On the second pass, Theo did his standard search for contraband. His youngest brother, Luke, had been a master at hiding things—usually drugs—and Theo had learned most of the tricks from raiding Luke’s bedroom. Theo went slowly: furniture, baseboards, the hollow-core door, outlets, light switches, even the light fixture on the ceiling. He found nothing. If Wayne was into drugs or anything else illicit, he was doing a better job hiding it than Cal. Or, Theo thought, he had simply transferred it into Cal’s room after Cal had died.
“Find anything?” Auggie asked from the doorway.
Theo shook his head. “Just papers.”
“Me too.” Auggie held up a sheaf of pages. “Oh, and a few rails of cocaine, but don’t get excited because I already did them.”
“Funny.”
“I thought you’d appreciate it because you’ve got all the jokes today. Come on, let’s take a look at this stuff. We can have some beers and relax.”
Theo crossed his arms.
“Kidding,” Auggie said with that huge, goofy smile, the one that had nothing to do with Instagram or Facebook or whatever he was spending his time on.
“So funny.”
They sat on the couch and pored over the paperwork. By some miracle, Auggie actually seemed to focus, which was a good thing because Theo struggled to make sense of the documents. He was very good at reading things closely—that was his job, after all—but numbers were difficult. He did all right with something straightforward, but all the credits and debits and dates swam together on the page.
“Interesting, right?” Auggie said.
“Yeah.”
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
“Let’s hear what you’re seeing.”
“No, you first.”
“Um, they’re making a lot of money.”
“Really? Let me see. No, that’s from last October. Theo—wait, why are these out of order?”
Outside, someone was calling sooie, sooie, and then bursting into guffaws.
“Ok,” Theo said, “so Ian always balanced the checkbook.”
“Oh my God.”
“Go ahead, you can laugh. I just—it doesn’t make sense sometimes.”
But Auggie didn’t laugh. He was very still, his eyes not even focused on Theo. Then his gaze shifted. “When was the last time you had a good idea of how much money you had, what’s coming in, where it’s going, that kind of thing?”
Theo’s face was on fire. He stared at the carpet.
“Never mind,” Auggie said. “Sorry, it’s not any of my business. I can’t even believe I said that.”
“No, it’s—I mean, Ian died over a year ago.”
Another of those long silences. The man was still calling sooie, and now a truck was beeping as it backed up.
“Doesn’t that stress you out?” Auggie said.
“God, you have no idea.”
“Can I—” Auggie smoothed the pages on his lap. “Would you let me help?”
“You really know how to do this?”
“Um, yeah. Fer is super good with it, of course, and he pretty much handles all the money now. But I don’t think Chuy even knows how many pennies are in a dollar, and my mom is the same way. For a while, when Fer wasn’t living at home, I had to, you know, figure some of this stuff out. And I do a lot of goals, projections, interaction numbers, that kind of thing with my social media accounts.”
“I’ve tried, Auggie. I’ve really tried.”
“Hey, I get it. Like I said, Chuy and my mom can’t do it either.”
“This is unbelievable.”
“It’s not as bad as when I had to see your bruised nipples.”
Theo put his face in his hands.
“Just in case, you know, that comparison helps.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Well, it’s the thought that counts.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Maybe I could help you with some of this stuff sometime.”
“Yes. Perfect. That will perfectly wrap up how much my life has fallen apart. Oh shit, Auggie, I didn’t mean it that way. This is so fucking embarrassing. Let’s pretend we didn’t talk about this.”
“Ok,” Auggie said slowly. “But it’s just one thing. Everybody needs help with something. I won’t bring it up again, though. Just—the offer is on the table.” He smoothed out the pages again, the paper crinkling, and said, “Let me scan through Wayne’s stuff and see if it looks similar.”
“Great. I’m going to go put my head in the garbage disposal. Come get me when you’re done.”
Instead, somehow Theo ended up with Auggie’s legs across his lap while Auggie stretched out and flipped through the paperwork. He had a tiny furrow between his eyebrows, and his mouth—that oh-so-expressive mouth—kept shifting. He’d bite his lip. Then his mouth would thin out. Then he’d chew the corner of his mouth. Then he’d bite his lip again. Why, Theo wanted to know, would anybody read Cosmo or buy paperbacks or watch porn when they could look at Auggie Lopez’s mouth all day?
“So, it looks like Wayne was telling the truth. Kind of.”
“Kind of?”
“Well, they were taking in between ten and twelve thousand dollars a month.”
“Wait, what?”
“Each.”
“Holy shit. Do you think anybody wants private Shakespeare lessons?”
“Sure, definitely, all those kids that smell like glue and wear black. Anyway, Cal and Wayne also had a lot of expenses. The facility they rented wasn’t cheap, and it looks like they pay installments on a lot of their equipment. I guess it wasn’t technically a loan, so Wayne wasn’t lying, but he definitely made it sound like they were clearing a lot of income every month. From what I see, they were definitely splitting the money fifty-fifty. It went into Wayne’s account first, and then he wrote checks to Cal, so there’s no way Cal could have manipulated those numbers. Last year, after expenses and taxes, they both made about fifty thousand dollars.”
“That’s actually pretty good for a single guy without any debts,” Theo said. “So why are they sharing a mid-range apartment?”
“I bet if you asked Wayne, he’d tell you they were saving money, something they could use for part of the purchase of their own facility.”
“What do you think?”
“I think Cal had habits that meant he always needed more cash.”
“Even making fifty thousand dollars?”
“Well, look. He took out regular cash withdrawals. A thousand here. Five hundred here. And it’s cash, so once it’s out of the account, who knows where it goes?”
“Drugs,” Theo said.
“Definitely drugs. Or sex. Or booze. Or parties. Or clubs.”
“What about Wayne?”