Page 115 of The Fallen Man

“I lied,” said Evan. “Unlike other people, I had a healthy breakfast.”

“I had a healthy breakfast,” said Aiden. “This is just usually when I get my protein shake. He’s the one that didn’t eat.”

“I was too hung over.” Jackson looked at them both. “I haven’t looked at the papers yet. They might be complete shit.”

“Doesn’t matter if they are,” said Aiden. “I mean, I hope they aren’t. But at this point all we have to do is prove that Houge and Baranov attacked Caitlin and it’s going to cast doubt on everyone he’s ever talked to. And you have photos of him talking to half the ethics committee. He’s going down one way or another. What we need is for Nowtisky to put the pieces together on his own. Which we will help do.”

As Aiden shoveled eggs into his face and talked between bites, Evan watched the tension in Jackson’s shoulders ease fraction by fraction.

“It takes too long,” complained Jackson.

“But itwillhappen,” said Aiden. “He overstepped when he went to her place. If he’d let Baranov handle it then he mighthave been able to pretend there wasn’t a connection, but from what Kerschel says even that would have been a stretch. We will get him.”

Jackson rolled his head around on his neck, popping a vertebrae with an audible clunk. Aiden grimaced at the noise.

“Do you need a chiropractor?”

“I need to find Houge,” said Jackson.

“And a chiropractor,” said Aiden with a nod and a shrug.

“How do you like the coffee?” asked Jackson, glancing up at Evan. Evan was encouraged by the twinkle of humor in his eyes.

“It’s total shit,” said Evan. “What is it? Folgers with an old gym sock for a filter?”

“Pete makes it. He says he uses real beans, but they could be pinto beans, for all we know. We don’t understand how it turns out like that. The weird part is that we can’t stop drinking it.”

Evan took a sip. “It can’t be any worse than the time we found out one of the traders on the Australian desk had been sprinkling coke in the collective coffee pot for about three months. Can we look at papers now?”

“Clear,” said Aiden dropping his fork onto his empty plate. “Let’s do this. And yes, I’m ignoring that comment about the coke.”

“We switched to the coffee pods after that. I feel bad about killing the environment, but a lot less jittery.”

“Still ignoring you,” said Aiden, dropping his plate in the sink, before going back out to the main room.

“I don’t think that is a good place for you to work,” said Jackson.

“Topic for another day,” said Evan. “Come on.”

Aiden passed out stacks of papers from the manila envelope but was soon making grumpy noises. Granger’s stacks of precious documents were not sorted by any discernable method. Although, every so often, they found random sheets scrawled inblocky handwriting directing Caitlin to do this or call someone.

“This is ghastly,” said Aiden, lifting one of the notes. “He basically just shipped her a mess and a to-do list. There isn’t even any note of goodbye or I love you or… just anything. It’s all about him and what he wants her to do.”

“That’s probably why she shoved it in the ottoman,” said Jackson. “She said that was where all the horrible things lived.”

“This definitely qualifies,” agreed Evan.

Jackson shook his head took a step back. “I don’t even know what I’m looking at. I’m going to go talk to Kerschel.”

“OK, but I’m pretty sure she’s hiding from us in the gym slash storage room.”

“I’m the boss. I get to bug whoever I want,” he said with a shrug and walked off toward the back room.

“Good call on the food,” said Aiden when they heard the door shut down the hall.

“Nothing ever gets better on an empty stomach.”

“I think he perked up there for a bit, but this pile of bullshit is not helping. I think it just reminds him of how fucked up her life has been. Although I have to say, in looking at this shit-pile and the financial background that Kerschel has been putting together, it was not all our fault. Which I was worried about. It was like Granger went out of his way to screw her over too. Who does that to their kid? Even our asshole relatives didn’t do that. You were properly in your dad’s will. And I really do think Randall was planning on going to get Jackson.”