Read Snowfall at Willow Lake: Lakeshore Chronicles Book 4 for Free Online Page B

their country.
    She felt Brooks watching her. She tried not to look at him because she was afraid he would distract her. Though they’d only just met, she sensed he had the sort of easy charm and witty insouciance that would bring a smile to her face. Emerging from the emotional pain of divorce, she was discovering she had a great liking for men. And as soon as that thought crossed her mind, she felt a blush creep upward through her cheeks.
    Sophie served as assistant deputy counsel for the prosecution. When illness struck two of her superiors, she found herself directly addressing the fifteen judges of the International Criminal Court. It was said that her relentless and passionate arguments were key to attaining a conviction. After that, UN troops moved in, ousted the corrupt government and restored the exiled premier to his rightful place.
    â€œAnyway,” she concluded, addressing Brooks, “that’s the digest version, and I can already see your eyes glazing over.”
    â€œJet lag,” he said, taking out a hand-size notepad and wooden pencil. “Phone number?” He flashed her a grin.
    She gave him her second assistant’s mobile number. That was close enough.
    He wrote it down and added some notes, then gave her his own number. “Don’t you want to write it down?” he asked.
    â€œI already have it,” she said. It was a gift of hers. She had a near-photographic memory for phone numbers. She could remember the number of the arbitrator who had handled her divorce more than a year before. The number of her son’s hockey coach, whom she’d never met in person. The number of Greg’s new wife, Nina, though Sophie would never call it. She looked up at Brooks and repeated his phone number back to him.
    â€œA woman of many talents,” he said. “Really, it’s an incredible story—”
    â€œThat will be reduced to a one-inch blurb under ‘Around the Globe’ and buried on page 19-A,” she finished for him.
    â€œI’ll try for more space,” he said. “Another question.”
    â€œGo ahead.” She folded her arms in front of her.
    â€œIs it true you gained access to the syndicate’s banking records by using the same methods as the Nigerian banking scam?”
    Sophie felt her mouth twitch with a smile. “We finally found a use for e-mail spam. The investigative team did the technical work, but it did amount to duping the syndicate’s chief treasurer. It’s not the oldest trick in the book, but close. And it made them look incredibly foolish.”
    In the tradition of the Nigerian banking spammers whose scam was so notorious it was known as a 419, they had targeted the dictator’s top treasury official, Mr. Femi Gidado. He was known to be an ambitious, greedy man whose high-risk investments had brought high returns to the regime.
    Having learned this about him, Sophie’s team had sent him a “phishing” e-mail, posing as an innocent government official in charge of a staggering fortune. They had “begged his worthy indulgence” on a “matter of utmost financial urgency,” promising a sum of $3.5 million if he would simply provide his banking information to be used in a simple, clandestine transaction.
    After a relatively short exchange of e-mail information, Sophie and her staff found themselves in possession of the regime’s fortune. Since it was obtained through illegal means, they couldn’t use the money at all—but the insanely simple ploy gave them leverage. They offered the dishonest treasurer a choice. He could serve as the key witness in the case against the dictator, or his participation in the banking scam would be revealed to his superiors. Since the punishment for betrayal was excruciating torture followed by a beheading, he chose to throw in his lot with the Umojan people. His cooperation had proved to be the undoing of the regime.
    â€œWhat became