I walked up to the hostess standing behind her podium. Before I could even open my mouth, she smiled and said, “Welcome, Miss Jones. We’ve been expecting you. Right this way, please.”
She led me to a table near the back of the restaurant where it was quieter. Not quite closed off but definitely designed for the fancier guests. We reached a booth in the far back corner where a man was already seated, his back to me.
I recognized the cane next to him, leaning against the table. I slid into the booth across from Alistair McCloud, staring him down.
“Where is she?” I demanded through my disbelief. I couldn’t believe the kindly old man was a criminal mastermind.
Alistair casually flipped through the pages of the menu, unperturbed. “She’s somewhere safe.”
“I’m not here to play games,” I snapped. “Release Molly. I’m the one you’re really after.”
“Oh, I know. We realized very early on that she didn’t know what she stumbled across. Not very bright, that friend of yours.” He held his palm open expectantly. “Hand it over.”
I remained perfectly still, poised and ready to react. On the surface, I was calm. I refused to show him just how rattled I was. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d gotten what he wanted.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “Not until you let Molly go.”
“I have the patience of a saint, dear. I’ll wait until you feel ready to give me the USB.”
“What’s stopping you from taking it and offing Molly and me right after?”
His nostrils flared. “It brings me no pleasure to do any of this. I’m trying tohelpyou.”
“Help me?” I scoffed. “You’ve got a pretty fucked up definition ofhelp.”
“You’re in over your head, Vivian. The Azure Cartel wanted to kill both of you on sight. If it weren’t for me and my intervention, Molly would be rotting at the bottom of the bay by now. I convinced them to keep her locked away, but their patience has worn thin. Give me the damn USB and I might be able to convince them to let the two of you go.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I can’t believe I used to look up to you. Did you know you were my role model? How did you even get involved with all this mess?”
The old man stared past me, appearing lost in thought. “Back when I was still new to the world of investing and my firm was but a business venture, back when Blue Cloud Financial was a name no one had ever heard of, I was struggling to get clients. After all, who wanted to invest with an underdog with next to no track record?
“A member of the cartel approached me. He said he’d happily give me a large cut of every investment I purchased on their behalf. It was a win-win. They got to launder their money, and I got a healthy paycheck I could then use to build my empire.” He shifted in the booth as he continued.
“I refused at first. I wasn’t a criminal. I didn’t want to stoop to such horrid tactics. But I can’t stress this enough, Vivian. Being in business for yourself is hard. Very few of us actually make it. You don’t get to the top without a little help. I brushed the cartel off as long as I could, but by the end of my first year in business, I wasthisclose to losing it all.”
“You were desperate,” I realized aloud.
McCloud nodded. “That’s putting it mildly. I gave everything I had to build the firm. Every penny I had, I stood to lose. So I took them up on the offer. As Blue Cloud Financial grew, so did the amount and number of their investments. Naturally, I had to do it under the name of a shell corporation. How you managed to stumble upon their account records is beyond me.”
I shook my head in dismay. “You’ve been working with them all this time?”
“I’m afraid so, dear.”
“Why not go to the police? Couldn’t they help you? Maybe they’d give you a lighter sentence if you turned the cartel in.”
“A lighter sentence is still a sentence. I’d rather not risk jail time at all.”
“Don’t you feel bad about what you’re doing? You’re helping a group of people who hurt others for a living. Don’t you feel guilty?”
“I’ve made my peace with it. Because of them, I’ve led a very successful life. I’ve never wanted for anything and neither has my family.”
“At the cost of your soul.”
McCloud rolled his eyes. “Spare me the speech. You’d think the same thing if you were in my shoes.”
“No, I wouldn’t. I’m a good person.”
“Everyone’s the hero of their own story. I bet if I offered you a sizable sum of money to stay quiet, you’d take it.” He reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a checkbook and pen. “Let’s see… How much do you want, Vivian? A million? Two million? You could start a whole new life somewhere in the tropics. New name, new possibilities.”