Page 10 of The Right to Remain

“Does he believe that this ‘someone’ is me?”

Jack didn’t answer that question right away. He studied his new client’s expression, trying to gauge whether he was upset about Mr. Pollard’s death or simply concerned about being blamed for it.

“Were you fond of Mr. Pollard, Elliott?”

“His wife was sweet. I feel bad for her.”

The statement left much for a lawyer to unpack. “Do you know why anyone would want to shoot Mr. Pollard?”

“He could be a dick sometimes.”

“You’ve just articulated a motive to kill off half the population of Miami.”

Elliott chuckled and then turned serious. “He did run a controversial company.”

“Controversial in what way?”

“The nature of the business. VanPoll is a firearms disposal company.”

“What does that mean, exactly?”

“It has government contracts with cities and police departments all over the country. When the police confiscate weapons from criminals, or when a community or a church holds a buyback program to reduce the number of handguns on the street, those guns have to go somewhere. VanPoll collects them for a fee, brings them to Miami, and destroys them in a way that complies with government regulations.”

“Was Mr. Pollard a gun-control advocate?”

“No. The opposite. He was in law enforcement for over twenty years. A huge defender of the Second Amendment. He even had a blog on gun rights.”

“How does someone like that own a gun destruction company?”

“My opinion? He didn’t think gun buybacks made a dime’s worth of difference in the world. But if some lucky guy was going to get rich pulverizing Saturday night specials, it might as well be him. I suspect that’s how Mr. Vandermeer lured him into the business.”

“Who’s Vandermeer?”

“He’s the ‘Van’ in ‘VanPoll Enterprises.’ He and Mr. Pollard were co-owners. Honestly, if you told me someone was going to shoot the owner of VanPoll Enterprises, I would expect Mr. Vandermeer to end up dead, not Mr. Pollard.”

“Why do you say that?”

Elliott raised an eyebrow. “You really don’t know who C. J. Vandermeer is?”

“No. Should I?”

“His full name is Cornelius J. Vandermeer. He goes by CJ becauseCornelius makes him sound like he’s still part of the stuffy and obscenely rich family that disowned him.”

“Disowned him with or without money?”

“Tons of money. He was a trust-fund brat. On his thirty-fifth birthday, he inherited over two hundred million dollars from his grandmother.”

“Why did the family disown him?”

“For the same reason most people hate him. He’s a stinking-rich white guy who has never really had to work a day in his life, but he sees himself as a professional revolutionary who stands in solidarity with the oppressed people of the world against the horrors of capitalism.”

“As my father would probably say, ‘Oh, you mean he’s a Progressive,’” Jack said with a sideways smile.

Elliott didn’t see the humor. Jack missed the good ol’ days, when both ends of the political spectrum could still laugh at themselves.

“CJ isn’t ‘political’ in the conventional sense,” said Elliott. “He’s basically an anarchist. If you support Ukraine, he’ll tell you Putin is a great man. If you’re Jewish, he’ll tell you that the Holocaust wasn’t about antisemitism and that reports of sexual violence by Hamas on October seventh are Zionist propaganda. He says obnoxious things just to stir up trouble, and he says them with a fiery passion. Anyone who disagrees with him is the enemy. Unfortunately, he has so much money, his voice is heard.”

“What does he want, exactly?”