I paused then said, “It was found in my house.”

“Not the same thing.”

We stared at each other across the coffee table. I really didn’t want to divulge any information to Alex. But I needed his help. And he didn’t seem inclined to help me if I didn’t explain. But attorney-client privilege doesn’t apply when the attorney is the one breaking the law.

“I’m not asking you to do anything illegal,” I said.

“You’re asking me to help you find someone to hack a flash drive.”

“Yes, but it’s not illegal if it’s my flash drive. It’s like breaking into your own house. That’s not a crime.”

“Is it your flash drive?” he asked again.

I sighed. “It was my husband’s, and I was his sole beneficiary. So that makes it mine now.” That wasn’t one hundred percent true. If the flash drive was the property of Jonah’s employer, then Jonah’s employer still owned it. But since becoming a lawyer, I’d learned if you say something with authority people tend to believe you. Alex seemed to.

“What’s on it?” he asked.

“Well, if I knew that I wouldn’t need someone to hack into it for me, now would I?”

“What do you think is on it?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. Why all the questions? Either you know someone or you don’t.”

“I might. But I need to know what I’m dealing with.” He set his mug down on the coffee table and leaned forward. Then he lowered his voice as if he was afraid we’d be overheard, even though we were the only two people in the house. “I don’t want to put you in danger.”

I sealed my lips together to stifle a laugh. Alex could be so dramatic sometimes. I lowered my voice too and said, “How could hacking my own flash drive put me in danger? I was planning on paying the guy. No one’s going to have to break my legs.”

He bit his lip and stared down at his hands.

“Why are you being so weird about this? No one’s going to care that I hired a hacker.”

He looked up at me through a fringe of dark lashes. “I’m guessing you don’t know your brother-in-law works for the Russian mob.”

Chapter 16

This time I couldn’t stifle the laugh. That was possibly the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard. “Are you insane? My brother-in-law does not work for the Russian mob!”

Alex didn’t even crack a smile. “How do you know?”

“Well, for one thing he doesn’t speak Russian.”

“They all speak English.”

It didn’t occur to me at the time to ask how he knew that. “And for another he’s ex-law enforcement.”

Now it was Alex who laughed. “Right. Rich white lady can’t imagine a cop might break the law. Especially not a white cop.”

“First of all, I’m not rich. Second, this has nothing to do with race. Third, I know some cops break the law, but my brother-in-law’s not one of them.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I know my brother-in-law!” I wasn’t under the illusion Jake was squeaky clean. It would not surprise me to learn he’d bent a few rules when he worked for the FBI. But a mobster? No way.

Alex leaned back in his chair. “It could’ve been your husband. They look alike.”

The notion that Jonah was a mobster was even more preposterous than Jake. “Not possible. My husband was an accountant.”

“Mobsters need accountants too. Someone’s got to clean the money.”

“He wasn’t that kind of accountant. He set up tax shelters for rich people who didn’t want to pay taxes.”

“And you think mobsters want to pay taxes? Haven’t you ever heard of Al Capone?”

I knew Al Capone went to prison for tax evasion as opposed to all his other crimes, but the notion of Jonah working for a modern-day Al Capone was laughable. Jonah was a straight arrow. That was one of his traits I loved most. Jonah would never have worked for mobsters. Never.

“My husband’s clients were rich people, not criminals.”

“How are you so sure they weren’t criminals? Because they looked like your husband instead of like me?”

“No, because if they were criminals Jonah would’ve told me.” He often regaled me with stories of client meetings he attended with Brian Sullivan. Brian did all the schmoozing but left it to Jonah to explain the structure of the tax shelters they provided. According to Jonah, most clients weren’t interested in the details. As long as he assured them he could reduce their tax burden without triggering an IRS audit, they were happy. Very few cared to know how he achieved that end.

“Most of them came by their wealth the old fashioned way,” I explained. “They inherited it. The rest were self-made.”

“Mobsters are self-made.”

The fact we were even having this conversation was ridiculous. “Did you ever actually see my brother-in-law with a mobster?”

“Yes.”

“And was the guy in handcuffs at the time?”

“No. He was giving your brother-in-law orders.”

“You’re lying.”

“Why would I lie?”

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

We stared at each other in silence until the realization hit me. Jake had worked as an undercover agent. That must’ve been what Alex witnessed. “How long ago was it you saw them together?”

Alex shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t write it down on my calendar.”

“Guess. A year ago? Two years ago? Three years ago?”

“A couple years ago.”

Then it couldn’t have been Jake. He’d left the FBI shortly after Jonah and I had moved to Santa Veneta, which was more than three years ago. “And you remember someone you met once a couple of years ago? It must’ve been a memorable meeting.”