The doorman at the Sunset Marina Resort & Yacht Club remembered Margo. He had told the agents that she took a cab yesterday and he hadn’t seen her since. He had also told them the cab company she used to leave. After questioning and showing eight cab drivers her picture, they had finally found the one that had driven her to Playa del Carmen. The break got better when he told them the name of the motel he had dropped her off at. They were only half a day behind her. Chances were that she was still there. The Mexican National Guard had let the US Marshalls and the FBI borrow a couple of their vehicles to drive to Playa del Carmen. Four Dallas field agents and two US Marshalls had stayed behind to talk to passing tourists and show them pictures of the other suspects. FBI agents and US Marshalls spread out at the small, humble-looking motel like ants. They showed her picture to people in the area. The desk clerk was so scared when he saw the

US attorney for Middle District of Florida Trent Michaels and US attorney for Northern District of Texas Lawrence Osborne had gone back and forth about who had rights to the case. Margo’s attorney, Deidre Underwood, had gotten into the fray and argued that Margo should be taken back to Tampa. In the end, Deidre had petitioned the court to let a federal judge decide. Since the Federal Reserve was a federal institution with locations all over the country, the judge stated that the crime was committed against the bank as a whole. Plus, the judge had noted that Margo had been in Tampa when she hacked the Federal Reserve, so it was Tampa’s case to deal with.On day four, US Marshalls had escorted Margo back to Florida. A bail hearing had been held the same day. Bail was denied because the judge saw her as a flight risk. That was just as well for Margo because she had nowhere to go if she had been let out on bail. Plus, the FBI had confiscated her bag of money, so she couldn’t pay it withou

A feeling washed over Margo when she was done. It was relief. Not just because she had avoided prosecution, but it felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off her shoulders. Margo hadn’t realized how keeping her criminal life under wraps had weighed her down until now.She had laid out her secrets for the federal government to examine and mull over. But she was no fool. She had left out the Largo Jewelry store heist BAAM had pulled during the early days. Of course, she told Deidre about it, but she had advised Margo to leave it out and not to tell her any details about it. Robbing a jewelry store was not a federal offense. The store was in California, and the owner could still press charges against her for the theft.With the exception of that one thing, Margo had revealed all, including Bobbi’s two alternate aliases. Margo had learned them when she transferred Aaron’s cut of the money out of his account and Aaron’s aliases that they were under. As soon as Bobbi

Three months later . . . Two weeks after Margo’s plea deal, the feds tracked Earl Churchill in the Bahamas. From what Bruce heard, US Marshalls barged into his little bungalow as he was screwing a twenty-three-year old. He was arrested for accessory to a federal crime. His trial was scheduled for early fall.Bobbi Bennett had been caught a month ago. She used one of her aliases to request a cashier’s check for seven million dollars for a yacht. She had abandoned Aaron’s because she knew the authorities were looking for it. Her plan had been to live on the new yacht in the Caribbean for at least a year, then she was going overseas. She had told the US attorney that the last time she saw Anthony was in South America in exchange for the Justice Department lowering her sentence to fifteen years with a chance of parole in ten.Anthony Mandel was discovered in Belize when the authorities there busted a brothel a month after Bobbi had given them the lead. Trent Michaels was able

It was Saturday. William Blanchette and Neil Rolls were at Margo’s condo instead of spending time with their families. They really wanted her to work for the bureau. During the week, she had filled out several job applications. She wasn’t sure if anything would come of it or not. Margo had to admit that the job at the FBI sounded intriguing and challenging, but she really didn’t want to be put in a position to interact with Bruce on a regular basis. Plus, she wasn’t sure how she would be received by any co-workers she would have to interact with. After all, she was a former bank robber, and Bruce’s co-workers could see her as a manipulative skank. She expressed that to the gentlemen as they enjoyed sweet tea and pepperoni and cheese snacks. “Perhaps we can make it where you can work from home,” Neil Rolls said. “We can set up a secure server here and communicate through email.” “It could work,” Blanchette mused and sipped his tea.