Page 103 of Sting
“How do you know it wasn’t?” That from Hickam. “You said you didn’t recognize his voice.”
“I didn’t! He only said a few words and then he was gone.”
“Has Panella been cooling his heels somewhere until you and he could sneak off to—”
“Oh, good God, no!”
Adrian was urging her not to say another word.
Unmindful of her lawyer’s advice she said, “I wouldn’t go anywhere with him.”
“You went to Costa Rica.”
“If I had it to do over, I wouldn’t.”
“Why? What happened down there?”
“Don’t answer,” Adrian said.
“I hated Billy Panella then, and I utterly loathe him now. And the feeling is mutual,” she said, stressing it. “He sent two men to kill me. Have you forgotten that?”
Hickam patted the air between them. “Okay. Right. He had Bolden and Kinnard waiting there for you. He laid a trap.”
She negated that with a shake of her head. “Shaw Kinnard told me that it came as a shock to them when I walked in.”
Hickam scoffed at that. “You believe Kinnard?”
She thought back to all the times he had tricked her with a lie or semitruth, and she’d been gullible enough to believe him. Maybe plan A had been to kill her at that bar.
Hickam didn’t let up. “Panella called you—”
Shaw had said otherwise.
“—and invoked Josh’s name to get you there.”
She put her fingertips to her temples and massaged them. “I don’t think it was Panella, but I suppose it’s possible.”
“If you loathe him, why would you heed his summons?”
“I didn’t. I…I…”
“My client is declining to answer,” Adrian said.
Hickam persisted. “If it wasn’t Panella, it was your brother.”
“I don’t believe it was Josh, but I can’t be certain.”
“You went there to aid and abet one of them, Ms. Bennett.”
Adrian Dover said, “Do not respond.”
“Who did you expect to be there waiting for you?” Hickam asked. “Panella?”
“No.”
“Then your brother.”
“No.” She shook her head in confusion. “Possibly. I don’t know.”
