CHAPTER 168: The Name

POV: Selene Castellano

Thomas Reeves.

That was the name.

Thomas Reeves, who had helped them navigate Hale. Who had sent Kofi to sit across from Maya in a coffee shop? And had appeared at every critical moment with exactly the right information at exactly the right time.

Thomas Reeves, whose name was on the foundation's donor list for $250,000, gave quietly six months ago through a holding company that Amara had verified as clean.

Thomas Reeves had been under federal investigation for eighteen months.

Selene looked at Avalon.

Avalon looked at the wall.

"Thomas," he said.

"Yes," she said.

"Eighteen months," he said.

"Eighteen months," she said. "Which means he was under investigation when he helped us with Whitmore. When he sent Kofi and when he recommended Amara."

Avalon stood up.

"He gave us two hundred and fifty thousand dollars," he said. "Through a holding company."

"Which Amara verified," Selene said.

"Which Amara verified as clean at the time," he said. "Eighteen months ago, the investigation may not have been public yet."

"She needs to know tonight," Selene said.

"Yes," he said.

"And we need to understand what the federal investigation is for," she said. "Before we walk into that US Attorney's office tomorrow."

"I'll call Margaret," he said.

"I'll call Amara," she said.

Amara answered on the first ring.

"Thomas Reeves," Selene said.

A pause.

"Tell me," Amara said.

Selene told her.

The line was very quiet when she finished.

"His donation," Amara said slowly. "It came through Reeves Capital Holdings. I verified the entity, and it was clean."

"At the time," Selene said.

"At the time," Amara agreed. "The investigation may predate the donation, but the entity itself had no flags eighteen months ago." She paused. "What's the investigation for?"

"We don't know yet," Selene said. "Margaret is finding out."

"If it's financial fraud," Amara said. "If the money he donated came from fraudulent activity—"

"The foundation accepted tainted funds," Selene said.

"Unknowingly," Amara said. "That's the critical distinction. We didn't know. The documentation was clean. We followed every protocol."

"Will that matter?" Selene said.

"It will matter enormously," Amara said. "To us. To the oversight committee. To the community." A pause. "Whether it matters legally is what we need Margaret for."

Margaret called back at ten fifteen.

Avalon put her on speaker.

"Securities fraud," Margaret said. "Thomas Reeves has been under investigation for manipulating share prices in three technology companies over five years. The investigation is sealed, but David Kim clearly has access to it."

"How much money?" Avalon asked.

"Potentially two hundred million over five years," Margaret said.

The apartment was very quiet.

"Our two hundred and fifty thousand?" Selene asked.

"May or may not be connected to the fraudulent funds," Margaret said. "We won't know until we see the full picture tomorrow."

"What happens to the foundation if it is?" Selene asked.

"In the worst-case scenario," Margaret said carefully, "you'd be required to return the funds. The reputational damage would be significant but manageable given your disclosure record."

"In the best case?" Avalon asked.

"The money is clean," Margaret said. "Thomas was keeping his legitimate and illegitimate funds separate. Happens more than you'd think. People compartmentalise."

"And Thomas," Selene said. "What happens to him?"

"If the investigation concludes as suspected," Margaret said. "That’s federal charges and significant prison time."

Selene looked at Avalon.

"He helped us," she said. "With Whitmore. With Hale. He was always there."

"I know," Margaret said.

"Was any of that real?" she asked.

"I don't know," Margaret said. "That's the honest answer. I don't know."

Selene put the phone down.

The apartment was quiet.

"Thomas," she said. 

"He called me a week after Nene died," Avalon said. "He was the first person outside the family who said he wanted to make sure Pierce Holdings stayed intact."

"Did you trust him then?" she asked.

"No," Avalon said. "I didn't trust anyone then." He turned from the window. "But he was useful and right. And every time I questioned him, he showed me something that made the questioning feel ungrateful."

"That's a skill," she said.

"Yes, I guess it is," he said.

"Do you think he knew about the investigation when he donated?" she said. 

"Yes," Avalon said. "I think he knew exactly what was coming, and he donated to the foundation as a goodwill gesture. Something to point to. Something clean in his name."

"He used us?" she asked.

"He helped us and used us simultaneously," Avalon said.

"I'm tired of both things," she said.

"I know," he said. "Me too."

She stood up from the couch.

He crossed to her.

"Bed rest," he said. "Dr Okafor said—"

"I know what she said," Selene said. "I'm going to bed. I need—" She stopped.

"What?" he said.

"Hold on," she said. "For a minute. Just hold on."

He put his arms around her.

She leaned into him.

Elena moved between them.

"We keep finding out that people we trusted had other agendas," she said into his shoulder. "Whitmore. Henderson. Diana. Now Thomas."

"Yes," he said.

"When does it stop?" she said.

"I don't know," he said. "But I know people who don't have other agendas." He paused. "Kevin Walsh, Gloria Reyes, Rosa Gutierrez, Amara, James, Nadia, Maya, Kofi." He held on tighter. "The people in the foundation's actual rooms. Not the people around its edges."

She thought about that.

"The edges keep being dangerous," she said.

"Yes," he said. "But the centre holds."

She was quiet for a moment.

"The centre holds," she said.

"Every time," he said.

The US Attorney's office was on the seventh floor of a building downtown that smelled like every government building — recycled air and consequence.

David Kim was thirty-something. Precise. The kind of person who understood that precision was its own form of kindness in situations like this.

"Sit down," he said. "I want to be clear about why you're here."

"Tell us," Avalon said.

"Thomas Reeves has been under investigation for securities fraud for eighteen months," Kim said. "His donation to the Pierce Foundation came fourteen months ago. We've been watching the foundation's financials since then to understand if there was a connection."

"Was there," Selene said.

"No," Kim said. "The donation came from a legitimate account. Separately held from the fraudulent activity. We've confirmed this."

Selene exhaled.

"Then why are we here?" Avalon said.

Kim looked at him.

"Because Thomas Reeves contacted our office yesterday," he said. "After the Henderson story broke. He offered to cooperate fully with our investigation in exchange for consideration."

"He's cooperating?" Selene asked.

"He has been since yesterday morning," Kim said. "And as part of his cooperation, he's disclosed something about Henderson. Something that connects the two investigations in ways we didn't anticipate."

"What connection?" Avalon asked.

Kim opened a folder and slid a photograph across the desk.

Henderson and Thomas Reeves were together at a dinner three years ago.

"They've been in business together for a decade," Kim said. "The securities fraud and Henderson's funding manipulation were connected operations. They've been running parallel schemes for years."

Selene stared at the photograph.

"Thomas helped us with Henderson," she said slowly. "He warned us about the acquisition strategy. He gave us information that helped us stop him."

"Yes," Kim said.

"While being Henderson's business partner," she said.

"Yes," Kim said.

"Why?" Avalon said. "Why would he help us against his own partner?"

Kim looked at both of them.

"Because Henderson was getting greedy," he said. "He was moving too fast. The foundation acquisition strategy, the SEC investigation — Henderson was becoming a liability. Thomas needed him stopped before the investigations connected."

"He used us to stop Henderson to protect himself," Selene said.

"Yes," Kim said.

"And then donated to the foundation to look like the good one," she said.

"Yes," Kim said.

"Both things," Selene said quietly.

Avalon looked at her.

Outside the building, afterwards, they stood on the pavement.

The city is moving around them.

"Thomas is cooperating," Selene said.

"Yes," Avalon said.

"Which means he'll give them Henderson," she said.

"And Henderson's investigation expands again," Avalon said. "This time it sticks."

"And Thomas goes to prison anyway," she said.

"Yes," he said. "Just with a lighter sentence."

She looked at the street.

"He genuinely helped us," she said. "With Whitmore, Hale and the things he told us were true."

"Yes," Avalon said.

"And he was protecting himself the entire time."

"Yes," he said.

"I keep asking myself," she said. "Does the help matter if the motivation was wrong?"

"What do you think?" he said.

She was quiet for a moment.

"Whitmore is convicted because of Thomas's information," she said. "My father-in-law's death is acknowledged because Thomas pointed us toward the evidence. Those outcomes are real regardless of why he helped."

"Yes," Avalon said.

"But I'm still angry," she said.

"You're allowed to be both," he said.

He was opening the car door for her when her phone rang.

She looked at the screen.

Thomas Reeves.

She looked at Avalon.

He looked at the phone.

"Answer it," he said. "Or don't. Your call."

She looked at the screen for a long moment.

Thomas was calling from whatever room he was in.

The man who had helped them, used them, given their foundation two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of clean money, and pointed them toward every truth they needed while protecting his own lies.

She answered.

"Thomas," she said.

"Selene." His voice was different. Stripped of the composure she'd always known. "I imagine you've just left Kim's office."

"Yes," she said.

"Then you know," he said.

"We know," she said.

A pause.

"The foundation's money is clean," he said. "I want you to know that. I kept them entirely separate. Whatever I did, I didn't do it with that."

"Why," she said. "Why keep that clean?"

"Because what you built is real," he said. "And I didn't want to contaminate it."

She stood on the pavement outside the federal building.

"Thomas," she said.

"Yes."

"Did you know about Kofi?" she said. "When you sent him to Maya. Did you know who he was to us before you sent him?"

A long pause.

"I knew he was the right person for Maya," Thomas said. "Whatever my reasons for the introduction, that part was genuine."

"That's not an answer," she said.

"No," he said. "It's not."

She looked at Avalon.

He watched her face.

"Goodbye, Thomas," she said.

She hung up.

Got in the car.

Sat for a moment.

"Well," Avalon said.

"He didn't answer the question about Kofi," she said.

"I know," Avalon said.

"Which means the answer is complicated," she said.

"Which means we don't tell Maya," he said. "Not now. Not while she's happy and Kofi is real, and the marriage is good."

"Is that managing information?" she asked. 

He thought about it.

"It's protecting someone from a complication that doesn't change anything real," he said. "Kofi chose Maya. That's true regardless of how they met."

"You sound like you're convincing yourself," she said.

"Maybe," he said. "What do you think?"

She looked out the window.

"I think Thomas knowing who Kofi was doesn't change what Kofi became to her."

"So we don't tell her," he said.

He started the car and pulled into traffic.

Two blocks from the federal building, her phone buzzed.

Maya.

A voice note.

She played it.

Lena. Something weird just happened. A man came to the apartment asking for Kofi. Said he was from Thomas Reeves' office. He said he had something Kofi needed to know. Kofi went pale when he heard the name. Like he already knew what it was about. A pause. Lena, what is going on? Call me.

Selene lowered the phone.

"Maya," she said.

He gripped the steering wheel.

"Kofi knows about Thomas?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.

"He's known," he said.

"Yes," she said.

"For how long?" he said.

She looked at the phone.

"Drive," she said. "We need to get to Maya."