Page 59 of The Guru: Shadow
“That’s so nice of you! See you tomorrow at ten for the meeting then.”
If you knew the truth. You could connect the dots with all the information on the table, with all your intelligence, but you don’t. Because you fall for the obvious and don’t recognize, just like everyone else.
Not that he minded.
The moment Julie was gone, he reached for his phone.
“Where is she?”
“Back in Manhattan, and you won’t like it.”
“What is she doing?”
“Sending it to you right now.”
He was staring at the images.
No way. She did not.
“What am I looking at, Ed?”
“You are looking at Carl Pearson, Julie’s fiancée, with Emma taking drugs and hanging out in her apartment.”
Taking in the magnitude of her actions, his mind tried to focus, but control slipped from beneath his fingers.
She knows about the cameras. She did not remove them. It’s intentional.
But his system had already gone into dark mode. Betrayal. Intentional betrayal. Her game was on another level. And he would not allow it. She had gone too far.
“What are they taking? Cocaine?”
“From the looks of it. He brought it. She sent him a text: ‘Have you seen Jay Jay on the 3rd?’ And he turned up an hour later. I suppose it’s not the first time. They seem quite familiar with each other, and they are for sure on a high right now, it’s their fifth line in less than an hour already.”
“Get me an advanced background check on him.”
“Already done, sending you the file right now. You won’t like it.”
Glancing over the first documents, something in him clenched.
“Didn’t Julie say he held a PHD in Physics, and didn’t we confirm as much in the regular check before we signed up Bloom?”
“She did, and yes.”
“So, he’s a liar.”
“I believe worse. Look at the aliases, the charges. A liar with friends in high places.”
There they were: passports and drivers licenses going by different names. Tony Quinn, Ben Ascot, Aden Wright. Names connected to sexual assault, violence in all shades, drugs, illegal ownership of guns, and trafficking.
“How is this guy walking free?”
“Never convicted. Look who’s the daddy.”
And sure, as hell, the daddy was none other than star lawyer Andrew Pearson. Not only a nasty specimen and biting bullterrier on the loose, but also…
“Delilah’s bulldog.”
“Yes.”