Chapter 183

This is a pretty shabby house for being listed at such an expensive price. Hugo warned him already about the lead pipes. If it wasn’t historic, Miles would suggest having someone tear this whole place down and rebuild it. As it is, they need the right buyer to come around with a passion for restoration. And enough money to not care how much it costs to fix.

Miles has that kind of money, but not that kind of passion for restoration. Plus, he hardly wants to reward the greedy bastard who is trying to sell this house for far more than it’s presently worth.

Right now, he’s alone, waiting for Hugo and Mr. Carpenter to come into the house. He’s sitting at the dusty table in the living room, with Hugo’s evidence in a neat pile in front of him.

The plan is to catch Mr. Carpenter off-guard. If he as money signs in his eyes, as big and blinding as Hugo suggests, it shouldn’t be hard.

“Thank you for meeting me again on such short notice,” Hugo says as the front door opens.

Miles braces himself, it’s the only thing keeping him from jumping over the table and beating this pudgy newcomer to a bloody pulp.

Mr. Carpenter is fat and aging. He’s already sweating, even though it’s still cool outside.

As he comes into the house, Hugo shuts the door behind him.

“I’m just so glad you are thinking on making an offer for this beautiful home,” Mr. Carpenter says.

Miles tries not to, but he thinks about this man walking into a room with a frightened child-version of Esther. His hands form fists so tight that his fingernails dig into his palms. The bite of pain reminds him of his purpose.

He wants to kill this guy, but the only way to bring down the full line of dominos is through the justice system.

“Yes, well… Let’s head into the living room and discuss thing,” Hugo says.

Mr. Carpenter turns the corner first and clicks on the light. He startles with a high-pitched shriek when he sees Miles sitting at the table. Then he blinks his eyes a few times, like he can’t believe who is actually sitting there.

“Miles Hamilton?”

“Come in, Mr. Carpenter,” Miles says, gesturing to an empty chair at the table. “Sit down.”

Carpenter glances nervously between Hugo and Miles. Miles continues to be hospitable over beating this man to a pulp. Hugo returns Carpenter’s expression with nothing but cool indifference.

“Sit down, Mr. Carpenter,” Hugo says. “There is a lot to discuss.”

“…About the house?” he asks, somewhat hopefully.

Hugo’s expression becomes, impossibly, even flatter. It’s hard to believe this man could be this ignorant and still be a Whisperer.

“Sit,” Hugo insists.

Hugo isn’t as tall and broad as Miles, but he does well on his own. He’s still intimidating enough in form and stature to get a frailer man like Carpenter to obey without much pushback.

Carpenter rushes to the chair and hurriedly sits down. Hugo moves to stand behind him, making him occasionally glance nervously back.

“What is this about? If not the house?”

“This is about your visits to Edward Zimmer’s orphanage, Mr. Carpenter,” Miles tells him, voice cold as ice.

Carpenter pales as he returns to look at Miles. “I-I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Oh?” Miles pushes the pile of evidence forward. On top is a summary of Carpenter’s bank statements from the years the orphanage ran. Underneath are copies of checks that Carpenter personally made out to Zimmer and the orphanage.

Weekly, he contributed five thousand dollars, in one way or another to Zimmer. Sometimes, there were multiple payments a week.

Five thousand dollars. That’s how much it cost to abuse Esther under Edward Zimmer’s watch.

Miles wants to punch five thousand individual holes through Zimmer, so he could feel the pain slowly as he died.

But he’d settle for eventually landing this man in prison.

For Esther, Miles would do anything, even… the unimaginable things. But he won’t ever have to, he knows. Because Esther wouldn’t want him to. She doesn’t want to lose him to a murder sentence. She wants Miles to be president.

So Edward is the one who has to fall… legally.

Well, mostly legally.

Legally enough.

Miles isn’t going to ask too many questions about how Hugo obtained these personal records.

Mr. Carpenter looks down at the pile, then hurriedly combs through it. “How did you… It won’t matter…” He shakes his head, pushing away the bumbling oaf routine, and for the first time, showing a hint of competence. “You’ll never be able to prove this in court.”

“I don’t need a courtroom,” Hugo says. “I own a news media empire. You think the people will care about what’s admissible in court? If presented with evidence, why wouldn’t they make their own opinion?”

“An opinion that you paid five thousand dollars to have uninhibited access to orphans.”

“One orphan,” Carpenter says, desperate now. “It was only ever one. And when she left, I stopped.”

“If you think I’m going to give you a fucking medal for only assaulting one kid, you are out of your goddamn mind,” Miles growls.

“What do you want, then?” Carpenter says. “What will keep this off the news?”

God, he cracked so easily. But Hugo warned off this. The first domino is easiest. The rest will be harder. Edward himself will be near impossible to bring down.

“A full confession, given to the police,” Miles says.

“But my career –”

“You are lucky I don’t rip your throat out, you piece of shit,” Miles snaps.

Mr. Carpenter, rattled, seems to consider my offer. “I can’t run my business behind bars. You are asking me to ruin my own reputation rather than you ruining it for me.”

“Maybe the police might keep you safe from a public that will want to tear you apart.”

“And we want Edward,” Hugo adds.

“Oh, hell no!” Carpenter says at once, bottling up in a rush. Even his body language tightens up, wrapping around himself. “I can understand my own impulses needing to be contained. But Edward? If I try to turn on him, he’ll kill me. Not jailed. Not ruined. Dead. The kind where people go missing, you got it?”

“You are a coward,” Miles says.

“With Edward, I have every right to be. You haven’t seen what I’ve seen. You don’t know what I know.”

“Then tell us,” Hugo says.

“No,” Carpenter says. “And you should back off of him too. He’s smart and he’s dangerous. If he knows you are after him, he’ll come after you.”

“Let him,” Miles says. “I’m going to be his nightmare for the rest of his life. He will not get away with what he has done.”

“You’re fools, both of you. And I’m getting out of here before he realizes I’m with you.” Mr. Carpenter stands. Hugo tries to block his path, but Carpenter’s fear outweighs even Hugo’s intimidation now. He pushes past Hugo and runs for the door.

Outside, Miles’s security will stop him and deliver him to the police. Hugo will soon follow with the tape and what little evidence we have.

Hugo says, “This will open the file on Carpenter. I imagine when the police start looking, he will have more that he can’t hide. But Edward?”

“It’s not enough,” I say with disgust.

“Not nearly,” Hugo agrees.

Our work is far from over.