“Y’know how many NDAs we signed last year?” Katkin asks. “Two,” he answers. “And the other one was for the guy from-” He cuts himself off. “Let’s just say… it’s someone you’ve heard of.”
Charlie sits up straight, knowing we’re close. “So you signed it?”
“He left the paperwork with us. We hemmed… we hawed… eventually, we signed. But after the first few appointments – I’m guessing it was about eight months ago – we never heard from him again.”
“Wha?” Charlie and I say simultaneously.
“That’s exactly what we thought. We were all set to go – we had our team… it was in the budget – we even flew in our financial crimes expert from New York.”
The instant he mentions our hometown, a sharp pain swoops in between my shoulders. It’s like a vulture gnawing at the back of my neck.
“New York?” I ask.
“We actually have some friends in the New York office,” Charlie adds. “What’s his name?”
Gillian scowls, but it does the trick.
“Oh, he’s one of our best,” Katkin says as the vulture’s claws dig deeper. I stare blankly through the glass desk while his feet rest easily on the carpet. “Really nice guy,” Katkin explains. “His name’s Jim Gallo.”
53
“Everything okay?” Katkin asks, confused by our silence.
“Of course,” Charlie insists as we try to pull it together. “That’s just… Jim Gallo isn’t the guy we know…”
“It’s a big office,” Katkin admits.
“So my dad took the idea with him when he left?” Gillian asks, anxious to get back to the invention.
“Happens all the time,” Katkin answers. “Entrepreneurs come in, they talk it up, and when a better offer gets slapped in front of them, we never hear from them again. That’s the business. And with a moneymaker like this – I mean, some of those things he was working on… I don’t know how he pulled it off, but – I just assumed he found a new partner and moved on.”
“See, that’s what we’re hoping you could help us with,” I interrupt. “With the lack of documentation in Mr. Duckworth’s estate, we’re having a hard time putting a valuation on his inventions…”
“We just want to know what he made,” Gillian jumps in.
Charlie twists in his seat. Goodbye patience; hello desperation, he glares.
“I’m sorry,” Katkin begins. “I’m not permitted to give out that information.”
“But she’s Mr. Duckworth’s only heir,” I insist.
“And that’s a nondisclosure agreement,” Katkin shoots back.
“We’re not asking for schematics…”
“No, you’re asking me to violate a binding legal contract – and in the process, open our company up to a mess of liability.”
“Can you at least tell us what it has to do with the photos?” Gillian pleads.
“The what?”
“These…” From my jacket pocket, I pull out the strip with the four side-by-side headshots.
Katkin’s face is blank. He has no idea what he’s looking at.
“We found it with the agreement,” Charlie explains.
“Do you know who they are?” Gillian asks.
“Not a one,” he says in full Minnesota drawl. “Never seen them before in my life.”
“So it doesn’t have to do with the invention?” I ask.
“I already told you…”
“I know – but this is far more important than a dead man’s gag order,” I push. It’s one push too many.
Katkin stands from his seat and stares down at all of us. “I think we’re done here.”
“Please… you don’t understand…” I beg.
“It was nice meeting all of you,” Katkin says coldly.
Hopping up, Charlie heads for the door. Gillian follows. “Let’s go,” Charlie calls.
“But it’s extremely urgent that we-”
“Oliver, let’s go!”
Katkin looks my way and the oxygen is sucked from the room. Crap. Fake names.
I freeze. Gillian and Charlie just stand there. Katkin drills us with a stare that’s so bitter, it actually burns.
“Son, I don’t know who you think you are, but let me give you a nugget of advice – you don’t want to pick this fight.”
Charlie puts a hand on my shoulder and pulls me toward the door. In four seconds, we’re gone.
“What did he make? What did he make?” Charlie moans from the backseat of Gillian’s vintage blue Beetle. “Why’d you have to start blabbing like that?”
“I blabbed?” Gillian blasts as she stares him down through the rearview mirror. “Who’s this? Oliver… Oliver – Oops, did I just get us escorted out of the building? I’m sorry – I wasn’t thinking. In fact, I wasn’t using a single brain cell.”
“Can both of you please stop?” I beg, sitting shotgun as we ride back across the causeway. “We’re lucky we got as much as we did.”
“What’re you talking about?” Charlie asks.
“You heard Katkin – the story about Duckworth… bringing in Gallo – at least now we know what we’re looking at.”
“So you think Gallo came in and made dad a better offer?” Gillian asks.
“You tell me,” I begin. “Act One: Your dad scrounges around for VC money to help with his invention. Act Two: He brings the idea to Five Points Capital, arm of the Secret Service. Act Three: Gallo is brought in. Act Four: Your dad suddenly changes his mind, falls off the face of the earth, and rents a crappy place in Gallo’s hometown. What do you think is most likely, Miss Marple?”
“So Gallo was called into Five Points Capital to consult, but when he saw the invention…”
“… he realized he could take it to the black market and sell it on his own. From there, he approaches Duckworth: Why split it with the VC, when we can keep it for ourselves?”
Charlie leans forward between the bucket seats. “But if they were working together, why would Gallo turn on him?”
“Because keeping the profits for himself is better than splitting it in two: Sure, Marty, we’ll help you build the prototype… Yeah, Marty, it’ll be better if you work directly with us… Thanks for the help, Marty, now we’ll take your idea, stuff all our cash in an account with your name on it, and you can play fall guy. The moment Duckworth realized what was going on was the same moment they took him out. Only by then, they already had their hands on his baby.”
Gillian stares out the window, completely silent.
“You know what I mean,” I add.
She doesn’t respond.
“What about the money itself?” Charlie asks. “Even if the theory’s right, it doesn’t tell us how they hid it in the bank.”
“That’s why I think they had an inside man,” I say.
“Maybe that’s where the photos come in,” Gillian says, suddenly bouncing back. I pull down the mirror in the sun visor just in time to see Charlie make a face.
“Maybe that’s who’s in the photos – that’s who helped Gallo hide it,” Gillian adds.
“I don’t know,” I say, grabbing the strip of photos from my jacket. “I’ve never seen these people in my life.”
“Could they be from another office? Don’t you have branches around the country?”
“A few… but the partners are all in New York. And the way that account was hidden… it takes a bigshot to pull that off.”
Charlie angles his head, once again worming his way into my mirror. He thinks I’m hiding something. He’s right. “You thinking of anyone in particular?” he asks, reading the Lapidus-look on my face. As usual, Charlie nails it. Gallo didn’t just show up to investigate – he came searching for his own cash. And from what we saw back at the bank, Lapidus and Quincy were the only ones he was working with.
“So Duckworth invented it, Gallo and DeSanctis took it over, and somewhere along the way, they found an inside man who helped them bury it in the bank,” Charlie adds. “It’s your call, Ollie – who’s the bigger lowlife, Lapidus or Quincy?”