Deconstructing Bridges

Chapter Twenty-Two

Eddie rubbed his face before taking a sip from his mug. He didn't know how many coffees this made for today. Twenty? Forty? He'd lost track hours ago. 

The list of businesses implicated in Marshall's network was fairly extensive, but on looking closer, there was a common thread. All of the men photographed with Marshall, with or without girls accompanying them, were not just random workers within those companies. They were always managers within the accounting divisions of their law firms, often junior managers. Another interesting anomaly? Each and every one of the men (men, all of them) were married. Was it a coincidence? 

Eddie was fast becoming a believer that coincidences were for fairy tales. Scenarios began to build in his mind, and he knew he had to verify it as soon as humanly possible. The girls weren't there by accident, he was sure of it. 

Immediately he had begun delegating team members to interview the lead accountants. All day, they'd been running interviews. After contacting everyone they'd been able to identify in the photographs provided by Denny, they'd given them the choice of remaining in their offices or coming to the station, and surprisingly almost everyone had opted to come to the station rather than risk their colleagues see them talk to the police. This was interview number four for him, and Parker had also led three. 

Over the hours of the morning and into the afternoon they had used the photographic evidence and threatened subpoenas of company records and as Rose had predicted, as soon as the promises of charges for obstruction of justice and embezzlement surfaced, they began to crack. Whether due to the threat to their careers or the simple probability of their families finding out what they had participated in, details began to trickle forth. 

Over the past several hours they had a clear picture of what was going on, and it sickened him. Times like this were a paradox. He hated this part of the job, but at the same time it was exactly how he knew his job was so important. The fact that he despised these cases so much ensured that he went over it in such detail he didn't miss anything. There was no way he was fumbling this case. For himself, for the memories of those girls, for his best friend whom he was still not speaking to and the woman he still counted as a friend, he would sweat blood before he gave up. 

The last man waiting to be interviewed, a young associate account handler from a large marketing firm was seated in the interview room already. His leg was jiggling up and down in a nervous habit, his hands clasped as his thumbs tapped against each other. He was the picture of a nervous man who knew he was about to get slammed. 

Good. 

This man had met with Marshall on a number of occasions, though in none of them had he been with a woman. But Eddie was willing to bet he had met one of them along the way, and he was ready to somehow prove it. 

This man's name was Jeremiah Lowe, and he barely looked old enough for the gold ring adorning his left ring finder. His brown curled hair was gelled, though slightly unruly as though he had been running his hands through it while waiting. 

Eddie sat down in front of him, and he swore he could almost hear the other man's heartbeat.

This guy knows he's in trouble.

"I'm not going to take time explaining why you're here. Chances are you know. I'm just going to start off by showing you some things."

He placed a photograph face-up in front of the man.

"Do you know him?"

Jeremiah looked down at the photograph of Matthew Bridges and shook his head in confusion.