He thought it deserved to sit. His phone rang at 9 that night. Unknown number, local area code. He answered it. Mr. Carter, a man's voice older, measured with a quality of authority that was different from Jackson Morgan's softer, more practiced, the authority of someone accustomed to boardrooms rather than clubous.
My name is Vincent Cray. I'm the regional vice president of Apex Lending's Arizona portfolio. Ethan said nothing. I understand you've engaged legal counsel, Craig said. And I want to reach out personally, not through official channels, to see if there's a conversation we could have that might be more productive than litigation.
My attorney has your council's contact information, Ethan said. Of course, Craig said smoothly. But sometimes these things can be resolved more efficiently with a direct conversation, less formal, more human, he paused. We have a great deal of respect for your situation, Mr. Carter. We're aware that the last several months have been difficult.
We'd like to find a way to make this right for you personally. Ethan thought about the phrase more human. He thought about the six property owners Reyes had identified and the number Campo suspected when the full filing history was pulled. He thought about Gerald Shu at 78 with an active foreclosure on the property he'd spent his life building. Contact my attorney, Ethan said, and ended the call.
He immediately called Ryes and reported the conversation word for word. Reyes was quiet for a moment. Then Vincent Craig called you directly. Yes. From his personal phone, not an apex line.
Unknown number. Ethan said. Local area code. Another pause. Ethan.
It was the first time Reyes had used his first name. Vincent Cray is not someone who calls homeowners directly. He runs a sevenst state portfolio. The fact that he is calling you personally off the record tells me that someone at Apex has reviewed what Darla filed today for the injunction and has understood exactly what it means if this goes forward. What does it mean?
Ethan asked. It means discovery, Reyes said. It means every modification agreement in their Arizona portfolio becomes subject to scrutiny. Every single one. If the same compounding structure appears systematically, and I believe it does, then this isn't a case about your house anymore.
It's a case about a pattern of fraud across multiple properties. Ethan held his phone and looked at the list he'd made in his own handwriting on the kitchen table. That's why he called, Ethan said. That's why he called, Reyes confirmed. He wanted to settle before discovery.
Before we even formally asked for it, Reyes said, which we will do the moment the injunction is granted, he paused. Don't speak to Cray again. Don't speak to anyone from Apex. If they contact you through any channel wrote it to Darla already told him to call her, Ethan said. A short silence that Ethan recognized by now as Rehea's recalibrating.
You handled it right, Rehea said. After he hung up, Ethan sat for a moment and then called Jackson. He told him about Craig's call. He told him what Reyes had said about Discovery. Jackson listened without interrupting.
When Ethan finished, Jackson said, "How are you doing with all of this?" It was an unexpected question. Not because it was strange. It was exactly the right question, but because Ethan hadn't expected Jackson Morgan to be the one asking it. He'd expected more strategy, more logistics, more of the controlled forward motion that had characterized every conversation since the wallet.
I'm all right, Ethan said. And then, because honesty had always been his operating mode, and because Jackson had earned it, I'm angrier than I've been in a long time. That's not a bad thing. It's clarifying. Good.
Jackson said, "Anger that makes you clear is useful. Anger that makes you reckless isn't." A pause. "Is there anything you need tonight?" Ethan looked around in his kitchen at the list, at the organized paperwork, at the coffee mug that said world's fisherman sitting clean and upside down on the drying rack where he'd left it after washing it the night before.
No, he said, "I think I'm good. Get some sleep," Jackson said. "Tomorrow's going to move fast." He was right. Campos filed at 8:15 Friday morning, and the injunction hearing was set for 2:00 in the afternoon.
Ethan drove himself to the Yavapai County Courthouse, which was a 40-minute drive, and he wore the jacket he'd bought for Margaret's funeral, and he sat in the second row of the gallery, and watched Darla Campos operate in a courtroom for the first time. She had been right when she told him. She knew she was the smartest person in the room. What she hadn't told him was that she made no effort to hide it, not from the judge, not from opposing counsel, not from the room. She made her arguments the way a good mechanic made a diagnosis following the evidence without detour, naming each step, letting the logic carry the weight rather than the personality.
Apex's attorney was polished and wellprepared and had clearly spent the last 18 hours building the best possible case for denying the injunction. He was good. Ethan Catelli was good. Campos was better. The judge granted the injunction at 3:47.
Gerald Shu's foreclosure proceeding was suspended pending the outcome of the broader case. The room was quiet for a moment after the ruling, and then there was the shuffling of papers and the movement of bodies in the particular sound of a courthouse gallery finding its way back to ordinary motion. Ethan sat very still. He thought about Ger Gerald Shu out past Ashfork, 78 years old, who didn't know yet that the thing he'd been facing for three days had just stopped at least temporarily because a retired mechanic outside Flagstaff had returned a lost wallet 4 days ago. He thought about that chain of events.
He thought about how far the wallet had been from this courthouse in every sense. Campos found him in the hallway after first round. She said, "We have a lot more ahead." "I know," Ethan said. Apex is going to come back harder.
She said, "Now that they know the injunction is granted, Cray isn't going to be the only one calling. They're going to look for ways to complicate your situation, your standing, your credibility." She watched him. "I want to make sure you're prepared for that." "What does that look like?"
Ethan asked. "It could look like neighbors or acquaintances being contacted. It could look like someone looking into your background, your history. It could look like creative questions being raised about the condition of the property before Decker's crew worked on it. She said this plainly without drama the way a doctor named what you might experience before a hard procedure.
They will try to change the story. Ethan thought about that. What's the story they want to change? The one that's already starting to travel. Campo said about you, about the wallet and what came after.