“A few months ago a man approached me. He had proof of something I did twenty-five years ago, before you were even born. I...Don't ask me what it was. But I know that if Ben were alive then he'd have never forgiven me. I didn't want you to be angry too.”
“Uncle Clive...what was it? What did you do?”
He shook his head again, shivering and gathering his arms around himself. “This man wanted me to sell the magazine.”
“Huh? Attitude!?” Diane asked. Chesney and Gracie exchanged a look, their gazes catching for a second. Diane just looked confused, as if she simply couldn’t understand why anyone would want to own the magazine. It was not an expression, Gracie decided, that boded well for Chesney’s future.
“Yes, but I couldn’t just sell it. I have to answer to the shareholders! I can’t just...But he said if I didn’t sell it to him for cheap within six months then he’d tell you...about how I used to steal from your father.”
“Oh,” Diane said, her voice low so that Gracie wasn’t sure how she was taking the news. “Oh, Uncle.”
Huang’s head fell down to his chest, unable to look at his niece any longer.
“You could have just told me the truth,” she snapped.
It didn’t seem like Huang had heard Diane speak at all. Gracie stepped forward, determined to get to the bottom of the case once and for all.
“So you were deliberately tanking the magazine, trying to devalue it so that you could sell it to your blackmailer.”
Huang flinched and Gracie knew that she was right.
“But that doesn’t explain why you would hire a private detective. The leaks were on your orders, you didn’t need them investigated.”
Huang threw an anguished look at his niece, but it was Diane herself that answered. “Oh, my god! I know why. I kept on asking what you were doing about the leaks! So you went out and found the shittiest agency you could, hoping they’d make a mess and not find anything.”
Gracie clenched her jaw. She’d wrapped up this whole case in record time, despite being lied to at almost every turn. She was pretty damn proud of how everything was coming together now. Although, she acknowledged in the privacy of her own head, the agency offices were shabby. Klarov really should look into moving.
“Ugh, Uncle Clive… I don’t understand why, like, you could have just me the truth. Dad loved that magazine. You know he did. I wouldn’t have cared about...I’m going to call my lawyer right the fuck now. I just can’t believe this.”
Diane paused, waiting for her uncle to respond. But, now that he’d confessed, he looked more broken than ever. He hunched over further.
“Aren’t you going to say anything else? Is that it?”
If she was hoping for an apology, then Diane was doomed for disappointment. She let out an annoyed huff, her phone already pressed to her ear as she flounced out of the patio door. She barely looked at any of them as she left, and the arrogance of her set Gracie’s teeth on edge, even though she felt sympathy for the young woman. After all, her uncle had been trying to sell off her inheritance.
Nevertheless, she was a rich woman who had her lawyer’s phone number listed in her contacts. Attitude would not be sold off to this blackmailer now that Diane knew what was happening.
“Wait!” August said suddenly. Diane paused to look back at him, looking him up and down once before turning away and continuing out the door. Gracie could hear her voice, coming from outside as she started speaking on the phone.
"But...but…" Gussie spluttered, staring at the doorway like he expected Diane to come back in and help him. Finally, he turned his attention to Mr. Huang. "But I was only doing what you asked me to do!”
Huang sighed loudly, “I'm not responsible for what you did.”
“He’s going to fire me!” August said desperately, “Aren’t you even going to pay me for what I did for you.”
Huang sat back in his chair, the large leather wings of the armchair hid his face as he spoke in a harsh whisper. “Just go away. Can’t you see I don’t care? All of you, get the hell out of my house.”
August’s mouth fell open, as if he couldn’t believe that he’d been betrayed like this by his employer. Gracie wondered if he had any empathy at all for what he’d done to his colleagues, for how he’d betrayed their trust.
August stormed out of the room, out the patio door.
“Mr. Huang,” Chesney said quietly. But Huang had no time for him either. It seemed like he was simply too exhausted by his confession, he had no strength left for anything else.
“Just go, would you?”
Gracie nodded. There was nothing else that Huang would tell them right now. She’d worked on cases before, helping people who had been blackmailed and she recognized the mental strain that it had on its victims. Huang had been lying and scheming and constantly worrying for months and now his worst fears had been realized: his niece knew the truth.
Of course, he didn't have the energy to speak to anyone else right now.