. . two direct ones that I know about. He suffered shock impacts from, what, three more?”
“Four more. He gets terrible headaches, Marshall. He’s distracted, irritable, depressed. At Kevin’s baseball games, he gets violently angry. That’s the main reason I don’t go. I’m worried he’ll charge onto the field and assault a referee.”
I have probably tried to minimize Paul’s problems in my mind.
“Could Max have shown the video to him already?” she asks.
“He could have, but I don’t think he has. Sally apparently created some sort of data cache before she died. A bunch of files that could destroy Max and the Poker Club. Information about the Azure Dragon deal. Has Max told you that?”
“No. Did he say he told me?”
“No. But he’s convinced that his partners will kill him over this stuff, and he wants me to find it for him. He’s using the video to motivate me.”
Jet goes silent as she processes this. “Do you think those passwords I found on the necklace could open this cache, or whatever it is?”
“I do. Max said it was mostly digital files. But something just occurred to me. Why would Sally gather a bunch of damning evidence if she wasn’t going to use it? Why go to the trouble if she was just going to kill herself? Or give it to someone else who wouldn’t use it?”
“Maybe it was like my Bitcoin plan,” Jet suggests. “She considered using it, but in the end she went another way. Or Max killed her before she could.”
“For some reason, I don’t think that’s it. He’s really scared.”
“Marshall, it’s time to stop screwing around. It’s time to set my plan in motion.”
“Your Seychelles plan?”
“Yes. We leak to the Poker Club that Max cut them out of a bribe from the Chinese, then use the overseas bank account to back up the story.”
“But Max didn’t,” I reply.
“He can’t prove that. And if Tommy Russo, Wyatt Cash, and Beau Holland know about Sally’s cache, then they’re already going crazy right now. Even Buckman and Donnelly won’t tolerate a threat like that. If they find out Max cheated them while they’re in that state of mind, he’s dead.”
The temptation to cross this line is strong. “I understand why you want to do it. But it feels like putting our heads in the tiger’s mouth. We’d be better off finding Sally’s cache and using that to keep Max quiet.”
“We don’t have time. If we don’t stop Max now, he’ll destroy us. You don’t know him like I do. Maybe you did once, but not now. Max can’t abide not being in control. He’s had me on a choke chain for years.” Her voice is cracking. “We have to get that video,” she says with sudden intensity. “Did Max shoot it on his cell phone?”
“Yes.”
“We have to get that phone. Not only for the video, but also because those passwords Sally left might open it.”
She hasn’t heard a word I’ve said. “Try to calm down, Jet. Think rationally. And about Max’s phone . . . if you try to get that close to him, he’ll know what you’re doing.”
“I don’t have to try to get close. I’m his lawyer. I’ll grab the damn thing and run. If I can’t get away with it, I’ll destroy it.”
“Jet—where are you? Are you home now?”
“Home? Home is with you. Isn’t it?”
I close my eyes, feeling something close to shame. “Yes.”
“I’m at my house. Kevin’s here, and I need to get off. If you somehow find Sally’s cache, don’t give it to Max. Put it somewhere safe. That’s our salvation.”
“And what do I tell Max when he calls?”
“Leave Max to me.”
Two minutes after I hang up, I decide that spending the night at my parents’ house might be a good idea. This isolated farmhouse has served me well as a trysting place, but in the present circumstance—with Paul decompensating from grief over his mother’s death and obsessed with his wife’s possible infidelity—my solitude has become a liability. Max’s sudden appearance showed me how useless my security gate is if someone means to do me harm, and sleeping where I’m expected to just seems stupid. Whoever killed Buck surely knows by now that I’m the person pushing hardest for a murder investigation. If they were willing to kill Buck, then surely they would kill me to keep themselves safe. Worst of all, it could be anybody. Someone I’ve known since I was a kid. So as not to worry my mother, I call and tell