Ben was taken away swiftly, although not quietly. When he realized what was happening, he launched into a very loud protest and struggled. After so many years of trying (and largely succeeding) to live a good clean life, now he was being accused of crookery? Never! Ben couldn't make them understand it. Besides, while he was the head of a distribution company, he didn't actually make the stuff - so surely he couldn't be at fault! No amount of begging, pleading, and arguing seemed to get through to the force there to arrest him. One of the men smacked him hard across the face and told him that he hoped that Ben would be forever haunted by the people killed by his greed; Ben just stared blankly, not understanding that people had died, and completely unable to link those terrible fates to his honest work.
News spread fast in Vance's network, and he heard right away about what was going on. He didn't have much time to plan, but quickly decided to head things off and speak to Jez right away. If he was going to get out of this, he'd need a good story; it was so frustrating to have to deal with this setback now, when things were so close. Honestly it barely even registered that a man who had been there to help Vance his whole life was in jail for a crime that Vance committed, beyond the fact that it was likely to cause him a huge amount of stress and risk, and he needed to protect himself. If anything, this was exactly the sort of situation that Vance had set up his protective arrangement to handle, and why he had kept Ben around. Ben was competent, he was qualified, and it was absolutely believable that he would have had the knowledge, experience, and incentive to be tampering with medicine for higher profits.
Vance ran home and got to Jez before she could hear about things from anyone else. Even as he was explaining it, her eyes narrowed in rage. She started screaming over the top of him that Ben would never do that, that Vance must have done something, that he was ruining his friend's life! Vance tried again and again to talk her down. After all, he explained, it made sense that Ben might dilute things down so that he didn't have to buy so much from Vance - Vance had never tried to reconcile Ben's orders to him and Ben's orders from the customers, so he could have sold far more than he wanted Vance to know about. And if Vance was messing with the medicine, wouldn't everyone be affected? He worked in huge batches, after all - and that didn't seem to be the case. Of course, he said, he would launch an investigation, he'd double-check their inventory, work with his production crew to verify the recipe hadn't changed - everything that he could do, Vance said. He put on a look both disgusted and hurt, and said that he just couldn't imagine why Ben would do something like this when everything was going so well.
But Vance could tell, Jez wasn't buying it. For all of his years of manipulation and grooming, he didn't have the hold on her that he thought he did. Over the years, Jez had suspected Vance of being at least slightly shady; he wasn't as perfect at his front as he thought himself. Still, his explanation made so much sense, at the surface. There were only two things that kept her from believing him. The first was that she knew her twin would never abandon her, and that if he was planning to screw over his friend, he wouldn't have been able to keep it from her. Second, there was the fire. Vance had never wanted to talk about the fire, although Jez knew it had rattled him and several of his employees. Every time that Ben had visited them and the conversation turned to work, Vance ensured that the fire and its aftermath was one of the things that they did not dwell on long. Wouldn't it make more sense, she reasoned, that Vance had tried to minimize the effect of the fire, and that he had started cutting corners? She knew she couldn't call him out on it unless she had every fact checked and double-checked, so there was no way for him to hide.
She continued to protest that Ben had to be innocent, and told Vance that if he insisted that he didn't play any part in it, that she'd believe him - but that they needed to figure out how to get Ben out of jail. Of course, Vance had little incentive himself to allow Ben to get before a judge, or to allow an inspection of his production, so he quickly agreed to pay a few visits to people, and see what he could do. Ben was a dear friend and important to him, after all, not to mention a critical business partner - so naturally, he'd want to make sure that he was cleared if Ben was really innocent. Jez seemed placated but still worried, and said she needed to think - she left to go for a walk and clear her head.
Vance started to panic as soon as she was out the door. That hadn't gone at all the way he had planned. Jez had never questioned him like that before, and with her brother in jail...well, there was truth to the saying about a woman scorned, even if this wasn't the situation it was normally describing. Why had he been so impatient, after years of careful building and planning? This was just the kind of thing he was trying to avoid? Besides, a person who has been wronged has a powerful motivation to get revenge on those who wronged him. Vance would have to find a way to change the story. He reflected...how best to handle this?
Well, he'd do the investigation, that only made sense. Maybe he could find that there had been an "accident" - something that could be plausible enough, and vague enough, that nobody could really blame any one person? Or maybe Vance would need a scapegoat in his own organization, saying that one of his workers was overzealous and tried an experimental procedure without telling him? He could launch a new quality control initiative, fire the designated person (who might not even have to exist), and issue refunds?
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Or maybe it would be even easier for him to just skip town now, Vance thought. He could go collect his savings and just walk from all of this. Sure, it would be burning basically every bridge he had, but he could escape, and still be reasonably secure. It was certainly better than letting any of this come down on him, he decided. Vance made up his mind - this was it. He just had to buy another twenty-four hours or so. There would be a lot of things he'd need to get done, but he needed Jez's suspicion to die down a little so that he had time to work and she couldn't get in his way, or stop him.
As soon as Jez got back, he would tell her that he'd start the investigation that very day, and shut down production until he could be absolutely certain that there was nothing wrong with his production. He'd also send some people out to check the rest of the supplies and the batch that Ben had gotten from him most recently. Vance would offer, he decided, to pay for the advocate himself to get Ben's defense going, and that he would do "anything" necessary to help his friend. Maybe that would pacify her, and also make her a little less suspicious while Vance was doing his errands and last minute preparations, running around to collected his private stashes of money, to raid the company coffers, and to arrange his transportation out of town.
It took longer than Vance had expected for Jez to make her return to their house - much longer. When she did come back, she seemed...different. Calmer, but like she had a bad taste in her mouth that she couldn't get out. Vance proceeded to run through his story, including all the things that seemed right to say, and that he knew she would want to hear - but her reaction didn't give him the sense that it was getting through. Alarm bells were ringing very loudly in Vance's head, now.
Once he stopped speaking, Jez proceed to tell him a few things. That she had been to see her brother, and that they had a very - interesting, she supposed - discussion. Ben promised her that he was innocent, and she believed him. That wasn't all he said, though. Ben was confident that Vance had set him up somehow. He didn't know why Vance would do such a thing, but he was certain that was what had happened. Maybe he was after the money from the distribution company? Jez suggested her own theory, that Vance simply wanted his partner out, to do a hostile takeover and own the whole thing.
"That doesn't make any sense, Jez." Vance replied with a sigh. "What's the point of this conversation? First off, if I wanted to take over everything, why would I taint my own supply? Then I'd have full control over a company nobody trusted, or would buy from. Besides, don't forget that it was my idea to bring Ben in to run this in the first place. I've always been there for you guys, and always tried my best to take care of you both." Putting on an emotional, pained expression, Vance proceeded to list off all of the times, and all of the ways that he had looked after them, paid for things, gotten Ben work, and set them up for the future. Jez could believe what she wanted, he insisted, but after all of that, this was how she was going to repay him? Vance knew, he said, that she was angry about her brother, but didn't Vance deserve some consideration too?
Jez sat back, and let a small, thin smile cross her face. It was a strange look on her, one that Vance couldn't exactly read. "I know all of that, Vance. I also knew that you'd go off on a rant like that. You hate being told you're wrong - and you especially hate it when you are wrong. It's one of your little tells. Oh, I know that you think nobody knows anything about you that you don't want them to, but after a dozen years or so of seeing a person every day, you can't hide that much from me. What I really want to know is..." she took a deep breath, and wiped away a few tears that had started to form. "What I really want to know is how many times have you done this? Done something horrible, and let someone else take the fall? Someone who really cared about you?" Vance lost control for a moment and raged "Nobody cares about us, Jez! That's why I've always done what needs to be done, why I've worked myself to the bone night and day to take care of your ungrateful, accusing, useless self without asking anything in return. Ben helps - he serves a purpose, and he does things...you're just taking up space. If you don't trust me, go. I'll free Ben because it's the right thing to do, but then we're done. I don't want to see you again until you apologize to me."
She just laughed. "Wow, that's rare - an actual emotional outburst? I almost didn't think you were capable. I hope you feel better after that little tantrum. You wanted to know the point of this conversation? I'll tell you. I'm just here to keep you occupied while my investigation is underway. Your warehouse is being raided as we speak. Oh, maybe you're really my wonderful, snow white angel, with nothing to hide." Jez snickered. "If you're right, and I'm wrong, of course I'll apologize, and I'll never, ever, question you again, Vance. But I don't think that's going to happen...do you?" Jez leaned back in her chair slightly, while Vance shot up out of his seat and started to put on his shoes. "Oh, Vance," Jez mocked, "what's the rush? What are you so worried about? I wonder, Vance...afraid they might find something?" Before Vance could answer, there was a bang on the door. He was too late.
The police were there.