Chapter 8 - Behind the Ballistic Glass-8
Ten minutes later, I walked into the primary visitation room to face Brandon one last time before his transfer to a maximum-security federal facility.
The room was divided by a thick, seamless pane of reinforced ballistic glass. Brandon sat down heavily on the cold metal stool on the other side, lifting his chained hands with immense effort to pick up the plastic intercom phone. I picked up my receiver, holding it to my ear in total silence.
"You look beautiful, Maya," Brandon whispered through the line, his voice a raspy, broken shadow of its former self, his throat damaged by the smoke inhalation from the transit bay fire. "I see the civilian clothes suit you just as well as they did when you were playing the quiet, tired wife at my kitchen counter. I suppose I should thank you for leaving my daughters their nominal trust shares. It was a remarkably generous act for a woman who called her marriage an empty room."
"I didn't do it for you, Brandon," I said, my voice flat and devoid of emotion. "I did it for the law. You're going to prison for thirty-five years, Brandon. The company is gone. Your money is gone. Sloane Mercer is currently cooperating with the feds to secure a reduced sentence in a maximum-security women's facility, and her family's assets have been completely bankrupted by the federal seizures."
Brandon let out a sharp, bitter bark of laughter that degenerated into a ragged coughing fit, his chained hands shaking against the steel counter. "You think you won, Maya? You think this little courtroom victory makes you safe? You think you can just take your investment dividends and go back to your quiet little life with our daughters?"
May you like
He leaned close to the glass, his eyes flashing with a sudden, malicious intensity.
"The Nicosia pipeline... you only pulled the top layer of the ledger, Maya. The real owners of that syndicate... the international cartel behind those Cypriot holding firms... they don't care about federal court verdicts. They care about their capital. Eighty-five million dollars of their money is currently frozen because of your short-circuit trick!"
