A Good Marriage(89)

But the answer was clear to me: Zach had been hoping to get as much out of me and my experts as he could before the truth caught up. It was a decent strategy. Look how far it had already gotten him.

“What happened to the money?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. “Do you know?”

“No. I discovered several large transfers at Mr. Grayson’s direction. When I inquired, he quite angrily told me it was none of my business. But technically, I also have a fiduciary responsibility to the foundation’s board of directors.”

“Why would Zach need to take the foundation’s money?” I asked. “Didn’t he just sell his company for millions of dollars?”

“That’s not my understanding,” Teddy Buckley said, but carefully.

“Then what is your understanding?”

“Listen, this is really all gossip and conjecture. I wasn’t involved at the time. I only took over after the company was sold, once the foundation was established. I don’t handle financial matters for Mr. Grayson’s new company,” he said. “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to—”

“Mr. Buckley!” I shouted, even though I was probably on thin ice. “I don’t have time for this. I’m just trying to get an innocent man out of jail, and I have experts who need to be paid. You have an authorization allowing you to speak with me. Believe me, I am acting on Mr. Grayson’s legal authority. You are obligated to answer my questions.”

Teddy Buckley took a nervous breath. “My understanding is that Mr. Grayson was bought out by the board of ZAG, but that they were able to pay him a significantly reduced amount because of alleged malfeasance.”

“Malfeasance?”

“I don’t know the specifics and it’s not been proven legally, of course. But apparently, it was discovered that Mr. Grayson had some … unorthodox methods. It made ZAG, Inc. vulnerable,” he said. “Surely he was paid enough to cover personal expenses, to establish the foundation and start the new venture. As for the ongoing costs of that venture … Again, this is speculation.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling queasy. “I didn’t realize.”

But now I did. This was probably the real reason Zach had sought me out to represent him: he was broke. Any other attorney would have demanded a huge retainer up front. And they would have—smartly—waited for the check to clear before getting to work. How much better if he could get me, for free? It hadn’t even occurred to me yet to ask about a retainer. Evidently, it hadn’t occurred to Paul either. After all, Zach was rich. What could possibly go wrong?

“Mr. Grayson stopped taking my calls about a month ago, but Mrs. Grayson had agreed to meet before she died. I was going to explain the issue to her, and then escalate to the board of directors if need be. But when I showed up at the foundation last week, she wasn’t there.” He paused, then took another breath. “I returned the next afternoon and then the one after that, but Mrs. Grayson continued to be unavailable. I ended up telling the foundation’s assistant director what was going on. It was against my better judgment, and I’ll admit it skirted an ethical line. But I felt that somebody at the foundation needed to know before they started awarding nonexistent funds to needy students.”

“Assistant director?”

“Let me look at my notes,” Teddy said, reluctantly. “Her name is Sarah Novak.”

“You met with Sarah Novak?”

“Yes, briefly.”

Sarah had specifically mentioned this accountant trying to track Amanda down, and yet she’d left out the fact that she’d met with him herself? And that during that meeting he’d dropped a bankruptcy bombshell? What was she hiding? Was it possible that she’d been involved somehow with Zach in taking the foundation’s money?

“When exactly was this?”

“Hold on,” he said. There was the sound of tapping on a keyboard in the background. “It was Thursday, July second, at four p.m. I will say Mrs. Novak wasn’t happy when I told her. Actually, she was very, very angry. Honestly, it took me by surprise. I had expected concern, but she seemed to be taking it all very personally.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Um, well, she said something like, ‘Great, so now I’m out of a fucking job? What am I supposed to fucking do?’” Teddy sounded very awkward swearing, like he was speaking a foreign language. “There was more, but all along those lines. With more profanity and more shouting. She seemed very worried about the financial consequences for her personally.”

“Okay, thank you,” I said.

“Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do.”

I hung up and looked through the glass office door as Millie paced back and forth in the distance, shaking her head and waving her finger in the air, as though she was reaming out Vinnie for doubting me. Unfortunate, given that he’d been right from the start.

Zach was a failure—a loser—the very thing he swore he’d never be. Who knew how far he’d go to cover it up? Maybe he was in on some scheme with Sarah. Maybe it was the two of them who’d been together the night of the party, not Zach and Maude. Was Maude protecting Sarah? Was Sarah’s disdain for Zach part of some elaborate ruse?

The possibilities multiplied before my eyes so rapidly that soon I felt sure of only one thing: I’d been flying blind.