Page 18 of The Damage Man

“Well,” Joey concedes, “three. He made three.”

“What?”

She hesitates and he knows what is coming will be thin gruel. “‘Evan.’ ‘DNA database.’ ‘Jacob Baridon boy Vassar graduate.’”

The latter, Evan’s mother’s alma mater.

Three Google searches, he thinks. Grand paternal effort.

“X, you okay?”

“Quit asking me that.”

“Are you—? I mean…” Joey regroups. That same non-silence pervades the line. “How do you feel?”

Evan says, “I don’t.”

He hangs up.

Blackfish Credit offers personal loans, soft credit checks, debt-consolidation services, and quick funding. It is a legitimate business.

Which provides excellent cover for the illegitimate business Jonathan Hay facilitates beneath the surface.

Mr. Hay has a half dozen Ivans, damage men who run side loans for exorbitant interest rates. This provides a significant amount of cash, which Hay launders through Blackfish.

For obvious reasons, he holds office space on the top floor of a Century City office building with limited access and strong security measures in the lobby.

Evan enters the building now, his tinfoil swan perched on his palm, ready for delivery. The lobby smells of some piped-in floral fragrance, the tiles scrubbed clean.

“Grubhub delivery from Peking Palace,” he tells the receptionist.

“Which office?”

He squints at some scribbles he made on the receipt from the restaurant. “Something Something Accounting on ten?”

There are three accountancies on the tenth floor.

“Which one?”

Again, he pretends to try to decipher the receipt. “Can’t tell.” He shows it to the receptionist, who looks unimpressed.

“Go up and ask,” she says. “There are a few.”

“Copy that.”

He heads to the security station, which has a metal detector and X-ray conveyor belt. An obese guard is propped against a stool, half sitting, half standing, looking bored senseless. He flops a plastic dish down on the table in front of Evan.

“Keys, phone, change.”

Evan complies.

“Cool phone, man.”

“Thanks,” Evan says.

“Run the food through the conveyor.”

“Sure thing.”