CHAPTER 25

Hennessy spent the evening back in the office.

It was clear that Dunstall wasn’t telling the whole truth. He was skirting around the issue and not telling Hennessy what he knew. Hennessy was sure that Dunstall hadn’t told Garrett the whole truth either. Dunstall wanted nothing to do with the lawyers, nothing to do with Palin, and nothing to do with justice. He wasn’t interested in the truth; he was only interested in keeping his job.

Hennessy didn’t even know where to look for Dunstall’s hidden evidence. Palin had over two hundred and fifty companies on his books. Hennessy would have to spend months looking for it. Still, he called several companies and tried to gather as much information as possible. They had all heard of the charges against Palin, and none of them had anything nice to say about him.

He reviewed all the mechanics on Palin Accounting’s books, the building suppliers, and all the concreting firms. None had discrepancies. The only anomaly was a company called ‘JR Concreting Supplies.’ Hennessy couldn’t find a number to contact them, and their website had been shut down years earlier. Hennessy left a note for Jacinta to continue digging into information about ‘JR Concreting Supplies.’

As the time ticked past 10:55 p.m., Hennessy turned off his computer, packed up his desk, and finished for the night. He stepped out of the office, locked the door behind him, and sucked in a lungful of thick evening air. Even at night, the humidity was still lingering over Charleston.

He heard the motorbikes before he saw them. Five Harley-Davidson cruisers turned the corner of the street, rumbling toward him. Hennessy looked around. A man was sitting in the front seat of a white pickup on the other side of the road, under the direct shine of the streetlight. The man was a spotter, waiting for Hennessy to leave the office.

Hennessy groaned. The loud rumble of the motorbike parade was all for show. An attempt at intimidation. He stepped toward the edge of the sidewalk and waited for the inevitable.

The bikes rumbled up the street and stopped in front of him. Hennessy watched as the loud beasts circled around him.

Behind the bikes, a black SUV rolled forward. When the car was near Hennessy, the dark-tinted back window rolled down.

Tony Stanwell sat in the rear seat. He didn’t look in Hennessy’s direction.

Intimidation was important for Stanwell’s business. It was how he ruled the streets. In the highly competitive city of Charleston, the pressure to win jobs was intense. Not many companies bid when Stanwell Construction put their name forward. In turn, Stanwell Construction left the smaller jobs for everyone else to fight over. And if the unions came knocking, they got knocked out.

The bikers stepped off their bikes. One of the bikers, the largest, stepped toward the SUV and opened the back door.

Hennessy eyed the biker, unmoved by the suggestion.

The biker smiled slightly, impressed by Hennessy’s stoic determination. He gave Hennessy a nod of respect.

The biker leaned down to the SUV’s back seat and talked to the person inside. A moment later, Tony Stanwell climbed out of the SUV.

He stepped toward Hennessy.

“Quite the show.”

Hennessy quipped as the bikers returned to their bikes. They leaned against the cruisers, and one pulled out a cigarette packet, sharing it with the others. “You should put this in the theater.”

“This isn’t acting, Hennessy,”

Stanwell responded and looked at the bikers. When one nodded back, Stanwell continued. “I’ve heard there are new witnesses, and you’ve been digging deep into Palin’s past. I received two phone calls this evening that said you’ve been calling a lot of his former clients.”

Hennessy nodded.

“And why did you go digging into his business interests?”

“Because Palin’s trial starts next week, and I need to know what’ll be said in court. A new witness will give information about some of Palin’s older clients. The man is a former employee of Palin Accounting, and he presents a problem for us. I need to be prepared for whatever happens in court.”

Stanwell scoffed. “Richard Dunstall will tell you what we’ve allowed him to tell you. What will be uncovered is what we allow to be uncovered. It’s all in his statement. He can talk about what he saw Palin do with the Foundation, but that’s it.”

“How did you know his name?”

“I have connections.”

“And will Dunstall tell the truth?”

Stanwell laughed. “What even is the truth? Your memory? My memory? Because the facts of the world differ depending on who you talk to. If I talk to someone and you talk to someone, then the situation might be different. Our memories might differ depending on what we can or can’t recall. The truth is but a memory.”

“That’s very insightful for a man with a tendency for violence.”

“Prison gives you a lot of time for philosophy,”

he quipped, lowering his tone. “And it gives you a lot of time to plan bloodshed.”

“What do you want?”

Hennessy stepped closer. “What’s this whole show for?”

“It’s to remind you that there are areas of Palin’s business that need to be kept out of the trial. Chase the truth, investigate the accounting, but don’t spread your net too far. Everything that’s outside the net has been handled. You don’t need to do anything else. The only thing you need to do is back off and focus on Palin’s case.”

“I’ll do what I need to do for my client.”

“Your client? We say what the rules are. We dictate what happens in this world.”

“I don’t play by your rules. I go by the law.”

“The law!”

Stanwell laughed again and walked back to the open door of the SUV. “If that’s all you care about, then there’s trouble coming your way.”