Silent Partner

by Stephen Frey

  “Angela Day trusts him. Without him close to her I may lose her participation.”

  Colby cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind me asking, sir, participation in what?”

  Lawrence gazed silently ahead.

  At first, Colby had assumed that Angela Day was simply a physical distraction. Now he knew that wasn’t true. But it irritated the hell out of him not to know what was really going on. “Sir?”

  “A matter of great importance.”

  “Sir, I feel in this case that I must have full disclosure if I’m expected to protect you. I insist that you tell me what’s really going on here. Otherwise, there could be terrible consequences.”

  Lawrence shook his head. “I can’t tell you any more at this time.”

  “Well,” Colby said after a short pause, “perhaps it’s a moot point.”

  “Tucker hasn’t surfaced either?” Lawrence asked, aware of what Colby was implying.

  “No.”

  “Were you able to apprehend any of the men who were involved in the attack on the helicopter?”

  “Just one, and he isn’t talking.”

  “But you have ways of getting what you want, William.”

  Colby nodded. “I do, sir. And I will use those ways.” He hesitated. “But the man we’ve apprehended may not really know much. If the people responsible for tonight’s attack are as sophisticated as I believe, the foot soldiers will not be privy to any important information. They may not know who they’re really fighting for. In fact, they may have been given misinformation to throw us off track.”

  “I understand.”

  Colby placed a hand on Lawrence’s shoulder. It was the first time he had ever done so, and he saw the surprise in the other man’s expression. “Don’t worry, Mr. Lawrence. You’ll be fine.”

  Lawrence nodded. “I trust you, William.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Is there any possibility that Angela Day was somehow involved in what happened tonight?”

  Colby stared at Lawrence evenly. “I think that’s a very real possibility.”

  It was after two o’clock in the morning, and Angela stood on the landing of her apartment. She and Tucker had hiked through the woods until they’d reached a house at the edge of a field. There they had convinced the elderly couple inside to allow them to dry off and warm up, and to call a cab—neither Angela nor Tucker could get a signal on their cell phones. The cab had taken almost an hour to arrive, and the drive to Richmond had taken another hour.

  “Thanks for taking care of the fare.”

  “No problem,” Tucker answered. “It’s the least I can do for the woman who saved my life.”

  “Jake Lawrence is dead,” she said quietly.

  “Yes.”

  “That was one of the most awful things I’ve ever seen.”

  “Terrible.”

  “What will happen?”

  Tucker shrugged. “I don’t know.” He looked into her eyes. “I know you were counting on Mr. Lawrence to help you get your son back.”

  Angela stepped forward, put her arms around Tucker’s neck, and hugged him. It felt wonderful when he hugged her back.

  “It’ll be all right, Angela.”

  “What was that man talking about?” she whispered, closing her eyes as Tucker moved his hands beneath her ski jacket and caressed her back through her sweater.

  “Which man?”

  “The one who was holding you captive when I found you.”

  “What do you mean, what was he talking about?” Tucker asked, leaning back so he could look into her eyes.

  “He wanted you to tell him about the ‘network.’ ”

  “I have no idea what that was about, Angela. Maybe it was a case of mistaken identity. Or, more likely, he was fishing for something. Look, there are many secrets in the Lawrence world. People assume someone like me knows something important, but it isn’t true. When it comes down to it, I really am just a ranch hand.” He shook his head sadly. “I guess there’ll be a lot fewer secrets in the Lawrence world now.”

  Angela gazed up at him in the moonlight. He was right. Shehad saved his life. She had acted on instinct. If she’d thought about it at all, she might have hesitated and lost her courage. It was as if something had been guiding her. Communicating to her silently that she had to save this man.

  She curled one hand around the back of his neck, and pulled him close. “Kiss me, John.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “What’s this all about?” Angela demanded, glancing furtively around the parking garage’s third level. “Why did you have me walk all the way over here?” she asked, irritated that she’d been called away from the bank so late on a Friday afternoon.

  “Because I didn’t figure you’d be able to talk from your desk,” Liv explained. “And I wanted you to see the exact spot where I met my contact.”

  “Contact?”

  Liv rolled her eyes. As if Angela ought to know instantly what she was talking about. “A few days ago I got an anonymous call from a man who claimed to have sensitive information about Bob Dudley. I told you, remember?”

  That sounded familiar, but she was almost too exhausted to think. She’d caught a couple of hours of sleep last night, but had forced herself to get into the bank as close to her usual time as possible. Booker seemed to be monitoring her very closely.

  “Information that would help bring Dudley down,” Liv prompted impatiently.

  “Oh, right,” Angela said, remembering. “You told me that Monday on our way out to the West End. The afternoon you submitted that phony mortgage application.”

  “Which, by the way, I was turned down for.”

  Incredible,thought Angela. That application should have been approved very quickly. “Really?”

  “Yes. Maybe I should have checked the ‘Black’ box after all.”

  “No. I guarantee you that kid altered it the minute we left. I told you—”

  “Look, it doesn’t matter,” Liv interrupted. “I want you to hear what this guy relayed to me last night.”

  “Okay. But first of all, tell me how he contacted you.”

  “He called me a few minutes after I got home from work last night.”

  “But didn’t you say you were going to have your number changed again?”

  “Yes, and the phone company had changed it by Tuesday evening. Somehow he got the new number.”

  “That’s creepy, Liv. Like I said before, I really think you ought to call the police.”

  Liv shook her head. “No. He’s on our side.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Like I told you, I met with him right here last night. He hates Dudley as much as I do. I can assure you of that.”

  “Well, who was he?”

  “He claimed he was a Sumter Bank employee,” Liv replied, grinning, “but he looked more like a cowboy than a bank employee.”

  Angela froze. “A cowboy?”

  “Yeah. He was wearing boots, jeans, and this jacket with a wool collar. Like he was right off the range or something.”

  “Did he have a mustache?” Angela asked quietly, her mouth suddenly bone-dry.

  “Yeah, I think so. Honestly, I couldn’t see much of his face. He had his hat pulled down low. Why do you ask?”

  “No reason.” John Tucker. It had to have been him. But why? “What time did you meet this guy?”

  “Around 8:30.”

  “How long were you with him?”

  “Five minutes, tops. I could tell he was uneasy. Like he thought we were being watched. He kept looking around. One time I turned my head, and he had just kind of melted into the shadows. That was it.”

  At that time of the evening it would take no more than fifteen minutes to get from here to her apartment in the Fan, Angela realized. If Tucker had left Liv by 8:35, he would have had plenty of time to get to her apartment by nine to take her to meet Jake Lawrence.

  “What did the guy say?”

  Liv looked around to make certain they were alone. “He t
old me that Dudley’s family was originally from Birmingham, Alabama, and that they have been involved in Klan activity down there for a hundred years. He also said he’s pretty sure Dudley himself is a member.”

  Angela gazed steadily at Liv’s round face. “Bob Dudley is originally from Birmingham, Alabama?”

  “That’s what this guy said.”

  That was interesting. A piece of information she would make certain to follow up on. “And how exactly did he know that Dudley’s family had been involved with the Klan for so long? And that Dudley was a member now?”

  Liv shrugged. “I asked him about that. All he would say was that he had done a great deal of research on his own and that was what he had found. He said it sickened him to think that the man who ran Sumter Bank could be a Klansman, and that he wanted other employees, people in Richmond, and the rest of the world to know about it. That was why he had contacted me. Said he didn’t have any way to get the information out, but he knew that I could because I was a reporter.”

  “You can’t be prepared to print something like that on the word of a man you’ve met once on the third level of a parking garage under the cover of darkness.”

  “Of course I’m not,” Liv snapped.

  “But you’d love to.”

  “Whose side are you on?”

  “How do you intend to confirm what he said?” Angela wanted to know, ignoring Liv’s angry retort. “Are you going to put on a white sheet and follow him to the next meeting?”

  “Maybe I won’t have to,” Liv replied ominously.

  “Why not?”

  “The guy gave me some other information as well. Information that might be just as damaging.”

  “What?”

  A satisfied smile spread across Liv’s face. “He claimed Dudley was defrauding Sumter Bank. Claimed Dudley was siphoning off millions of depositor dollars into a little company on the side, a company that was supposed to be performing some kind of operational consulting work for Sumter, but was really just a shell. A company Dudley owns. Talk about a conflict of interest,” Liv scoffed. “Even if the company was acting in good faith. But the guy said that the whole thing was really a scam. He claimed Dudley himself approved the contract for the work six months ago, but nothing’s been generated except some good-for-nothing three-page report. More than ten million dollars has walked out the door straight into Dudley’s pockets.”

  “How does your contact know all this?” Angela asked. The whole thing seemed too easy. “I bet he wouldn’t tell you how he got his information about this accusation either.”

  “Wrong. He said he saw confirmations of outbound wire transfers. He also said he overheard someone very senior at the bank talking about how Dudley controls the consulting company. I think he used the term ‘ExecCom.’ And he believes that when someone digs deep enough they’ll find that the ten million bucks ultimately found its way into a Dudley account. I believe him,” Liv declared firmly. “The fact that Dudley approved the contracts and that the company is based in Birmingham is too coincidental. Well, the guy claimed the company was based in Birmingham, anyhow. I haven’t had time to follow up yet.”

  Angela checked her watch. It was after four. Sam was coming by the apartment at six to drop Hunter off for the weekend, and she needed to pick up a couple of things before Hunter arrived. But she needed to go back to the bank, too. There wasn’t much time if she was going to be home before Sam and Hunter arrived. “It’s still not enough to print any kind of story on.”

  “I know that,” Liv agreed. “There’s a lot of work to do before I can approach my editor, and I need your help.”

  “What kind of help?” Angela asked suspiciously.

  “Your enthusiasm is really blowing me away.”

  “Hey, Liv, I’ve got other concerns here. What do you think Bob Dudley would do if he found out I was helping you investigate him for fraud?”

  “How would he find out?”

  Liv didn’t know about Jake Lawrence’s involvement in the custody battle for Hunter, or how Angela felt as if someone was constantly watching her now. There wasn’t any reason to burden Liv with the information in case these people turned out to be cold-blooded. Then it would be better if Liv didn’t know. “Bob Dudley is a powerful man, Liv. Don’t underestimate him.”

  “Now you’re really sounding paranoid.”

  “Maybe I have a right to.”

  Liv grabbed Angela’s hands. “Look, if we don’t do everything possible to bring down Bob Dudley and expose him for the racist monster he is, the cycle will never be broken. We have to fight him now, because if we don’t, there’ll be another man just like him when he’s gone. Like that little punk who turned down my mortgage application.” She took a deep breath. “You know that guy’s reaction to me the other day was a result of a directive from the very top of the Sumter organization. He wasn’t acting on his own. Somebody told him to keep people like me out of the West End. That’s what the memo you found was all about. Why do you think I took you all the way out there to the West End on Monday? I wanted you to see the directive in action.”

  Angela clenched her jaw. What Liv was saying made sense. “All right,” she said quietly. “What do you need from me?”

  Liv’s expression softened. “I need you to track down the wire transfers going from Sumter to the shell company Dudley has set up. Confirm what the guy told me.”

  “That’ll be difficult without knowing the name of the company. Which I bet your contact didn’t tell you because he doesn’t really know—”

  “Strategy Partners.”

  Angela stopped short.

  “Strategy Partners,” Liv repeated. “In Birmingham, Alabama. Track the money transfers and confirm that Bob Dudley controls the company. Please do that for me, Angela.”

  Fifteen minutes later Angela was back at her desk, tapping commands on her keyboard as she zipped along the Internet. It was almost 4:30, and she needed to get going if she was to have everything ready for Hunter. But she had to confirm several things before leaving. First, that there was a firm named Strategy Partners in Birmingham, Alabama. Second, that Bob Dudley’s family was from Birmingham. And, third, that Jake Lawrence had lied to her about his family originally being from Atlanta. That they too originally hailed from Birmingham.

  She executed several more commands, closing in on her objective, smiling to herself as images flashed across the screen. In five minutes’ time she’d confirmed the answers to her first two questions, and now she was closing in on the answer to the Jake Lawrence question. She clicked “go” and waited.

  “Hello, Angela.”

  Her eyes flashed up from the screen. Ken Booker stood in front of her, arms folded across his chest. Her eyes flickered back to the screen as the information she had been searching for appeared.

  “What are you working on so diligently?”

  “Just some research,” she answered evasively.

  “Fascinated by Jake Lawrence, aren’t you?” Booker leaned forward over her desk and chuckled. “The information on your screen indicates that his family is originally from Birmingham.” Booker’s eyes narrowed as he glared down at her. “Isn’t that interesting?”

  She glared back, tempted to ask him again why he’d already derailed her promotion twice. According to Jake Lawrence, anyway. Tempted to grill him on the memo she’d found in his office. To ask him what he knew of it, and how involved he was in Bob Dudley’s plan to segregate the city, and perhaps do more than that. But now wasn’t the time. “Yes, it is interesting,” she agreed, wondering why Carter Hill hadn’t contacted her today.

  6:45. Sam was late. And Sam was never late.

  Maybe he wasn’t coming. Maybe all of his suggestions about the two of them developing a better relationship for Hunter’s sake weren’t so well-intentioned after all. Perhaps he had simply been raising her hopes just to dash them once again. She sighed dejectedly. Now that she could no longer pin her hopes on Jake Lawrence, she needed Sam’s help if she was going to ge
t to see Hunter more.

  The box lay on Hunter’s bed, wrapped in colorful paper. Inside was a toy truck he had mentioned he wanted last weekend. Somehow Chuck Reese hadn’t figured out that Hunter wanted it, and she was planning to preempt him and savor a tiny but sweet victory. Now the prospects of enjoying that victory seemed to be slipping away.

  The knock on the apartment door startled her. Her heart rose to her throat as she trotted to the door, opened it, and knelt down. And then Hunter was in her arms, hugging her neck tightly and kissing her cheeks over and over.

  “Hi, Mom!”

  “Hi, sweetheart.” She glanced up over his shoulder. Sam stood in her doorway, smiling down at her. “Hello, Sam.”

  “Hello, Angie. Sorry I’m late. I had to wait for the right moment to get out of the house, if you get my drift.”

  She nodded, appreciating that Sam was willing to take such a risk. “There’s something in the bedroom for you, Hunter,” she whispered in the young boy’s ear.

  “All right!” he shouted, releasing his grip on her and sprinting toward the bedroom.

  “I really appreciate you doing this, Sam,” she said, standing up. “I’m sure there’s going to be hell to pay when your father realizes what you’ve done.”

  “I’m sure you’re right, but I don’t really care. I’m a big boy. I can handle him. You’d be proud of me these days.” Sam gestured toward the bedroom. “Besides, Hunter needs to see you more. No two ways about it.”

  “I know,” she murmured.

  Sam pulled her close. “I wouldn’t mind seeing you a bit more myself, Angie.”

  His arms were strong and reassuring, and she allowed herself to hug him back. This was dangerous. She’d trusted him once, and there was no reason to think he had changed except that he had followed through on his promise of this weekend.