Stolen Power

but also at the thought of anything associated with Claire. It seemed like a slap in her face, the undoing of her kind gesture through his own stupidity. But for now, I controlled my emotions. I had to, for the sake of the case, for my own sanity, and most of all for young Millie. She needed me to solve this case and get her back home safe, if I lost my temper now it could only hinder that from happening. I needed Ben to talk, to unburden himself with the truth for me to use every bit of information he provided to go after the guilty party.
“I know. I know. You don’t think I feel horrible about this? This fight against Chase Martin has almost made us bankrupt, and the stress of it all has nearly sent me over the edge. I’m a man on the edge, Jack. I don’t know how much more I can take. I’ve worked hard all my life for what I’ve got. And now it’s all gone. And my health is going too. The cost of medical bills is almost too much for us to bear. And it’s all Chase Martin’s fault.”
“My heart bleeds,” I said bluntly. “And what do you mean ‘worked hard’? That money was from Claire. You didn’t do anything for it.”
I know he was having a hard time of it, and I did genuinely care about his health issues and where he was going to find the money to pay for his medical treatment, but I was angry too and not in the mood to be emotionally blackmailed by his tale of woe.
He held up his hands in surrender. “I put my own money in too. Everything. He told us that the investment was foolproof. He told us that we would triple our money in a month. Just about guaranteed it to us. But…” He sighed and ran his hand over his hair. “But of course, it was too good to be true. The prick was setting us up. Took us for a ride. As soon as we invested the money, the company declared bankruptcy. We lost everything.”
“Bad timing?”
“Not a chance. It was a house of cards just waiting to fall. After we lost the money, I did some digging and he’s run this scam before. Many times, as it happens. The companies—”
“The companies?”
“Like I said, it’s not the first time he’s run this scam. He runs it about once a year. The companies are owned in untouchable places, such as the Cayman Islands. In my investigations, I found out that Chase Martin is a horrible investor and an even worse human being.”
“But a good scammer.”
“Exactly. He’s a great salesman. A con artist, really. The only way he makes money is by ripping people off. And this time, he ripped off ten former army soldiers, including me. Destroyed some lives in the process.”
“And how did you get involved?”
“An ex-army brother in arms, Chuck Kowalski, who I’ve kept in touch with over the years, he’s had some really low times, struggled with PTSD, but he was coming out of it, starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. He thought this investment was going to put him on a new path. Even borrowed money from his elderly mother to make up the full amount. He was excited, he convinced me to meet with Chase, and boy, was he a smooth talker.” He trailed off for a moment and I could see the anger simmering beneath the surface.
Was he angry enough to do the unthinkable?
The vulnerable make the best scam targets. When someone is down, when their defenses are weakened, they look for a way out, an exit from the current path they’re on.
“Making ten ex-army men angry is a dangerous game to play.”
“Well, he played it. And it seems he has enough money to get away with it. We’re out of options and can’t afford to do anything else anyway. We tried the legal route, initially, but he knows we can’t afford to take it to court. He’ll tie it up for years. We don’t have the resources for a fight like that, and he knows it.”
Ben closed his eyes, lowered his head to his hand and massaged his forehead. With a sigh, he raised his head and met my unyielding gaze.
“I’m really sorry, Jack, I really am. I was only trying to do the best for my family, for my little girl. It’s so hard these days, to afford a good education, a house, even bringing a baby into the world just costs so much money, I only wanted to make it so Alannah didn’t have to worry about any of that. Now she’ll be even worse off.”
He shrugged as though accepting this fate.
“So what’s your involvement with Chase? I hope you’re not considering investing.”
I scoffed at the thought.
“You know me, Ben. That’s not my style.” I stared at him, searching his face for clues. “I can’t tell you what I’m working on, but I need you to tell me something—where were you on Saturday morning?”
“Yesterday.” He flinched. Pulled on his ear lobe. “I was out fishing. Getting some time to myself.”
With his small grooming movements, Ben was dispersing the nervous energy of his falsehood. To a casual observer, that small error might be overlooked as a normal gesture, it might be written off as the nerves of an unstable person under difficult circumstances, but I wasn’t a casual observer, and this was not a casual conversation.
“Anyone able to verify that you were out fishing yesterday morning?”
“Sorry, Jack. I was alone. Not even a fish to verify it.” He tried to convey a fake chuckle, only highlighting his lie.
I almost felt offended that he thought his amateur attempts at deception would work on an old pro like me. I stared