didn’t trust him. But at that moment, the advantages of telling him seemed to outweigh those of withholding what she knew.
“Okay,” she said finally.
She saw his body relax, some of the tension drain from his face.
“When I first showed up at Healy’s, he seemed almost amused,” she said, “as if I was just some damsel in dating distress. But as soon as I told him I’d met this other Matt Healy in Florida, he became alarmed, and that’s when he offered up the wallet story. I suppose there’s a chance it was the first thing he could think of. After all, he hadn’t heard from you, didn’t know why I’d suddenly popped up on his doorstep. But then he went into elaborate detail about being pickpocketed. And he said it was essential that I share my experience with his security chief at work.”
Kelman raked a hand through his cropped red hair, clearly shaken. “He never said a word to me about fabricating that kind of story. He told me he just sent you away, telling you he knew nothing about why there’d been a mix-up.”
“How did you finally get hold of him?” she asked. There were parts of the story that still weren’t making sense to her. “You said you didn’t have his cell number.”
“I managed to make contact through the Ithaka office. I didn’t want to phone Matt myself because I knew his assistant would recognize my voice and might tip off someone on the staff about it. So I convinced this woman on the beach to do it with my disposable phone. She left a message for Healy to call back on that number. I had her use a phrase he would recognize, and he phoned about thirty minutes later.”
“When you spoke to him, why not ask for my contact info.”
“I did. He said you refused to even give him your name. . . . Tell me about the meeting at Ithaka.”
“I met with Ungaro first. He wanted to know all about the Florida mystery man I’d been with. In hindsight it seems he must have surmised, from the description I gave, that it could be you I was talking about. Or Healy told him.”
“And Healy was in the meeting, too?”
“No. I’d assumed he would be, but when I arrived at the office he explained that he was headed out of town—to see you as it turns out. I met with Ungaro alone, and Wainwright stopped by just as we were finishing. And then they pressured me into coming in a second time, after Healy was killed.”
“Why?”
“Wainwright presented it as if they wanted to make sure that justice was done, that they needed to be totally in the loop about Healy’s death.”
Kelman’s shoulders sagged. If he was lying to her tonight, he was doing a pretty good job disguising it.
“It does sound like Healy turned on me,” he said. “Whether he was in on the illegal trades himself or just trying to prove to Wainwright that he was fully on his team, he clearly wanted to expose me, otherwise why have you go in there? Christ, he probably even tipped them off to where I was staying in Miami. And that would also explain why your place was broken into. Matt must have told them I thought you’d taken the flash drive.”
“And that explains why Wainwright wanted to see me another time. He was probably hoping to get a better read on me.”
“Exactly.”
“If Healy was betraying you, why would he go through the ruse of flying to Miami to discuss a game plan?”
“Maybe to learn more about what I thought your game was. Or to convince me to delay a meeting with the SEC, which would buy more time for Ithaka.”
“Does Ithaka have clients in the Miami or Palm Beach area?”
He narrowed his eyes. “No. Why do you ask?”
He didn’t need to know her reason. But his answer revealed that Wainwright had definitely lied to her and that the revelation from Sasha Glen was probably accurate.
“Just curious. Since Healy had to cancel his plans and head to Florida, I wondered if he’d tried to kill two birds with one stone.”
“What do you mean, change his plans?”
“He apparently had intended to fly to Ann Arbor on business Friday. But he aborted that trip after hearing from you.”
Kelman’s mouth parted in surprise and he reached out across the table, laying his hand on Kit’s arm. She felt her body tense in response.