“I guess we can’t assume that for sure. But it’s a logical conclusion, isn’t it.”
“I’d say so. But whether everything came from the same file or not, somebody obviously copied all this for you. And if Ben wouldn’t tell you Dirk Blackstone’s name, then who wanted you to know it?”
He merely shook his head.
“Wanted you to know it badly enough to… Sully, we’re standing here looking at stolen goods, aren’t we?”
“Well, I guess you could put it that way. But it’s a little late to worry now, after we’ve already looked at everything.”
Lauren nodded. “And since we’ve already looked, we might as well try to figure things out. For starters, we know this Dirk Blackstone is the man who wanted to buy Eagles Roost last fall.”
“Who still wants to,” Sully corrected her. “But only if he can have it all.”
Lauren slowly pushed her hair back from her face, taking Sully’s mind off the photocopies for a moment. She looked as beautiful as she did puzzled. “May I look at all the pages?” she said. He handed them to her, then watched her flip slowly through them. When she gazed up at him again, her expression was thoughtful.
“Do you have any idea how all these bits are related?” she asked.
“No, but I think they have to be. Somebody’s trying to tell me something.”
“There are things missing, though,” she said, looking through the papers again. “Why isn’t there at least a phone number for Blackstone?”
Shaking his head, Sully picked up Billy’s note once more. Some man none of us new brot you this. Rereading that started him wondering if the man none of the boys knew could be a figment of Billy’s imagination.
The thought was unsettling, because even though he hoped it wasn’t Billy who’d copied this stuff, he couldn’t rule out the possibility.
He didn’t know how Billy would have come up with the idea, but his junior Sherlock Holmes was always getting carried away with crazy schemes. This, though…
Boy, if Billy was responsible for this, he’d gone far beyond kid stunts. Breaking into someone’s office was well into the criminal range.
Anxiously rubbing his jaw, he started trying to figure out the best way of getting at the truth—and the best way of handling things if Billy had actually crossed that far over the line. But he’d establish whether the boy had been involved later, after Lauren was gone.
“Even though the kids didn’t know the man who brought the envelope,” she said, “they’ll be able to give you a description.”
“Right, they will.” Assuming there’d actually been a man.
“And maybe you’ll know who he is.”
Sully nodded. “But let’s not worry about that right now. First, let’s try to put together the pieces we’ve got here.” He moved the copy of his title to one side and spread the rest of the photocopies across his desk. Then he stood staring down at them, hoping they’d add up to something that made sense.
When they didn’t cooperate, he said, “Okay. Aside from Ben’s memo to himself, we’ve got a bank account in Newcomb, with ten thousand dollars in it, some rough notes that don’t seem to say much, and this Leroy clue.”
“Clue,” Lauren repeated. “Then that name does mean something to you?”
“Well, I might be shooting in the dark, but remember that problem I had? That kid who robbed the bank in North Head back in January?”
“Yes, you mentioned it and there were details about it in my file. But…wait, that boy’s name was Leroy, wasn’t it?”
“Uh-huh. Leroy Korelenko.”
“And you think this name Ben jotted down refers to that Leroy?”
“I don’t think it’s something we should rule out, because Leroy’s not a common name around here. But Leroy Korelenko is a fifteen-year-old kid from a welfare family, and Dirk Blackstone is someone with enough money to pay cash for Eagles Roost. So it’s hard to imagine what the connection could be.”
“Well…” Lauren said.
“Well what?”
“Sully, I’m not much of a detective, but I know something you don’t.”
He waited.
“I shouldn’t be telling you this, because what happens at the Foundation board meetings is confidential. But under the circumstances…”
“Yes?” he pressed, his adrenaline starting to pump.
“I’m probably really reaching, but what if when this Blackstone wanted to buy Eagles Roost last year, he wanted it awfully badly? Badly enough that, when you said you wouldn’t sell, he decided he’d try to make you.”
“How?”
Lauren slowly shrugged. “It’s not very hard to get information about most things. He could easily have learned where your funding came from. And who the Foundation’s board members are.”
“And?”
“And so…oh, probably this is absurd, but what if Blackstone tried to force you to sell by manipulating things so you lost your funding?”
“Manipulating what things?” Sully demanded, his adrenaline pumping harder now.
“Well, this is the part I really shouldn’t be telling you. If anyone ever finds out I breached confidentiality…”
“No one’s going to find out from me.”
She hesitated, then said, “All right. One of our board members is a man named Hunter Clifton. And it was basically because of Hunter that your funding was cut off.”
Hunter Clifton. Sully mentally filed away the name, guiltily recalling all those murderous thoughts he’d had about Lauren—when some guy named Hunter Clifton was actually the cause of his problem.
“You see,” she went on, “Hunter is a vice president of a bank, and the bank in North Head is one of its branches. And he was so upset that one of your boys had the audacity to rob one of his banks, that he convinced the other board members there must be serious problems at Eagles Roost—that you had no control over your kids, so your funding shouldn’t be continued.
“At the time, I thought it was merely a coincidence that bank was one of Hunter’s, but now…”
“But now,” Sully said slowly, “you’re wondering if Blackstone set up the robbery, after he learned one of the bank vice presidents sat on your board.”
“Exactly. He’d have been hoping that if one of your kids robbed the bank Hunter would have a fit, which is exactly what happened.”
“So maybe Blackstone, or Ben Ludendorf on Blackstone’s behalf,” Sully muttered, anger coiling in his chest, “approached Leroy and paid him to commit the robbery—figuring a fifteen-year-old could never pull off something like that without getting caught.”
“And knowing that when he did, it would reflect badly on your program.”
Sully stood, trying to decide whether they were actually on to something. “It’s a neat little theory,” he said at last.
“Yes. That’s the problem, though, isn’t it. It’s pure theory.”
She was right, of course. They might be completely off base. Then again, they might not.
He considered things for another minute and finally said, “You know, I can’t see how you got the idea you’re not much of a detective. I think you might make a good one, because this theory of yours is definitely worth checking out.”
“Really?” Lauren murmured, giving him a pleased-looking smile. “Checking out how?”
“Well, I didn’t have much chance to talk to Leroy after the police picked him up. I went to see him in his holding cell but he wouldn’t say two words. Then, when I got back to the lodge, I had a call from his caseworker—basically telling me that since Leroy wouldn’t be back here it would be better if I just steered clear and let her handle things.”
“But you think you should try talking to him now?”
Sully nodded. “Something made him rob that bank. So I’ll pay him a visit next week and try to find out what. He’s in a juvenile facility just north of Utica, only a couple of hours from here.”
When he finished speaking he simply gazed at Lauren, thinking th
ey didn’t have much time before her limo arrived. So maybe, now that he had a plan of action, they should forget about this for the moment. And focus on each other.
Before he could suggest that, though, she was picking up the bank book copies and saying, “What about this ten thousand dollars? Where does it fit in?”
Reluctantly, Sully forced his mind back to the subject at hand. “The date of that deposit,” he said, staring at it, “is about a month after the robbery took place.”
“Which means what? Payment to Ben Ludendorf for recruiting Leroy? You know him, Sully. Is he the type who’d get involved in a scheme like that?”
He shook his head uncertainly. “I don’t know him very well. But if the money’s his, why would he have opened a separate account with it? Over in Newcomb? If it isn’t his, though, then whose is it?”
“I could find out,” Lauren said.
“Oh?”
“Piece of cake.”
He waited for her to explain, thinking of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s line about the rich being different. He knew how much success he’d have if he walked into a bank and tried to get information about someone else’s account.
“My brother knows people whose business is finding out just about anything. So all I have to do is get him to put me in touch with one of those people, and we’ve as good as got the name of who opened that account.”
“He’d do that? Put you in touch, I mean?”
“He might not like the idea. But if I say I’ll have to find someone on my own if he doesn’t help me out, that’ll do the trick.”
“Then I think you should talk to him, because I really don’t know whether Ben’s crooked or not. He isn’t the sharpest lawyer in the state, but I’ve never heard he has a reputation for shady dealings.”
“I think,” Lauren murmured, “the sort of possibility we’re talking about goes well beyond shady.”
Sully grimaced. “I don’t always have the greatest way with words.”
“Oh, sometimes you do very nicely,” Lauren said, smiling at him.
This time Sully didn’t let the moment pass. He rested his fingers beneath her chin, tilted her face up to the perfect angle, and kissed her.
It was nice to have Lauren Van Slyke in his corner. But he had to admit it was even nicer to have her in his arms. He had no idea what the future held, but he’d worry about that later…like next weekend, when her entire family was trying to figure out what she was doing with him at the art gallery, all because he hadn’t been able to get out of going to the opening.
He’d cross those bridges when he got to them, he thought—then he let himself get completely lost in Lauren’s kiss.
AS SULLY TURNED off the highway leading to Utica, onto the road that would take them to the Gravesville Juvenile Correctional Institution, he glanced across the van at Billy.
The boy’s face was pale, and he seemed almost as frightened as he had when he’d first admitted to photocopying Ben’s file.
He caught Sully looking at him and tried to smile. He couldn’t pull it off, though, and finally said, “Sully? Maybe I could just wait in the van while you go talk to Leroy, huh? I mean, they probably don’t want to bother givin’ me a tour and all.”
“They don’t mind. I told you, when I called they said they’d be glad to show you around.”
Billy swallowed hard and turned to stare out the side window. Sully thought he might be crying and hoped he actually was. Sometimes, there was a lot to be said for scaring a kid silly. And letting Billy see the sort of place he could end up in if he kept doing stupid things would scare the devil out of him.
Sully just hoped it would be enough to scare him straight. Billy was basically a good kid, but you didn’t have to be bad to end up in jail. Being foolish and unlucky was often reason enough. That was something he knew from experience.
He focused on the road again, still not certain he was handling this situation the best possible way. Under different circumstances, he’d have taken Billy and the twins straight to Ben Ludendorf and made them confess their sins. Then, he and Ben could have worked out a punishment they both felt comfortable with.
But he didn’t want Ben knowing that file had been copied just yet—not until he determined if Ben had some sins of his own to confess. So he’d temporarily put the public confession idea on hold and settled for giving all five boys one of his best fire-and-brimstone lectures.
Hopefully, between that, having their privileges suspended, and being assigned extra chores, they’d think long and hard the next time they were tempted to do something they knew was wrong.
Of course, he hadn’t suspended all their privileges. He was still letting them go camping on the weekend. And even though he’d tried rationalizing to himself that he had to—because it was a team thing—he knew if he didn’t have plans to see Lauren he’d have kept them home.
He smiled to himself, realizing she’d slipped into his thoughts yet again. It was only Tuesday, but since she’d left on Saturday he must have thought about her six million times. And picked up the phone to call her six hundred times. Partly because he couldn’t help worrying about that threat; partly just because he wanted to hear her voice.
He hadn’t called, though. She’d said she’d call him—as soon as she found out who that bank account in Newcomb belonged to. Besides, he didn’t want to seem too interested in her.
And he wasn’t going to let himself start thinking beyond this coming Saturday. Not when, in the back of his mind, he still wondered if he hadn’t made a huge mistake by asking her out at all.
“Sully?” Billy said. “How come I gotta do this alone? How come you didn’t bring the twins, too?”
“Because you were the mastermind.” He’d considered bringing the twins, though. Actually, he’d considered asking the fellow in charge if all five boys could have a tour. But instead, he’d volunteered the other four to help old Zeke Scrouthy around his place for a few hours. That way, someone was keeping an eye on them and Billy didn’t have the strength-in-numbers principle working to his advantage.
If all the kids had come along, they’d have done their best to make a joke of things. So it was better that Billy was on his own. He could be counted on to relay every last horrible detail to the others. Knowing Billy, he’d even embellish them.
“That’s it up ahead.” Sully glanced across the van again, gesturing in the general direction.
“That place with the big fence around it?” Billy’s face lost another shade of tan.
“Uh-huh.”
“Sully? That fence wire ain’t electric, is it?”
“You mean is it electrified. And I don’t know.” He took another sidelong look at Billy as the gate guard waved them to a stop, thinking he’d be lucky if the kid didn’t pass out on him.
“Name, sir?” the guard asked, looking past him at Billy, then checking the empty back of the van.
“Jack Sullivan. I have an appointment with Mr. Carter.”
The guard checked his clipboard, then nodded. “You want the center door of the building. Visitors’ parking is to the left.”
After Sully had parked the van, Billy reluctantly followed him into the building. The depressing old gray stone structure looked as if it had been there a hundred years and would easily survive a hundred more.
Once they were inside, Sully wasn’t sure which made the biggest impression on Billy…the locked doors, the security check, the antiseptic, institutional smell, or the uniformed staff. But Billy clearly didn’t like any of them.
Neither did Sully. They brought back too many memories he’d spent years trying to bury.
When a guard delivered them to the administrator’s office, Billy started looking downright ill.
Howard Carter was a hulk of a man in his early fifties who’d make most marine drill sergeants look like wimps. He’d arranged for one of his staff to give Billy the tour, and as they headed off Sully couldn’t help feeling sorry for the kid. He looked as if he were on his way to death row.
Carter checked his watch. “I’ll take you along to see Korelenko in a couple of minutes. They’re bringing him to an interview room at two.”
“Thanks. I appreciate your letting me see him when it’s not an official visiting day.”
“No problem. The kid isn’t exactly Mr. Cooperation, though, so I hope you don’t find you’ve driven all this way for nothing.”
Sully nodded. Carter couldn’t hope that half as much as he did.
SULLY SAT LOOKING across the little interview table at Leroy, while Leroy looked at the table.
In the five years his program had been operating, he’d never laid a hand on a kid. Right now, though, he’d like to shake Leroy Korelenko until his teeth rattled.
No matter how many different ways he’d put the question, Leroy’s answer had been the same. He’d decided to rob the bank because he’d wanted money. End of explanation.
Telling himself that at least Leroy hadn’t clammed up entirely, he shoved back his chair and wandered over to the window. He didn’t know whether the bars were necessary or for effect, but he sure didn’t like the effect they were having on him. He hadn’t had a nightmare about being in prison for years, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he had one tonight.
He turned back to look at Leroy again. The direct approach hadn’t gotten him anywhere, so it was time to see what a little bluffing could do. “Look, Leroy,” he said.
The boy continued to stare at the table.
“I know the real story about the robbery. I didn’t say so right off, because I wanted to give you a chance to tell me the truth, but—”
“I’ve been tellin’ the truth,” Leroy muttered without looking up.
“Oh?” he said quietly. “That’s not what Ben Ludendorf told me.”
When the boy’s gaze flashed to his, Sully silently shouted “Bingo!” There was something more to that robbery than Leroy had ever let on. And Ben was somehow involved.
Then shutters closed over the recognition in Leroy’s eyes and he said, “Who’s Ben Luden-horse?”
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