The Darkness - Jason Pinter [105]
Have you ever heard the term 'purple-headed warrior'?"
"Uh, no," I said, "but whatever floats your boat."
"I think the warrior in this book does float," she said, "at
least according to the narrator. His 'mast' sounds big
enough to sail down the Amazon. Anyway, good luck,
guys."
Amanda went back to the sofa, lay down, kicked her
feet up and dove back into the book.
"She's a pistol," Jack said.
"Sure is. Here, we can sit at the table."
Jack took a seat at our meager dining room table as I
hooked up my laptop. Once I powered it on, I accessed
LexisNexis and did a search for Leonard Reeves.
Half a dozen hits came up. I opened the first one.
It was from The Daily Princetonian, the student newspaper at Princeton University. We searched through the
highlighted article and finally came across the name
Leonard Reeves. The passage read:
The Princeton economics department, spearheaded by
Professor Sheila DeWitt, has seen its fair number of notable
professionals in the fields of finance and economics.
The article was accompanied by a photo of a middleaged black woman who must have been Professor DeWitt.
She was standing at the front of a small classroom. Two
students were visible in the front row. One was a girl, early
twenties, with a ponytail and wearing a skirt and blouse.
The man was dressed in slacks and a button-down shirt,
his hair short, and he wore glasses. The caption read:
302
Jason Pinter
Rachel Vine '93 and Leonard Reeves '94 are capti-
vated by the renowned professor.
"Is that him?" Jack said.
"I don't know. Let's see the next article."
I pulled up the next search result. It was from Crain's
business daily. The article was from 1998, and the headline
was: Economic Boom Sees Rise in Dot Com Investors.
We found Leonard Reeves's name halfway through the
piece. It read:
Flush with cash, many young men and women who
have prospered during unparalleled growth are putting their money into what many consider to be
risky investments--namely Web sites and Internet
domains. Leonard Reeves, a graduate of the Princeton economics department and executive at Morgan
Stanley, admits to finding thrill in such a venture.
"You don't get into this industry to watch from
the sidelines," said Reeves. "The people who take
the biggest risks reap the biggest rewards."
Reeves, who already owns three apartments in
New York City, says he plans to take his earnings
from Internet ventures and invest even further in the
housing market.
"Man, that can't have worked out too well for him,"
Jack said.
"Holy crap," I said.
"What?"
"Look, there." I pointed to the next article. The headline said it all.
The piece was from 2001, and was published in the
The Darkness
303
Wall Street Journal. It read: Reeves Named as Liaison to
New York City Department of Finance.
The article was also accompanied by a photograph. It
was definitely the same guy from the Princetonian article.
"He worked for the government?" Jack said. "You've
got to be kidding me."
I sat there, stunned. How was that possible? Could this
have been the same guy?
The other articles were not dated any later than 2004,
and all were references to Reeves's job with the DoF. There
were no other hits for the name, nothing else came up.
"It has to be him," I said. "But I don't get it. If this is
the same Reeves as on the order made out to Morgan
Isaacs, what the hell is someone who worked for the government and who worked for one of the biggest brokerage
firms in the world doing associated with 718 Enterprises?
I mean, these people are drug dealers, plain and simple,
and the crap they're producing is killing people. How did
someone like Reeves get connected to that?"
Jack sat there, thinking. Not listening to me, but lost
in his own thoughts. Then I heard Amanda's voice from
the couch.
"What if Reeves didn't just use to work for the government?" she said. "I mean, what if he still does?"
"That's crazy," I said. "Obviously Reeves fell on hard
times somehow and ended up selling his soul for a pile
of black rocks."
"Not