"Is there a problem?" Katkin asks, taken aback by our silence.
"No, of course not," Charlie insists, as we try to collect ourselves. It's just that... Jim Gallo is not the guy we know in New York...
"It's a very big office," Katkin admits.
"You mean my father took the idea with him when he left?" Gillian asks, eager to get back to talking about the invention.
"It happens all the time," Katkin says. Entrepreneurs come in, rave about their inventions, and when they get a better offer, we never see their hair again. That's how this business is. And with a moneymaker like Duckworth, I mean, some of those things he was working on, I don't know how he did it, but I imagine he found a new partner and took off.
"You see, we were hoping that you could help us with just that," I interrupt. With the lack of documentation on Mr. Duckworth's will, we have quite a bit of trouble evaluating his invention...
"We just want to know what he invented," Gillian says.
Charlie shifts on the couch. «Goodbye patience; hello despair », he expresses with his eyes.
"I'm sorry," Katkin starts to say. But I'm not authorized to give out that information.
"But she's Mr. Duckworth's only heir," I insist.
"And this is a nondisclosure agreement," Katkin replies.
We are not asking for graphics...
"No, you are asking me to violate a binding legal contract and, in the process, expose our company to a liability dispute.
"Can you at least tell us how my father's invention relates to the photographs?" Gillian pleads.
-Which?
"Are you…" I take the four-by-four strip of snapshots from her jacket pocket.
Katkin's face looks confused. He doesn't have the foggiest idea what he's looking at.
"We found them with the agreement," Charlie explains.
"Do you know who these people are?"
Gillian asks.
"Not at all," she says in her Minnesota tone. I have not seen them in my life.
"So they have nothing to do with the invention?" —I ask her.
"I already told you...
"I know, but this is much more important than honoring an agreement made with a dead man," she pressed. Maybe too much.
Katkin gets up from his chair and stares at the three of us.
"I think we're done."
"Please... you don't understand..." I implore.
"It's been a pleasure meeting you," Katkin says coldly.
Charlie jumps up and heads for the door. Gillian follows him.
"Come on," my brother says.
"But it is extremely urgent that we..."
"Oliver, let's go!"
Katkin looks at me and the oxygen drains from the room. he shit. Fake names.
I stand paralyzed. Gillian and Charlie are by the door. Katkin drills us with a look so intense he really burns.
"Son, I don't know who you think you are, but let me give you a little advice: this game is not for you.
Charlie puts a hand on my shoulder and leads me toward the door. Four seconds later we are gone.
"What was it you invented?" What was it that she invented? Charlie whines from the back seat of Gillian's classic blue Beetle. Why did you have to start yapping
like that?
—That I was chattering? Gillian snaps as she looks at him through the rearview mirror. Let's see, who is this? Oliver, Oliver... Oh, did I just get us escorted to the door of the building? I'm sorry, I don't know what she was thinking. He wasn't actually using a single neuron.
"Can you stop now, please?" I tell them, sitting like he's an armed guard as we head back down the highway. We are lucky to have gotten that information.
-What the hell are you talking about? Charlie asks.
"You heard what Katkin said, that story about Duckworth… bringing Gallo down from New York, at least now we know what we're looking for.
"Do you think Gallo came along and made my father a better offer?" Gillian asks.
"You tell me," I begin. Act One: Your father starts wandering around looking for venture capital to help him with something he invented. Act two: he takes the idea to Five Points Capital, arm of the secret service. Third act: Gallo appears on the scene. Act Four: Your father suddenly changes his mind, disappears off the face of the earth, and rents a squalid place in Gallo's hometown. What do you think happened then, Miss Marple?
"Five Points Capital consulted Gallo, but when Gallo saw my father's invention..."
"…he knew instantly that he could take it to the black market and sell it at his own expense. At which point he makes a proposition to Duckworth: "Why split it up with the CR when we can keep the whole business?" Charlie leans forward between the two seats.
"But if they were working together, why would Gallo turn on him?" —Because keeping all the profits is better than splitting them in two: "Yes, Marty, of course, we'll help you build the prototype... Yes, Marty, it'll be much better if you work directly with us... Thanks for your help Now, Marty, we'll take your idea, put all our dough into an account in your name, and you'll be the scapegoat. The moment Duckworth realized what was happening was when they got rid of him. Only, by then, they had already gotten their hands on his creature.
Gillian looks out the window without saying anything.
"You know what I mean," she added.
She does not answer.
-What about the money? Charlie asks. Even if the theory is correct, he doesn't tell us how they managed to hide it in the bank.
"That's why I think they had someone inside the bank," I say.
"Maybe that's where the pictures come in," Gillian says, reacting.
She slightly lowered the rearview mirror just in time to see the scowl on Charlie's face.
"Maybe that person is in the photos, who helped Gallo hide the money in the bank," Gillian adds.
"I don't know," I say, taking the strip of photographs out of my pocket again. I haven't seen them in my life either.
"Could they be from another office?" Does the bank have branches throughout the country?
"Some… but all the partners are in New York. And the way that account was covered up…it takes a big shot to do it." Charlie tilts his head, pushing his way back into the rearview mirror. He thinks I'm hiding something. He is right.
"Are you thinking of anyone in particular?" she asks, reading the Lapidus expression on my face. As always, Charlie has figured it out. Gallo didn't show up just to investigate, he came to get his money. And from what we could see at the bank, Lapidus and Quincy were the only ones he was working with.
"So Duckworth invented it, Gallo and DeSanctis got hold of the invention, and somewhere along the way, they found an accomplice at the bank who helped them hide the money there," Charlie adds. It's your turn Oliver, who's the bigger fucking son of a bitch, Lapidus or Quincy?
I shake my head and relive my two seconds in Lapidus's office. There was another person there.
"Makes sense, but... how do you know it wasn't Shep?" I mean, he was a member of the sec...
"It wasn't Shep," Charlie interrupts me. Trust me, he wouldn't do that.
"But if he...
"It wasn't Shep!" Charlie insists. I stare at Charlie in the back seat. Gillian looks through her mirror. It is better not to argue. Still, Duckworth had to have had someone to help him.
"Maybe that's the explanation for the photographs," I continue. Maybe it was the other people in on it... black market people... or other rogue secret service agents. Perhaps Duckworth kept the photographs of him as an insurance policy.
"Then why didn't he have pictures of Gallo and DeSanctis?" Gillian asks.
That's a good question. Turning the wheel towards an exit, Gillian leaves the motorway behind and heads towards Alton Road. She glanced back at the photographs. They are not shiny like an original photo; they are opaque like a color photocopy.
-Any ideas? Gillian asks.
-Not really. But when one examines them carefully... the rigid poses... don't they look like photographs for some identity document?
"You mean like a driver's license?" Gillian asks.
"Or a passport," Charlie says.
"Or maybe a company ID card…" I add.
"At least we got to see Katkin's reaction," Gillian says. We know those guys weren't from the company.
"I still think they were people your father trusted," Charlie says. It's like that non-disclosure agreement. You don't keep things that can get you into trouble, but what you want to protect.
The car stops at a red light and Gillian nods, looking at Charlie in the rearview mirror. She knows a good theory when she hears it.
—And if they are people who helped you with the original idea?
"Or people he trusted," Charlie says.
—What is the name of that video game company where he worked when he left Disney? she asked, suddenly feeling the adrenaline pump.
—Newerks. I think they're in Broward...
"I saw the address on an old receipt," Charlie says. In the filing cabinet.
There is an important pause. The three of us exchange glances and taste the adrenaline in the air. Gillian makes a sharp right onto 10th Street and brakes ahead from her house.
"How far are we from Broward?" Charlie asks.
"About forty minutes tops," Gillian says.
I'll make some calls...
I will make an appointment. I open the door and help Charlie out of the backseat. Gillian doesn't move.
"I should report to my job and make sure I still have it." I'll be back in ten minutes.
She tosses me the house keys and, with a quick wave of farewell, she disappears.
"Wow, I miss her already," Charlie says.
She takes my keys from me, walks up the cement walkway, and opens the front door. Once inside she looks for the files; I slam the door shut and head for the phone. But when we hear the click of the lock behind us, we follow the direction of the sound and turn around. It is then that we realize that all the blinds are closed. The whole house is dark. And then... in a corner... we heard a click. A lamp is turned on in the living room. My chest is suddenly without a drop of air.
"It's good to see you again, Oliver," Gallo says from the sofa. Now comes the part that hurts...