Page 116 of The Fallen Man

“Dad loved me. He was an abusive trauma survivor with anger management issues and deep feelings of shame about his sexuality which made him a terrible parent and human being, but he still loved me.”

“See? That’s nice.”

“No, it’s not.”

“I mean, it’s nice that you know that about him. The rest of itisn’t great, but Uncle Owen wasn’t…” Aiden gestured at the pile of papers in front of him.

“That’s true.” Evan thought it was one of the first and only times that Aiden had admitted to anything positive about Owen. They lapsed into silence. Evan sorted through the papers, stopping each time his eye caught an interesting word. Granger’s top secret file appeared to be a morass of transcribed phone calls, emails, and Absolex memos. It was probably all interesting if he’d been immersed in the Absolex case, but he didn’t see a smoking gun.

The door to the back room crashed open and Jackson ran by. He didn’t stop to speak to either of them. Evan felt his stomach drop as he recognized the expression on Jackson’s face.

“Do we think it’s a good thing that he just ran out of here?” asked Aiden.

Evan felt a familiar churning in his gut. “No.”

“Like that was a very Uncle Randall look?” asked Aiden, giving voice to Evan’s fears.

“Mm,” said Evan.

“Do we think he’s going to kill Houge?” asked Aiden bluntly.

Evan found himself tapping his teeth together, his jaw clenching and unclenching.

“I don’t want to think that,” he blurted out.

“Part of my job is to think about all the unthinkables,” said Aiden. “And then I help all of you prepare and I make you laugh so you don’t have to think about them anymore.”

Evan felt his shoulders slump. “I know you do that. I appreciate it. You don’t have to make us laugh. You aren’t the family jester.”

“I’m also just a very silly person,” said Aiden. “It’s not really a stretch.”

“You’re a brilliant and also very funny lawyer,” said Evan. “It’s a weird combination and it makes a lot of people confused anduncomfortable.”

“So youdothink I’m funny?”

“I think you’re fucking hilarious,” said Evan. “I also think we should go get Jackson.”

Aiden looked down at the pile of papers in front of him and then slowly reached out a hand and extracted one. “I thinkyoushould go get Jackson,” he said, holding up the paper. “I have to call the Justice department and be brilliant.”

“What did you find?”

“What Houge is afraid we’ll find. It’s an email assuring the VA that Zanilex has been approved. It hadn’t. It also assures them that they have the full support of Senator Harrison. It’s signed by Dennis Houge. No wonder Granger thought he’d skate. He should have been able to whip this out, and Senator Harrison would start throwing up roadblocks to the hearings because he wouldn’t want to be implicated.”

“I remember that guy. He had a heart attack and retired…” Evan thought about it. “He retired and there went Houge and Granger’s leverage.”

“Exactly,” said Aiden.

“Call Nowitsky first. We need a reason not to let Houge leave New York,” said Evan.

“Shit,” said Aiden and grabbed for his own. “What am I telling him? Not everything.”

“Tell him Caitlin gave Jackson her father’s papers. And we just started looking at them.”

“Got it,” said Aiden. “Go. I got this.”

On the way out to the car, he dialed Pete and got him on the first ring.

“Jackson just left,” said Evan as he headed for his car. “Where is he going?”