Chapter 24 #3
Davis was going to try to hang Archer with the cameras so he could take over the Society.
There would be more to it. Witnesses who would swear to seeing cameras, people who will be outraged.
Chances were excellent that someone would discover a camera in a Society location sometime in the next day or so.
How did he know? Because that’s what Archer would do if he were in Davis’s shoes.
But why now? Was it because of the investigation into the Ponzi scheme and the Curator?
Or was there something else? Someone else?
This had Fisher's fingerprints on it, too. There would be all kinds of games being played in the next couple of days. Archer had to figure out how to make sure he was the winner.
A knock rattled the door.
"Come in," Archer called.
The door opened, and Ryker stepped through, followed by Kelly.
Archer almost didn't recognize him.
Gone was the greasy, disheveled wreck from earlier.
Kelly had showered, shaved, and changed into clean clothes, khakis with a button-down shirt.
His hair, still damp at the collar, was combed back.
His face was less puffy, though his eyes were still red-rimmed, and the weight of everything he was carrying hadn't left him. It was just tidier now.
He looked almost respectable. Almost.
"Here's your guy," Ryker said. "Clean, sober, and ready to talk."
He doubted the sober claim, because he’d just watched the man polish off a fifth of scotch that Archer knew had only been delivered that morning. But he let it go. "Thanks, Ryker. You can go."
Ryker nodded and left.
Kelly stood there shifting his weight, a man who'd run out of bluster and was left with nothing but the truth.
"Sit," Archer said.
Kelly plopped onto a chair with a grunt.
Archer leaned back and studied him. "Tell me about the meetings Davis held with people. Specifically, Society members."
Kelly frowned. "I don't know what else I can tell you. Like I said, we had a list. Davis would approach them, tell them it was time to pay up. They'd come see us, we'd give them the number, they'd pay. If they didn't, Davis would talk to them again."
"I want a list of names that needed extra convincing."
Kelly hesitated, then nodded. "Sure. There weren't that many."
"Good. Were they all Society members?"
"Pretty much. A few weren't, but they wanted to be. I think membership was something Davis dangled. Something he promised he could get them."
Archer's pulse kicked. "If I could get someone on the record for that, it would mean Davis broke the rules. That would matter a great deal." He had another thought. "Do you know where these meetings took place?"
Kelly shrugged. "Not all of them. Davis is all over the place. DC, New York, Society locations up and down the northeast."
"Did he ever hold meetings in Society spaces specifically?"
"Yeah. I know he met with Lloyd McGillivray in the DC space, the one by the river.
I happened to be down there. Lloyd walked in happy as a clam and walked out pale and shaking.
Whatever Davis threatened him with, it worked.
Lloyd came to see me immediately. Wrote a check within the hour.
" Kelly paused. "I didn't say anything. I just took the money.
But whatever Davis said to McGillivray, the man believed every word of it. "
"Do you know the date and approximate time?" Archer asked.
"Sure." Kelly gave him the information.
"Any other meetings in Society spaces?"
Kelly rattled off three more names, dates, and locations. Archer wrote them all down.
This was it. Davis had used Society spaces to conduct illegal business, and worse, he had used them to bring harm to other members.
That was a clear violation of the rules, the kind Archer could take to the board, the kind that finally gave him legitimate grounds to move against Davis regardless of what the former President wanted.
And promising membership as leverage? That was just the icing on the cake.
Austin Davis's days were numbered.
That thought did something rare. It warmed what passed for Archer's heart.
"Anything else?" he asked.
Kelly started to shake his head, then stopped. His face went pale in a way that had nothing to do with the hangover.
"What?" Archer said.
"There's one more thing," Kelly said slowly. "I don't know if it matters."
"Tell me."
Kelly swallowed hard. "The last time I saw North, the night before he died, he said he'd figured out who was behind it all. Said he knew who the Curator was. He said he had proof. He was going to use it to get out of everything."
Archer focused on breathing in, then slowly out before he asked, "Did he tell you who it was?"
"No. He said it was safer if I didn't know." Kelly's voice dropped to barely a whisper. "He said it was someone we'd never suspect. Someone close to all of this. Someone who'd been playing us from the beginning."
Archer's mind moved through possibilities. Anderson. Davis. Someone else on the board. Someone closer.
"Did he say anything else?"
"Just one thing." Kelly met his eyes, and for the first time, there was something in them beyond fear. Something that looked almost like grief. "He said when people found out who was behind everything, the Society would never be the same."