The Domino Effect

by Davis Bunn

  Esther went on, “I can’t focus on a million families out there who have been put in danger. Doing this for the right reasons has meant doing it from the heart. And you’ve taught me that.”

  Abigail said, “We didn’t do anything.”

  “You were there when I needed you,” Esther replied. “I’ve lived by the law of self-sufficiency. What I need, I buy. What I have, I earn. But this action is taking me on a completely different course. You and your sister are helping me come to terms with what that means. I’m doing this because I care for people I’ll never meet. I want to help them. I want to keep them safe.”

  Esther turned to the rest of the group and wondered at the changes in herself. Allowing her to be open to strangers. She finished, “Even when that means doing what comes hardest for me.”

  42

  At the close of the gathering, Esther embraced Craig and his daughters before one of the studio staffers drove them home. She then shook hands with each of her new hedge-fund investors. Last in line stood Talmadge, wearing that canted grin on his face.

  It seemed totally natural to hug him as well. She could feel the strength Talmadge required to hold himself erect. He kept his grip on the cane, which meant he could hold her with only one arm. When she stepped back, he showed her a rare defenseless moment, cleared his throat, and said, “Well, now.”

  “I have the feeling you’re an excellent friend,” Esther said, “and an even better partner.”

  “I try to be,” Talmadge replied. “On both counts.”

  Suzie was watching on the periphery, looking pleased. When Esther approached, the newscaster drew her into the studio’s shadows. Well removed from the others, Suzie said, “Several times over our on-air sessions, I got the impression you had started to say something, then held back.”

  Esther found herself fighting the urge to reveal her deepest fear. “I always tell my team that analysts don’t deal in rumors.”

  “I have contacts,” Suzie said. “Maybe I could help.”

  Again she fought against sharing it. “It’s too big. If I’m wrong, I could be spreading panic.”

  “And if you’re right?” Suzie waited, then said, “Insisting on evidence is what brought me to this position.”

  “That and the fact that you’re extremely good at your job,” Esther added. She knew a genuine pleasure in reaching out and hugging this woman. Only then did Esther realize how tightly wound Suzie was. “Thank you so much.”

  “Evidence,” Suzie said. “Let me help you find it.”

  Esther carried an uncommon force of calm during the ride home. There was a distinct sense of rightness to the night. She could even reflect on her resignation without regret. She started to think on everything the next day would bring, then just let it go. It drifted away like smoke in the wind. The peace she knew was that strong.

  Then her phone rang. Esther quickly realized she had not called the clinic or even cast a thought in Nathan’s direction. She pulled to the curb. The phone number was blocked. Carter Cleveland was probably phoning on his private line.

  But it wasn’t the doctor. Instead, Jasmine’s first words emerged so broken that Esther thought she had misunderstood. Esther said, “Say again.”

  “I’ve. Just. Been. Fired.”

  Esther cut off the car’s motor. The main road bordering Dilworth streamed behind her. But here on the street leading to her house, everything was quiet. She was parked beneath one of the giant elms, the branches forming a canopy that blocked the streetlights. Esther was hidden in plain sight. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  Jasmine might have huffed, or she might have sobbed. “Since when does anything that man does make any sense?”

  “Jason fired you? Personally?”

  “His assistant did.”

  Esther felt the night slow further. As though the darkness and the minutes and the quiet street all congealed into a liquid mass through which her thoughts and impressions could be dissected. One at a time. Thoroughly. “Jason’s secretary phoned you. At nine forty-three in the evening. To say you’ve been canned.”

  “She said Jason had called her from the airport. Told her to deliver this message.” Jasmine blew her nose. “At least she had the decency to apologize.”

  “I resigned today.”

  “I saw you tell Suzie on the show. Thanks for the heads-up, by the way.”

  “It happened just before I went on air. Reynolds Thane wanted me . . . Never mind. It can wait.”

  “So Jason figured he’d get rid of both Downside Twins in one afternoon? Or maybe this is revenge?”

  Esther shook her head. “He needs you now more than ever. Who’ll be in charge of our department?”

  “MIT.”

  Esther couldn’t help but laugh. “That geek couldn’t lead a hamster to the feeding tube.”

  “Glad you find some humor in this.”

  Esther used the electronic controls to lower her seat back, settling further down in the vehicle. She stared out the windshield, beyond the tree limbs, to the crescent moon rising over the rooftops. “Do me a favor. Walk me through what’s happened since you and I talked yesterday.”

  Jasmine took a steadying breath. “Soon as I got off the phone with you, I went to Jason’s office and told him what you said. He kinda froze. He was—”

  “What?”

  “He looked distracted. Which I thought was strange, you know?”

  “With the markets in free fall.” Esther felt the night condense further. “Go on.”

  “Right. I told him what you said about building a hedge. He looked at me like he couldn’t place me, then picked up the phone, called his number two, said exactly what I told him. Afterward he thanked me. I thought, well—”

  “That you had done a good thing and he’d be pleased.”

  “Right. So I went back to the team, and we held our breath until the markets finally stabilized this morning.” Jasmine’s voice held a deeper timbre than normal, but her emotions had steadied. “You and Suzie did a good job, by the way.”

  “Thanks. What happened next?”

  “The team took off right as the Eastern markets opened stable. When I was alone, I went back to what you’d told me to do, you know, before.”

  The answer was clear as lightning across the sky. Esther said, “Hewitt.”

  “I still don’t have any idea where he is. I was searching when Reynolds Thane called us to the trading floor to announce the merger. Promised the moon and the stars. An advert for you and Suzie’s report popped up on the monitors just as he finished. Reynolds was not the tiniest bit pleased about that. He dismissed the troops, had a quiet word with Jason, and vanished. Ten minutes later, I heard from my pals that Jason had left on another of his mystery trips.”

  Esther nodded slowly. The answer was there in the moonlight. “Hewitt is the key.”

  “To what?”

  “To everything. You have got to find him.”

  “Did you hear a single thing I just said? It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve been fired.”

  “Jasmine, listen carefully. You have a job.”

  “I . . . What?”

  “I’m starting a hedge fund. Talmadge Burroughs is putting together a group of initial investors. I want you to come work for me.”

  “That’s why you quit?”

  “No, not exactly. Look, right now there is only one thing you need to focus on.”

  Jasmine said, “Finding Hewitt. Got it.”

  “This has never been more important. Does his phone still work?”

  “Straight to voicemail.”

  “But the number is still valid. Call and tell him what’s happened. Tell him you need him. Give him the works.”

  “You mean, beg.”

  “Sob, plead, whatever will get the man to contact you. Tell him it’s his fault. You were so desperate to find him, you rocked Jason’s boat and the man fired you. Tell him he owes you a call. And when he does—”

  “If,” Jasmine corrected.
<
br />   “No, when. How can he possibly resist you?”

  “A joke. That’s good. I could use a reason to smile. So when he calls, what?”

  “Have him call me,” Esther said. “That very instant.”

  43

  Esther set her phone on the center console, lowered her window, and sat listening to the night. She drove a Mercedes mini-SUV called a GLK. The GLK was boxy and functional and utterly lacking the pretentiousness of most Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Esther discovered she loved its higher elevation almost as much as she did the legendary Mercedes efficiency. Everything about it worked brilliantly. And unlike many SUVs, this one was designed with women drivers in mind.

  She lowered her seat to the floor, so she could see a slice of night sky between the rooftops and the lower branches. It meant only the top of her head was visible from the outside, and even that was masked by the tree’s shadow. She could have driven the half block to her home and walked around back, but an unanswered question held her fast.

  Jasmine had been dismissed in a futile attempt to stifle her search for Hewitt. Which meant the bank was desperate to hide something. The question was what? The only answer Esther could come up with was, something highly profitable.

  In the current market, that probably meant the deals Hewitt and the other hidden traders were putting secretly into play were also stepping over the boundary of legality. But there was a chance, the very slight possibility, that something far more sinister was at work.

  Esther needed to determine whether her deepest fears were in fact happening. And if she was right, she needed to structure a platform that would serve as proof to the outside world. And for that to work, they needed a witness. It was essential that they locate . . .

  Directly in front of her, the night altered course.

  Esther’s car was positioned on the left side of the street about a block from the main road bordering Dilworth’s eastern boundary. Her home was five houses down on the street’s opposite side. Her front lawn contained three cherry trees and a magnolia, all over a century old. They formed a fragrant veil between her home and the street.

  Between Esther’s position and her driveway, nine cars were parked along both sides of the street, indicating someone probably was entertaining. The house directly across the street from her own was a mock Tudor with lead-paned windows. The owners had planted a yew hedge that now stood almost eight feet high. Some neighbors complained about how this created a barrier to the street’s open look. But Esther thought it suited the home. The hedge had three openings, two for the curved driveway and another carved into a living arch framing their front walk.

  A man stepped out of the central arch. He was definitely not the homeowner, who was a wispy retired architect in his early seventies. This man was tall and massive, but he moved in utter silence. Esther’s window was wide open and she heard nothing. When he passed within range of a streetlight she saw his skin was dark and his features sharply defined. He slipped to the right with a dancer’s grace and reentered the shadows, as though he could feel the light’s presence.

  He stepped into Esther’s front yard.

  She was still coming to terms with what this meant when a second figure rose from a crouched position by the hedge separating Esther’s home from her neighbor to the east. This person was slightly built and most likely a woman. Her hair was hidden beneath a scarf or maybe a knit cap.

  Then a third person appeared from behind her magnolia. Another man.

  Esther did not realize her hands were shaking until she pulled her phone from her purse. She crouched down into the footwell, the steering wheel digging into her ribs. She started to dial 911, but the readout showed that her last outgoing call had been to Talmadge. She hit redial.

  When Talmadge answered, she whispered, “I think someone has come to kill me.”

  44

  Talmadge stayed on the phone with her while he used a second line to wake up the world.

  Six minutes later, the first police car arrived. Never in Esther’s life had those flashing lights meant so much. While the police approached her property on foot, Esther called Craig. The need to hear his voice overcame her reluctance to disturb him at a quarter past eleven. Four minutes after that, Talmadge arrived with his attorney, who also happened to be on the city council. Talmadge’s embrace was fierce enough to threaten Esther’s first tears of the night.

  Because of the councilman’s presence, a deputy chief arrived with a senior detective. As she watched the flashlights play off trees and the walls of her home, Esther tried to tell herself it was all a mistake. That the three shadowy figures were somehow components of a normal night. She wanted desperately to pretend that the fabric of her safe haven had not been ripped apart. But the analytical portion of her brain would not be stifled.

  Just as the police completed their initial survey, Craig pulled up in his car. His hug helped heal the night more than Esther thought was possible.

  The detective was a stocky woman named Sanchez, whose dark eyes reflected a coppery glint in the streetlights. She told Esther, “The forensics team should clear your home shortly. I need to ask you a few questions.”

  Esther handed Craig her phone and stepped away. “All right.”

  When the councilman approached, Sanchez said, “Give us a minute, please.”

  “I am here as Ms. Larsen’s legal representative,” the councilman replied.

  The detective was then joined by the deputy chief. Sanchez did her best to ignore them both and told Esther, “Walk me through what happened tonight.”

  Esther could not quite keep her voice steady as she described the events. Sanchez stopped her repeatedly, asking questions that forced her to proceed more slowly. The detective’s questions drew up details that Esther would otherwise have dismissed as unimportant. When she finished, Sanchez asked, “What made you certain this man was a threat?”

  The lawyer protested, “Oh, come on, Detective. Three strangers gather in the middle of her front lawn for a confab?”

  “No, it was before that,” Esther said. “He scared me the very first moment he became visible.”

  “Come with me, please.” Sanchez led her down the street. “You say he was hidden here?”

  “Inside the hedge. Right. He must have been stationed there for at least an hour. That’s how long I was parked.”

  “And you stopped the car where you did because . . . ?”

  Esther had already been through this three times. She could see the lawyer was about to object. But she lifted her hand, stifling his protest. She liked how the detective was using the repetition to bring out new details. “My assistant phoned me with the news that she had been fired.”

  “From the same bank where you resigned. Are the two events linked in any way to tonight’s disturbance?”

  “I have no hard evidence to suggest this,” Esther said.

  A hard-edged humor shone in Sanchez’s eyes. “Now you sound like a detective.”

  Esther stepped into the alcove carved from the hedge. A cast-iron gate blocked her entry. The detective’s flashlight showed where it had been dusted for prints. Esther unlatched the gate and pushed it open. The gate squeaked loudly. Esther rocked the gate back and forth, listening to the noise. “My car window was open. I would definitely have heard this.”

  “So the man was standing right here the entire time you were in your car.”

  “I stayed there because I was trying to sort through tonight’s events,” Esther said. “I’m an analyst. It’s what I do.”

  “And did you come to any conclusions?”

  “I need to uncover several more elements before I can determine whether my former employees were involved.”

  “If they were behind the incident, your search might cause them to try again.”

  Esther liked how the hedge offered them a semblance of privacy. She felt safe enough to reveal her tremors. “I understand.”

  “Do you really?” Sanchez motioned Esther out of the alcove. “Walk wit
h me.”

  They proceeded down the driveway and around to the rear of Esther’s home, trailed by the deputy chief and Talmadge’s attorney. A trio of portable lights had been set up near the large birch tree in her backyard. A man was on his knees, waiting for a plaster cast to dry. Sanchez showed how an individual had stood here for quite some time and then held out a small plastic bag containing six cigarette filters.

  “Here’s what I think might have taken place,” Sanchez said. “This is all conjecture, so don’t hold me to anything. But it looks like there was a five-man crew.”

  “Three in front, plus the rear observer.” The sight of the cigarette butts dangling from Sanchez’s fingers left Esther feeling nauseated. “Where’s the fifth?”

  “He or she played mobile observer. They parked outside the television station. They knew you were there because they caught your act or were told about it by whoever ordered the hit.”

  The casual way Sanchez said the word hit opened the night like a great gaping maw. Esther said weakly, “They waited for me.”

  “You described how you exited the station with several others. That probably saved your life. There might have been two in the car, a driver to help spot you and the hired killer. Or maybe they’d already decided to go for you here at your home. In either case, I’m thinking they only had one car. They didn’t want to risk you noticing you were being trailed. So they followed long enough to be sure you were heading home. Then they called ahead. And team two got into position. Three in front, one in backup position right here.” Sanchez slipped the plastic bag into her pocket. “Only you didn’t pull into the drive. You stopped far enough away for them to be unable to identify your vehicle. And there were others parked along the street.”

  The deputy chief said, “You are one very lucky lady.”

  45

  Esther walked back to where Craig met her. “How are you doing?”

  “Not great, but I’ll be okay. Thank you for being here.”

  “I’m glad you called.” Craig returned her phone. “Talmadge left while you were with the detective. His hip was bothering him. He asked you to call as soon as you were free.”