Chapter 3 - THE ACTUARY AND THE UNDERWORLD
Thirty minutes later, Sophie was seated in a leather chair in the warehouse's glass-paneled upper office. A steaming mug of black coffee rested in her bruised hands. True to Matteo's word, Leo had run the prints through their police contacts. The results had instantly shifted the atmosphere in the room from predatory to deeply paranoid.
Matteo stood by a map of Chicago pinned to a corkboard, his back to her. “So. Sophie.” He tested the name, finding it fit the calm, analytical woman far better than the chaotic phantom they had been hunting. “Your sister stole two million dollars from a vault that requires three separate biometric clearances. My people tell me she acted alone.”
“Your people are mathematically illiterate,” Sophie took a sip of the coffee. It was terrible, burnt and bitter, but it grounded her. “To bypass a tri-factor biometric system without triggering a silent alarm, you need an internal delay sequence. You need someone on the inside. Specifically, someone high enough to have administrative access to the security logs.”
Matteo turned slowly. “You’re suggesting one of my capos helped your sister rob me.”
“I’m not suggesting anything. I am stating a statistical probability.” Sophie set the mug down. “Chloe is a grifter. She is excellent at social engineering, but she cannot write code, and she certainly doesn't know the schematic layout of a mob-controlled financial holding company. She was the mule. Somebody in your organization used her to take the fall.”
Matteo’s hazel eyes darkened. The Romano family had been bleeding territory for months to the Moretti syndicate. If there was a rat in his inner circle, the two million was the least of his problems.
“You measure catastrophe for a living, Miss Gallagher,” Matteo said, walking toward her, his presence dominating the small office. “Measure this one. Who in my crew has the motive to frame a civilian and steal from their own boss?”
“I need your ledgers,” Sophie said simply.
May you like
Leo barked a laugh from the doorway. “Boss, you can’t be serious. We’re going to show the civilian the books?”
Matteo didn't break eye contact with Sophie. “Bring her the encrypted drives. All of them.”
