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He nodded. “We saw it. Mind if I search your car?”
“Not at all.” I’m glad my gun is in my pocket rather than my glove compartment. I click the key fob. The car chirps and the lights flash as it unlocks.
The cop walks over and opens the door. I get my first look at his face. He is very young. He checks the interior, then opens the glove compartment and the trunk. When he finishes, he turns to me. “Okay, you can wait in the car while I check your license.”
I get in the car and take deep breaths to relieve the tension in my body. Something went terribly wrong tonight, but what? Did someone talk? And then it hits me: the organization will think it was me, especially if anyone saw me with the police tonight.
My pulse starts to race again. I need to find out where the leak is and plug it fast. If I don’t—
A tap at my window makes me jump. The young officer is smiling. “Sorry to startle you,” he says as I roll down the window. He hands me my license. “You can go now. You shouldn’t come down here during the night. It’s not safe.”
I nod. “Yes. Yes, I realize that now.”
* * *
Savannah could have done without the hostile glances between the two men on opposite sides of the table in her office. The tantalizing scents of coffee and beignets should have had them all relaxed and smiling, but instead they were ready to engage fencing blades.
She slid a coffee from University Grounds toward Hez. “Since I asked you both to be here so early, the least I could do was bring coffee. Looks like you brought beignets.” She handed Beckett a water. “Here you go, weirdo. I thought about getting you an herbal tea, but I knew it would be a waste of my money.”
He grinned. “Sleep, good food, exercise, and sunshine. That’s all a body needs.” His nose wrinkled when he glanced at the open box of beignets. “Those don’t qualify as healthy.”
“You can look away when we eat them then. I’ll be glad to have yours.”
A corner of Beckett’s lips lifted. “You with powdered sugar on your face would be way more tempting than the beignet.”
They’d never even gone on a date, and it was a very unfair parry in the verbal fencing skirmish. He’d only said something so provocative to annoy Hez, so she didn’t answer as she sat in a chair between them and opened her laptop. Besides, his vote on her tenure was important.
Hez’s posture went rigid at their friendly exchange, and her gaze swung back to him. Except for the tired lines around his eyes, she never would have guessed yesterday had been as tough for him as it had been for her. And maybe it hadn’t. He’d always been a master at compartmentalizing his life. Once he got over the shock of Ella’s death, the stacks of folders and his distraction with work had only grown.
And so had the mound of empty liquor bottles.
For all she knew, a pile was in his trash can right now. He claimed to have changed, but she wasn’t so sure. The mint she’d caught on his breath this morning might have been meant to cover a much more distasteful scent. If she’d had any choice at all, he wouldn’t be sitting across from her in his khaki slacks and blue shirt. He wouldn’t be looking at her with eyes that reminded her so painfully of her daughter’s. And even worse, that gaze brought a flood of memories of the first time she’d seen him. She’d fallen in love with that direct, open gaze at first sight.
She’d been at his office for him to take her statement before she testified at the first murder trial he prosecuted. It had been a small piece of evidence—just placing a car she’d seen outside the coffee shop at a specific time—but she’d sensed a definite spark between them. She’d been disappointed when he didn’t call her and thought she’d misjudged his interest. Two months later when the jury came back, her phone had rung and she heard that deep, compelling voice asking her to dinner and a football game. Their relationship had traveled at warp speed. And they’d been happy, so happy. Until the unthinkable happened.
She blinked and refocused her attention on the problem facing them. “Sorry, what did you say?”
Hez pulled out his phone and glanced at it. “Andersen is a definite possibility. His reason for being there is flimsy. In my view a lie immediately takes a suspect to the top of the list.”
Savannah’s tension ebbed at his calm voice. “There could have been no possible reason for him to look at the artifacts there. None of them have any bearing on his area of expertise. And he was in a hurry to get us out of his office. I’m not saying he killed Abernathy, but his stated purpose for being in that warehouse was a lie.”
Hez took a sip of his coffee. “I’d like to contact Augusta and tell her what we’ve discovered. If we can find another direction for her to aim her focus, maybe she won’t harass you for another interview.” He leaned back with a confident expression. “I’m skilled at coaxing information from the police, and she might reveal a line of inquiry we haven’t investigated ourselves.”
This time Beckett stiffened. “We don’t have to lean on the police to learn more. I’ve studied the financials I have access to, and there are troubling and unexplained deposits. They appear in TGU’s records and almost immediately disappear.”
“Well done,” Savannah said. “Any hint of where the money is coming from?”
Beckett’s smile spread to his brown eyes. “I have no proof, but I suspect the deposits are from sales of the artifacts and they are transferred out by the thief.”
“Shouldn’t the report show where the money came from and where it went?” Hez said.
“The reports I can access are general without the detail we need. We need more information.”
Hez glanced at Savannah. “Who would have complete access? Jess?”
She saw where this was heading and nodded. “Jess is the CFO and can see everything.”
“I asked for access, and she denied it,” Beckett said. “And with Abernathy dead, no one can override her. But I’m sure she would let you have the password, Savannah. She’ll want to help you.”
