Jack walks back into the office, they're all looking at him like they're seeing a ghost.
Jack hears the whispers as he walks down the narrow aisle through the cubicles. Fired… perjury… kickbacks… crooked cop…
"I'm baa-aack!" Jack sings out.
Some of the dogs turn around in their cubicles, bury their faces in their monitors. Except one who picks up her phone, cups her hand around the receiver and starts whispering.
So Hansen has released a Be on the Lookout For and this babe can't wait to drop the dime. But it'll take them some time to work out how to handle it. There'll be calls up and down, calls to Billy, calls to Mahogany Row…
So you have time but not a lot of time.
He sits down and starts banging the computer.
Gets into the California Secretary of State's database and types in "Westview."
Which is not the happiest name to be researching if you happen to be located on the West Coast.
The screen brings up a couple of hundred of them.
Westview Travel, Westview Realty, Westview Retirement, Westview Recreational Vehicles, Westview Condominium Association…
Westview Ltd.
Jack goes with Westview Ltd.
A limited partnership will only show the general partners, not the shareholders. They're anonymous until you can get your hands on the actual limited partnership agreement, which would have to be subpoenaed.
So it's a good vehicle to play the ownership shell game.
Jack double-clicks on Westview Ltd. and requests an LP1 statement, which lists the general partners.
A James Johnson, a Benjamin Khafti and an Orange Coast Ltd.
Another limited partnership.
Jack requests an LP1 statement for Orange Coast Ltd.
A Howard Krasner, a Grant Lederer, another limited partnership.
CrossCo Ltd.
Jack requests an LP1 for CrossCo.
And on and on and on.
Every hit gets him a couple of hypothetical people and another limited partnership.
The ownership shell game.
Find the moving owners under the shell.
Jack keeps playing.
He's twelve layers deep when he hits on Jerisoco Ltd.
Bingo.
General partners: a Michael Allen, Kazimir Azmekian and something called Gold Coast Ltd.
Gold Coast Ltd.
Back to the shell game. He pops it for an LP1 and gets another meaningless name and two more limited partnerships. Those two get him three more.
And so on and so on and so on and then he hits it.
Great Sunsets Ltd.
Jack's head whirls.
Great Sunsets Ltd. – the company that's trying to develop Dana Strands.
And it's hooked into Kazzy Azmekian and Nicky Vale.
Holy God.
Jack sees two security guys and Cooper, the ex-cop from SIU, coming down the aisle.
Jack requests an LP1 for Great Sunsets Ltd.
The computer hums.
Come on, come on, Jack thinks.
They're fifty feet away.
Come on, Jack thinks.
Because he can feel the paranoia crawl up his back like a hot wave.
Jack looks around and feels like the walls are closing in on him.
They are.
109
He's just managed to turn the computer off when Cooper lays a hand on his shoulder.
"You've been suspended, Jack," Cooper says, "pending an investigation."
"Fuck you, I quit."
"Better," Cooper says.
Goddamn Billy comes up.
"What the goddamn hell is going on here?"
"Mr. Wade has been suspended."
"Who says Mr. Wade has been suspended?"
"SIU has uncovered some information involving kickbacks-"
"Bull-fucking-shit!"
"You'll have to take that up with Ms. Hansen," Cooper says.
"You bet your goddamn ass I'll take it up with Mizzz Goddamn Hansen!" Billy yells. "This ain't over, Jack."
"It's over, Billy."
You don't know how over.
They're walking him out, Jack can see Sandra Hansen watching him from the corner. He waves at her.
Hansen's not happy.
She's thinking what a brainless, dumb stud Jack Wade is. She's thinking that Jack's surfboard has landed on his head once – make that twice – too often.
But he's a good honest claims dog and it's too bad he's so damn stubborn. Out this morning still chasing the Vale file.
But she has three years and God only knows how much of her budget sunk into ROC and she's not going to let one stubborn M-4 of an adjuster flush it down the toilet.
Not now.
Not when the deal goes down tonight.
So Jack Wade has to go.
Phil Herlihy's watching the whole thing up on Mahogany Row on the security camera.
Phil's gripping.
Seriously.
He's been monitoring Wade's computer screen, saw what he was working on.
Jack Wade has to go.
110
Jack feels like his head's going to blow off his shoulders.
Nicky owns the Strands.
With SIU taking his back.
Very sweet.
Face it, you don't stand a chance.
They beat you. Any move you make they'll find a way to jam it.
They have the execs and the cops and the lawyers and the judges.
And face it, you don't know who else Nicky owns.
So fuck it.
Sorry, Pam.
Sorry, Letty.
Nicky Vale will get richer.
On his wife's body.
And his kids' heartbreak.
And fuck that.
He looks for a place to turn around. Can't, because there's a big black Caddy coming up on his ass.
111
It's a big humping old black Caddy and it's right on his ass.
The 'Stang is a nice car but it doesn't have the weight to stand off the souped-up Caddy this doofus is pushing at him.
The Caddy's on his tail through a tricky S-curve, which breaks open into a short straightaway that bends into a huge outside turn, and Jack taps the brakes because you do not want to go into this curve too fast unless you want to be Orville Wright.
So he slows down but this asshole stays right on him.
Then he moves to pass.
Jack can't freaking believe it, but this asshole pulls right alongside him as the curve turns in.
Comes around and stays beside him.
The Caddy's in the wrong lane on a curve and doesn't pull back in.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Jack yells, because there's a cliff wall on the inside and a two-hundred-foot drop on the outside and this is bad news.
Which is true, because now another car has come up behind him. A muscle car, a Charger, and now it's right up on his ass.
Which is bad, because now Jack has nowhere to go.
He can't even hit the brakes.
Then he sees the truck coming.
In his lane, straight at him.
He either crashes head-on into the trailer truck or he goes off the road.
Which is the plan.
Jimmy Dansky, he's sitting in the cab of the truck and the cars headed straight for him. The new guy is good, the new guy is doing just what he's supposed to. Trap the Mustang in place.
A game of chicken.
Which Jimmy figures he's going to win, because he knows it's psychologically impossible for a car to hang in. The driver sees a truck coming he'll hit the brakes and swerve – human nature. And when he swerves he loses it on that curve and he's over the edge.
Bye-bye.
He goes, and then the chase car can take the oncoming lane, and everyone gets home safe.
Except the Mustang.
It's in a crater at the bottom of the canyon.
A very tricky stunt, a real ball tightener, but it's going like a bomb.
So he bears down on the Mustang and waits for it to chicken out.
Jack doesn't swerve or hit the brakes. What he does is he steps on the gas. He pushes the 'Stang toward the trailer truck like she's going to take it out.