Page 148 of Cruel Lies

I don't wait for him to answer. I walk to the elevator and smash the button. I don't look back at the man still kneeling beside the chair where Todd once sat, clutching a two-cent napkin like it's the only thing of value left in the world.

The elevator doors close on my own reflection.

I shut my eyes so I don't have to see it.

40

RONAN

I stay on my knees for a long time after she's gone.

The napkin is still in my hand. I don't let go. If I do, then it's real, and I'm not ready for that. So I stay there on the floor by the ugly chair, the one where all this shit began, and look at the elevator doors that closed on her.

She's gone.

And I have only myself to blame.

I get up eventually. My knees hurt. I'm not used to being on the floor. I put the napkin back in the drawer, then I sit in my chair and stare out at the river. I don't do anything at all for a while.

Then my third phone rings.

I know who it is before I answer it. There's a certain kind of ring, or maybe there isn't; maybe it's just that I know Navi and I know that, when everything goes wrong, it goes wrong all at once.

"Yeah," I say.

"Ro." His voice is flat and dead. Navi's voice is never flat. The man has a joke for a funeral. But not now. "It's bad. It's a lot of bad, and it's all happening at once, so just listen."

"I'm listening."

"A subpoena arrived at the firm forty minutes ago. Federal. Real one. Crosby called me because you weren't picking up your other line."

I glance at my other phone. Four missed calls. I never even heard it.

"What do they want?"

"Everything. Billing records. Client files. Wire logs going back three years. They named the accounts, Ro. Some of the shells. Not all, but enough that somebody must have told them where to look."

I close my eyes.

"Todd," I say.

"That's my best guess." Navi lets out a weary breath. "He's been talking to them. I guess 'cooperating' is a better word. And he might not know all that much, but one blabbering mouth is one too many."

I think back on Todd standing in my office weeks ago with his big watch and his sloppy stack of cash.Your kind will do anything if the price is right.I let him walk free, but what I should've done is opened the window and hurled him out of it. It would've saved both Cali and myself a lot of trouble.

"There's more," Navi warns.

"Of course," I mutter. "Why wouldn't there be?"

"It's not just the feds who know. Word's out on the underground networks, too. They know that Todd's a snitch, and because Todd came to you, because he was your client, and everybody saw you fire him at the bank?—"

I understand before he finishes. My stomach flips.

"They think it's me," I say. "They thinkI'mthe one who turned."

"Yeah," croaks Navi. "That's how it's playing. A federal subpoena comes to the Akov Firm, and everybody who's ever handed us dirty money to wash is asking the same question.Is Ronan talking? Did Ronan flip?Because apakhanwho cuts a deal with the feds is the worst thing there is. Worse than a thief. A thief is just greedy. A snitch is a coward and a traitor and everybody who ever trusted him is now exposed."

It's darkly funny that this is how it's happening. All at once, everything I've worked for is crumbling through my hands like sand at the beach. The only thing I have left is a napkin, and even that won't save me.