Doubt (Caroline Auden #1) - C. E. Tobisman Page 0,121

you,” he continued, “but think of all the good you could do. You could choose whichever side you liked and put your thumb on the scale however you pleased.”

“And where do you fit into all of this?” Caroline asked, perversely fascinated.

“I’m good at what I do. The best, in fact. Those who need my services always find their way to me. I’ve never much cared about the winners or losers, but I can see that you do. I’m willing to change my business model to accommodate your moral streak.” He shrugged.

“I’m not interested,” Caroline said, louder than she intended.

“Then you’re a hypocrite,” Louis shot back. “I know what you are. Every bit as much as you know what I am, I know what you are.”

“I’m not like you,” Caroline insisted.

Louis smiled a mirthless grin. “You can keep telling yourself that, but you like the game. You impose limits on yourself as to how far you’ll push the envelope—limits that will eventually fall away. The more you bend the rules, the more you thrill at the victories.”

“You’re wrong. I only leveled the playing field. I gave the victims a chance,” Caroline said. “Whenever there’s someone like you out there, I hope there’s always someone like me who can play your game.”

Louis shrugged in a way that told Caroline he didn’t believe her.

“Suit yourself. But you’re putting yourself in a rather difficult position, aren’t you, Ms. Auden,” he said, the confidence never leaving his eyes. “Leaving a firm after only a month? You’re going to have a rather difficult time getting another job. How will you pay off all of those loans you took out to pay for law school? How will you manage to ever move out of that house with your uncle and your mother?”

Caroline said nothing. She hoped he was wrong, that the police would move quickly enough that her departure from Hale Stern wouldn’t be seen by other firms as anything but a completely sensible flight of a smart rat from a badly listing ship. But she knew the risks. She knew the potential consequences of confronting Louis. She loathed the price she might have to pay for what she was doing. But she had no choice.

“You don’t want to work here. Fine, don’t.” Louis’s voice was mild. “We can come up with a mutually agreeable explanation for your departure. Perhaps you realized you’d rather work in government. Or maybe your true calling is at a nonprofit or a defense firm. I have many friends in this city.” He paused. His lips tightened. “But leave things alone,” he finished, an undercurrent of menace entering his voice.

Caroline’s heart began to pound. She was playing a dangerous game.

“Oh, you can rest assured that I won’t hurt you,” Louis said, reading her expression. “I know you’ll have things set up to explode if anything happens to you. Mutually assured destruction.” He smiled slightly. “We need each other. I need your silence. You need my reputation. That’s why you came here, isn’t it? Get a job at a prestigious firm, and all doors suddenly open for you.”

“No,” Caroline said. She shook her head as though a spell had been broken. “I came because I thought you’d be my mentor. Maybe even my friend. But you’re a complete and utter fraud, Louis. In every possible way, you’re a fake.”

She gestured with her chin toward his ring. “I found out you weren’t even in the Porcellian Club. You’re not old money. You’re part of the Stern family of Rhode Island that made a go of it in the steel industry before your great-grandfather lost his shirt in the Depression. I never cared about any of that stupid stuff. I don’t care where you came from or who you are or how much money you have. I only ever cared that you were something special. But you’re not. You’re a fraud. Not to mention a murderer.”

“I’ve never killed anyone,” Louis said.

“Maybe not with your own hands, but it’s all the same,” Caroline said, mentally noting all the things Louis hadn’t denied doing.

“Even so, there is a distinction,” Louis said.

Controlling her emotions, she met his eyes with an icy calm.

“You might not like technology, Louis, but those contractors who you hire to do your dirty work for you sure do. The things they’ve done leave trails. Every money transfer, every communication. It’s all there, on the Internet, just waiting to be found. Even cryptocurrency isn’t immune to a subpoena. Once the police finish sifting through the