Chapter 6: Everything Charles Thought He'd Hidden
Samantha brought in a colleague named Dennis Farrow the following morning — a former federal prosecutor who now handled financial fraud cases privately.
He was tall and unhurried, with the kind of stillness that made you want to be careful about what you said around him.
He set a recorder on the bedside table.
"When Briggs calls," he said, "you don't negotiate.
You listen.
You ask open questions.
You let him talk."
"What am I listening for?" I said.
"Anything that places him at your house yesterday morning.
Anything that connects him directly to the notary fraud.
He'll try to keep it abstract — *arrangements, resolutions, misunderstandings.* Push him toward specifics without making it obvious that's what you're doing."
The call came at nine twelve.
"Good morning, Mrs.
Gallagher," Briggs said.
"Have you had time to consider?"
"I have some questions first," I said.
"Of course."
"The notary whose credentials were used — did she know her stamp was being used, or was that done without her?"
A beat of silence.
"That's a detail I'm not in a position to speak to directly."
"But you know the answer."
"I know a great many answers," he said.
"That's why your father comes to me."
"How long have you been working with my father?"
"Long enough to know that Charles Baldwin moves fast and thinks slowly," Briggs said.
"Yesterday was a perfect example.
He called me at six in the morning and told me the plan was already in motion.
I told him to stop.
He didn't."
Dennis made a small circular motion with his hand.
*Keep going.*
"So you were there," I said.
"At the house."
Another silence.
Longer this time.
"I was in the area," Briggs said carefully.
"You watched him drag me out of my own house," I said.
"While I was in labor."
"Mrs.
Gallagher—"
"And you didn't stop him."
"My role was not—"
"What was your role, Mr.
Briggs?
Specifically."
The silence that followed was different from the others.
Heavier.
"I think," he said slowly, "that this conversation has gone in a direction I didn't intend."
"Then let me make it simpler," I said.
"I'm not signing anything.
I'm not calling it a clerical error.
And I'm going to tell the DA's office everything you just told me."
"That would be unwise."
"Why?"
"Because I know things about Lucas's business that you may not want examined too closely," he said.
His voice had changed.
The pleasantness was completely gone.
"Baldwin-Gallagher Logistics has some arrangements in its history that the financial crimes unit would find very interesting.
If you push this, I will give them a reason to look."
Dennis's eyes met mine.
He nodded once.
"Thank you, Mr.
Briggs," I said.
"I have everything I need."
I ended the call.
Dennis stopped the recorder.
He looked at it for a moment, then at me.
"He just threatened to fabricate evidence against a de@d man," he said.
"In a recorded call.
Initiated by him." He picked up the recorder.
"I'm going to make some calls."
He walked out into the hallway.
I looked down at Eleanor, asleep in the hospital bassinet beside the bed, her small hands curled loosely at her sides.
May you like
"Your father was smarter than all of them," I said quietly.
She slept right through it.
