Chương 8
“There is now.”
Daniel understood.
Not everything.
Enough.
“You took a loan.”
Michael said nothing.
“North Ridge took a loan against the house.”
Michael glanced toward a neighbor’s window.
“Keep your voice down.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t understand what’s happening.”
“Explain.”
Michael looked at Lily in the truck.
Her face was visible between the seats.
His voice lowered.
“My company was going under.”
“So?”
“So twenty-six people work for me.”
Daniel stared.
Michael continued.
“We had three commercial jobs delayed. Two clients stopped paying. Payroll was due. Insurance was due. I had equipment notes. Dad’s house was sitting there with equity.”
“My house.”
“Dad’s house.”
Daniel stepped forward.
Michael’s face changed.
Elena said, “Daniel.”
He stopped again.
Michael spoke carefully.
“I thought I could bridge sixty days.”
“With a forged deed?”
“I thought you’d sign.”
“You never asked.”
“I did.”
“When?”
“March.”
“You asked if I wanted to sell.”
“And you said maybe.”
“I said maybe in five years.”
“You said you didn’t care about the house.”
“I said I didn’t care about the siding.”
Michael laughed.
It came out ugly.
“See? This is you. Everything is literal when you need it to be.”
Daniel looked at the banker’s box again.
“Give me my papers.”
Michael put his hand on it.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because my attorney told me not to give you anything until we work this out.”
Daniel stared at him.
“You have an attorney.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Michael’s jaw tightened.
“Daniel, listen to me.”
“No.”
“I can fix this.”
“How?”
“I refinance the North Ridge loan. We execute a legitimate transfer. I give you enough to get another place.”
Elena made a small sound.
Daniel looked at her.
She appeared almost amused.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the proposal was so large in its shamelessness that anger briefly failed.
Daniel turned back.
“You want me to sign the deed you already forged.”
“I want to regularize the transfer.”
“Regularize.”
“It’s a legal term.”
Daniel smiled.
Michael’s face tightened.
“You’re enjoying that word.”
“Stop.”
“Say fraud.”
“I was trying to save my company.”
“Say you forged my signature.”
Michael looked at Elena.
Then at Lily.
“I’m not doing this here.”
“You did everything else here.”
A curtain moved in the neighbor’s house.
Michael noticed.
His voice dropped.
“You want me arrested?”
Daniel did not answer.
Michael’s eyes changed.
Something close to fear appeared.
Not fear of Daniel.
Fear of the question.
“If I go down,” Michael said, “twenty-six people lose jobs.”
Daniel stared at him.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“You found a way to make me responsible.”
“I’m telling you what happens.”
“You put them there.”
“You think I wanted this?”
“I don’t care what you wanted.”
“You will when families start calling because their health insurance disappears.”
Daniel flinched.
Michael saw it.
For the first time, Daniel understood what Elena meant when she said Michael understood him.
Michael had found the lever immediately.
Duty.
Guilt.
People who had nothing to do with the crime.
Daniel stepped backward.
“Give me the box.”
Michael shook his head.
Daniel looked at Elena.
“Get in.”
Michael called after him.
“Danny.”
Daniel stopped.
“Dad would not want this.”
Daniel turned.
Their father had been dead three years.
Michael used him as easily as he had used Daniel’s signature.
Maybe Daniel had done the same.
Every time he said Dad left me the house, he was putting a dead man on the witness stand.
Daniel walked back to the truck.
Michael shouted, “I can give you thirty thousand.”
Daniel opened the driver’s door.
“Forty.”
Daniel got in.
“Cash.”
Daniel shut the door.
Lily asked, “Why is Uncle Michael yelling?”
Daniel started the engine.
“Because he wants me to listen.”
“Are you going to?”
Daniel looked at Michael through the windshield.
His brother stood in the driveway with one hand resting on the box of stolen papers.
“No.”
But that night, in the motel, Daniel thought about forty thousand dollars.
He hated himself for it.
Forty thousand would pay the cards.
It would put a deposit on an apartment.
It would let Elena quit the clinic if she lost her job.
It would buy Lily a bed tomorrow instead of months from now.
Justice was expensive.
Michael’s offer was immediate.
Daniel sat on the edge of the bathtub at two in the morning while Elena slept.
He calculated numbers on his phone.
Forty thousand.
Subtract taxes, if there were taxes.
Subtract moving.
Subtract debt.
Maybe twenty-six left.
Enough for a down payment somewhere cheaper.
Enough to disappear from the mess.
He deleted the calculator history.
Then he opened it again.
At breakfast Elena said, “How much did he offer?”
Daniel looked at her.
Lily was pouring cereal from a motel cup.
“What?”
“You were awake half the night.”
Daniel took a sip of bad coffee.
“Forty.”
Elena nodded.
“You’re thinking about it.”
“I’m thinking about everything.”
“You’re thinking about it.”
He looked at her.
“Would that be so terrible?”
Elena put down her spoon.
Lily looked up.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“We could be done.”
“With what?”
“All of it.”
“He committed fraud.”
“I know.”
“He stole Lily’s home.”
“I know.”
“And you want to sell it to him afterward?”
“I want my family somewhere safe.”
Elena stared at him.
“He counted on that.”
Daniel’s face warmed.
“He counted on you wanting the fastest repair.”
“That’s not fair.”
“No?”
“No.”
“What would you call it?”
“Practical.”
Elena laughed once.
“You always call leaving practical.”
Daniel stood.
“I’m going to get coffee.”
“There’s coffee.”
“Not this.”
He walked across the motel parking lot to a gas station.
Inside, a clerk was arguing with a supplier about missing sandwich deliveries.
Two construction workers bought energy drinks.
An old man scratched lottery tickets beside the window.
The ordinariness of everybody else’s morning offended Daniel.
He bought coffee he did not need and a glazed doughnut for Lily.
On the way out, his phone rang.
Judith.
“Your brother’s attorney contacted me.”
May you like
Daniel stopped beneath the gas station awning.
“What did he say?”
