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But I wasn’t done. I inched closer and closer to the older man until I had him cornered against the side of his house. “I’m going ask you one more time. Do you know where Eve Hawkins is right now?”
Reed put his hands up, not daring to touch my chest but trying to keep some distance between the two of us. “I swear. I have no idea where she is. And I had nothing to do with any sort of shooting. I wouldn’t even know where to begin hiring someone to do something like that. And even if I did, I wouldn’t. Despite what you might think of me, Boston, I am a Christian man. I’m not in the habit of trying to hurt anyone.”
“Bullshit!” I lost my patience. “I know all about the threatening letters you’ve been sending to the club. And your groupies barricading the doors.”
“I knew my supporters were protesting outside her club. And I admit, I didn’t do anything to stop them. And yes. Eve is my daughter. I know that. Her mother came to me years ago, trying to get me to accept her into my family.”
“You couldn’t do that, though, could you?”
He at least had the decency to gaze down at his feet. “No. I couldn’t. Her mother and I were a one-time thing. A mistake.”
Fuck him. “Nothing about Eve Hawkins is a mistake,” I growled. “It’s your loss. Not hers. You got that?”
The man nodded. “I swear, though, Boston. All the rest, none of that was me. I admit, I did set her up when I told her to come to the house that night and then called you to arrest her. I had to discredit her. Make her look like a common thug so if she and her mother started making claims on me, no one would believe them. But I’ve never tried to hurt her. God. What must you think of me, to think I’m capable of that?”
“Very little,” I admitted.
But I believed him. Goddammit, I believed the man when he said he had nothing to do with the shooting, the threats, and Eve’s disappearance.
“What can I do to help?” William asked quietly.
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
I spun on my heel, storming back toward the car.
“Please, keep me updated—”
I cut off his fake concern crap by slamming the car door. Richards slid in beside me and waited patiently as I picked up my phone. There was a message from Augie. All it had was the name.
Eddie Sinclair.
I hit one of my speed dial numbers and waited for the chief to answer his phone. “Hell—”
“Chief. Eve Hawkins and another woman are missing, feared abducted from a house. I’m going to need everybody on this immediately.”
“Eve Hawkins… From the strip club? What makes you think she’s missing?”
I’d already used up all my patience on Reed. “Chief. Just trust me on this. Something is going on.”
“She been missing for twenty-four hours?”
“No.”
“Then I’m not wasting manpower on this. We’re getting reports of a commotion at Saint View Prison. We’re on standby to send units there to help. I don’t have time to be searching for a stripper girlfriend when truth be told? We all know she’s probably…working.”
“Working? The club isn’t even open tonight.”
“You know what I mean.”
Shock punched through my gut. “She’s not a fucking prostitute.”
“All I’m saying is you don’t really know the woman. And until she’s missing for twenty-four hours, we’re not wasting any time looking for her.”
“This is bullshit. If I were ringing you right now saying Laura Reed was missing, would that be a different story? Would you take the time then?”
The chief sighed. “Get off your high horse. You need to get back to the station and pick up your riot gear in case we’re needed at the prison.”
I stared out the windshield, up at Reed’s giant mansion. Unspoken words danced over my tongue. I had a burning need to know who’d really killed Jayela. But I couldn’t do this anymore.
