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“I know he talked to my brother late last night,” she said. “I don’t know who else might have seen him.”
Ford leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “That’s usually the first thing the police zero in on.”
“Yeah,” she said, leaning back to put an arm around Strat’s waist.
He rested his arm over her shoulders. It was nice to have someone to lean on. A strong support who didn’t doubt or deny her.
“We’re not doing this by the book,” Strat said.
Ford scoffed out a laugh. “Your dad’s Superintendent, he doesn’t have answers?”
“Maybe he does, but he won’t give them to me.”
“And your brother—”
“I won’t put him in that position,” she said, having thought about calling Lachlan on and off since they’d left her place. “Someone knows something.”
“They say the devil’s in the details,” Jagg said. “The more you know about what was going on in his life—”
“This came from the top. It didn’t happen on the street. He didn’t stop a mugging or step out in front of a car.” She braced for Imogen’s reaction, but her friend offered an encouraging smile. Friend? Were they friends? “It happened in his home. He has an alarm. A security man who stays in the building all night. But he wasn’t found until lunchtime. That means no one heard anything. Nothing was off.” She glanced up at Strat. “There’s a lot of push and pull in the council these days.”
“He was suspicious.”
“He was,” she said.
Evander wanted rid of his father. And his father wanted rid of her. Or he had. Don Silvio Manzani had ordered the attack on her. Appealing to the Manzanis for information was dangerous. Evander was working with Connel in the shadows, feeding him information. While Manzani Senior was trying to blow up the Harvest deal that would see McDade territory expand right on Manzani’s border.
No one had paid off her grandfather. At least, Connel hadn’t… not the last time they’d talked about it anyway. Maybe things had changed since. Except her grandfather had been suspicious and asking questions.
Had asking those questions got him killed?
For one glimmer of a second, she’d speculated her father may have been aware of the planned attack on her. But she’d shrugged that off, incapable of believing a man so duty bound would do something so heinous.
But others were on the take. Others she’d seen with Connel. Divides were prominent, lines drawn. For those in on it, this was a tale of two sides. Manzani and McDade. For those not in on it, for the decent, honest people unwilling to take a bribe, there were two sides too. Right and wrong. Her grandfather was an advocate for the first. Every time. Maybe getting too close, passing judgment, finally caused his demise.
An abrupt buzzer startled her.
Ford got to his feet. “I’ll get him.”
“You should wait next door,” Jagg said, squeezing Imogen as he kissed her head.
“Why?” she asked, getting up as Jagg did. “No! I thought this was my home.”
“It is your home, Genny. Which is why I want you safe here.”
“He’s right,” Strat said, though it sounded like it pained him. “Evander Manzani is an asshole.”
“I’ve met him before, Dad,” Imogen sneered.
Fury lit Strat as his attention flew to Jagg. “What the fuck are you doing letting her around pissheads like that fucker?”
“I make my own choices,” Imogen said. “I don’t see either of you trying to chase Sersha out of here.”
“He’s obsessed with her,” Jagg and Strat said in unison.
“Shouldn’t that be more reason to—”
The door opened and the debate ceased. Evander came strolling in, smiling, absorbing the scene.
