"Why are you so sure Marisa did it?"

"She disappeared, didn't she?"

"She thought your friend Buck was going to kill her, like he killed Vinnie."

Anderson narrowed his eyes. "What's this about?"

"Did you know Buck was going after Vinnie?"

Anderson lifted his hands, palms out. "I knew nothing about that. Charles said he needed a guy to do him a favor. He told me his kid was getting in with the wrong crowd."

"You believed that?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Buck was your friend. He didn't tell you the truth?"

Anderson stood abruptly, and his wheeled chair hit the wall behind him. "This is... Buck was not my friend. He was a guy I knew, that's all. A guy from my neighborhood."

"He never told you who his target was?"

"I went over all this before. I never talked to Buck. I just gave Charles his number. That's it."

Nate settled deeper in the chair. The way the office was configured, there was no way Anderson could get out without passing Nate, who purposely took up a lot of space, unless Anderson wanted to climb over his desk like a gorilla. "And you had no idea Vinnie was talking to the feds."

"Not a clue." Anderson looked at the door, glared at Nate, and sat back down. "Don't you think if I knew, I'd have sheltered some of my money? The feds confiscated everything. If I'd known, I would have emptied my accounts, stuck my money overseas like Charles did."

"So you think Charles took the money?"

"That's not what I meant. But he has other money, accounts the feds never found. You should see how his wife still lives. Obviously, there was more money."

"His wife's living large?"

"Like nothing changed."

Nate made a note of that. "Why do you think it was Marisa who stole the money?"

"Who else? She knew what was going on. She knew the feds were coming. She was ticked her boyfriend got killed. And I don't blame her. Except why not just steal Charles's money? Why destroy the whole business? Why make it so everybody loses their jobs?"

"One thing I don't understand," Nate said. "Marisa was just the cleaning lady. I can see how she might have been able to dig through paperwork, get access to the business accounts. But how do people figure she stole Charles's money, too?"

"You don't get it? That's the easiest part of all. Obviously, she was sleeping with him."

"As in...you mean Vinnie right? But how would he—?"

"Charles."

The very thought of Marisa with that gray man. Nate couldn't imagine. "You think Marisa and Charles—?"

"Obviously. How else would she have gotten the money?"