Chapter Fifty-Three
KONSTANTIN STARES AT his burner phone, waiting for an answer that doesn’t come. He glances back at his computer, but nothing is happening there, either. Then he swears out loud. ‘Fuck!’
He gets up and paces around his messy room. Every few seconds he bends and looks at his computer screen, hoping to see the payment come through. Every time he looks, he yells, ‘Fuck!’ again and kicks his chair.
After a while he calms down. He sends another text, asking if they are having technical difficulties. There is no answer.
They aren’t going to pay. The bastards!
He can hardly believe it. He saw what they said, on the cameras. He has the files. Are they stupid?
He must decide what to do next.
Ted and Jill are still standing in their beautiful kitchen, the sun is still streaming through the windows. The world outside looks the same. Even though they have just blown off a blackmailer in possession of evidence of the two of them confessing to murder.
Have they lost their minds?
Ted doesn’t think so. They’ve had months to think about this, and he thinks it’s the right decision.
It will be painful. Very painful. But he doesn’t see any other option.
They are not going to let Min and her boyfriend dictate the rest of their lives.
He’s not afraid of them. It’s not like they’ll come around with baseball bats and beat him and Jill to a pulp.
They’re not hardened criminals. They’re not thugs.
They will have to accept that the game is up.
As will Lara Donleavy and John Burnley. They will see that if he and Jill are willing to stand up to the ones who have the footage, they can stand up to Lara and John too.
They can all just fuck off.
He and Jill will keep all their money. But they will have to deal with the consequences. They will have to deal with all the fallout.
Because he’s certain that Min and Robert will not keep quiet.
Once they realize they aren’t going to get any money out of Ted and Jill, they will be enraged.
They will most likely release the recordings anonymously.
To the police. To the media. That’s what Ted would do if he were the blackmailer and someone had called his bluff.
He and Jill have to assume that everyone they know – including Ramirez – will hear those tapes, hear him and Jill talking gleefully about how they pulled off the perfect murder.
It will be reported in the newspapers, and the tabloids, probably complete with transcripts.
The camera footage will probably be available online.
He’s glad his parents are dead, that they haven’t lived to see it.
He and Jill had been twisting in the wind, afraid of what was on those recordings. Afraid of everyone – including Ramirez – knowing what they did.
But after that text from their blackmailers, months ago, saying they would wait until the estate went through, and after Ted had space to think, he had met with Alan Siegle, a top New York criminal lawyer at an elite criminal firm.
Once assured that their conversation was protected by attorney–client privilege, Ted had asked him, hypothetically, what would happen if someone obtained recordings of what might be construed as a confession to murder.
The attorney hadn’t even skipped a beat. ‘Any recording obtained illegally would be inadmissible in a court of law. Period.’
Ted asked, ‘Just to be clear, what do you mean by “obtained illegally”?’
‘What exactly are we talking about, here?’ Siegle asked point-blank.
Ted explained. ‘Let’s say, hypothetically, that someone broke into a house and planted hidden cameras and recorded conversations unbeknownst to the persons in their own home.’
‘That would certainly be illegal,’ the attorney said.
‘New York is a one-party state, meaning that recordings taken without knowledge or consent are legal, as long as one person being recorded knows. If neither party to the conversation knows he or she is being recorded, that is illegal. If the person recording it is not part of the conversation, and the ones being recorded don’t know it, it’s illegal. ’
‘Are there any circumstances in which it could be admitted, even though illegal?’ Ted asked. He had to be absolutely sure. ‘For instance, in a murder trial?’
‘No.’
Ted almost sagged in relief. His recent reading in a library had told him this, but he wanted to hear it from the mouth of a top attorney.
His next question was, ‘What about in a civil trial, could it be admitted? Say, in estate litigation?’ Because it wouldn’t do if they were found guilty of killing Greg in a civil trial.
They might not go to jail, but he might not be able to collect the inheritance either.
‘No. It wouldn’t be admissible in a civil trial either,’ Siegle assured him.
Ted sat back in the deep leather chair across from the attorney, who was studying him intently. ‘You’re absolutely sure?’
‘Yes. I’m sure.’ He clasped his hands, leaned forward over the blotter on his solid desk, and gave Ted a frank look. He’d obviously recognized him and knew his name. ‘I wonder if, in this hypothetical, blackmail is a factor?’
‘And if it was?’ Ted asked.
‘Then I would be very careful,’ the attorney had advised him. ‘If such a recording existed, it could still do a world of harm. There’s such a thing as a man’s reputation.’
Ted had left the attorney’s office relieved. A man’s reputation was important, but not as important as his freedom, or his fortune. He could survive a loss of reputation. But could Jill?
Now, Ted regards Jill and steels himself for what’s coming.
They are not going to go to prison. They are going to keep all the money.
They will get these parasites off their backs once and for all.
And they have each other. He hopes it is enough.
Because the whole world is about to find out what they did.
And they will have to live with that. Doors will be closed to them, perhaps slammed in their faces.
They will be pariahs. Perhaps they will move to France for a while.
They will have to be strong and take the long view. They will deny, deny, deny, even in the face of the evidence. They will be notorious, but they will have to tough it out.
He knows Jill is terrified. She’s dreading it. But Ted isn’t, not so much anyway.
Because these days many people behave very badly, even criminally, are publicly reviled, and come back from it remarkably quickly. They even make it into positions of considerable power.
People have short memories, Ted tells himself, and many people have questionable morals. It helps to have money. People with money seem to be forgiven everything.
Perhaps he is a man for his own time after all. Because he finds he doesn’t really care what people think of him.
And all this time he thought he did.