Dennis’s eyebrows met in the middle as he frowned. “Look, if his money is findable, if he has any contact to it, then I know about it.”
“But again,how? I need to be sure. This goes beyond the firm. This guy... I told you before, this man is going after me personally.”
“Have you told any of the board this? Clarke or Straus?”
“No. It’s more complicated than that.” Hailey rubbed her temples for so long she almost forgot Dennis was in her office.
“It’s called Pegasus,” he said finally.
“What is?”
“The program I use. It’s spyware. It moves through phones, computers. I can see anything on them—his bank accounts, messages, everything. It’s, umm, not really legal, so... just trust me, it does the job. So, could Rainier have gotten a bunch of cash from nowhere and physically dropped it off in this Liberian account? I guess so, but the money that you got never touched anything he’s ever touched, and he’s never mentioned Bank Nacional Liberia or Sunshine Enterprises in anything I’ve scanned through. And he’s never been to Liberia, either.”
“You’re that sure?”
“Yeah. I’m sure.”
“Why doesn’t that make me feel any better?”
“I’m sorry.”
A thought slotted into place in Hailey’s brain. “You can read all of his messages? WhatsApp and texts and everything?”
Dennis set the baseball down on the edge of Hailey’s desk and sank into a chair. “Yeah.”
“Did he... did you come across anything at all about me?”
“Some. Not too much. Nothing very flattering.”
“I see.”
Had this kid listened to the voice message she had left for David? Could he have read, say, a message from David to Rebekah referring to how he’d slept with her lawyer? Did it even matter now, what some twenty-two-year-old IT geek knew? Hailey kept her eyes focused on the baseball. For once she was unsure of the next move.
“You should probably know that he’s thinking of filing an injunction against you.” Dennis picked at the rubber on the bottom of his shoe with extreme focus. “For harassment.”
“I yelled at him,” Hailey said quickly. “I lost my temper.”
“Ah.” If Dennis had heard her voice message, he gave nothing away.
Hailey picked up the baseball; the last time she’d held one in her hand had to be ten years ago. She and her dad used to play catch after dinner in the summer, until she’d left for college.
“Does Rainier have any proof that I yelled at him?”
“He does,” said Dennis, finally reddening. “Sorry.”
It was strange, but Hailey thought of Mack then, of how it must have been for him when the trouble with his student had started.So this is how an entire career goes up in smoke. Mack hadn’t even been guilty, but Hailey was! Suddenly the whole thing felt like one big, terrible joke.
“So this Liberian bank,” she said. “If it isn’t David Rainier sending me this money, if it really isn’t him, then what are the clients like? Shady rich people?”
“Rich offshore corporations,” said Dennis. “No names, just account numbers. The account these payments came from had eight figures attached.”
“Well, that’s good news.” Hailey allowed herself a hint of a smile at Dennis’s response. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to take weird money from some average rich person, would I?”
Dennis reached out and took his ball back. “Listen, like I told you: this is not some nice forgotten relative. You don’t run your cash through a bank like this unless you have to.” He stood up, but Hailey couldn’t quite bring herself to end the meeting.
“So what do I do?”
“You’re asking me?”
