Линвуд Баркли - Find You First

“As it turns out, just nine,” Miles said. He reached into an inside jacket pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. “And here they are.” With some dramatic flair, he unfolded the sheet and handed it to his brother.

“Ta-da.” Gilbert looked at the words on the page. A list of names, with addresses and brief biographical details next to them.

Nina Allman, Todd Cox, Katie Gleave, Jason Hamlin, Dixon Hawley, Colin Neaseman, Barbara Redmond, Chloe Swanson, Travis Roben.

None of the names meant anything to Gilbert. Slowly, he said, “I thought — I didn’t think — how did you get these? I thought this information is confidential.”

“It is,” Miles said. “But someone with access to the relevant files was having some financial troubles. As the Godfather would say, I had someone make her an offer she couldn’t refuse.”

“Christ, I hope she didn’t have a horse.”

Miles smiled. “Nothing like that. I sent Heather, you know, who does our security work. Investigative stuff. She’s pretty remarkable. She says there’s no one more invisible in this world than a middle-aged woman. She works it to her advantage. Anyway, her efforts definitely expedited the process of finding out who my biological kids might be.”

Gilbert, still looking at the names, shook his head. “This is unbelievable.” He looked at Miles and said, “Why?”

“Why?”

“Why’d you go to all this effort to find out who they are?”

“Think about it,” Miles said. “Think about what they need to know.”

“Oh God, of course. There’s a high probability that... oh man. You’ve been in touch? They all know?”

“No,” he said. “Not yet. None of them know. I’ve been thinking about how to make the connections. It’s possible some of them aren’t even aware they weren’t conceived the good old-fashioned way. But I’m going to have to tell them. They’re going to have to know. They deserve to know.”

Miles started to feel light-headed again. He closed his eyes briefly, took a few breaths. “I’m okay,” he said without being asked.

Gilbert’s brow was wrinkled. “Why? Why do they have to know? I mean, you got to this point in life without knowing. Things happen when they happen. Why do you feel you have to tell them? What’s driving this? I mean, okay, I know you’re sick. You’ve explained that. You have only so much time left. But why disrupt their lives this way?”

“I’d imagine some would want to know more about who they are, what they might be facing in the future.”

Gilbert did not appear convinced.

“But let me get to something else first,” Miles said. “I’ve set up something for you, for when I’m gone. A trust.”

“A trust? What do you mean, a trust? Don’t you set those up for kids before they come of age?”

“In a lot of cases, yes. But they can be used for more than that. You’ll get twenty thousand a month, or nearly a quarter million a year. And this car, of course, which you can sell if you want. It’s up to you.”

“Jesus, Miles, that’s... generous of you, but why... why parcel it out that way? I’m your brother. You’re worth... millions. You think I can’t handle... I mean, considering I’m... your only real family.”

Miles couldn’t look his brother in the eye. He stared, briefly, out the window, then looked down into his lap.

“Oh,” Gilbert said, his focus sharpening. “I get it.”

“Gilbert, please understand that—”

“It’s Caroline. This is all about Caroline.”

Miles caught his eye briefly. “Yes, it’s about Caroline.”

“Christ, Miles. I don’t know who should be more insulted. Her or me.”

“I don’t mean to insult you,” he said. “But... I think I have to be frank here, Gil. I know you, and I know Caroline. I’ve observed the... dynamic of your relationship from its outset. Anything I were to leave to you I’d really be leaving to Caroline. She’d be on that windfall like rats on a discarded pizza.”

“That’s not... that’s not fair. And could you have picked a more disgusting analogy?”

Miles hesitated, unsure whether to proceed. “I’ve never told you this story. I kept it to myself because I blamed myself. I have to hand it to Caroline. She’s enterprising. Remember when we had that reception here for that team from Google?”

Gilbert nodded. “It was a big event. With the tent set up at your place, lots of food and drink. You even got Chicago to play the gig.”

“Right. And Caroline came. She made a few contacts. Later, she approached one of the team, made a proposal to him for an app. Something that would allow a regular person, for free and with ease, to instantly check a person’s criminal record, credit history, everything. Perfect for checking out potential hires, or some guy you just met. Not the worst idea in the world, actually.”

“What are you talking about?”

Miles raised a hand, asking him to just wait. “She wanted a hundred thousand to put the idea into development.”

“Caroline has no tech experience. That’s crazy. She never mentioned a word of this to me. I mean, she works in the court system, so I can see where she might have gotten the idea, but she hasn’t any skills to bring it to fruition.”

The hand went up again. “That’s why she told the Google rep the project had my backing. That I’d already chipped in a hundred grand. She showed him a letter, signed by me, endorsing the plan.”

Gilbert looked as though he might have a stroke. “Miles, I swear, I never knew anything about this. I have no idea what she did with that money.”

“She never got it.”

“What?”

“The Google guy, before he cut her a check, he called me to clarify one or two points. I was caught off guard there for a moment. I didn’t want to expose what she’d done, not to him, so I said I’d reconsidered my support of the project based on my own assessment of its merits. Privacy issues, getting access to literally millions of court records. So he pulled out. And then I called Caroline. It was a very simple call. I said, ‘I know what you did and don’t do it again.’ She apologized and asked me not to tell you. I never promised her I wouldn’t.”

“I can’t — what was she thinking? How did she think she’d get away with that? How did she think you wouldn’t find out? How the hell was she going to invent something she had no idea how to invent?”

Miles gave the question some thought. “I’m not sure Caroline thinks that far ahead. She comes up with a plan that has an immediate payoff, but doesn’t have a plan for the fallout.”

“What she did... it’s misrepresentation, or fraud, or both.”

Miles didn’t agree or disagree. “But I give her credit where credit’s due. It was a pretty audacious scheme. Anyway, that’s why I’m not leaving the bulk of my estate to you, Gilbert. I don’t trust Caroline, and I’m not confident you could stop her from taking it all away from you. I’m sorry. And up until recently, I’m not really sure where I would have directed it. But now, I have a plan.”

It only took Gilbert a moment to figure it out. “You’re leaving it to these nine.”

“Yes. But I’m not going to make them wait. I want to start distributing it to them now. At first I thought, find out who they are and put them in my will. But say I hold on for ten, fifteen years. That’s a long time before they come into the money. And they might have a need for it long before then.”

Gilbert said, “You’ve given this a lot of thought.”

“I have.”

Gilbert was silent.

“You feel betrayed,” Miles said.

Gilbert’s mouth had gone dry. He moved his tongue around, trying to moisten it. Finally, he said, “I’m your brother.”