Page 197 of Broken
The elevator doors split open. Prescott heard his uncle ranting before he’d even exited the cab.
“You’ve got no right to keep me from going—” Artemis made eye contact with Prescott. “Oh, thank God. Security won’t let me upstairs. What the hell is going on?”
“Let’s talk over here,” Prescott led Artemis to the far corner of the two-story lobby. He might be furious with him, but he wasn’t going to humiliate him. His uncle had done that on his own.
Once out of earshot, Prescott said, “I know about TopCon.”
A shadow fell over his uncle’s face. “What do you mean?”
“TopCon is your company, and you’ve been paying Leslie for work she isn’t doing.”
Artemis got in his face and shoved a finger at him. “How dare you accuse me of that?”
“I know the truth,” Prescott said devoid of any emotion. “You should be ashamed of yourself for committing fraud.”
Artemis hung his head. “I knew it was a terrible idea, but she’s incredible. I feel like I’m twenty-five around her.”
“Why did you embezzle from the company?”
“I’d been giving her money from my personal account, but your aunt found out.”
“How much?” Prescott asked.
“Over two hundred thousand.” Artemis’s shoulders dropped. “I bought her a house and a BMW, jewelry, so much clothing, acting lessons, photo shoots for her modeling career. Whatever she asked for.”
“Jesus, this is fucked up.”
“Look, Scotty, I’ll just pay the company back. It’ll be our little secret. I’ll cut things off with her and never see her again.”
“I’m sorry, Artemis. I can’t do that. Youcommitted fraud and you put the company in jeopardy.”
Detective Chavez and two officers made their way over.
“Artemis Armstrong?” asked Chavez.
Artemis looked at them, then glared at Prescott. “I gave you a phenomenal job whenyoufucked up with the Bureau. And this is how you repay me!” Artemis shouted.
“I didn’t fuck up,” he rasped. “I was their scapegoat. It’s two completely different things.”
“You can’t do this,” Artemis screamed. “I’m the goddamn CEO!”
“Not anymore,” Prescott replied. “I am.”
26
HAWK AND ADDISON’S REHEARSAL DINNER
Jacqueline
Jacqueline had spent the last few days searching for Terrence Maul. Despite his getting shot and falling into the ice-cold Rappahannock River, she wasconvincedhe’d survived.
And she was determined to find him.
She’d called the Fredericksburg hospital in search of a gunshot victim, but no one fitting Maul’s description had shown up. Then, she widened her search.
Still, no luck… until today, when she called a hospital in Alexandria. A man with two gunshot wounds to the back had arrived hours after Prescott had shot Maul. He was alone, he had no ID, and he claimed he couldn’t remember his own name. Once the surgeon had removed the bullets from “John Doe”, he’d been kept overnight for observation. By the time police arrived to question the man, he’d skipped out.
Jacqueline needed access to the hospital’s video surveillance, which meant she needed a search warrant.
