Money Money Money
The long drive to the Gussins’ home is lined with cypress trees.
They are near downtown Franklin, in an area called Leiper’s Fork.
It’s pretty country out here, with horse farms and bourbon distillers and large estates lining the meandering road.
The Gussins’ house is almost out of place, a modern European style that feels incongruous against the backdrop of the other, more typically Southern estates.
It sports a soaring black tin roof, black-framed windows, a fieldstone facade, and vertical birch siding. And it’s enormous.
“Venture capital pays well,” she remarks drily.
“Would you expect anything less?”
They are meeting the man at home instead of at the office because he is feeling unwell.
According to his assistant, the stress of the past few days is making his heart act up, and he asked if they’d mind meeting him in a quieter environment.
They were happy to agree. Comfortable people tend to give more comprehensive interviews.
They’re greeted at the door by a quiet woman in a black silk pantsuit.
She gestures for them to follow, and they trail her through the magnificent home to the very expensive living room.
It looks like a magazine spread, everything perfectly symmetrical, lots of beige-on-beige texture.
In her boots and jeans and blazer, Theresa feels very out of place among the priceless art and low-slung sofas.
Bob Gussin is perched in a brown leather chair and doesn’t rise. “Hi there. Pat’s at the office, trying to help the FBI track the crypto, so today it’s just me and Kiki.”
Theresa sees the ravages of the past several days on his face. He is florid by nature, with dark circles under his brown eyes and thin gray hair. He wears thick glasses, and his shoulders are caved in with age.
The woman—Kiki—offers them either Scotch or sweet mint tea, warm and fragrant, and they both accept the tea. Bob takes the Scotch.
Thus far, Pat and Bob Gussin have been their savants.
They’ve been cooperative and helpful. They showed Drake’s team all the records, made all of TGG’s financials available.
They’ve been easy to talk to, knowledgeable, and able to explain the money in layman’s terms. They also love Andrew Locke completely.
Theresa gets the sense he’s like a son to them.
And that thought is rewarded when Bob kicks off the meeting.
“You realize, turning Trey over to the FBI for embezzlement was the worst moment of my life.”
“So why did you do it?” she asks.
He swirls the brown liquid around the heavy crystal lowball.
“You have to understand, having Trey in our lives was a true joy, for all of us. We know you have a different relationship with him—we’ve heard about his first wife and child’s deaths.
What a terrible shame. God rest their souls.
” He crosses himself, and Theresa sips her tea, waiting.
“Why he would kill them . . . I can’t begin to understand where Trey’s head is right now. ”
“Why don’t you tell us about your relationship with him?” she suggests.
“Well, we first met when Brooklyn brought him back from Mexico. It was a bit of a shock, honestly. She was pregnant, they’d married in Argentina after traveling all over Mexico and South America, but boy, he made her happy.
They were inseparable. Now I understand better that he was on his second chance.
I’m in finance. Everything we do is about second chances.
Or thirds, or fourths. I’ve seen people lose their fortunes only to remake them a month later.
Trey needed a chance to remake himself after Chloe’s death, and Brooklyn gave him that. ”
“And you gave him a job when they came back to the States?” Drake asks.
“Oh, yes. I saw right away what a mind he had on him. I sent him to Wharton to refine it and then put him to work. Helped them buy the house in Franklin and got them on their feet as a young family.”
“That’s very magnanimous of you,” Theresa says. “You didn’t get along with your brother, is that correct? Brooklyn and Margot’s father?”
Gussin’s eyes are watery, whether the memories or the liquor, she doesn’t know.
He shoots the rest of his Scotch. The maid appears with another, then melts into the background like a shadow.
Theresa wonders, if his heart is acting up, why he’s self-medicating so aggressively.
Granted, his company is on the brink of a huge scandal, the kind that ruins firms.
After a hefty sip, Gussin continues. “Roman and I had a falling-out a long time ago. It had to do with my father. It’s not relevant to our current situation.”
“Why don’t you let us be the judge of that?” Drake says.
But Theresa parses what she heard. “Your father? Do you not have the same father? I thought you were brothers? I thought you were Brooklyn and Margot’s uncle.”
“We are. Were. I am.” He shakes his head. “Not blood, though. I was adopted.”
“And that’s what caused ill will between you?”
Swirl, swirl, swirl. “When Roman found out, at the reading of our father’s will, he was not happy.
I wasn’t, either—I had no idea until that moment that I wasn’t Papa’s biological son.
It’s a very long story, but we fought. Roman took advantage of the situation and insisted I wasn’t part of the family.
Our father had some tricky language in his will that ensured his holdings only went to blood relatives, so Roman insisted I take a DNA test, which revealed the truth.
The thing is, I always thought Papa loved me best. I think Roman did, too.
We were raised as blood brothers, but money makes people do crazy things.
In the end, it all worked out. Self-made,” he says with a smile, tapping his chest. “Didn’t need to take a dime. ”
“So you were cut out of the family, and that didn’t cause any animus between you?”
He clicks his tongue. “What was I supposed to do? Legally, because of the language in the will, I had no right to the estate. I’d been away from my father and brother for quite a while at that point anyway, just normal distance when a son moves away from home and starts finding his way in the world. We weren’t estranged. That came later.”
“What was it about your birth father that was an issue?” Theresa asks.
“Only that no one knew who he was, except my birth mother, and she wouldn’t share his identity.
There was talk. Being illegitimate was a great shame, back then.
When my birth mother died, Will Thomas very kindly gave me a name and a place, raised me as his own.
Like I said, no one knew until he passed. ”
“Gussin is your birth mother’s name?”
“Yes. I took it back when I found out about all of this.”
“And you’re sure you aren’t William Thomas’s kid?”
“Yes. DNA, remember? I’m telling you, my origins aren’t relevant to the situation we’re in now. It was a kind thing my father did, raising me as his own. Somewhere inside, I think I was returning the favor by helping Trey.”
“Until you realized he was stealing from you?”
A heavy sigh. “I had no choice then, did I? I asked him, and he lied to me. I love the boy, but this is business. Pat and I have clients, a reputation. We’re a multinational, high-profile firm.
I hated to do it, but he put us in a terrible position.
” He takes another deep draft of his Scotch and smiles like a pirate.
“Have to admit, I admire the boy’s balls.
He pilfered millions right under my nose. ”
“You admire him?” Drake asks.
“Well, yes. I never expected Trey to betray me. As it turned out, he was no different than the rest of them. Makes me curious what else he’s capable of.
If it’s true he killed his first wife and maybe his parents?
The boy has some serious unresolved trauma.
And now, with all this truth coming out, I can’t help but wonder whether he targeted my niece.
Maybe his leaving is a blessing. Maybe my niece has been in danger this whole time, and we didn’t know it. ”
That thought floats between them. The interview is over.
“Thank you for your candor, sir,” Theresa says, getting to her feet. “We’ll keep you posted with our findings.”
Drake follows, stopping just shy of the front door. “One last question. Our research shows that Roman Thomas’s money is all tied up in a trust. You’re the trustee. If the two of you weren’t speaking and he hates you, why put you in charge of his estate?”
Gussin laughed softly. “Because he’s not stupid. He knows how good I am with money.”
“And the same with Andrew’s parents? You’re the trustee of their estate as well, but have you ever met them? We’re under the impression he’d had a falling-out with them, too.”
He smiled sadly. “He did, when he was younger. But the Lockes’ lawyer reached out to me directly after Four was born.
They were aware they had a grandchild, and wanted him taken care of, should something, God forbid, happen.
And again with little Neve. It’s just devastating, their deaths.
Devastating. Who could do such a thing?”
Theresa nods. “It’s terrible. Oh, before we go, does the name Aleksey Durov mean anything to you?”
Gussin’s brows furrow. “No. Who is he?”
“Not to worry. Just asking.”
In the car, they take some notes, feeling no closer to the truth than when they started.
“Do you believe him?” Drake asks.
“He’s controlling money from both sides of the family. I didn’t know Andrew’s parents were aware of the grandchildren. Makes this all even more sad, doesn’t it?”
They exchange a glance. Theresa knows exactly what’s going through Drake’s mind. She shakes her head. “No. No way. If Gussin was dirty, I hardly think he’d come to the FBI for help.”
“You’re right. Someone else wants access to those trusts. The Gussins are the logical choice, but so far they are clean as a whistle. Accounting has been going through the company files, and nothing has popped up that doesn’t fit.”
“So far.”
“So you do think there’s something hinky with them.”
She nods. “Hinky . . . yeah. I just don’t trust anyone with that kind of wealth. These people play by a different set of rules.”
“That they do.”
She thinks it through. “So Andrew stole money from Brook’s uncle, put it in a crypto wallet that only he has the passcode to, and ran.
Without his passport, he can’t cross the border, but if he had the wherewithal to steal all this money from the Gussins, he probably could get himself new papers.
Illegal as hell, but so is embezzlement.
So why come back and try to eliminate his wife and parents? It makes no sense.”
“Either they know something he can’t afford to let out, or we’re missing something.”
“Yeah. And with Durov in the mix . . . Is there anything more about Andrew’s military service and how he managed to separate so early?”
Drake puts the car in gear and starts down the long drive back to the main road.
“Hitting a wall there. The Air Force has denied access to his records entirely, citing classified work. That could mean anything from him working with secret contracts with an aerospace company to being a confidential assistant to a general, and so far, they’ve not been willing to share.”
“It would really help if we could get access to those files.”
Drake nods. “I’ve been working on my bosses, but according to them, my security clearance isn’t high enough.
They’ve released Andrew’s basic service record, but that’s as far as it’s gone.
The rest of his file came back as need-to-know, and apparently, we don’t need to know.
My next step is to contact the Department of Defense directly.
I’m not taking kindly to being stonewalled. ”
“If there was something nefarious in Andrew’s record that implicated him, a suspected wife murderer, don’t you think the Air Force would happily turn it over?”
“You’d think.”
“So either what he did, and why he severed and left, isn’t relevant to this investigation, or the military is covering something up, and that’s too much to contemplate.”
“It’s happened before.” He looks over at her like he knows something is up. “How’s your hand?”
She glances down at the bandage. “It’s fine.”
“You’d tell me if there’s something I don’t know, right?”
“Of course I would. Now, let’s go over the interview again. Gussin being the trustee of both trusts—maybe Andrew wants to wrestle the money from him for himself?”
“You’re changing the subject.”
“It’s not a biggie, seriously. Stay focused.”