A trace of irritation moved across Pike's face. "Elias was an idealist. He misunderstood complicated financial arrangements."
"The families didn't misunderstand losing their land," Nolan said. "They understood that part very well. They just weren't given the truth about how it would happen before they signed."
Pike adjusted his stance. The security man at the porch shifted, perhaps expecting him to call an end to the discussion. Instead Pike remained under the light, searching Nolan's face with an expression that was beginning to include recognition.
"You look like him," Pike said. "More than I'd expected."
"Then you remember him."
"Of course I remember him."
"He disappeared because men linked to you threatened my family. That's what he said on his tape. Garrett has acknowledged helping create the false theft accusation. Ruth Adler kept documents showing the pattern. These aren't stories I brought here because I needed someone to blame for my life."
Pike's face closed again. "Your father's departure was his own decision."
Nolan felt the old anger rise and took a moment before answering. "Maybe it was a decision in the sense that a man chooses which hand to hold over his child when something is falling. That doesn't mean he made the thing fall. You forced the choice, then let him spend twenty-two years paying for it."
The rain intensified. Water ran from the stone steps and collected in shallow puddles between the paving blocks. The riders stayed still, their silhouettes dark against the illuminated house, while Nolan faced the man whose name had been part of his mother's silence for most of her life.
"I didn't know you would come here," Pike said after a long pause. "I thought your mother would keep you out of it."
"She did. Until she couldn't anymore."
Pike glanced at the folded leather cut Nolan was holding. "She kept that, too?"
"And the photograph. And the tape. And the map she drew because she wanted me to know where to take them."
For a moment Pike seemed old in a way money had never allowed him to appear in public. His shoulders sagged slightly, and the deliberate smoothness of his speech deserted him. Nolan realized that the man had spent so long arranging consequences for others that he had mistaken the absence of immediate consequences for the absence of a debt.
"We're not here to negotiate whether the records exist," Nolan said. "They do. We're not asking you to promise us an outcome. You don't have that power. We're asking you to withdraw your attempt to keep them hidden and to preserve whatever additional records your companies still hold. Then you answer the investigators' questions."
"You expect me to volunteer for my own destruction?"
"I expect you to stop creating more damage while you decide what kind of man you're going to be when the truth is public."
Pike looked toward the house. Inside, there were warm lights, polished floors, and the ordinary comfort of a life secured by wealth. Nolan wondered whether Pike could remember the names of the fourteen families, or only the numbers associated with their properties.
"You don't understand what you're asking," Pike said quietly. "There are companies, investors, people who've built their lives around arrangements made years ago."