Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Archer watched Kelly fidget. It was time to hit him with some names.
"We know Austin Davis is behind this."
Kelly's eyes, which had been darting around the room, flew to Archer's face. "I, that is, I didn't…You didn't hear that from me.”
"No, I didn't,” Archer agreed, “but I could tell the world I did."
"But that's not true," Kelly snarled.
"No, it isn't. But you're withholding information. Two people are dead. They were your friends. Start talking, or I’ll force your hand." Archer was done being neutral. It was time for hardball.
Kelly swallowed convulsively. The fight in him had been draining away since they walked in, and now it was gone entirely. "Fine. It was Davis."
Tatum frowned. "Davis is the only one behind this?"
"No. Yes. Sort of?" Kelly stumbled over his words. "Davis definitely is part of it."
"Good," Archer said. "Now tell us exactly how it worked."
Kelly looked like he was going to argue. Then he shrugged, the gesture of a man who had run out of reasons to resist.
"I can’t help you if you don’t tell me," Archer said.
Kelly snorted, but without heat. "No one can help me now." He reached over and poured a large measure of scotch into a dirty glass, drank it down in one swallow, and put the glass back on the table. "But I'll tell you what I know. There's no point keeping a secret you already know."
"So spill it," Tatum said.
Archer hadn’t been pleased to learn that Tatum was visiting Kelly, but now felt like her presence wasn’t bad.
Except for his libido. Memories of how he’d touched her last night, of how she’d moaned beneath him as he worked her body to relief, rose in his mind.
Memories he wanted to revisit, but now wasn’t the time.
Not when her life was in jeopardy. He forced his attention away from her sweet face and refocused on Kelly.
Kelly sighed heavily. "I already told you that North brought Lebowitz and me into it.
Lebowitz went off the rails. He did his own thing.
North was not pleased." He rubbed his face.
"Our job was just to manage everything. Make it look good.
Davis brought the investors. The ones on the list. He made the initial approach, and we followed up.
“It was Davis’s job to quietly spread the word in the beginning.
Just a handful here and there. In the end, maybe twenty investors.
Nobody got paid back. It was all meant to look legitimate on paper.
The money moved through accounts, going wherever we were told, some of it siphoned off to pay us, the rest disappeared.
" He made a poof gesture with his hands.
Archer wasn’t inclined to believe Kelly didn’t know where it went, but the man was on a roll, so he didn’t pursue his suspicion.
Kelly took a breath. "Then Tim came along with his idea.
Making it more into a Ponzi scheme. He thought, why not?
I told him it was a bad idea, but he did it anyway.
He started bringing in retirees, taking their money.
He said it was like taking candy from a baby.
" Kelly's voice flattened on that phrase, a faint disgust underneath it.
"I told him not to push it. He did it anyway.
Then he snagged bigger clients because word had spread, some of them Society members.
And we weren't set up for that. We had a very specific list of names.
When it got out of hand, North had to talk to somebody. "
"Talk to who?" Archer's voice was quiet. Controlled. But there was something in it that made Kelly look up.
Kelly rubbed his face. "Okay, you're right.
There was someone else behind it. Someone we knew about.
And it wasn't just Davis, because we all knew Davis was involved.
Davis couldn't keep his mouth shut. He'd corner us in hallways and ask how much people had invested.
" He paused. "He didn't know the numbers. Only we knew the numbers. And this other guy…” He swallowed hard and stared at the empty glass.
Tatum leaned back in the chair. "It's Lou Anderson, isn't it?"
Kelly's head whipped around. He stared at her, open-mouthed. "How the hell did you know that?"
The conviction in Tatum’s voice tugged at something Archer thought he’d buried in the details of his day. It was the same assuredness he’d heard last night when she told him her mouth wasn’t broken. The corners of his lips began to lift, and he gave himself a mental shake.
She ignored the question. "How is he involved? Is he the mastermind?"
Kelly rubbed his face again. "I don't know, and that's the truth.
" He held up his hands, palms out, and glanced at Archer before looking back to Tatum.
"All I know is that he was supplying the names.
He'd get Davis to reach out to those guys and say it was time to pay up.
And they paid. Our job was to have the numbers ready, make it look good, have whole meetings where we'd discuss the investments.
In reality, we'd go to dinner, have a chat, and tell them the number.
They paid. Some of them came back and paid again and again. "
"What were they paying for?" Archer asked. "You had your suspicions."
Kelly's shoulders sagged. He suddenly looked every inch the overweight, middle-aged, frightened man that he was.
"Yeah. I have my suspicions." He was quiet for a moment, and when he spoke again, his voice was lower, stripped of its usual bluster.
"I think they’re into human trafficking.
I think Davis and Anderson were supplying young girls.
Kids. And I think the investments were payments for that. "
He rubbed his face with both hands. "It's so gross.
It's beyond me." He met Archer's gaze and then looked at Tatum, and the shame in his eyes was unmistakable.
"I didn't know. I want you both to know that.
When I got in, it was just about investments.
It was easy money. That's what they said.
That's what North told me. And I was in financial trouble after my divorce, so I jumped at it. "
He paused. "I thought it was drugs. I know that's not great either, but it's different. I didn't know what was really going on until much later. When people were coming back, making repeat investments and sending emissaries to pay on their behalf. It became too much."
"And that's when you started drinking," Tatum said quietly.
Kelly nodded. "I have kids. Girls." His voice cracked on that, and he stopped. He pressed his lips together and looked at the table. "I can't imagine. These people are sick. And I wanted out. I asked North to let me out, but he couldn't. So I just kept my mouth shut and did what I was told."
The room was silent for a moment.
"And Davis brought people in?" Archer asked.
"Mostly. Austin was like the leg breaker."
Archer snorted. "There's no way Austin was physically threatening anyone."
"He didn't have to," Kelly said. "He'd threaten to bury them.
Strip their reputations, pull their contracts.
Davis knows everybody, and he knows what everybody's hiding.
That was his job. Bring them in, and apply pressure if they balk at paying, then collect.
Didn't matter that he'd fallen out of favor because he still knew where all the bodies were buried.
And that's why Anderson brought him in. North told me that. "
Now that fit with what Archer had long suspected… What he’d known.
"So you think Anderson is the main guy behind this?" Tatum asked.
Archer spared a glance at Tatum, but said nothing.
He had his doubts. Anderson was clever and polished, but polished was the problem.
You could stroke Anderson's ego, and he'd give you whatever you wanted.
If you were running something like this, you needed to be impervious to that kind of persuasion.
Anderson wasn't the Curator. But Archer would bet the farm that he knew who the Curator was.
Kelly let out a long sigh. "I only know what North told me. I never spoke to Anderson directly. I avoided him like the plague. Davis too. I just did my bit, took my money, and kept my mouth shut."
He paused. "But North got drunk one night.
Just him and me at my place. He said it was all falling apart.
That Tim had pushed it too far, and now they had people investing they didn't invite in.
They couldn't turn the money away. North told me how furious Anderson was, but then he said something that stuck with me.
He said he thought Anderson's anger was an act. "
Archer went still.
All the gears in his mind turned at once, and suddenly it clicked. Clean and complete. Like the last piece of a puzzle dropping into place.
"That's because Anderson is the one who got all of you indicted," he said.
"What?" Kelly stared at him.
Tatum stared at him, too, but her eyes had narrowed. "You think Anderson fed the information to the Feds himself?"
"Yes," Archer said. "Lebowitz had become a problem.
You all had. The extra investors were a liability because they actually expected returns.
The money flow was off. So what better way to shut it down cleanly than to hand you all to the Feds?
He controls the narrative. You take a plea.
A few years in Club Fed, then you disappear with fifty million each, and Anderson quietly rebuilds with new people who know better. "
Kelly's mouth had opened. "A couple of years in Club Fed. That's exactly what we were offered."
"Right," Archer said. "And once you're out, you're gone. He starts again, closer to home, fewer moving parts, with Davis as the frontman."
Kelly shook his head slowly. "North said Anderson had a boss. He didn't know who. But he knew for a fact Anderson was getting told what to do. That worried North a lot because he thought he had things under control as long as it was just Anderson and Davis." He looked up. "Obviously, he didn't."