'It's a blue floppy disk,' I said. 'For a computer.'
'Shut up,' Brad said.
'What's on the disk?' Susan said.
Brad shook his head. Susan looked at me.
'I'd guess it was the record of his scam with Gavin,' I said, 'and indirectly, Wechsler.'
'Is that right?' Susan said to Brad.
'Of course not,' Brad said. 'But you'll probably believe him anyway.'
'I probably will,' Susan said. 'Go ahead.'
'This is how I think it went,' I said to Brad. 'Feel free to correct me. I think you were looking for money and, being the way you are, you went to Carla Quagliozzi, your ex-wife, and tried to get some. She wouldn't give you any, but she sent you to her boyfriend, Richard Gavin, who is Haskell Wechsler's lawyer.'
'I don't have to stand around here and listen to this tripe,' Brad said to Susan.
'No,' Susan said, 'you don't.'
'Gavin arranged for you to borrow some money from Haskell,' I said, 'and of course you couldn't pay it back, and of course you got behind on the interest. Maybe Gavin expected that. Maybe Gavin baited you with the loan so they could squeeze you later. I don't know how clever he is.'
Brad tried looking out the window as if he were bored.
'But I know how clever you are,' I said. 'So after they threatened you enough to scare you, they made you a proposition. Haskell accumulates a lot of cash, being a loan shark, and he needed to launder it. You run fund-raising events. So they'd finance the fundraisers, like Galapalooza, and you would then donate their costs, plus maybe a little extra for your vig, back to them through a dummy charity called Civil Streets.'
'See.' Brad said. 'See, Susan, how he is? If what he said was true, then Gavin and Wechsler would love me. Why would they be after me?'
'Because you, being you, skimmed on them. You were supposed to pay off the other charities too, to make it look right. But you didn't. From Galapalooza you gave them what you agreed to, but you kept the rest, and stiffed the other charities.'
'You were supposed to be helping me with that harassment case,' Brad said. 'How come you been snooping around in my other business?'
'It fell in my lap,' I said. 'And I admit I stirred it up a bit, and maybe because I did, Gavin found out that you were cheating on the other charities. But it would have happened sooner or later. The charity groups talk to each other. Anyway, Gavin looked into it himself and was very unhappy to find that you'd cheated everyone else, because it meant sooner or later someone would complain and the AG's office would look into it, and everybody's fat would be in the fire.'
'Suze, do you believe all this?' Brad said.
'Yes.'
'Well, I suppose you would, wouldn't you,' he said.
'So Gavin sent over a guy he'd once represented, guy named Cony Brown, to persuade you to cough up the money you'd skimmed. And of course you couldn't because you didn't have it, because you spent it as soon as you got it. And Cony got aggressive and you shot him, and took the disk-I assume you figured it would protect you if they didn't know where it was-and you scooted.'
'I should have sent you packing,' Brad said, 'the minute she sent you to me.'
'I probably hurried things along,' I said. 'But you'd have gotten yourself into this rat's alley anyway.'
'What I don't understand,' Susan said, 'the sexual harassment suit really started the unraveling of this whole thing. Why didn't you just show the pictures of Jeanette to her husband. It would have stopped him in his tracks.'
'I don't kiss and tell,' Brad said.
'Chivalry?' Susan said.
'Whatever you think of me,' Brad said, 'there are things I believe in.'
Susan looked at me. I shrugged.
'Hitler liked dogs,' I said.
'What the hell's that supposed to mean,' Brad said.
'People are inconsistent,' I said.
'Then why in heaven's name did you let him in?' Susan said.
I knew the 'him' was me. Neither one of them seemed able to use my name. I wasn't sure why, but I didn't mind.
'To humor you.'
'You think?' Susan said to me.
'Maybe there was a little more,' I said. 'Maybe he hoped that I would find him in such serious need of cash that you would relent and open your heart and your coffers.'
Susan nodded.
