two grand. “These small amounts here, here and here. Who do they belong to? There has to be two different sources for the cash. Five and nearly ten grand to these businesses,” I pointed, “Only one and two to the others.” I looked at Luis. “How long till forensics is done with the accounting from each business?”

“A week?” Luis answered. “Probably two.”

“They’re probably spending most of their time on the big money. Which is probably drug money. I think the smaller amounts are the trafficking funds. I can work on that end. Meanwhile, we need Peter to study the inventory of evidence from Alvarado’s arrest to see if anything is missing. With cops involved, we can’t be sure we have everything.” Peter was texting when I turned to him. “I need the balance sheets from the diner.”

“Already ahead of you, Detective. Darryl’s emailing them,” he said, holding up his phone to show the text. “Will all this help Cai?”

“Depends. If Cai didn’t kill him, then the partners probably did. Let me ask you something. How did you know Iss was dead?”

Peter’s darted a glance to Luis and shook his head at me.

“I’ve got to get back to the station.” Luis stood after reading Peter’s silent message: Not while he’s here. “Bring him by tomorrow,” he nodded in Peter’s direction, “We’ll see if he notices anything missing. I’ll leave the laptop here.”

I walked Luis to the door. My partner stopped with the door half open, his voice low. “You should have contacted your union   rep to fight the suspension.”

I shrugged. “It’s a week. I deserved it. And besides, by the time they reinstated me, I’d be back on the job.”

“It’s on your permanent record,” Luis pointed out. “The FBI will take it into consideration.”

“I’ll introduce them to Del. They’ll be more impressed I didn’t shove my foot up his ass.”

He chuckled, then got serious. “Don’t trust him.”

“Too late,” I replied with a weak smile of my own.

“My neck is on the line with this. He helped today, but the setup of Alvarado is enough to arrest him.”