Russell Blake: Silver Justice

Richard smiled and moved closer, taking her hand. “After everything that happened, I wasn’t even sure you remembered it all. But the feeling’s mutual. Very mutual.” He leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips.

The bathroom door opened, and Kennedy stepped out, hair dripping, wearing a clean set of clothes.

“Whoa,” she exclaimed.

Richard stepped away from the bed with a guilty look, but Silver squeezed his hand.

“So when did all this happen? Nobody tells me anything.”

“Something about you being kidnapped. Out of the loop,” Silver replied.

Richard seemed to grapple for something to say. Kennedy set her hygiene bag down on the chair by the bathroom and approached the bed, then took Richard’s hand and looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes.

“Are you my new daddy? I want a pony for Christmas. And a hundred bucks for games to keep me from going stir-crazy while I’m here in the hospital,” she cooed in her most angelic voice.

Richard looked like a deer caught in oncoming headlights. Silver threw Kennedy a look.

“She’s fu- she’s messing with you, Richard. She’s not five years old, or retarded. Although sometimes I have my doubts…”

Kennedy smiled sweetly. “I thought you said you didn’t think he was cute?”

“I never said tha-”

“Well, I’m just a kid, so what do I know about all this? You two carry on. I’ll try to dry my hair with paper towels in the bathroom.” Kennedy about-faced and returned to the door, swinging it open after offering a mischievous smile.

“Did I mention my kid is Satan’s spawn sometimes?”

“You left that out.”

“I hope it doesn’t scare you off. It would scare the hell out of me.”

“I don’t scare easily.”

“She’s actually not a bad kid. Just too smart for her own good.”

“I know the kind,” Richard said, then leaned over and kissed Silver again.

For a few moments, everything was right in the world.

The next morning, Richard waited for the hospital to discharge Silver so he could take her and Kennedy home. Her head was still aching, and her spine drove spikes of pain through her whenever she moved too suddenly, but all in all, she was far better than when she’d been admitted.

As Richard drove at a sedate pace, she felt the back of her skull, probing tenderly at the stitches, and realized that she’d been lucky the injury hadn’t been more serious. She could have easily bled out without attention — the odds had been fifty-fifty that she would have had a cerebral hemorrhage from the blow. And fortunately, the scan of her spine had revealed no fractures, which was a concern given how hard she’d hit the concrete.

Once at the flat, Richard carried their bags upstairs as she made her unsteady way behind him, taking care to grip the bannister securely. She’d had it with falling down stairs, and wanted to ensure that it never happened again.

A half-hour after arriving, she’d taken a shower and put on a new outfit, and Kennedy was ready to spend the day with Miriam. She still had the books Howard had given her and seemed committed to finishing them, which was strange knowing her love of all things computer. Maybe she had discovered the joy of books? There were worse things, Silver supposed.

Miriam was ecstatic to see Kennedy, and hugged Silver cautiously, careful not to cause any further damage.

“We’ll be back in three or four hours,” Silver said. “Keep her out of trouble, please.”

Miriam nodded, eyeing Richard waiting in the car.

“I like your chauffeur, sweetie,” she commented dryly.

“I know. He’s a perk for solving the case. I understand he does a Chippendale’s dance later if I request one.”

“You just sold me a ticket.”

They both laughed, then Miriam suddenly kissed her cheek.

“It’s good to see you both back, Silver. I was so afraid for Kennedy…she’s okay? No ill effects? I would imagine an ordeal like that is traumatic…”

“She seems fine, although I’m going to take her to therapy later today in case something is lurking below the surface. No, to hear her tell it, the kidnapper was a perfect gentleman.”

“Do you believe her? Could she be lying to protect herself from having to face something ugly?” Miriam whispered.

“You know what? I do believe her. I met the kidnapper, and it was odd. He wasn’t…it wasn’t like you would think. I’m sure nothing happened.”

Miriam seemed skeptical. “Well, I’ll let you know if I see anything unusual. Right now, the challenge is to put all this behind her and let her get back to being a normal, healthy kid.”

“Good luck with that. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Back in the car, Richard pulled into traffic as Silver fastened her seat belt.

“You want to talk about anything in particular?” he ventured.

“I think I’d like to save any discussion about us until after we get done with the interview.”

“We? We get done?”

She looked at his profile. Definitely a good-looking man.

“I want someone who’s up on financial stuff to hear what he has to say. He had a long list of reasons for killing his victims. The creepy part was that as far as I could tell, he was making perfect sense. I need someone who knows the industry inside out and can ask questions or challenge his statements.”

“What kinds of statements did he make?” Richard asked, his intellectual curiosity now aroused.

Silver gave him a rundown of the basics — a loosely affiliated group of terrorist groups, criminal syndicates, unfriendly nations and foreign intelligence services had worked together to collapse the U.S. economy for fun and profit. She told him as much as she could remember, and when she finished, they had almost reached the office.

He whistled, low and long. “Wow. I can see why you’d want me in the room. That’s the most incredible story I’ve ever heard. Although big parts of it are consistent with what I know about the crisis. I recall seeing news about the heads of some of the biggest banks blaming manipulative short selling for destroying their companies.”

“Are you saying that it’s likely he’s telling the truth and accurately explaining what happened?”

“Without hearing it all, I can’t say for sure, but what you’ve described so far is not only plausible, but is one hundred percent consistent with what I know about the crisis and the way the markets work. If he’s right and you take this to its logical conclusion, then yes, it’s possible that the entire financial crisis was deliberately triggered. I mean, it would require tremendous capital to achieve, and you’d have to have the biggest players in the world helping you…but if they were making money doing it, I could see that as possible. That’s one of the things I’ve learned. Anything’s possible when the money gets big enough.”

They pulled into the garage next to the office, and Silver stared at Richard for a few beats.

“How come I’ve never heard about any of this before this case?”

“Who’s going to risk their livelihood telling people the truth? The media isn’t. And the regulators and politicians are going to swear that they’re honest as the day is long. The banks are just going to sneer and act like anyone telling the truth is crazy, and the entire machine will go along with their spin. For most people, reality is whatever the headlines say is reality.”

“Now you’re starting to make it sound like The Matrix .”

“I know. Believe me, I keep this stuff to myself most of the time. But you asked. The truth is that the system pretends to be honest, but isn’t. And it probably never has been. I think that’s a comfortable lie that makes it easier to sleep at night. Trust me — I’ve seen things that would make you question how much of any of our perception of the truth is actually real. Sounds like our killer may have taken the red pill. I hear that can drive you crazy.”