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“What did he change?” Brian demanded.
“I really can’t discuss it with you at this moment.” Goodman glanced around the table. Bainbridge’s eyebrows had lifted toward his hairline, but Lyle just shrugged slightly.
“Yes, you can. You can tell me exactly what’s going on.” Brian’s face was getting red.
Goodman frowned. “Brian?—”
“Don’t bother trying to fob me off. You need to tell me now!”
Hunching his shoulders, Goodman finally said, “Why don’t we go to the hospitality tent and get something to eat? We can discuss it there. This really isn’t the place.”
Brian was on his feet in an instant and stomped out into the rain. Goodman murmured his apologies and went after the other man.
That was informative. Greer made a note about what happened, but it wasn’t like she was going to forget. It was the most important piece of information she’d uncovered so far. Brian hadn’t known there had been a will change, and Goodman was exceedingly uncomfortable about going on the record about anything. She wasn’t sure what it meant yet, but it was significant for sure.
The wind whipped through the garage, and she shuddered. As she looked up, a cup of coffee appeared at her elbow. She caught Dalton moving back out of the corner of her eye. Saying thanks would be considerate, but she immediately understood he was there to hear what was going on. If she said anything, it would draw attention to that fact. If she knew Dalton at all she knew he’d be next to her on every step of the investigation. He wasn’t likely to let her do it on her own because he didn’t trust her. A sharp pain nagged her sternum. Yeah, his lack of trust hurt, but she was pretty sure there was something he didn’t want her to find out. He was just an angry presence behind her at this point.
None of this was working out the way she’d hoped. She’d thought maybe just maybe she could wrap this up quickly, get Dalton a big cheque and then he’d be happy. That had been more of a pipe dream than she’d anticipated.
“Mr. Bainbridge, I got the impression you didn’t necessarily agree with everything Brian said.”
Donald Bainbridge snorted. “I didn’t agree with any of it. And call me Don. We came to the track to get away from Brian. He’s very whiny. I know his father just died but this goes beyond that. Dennis had a bit of a rough relationship with Brian. They weren’t that close. Brian was…”
“A fuck up,” Lyle supplied.
“I wasn’t going to put it quite like that,” Don said, “but, yeah. Brian didn’t live up to expectations. He has anxiety, which makes things difficult for him. Dennis wasn’t the most sympathetic of fathers either. But Brian has a habit of coming up with stupid schemes to get his father to invest in, and Dennis just wasn’t having it.”
“They fought?” she asked.
“All the time,” Bainbridge said.
“Don, could you elaborate?”
“The latest one is about some kind of real estate deal. Brian found out somehow one of the luxury hotel chains was going to put up a new resort outside of Las Vegas. He wanted Dennis to help him buy the land around it.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Greer said. “But Mr. Moore didn’t agree?”
Bainbridge snorted. “At first, Dennis said the deal sounded good. Then I guess he did some more research and pulled out of the project. Told Brian it was a non-starter. The resort was never going to get off the ground. Apparently, there were issues with water rights. Dennis figured that by the time the resort chain got it sorted, it would cost them billions, and they would kill the deal. Brian went ballistic and said his father never supported him and always tried to undercut any idea he had. Anyway, that was just the latest scheme. There were millions more. Brian just doesn’t have a head for business.”
“Was Mr. Moore upset before he came here?”
“Yes,” Lyle confirmed. “The deal falling through made Brian very upset. He’d pinned his hopes on it. Dennis and Brian had a huge fight just before they got on the plane. Dennis has his own jet, and he and Brian got out of the back of the SUV and had a screaming match about this whole thing. We were all just standing there on the tarmac, waiting to get on the jet.
“Brian claimed that Dennis killed the deal on purpose, which I wouldn’t necessarily put past Dennis, to be fair.”
Bainbridge frowned. “You don’t think Dennis killed the deal on purpose, do you?”
Lyle shrugged. “The water issue was awfully convenient. There were ways around it, but Dennis wouldn’t hear any of them. He could be quite stubborn. He said he knew better since he’d been in business for over forty years and had made hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Brian thought Dennis reached out to the resort chain and told them what they wanted to do would be impossible, and he’d know because he knew all the right people. He said they decided to kill the deal and build elsewhere after that. Brian yelled that Dennis did it on purpose to wreck any chances Brian had of being successful.
“Claire just stood by the SUV looking bored, and her brother Joe clearly wanted to be anywhere else but there. The tension was so thick on the plane on the way over that Joe went into the bathroom and got stoned.”
“It was ugly,” Bainbridge agreed.
“Was Mr. Moore angry the morning before coming to the track?”
Bainbridge nodded. “He was still pissed off, and then the mix-up with his coach not picking him up didn’t help any. He spent a lot of time on the phone during breakfast. He stood outside the restaurant, talking with someone, while the rest of us sat there and waited. Brian said Dennis was calling the bank.”
