Jack's eyebrows raised. "You're saying there was never a company at that location with the name 718 Enterprises, or anything similar to that?"

"Yes," he said.

"Yes, there was a company, or yes there was not?"

"There was no company with that name at that location."

Jack turned to me, shifting his whole body. I realized Jack had never seen the sign for the company, he hadn't witnessed the young men marching in and out of the building with full bags. I was the only witness, at least the only one who was on our side.

"Mr. Talcott, do you read the news?"

"Of course I do. I'm quite fond of Mr. O'Donnell's work, as I said."

"Do you read it regularly?"

"I would say so."

"Well, then do you recognize the name Stephen Gaines? Or a company called 718 Enterprises?"

This time Talcott's "no" was hesitant. There was rec-68 ognition on his face, but he wasn't about to incriminate himself.

"Let me give you a little backstory. Stephen Gaines was murdered a few weeks ago. Shot in the head in a dingy apartment in Alphabet City. It was in the news quite a bit, especially after the primary suspect was cleared."

"That does ring a bell," Talcott said. "So much strife in the news these days, who can remember a name? But the case does sound familiar. Boy's father was accused of the crime, wasn't he?"

"That's right. Want to know something else?" I said.

Talcott seemed unsure of how to respond, so he simply said, "Sure."

"Stephen Gaines was my brother."

"I--I'm sorry to hear that. My condolences."

"See, my brother worked with those two guys, Scott Callahan and Kyle Evans. And my brother confided everything in me." This part was BS. We'd had one conversation lasting thirty seconds and I didn't even know he was my brother at the time. "And he told me that Scott and Kyle were employed--that's a loose term--by 718 Enterprises. Who worked out of your building. Now, if you still don't remember them I can get you the doc.u.mentation and you'll see it at the same time we print it." I looked at Talcott's desk. Saw a photo of him with a woman and young boy on a beach, all three beaming. "I don't know how I'd explain to my son why Daddy's picture is all over the news."

Talcott turned a ghastly shade of white, and rocked back in his chair. The chair, unfortunately, did not lean back with him, and he nearly toppled over before righting himself.

Talcott cleared his throat before suddenly leaning 69.down to rummage under his desk. I felt my fingers gripping the sides of the chair--was he going for a gun?

My nerves quieted when I saw what Talcott was reaching for a bottle of Glenfiddich single malt, aged twentyone years. Slightly less dangerous than a gun, though from the shaking of his hands my guess was that after we left, Talcott would drink enough to make him sleep like he'd been shot.

He brought up a small tumbler, filled it to the brim, and downed it, closing his eyes. He looked at us, slight embarra.s.sment on his face. Then he pushed the bottle toward us.

"No thanks," I said. "I didn't have breakfast."

Jack looked right past the bottle. I watched his reaction, but there was none.

Talcott coughed into his fist. His eyes were a little watery. I got the feeling he didn't particularly enjoy the scotch, but needed it enough to get around that small detail.

"You don't know what it's like out there," he said.

"Out where?" said Jack. "What are you talking about?"

"The economy is in the toilet. The dollar is barely worth the paper it's printed on."

"I cash my paychecks," I added. "We know this."

"But companies...they're getting hit the hardest. There aren't as many customers to go around, and the customers that they do have, well the money they pay doesn't buy what it used to."

"What's your point?"

"Sixteen-twenty Avenue of the Americas, we've lost a dozen tenants from that building in the last two years.

Two years! And you know how many tenants have moved in? One. That's a few hundred grand that we used to be making that just disappeared in the wind."

70.Talcott paused, eyed the bottle.

"We needed the extra money."

"And..." I said.

"That company...718 Enterprises...they never leased the property," Talcott said. "They were never officially on our ledger. They never paid us a dime."

"Then why did you say..." I replied, but Jack cut me off.

"So what does that mean?" Jack said. "They didn't pay for the s.p.a.ce? How did you bring in money?"

"The company itself didn't pay us," he replied, eyes looking at the bottle like it was a well-aged steak. "There was a law firm."

"Kaiser, Hirschtritt and Certilman," I said. "They occupied the floor above."

Talcott nodded, his eyes red. He bit his lower lip. Hard.

"Go on," Jack said.

"The law firm leased one floor. Eighteen. About a year after they leased it, our tenants on seventeen moved out.

We needed money bad. So when Brett Kaiser came to us and made a proposition, we had no choice. The tenant that occupied that floor had left three months earlier. We couldn't afford to take another hit without recouping some of our losses."

"What was the offer?" I said.

"Somebody would occupy the seventeenth floor. Only for legal purposes, the firm would be listed as the leaser.

They would take care of monthly payments for both floors. That was that. We treated it like a tenant was simply occupying two floors."

"So who was on seventeen?" I asked.

"I don't know," Talcott said. "That was part of Kaiser's deal. He said the people on seventeen would never need anything from Orchid, and we should never ever contact 71.them for any reason. I never went to that floor, and they never even hired a cleaning crew as far as I know. One time, though, one of our maid services told me she accidentally got off on the wrong floor, got lost. She said the offices were closed, and had some sort of security system she'd never seen before. Like something out of the s.p.a.ce program, she said."

"Doesn't sound like something a law office would employ," I said to Jack. He didn't respond.

"There's something wrong with that company. I don't know what it is, but I had a feeling that some day somebody would ask me these questions. I never wanted to know what they did. But I had to lease as much s.p.a.ce as possible or the building could have gone under."

"I'm sure Kaiser knew that," I said. "And knew you wouldn't ask questions as long as the checks arrived on time."

"I never needed to or wanted to ask questions," Talcott said. "There are plenty of tenants whose businesses I'm not fully acquainted with. As long as they're running a legal operation and paying on time, they have their right to privacy."

"And you have a right to know where your money is coming from," I said.

"What if," Jack said, "you had a choice between getting paid and having a tenant running a legal operation?"

"I've never had to make that choice."

"Never had to, or never wanted to think you had to,"

Jack replied.

Talcott said nothing, but that bottle of scotch was practically gravitating toward his hands.

"One more thing," Jack said. "Do you have contact information for Brett Kaiser?"

72."Sure," Talcott said. "Cell phone, home phone and e-mail address. Will that be all?"

"Just the contact info," Jack said. "And if there's anything else you can think of, here's my card."

Jack handed it to him. Talcott stared at it like it might spontaneously burst into flame, then pocketed it.

"Not a problem." Talcott took a piece of letterhead from his printer and scribbled the information on it. His handwriting was sloppy and careless. My guess was that Iris was responsible for his "personal" notes.

When he finished, Talcott folded the page and inserted it into an Orchid Realty envelope. Jack took it and stuffed it inside his jacket pocket.

"Pleasure meeting you," Jack said, pointing at the bottle of liquor. "Now we'll leave you two alone."

9.

Morgan Isaacs kept one hand on his BlackBerry, which was nestled snugly inside his front pants pocket. To anyone on the street it looked like he might be playing a game of pocket pool, but this Chester guy was ten minutes late and Morgan didn't want to miss a phone call. He considered leaving. I mean, who in the h.e.l.l meets about a job on the street? And Morgan didn't like to wait. In his previous job, people waited for him. He shared a secretary, a cute piece of a.s.s named Charlotte he could have had at any moment. Sometimes he would send her out for coffee just because he could. When she came back, he wouldn't even thank her, just go into his office, pour the cup into the bottom of his fake plant, and pull out a can of Red Bull.

But this guy was late. Just a few short months ago, Morgan wouldn't wait for anybody. Some a.s.shole wanted him to wait five minutes? Screw you, let's reschedule.

Now, Morgan didn't know when he'd even find work again. And with bills piling up he needed to earn scratch no matter what the cost. So if he had to suck up his pride for a little while, so be it. A necessary evil. And whoever this j.a.c.k.-.o.f.f. was who had him wait, well, if the company 74.was good enough, Morgan would be running it within a few years anyway. Then he'd be the one making people late.

He felt a sense of anger rise within him as he watched hundreds of people walking down the streets, oblivious to him, unknowing and uncaring of what he'd been through. Men, women, dressed in natty suits with the finest accoutrements, they had no idea that in the time it took to snap your fingers they could be out of a job just like him. They had no right to be so confident, so careless, while Morgan stood there, his immediate future resting in the hands of a recommendation of Ken Tsang and the charity of some guy he'd never met before.

In the cab ride over--he would have preferred the bus to save money, but Chester didn't give him a whole lot of time--Morgan wondered whether or not he'd take the position if one was offered. Then he chided himself. Now was not the time to be prideful. The bills would continue to come, the debt would continue to mount. Even a modest income would provide a stint for the bleeding, and at least he would have health care. Time to suck it up for a few months, Morgan had told himself. Guys with his talent and drive didn't grow on trees. And every b.u.mpy road led to riches down the line.

Morgan squeezed the cell phone--thought he'd felt it vibrate.

"Mr. Isaacs?"

Morgan turned around to see where the voice came from.

Standing directly behind him, almost inappropriately close, was a tall, well-built man with close-cropped blond hair. He had on a pair of rimless Cartier sungla.s.ses, must have run at least five hundred bucks. Not too shabby. His gray suit 75.was stretched over a lean frame, and Morgan could tell the guy had enough strength in those biceps to crush a tin can.

Morgan didn't blink. Never show weakness, never show admiration. He was never rude, but on a job interview you wanted to appear confident, not too eager. Like they would be lucky to have you work for them.

"And you are...Chester?" Morgan said.

The man smiled and took off his sungla.s.ses, folding them and tucking the pair into his breast pocket. He held out his hand. "Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming on such short notice."

"No biggie," Morgan said. "Just had to reschedule a few things, that's all."

"Really? Such as what?"

Morgan stammered, "I, uh, meetings, you know.

Banks. A bank."

"Oh, well I hope the bank understood," Chester said with complete sincerity. If this guy realized Morgan was full of s.h.i.t, he wasn't letting on. "Let's walk."

Morgan followed Chester as he strolled down Fifth Avenue. He matched the man step for step, tried to keep his stride the same length but d.a.m.n, the man had long legs. Instead Morgan shortened his paces and walked faster. It was two blocks before Chester spoke again.

"How's the job hunt going?" he said.

"It is what it is. There's always room for good workers, I figure I'll take a little time, weigh my options and see what the best fit is for me."

"Really," Chester said, his voice either distant or disbelieving. "Any good leads? Anything coming down the pike?"

"Always something coming down," Morgan replied.

"Just a matter of who makes me the most attractive offer."

76."I understand that," Chester said. "Hold on a second."

Chester stopped at a vending cart and ordered a hot dog. He paid, then slathered ketchup, mustard and relish on it. He wolfed the dog down in three bites, still standing at the cart, then wiped his lips with a napkin and continued walking.

"Sorry, did you want one?"

"S'okay," Morgan said. "I just had breakfast an hour ago."

"Really," Chester said softly.

Morgan silently cursed himself. It was nearly twelvethirty. The fact that he had a late breakfast gave away that Morgan had woken up late. If he'd woken up late, he had nothing better to do. No job, no interview.