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I co-sleeved shirt, dabbed makeup on uidance counselor, Frank Powell He was in the weeds—work had backed up and he had a full day of s But he promised to be available at four

Then I called Hirschbeck Sounding resigned, he said, “The company approved the audit the day after we spoke We paid extra for the auditors to work through the weekend”

“Considering someone’s life is at stake, that seems fair,” I said

He ignored my sarcasm “It looks like your client may be in the clear, if an expert can verify that the account information was altered There was only one suspicious account Which means someone deleted the account Marzetti found, or there was only one all along and someone tinkered with it to implicate Brad”

“I think that soht, Chip Saltzman or Mike LaRue”

AI'd pulled those names out like rabbits from a hat “Why?” he said

“I have evidence that they’re involved in the es the cops ant to follow up on It see the money to develop a little project on the side” I summarized what I’d learned from Narsh, my surveillance of the two Kozmik employees, the DVD, and the contents of Cooper’s lock box

“Sweet Jesus,” Hirschbeck said He sounded appropriately shocked, as if discovering that his mother had been raped “That’s unbelievable”

“Since Saltzraest focusing on his co files And possibly to work on their after-hours project If the lead pans out, you’ll save a little time and money”

“Thanks,” he said He sounded dazed “I want you to know that I meant it when I said I’m not the saot off to a shitty start on this”

“You were trying to protect your client,” I said, not wanting to rub it in or say “I told you so”

“I can’t believe that about Fullbright” After a moment of silence, he added, “It’s hard to know soanization have been doing You can’t always know everything”

In other words, all clients lie Ain’t it the truth, I thought

No sooner had I closed the phone than it rang again To my surprise, it was Marzetti