Old Growth & Ivy (The Spook Hills Trilogy Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

software or something?”
    “Yes,
we do, but Terry is a talent of his own.  He never focuses on the obvious
issues.  He is one of those rare analysts who hones right in on the more
abstruse ones.  We make sure he is on the team for every bank we handle.”
    “He’s a
techno-miracle.  If I could be allowed to meet him, it would be an honor.”
    “We’ll
see.  Give me an example.”
    “Well
here,” Moll switched on a tiny portable projector attached to his laptop. 
He thumbed his way around and brought up a bank approval document with a little
note on it.  “See it says.  ‘ ap/ac fmlr.  X PP .”
    “And
you think that means?”
    “Approver
and account are familiar.  Cross-check it.  This Terry guy has like a
table in his head or something of approver names, accounts, and account
owners.  We followed that trail and it led us to . . . .”  Moll
stopped, looking up behind Ivy.
    She
could feel a presence and knew that the big agent must be back.  She
swiveled in her chair and tilted her head up, pulling her hair away from her
face as she turned.  Today she wore it down and it was making the most of
its freedom by curling out in every direction.  There he was, standing
right behind her, staring at the Moll guy with a mixture of annoyance and
curiosity. 
    “Not
giving away confidential case information, I hope,” he said sternly.
    “No,
sir.  Nothing our Ivy Vine hasn’t seen before.”
    Steve
raised an eyebrow at the moniker.  Moll was famous for his humorous
comments.  He was one of the few people who could make Steve laugh.
    “Moll
was kind enough to compliment the work of one of my senior analysts.”  Ivy
quickly jumped to Moll’s defense.  “I just came in to make sure all was
going well and to see if . . .”
    “If?”
Steve echoed.
    “If
they would be interested in joining me for dinner.  Great couple of agents
you have here.”
    “Have
they earned it?”
    Brian
said quietly.  “We think we have, thanks to leads from Ivy’s team that we
found in the notes.”
    “Let’s
hit it then.”  Steve sat down, opened his briefcase and dealt out energy
bars like cards around the table.  He looked over at Ivy.  “You have
time to sit in?”
    “I will
make time.” He dealt her a crunchy Cliff bar with white chocolate and macadamia
nuts in a whole grain base.  The man knew something about energy bars.
    Ivy
spent the next hour watching Moll and Brian zoom their way around the data and
electronic documents.  Out of the ten million records from two of the
three banks in question, they had isolated twenty transactions, all winding up
in two banks in Sofia, Bulgaria in accounts under the cryptic translated name
of “Adjunct Resources International” and totaling nearly two million
dollars.  Steve watched, listened and questioned.   The analysis
stood up to his intense scrutiny.   Ivy could see that all three of
the agents were fully focused on finding the trail that would lead them to the
bad guys or perps, as they called them.
    “And
the third bank?”  Steve asked at the end.
    “Unfortunately,
we are not finding any notes from our friend Terry.  We’ll have to slog
through it on our own, unless Ivy will lend us his brain.”
    Steve
turned to face her.  “Well, Ms. Ivy Vine.  You with us on this? 
Will you throw in the talent?”
    She
considered the request while keeping her eye contact with Steve.  Sooner
or later Terry would find the pattern at that third bank if one existed. 
It may as well be sooner.  She walked over to the phone on a side table,
dialed and asked Terry if he could work that night.  Terry was a free
spirit and tended to start his days late, then worked past midnight or worked
weekends when a project really interested him, and Terry found a good deal
about data that intrigued him.  He was like a curly willow tree, right
down to his soft blond hair that he wore about mid length in barely brushed
ringlets.
    Ivy was
uneasy about how much support she