Hades by Russell Andrews Read Free Book Online Page B

sure!”
    Abby ignored Bannister now. She was staring at Justin, giving him an answer to his what-the-fuck-is-going-on-here look.
    Bannister realized that his outbursts were inappropriate. He did his best to look dignified, and said, “I’m Evan’s CFO. We’ve worked together for over ten years. Starting at Merrill Lynch. I didn’t go with him to Rockworth and Williams. But when he started Ascension, his hedge fund, he called and I came.”
    “Do you think there was a reason he wanted you here tonight? Other than loneliness? A business reason?”
    “Maybe. He was very concerned about Ellis St. John.”
    “Who is . . . ?”
    “Ascension’s prime broker. He’s at Rockworth. He may have wanted to talk about Elly.”
    “And what was the problem with . . . Elly?”
    “I don’t know. I just know that Evan was unhappy with him. I believe he was thinking of making a change.”
    “Changing brokers?”
    “Changing his primary broker. We use quite a few different brokers.”
    “But you have no idea why he’d want to change?”
    “I don’t know for sure that’s what he wanted. It’s just a guess on my part.” He shrugged in a strange kind of false modesty. “An educated guess.”
    “He never discussed this unhappiness or this desire to change?”
    “Not in any great depth. Just hints. Bits and pieces.”
    “How about giving me some of the bits?”
    “It wasn’t anything major. Evan felt Elly was a tad . . . well . . . ambitious.”
    “And that’s bad?”
    “It was a question of personal ambition compared to ambition for the good of the company.”
    “He steered Evan toward bad investments for his personal gain?”
    “I don’t know that. As I said, Evan never got that specific with me.” Forrest bit his lip, as if debating whether to speak further. It was the kind of gesture a flirtatious teenage girl would have made. “Frankly, I think some of it was that he just didn’t like Elly.”
    “Thass not true.” It was Abby speaking now. Facing Justin, she said, “Evan liked Ellis. Really did.” She turned to Forrest. “Liked him a helluva lot more’n he liked you.”
    “I’m not going to get down in the mud with you,” the CFO said. “I’m just not. I know what Evan thought about me. And I know what he thought about you, too.”
    Justin stepped in between them. “How big is Ascension, Forrest? How large is the fund?”
    “I don’t think I should be giving out that kind of information.”
    “Almost two billion dollars,” Abby said. The word “dollars” came out as “dollarsh.” “Give or take a few hundred million.”
    Justin kept his eyes on Forrest. By the aggravated look on the man’s face, Justin thought Abby’s estimate was probably accurate. This was clearly a man who liked to control information. It was the only power he had. “What happened when you got here?” Justin asked the CFO. “Walk me through it.”
    The thin man nodded. He seemed to be regaining strength from being the sudden center of attention. “I got to the driveway and the gate was open . . .”
    “Was that unusual?”
    “Yes. I usually had to punch in the code to open it. Most people had to use the intercom, but I had the code.” He was obviously proud of this access.
    “That’s good,” Justin said quickly. He spoke up because Abby was rolling her eyes at Forrest’s misplaced smugness. He wanted her to keep quiet for a bit so he could get what he needed from this strange and strangely sad man. “So the gate was open. What then?”
    “I came up to the house.”
    “Was it unlocked?”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you have a key? Just in case.”
    Now Forrest Bannister looked pained and slighted. “No,” he said. He started to make some sort of explanation or excuse, stopped himself, shook his head, and just said, “No key.”
    “So what then?”
    “Well . . . it wasn’t normal for everything to be so . . . open. I had kind of a sixth sense that something was wrong. Because of the