The Dark Side of Deceit : A Colby Tate Mystery (The Colby Tate Mysteries Book 4) by Allen Kent

Author:Allen Kent [Kent, Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AllenPearce Publishers
Published: 2021-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

21

The man from the Secret Service’s Kansas City Regional Office was named Westfall, didn’t speak Spanish, but still didn’t look like Marti’s image of a Secret Service agent. He was in his mid-forties, a slim, bookish man with a receding hairline, pale face, and a nervous way of wrinkling his nose and blinking rapidly when he spoke.

“I’m a currency expert,” he announced as he bent over samples of the bills Grace had retrieved from Furry Friends. He had them spread over my desk in the fishbowl, shades down. “Washington thought that at this point, I may be more useful than an enforcement agent.”

“I hope that continues to be the case,” I said, winking at Grace. “We don’t want a cartel war here in town.”

“Find the rest of this money, give it to us, and we’ll make it known we have it,” Westfall said. “Then they’ll leave you alone.”

“Good plan,” I agreed. “See if those C-notes will tell you where it is.”

He was unfazed by my cleverness and pulled four more bills from the packet. “Most impressive,” he murmured, mainly to himself. “And most disturbing.”

“Fake?” Grace asked.

“They are—unless our printing process is making some slight alignment errors.” He worked his nose more rapidly. “Everything seems just right on these unless they are lined up on top of each other. Then the security strips don’t perfectly align. And as you said about the others you found, once in a while I can see the slightest trace of a D from the Diez. But these are alarmingly good.”

“Which would explain why they want them back so badly,” I guessed.

Westfall blinked furiously. “Not just because they want to pass them, but because they don’t want this to happen—for us to see the quality of the work they’re doing. That’s worth much more to them than the monetary value of this one shipment.”

I nodded, looking up as Karen Troxell from Central Ozark Bank pushed into the outer office. She looked furtively at the three of us through the window of the fishbowl, then decided she’d better check in with Jenny. Marti’s replacement listened attentively, then stood and hurried over to the office door.

“Excuse me, Sheriff, but I think you may want to talk to Karen—all of you.”

The branch manager didn’t wait to be invited in. She pushed past Jenny, looked at the hundreds spread across the desk, then up at Agent Westfall.

“You’re the Secret Service man?” she asked.

I glanced over at Jenny who shrugged. “She said it was related to the money you showed her. I thought she should know the agent was in here with you.”

“Let’s not share that with anyone else,” I suggested. Jenny gave me a look that was more irritated than apologetic and headed back toward her desk. Karen pulled another packet of new $100 bills from her handbag and dropped it beside the one on the edge of the desk, then stepped back to enjoy seeing the effect. She wasn’t disappointed.

“Good Lord,” Grace murmured. “Where did these come from?”

Agent Westfall picked up the bundle, held it up to give it better light, then turned to look at the banker.

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