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“Okay, that’s good. I know we usually have dinner together with the drivers, but I’m just exhausted. Make my excuses for me, bro.”
“No problem. I don’t think anyone expects you at dinner.” Rory flopped back into the cushions and put his feet on the coffee table. “Any news? Jordana said you went to talk to the Merry Widow.”
“Not sure we learned anything besides Dennis Moore didn’t marry for love. She was totally hammered, which made her pretty honest whether she meant to be or not. I don’t think she liked her husband much, and Greer is pretty sure she has a guy on the side.”
“Do you think she wanted Moore dead?”
Dalton blew out a long breath. “Truthfully? Even if she did, there’s no way she’d know what screws to loosen on the car to make that happen. And I just can’t picture her doing it. Besides, there are some extenuating circumstances.”
Rory frowned. “Which are?”
Dalton’s phone pinged. He glanced at the screen. It was an incoming text from James. He was still at the track. The cops wanted to talk to him. He was freaking out. James was the nicest of the nice, and talking to the cops would stress him out to no end.
Dalton sent him a text back that he was on the way and not to do anything until he got there. What he really needed was a lawyer, but he didn’t know any in Austria and certainly couldn’t get one now, even if he did. “The cops want to talk to James. He wants me there with him. He’s still at the garage.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Rory asked. “Is this about the wing?”
Dalton nodded. “Detective Haas told me earlier they knew about the wing being loose and he wanted to question James. I thought he’d wait until tomorrow.” He grabbed his jacket off the chair and his room key. “No need for you to come. Probably better if you don’t. Too much show of force might work against us.”
Rory ran a hand through his brown hair. As tired as Dalton was, Rory’s gray eyes looked as weary. “Fine but keep me in the loop.”
“Will do.” He headed out the door, took the stairs, and was through the lobby and to the parking lot in minutes. He was climbing into his rental SUV when someone knocked on the passenger window startling him. He looked up to find Greer standing there. Lowering the window, he asked, “What do you need?”
He wasn’t ready to speak to her after her revelation.
She’d lumped him in with her father as far as he could tell, and that sucked ass. He was nothing like her father, and he resented the hell out of her for thinking it.
“I just bumped into Rory in the hallway. He told me the cops want to question James. I want to be there.”
“No.”
“Why not? We’re doing an investigation. It would look stupid if I wasn’t there when the opportunity presented itself. No self-respecting investigator would miss this interview. Detective Haas will get suspicious if I don’t show up.”
“He’s already suspicious. He thinks I tried to hurt you so I could save you and you would be so grateful to me that you would pay on the policy no matter what you find.”
“That’s stupid. Men. Like I would fall for that shit. I really need to go then and set him straight.”
“Greer.” He sighed then shook his head. “This mess is out of control. We agreed after talking to Claire you were done. It’s dangerous and stupid to involve you.”
She reached through the window and hit the unlock button, wrenching the door open before he had a chance to stop her. “James needs our help. We started down this path, and now we’ll finish it. Moore was murdered, and we have to find out why. You know you won’t be okay with it until you know all the details. And I…I owe you one. Let’s go. You’re wasting time.”
He wanted to argue more, but she was right. James was waiting. Dalton needed to support his team member. Once she was buckled up, he hit the button to close the window and headed out of the parking lot. He just hoped he wouldn’t regret this decision as much as he thought he would.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Greer kept her mouth shut on the drive over to the track. It was only a ten-minute drive, but it was the longest ten minutes inside a car with the silent and broody Dalton Hughes. He was pissed at her. That was fair. She should’ve given him a reason when she broke things off. She should’ve told him the truth. Instead, she just made up an excuse and got off the phone in a hurry. She couldn’t even remember exactly what she had said anymore.
What she did remember was that he didn’t argue with her. He didn’t tell her that he loved her, nor did he say she shouldn’t break up with him. He just took it and let her go. It had killed her at the time. Looking back now, she knew just how much she’d needed him. Dalton was often pragmatic and always grounded. She could have used a bit of both. Instead, he let her essentially ghost him after the initial phone call. He didn’t bother to reach out to her ever again and, after her father’s betrayal, that had crushed what had been left of her soul.
They pulled into the race area and parked not far from the team paddock.
“I don’t see James or Detective Haas anywhere,” Dalton said. He got out of the SUV and started walking toward their garage in the paddock.
Greer exited the vehicle and had to jog to catch up to him. When she reached him, she slowed to a walk and took a deep breath. She needed to put her game face on. Detective Haas would be asking her questions. She needed to make sure he would take her seriously.
Dalton unlocked the door and entered the first garage. They had two bays to work on all four cars. The two instructor cars were there, covered and waiting for the next day. “James?” he yelled.
No response. “Maybe he went to the restroom,” Greer suggested.
