Page 81 of Unlocked

Tatum leaned back in the chair. "It's Lou Anderson, isn't it?"

Kelly's head whipped around. He stared at her, open-mouthed. "How the hell did you know that?"

The conviction in Tatum’s voice tugged at something Archer thought he’d buried in the details of his day. It was the same assuredness he’d heard last night when she told him her mouth wasn’t broken. The corners of his lips began to lift, and he gave himself a mental shake.

She ignored the question. "How is he involved? Is he the mastermind?"

Kelly rubbed his face again. "I don't know, and that's the truth." He held up his hands, palms out, and glanced at Archer before looking back to Tatum. "All I know is that he was supplying the names. He'd get Davis to reach out to those guys and say it was time to pay up. And they paid. Our job was to have the numbers ready, make it look good, have whole meetings where we'd discuss the investments. In reality, we'd go to dinner, have a chat, and tell them the number. They paid. Some of them came back and paid again and again."

"What were they paying for?" Archer asked. "You had your suspicions."

Kelly's shoulders sagged. He suddenly looked every inch the overweight, middle-aged, frightened man that he was. "Yeah. I have my suspicions." He was quiet for a moment, and when he spoke again, his voice was lower, stripped of its usual bluster. "I think they’re into human trafficking. I think Davis and Anderson were supplying young girls. Kids. And I think the investments were payments for that."

He rubbed his face with both hands. "It's so gross. It's beyond me." He met Archer's gaze and then looked at Tatum, and the shame in his eyes was unmistakable. "I didn't know. I want you both to know that. When I got in, it was just about investments. It was easy money. That's what they said. That's what North told me. And I was in financial trouble after my divorce, so I jumped at it."

He paused. "I thought it was drugs. I know that's not great either, but it's different. I didn't know what was really going on until much later. When people were coming back, making repeat investments and sending emissaries to pay on their behalf. It became too much."

"And that's when you started drinking," Tatum said quietly.

Kelly nodded. "I have kids. Girls." His voice cracked on that, and he stopped. He pressed his lips together and looked at the table. "I can't imagine. These people are sick. And I wanted out. I asked North to let me out, but he couldn't. So I just kept my mouth shut and did what I was told."

The room was silent for a moment.

"And Davis brought people in?" Archer asked.

"Mostly. Austin was like the leg breaker."

Archer snorted. "There's no way Austin was physically threatening anyone."

"He didn't have to," Kelly said. "He'd threaten to bury them. Strip their reputations, pull their contracts. Davis knows everybody, and he knows what everybody's hiding. That was his job. Bring them in, and apply pressure if they balk at paying, then collect. Didn't matter that he'd fallen out of favor because he still knew where all the bodies were buried. And that's why Anderson brought him in. North told me that."

Now that fit with what Archer had long suspected… What he’d known.

"So you think Anderson is the main guy behind this?" Tatum asked.

Archer spared a glance at Tatum, but said nothing. He had his doubts. Anderson was clever and polished, but polished was the problem. You could stroke Anderson's ego, and he'd give you whatever you wanted. If you were running something like this, you needed to be impervious to that kind of persuasion. Anderson wasn't the Curator. But Archer would bet the farm that he knew who the Curator was.

Kelly let out a long sigh. "I only know what North told me. I never spoke to Anderson directly. I avoided him like the plague. Davis too. I just did my bit, took my money, and kept my mouth shut."

He paused. "But North got drunk one night. Just him and me at my place. He said it was all falling apart. That Tim had pushed it too far, and now they had people investing they didn't invite in. They couldn't turn the money away. North told me how furious Anderson was, but then he said something that stuck with me. He said he thought Anderson's anger was an act."

Archer went still.

All the gears in his mind turned at once, and suddenly it clicked. Clean and complete. Like the last piece of a puzzle dropping into place.

"That's because Anderson is the one who got all of you indicted," he said.

"What?" Kelly stared at him.

Tatum stared at him, too, but her eyes had narrowed. "You think Anderson fed the information to the Feds himself?"

"Yes," Archer said. "Lebowitz had become a problem. You all had. The extra investors were a liability because they actually expected returns. The money flow was off. So what better way to shut it down cleanly than to hand you all to the Feds? He controls the narrative. You take a plea. A few years in Club Fed, then you disappear with fifty million each, and Anderson quietly rebuilds with new people who know better."

Kelly's mouth had opened. "A couple of years in Club Fed. That's exactly what we were offered."

"Right," Archer said. "And once you're out, you're gone. He starts again, closer to home, fewer moving parts, with Davis as the frontman."

Kelly shook his head slowly. "North said Anderson had a boss. He didn't know who. But he knew for a fact Anderson was getting told what to do. That worried North a lot because he thought he had things under control as long as it was just Anderson and Davis." He looked up. "Obviously, he didn't."