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“What do you mean?” Carmen asked, gaze focused on Brett. “About Suzy having to leave high school?”
Brett’s energy shifted, like he was debating whether to say more. Whether he realized that he shouldn’t be saying so much.
“It could really help us defend ourselves. We don’t want to hurt her. We just want this lawsuit to go away. If we can show there were any other accusations about her being…” Carmen was probably trying to find a nice word forfraud.
“Of people being unhappy with her promises,” Lola added and tried to sound as soft as Carmen.
Brett scratched his chin. “Well, there was the time in school she convinced her friend they were cursed and the only way to break it was this elaborate ritual at midnight that involved candles and chanting and burning stuff in their lockers. Poor girl almost got expelled when the fire got out of control and she was charged with trespassing too. She wouldn’t point the finger at Suzy, though.”
“Any time she got paid to do something?” Lola urged.
His expression darkened. “You really need this?”
Carmen nodded and pulled out her phone. With a few taps, she brought up the copy of Fortune’s complaint. Brett pulled on a pair of reading glasses and studied her phone. “That’s a lot of money.”
“It would ruin us,” Carmen replied. “But if we can show that, what we said was just our opinion — one other people share. We think we can get the judge to dismiss it.”
He looked at them over the top of his glasses, phone still in hand. “You must have really made her mad.”
“We cost her a very lucrative… client,” Lola said, resisting every urge to saysucker.
“Before she started that retreat, she came back to town briefly. Opened a shop called Fortune’s Mysteries. She was offering to talk to dead relatives, past life regressions, aura cleansings.”
“We didn’t find any record of that,” Carmen said while taking her phone back.
“Well, that was one of her problems. Didn’t get a business license or a proper lease or anything.” He shook his head. “Suzy didn’t really think about stuff like that.”
“And was it legit, Brett?” Lola asked, needing to get to the point. “Could she really do those things?”
Next to her, Carmen’s entire body stiffened. Lola could feel her irritation. She would have been there all day shooting the shit with this guy and not getting to the heart of it.
“I don’t think so,” he admitted quietly, unlocking a path to their success with four beautiful syllables.
“Brett, I know this is a lot to ask,” Carmen said gently. “Would you consider letting me write down what you’ve said in an affidavit and signing it?”
He ran his palm over what was left of his hair. “I don’t know.”
“Well, while you think about it… would you tell us more about growing up here? What it was like here?”
The corner of Brett’s mouth twitched. “Yeah, you’d be interested?”
“Oh, absolutely. Your town is so lovely,” Carmen replied so earnestly, Lola almost believed her.
Brett stood abruptly. “I’ll get my photo albums. Sure I can’t get you girls some coffee, or I’ve got orange juice, too.”
Carmen smiled. “Coffee would be great.”
While he was out of the room, Carmen turned excitedly to Lola. “This is perfect! With a sworn statement, we can prove she’s been running scams for years. That’ll destroy her credibility,” she whispered.
“He didn’t say he’d sign anything,” Lola reminded her.
Carmen’s hazel eyes were so bright they burned a hole in Lola’s chest, making the knot explode into her throat. “He will.”
CHAPTER38
It wasnear sundown when they said goodbye to Brett. Headache pounding and nose on the verge of bleeding from the dry air, Carmen tucked the handwritten affidavit under her arm like a hard-won spoil of war. Standing outside of Brett’s house was like climbing Everest.
The affidavit was as close to a smoking gun as they were likely to get. Critically, it might make Fortune weary of them poking in her past. If the lawsuit continued and they got into full-scale discovery, Carmen would have no other choice than to go for blood. With the lead Brett had given them, they would find a hell of a lot more skeletons buried in Richvein Ridge. Fortune was not going to want them to dig.
