Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Harvey, you have to understand how this looks. You knew someone had broken in once. You didn’t secure your office. And now you’re telling me the one piece of evidence we had that might point to the identity of the mystery woman the Sawyers have been looking for is now gone. Gone because you removed it from my property room and left it in an unlocked drawer in your unlocked office.”
“Well, when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so great.” Harvey looked to the door Avery had closed behind her, maybe wishing again for rescue.
“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed. “I need a better timeline on when the theft occurred. Don’t give me this bullshit that you don’t know the date. I understand that you’re trying to divert Avery, and good luck with that. You’ve known her as long as I have. She’s not easily distracted when she sinks her teeth in. If she were, she wouldn’t have her brewery.”
“Let me pull up my calendar,” Harvey said in defeat. He was too much the attorney not to have noted the date. I followed his fingers as he flipped through the appointment book on his desk. Nearly five weeks before.
Fuck. Whatever trail we might have would be stone cold. There were cameras on Harvey’s building. I’d talk to Hawk and see what he could pull, but I wasn’t feeling hopeful. Even Hawk didn’t hold on to footage forever.
“What are you going to do?” Harvey asked.
“About what?”
“About the necklace and the girls looking into all this.”
“What do you suggest I do?” I asked, already knowing what he’d say.
“Tell them to let it go,” Harvey said, his voice sharp. “I should have reported the theft, I know that, but I hoped that if the necklace went away, they would drop it. This is a ticking bomb. You and I both know Ford is innocent. Whoever manufactured the evidence that forced you to put him in prison also supplied the alibi that got him back out.”
I nodded. I didn’t need Harvey to tell me that.
“And you and I both know,” Harvey went on, “that the reason they got Ford out of prison was because they couldn’t take him out inside.”
I gave a sharp nod. That was my guess as well. Not long before video evidence of his alibi appeared in a pawnshop, someone had tried to assassinate Ford Sawyer in prison. The guards had stopped the attempt. And now Ford was out—a far easier target than he had been in prison. For now, he was sticking close to home, letting Hawk and Griffen’s tight security keep him safe, but he wouldn’t let himself be caged forever. As soon as he got restless, it would be open season on Ford Sawyer.
I hadn’t figured out the why of it all. My best guess was that Ford knew something—maybe something he didn’t know he knew. A part of me wondered if it was possible Ford had been the target all along. If not the primary target, a secondary one? Had whoever showed up at the house and assassinated Prentice Sawyer planned to go after Ford next? The not knowing would drive me mad if I thought about it too much.
I had a town to protect—a town filled with people who weren’t Sawyers.
“You know this is dangerous,” Harvey said, leaning in, his eyes on the door Avery had exited through only a few minutes before. “We don’t know who’s behind this. We don’t know what they want or who they’ll go after next. The girls shouldn’t be poking around. Quinn was kidnapped and Sterling—”
“None of that had anything to do with Prentice,” I said. The details weren’t Harvey’s business, but I knew that with one hundred percent certainty. “No one’s come directly at the family in a while. What makes you so sure the girls are in danger?”
Harvey leaned back, looked down at his desk. “It just seemed safer if it all went away.”
“Safer for who?” I pressed. “For the girls or for you?”
Harvey just shook his head, refusing to meet my eyes. My gut didn’t like any of this. I wouldn’t have said I trusted Harvey with my life, but I’d never thought of him as one of the bad guys. Now I wasn’t so sure.
“I’m going to talk to Hawk and see what the security team can pull from the date of the break-in here.” I watched his face carefully, but there was no reaction, no request that I just let it go and not investigate. “I’ll keep you posted,” I said and turned for the door.
Harvey let me go without a farewell.
I nodded at Louise on my way out, glad to see my SUV was still where I’d left it, Avery in the passenger seat, her arms crossed over her chest, fuming quietly until I got in.