Chapter 279: Arrest II

Is it superior, said Sean.

I moved everything around while she was sleeping on Saturday and then told her she’d done it herself, said Max. She accepted this without question which tells me either she believed me or she’s decided to let me have one small thing.

Probably the second one, said Sean.

Definitely the second one, said Max. She’s very magnanimous when she’s winning.

Sean sat on the bench and felt something that had been tight somewhere in the past two weeks ease slightly at the edges.

The Margaux documentation, he typed. Is everything submitted correctly for the expanded case.

Everything, said Max. Margaux has the full picture now. The fraud charges are the formal hook. The domestic documentation builds the character evidence. She says cases like this one usually end in a plea because defendants who operate through intimidation fold when the intimidation stops working. A pause. She also said that was off the record and she’d deny saying it if asked.

She said it though, said Sean.

She absolutely said it, said Max.

—---------------

He paid for lunch at the campus café without thinking about it much, sitting at a corner table with his economics notes, and the notification arrived quietly.

[14 dollars spent]

[Balance: $68,751,275]

[28 dollars received — 2x baseline]

[New Balance: $68,751,303]

The investment club table wasn’t in session on Mondays but Marcus came and sat across from him anyway, appearing with a coffee and the specific expression he had when he wanted to talk about something but was deciding whether it was his business.

He decided it was his business.

"Anthony Ruiz," said Marcus.

"Yes," said Sean.

"The guy from Olivia’s circle."

"He was in my circle too," said Sean. "A while ago."

Marcus absorbed that. "You knew him."

"I did," said Sean.

"And now he’s been arrested," said Marcus.

"Yes," said Sean.

Marcus looked at his coffee. "I’m not asking if you had anything to do with it. That would be an inappropriate question."

"Very inappropriate," agreed Sean.

"I’m just noting," said Marcus, "that you’ve been in two meetings this past week that you didn’t tell anyone about and that the meetings appeared in your schedule and then disappeared from it very quickly."

Sean looked at him.

"Derek noticed first," said Marcus. "He said the pattern was consistent with someone managing a parallel project. He said it with zero judgment. He actually seemed impressed."

"Tell Derek I appreciate that," said Sean.

"He doesn’t know I’m telling you," said Marcus. "This is a separate conversation."

"Which you’re also conducting without judgment," said Sean.

"Total non-judgment," said Marcus. "Absolute zero judgment. I’m just sitting here drinking coffee and observing that things seem to have resolved themselves in a satisfying direction and wondering if that’s connected to anything."

Sean looked at him.

Marcus looked back with the expression of someone who had decided he was going to wait until he got an answer even if it took a while.

"A woman I know was in a bad situation," said Sean. "I helped the right people know about it. The rest followed from there."

Marcus nodded slowly. "Okay," he said. He drank his coffee. "You know what I keep thinking about."

"What," said Sean.

"The fourth Thursday," said Marcus. "When you asked about the Vertex position. Most people in that room were thinking it was a practice exercise. A hypothetical." He paused. "You were already in the position. You already owned it. You were asking because you wanted to know how the room read the situation, not because you needed help thinking about it."

Sean looked at his notes.

"My point," said Marcus, "is that I’ve stopped being surprised when things around you resolve themselves in a particular direction." He set his coffee down. "I’m just glad when they resolve in the right one."

"They usually do," said Sean.

"Yeah," said Marcus. "I’ve noticed that."

He stood up and left without making anything more of it, which was one of the things Sean genuinely liked about Marcus. He knew when a conversation was done.

=================

He saw Rebecca at three fifteen.

Not by design. Campus was not large enough for sustained avoidance when both parties existed in it every weekday.

She was coming out of the student welfare office on the second floor of the main building, which he hadn’t expected and which told him something specific about what she’d spent her Monday doing.

She saw him at the same moment.

Neither of them stopped walking.

They reached a natural pause point at the base of the staircase and she looked at him and he looked at her and both of them let a moment exist that didn’t require anything from it.

"He’s been arrested," she said. Quietly. Not at him. Just stating it.

"I know," said Sean.

She looked at the floor briefly. Then at him. "The welfare office. They have a support person. For situations like." She stopped. "Someone told me to go."

"Did it help," he said.

She considered the question with more honesty than he’d expected. "A little," she said. "They talked about options. For the case. If I want to re-engage with the original report." She paused. "They said the charges that exist now don’t require me to do anything. That it’s already moving."

"That’s true," said Sean.

She looked at him. Something in her expression was different from Friday. The managed version was gone. What was there instead was simpler and considerably more tired.

"Did you do it," she said.

He looked at her steadily.

"Did I do what," he said.

She held his gaze for a moment. Then she almost smiled, something that had no particular warmth in it but also no anger. "Right," she said. "I thought so." She adjusted the strap of her bag. "I’m not asking for credit or accountability or anything. I’m just." She paused. "I just wanted to know if someone actually did something."

"Someone did something," he said.

She nodded. Small and specific.