I Married a Billionaire: Lost and Found(53)

Daniel sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. "What about one of the others? The other plaintiffs? What if one of them testified?"

Ms. Greenlee brightened a little. "That would be ideal. One or both of them. If he was in contact with them, if either of them knows enough to prosecute him - we could hold obstruction of justice over their heads until they agree to testify against him for immunity. If they can produce emails, anything like that - so much the better."

"I’ll do my best to get in touch with them," said Daniel. "I have…a friend of sorts in the alumni association."

"Good, good. Excellent." Ms. Greenlee was much happier now, and that made me feel slightly better, although my head was swimming with everything she’d told us.

Daniel made good on his promise to contact the alumni association again, that very day. After he’d spent so much time trying to roll over and accept injustice, it was encouraging to see him like this again. He explained the situation to his new friend as delicately as he could, and the alumni representative promised to put both plaintiffs directly in touch with the authorities, if he could reach them.

From then on, it was another waiting game.

***

The police chief called, a few days later. He spoke only to Daniel, who looked very solemn as he answered monosyllabically.

"Well?" I asked, as he hung up.

"One of them came in," he said. "But he won’t testify unless he gets a chance to talk to me first."

I bit my lip to keep from asking if I could be there, too. At this point, I felt like I ought to, but I didn’t want to push him.

"You should come," he said.

I didn’t realize it was that obvious that I wanted to, but I wasn’t going to say no.

When we got down to the station, I realized I was horribly nervous and I didn’t know why. I reached down and clasped Daniel’s hand as we walked through the halls, and very briefly, I felt his fingers squeeze mine.

The man who was waiting for us in the interview room had sandy blond hair and tired eyes. He didn’t look up, not even when Daniel’s chair scraped loudly against the floor as he pulled it out to sit.

"Well," he said, after a moment of silence. "They said you wanted to talk to me. Here I am."

The man swallowed, audibly. He finally looked up.

"I’m sorry," he said. "I went over it in my head, a million times, but now I don’t know what to say anymore."

Daniel’s mouth twisted. "Well, I’m glad I came all the way down here."

The man sighed, his head resting in his hands. "I don’t know. I don’t know where to start, exactly. I got a phone call yesterday telling me I could be facing up to five years in federal prison, and then I drove all night to get here. My head’s not exactly…"

"It’s fine," said Daniel, flatly. "It’s going to be fine, all you have to do is tell them what you know."

"They’re sending over a public defender," he said. "After that, I’ll figure out what I’m going to do."

Daniel drummed his fingers lightly on the table.

"It wasn’t right, how we treated you," said the man, finally. "I’ve…I wish I could say I realized it right away, but it’s been gradual. I think about it a lot. Especially lately. It’s hard to even walk down the street without seeing your name on some headline."




"I’m aware," said Daniel.

"I just thought you should know." He looked at the wall for a few moments. "You know, if I’d thought Jim was serious about this, I would have told him to leave you alone. But I had no idea. I thought he was just…venting." He took a deep breath. "But apparently, he was serious about it. I didn’t realize until he started asking me for money to help out with ‘the cause.’ That was what he called it. I explained to him that I was still paying off my student loans, and barely making my rent every month, but I guess I should have told him what I was really thinking. A million times I ranted about it to my wife, I told her how he needed to just let go, and leave you alone, but I never said it to him. Maybe if I had…but that’s not the point, I guess. I can do something about it now. I just wish it hadn’t gone this far."

"Well, you couldn’t have known," I put in, since Daniel didn’t seem like he was going to respond anytime soon.

Silence reigned, for a few more minutes.

"Is that all?" Daniel said, finally.

"I just wanted you to know I’m sorry," said the man. "And I don’t hold it against you."

Daniel straightened, suddenly. "Don’t hold what against me?"

The man looked up, blankly. "I’m sorry," he said. "I shouldn’t have brought it up."

I looked over at Daniel; he waited for another moment, and then stood up abruptly and went towards the door. I followed him, glancing back at the other man as we left. But he didn’t look up as we left. He just kept staring at the table, his head in his hands.

"He feels bad," I said, when we were out in the car.

"Yes, well," said Daniel. "Try as I might, I can’t drum up too much sympathy."

I knew he had a right to feel that way, but there was still something unsettled in the pit of my stomach.