Justin left the same message on both machines: "I'm in Providence. I'm just making sure you're okay. Nothing much to report… just checking in."
He hung up, feeling unsatisfied. He had a discomforting feeling that it might not be convenient for his message to be returned for quite a while.
Glancing at his watch, he looked up at the ten- or twelve-story glass building he was now facing. He had a few minutes yet before he had to be at his appointment. He decided to loiter and make believe he was savoring a smoke. That lasted thirty seconds or so before he decided his imagination was not what it should be. Pretending didn't provide much satisfaction.
He hoped the meeting he was about to have would provide a bit more.
In keeping with the safe and conservative personality that Victoria LaSalle had extolled, her husband's company was simply named the LaSalle Group. The name held no promises of riches or glory. No sense even of what services the company provided. Unfortunately, it also held no key as to why its founder and president had been murdered.
Justin appeared exactly on time and was ushered into a small conference room by Ronald's assistant, an attractive but grim-faced woman wearing a conservative gray skirt suit and white shirt and who appeared to be in her late twenties. They were quickly joined by two men, also seemingly in their late twenties or early thirties and also dressed in crisp gray suits with white shirts. Justin was only a few years older than they were, but they all made him feel old and tired and out of shape and somewhat soiled.
Justin thanked them for coming into the office. It was Saturday, and already six-thirty in the evening, but Justin had wanted to meet there, to get a feel for the surroundings. He also was expecting them to provide material and information that might be available only in the office files or on the office computers. He didn't want to wait to get that information. They all murmured that it was no problem, that they'd like to help in any way possible, that they often worked late and on weekends anyway. They said they'd all spoken to Victoria and she had instructed them to give Justin absolutely anything he needed. He thanked them again, then he did his best to tell them what he needed. He began by explaining what he was looking for and why.
One of the men-his name was Harry Behr and Justin took him to be the highest up of the three-explained how Ronald LaSalle had operated his business.
"He was a good teacher," Harry said. "He believed in discipline and intellectual… I'm not sure of the exact word I'm looking for here…"
"Integrity," the woman said. Her name was Ellen Loache.
"Yes," Harry said, and looked pleased. "He believed in intellectual integrity. One of the reasons he started his own company was that he said he always felt that when he worked at a large firm he was letting external sources control his time and his thinking. He didn't think that was the best way to get the right results."
The other man nodded and spoke up now. His name was Stan Solomon. "Ronald liked the freedom this place gave him. He said he used to spend his mornings taking phone calls, his lunchtimes listening to other people telling him what they thought he should do, and his afternoons meeting with analysts and strategists who did nothing but talk at him."
"What he used to drum into us," Harry said, "was that he wanted us to give him facts, not opinions. He didn't really care if we saw anyone or talked to other people; he wanted us to read newspapers, trade publications, magazines, corporate reports, legitimate financial analyses. He wanted to ignore the junk-and there's a lot of junk in this business-and try to dig for the reality. Ronald always said you couldn't really trust people but you could trust ideas and facts."
"And results," Stan added. "He believed in the Bill Parcells school of economics. You are what your record says you are."
"Okay," Justin said. "I've got the theory he lived by. But what did he do during the day?"
"Mostly the same as what we did," Stan said. "He read, he researched, he focused."
Justin nodded and scratched at his half day's growth of beard. He wondered how the two guys in the room managed to stay so perfectly clean shaven. "And you didn't notice anything different over, say, the last few months?" he asked.
"Different how?" Ellen Loache asked.
"I don't know. Different behavior on Ronald's part. Different business practices. Different in any way."
"Well," Ellen said, "things definitely changed about six months ago, but that was only natural."
"Why?" Justin asked.
"The nature of our business changed," Harry said.
Justin didn't have to say anything. He just moved his fingers in a "come on" motion. Harry continued talking.
"Originally we were basically just a research company, providing services for other companies. That's mostly what Ronald did at the Rock."
"The Rock?"
"R and W. Rockworth and Williams."
"Wait," Justin said. "What does Rockworth and Williams have to do with Ronald?"
"That's where he used to work before starting TLG."
"He used to work at Rockworth?"
"Sure. He pretty much was Rockworth up here. He ran the Providence office. Ellen and I worked for him there."
"He brought me over from Citibank," Stan said, "in Boston."
Justin held his hand up, motioning for them to be quiet. He didn't know what the Rockworth connection could possibly mean, but it was too strong to ignore. The one thing that had popped up at every turn so far was the financial institution of Rockworth and Williams. Justin decided that he sure as hell was going to find out what that connection meant.
"Okay," he said after a few moments. "Go on. How did the business change?"
"We began doing a lot more of our own investing, dealing directly with clients rather than only working through Rockworth."
"And this changed things how?"
"A lot more personal service for one thing. When you're dealing directly with clients, you're at their beck and call." That was from Harry. He clearly didn't like being at other people's beck and call.
"A lot more travel for another," Ellen said. "Particularly for Ronald. He was spending a lot more time out of the office dealing with clients."
"Do you have a list of the clients and the places he traveled to?" Justin asked.
Ellen nodded and handed over a folder. "Mrs. LaSalle told me you'd be wanting that, so I already prepared it."
"This is everyone?"
"Certainly everyone I knew about."
Justin picked up on her hesitation. "Is it possible there were clients you didn't know about?"
Another hesitation. "I don't think so," Ellen Loache said, "but…"
"But Ron seemed like he was becoming more secretive about things," Stan said.
Harry shot Stan a sharp glance, but Justin turned to face Stan and asked him to be more specific.
"It's hard to really be specific," Stan said. "I just got the feeling he was doing something he didn't want to discuss with us. Or with me, anyway. To be honest, I thought maybe it was because he didn't think I was doing a great job."
"That's ridiculous," Ellen said quickly.
"Well, I mean, I know that," Stan said. "I had a great year. But still, he just didn't seem to want to include me sometimes."
Justin turned to Harry Behr. "Did you think the same thing? About you, I mean, not about Stan."
Harry also hesitated, then nodded. "Yes," he said. "It was weird. But not so weird that I felt like I could say anything."
"That's exactly the way I felt," Stan said. "It was subtle."
Justin had a few more questions but before he could ask anything else, Ellen said, "It's crazy, isn't it? Ronald and Evan Harmon… having this happen so close together. It creeps me out."