55
It was nearly one o’clock and Nick was complaining about a rumbly stomach by the time the conference room door opened without a knock. Carter Wakeling looked flustered, using his fingers to rake his tousled sandy blond hair from his eyes.
“Sorry, I got hung up in traffic on the bridge,” he explained. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to reschedule, Ms. Moran.”
Laurie clasped her hands together, trying her best to appear sympathetic. “Midday traffic’s the worst. Fortunately, I think we can be quick here, Carter. Why don’t you and Ryan get started and we’ll see if we can wrap it all up in a few minutes so you can get back to your work.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Peter and Anna are out of the office today, so I have a ton of stuff to do.”
Laurie looked to Jerry, who subtly shook his head. As she’d suspected, Jerry had become chummy enough with Emma the secretary to have a sense of Carter’s availability for the rest of the day.
“I’ve had my whole crew here for three hours, Carter. Please, just have a seat so we can check you off the list of witnesses we need on camera. We don’t even need to bother with makeup or anything. They can do wonders with editing these days,” she said, adding a reassuring smile.
“It’s not about my appearance,” he snapped. “I just can’t deal with this today. As I said, we’ll need to reschedule.”
Laurie pressed again. “Maybe your cousin, Tom, could help cover for a short while,” she suggested.
“That wouldn’t be appropriate. He’s not one of the corporate officers!”
His face was now flushed with anger. It reminded Laurie of the rare temper tantrums Timmy used to have as a toddler.
“We have a very tight production schedule,” Laurie said firmly. “I can’t guarantee we’ll be able to circle back to you.”
“No offense, but that’s your problem, not mine.”
“Except we’re trying to call attention to your mother’s murder in the hope of identifying her killer. I would think you’d have an interest in helping that process.”
“I already know who killed my mother—Ivan Gray!”
Laurie noticed Nick adjust something on his camera. She knew he was getting all of this on film and that the release Carter had signed would allow them to use the footage.
She cleared her throat and gave a sharp look to Ryan, still seated at the end of the table, though he had at least moved his feet to the floor. It took him a beat to pick up on her hint, but when he did, he rose to stand.
“We know that Penny Rawling told you about your mother’s plans to change her will,” Ryan snapped.
Carter’s mouth opened but he said nothing.
“You were dating your mother’s assistant,” Ryan continued. “You didn’t want the rest of the family to know, but you were desperate to enlist Anna and Peter to stop your mother from going through with her plans.”
“Is that what Peter and Anna told you?” Carter asked. “And Penny? What else did they say about me?”
He was still seething with anger, but he now looked terrified as well. Laurie could tell that the time Carter had spent wondering what others had been saying to them had put him in a paranoid state of mind. She could only imagine what his mental state must have been like three years earlier when his mother lectured him about the need to “grow up,” right on the heels of his learning from Penny about his mother’s plans to greatly reduce his and Anna’s inheritance. She wondered if he had yelled at Virginia the way he was yelling now.
Ryan was not letting up on his interrogation. He took two steps toward Carter. Laurie hoped that he wasn’t blocking the camera angle. “You had a heated argument with Peter just before dinner at the gala that night. You told Peter and Anna that you all had to stop your mother from changing her will—no matter what.”
“That money was no more hers than ours!” Carter hissed. “My father put his heart and soul into this company. He wanted the Wakeling name to join the ranks of the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts. That was to be our legacy. And she was going to give it all away. Of course I thought we should stop her. It was damn stupid what she was going to do.”
He was nearly out of breath when he finished ranting. The room fell silent and he suddenly looked at Nick behind the camera.
“Is that thing on?” he said, pointing at the camera. “Turn that off. Now!”
He charged directly at Nick, his arms outstretched. Laurie tried to grab him, but he was moving too quickly. Ryan, who was positioned between Carter and Nick, jumped forward to block Carter’s advance.
Carter pulled back his right fist. The punch landed squarely on Ryan’s left jaw. Ryan then threw an uppercut against Carter’s chin. The impact jerked his head backward and threw him off balance. He stumbled toward the conference table, where Ryan pinned his arms behind him.
“Calm down, man,” Ryan ordered. “You’re not getting that film, and you’re only making yourself look worse.”
Laurie could see the tension begin to leave Carter’s body as he resigned himself to the situation. Ryan slowly released his grip, keeping his hands in front of him in a protective stance until Carter backed away toward the door, rubbing his chin as he moved.
“You are sick if you think I would hurt my own mother,” he shouted. Then he shook his finger in a rage. “You’ll be hearing from our lawyers. Ivan Gray’s a killer. Are you too stupid to get that?”
He turned his back and slammed the door behind him as he left.
As soon as he was gone, Laurie and Jerry rushed toward Ryan.
“Are you okay?” Laurie asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, wiggling his jaw to make certain. “I didn’t see that sucker punch coming, but I clocked him pretty good after that, didn’t I?”
“You sure did,” Laurie said emphatically. As many times as I wouldn’t have minded knocking Ryan around myself, she thought, I’m so glad that he wasn’t really hurt.
The crew broke down the set in record time, and hustled out of the building.
As Nick and the rest of the crew were about to climb into their van, Ryan ran over to them. “You got it all, didn’t you?” he asked eagerly. “Carter shouting at me, then punching me and my punching him back. It will be the most dramatic segment on the show.”
Nick answered with a thumbs-up, then closed the door of the van.
“Awesome,” Ryan said, seemingly to himself as he climbed into the SUV waiting to take Laurie, Ryan, and Jerry back to the office. “The audience is going to love that.”
“It’s obvious his ego emerged unscathed,” Jerry whispered as he settled in the seat next to Laurie.