Chapter 4
CHAPTER
FOUR
“Well?” Finch demanded. “Ideas? Notions? Confessions?”
“I don’t know what you want us to say, Mr. D,” Brady protested. “Seems to me there’s only one guy had the opportunity to take that cash.” He shot Hudson a dirty look.
“Maybe,” Finch said. “But that’s not the only mess we have here, is it? Or have you forgotten about the corpse in the bathroom downstairs?”
Hudson had, actually. He’d been so focused on his own fear that his brain hadn’t really kicked into gear, but now it did.
“Maybe they’re connected,” he suggested.
Everyone looked at him again, but with less suspicion this time.
They were just waiting to hear what he had to say.
“I mean, it’s a big coincidence, don’t you think?
The one night some guy comes back for his coat and dies in the bathroom, is the same night the cash goes missing?
” He warmed to his theme. “Mr. D said himself it might be a distraction. Maybe whoever took the cash killed that guy downstairs, too. Or maybe—maybe he took the money.”
Dino put up his hand like he was in a classroom.
“The timeline doesn’t fit,” he said, when Finch nodded at him.
“I saw that dead dude—I mean, he wasn’t dead then, but whatever—he came in when these two were arguing,” he thumbed at Brady and Ziggy, “and I was in the cloakroom trying to find this coat the guy was so worried about. So the dead guy had no access to the break room from my side, and Hudson and Art were at the other door.”
Hudson’s spirits dropped again.
“Hudson’s right about one thing, though,” Finch said, looking between Brady and Ziggy. “We only have your word for it that the cash went in that box.”
“I swear on the life of my daughter,” Ziggy said forcefully, “the money was in that box when we came out of the room.” He sounded as convincing as Hudson should have sounded when he’d first denied it.
Ziggy jerked his head towards Brady. “And Mr. D, you know I’d give this guy up if he’d done it.
There’s no love lost between us.” He stared hard at Finch.
“Fuck you,” Brady said, then added, “But what he says is true. We locked that money in the box, just like we were supposed to. And anyway, where else would we put the money? You’d hear us rustling if we’d shoved it down our pants or whatever.
And the only doors in and out of that room are the one Hudson was in front of, and into the cloakroom, where Dino was.
But you can go search the break room, see if we’re lying. ”
Finch’s eyes narrowed. “He’s not wrong. The money has to be somewhere.” He looked at Gio. “Go check the break room, see if the money’s still there.”
But Gio hesitated. “Mr. D, I’m not supposed to leave you.”
Finch opened his desk drawer again and pulled out his SIG Sauer.
He checked the clip, slotted it back in, and then took off the safety.
“I think I’ll be alright for a few minutes,” he said.
“And you’re the one who insisted on being on duty with me for New Year’s Eve.
So you’re my man for the night. You do what I say.
Besides, if anything happens to me, you all know what Luca would do. ”
Hudson shuddered. Yes, he knew what Luca would do. So did everyone else, apparently, because they took a collective step back from the desk where Finch sat, as though to show that they meant no harm.
Gio was only gone for a few minutes, as Finch had predicted. He came back with a serious face and gave a quick frown at Hudson as he went past. “Nothing, Mr. D,” he told Finch as he arrived back at the desk.
“You’re sure?”
“I turned that room upside down. You want I should swear on my mother or something, like everyone else is doing?” The look Finch gave him made Gio clear his throat and add, “Sorry, Mr. D. But the money ain’t in that room.”
“Pity,” Finch said, tapping a finger on the desk, next to where he’d laid his gun. “So now what? Anyone remembered something they suddenly feel compelled to mention?”
They looked between each other. Hudson was unhappily aware that he needed the bathroom badly.
And then it occurred to him. “I know!” he exclaimed. “I bet I know what happened.”
“Well?” Finch asked impatiently, but Hudson paused.
“I—I can’t say in front of everyone.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Brady demanded. “Don’t listen to him, Mr. D. He just wants to get you alone so he can whack you.”
Finch gave Brady a look almost as chilly as the one he’d originally given Hudson, and Brady flinched. “Hudson Taylor is one of my most trusted friends.”
For the first time, Hudson began to contemplate the idea that he might actually get out of Kismet alive. “Please, Mr. D,” he begged. “I really do think I know what happened, but I don’t wanna say in front of these guys.”
Finch closed his eyes and sat back in his chair. “Gio,” he said.
“Mr. D?”
“Take everyone except Hudson downstairs. Put them in the break room and lock both doors. You hear me?” He opened his eyes.
“The door to the cloakroom and the main door to the dance floor. And while you’re at it, I want you to check every other door in and out of this place is shut and locked, including the emergency exit.
” He looked around at the others standing there, glaring at him.
“And every one of you here who has a key to any door, any window, any thing in this place, you put it on my desk. Now.”
Hudson and Dino turned over theirs quickly, dropping them on the desk. Ziggy put his neatly-organized keyring down next to them, and then Art added his to the pile.
“You never trusted me enough to give me keys,” Brady said with a rude shrug when Finch turned expectantly to him.
“And I’m pleased about that right now,” Finch said, narrowing his eyes at the DJ. “Phones, too. No bitching,” he added, as Brady started to moan about it.
Ziggy cleared his throat. “You can look through my phone if you want, Mr. D. For incriminating texts or whatever.”
Finch hesitated, but then said, “I don’t think we need to go there yet, Ziggy.”
“No one’s looking through my phone,” Brady snarled. “It’s private. And I ain’t leaving it here.”
“Yeah, you are,” Gio said. “And no one wants to see your dick pics, dipshit. Relax.” Brady looked at him for a moment, sneering, and then tossed his phone down on the desk.
“Wait,” Finch said, after everyone had handed over their phones and were turning towards the door. “I think… I think I’d better have any weapons, as well.”
“I ain’t getting locked in some room with these fuckers and no protection,” Dino said at once.
“Come on, Dino,” Gio said. “Don’t be stupid about this.”
Mutinously, Dino unholstered his gun and laid it on the table. “Don’t tell me the rest of you fuckers aren’t armed.”
Brady shook his head. “What do I need a gun for?”
Art guffawed, “You think I need protection from shitty toilets?”
Ziggy merely spread his arms with a shrug.
“I ain’t going nowhere with these guys if they don’t turn them over,” Dino insisted.
Finch squeezed at the bridge of his nose, his eyes shut again. “Gio, pat them down.”
Hudson watched. In the very back of his brain he was thinking about what it might feel like to have Gio Carlucci pat him down.
“They’re clean,” Gio said. “No weapons. No money, either.”
“Okay,” Finch said. “Happy, Dino?”
“Since you ask—”
“Get the fuck out of here, all of you,” Finch said wearily.
“Yo, all of you. Let’s go,” Gio said, jerking his head towards the door.
Once they were gone, and Hudson was the only one left in the office, Finch laid his hand softly over his gun. “You’re not going to make any sudden moves, are you, Hudson?”
“No, Mr. D. Definitely not.”
“Alright. Then let’s hear what couldn’t be said in front of everyone else.”
Hudson leaned in and lowered his voice. “The secret passage.”