Twenty Years Later(17)
“Scott,” Walt said, taking his gaze off her to look at his old friend. “It was really good seeing you, buddy. I don’t mean to cut you off, but I’ve got to talk with someone I just noticed was here.”
“Of course. Thanks for the drink. Good seeing you, too. Jamaica, huh?”
Walt smiled. “Come down sometime. I’ve got an extra room.”
“You serious?”
Walt glanced back into the crowd, sensing an urgency to speak with her. As if another moment’s delay would cause him to miss his chance. He looked back at Scott Sherwood.
“Of course I’m serious.”
Scott set his drink on the bar and reached for his phone. “Let me get your number. Maybe I’ll call you to take you up on the offer.”
Walt smiled impatiently. He rattled off his cell phone number.
“You better answer when I call.”
Walt slapped his friend on the shoulder. “You bet. Good to see you, Scott.”
Walt turned and made his way through the crowd. She seemed to sense his presence because she turned just as he was approaching. Immediately, she smiled. They stared at each other for a moment; everyone else in the room disappeared. So much was spoken between them without either saying a word.
Finally, she reached out and put her arms around his neck.
Walt wrapped her in a tight hug.
“Hi, Meghan.”
“My God, it’s good to see you,” she whispered in his ear.
There were a thousand things Walt wanted to say. A thousand things he had rehearsed. Things he had thought about every day during the year that had passed since he had last seen her. That he loved her as much now as he did three years ago. That he missed her in a way he had never missed another person. That if the universe were a less cruel place, they’d have met each other earlier in life. That he hadn’t left because his love for her had faded, but because it was easier to be miserable living on an island in the Caribbean than in the same city as the woman he loved but couldn’t be with.
Walt said none of those things, though. He just closed his eyes and held her tight, feeling her heart thud against his own.
CHAPTER 10
Sister Bay, WI Friday, June 18, 2021
IT HAD BEEN YEARS SINCE ANYONE CALLED HER CLAIRE. NO ONE ELSE, in fact, referred to her today as anything other than Avery Mason. She wondered if it was really possible to erase a past and become someone else. Childhood memories rooted deeply in her subconscious told her that it was not. No matter how many years passed, some part of her would always be Claire Montgomery. The part of her that was tethered to Connie Clarkson had no other identity.
Born Claire Avery Montgomery, she had not legally changed her name to Avery Mason, but had used the moniker in the byline of her first article for the LA Times when she was twenty-eight years old. It stuck. Not coincidentally, it was the same year her father was indicted for one of the largest Ponzi schemes in American history. The name change was a strategic move made after she graduated law school and tried to escape her family’s legacy. Being the daughter of Garth Montgomery had ended her legal career before it started. No one would trust the daughter of one of America’s greatest thieves to honestly pursue criminals, so she hadn’t tried. With a useless law degree and a family lineage she was trying to expunge, she fled New York and landed in Southern California. She fell back on her undergraduate degree in journalism to secure a job as a beat writer for the Los Angeles Times. It paid little and was a far cry from the life she had left behind. Once the daughter of a billionaire and the recipient of a trust fund meant to provide a lifetime of financial independence, she landed in LA and for the first time in her life needed to fend for herself.
Soon after starting at the Times, she stumbled across the story of the missing Florida toddler. The story was picked up nationally, and her investigation gained the attention of Mack Carter. She, as Avery Mason, was asked to appear as a guest on American Events to tell the story, which led to a three-part special. The final two-hour episode included the dramatic footage of Avery, followed by American Events cameras, accompanying the police when they made their disturbing discovery in a shed behind the grandmother’s home. Mack Carter had been so impressed with Avery’s investigative instincts that he asked her back on the show several times that year. She was just twenty-nine years old at the time. The frequent guest spots led to a more permanent role as a regular contributor. Her ratings proved the young journalist popular. After two years as a contributor, she was asked to join the show permanently as co-host. When Mack Carter died she found herself in the unlikely position as the new face of one of America’s longest running newsmagazine shows. On the surface, Avery Mason was a young, successful journalist with her entire career in front of her. Inside, she was a nervous wreck that the attention would shine a spotlight on her past and link her to Garth Montgomery—her father, the Thief of Manhattan.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s the Montgomery family had been a symbol of the American Dream—a hardworking family who had reached the upper echelons of society through grit and determination. Garth Montgomery founded Montgomery Investment Services in 1986, a New York–based hedge fund that offered security brokerage and investment advisory services to banks, financial institutions, and high net worth individuals. After three decades of managing the portfolios of some of the country’s wealthiest people, advising some of the world’s largest corporations, overseeing retirement funds for America’s biggest unions, and controlling the endowments of influential universities, the firm had $50 billion in assets under management. It looked like a well-managed global fund making millions for its clients. In reality, it was a massive Ponzi scheme that paid long-term investors outrageous returns generated from new investors’ deposits. A house of cards waiting to fall, it finally did, and in stunning fashion.