After Death(9)

From the duffel bag on the floor beside his chair, he withdraws a wad of hundred-dollar bills fastened with a rubber band and puts it on the table. “As I promised. This is one of forty.”

Although she believes in him, she hesitates to touch what he offers. Because John is sleeping in a front room, she speaks softly, and so does Michael. “Where did you get all this?”

“I took it away from some bad men.”

“How bad?”

“Drugs and human trafficking.”

“Dirty money,” she says.

“The uses they would put it to would’ve only made it dirtier. You’ll use it well. You’ll make it clean again.”

“So much.”

“I might need a year or more to understand how best to use this crazy power, before I dare to do what needs to be done. During that time, for Shelby, I want to know you and John are all right. He was my best friend. I owe him. There’s nothing else I can do for him.”

He wants her to sell this house and move somewhere that drive-by shootings are rare, where gangbangers don’t rule the streets. Where she and John can’t be found, where they’ll be safe.

A month ago, Aleem Sutter came back into her life. He’s now the boss dog of the Vigs in this county. Having a gang-age son who’s living straight is embarrassing to him and suggests to his homeboys that he bends to the will of a woman. He’s sniffing around the edges of their lives, wary of Nina, but he’s rapidly growing bolder.

“I give up my accounting, how do I say I earned this money?”

“Stop using a credit card. When you pay cash, your wealth becomes invisible.”

“Some things can only be paid by check or such.”

“Each month, deposit what cash you need in your account.”

“The IRS, they’ll smell out the discrepancy sooner or later.”

“You won’t have to deal with the IRS anymore.”

“That’s a nice dream.”

“I’ve set it up so the IRS’s computerized records will show you paying quarterly and filing annually, but you won’t ever pay again.”

“What do I say when they audit me?”

“I’ve set it up so they never will.”

“You set it up.”

“You saw what I can do.”

“Yeah, okay, but . . . sweet Jesus.”

“I’ve coded your IRS file with an automatic audit reject.”

“How does that work?”

“A few hundred people in government are so powerful they’ve exempted themselves from audits. I tucked you among them.”

“How do they get away with that?”

“It’s a tight-held secret. Besides, people who tell them they can’t do something—those people meet with grave misfortune.”

“Corruption everywhere.”

“We’re playing their game only to bring them to justice.”

She stares into her mug. Reflected in the dark brew, her eyes swell and shrink freakishly with the movement of the liquid, as if some force that speaks only through symbol and suggestion is warning her that what she is doing will deform her vision and her soul.

Michael says, “Aleem has seen a lawyer.”

“What do you mean?”

“The GPS record for his Cadillac Escalade is accessible to me. Yesterday, Aleem parked for forty-seven minutes at the building occupied by Bucklin and Aimes, a law firm that vigorously defends gangbangers like them. He’s got another appointment there today.”

“This has something to do with me?”

“Mr. Bucklin enters notes about meetings on his laptop. In this case, I don’t respect attorney-client privilege. I snooped. Aleem was there to discuss what paternal rights he has regarding John.”

Nina’s heart quickens. “Rights? None. He has no rights. What dime did he ever give me? What birthday did he bring John a present? None. He’s never as much as spoken to the boy.”

“It’s not that simple. The law doesn’t always go from A to B in a straight line. In fact, it’s usually a long and twisted route.”

Her mouth is dry. She wets it with coffee. The rim of the mug briefly rattles against her teeth.

She says, “When John goes to private school, I drive him to and from Saint Anthony’s, keep him close. But it isn’t right to make him a prisoner. He goes out to play ball with friends, goes anywhere, I worry Aleem will take him. But I didn’t think about lawyers.”

“In the end, I doubt Aleem will be patient enough to use the law. You’re right to worry he’ll snatch John.”

“I’m up and down and up ever since you first came here.”

“If he did go to court, you know how long the law will take to settle the situation in your favor?”

“Too long. And if Aleem grabs John, he’ll deny it. Aleem will hide him away, pretend he knows nothing.”

“And you? What happens to you?”

She meets his eyes. She sees kindness in them. Or it’s what she wants to see. Since the death of her mom and dad, there has been too little kindness in her life.

“Aleem won’t give me a chance to get John back. He’ll make it so I’m said to be an addict when they find me stone dead of an overdose. I know I’ve got to get away from him, but . . .”