The Partner

Talking to Judge Huskey, Patrick reveals that although he doesn’t know where the money is, it has been earning interest in the four years since he took it. He tells Huskey that he had already decided to leave, and he was going to do it even if he couldn’t get the money. He knew the firm was going to fire him before they got their 30% of the payout.

After his disappearance, Patrick continued to collect recordings from his bugs at the office. He learned where the money was being wired to and used false identification and papers to convince the bank manager handling the wire transfer to let Patrick—posing as Vitrano, one of the senior partners—to wire it out immediately to an account controlled by Patrick. Patrick had been prepared to give up and flee without the money, but the transfer went smoothly.

Patrick asks Huskey what he thought about the heist at the time, and Huskey says he was concerned about the apparent murder Patrick must have committed to get the dead body that was in the car.

After both Patrick and the money had been moving around for a while, Patrick went to Brazil. Huskey calls it Patrick’s “independence day.” Patrick agrees that it was his first day of absolute freedom. He admits, however, that he might have been better off without the money. He would have gotten a low-pressure job and lived on the beach.

Sandy takes the boxes of evidence back with him to New Orleans. Eva is restless for home and anxious about her father. She goes into the nearby town and notices someone following her. He seems almost to be trying to be noticed. Eva takes flight for Miami. She also buys a one-way ticket to Sau Paulo. The FBI, however, intercepts her in Miami.

Patrick and Sandy are going over the evidence from the beach house when Agent Cutter tells them about Eva’s capture and her ticket to Sau Paulo. Patrick refuses to believe she is abandoning him.

The partners at Patrick’s former firm are getting increasingly nervous, as is Senator Nye, who helped them to push through the case against Platt & Rockland. Bogan tells Vitrano that he assured the senator that none of their conversations about him had been held in the bugged offices. Vitrano asks if Bogan told the senator about “the closet.” The closet is a small meeting room. Bogan and Vitrano had met with Benny Aricia there on one occasion in which Benny rambled extensively on the Senator’s involvement. If the conversation had been recorded, a listener could learn everything they needed to know from that one conversation. The partners are hoping the conversation will just go away if they don’t mention it.

Sandy arranges for a lawyer in Miami, Mark Birck to check up on Eva and see that she is safe. Eva feels shocked and humiliated to find herself in jail. She is worried about her father and trying hard not to blame Patrick. She has to admit it is mostly her fault for panicking and leaving a trail her pursuers can follow. The thought of the money reassures her. Money can be used to manipulate and bully people. She will eventually be freed. Meanwhile, the cell is a safe place, and Patrick will already be working on plans to free her.

Sandy meets with Agent Cutter and offers a deal. He can prove that Benny Aricia conspired with a senator and Patrick’s old law firm to make a false claim against Platt & Rockland.

Mrs. Stephano is just starting to relax since the FBI surveillance was withdrawn from her home. She is upset when Agent Cutter phones Stephano in the middle of the night and tells him that Eva has been captured. He knows there is now no chance of getting the money back. Stephano suspects that Patrick has a lot of dirt on Aricia and the law firm. He doesn’t know what that dirt is, but it must be the reason the law firm didn’t join in the pursuit of Patrick and the money. They didn’t want Patrick to reveal what he knows.

Stephano tells Benny Aricia that Eva has been caught and Patrick is making a deal with the FBI. Benny decides it’s time to cut his losses and disappear, just like Patrick, before the FBI come after him.

Sandy contacts the two insurance companies that were partnered with Benny Aricia in the hunt for Patrick. He shows them the pictures of Patrick’s electrical burns and threatens to publish them if they don’t drop their suits against Patrick. Eva’s father is released.

Sandy assembles the FBI, the federal prosecutor, the US district attorney and the district attorney for Harrison County. He makes a deal to exchange the evidence against Aricia and Patrick’s law firm for the FBI dropping the charges against Patrick.

They debate the offer. The FBI eventually surrender their claim on the assurance from the state attorneys that they will be able to convict Patrick of manslaughter at the very least for the body in his car. Satisfied that Patrick will still wind up in prison for at least five years, the FBI agree to drop their case.

Sandy and the FBI hammer out a deal in which all charges are dropped against Patrick in exchange for all the evidence and all the stolen money plus 3% interest—which will still leave Patrick very wealthy from the remaining interest already accrued. Eva will also be released.

Patrick will drop his suit against the FBI for the torture and turn it instead against the insurance companies that hired Stephano, who authorized the torture. In return for his dropping those charges, the insurance companies will drop their suit against Trudy for the return of the life-insurance payout. They will also set up a trust fund for Ashley Nichole.

Judge Huskey visits Patrick at the hospital, and Patrick asks if he really believes Patrick killed Pepper. Huskey admits he doesn’t know. He wouldn’t have believed Patrick could do such a thing, but he also wouldn’t have believed Patrick had faked his death and stolen the money if he didn’t see it himself.