“This is not the time to ask me questions, Olivia. This is the time to tell me the truth. That’s the only way this will work. So don’t ask me questions. Just tell me the truth.”
Beck leaned back. “It makes no sense that Crane would go off the way you described just because you gently pushed Milstein in the direction he was thinking of going. No, the truth is—you and Milstein conspired to get rid of Crane, and he found out about it. You and Milstein joined forces to shut Crane down.
“But you had to do it in a way that wouldn’t upset Markov. Milstein couldn’t afford to lose him. So you and Milstein came up with a plan. Milstein would drop the hammer on Crane to make him stop taking so much risk. You would step forward to monitor his trades. Why? Because you convinced Milstein you could handle Markov. There isn’t a man alive you don’t think you can handle, Olivia.”
For the first time, Olivia looked down, staring at her lap, looking at her broken fingers in their cast, no longer maintaining eye contact with Beck.
“You saw all that money. You saw Crane screwing it up. You knew you could twist that fat guy around your finger. So why not? Why shouldn’t you get your fair share? Earn a nice bonus. Hey, Wall Street jerks a fraction as good as you are taking home multimillion-dollar bonuses like it’s nothing.
“You were willing to work for it. Hell, a measly two, three million and you’d own that nice little place up in Riverdale. All you needed was a chance to make your mark. To get your wings. You could save the day. Crane was looking at huge losses. You could keep the account from blowing up.”
Beck sat forward, talking faster. Now Olivia looked up and watched him.
“But you both knew Crane wouldn’t go quietly. Hell, Markov was his client. He brought him in. No way he would give up control. But you had that figured out, too.” He stopped and turned to face Olivia. “You had Manny. What did you tell Milstein about Manny? Did you tell him you could have Crane killed?”
Olivia answered quickly. “No. No. Absolutely not.”
Beck continued looking at her. “No?”
“No. No way.”
“You’re lying.”
Olivia’s voice rose. “No. I’m not. All right, I admit we talked about Manny. Milstein told me how volatile Crane was. I told him I wasn’t worried. I told Milstein that my cousin was a man people feared. I told him that one conversation with him and Alan would fold. He would back off and let us do what needed to be done.”
“How were you going to arrange that? How were you going to get Manny involved? The truth.”
“I was going to tell Manny that a man at work was trying to intimidate me. Giving me a hard time. Bullying me. If I had to, I was going to tell Manny he threatened me.”
Beck looked at Olivia, nodded, thinking it over.
“Call in Manny against the bully.”
“Something like that.”
“Something like that? There’s no like that with Manny Guzman, Olivia. No middle ground. No gray. He’s not the kind of man who slaps someone in the head and says be nice to my cousin. He fucking kills them. Makes them disappear.”
Olivia shook her head. “No. I mean, why would I think that? I never believed it would get to that. Milstein was too smart. He never planned on getting rid of Crane completely. We were fine with him staying around to front the business and handle Markov. We just needed him to step back, stop being so reckless, and let us cut back on his high-risk trading. It meant he had to cut me in for a share, but I was going to earn it.”
“And you were going to leave Markov to Crane?”
“No. Not completely. Sure, he was Crane’s client, but I was going to be involved. I had no problem with turning on the charm to keep Markov happy.”
“So what went wrong? Why did Crane get so crazy?”
“Because he got wind of what we were planning before Milstein could pitch him. Crane heard what Milstein and me were up to and he went nuts.”
“Meaning the attack. The yelling and screaming, threatening to kill you. Breaking your hand.”
Olivia stopped. She sensed something. She watched Beck looking at her. She knew. Maybe she had known from the moment Beck started going over it all again. She looked down, than back up at Beck. She spoke slowly and softly. “It didn’t happen exactly that way.”
Beck sat back in Nydia’s chair. “What way did it happen?”
She couldn’t look at Beck. She stared past him, gazing at the glow of the city lights coming in through the transparent inner drape drawn over the window.
“Everything I told you is true. Crane came in. Yelling, screaming, threatening. Pounding the desk. He really got to me. I really believed my life was at risk. I realized I may have underestimated the whole thing. Crane truly sounded like he actually could have me killed.
“I hadn’t really thought about who Markov was until that moment. What he might be capable of doing. When Crane threatened to kill me, I was terrified. Then I suddenly got paranoid. Maybe Milstein had set the whole thing up knowing Crane would do this. Maybe he tipped off Crane. Was he using me as a stalking horse to see what Crane would do? Did he blow up everything so I would go to Manny?
“My head was reeling.” Now she turned her gaze to Beck. “I never experienced anything like that.”
“Go on.”
“I was numb. I kept thinking, what the hell have I done? I left the office in a daze. I usually get the train on Fifty-ninth, but I couldn’t. I needed to move. I decided to walk to Grand Central. It was cold out, but there were still a lot of people on the streets. People heading home. I was kind of like walking at my own pace, you know. Dazed, not like all the people walking past me.
“It was dark, I wasn’t paying attention. I don’t even know exactly how it happened. Or where. I was in the middle of a crosswalk. Maybe there was a little ice, a manhole, and uneven part, I don’t know. I just slipped. Fell sort of to the side. Landed on my hand.”
She lifted her left hand, wrapped in the cast as if it were an exhibit. Remembering how it had actually happened. She closed her eyes. The tears were coming, silently moving down her cheeks as if something separate and apart from her.