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I stared at him. The older he got, the more he reminded me of our father. A lot of it was in the eyes. It occurred to me, not for the first time, that Joe Wolf had gotten his way in the end after a lifetime of trying to toughen up his children. Jack had turned out to be as mean as he was.

“Why were you at the boat?” Jack said.

I told him. Told him the drunken things Joe Wolf had said to me before he told me that he loved me.

“You’re shitting me!” Jack said. “He told you he loved you and youbelievedhim?Him?”

“I’m telling you what happened, and why it happened. I felt bad that I hadn’t said anything back to him.”

“Why would you have?”

His phone buzzed. He ignored it.

“I think back now, and it was almost like he’d had some premonition that he was going to die soon.”

“He didn’t tell you that he was leaving the team and the paper to you?”

“No.”

“And that was it,” Jack said.

“That was it. I left. I was sitting in my car when I saw you nearly running up the dock.”

He didn’t respond right away.

“Did he tell you I’d just left?”

Jack shook his head.

I said, “So what wereyoudoing there that night?”

He blew out some air.

“You want to know the truth?”

“Not one of your strong suits. But give it a shot.”

“You still don’t get it, do you?” he said.

“Help me out.”

“I didn’t go there to kill him that night,” Jack Wolf said to me. “I went there to try to save him.”

Ninety-Four

AN HOUR AFTER LEAVINGWolf.com, I was back in my own office at Wolves Stadium.

John Gallo was seated across my desk from me.

I had asked him to the stadium for a conversation, just the two of us, about the possible sale of the Wolves. I didn’t tell him what Jack had told me, his version of why he’d gone to the boat that night—to bring him John Gallo’s final, take-it-or-leave-it offer to buy the Wolves. It turned out they had been negotiating for months. Not only had Gallo’s patience finally run out, he had also indicated to Jack that he was under pressure to close the deal sooner rather than later.

“What did Dad say?” I asked Jack.

“He said he’d give Gallo his answer in the morning.”

Thomas had always talked about throwing the money on the table. We were about to do that now. Maybe just not the way John Gallo thought.

“I have to admit I was quite surprised to get your call, Ms. Wolf,” he said.