Chapter 53
CHAPTER
NASH SAT IN HIS ROOM and studied the video of his daughter saying that he had molested her. Shock had provided him with a burner phone along with a laptop.
He was looking for telltale signs in her voice, facial tics, anything that could help him understand the situation better.
When nothing readily popped out he closed the laptop and slumped back against the wall of the small room.
As he looked around the Spartan surroundings, his thoughts ventured back to his beautiful home and how not all that long ago his life had been pretty wonderful.
And predictable. Yes there were problems, but everyone had problems. At least he had the financial ability to weather things better than a lot of families who were living paycheck to paycheck.
But in the end, the money couldn’t really get you what you wanted.
It can’t get me out of this.
There was a knock on the door, and Shock opened it a moment later. “This is your guy, right?”
“Who?”
Shock perched next to him on Nash’s bunk. He passed Nash his phone, where there was a news article loaded. Nash quickly read through it. “Barton Temple was found dead at his estate, in what looks to be a suicide? He jumped off a balcony and fell four stories to the ground?”
“They quoted his wife. Said Temple was terminal with pancreatic cancer. His son confirmed that and so did the man’s doctor. He had months to live and it wasn’t going to be pretty. Might make sense.”
Nash shook his head. “Maybe for someone who doesn’t know the man. Barton Temple lived life to the fullest. He would have partied right up until the casket closed.”
“So you think Steers?”
“She seems to be the likeliest suspect.”
“Maybe she and Barton had a falling-out.”
“If so, that confirms that he was working with her, and that also now leaves Rhett as the primary contact with her.”
“You mentioned a secure messagin’ app the Bureau gave you? Think you can still access it?”
“Yes, but you told me not to download it onto the burner.”
“Let’s take a ride.”
“Where?”
“Cell towers ping burner phone calls, too, which is why I didn’t want you usin’ it at the trainin’ center.
Now, just accessin’ emails or text messages makes it a lot harder to track your location if the cops are just lookin’ at that sort of data.
Then you’re just talkin’ IP addresses. Cops do that to see who sent or received somethin’, not where they physically are.
But someone who knows what they’re doin’ can still use message data to drill down to what city you’re in, etc.
So I’m gonna let you access that communications app, but let’s not make it any easier for them. ”
Hours later, when they were hundreds of miles from the training center, Shock called to Nash in the back of the van. “Okay, we’re far enough away. Download the app and see if you have any messages.”
Nash did so and then his finger trembled a bit as it hovered over the key. He hit it and a list of messages came up.
He read through the first ones quickly.
“What does the Bureau say?” asked Shock.
“Agent Morris says they think the video might be fake,” Nash said excitedly.
“Why?”
“They had their experts look at it and found it very well done, but there were just enough anomalies that they concluded it might be AI generated. But they can’t prove it,” he added in a less hopeful tone.
“Wait, so maybe it wasn’t actually your daughter at all?”
Nash kept reading and then looked miserable.
“They said that they may have taken Maggie to scan her body and record her voice, and then used that to create an AI version of her for the video so they could control exactly what she said and how she said it. But he was clear that they can’t prove it.
Which means he and the FBI don’t one hundred percent believe I didn’t do it. ”
Shock glanced in the mirror at Nash. “Okay,” he said slowly.
Nash said, “If he’s right, that means they don’t need Maggie anymore.”
“Anythin’ else from the Bureau?” asked Shock, looking away from Nash.
“They have a leak. That’s how they believe Steers might have been made aware of my involvement with the Bureau, and why she would have taken Maggie to discredit me.”
“Do they have any idea where the leak is?”
“Yes. An Agent Amy Braxton, who I met with. She’s not the leak, at least not directly.
Her husband, Frank, had a gambling problem.
Frank got into bed with a loan shark. Steers maybe became aware of this vulnerability, bought out the loan, and exploited the connection.
Braxton apparently left some documents lying around at home that she shouldn’t have.
Frank saw them and ratted me out to repay the loan. ”
“How do they know all this?”
“Frank confessed. He never met Steers, of course, and doesn’t have a shred of proof. He’s now in custody, but that really doesn’t help me.”
“At least the Bureau doesn’t necessarily believe you’re guilty.”
“But Morris was clear that in the current climate they can do nothing to help me without jeopardizing their entire operation.”
“So you’re basically SOL?”
“Not that surprising, really.” Nash paused and said, “She’s dead, isn’t she?”
Shock took a few moments to answer. “We can’t be sure of that. Yet.”
“I thought you said you’d never sugarcoat things.”
“Unless we see her remains for ourselves, she’s still alive. Are the percentages good that she is? No, they’re terrible. Are they more than one percent? Yeah. But not by much.”
Nash exited out of the app and leaned against the side wall of the van. “Why would they kill Barton Temple?”
“He pissed off Steers, like we discussed.”
“I could see Rhett pissing her off, but not Barton. He was too smart.”
“Who else had a reason to kill him then?”
“Well, Rhett, and Barton’s widow, for starters. They’ll inherit a lot of wealth.”
Shock nodded. “One of the oldest of motives to kill someone: greed.”
“Oh, and did I mention that Rhett was screwing my wife?”
Shock swerved the van before regaining control. “No, you left that one the fuck out, man.”
“Maggie found out about it right before she disappeared.”
“Right before? You don’t think—?”
“No. Judith would never be party to that. And, honestly, neither would Rhett. And when Judith saw that video I was with her. She was as shocked as I was.”
“But maybe Barton jumped off that balcony with some help?”
“Maybe he did.”
“So what do we do with that information?”
“I think it’s time that you teach me what I need to know and then let me go and take care of this, like we talked about before.”
Shock eyed him again, this time with the scrutiny of a man appraising human potential. “It won’t be easy. In fact it’ll be the toughest thing you’ll ever do in your life. You will beg me to quit. But I won’t let you. I may end up killin’ you, in fact. You ready for that?”
“I’ve got nothing else to do with my life,” replied Nash. “Nothing.”
“We have to change your appearance, I mean, really change it.”
“How?”
“Well, musclin’ you up will go part of the way. You got the right frame to pack it on, you just never did shit with it. But I see your daddy’s genes in you, so there’s that. And the hair’s got to go. Grow a beard maybe. And somethin’ else that will help.”
“What?”
“You’ll see. And also feel it.”
Shock paused and seemed to be deliberating something, something important, for both of them. “Look, Walter, this shit ain’t gonna be quick, okay? I’m talkin’ many, many months, probably over a year even.”
“A year! Shock, if Maggie is alive I can’t waste a year—”
“The odds of Maggie being alive are pretty much nil, okay? You’re right, I was sugarcoatin’ things before. Now, we need to get real. Real, real. We can’t do this half-ass. The whole fucken country is lookin’ for you. And I’m harborin’ you, so that means you go down, I go down.”
“It was a mistake calling you to help. Just drive me—”
“Shut the fuck up, Walter, and listen ’cause I’m only gonna say this one time.”
Nash sat back and looked at him apprehensively.
Shock said, “This is a risk, a big risk for us both. You don’t want to go down and I sure as hell don’t want to spend what years I got left in prison.
But it is what it is. Now, you either take the time and make the commitment to do this right, or you might as well just go turn yourself in to the cops right now, ’cause you shortchange this, they gonna catch your ass no problem.
Slow and methodical, put the hard work in, wins the day.
Bet you conducted your business the same way, right? ”
“I did,” conceded Nash.
“So whatever time it takes that’s what it takes.
And at the end of the day you won’t look, act, or be Walter Nash no more.
Ain’t no other way to slice this sucker.
” He paused again. “You really ready for all that? ’Cause I’m all in.
I’m all in ’cause I promised your daddy.
Now when I made that promise to him I didn’t know it would turn into this shitshow, that is for fuck sure.
But a promise to that man is a promise that I cannot break.
Just so’s you understand. I’m with you all the way.
Now, how ’bout you? ’Cause half-ass don’t cut it.
Not now, Walter. We partners on this or we ain’t. Your choice.”
Nash didn’t answer right away. Going through his mind at hyper speed were all the pros and cons of his situation.
The latter easily overwhelmed the former.
But then his mind stopped racing and settled onto one image.
Maggie, online saying those things, none of them true.
Maggie, being taken. Maggie, being coerced.
Maggie, being almost surely dead.
“I’m ready,” said Nash.
Shock scrutinized him for a long, uncomfortable moment. “I believe you.”
Nash said, “I believe me, too.”