Death, Taxes, and Peach Sangria Read Online Free PDF Page A

transfer large sums of
     money undetected.
    That’s where Eddie and I came in.
    As special agents for the Internal Revenue Service, we were among the best-trained
     financial sleuths in the country. We could trace an extensive series of payments and
     money transfers back to the original source. We could find assets hidden under multiple
     layers of corporations, partnerships, and complex trusts. We were financial bloodhounds,
     able to sniff out even a single copper penny.
    Given our mad money skills, we had been solicited to assist the other agencies in
     finding the financiers’ resources and staunching the flow of funds. Unfortunately,
     none of the information in the file gave me a clue as to how these men were funneling
     their money out of the United States and into the hands of their coconspirators. Eddie
     and I had an appointment tomorrow to meet with a CIA operative and a Homeland Security
     financial specialist. We hoped they would be able to provide us with more documentation
     and information that would lead us to the money trail.
    My skinny, cream-colored cat, Anne, trotted after me as I went to my kitchen, removed
     a glass pitcher of homemade peach sangria from the top shelf of my refrigerator, and
     poured myself a full glass over ice. Nick’s mother had given me the sangria recipe.
     I’d modified it slightly, adding two or three spiced peaches to the other fresh fruit
     in the mix. Brett had brought me a dozen jars of the peaches when he’d returned after
     a monthlong project at a country club in Atlanta. The club’s chef had prepared them
     and they were, well, absolutely peachy. Apparently all the food at the club had been
     superb. Weeks later, Brett still blathered on about the wonderful meals he’d enjoyed
     there.
    Thinking of Brett caused a flood of guilt to flow through me. He’d be blindsided tomorrow
     when I told him I wanted to put the brakes on our relationship, at least temporarily.
     For all I knew, once Nick and I started dating we might realize we weren’t right for
     each other after all. If that happened, I could only hope Brett would be willing to
     give things a second chance. If not, well, I’d end up alone again, back at square
     one. Hell, maybe I’d be the next one signing up for the Big D Dating Service.
    I gulped down the glass of fruity wine and poured myself another, hoping if I drank
     enough it would wash away the horrible, tragic images burned into my mind and the
     guilt gnawing at my insides. But I feared there wasn’t enough sangria in the world
     to make me feel better.
    *   *   *
    “Ready?” asked Eddie from the doorway of my office the next morning at eleven. Eddie
     held his briefcase in his left hand, his gray suit jacket slung over his right shoulder.
    “Ready as I’ll ever be.” I took a deep breath to steady myself, shoved the file and
     a legal pad into my briefcase, and grabbed my purse from the bottom drawer of my desk.
    Although we’d been granted a brief reprieve in the terrorism case when one of the
     men who’d been arrested had agreed to talk in return for leniency, the lawyers hadn’t
     worked out the details fast enough and word spread through the jailhouse grapevine
     that the man was going to spill the beans. His tongue had been promptly cut out, presumably
     by one of his coconspirators. Needless to say, his offer to talk was no longer on
     the table. We’d have to hunt down the clues ourselves.
    My head throbbed as I followed Eddie down the hall to the elevators. In retrospect,
     three glasses of sangria last night might have been a bad idea. Not only did I have
     a headache now, but I’d had to get up twice during the night to pee. On the bright
     side, though, I’d received my recommended daily allowance of vitamin C.
    We exited the building and walked in silence the few blocks to the Homeland Security
     field office on Main. Eddie had obviously found the information and photos in the
     file as disturbing as I had,