Patrick, she explained, had spent decades working in high-level government intelligence—financial forensics, digital ghosting, tracing illicit money across continents. He could unravel shell companies and invisible transactions from fragments most people wouldn’t even recognize as clues.
They called him the Ghost Finder.
The paper route wasn’t just a disguise, she said. It was operational brilliance. It put him on the streets at unusual hours. It gave him access—to conversations, routines, patterns. Some customers were contacts. Some were assets. And sometimes the newspapers carried more than headlines: microdots, encrypted drives, coded messages hidden in plain sight.
“He helped dismantle an international crime ring two years ago,” Catherine said. “All because he noticed a single recurring payment that didn’t add up.”
