A half-hour after arriving, she’d taken a shower and put on a new outfit, and Kennedy was ready to spend the day with Miriam. She still had the books Howard had given her and seemed committed to finishing them, which was strange knowing her love of all things computer. Maybe she had discovered the joy of books? There were worse things, Silver supposed.
Miriam was ecstatic to see Kennedy, and hugged Silver cautiously, careful not to cause any further damage.
“We’ll be back in three or four hours,” Silver said. “Keep her out of trouble, please.”
Miriam nodded, eyeing Richard waiting in the car.
“I like your chauffeur, sweetie,” she commented dryly.
“I know. He’s a perk for solving the case. I understand he does a Chippendale’s dance later if I request one.”
“You just sold me a ticket.”
They both laughed, then Miriam suddenly kissed her cheek.
“It’s good to see you both back, Silver. I was so afraid for Kennedy…she’s okay? No ill effects? I would imagine an ordeal like that is traumatic…”
“She seems fine, although I’m going to take her to therapy later today in case something is lurking below the surface. No, to hear her tell it, the kidnapper was a perfect gentleman.”
“Do you believe her? Could she be lying to protect herself from having to face something ugly?” Miriam whispered.
“You know what? I do believe her. I met the kidnapper, and it was odd. He wasn’t…it wasn’t like you would think. I’m sure nothing happened.”
Miriam seemed skeptical. “Well, I’ll let you know if I see anything unusual. Right now, the challenge is to put all this behind her and let her get back to being a normal, healthy kid.”
“Good luck with that. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
Back in the car, Richard pulled into traffic as Silver fastened her seat belt.
“You want to talk about anything in particular?” he ventured.
“I think I’d like to save any discussion about us until after we get done with the interview.”
“We?
She looked at his profile. Definitely a good-looking man.
“I want someone who’s up on financial stuff to hear what he has to say. He had a long list of reasons for killing his victims. The creepy part was that as far as I could tell, he was making perfect sense. I need someone who knows the industry inside out and can ask questions or challenge his statements.”
“What kinds of statements did he make?” Richard asked, his intellectual curiosity now aroused.
Silver gave him a rundown of the basics — a loosely affiliated group of terrorist groups, criminal syndicates, unfriendly nations and foreign intelligence services had worked together to collapse the U.S. economy for fun and profit. She told him as much as she could remember, and when she finished, they had almost reached the office.
He whistled, low and long. “Wow. I can see why you’d want me in the room. That’s the most incredible story I’ve ever heard. Although big parts of it are consistent with what I know about the crisis. I recall seeing news about the heads of some of the biggest banks blaming manipulative short selling for destroying their companies.”
“Are you saying that it’s likely he’s telling the truth and accurately explaining what happened?”
“Without hearing it all, I can’t say for sure, but what you’ve described so far is not only plausible, but is one hundred percent consistent with what I know about the crisis and the way the markets work. If he’s right and you take this to its logical conclusion, then yes, it’s possible that the entire financial crisis was deliberately triggered. I mean, it would require tremendous capital to achieve, and you’d have to have the biggest players in the world helping you…but if they were making money doing it, I could see that as possible. That’s one of the things I’ve learned. Anything’s possible when the money gets big enough.”
They pulled into the garage next to the office, and Silver stared at Richard for a few beats.
“How come I’ve never heard about any of this before this case?”
“Who’s going to risk their livelihood telling people the truth? The media isn’t. And the regulators and politicians are going to swear that they’re honest as the day is long. The banks are just going to sneer and act like anyone telling the truth is crazy, and the entire machine will go along with their spin. For most people, reality is whatever the headlines say is reality.”
“Now you’re starting to make it sound like
“I know. Believe me, I keep this stuff to myself most of the time. But you asked. The truth is that the system pretends to be honest, but isn’t. And it probably never has been. I think that’s a comfortable lie that makes it easier to sleep at night. Trust me — I’ve seen things that would make you question how much of any of our perception of the truth is actually real. Sounds like our killer may have taken the red pill. I hear that can drive you crazy.”
She studied his profile as they rolled to a stop. “How do you go to work every day, Richard, if that’s how it is?”
“Simple. What’s the alternative?”
They both absorbed that.
“Speaking of which, we have an interview to conduct.” Silver drew a few deep breaths, her head reeling, and mentally prepared for her interrogation with the man who had kidnapped her daughter and taken the lives of at least six men.
Chapter 26
Silver moved uneasily in her chair and glanced at Richard before returning to regard Howard, who sat opposite, his face a picture of calm. The last hour had involved a painstakingly detailed description of each killing, filled with information only the killer could know. They now had enough to bury him under the jail.
Silver took a sip of water and then reviewed her notes. “Howard, you mentioned you’re not well. Is that correct?” she asked.
“I did? No, I think I mentioned I am dying. Not well to dying is like comparing a paper cut to being fed into a wood chipper.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Three months ago I was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. It’s inoperable. They tried dabbling with chemo, but I didn’t do well with it and decided to abort the treatment — the doctor leveled with me and told me that it wouldn’t change my survival outcome, and I didn’t want to spend my last days on the planet with poison running through my veins.”
“How long do you have to live?”
“What time is it?” Howard cackled a dry hack. “Seriously? If I’m lucky, maybe two months. I feel like shit most days, but I’m still strong. As long as I can keep swinging, I guess there’s some fight left in me.”
“Would it be fair to say that your illness played a large part in your decision to become The Regulator?” Richard asked.
He sneered. “Is this stupid question day? Of course it did. I watched my wife, my daughter, my friends and neighbors, everyone I knew or cared about get flattened by the financial destruction perpetrated by this group, and then I find out I’ll be dead in under six months…you bet your ass it played a part. I did the math. Nobody would ever prosecute any of them. They’re untouchable. So I decided to make a difference. To punish those who thought themselves above dealing with the consequences of their actions.”
“That’s why the methodology of the killings changed,” Silver observed, “because of the significance of the deaths to your loved ones.”
“Asked and answered. We already covered that.”
Silver shifted gears. “Howard, can we go through the stuff we discussed about the crashing of the system? I’ve already taken Richard here through what I could remember, but I wanted him to hear the finer details from you.”
Silver and Richard had agreed that they would pretend ignorance during the interrogation so they could hear
