The Partner

The FBI is still interviewing Stephano, who outlines the search for Patrick and lists the people involved: Benny Aricia and the two insurance companies that were forced to pay out on Patrick supposed death and the theft of the money. Trudy’s lawyer shows her Patrick’s evidence against her and Lance. He tells her she has no choice but to stop damaging Patrick’s reputation in the media or she will be publicly humiliated. She can have the divorce and custody of Ashley Nichole, who is revealed to be Lance’s daughter. He also obliquely warns them that if Lance hires someone to try to kill Patrick, Lance will be the first suspect the police look at.

Judge Karl Huskey visits his friend in the hospital. He has been thinking about the months and years before Patrick’s disappearance. In retrospect, he sees how Patrick’s behavior was changing, especially his physical appearance. Like many of Patrick’s former friends and associates, Huskey had often imagined fondly what it would be like to escape the grind of his own life. Huskey has a nuanced perspective on justice. He has sympathy for perpetrators who make once-in-a-lifetime mistakes that they would never make again if they were released.

At the hospital, Patrick and Huskey talk about the dream of escape. Patrick says that he was already burning out when he made partner at the firm. He knew Trudy was cheating and that Ashley Nichole wasn’t his child. He suddenly realized he had to get away. Instead of just making a bolt for freedom, he began to prepare an escape.

He knew he couldn’t leave Trudy and Ashley Nichole without support, so he arranged the life-insurance policy. He started changing his appearance. He found out about the Benny Aricia settlement and realized his partners were going to fire him before the settlement landed. He learned how to disappear and how to use surveillance devices. He bugged the partners’ offices. When he had everything ready, he staged the car wreck.

Huskey is fascinated by the story. His only concern is the knowledge that there must have been a dead body in the car that would be found and presumed to be Patrick. Patrick doesn’t seem to him to care that he had murdered someone. Patrick says that after the crash, he went back to his cabin. Huskey asks if Patrick was worried about being seen by Pepper. Patrick replies that by that time, Pepper was gone.

The FBI continues to question Stephano. Having heard a rumor that Patrick was in Brazil, he and the cabal of Aricia and the two insurance companies hire investigative firms there.

At the hospital, Huskey asks Patrick how Pepper’s things got into his cabin. Patrick is startled, as if he had forgotten about them. Huskey thinks about the adage that every murderer makes 25 mistakes, no matter how carefully he plans. Otherwise, Huskey is delighted with Patrick’s story.

The Aricia/Stephano cabal kidnaps Eva’s father Paulo Miranda. They confine him in a farmhouse in a comfortable suite of rooms and tell him he won’t be harmed unless he tries to escape. Eva learns that he has been taken. In a panic, Eva phones Patrick at the hospital against his explicit instructions. She tells him she has to go home. He reminds her it is a trap and she can’t throw herself into it. Feeling helpless, Eva gets on a plane to New Orleans to meet with Sandy.

The FBI warns Lance and Trudy to lay off Patrick. Meanwhile, Sandy meets with Eva in a hotel. Patrick has warned Sandy to be careful, as Patrick’s enemies may be able to follow Sandy to Eva, but Sandy is inexperienced and still doesn’t fully believe in Patrick’s conspiracy theories.

Eva gives Sandy a file of information on the people looking for Patrick. She also tells Sandy how she came to know Patrick. Patrick had come to her for financial advice, but what he really needed was a friend. They fell in love after two days. Patrick told her about the escape, the theft, and the money. Eva became his agent. She hired a private security firm called the Pluto Group and paid them to find out who was looking for Patrick. They identified Stephano as the coordinator of the search. On Eva’s instructions, they offered to sell Stephano information about Patrick’s whereabouts. They learned that Stephano already knew Patrick was in Brazil.

Eva gives Sandy the file on the people who have her father. Stephano and the others know that Eva has control of the money, and they are using her father as leverage. Sandy asks why Patrick didn’t tell the torturers where the money was, and she replies that he didn’t know; it was under her control. She tells Sandy to get in touch with Agent Cutter and get him to pressure Stephano to release her father.

Patrick is bored in the hospital, missing his life in Brazil and missing Eva. He plans to spend his life with her. He wonders why a person can’t remake himself if he wants to. He erased Patrick and became Danilo Silva in Brazil. Then Danilo died when Patrick was recaptured. He looks forward to a third life with Eva, without the burden of pursuit; he will still be extremely wealthy. He realizes that Eva is strong, but their con game is wearing her down.

Sandy meets with Agent Cutter, telling him that Stephano and company are still after Patrick and the money. Cutter figures out that Sandy’s informant is the same woman who called him when Patrick was found by Stephano and that, whoever the woman is, she has the money. Sandy implies that Patrick might be willing to negotiate over the money, but only if Paulo Miranda is released unharmed. Cutter agrees to put pressure on Stephano.

Stephano is still being interviewed intermittently by the FBI. He tells them how he was contacted by the Pluto Group, who had a client willing to sell him information for a $1 million. Stephano and company guessed the informant was someone Patrick knew and trusted who was willing to sell him out. Eventually, Stephano and the cabal made the deal and got Patrick’s location. They set up the kidnapping and grabbed him.