Chapter 8: Gerald
Gerald Marsh was found at his sister's house in Austin on Friday afternoon.
He had not, as it turned out, gone far.
He had simply stopped answering his phone and hoped the distance would buy him time.
It bought him two days.
Grace called Mason when the investigators located him.
"He's agreed to come in voluntarily," she said.
"His attorney advised him that running made everything worse."
"Is he going to cooperate?"
"His attorney is indicating he'll provide a full account in exchange for consideration.
But Mason — he's not going to make it easy.
He's been in this business for twenty years.
He knows how these conversations go."
Gerald arrived at Grace's office the following Monday with a different kind of attorney than Brandon's — older, quieter, the kind who had seen the inside of federal proceedings before.
Gerald himself looked smaller than he had at the hotel.
The thin, watchful man who had stood near the door saying nothing had been replaced by someone who looked like he hadn't slept in a week.
He sat down.
His attorney opened a folder.
"My client is prepared to provide a complete account of the financial arrangement at the Grand Crest Hotel," the attorney said.
"He acknowledges his role in establishing the supplier account and in facilitating access to Mr.
Vance's administrative email system."
"I want to hear it from him," Mason said.
Gerald looked at his attorney, who nodded.
"I set it up before we were hired," Gerald said.
His voice was flat, careful.
"I'd done a version of it at two other properties.
Smaller scale.
The key is the purchasing chain — if you control what's ordered and what's invoiced, the gap is invisible unless someone physically checks the deliveries against the paperwork."
"Joanne Parker checked," Mason said.
"She was thorough." Gerald said it without inflection.
"Most kitchen staff don't look at invoices.
She did."
"So you had her fired."
"I had her removed from a situation that was going to expose a significant financial arrangement." He paused.
"I used your account because it was the fastest way to make the dismissal look authorized.
I didn't expect her to keep copies."
"You also had her watched."
Gerald's hands, flat on the table, didn't move.
"I needed to know if she was going to pursue it."
"She was in the hospital, Gerald.
She had a stroke."
"I know."
"And you stopped watching her because it was no longer necessary.
Not because she was ill.
Because she was no longer a threat."
Gerald said nothing.
Mason leaned forward.
"I want to ask you something, and I want an honest answer.
Not for legal purposes.
Just between us."
Gerald looked at him.
"Did you ever think about what you were doing to her?"
A long silence.
"I thought about the risk," Gerald said finally.
"I didn't think about her."
Mason sat back.
"Then I want you to think about her now," he said.
"Because everything that happens next — every charge, every piece of evidence, every consequence — is going to have her name attached to it.
Not as a footnote.
As the reason."
Gerald's attorney began to speak.
Mason raised a hand.
May you like
"I'm done talking to him," Mason said to Grace.
"Let's finish this."
