Page 80 of Unlocked

"Yeah." Kelly let out a sound that was almost a laugh but wasn't quite. "Great, right? He just couldn't help himself."

"So who's behind it?" Tatum asked again.

Kelly's head moved lethargically side-to-side. "I don't know."

Archer snorted and took a step closer. The quality of his stillness changed in a way that filled the room.

Kelly held up both hands. "Seriously, I don't know. I don't know who's behind it. North, Lebowitz, and me…we all worked together. It was North who knew everything. He could've told us, but I didn't ask. I was desperate for money. This worked for me. Very little work and lots of money. I kept my mouth shut and did what I was told."

He paused. When he spoke again, his voice had dropped, and for the first time, he sounded less like a man making excuses and more like a man telling the truth because he had nothing left to lose. "Tim was always pushing for more. North warned him. Said the people behind it wouldn't like it. Said they had a lot of power and they were dangerous. Now North and Lebowitz are dead, and I'm just the guy who did exactly as he was told."

He looked up at both of them. His eyes were red-rimmed and exhausted and genuinely afraid, and underneath all of that was something that looked uncomfortably like regret.

"And I'm next."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Archer watched Kelly fidget. It was time to hit him with some names.

"We know Austin Davis is behind this."

Kelly's eyes, which had been darting around the room, flew to Archer's face. "I, that is, I didn't…You didn't hear that from me.”

"No, I didn't,” Archer agreed, “but I could tell the world I did."

"But that's not true," Kelly snarled.

"No, it isn't. But you're withholding information. Two people are dead. They were your friends. Start talking, or I’ll force your hand." Archer was done being neutral. It was time for hardball.

Kelly swallowed convulsively. The fight in him had been draining away since they walked in, and now it was gone entirely. "Fine. It was Davis."

Tatum frowned. "Davis is the only one behind this?"

"No. Yes. Sort of?" Kelly stumbled over his words. "Davis definitely is part of it."

"Good," Archer said. "Now tell us exactly how it worked."

Kelly looked like he was going to argue. Then he shrugged, the gesture of a man who had run out of reasons to resist.

"I can’t help you if you don’t tell me," Archer said.

Kelly snorted, but without heat. "No one can help me now." He reached over and poured a large measure of scotch into a dirty glass, drank it down in one swallow, and put the glass back on the table. "But I'll tell you what I know. There's no point keeping a secret you already know."

"So spill it," Tatum said.

Archer hadn’t been pleased to learn that Tatum was visiting Kelly, but now felt like her presence wasn’t bad. Except for his libido. Memories of how he’d touched her last night, of how she’d moaned beneath him as he worked her body to relief, rose in his mind. Memories he wanted to revisit, but now wasn’t the time. Not when her life was in jeopardy. He forced his attention away from her sweet face and refocused on Kelly.

Kelly sighed heavily. "I already told you that North brought Lebowitz and me into it. Lebowitz went off the rails. He did his own thing. North was not pleased." He rubbed his face. "Our job was just to manage everything. Make it look good. Davis brought the investors. The ones on the list. He made the initial approach, and we followed up.

“It was Davis’s job to quietly spread the word in the beginning. Just a handful here and there. In the end, maybe twenty investors. Nobody got paid back. It was all meant to look legitimate on paper. The money moved through accounts, going wherever we were told, some of it siphoned off to pay us, the rest disappeared." He made a poof gesture with his hands.

Archer wasn’t inclined to believe Kelly didn’t know where it went, but the man was on a roll, so he didn’t pursue his suspicion.

Kelly took a breath. "Then Tim came along with his idea. Making it more into a Ponzi scheme. He thought, why not? I told him it was a bad idea, but he did it anyway. He started bringing in retirees, taking their money. He said it was like taking candy from a baby." Kelly's voice flattened on that phrase, a faint disgust underneath it. "I told him not to push it. He did it anyway. Then he snagged bigger clients because word had spread, some of them Society members. And we weren't set up for that. We had a very specific list of names. When it got out of hand, North had to talk to somebody."

"Talk to who?" Archer's voice was quiet. Controlled. But there was something in it that made Kelly look up.

Kelly rubbed his face. "Okay, you're right. There was someone else behind it. Someone we knew about. And it wasn't just Davis, because we all knew Davis was involved. Davis couldn't keep his mouth shut. He'd corner us in hallways and ask how much people had invested." He paused. "He didn't know the numbers. Only we knew the numbers. And this other guy…” He swallowed hard and stared at the empty glass.