“Yes, that is true.”
“Then how can you possibly believe he’d steal from his own company?”
“Of course I don’t want to believe it, but this is what I know and what I must accept. Archer and Sasha had just left on their honeymoon to Paris. We were finishing a routine review when the examiners found a large investment among our offshore holdings that had been slowly drained over months, from an account owned by a business that turned out to have a legitimate address and profits. I’d been left in charge, of course, and they asked me to explain it, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know about any of it. It turns out the transfers into and out of that account were made using Arch’s passcodes, and the FBI told me the passcodes were from his own workstation, and the missing two hundred million dollars was transferred out over time, even into some cryptocurrency.”
He nodded. “Yes, that’s what I was told. Still, it doesn’t make sense. Knowing Archer as I do, as you do, it’s impossible.”
“Look, Rebel. I’m sorry, but it had to be Arch. There was simply no one else who had access to his passcodes, not even me, and I hate it.” She dashed away a tear. “There’s no other explanation. Believe me, I’ve thought and thought.” She struck a fist against her open palm. “I hate this, hate it, but I have to accept Arch has destroyed everything we built, he’s broken faith with me, all of us at the firm, and all our clients, many of them his personal friends, with all the charities, the pension funds, the foundations that put their trust in us. I keep asking myself how he could have done such a thing, how he could be so different from the man I believed he was. If the fund goes under, and it’s likely it will, no one will hire me again, or any of our top people. And your brother did this to us.”
She pushed off the mantelpiece and began pacing. She swiped her palm over her eyes again, smearing her mascara. “I told myself there’d be no more tears, no more wishing I had a gun to shoot him. Look, I’ve been the one fielding the callsfrom all our investors, since of course they can’t reach Arch. Over and over I’ve begged them all to keep faith with us. I try to explain the inexplicable, tell them there’s ongoing investigation about where their money went. The FBI Financial Crimes Team has frozen the piddling money that’s left. I hope I can keep things afloat, but if I’m honest with myself there’s little chance now. I’m very afraid they’ll put us into receivership, start bankruptcy proceedings.”
She shook her head and gave a bitter laugh. “Who am I kidding? Even if I could possibly turn things around, Arch is the one with the magic touch, the talent to bring in clients and keep them happy. He could talk the fillings right out of your mouth, my mother would say. She gave him two million dollars to invest for her, and it’s gone now. And yes, I replaced it.” She smacked her hand into her fist, anger radiating off her. “Let me ask you this, Rebel. If your brother is so innocent, why did he run? Why won’t he come home?”
Rebel said, “All I know is he went on his honeymoon, was in Paris when this broke. Maybe Sasha talked him into running. Maybe he’s afraid he’d be railroaded if he comes home, maybe Sasha too. Could be they’ll believe she was in on it with him.”
“Sasha? That poor little cow? She worships him, but understand—she has no say in anything. I think she’d lie and cheat for him, do anything to keep him safe and with her. But if he did come back, I have no doubt she’d trail after him like a dutiful little hausfrau, no hesitation.”
“You don’t like Sasha? Didn’t she once work for you?”
“Yes, I liked her. Fact is, she’s a bit dim, but a good worker, just not good enough.”
Rebel said, “Archer’s passcodes. He once told me it was a foolproof system. Do you agree?”
“Yes, random passcode generators, two-step authentication, access limited to a defined workstation, and only Arch had those passcodes, no one else. They were accessed from his ownworkstation.” She shook her head. “I remember Arch challenged hackers in a tweet to try to break into our workstations, offered a ten-thousand-dollar reward, but none of them could do it.
“I remember asking Arch once if Celia knew how to access his passcodes, and he laughed. She could care less, he said.”
Rebel sat forward, clasped his hands between his knees. “If I’m to believe my brother did this, I have to understand why. My brother was very proud of his investment fund; you more than anyone know that. It was his creation, his baby. He made it successful, so please tell me, why do you think he would destroy his own company when he knew only he could be blamed for it?”
She picked up a photo off the mantel, stared at it a moment, and said, her voice defeated, “I’ve asked myself that question so many times and I’ve never found an answer. Maybe it goes back to Celia’s illness. Her death nearly destroyed him, Rebel. He became quiet, withdrawn, depressed. It seemed to me he’d lost all joy in life, no matter how hard his friends tried to rally him, no matter how I tried to help him. Of course, there was Tash, but from what I saw he pulled away from Tash as well. He pulled away from all of us. It was tragic and I was scared to death for him.”
Rebel said, “But Archer got over his depression when he married Sasha. He seemed happy when I saw him before he and Sasha left for Europe, before this entire mess blew up. You really haven’t answered my question. Why would Archer destroy his own creation? He didn’t need more money.”
Carla fanned her hands. “As close as I thought we were, I wasn’t in his brain. Maybe Sasha wasn’t enough for him, maybe he was bored and wanted a new challenge. Maybe he wanted to see if he could get away with it. I was one of his best friends, I thought I knew him almost as well as Celia did, and I still don’t know.”
Time to bring the hammer down.Rebel said, “The reason I’m in Philadelphia is that the FBI arrested me last night and brought me here to their field office. They said their forensic accountants found my name linked to the account in the Caymans where that missing money was sent.”
She stared at him, said nothing.
“Let me be perfectly clear. Archer would never do that to me, and of course I know of no account in the Caymans, so that means whoever set up Archer over these past months decided to forge my name on an official bank document—as an extra nail in the coffin to implicate Archer even further.” He paused, then said, “The FBI almost believed it, until they uncovered some flaws.”
Carla slid her tongue over her bottom lips, stared at him. “There were flaws?”
He smiled as he rose. “Enough for them to release me after they talked with me and my lawyer, and examined the evidence closely. Whoever tried to implicate me to make it seem my brother and I were both involved made a mistake by faking my signature. They ended up agreeing someone was trying to set both of us up.” He said slowly, “Do you know what? Archer believes it was you, and I agree with him. You stole the two hundred million dollars. But, Carla, you made a big mistake when you decided to implicate me.”
He shook his head at her. “My brother described you as brilliant, but the signature you planted came across as an amateur move. You should have left well enough alone.”
She jerked her arm off the mantelpiece, stepped toward him, and yelled in his face, “How dare you! I wouldn’t do that! The fund was my life too! I’m devastated by what’s happened. Forge your signature? That’s absurd.”
Rebel wagged his finger at her. “Amateur, as I said. You should have practiced copying it a bit longer. The FBI is goingto dig deeper now, not simply accept my brother is guilty. Expect a visit from them, Carla. I do believe they’ve got you in their crosshairs.”
For a moment he thought she’d strike him, but she pulled up short. No more screaming at him, now her voice was low and vicious. “I don’t have to put up with this. What you’re accusing me of is ridiculous! I’ve never done an amateur job in my life! It’s all on your damned brother. He’s ruined his own life, and now you’re trying to ruin mine to save his hide! Get out, now!”
“Soon now, I can feel it—my brother will be coming home a free man.”
“I told you to get out! I did nothing wrong, nothing. None of this is on me, whatever you say. It’s all on your brother.”
A cell phone buzzed. It was Carla’s. She pulled it out of her pocket, looked down, frowned. She strode from the living room. Rebel slowly followed her. At the front door, she whirled around. “You bastard, the FBI will never believe any of your crap. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
