Chapter 4
I looked again at Dustin.
He had frightened my daughter. That much I knew.
I had seen her diminish over the past months. I had watched her glance at her phone and lose the smile she had been wearing. My wife had seen marks on her arm.
None of that disappeared simply because Dustin denied what had happened.
But something in this room was wrong.
“What is your uncle involved in?” I asked.
Dustin looked at Eddie.
Eddie shook his head.
“Tell him.”
Dustin dragged a hand across his face.
“My uncle owns half this building. Officially, he’s an investor.”
“And unofficially?”
“He loans money. Gets involved with businesses that can’t get normal financing. Sometimes people who owe him do favors.”
“What kind of favors?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“That answer usually means somebody knows enough.”
He met my eyes.
“I know enough to stay away from him.”
“Then why is your gym tied to him?”
“It isn’t my gym.”
That surprised me.
“Eddie owns it,” he continued. “My uncle helped with the lease five years ago. Eddie’s been trying to buy out his stake.”
Eddie nodded once.
“We’re close.”
I looked back at Dustin.
“And Marcy?”
“She’s an accountant.”
“I know what my daughter does.”
“She found something.”
The room seemed to quiet further.
“What?”
Dustin hesitated.
Then Eddie walked to his office, unlocked a drawer, and returned carrying a manila envelope.
He didn’t give it to me.
He held it against his chest.
“Three months ago,” he said, “Marcy helped me review the gym’s books. I was applying for a commercial loan to refinance the building. She found payments I couldn’t explain.”
“What payments?”
“Money moving through a company belonging to Dustin’s uncle.”
I looked from one man to the other.
“Why would Marcy be reviewing your books?”
“Because I asked her,” Dustin said. “She’s good at what she does, and Eddie needed somebody he could trust.”
The answer made sense.
May you like
That was the problem.
All the pieces that made sense were beginning to form a picture entirely different from the one I had brought through the door.
