Page 120 of Better the Devil

They were well wide of the mark, though.

‘I, eh—and, again, I could be completely wrong on this—but I don’t think it’s the value of the Bitcoin that’s going up,’ Fleck said. ‘I got the feeling it was more like the number of them is increasing.’

Ben frowned. ‘What does that mean?’

‘What bit?’ Hamza asked.

‘Just… All of it. The whole thing. In general.’

‘It means someone’s paying her for something,’ Logan said.

‘How would the bank guy know that, though?’ asked Tyler. ‘It’s a virtual currency. It’s not like she’d be handing in big bags full of Bitcoins over the counter. In fact, why’s a bank even involved, anyway? I thought it was all, like, wee pretendy online wallets, and that?’

‘It is, and it isn’t,’ Dave told him.

‘Oh, thanks for clearing that up, mate,’ Tyler replied. ‘Well explained.’

Dave gave him the finger. ‘I wasn’t finished. There are a few different types of wallets. Online, stored locally, dedicated hardware. They can all be protected in different ways. For the big bucks, it’s pretty common to have the hardware wallet stored at a private bank. Especially if it’s being used as security for mortgages, or whatever.’

‘Then how would she get her money out?’ Hamza asked.

Ben nodded along to the question, as if he’d been wondering the same thing, and hadn’t actually been completely lost for the past few minutes.

‘She could still access it remotely,’ Dave explained. ‘Or sometimes, in that situation, there’d be a way for the wallet owner to authorise transactions, then the bank would actually make them.’

‘God Almighty, what a palaver,’ Ben said. ‘I think I’ll stick to keeping my money under the mattress.’

His fingers slipped into his top pocket, rummaged around for a few seconds, then returned disappointed.

Logan ran a hand through his hair, filing this new information away, stacking it up, weighing it to try to work out how it affected things.

Eleanor Belov had an income, not just wealth. An active income meant she was working in some way. That she was doing something in return for payment.

And that payment was in the form of cryptocurrency, which made it virtually untraceable.

Was that enough to bring her in? Was that leverage to use against her small army of lawyers?

Maybe if it had come through official channels, but right now it was hearsay, gleaned second-hand from a man who’d be risking his career to say it on the record. If they could get a warrant, do things properly, then maybe it would be something.

But right now, it still wasn’t enough.

‘Dig around. Go through her history, social media, news reports?—’

‘We’ve done that, boss,’ Tyler told him.

‘Then do it again. I want a full picture. If we’re bringing her in, then we’d better make damn well sure we’re prepared, because we’ll get one crack at her. If she’s guilty, I’m not having her walk free because her lawyers end up dancing around us. We build a case, then we bring her in.’

‘Oh, Jesus.’

Fleck’s interruption plunged the rest of the room into silence. He had a finger pressed to his ear, holding his radio earpiece in place like he was afraid it was going to fall out.

His eyes were wide. His hand shook as he reached for his pen and scribbled down a note.

‘They’ve found him, sir. They found Joe Robertson,’ Fleck announced.

‘And?’

‘Is he OK?’ Tyler asked.