Smoke and Mirrors

52

Pierce Mulvane was sitting at his desk, watching Jacob Gardner on his flat-screen monitor. Two minutes earlier, Albert White had alerted him to the lawyer’s presence in the lobby, and Pierce had been following Gardner’s progress-going camera to camera-from the time he’d entered the casino. He had dispatched Tug to intercept him downstairs and bring him up. Pierce noted how the degenerate slowed as he passed by each of the craps tables until Tug showed him into the elevator. In the hallway, Tug would frisk Gardner, looking for hidden recorders, wires, or other devices he might be planning to use to get a record of Mulvane incriminating himself. Pierce switched off the monitor and gathered his thoughts during the thirty seconds it took the pair to arrive at the door.

“Great news!” Gardner boasted. He swaggered to a chair facing the desk and sat, leaning back and crossing his legs. “She’s going to sell it, Pierce. She agreed. Her exact words were, and I quote: ‘Tell them to prepare the papers. The sooner, the better.’”

“It’s Mr. Mulvane, Gardner.”

Gardner shifted in the chair uncomfortably. “Mr. Mulvane. Sorry, I didn’t mean any disrespect.”

“You told her what, exactly? What was it that swayed your ex-wife?” Pierce asked.

“The money, of course. So much money.”

“You didn’t tell her that I threatened you in any way?”

“No, of course I didn’t. She’s a greedy bitch. Two and a half million is a big score. I said that if she didn’t sell, you could afford to go somewhere else.”

“She doesn’t think Mr. Beals killed that girl to frighten her and force her to sell?”

“No. Why would she?”

“So she doesn’t know that Jack Beals worked here?”

“Everybody with a TV set knows he worked for your casino. But I never told her it was you making the offer. She doesn’t care.”

Pierce felt a growing hollowness in his stomach. “I have a problem. This man, Beals, was a killer and employed by this casino. Why he targeted your wife’s babysitter we may never know. The dilemma now is that certain people might see this unfortunate connection between our desire for the land, the fact that a man working for us killed someone on the plantation owned by someone who owned the land we needed, and the fact that they sold it to us the next day. As an attorney, you have to understand that I can’t afford to have some overly zealous law enforcement persons thinking our company’s desire to own that property might be in any way connected to a homicide. I can’t risk our one-point-five-billion-dollar investment.”

At the word billion Pierce saw Jacob’s fevered eyes light up, as he knew they would. Pierce mentioned the figure because he wanted Jacob to understand how very little a life was worth against that kind of investment. “Perhaps you can see my concerns more clearly than most. Your ex-wife cannot bring this offer to anyone’s attention.”

“I never thought for a minute you had anything to do with the murder,” Gardner said. “I never said there could be a connection of any kind. She is only interested in the money. Believe me, I know her like the back of my hand.”

“But you see my problem,” Pierce said. “The timing of it all. I’m a legitimate businessman working for a very influential man who is worth billions, with worldwide and varied business interests. That is all I’ve said to you, correct?”

Pierce could see Gardner’s eyes darting nervously, avoiding his own.

“There must be some way we can do this so there is no illusion of impropriety or pressure,” Pierce went on. “Any ideas?”

“What if she transfers the land to me,” Gardner said. “And I could sell it to you and pay her with the money you pay me. Although she might get hinky about trusting me. Our divorce made her pretty bitter.”

“Does your ex gamble?” Pierce asked.

“She’s a farmer, Mr. Mulvane. She gambles every day. But she’d never enter a casino,” Jacob said. “Just getting her to agree without triggering her greed reflexes and have her asking for a lease and profit-sharing deal is a miracle.”

Pierce said, “We’ll do it. I’ll sweat the details.”

Gardner stood. “That is acceptable. Completely. Sorry this has taken so long, Mr. Mulvane. We’ll get this done.”

“Please. It’s Pierce to associates.”