Deconstructed(84)

Not to mention, Scott hadn’t come home. He hadn’t answered my texts, and his Find My Phone app had long been turned off, so I went to bed alone and woke to a message that he’d stayed over at a friend’s house because he’d drunk too much. Join the crowd. No mention of who the friend was, and since I had a foggy headache from the wine and intended to file for divorce anyway, I didn’t worry about responding with much more than Okay.

Julia Kate accepted that her dad had worked late and slept on a friend’s couch. She was much more interested in how she was going to navigate not having the science experiment done correctly and in how that would affect her grade and in how she wasn’t going to get into Princeton or Yale. I hated to burst her bubble and tell her that was a far-fetched possibility even if we had gotten the baking soda, so I just let her rant.

I dropped my daughter off, went through CC’s Coffee House for a double-shot espresso, and then dropped by the store to make sure it hadn’t burned down and that Judy Barr had gotten the French armoire she’d been hounding me about via text. Twelve texts was excessive. Like I could do anything about a dock strike. The morning was busy for a Wednesday, and Jade was in a good mood. Me? My stomach felt sour and my mind floaty, and my entire life teetered on the edge. But I soldiered on, pretending to be interested in the history of Wedgwood for some older gentleman who seemed very intent on giving me a lesson. Finally, I left the store at eleven a.m., picking up lunch and heading north to Juke’s office.

When I arrived, I had every intention of throwing in the towel on my little PI side hustle.

But the three Balthazar family members who awaited me had a different plan.

“Ah, lunch,” Griffin said, taking the bag from me as I turned and shut the door. “I’m starving.”

“You’re always starving,” Ruby said from her place on the couch. In true Ruby fashion, she wore an electric-blue miniskirt, lace leggings, and a vest that had been given the Annie Hall treatment with an eighties executive-woman vibe. No, maybe it was more Melanie Griffith in Working Girl. Either way, Ruby looked cutting edge, making me feel like chopped liver in my capri leggings with the oversize linen shift.

“True,” Griffin said, digging out the full-size roast beef po’boy labeled with his name. The rest of us had turkey club sandwiches. I passed around the iced tea and made myself comfortable on the other end of the couch, which didn’t look quite as suspect as it had weeks ago. The normally delicious sandwich tasted like ash in my mouth. I wrapped it up and saved it for later while the rest of the crew demolished my offering.

After a few minutes, Juke wiped the mayo from the corners of his mouth and said, “We have a problem.”

“I already knew that,” I said.

“No. A bigger problem, because my contact who has a contact at the SEC told him your boy Donner has been under investigation for a while. Word in their office is that the lead investigator is ready to make the arrest. Any day now.”

“Fine,” I said, with a shrug of my shoulders. “I read about divorce, and if Scott goes to jail, I don’t even have to prove adultery. Federal prison speeds things up.”

“But what about your money?” Ruby made an impatient face.

“It’s just money. I’ll be okay. I mean, yeah, I’m mad that he essentially stole our retirement and savings, but maybe going down for helping Donner swindle people will clear up his priorities. I’m honestly relieved to hear they might be closing in on Donner, because those pictures of my daughter were the smelling salts I needed to wake me up to the seriousness of this matter.”

Juke looked at Ruby, who looked at Griff.

For a moment, none of them spoke.

Then Griffin balled his lunch bag up and sent it for three points into the empty trash can. “You’re right. Your daughter is important. And money is money. Not like it’s the end all be all of life. But what if you can get your hands on that offshore account?”

I thought about that. “Well, yeah. I would at least want my share.”

Ruby nodded. “For Julia Kate. College is expensive.”

“And once the SEC is involved, the assets will be frozen if Scott was taking kickbacks or sharing in the profits. If he mingled the money, even the stuff that is legally yours and untainted could be hung up,” Juke added.

I thought about that. “But isn’t the money safer offshore, then?”

“Yeah. But the account isn’t in your name, so you can’t access it. But I have a plan that might work.” Juke leaned back, his eyes clear, his stubble a thing of the past. He looked much healthier and very interested in making my sleazy husband pay. Which I sort of liked about him. About all of them. They’d been scheming while I had been panicking. My heart did a pitty-pat of pleasure.

The gleam in his eye sparked something in me. “You really have a plan to get the money back?”

“Unless you don’t want to.”

“It’s not that I don’t want the money. I’m not stupid. Scott has cheated on me and cheated on his clients. He will pay for his crimes against his clients, but I guess what you’re saying is that if I don’t try to get the money back, if I don’t demand some justice for me and my daughter, he wins against me.”

Griffin kicked his chair back on two legs. They may have actually groaned. “I don’t want him to win, sunshine.”