Page 73 of Statler

It had taken him a moment to compose himself, and now? It was time he laid out his next question.

“Okay. Flazer is your father,” he began. “Why is it that Jeremy said William would be upset that you were at the factory?”

Eliza looked relieved that he was still talking to her, and shrugged. “Like I told you before, nobody is allowed on the grounds after five-thirty at night.”

“Not even the daughter of the owner?”

Eliza scoffed. “You think that gives me privileges?”

She arched a brow in his direction.

“Far from it. I’m William Flazer’s number one minion and verbal punching bag when things go wrong. I am the butt of all his tirades, yet he would certainly never trust me to know anything about his secret government contracts, even if he deemed me smart enough.”

The man was clearly a fool to underestimate Eliza. Statler could already tell she was a lot deeper in than she was letting on.

For now, however, Statler would pretend that he believed she’d given up all her intel.

“Understandable, I guess. Especially if his own clearance is very high, he’d want to be careful. But…you take care of the books, right?” Statler questioned. “Which means you must see what comes in and goes out for expenses and revenue. Doesn’t that give you some kind of an inkling as to what is going on in the top secret end of things? How does your father deal with that possibility?”

Stat could see that Eliza was getting frustrated and angry.

He wasn’t sure⁠—

“Why do you care?” she finally asked sharply. “You’re here to do a job, then you’re leaving. Nothing about me or my father has, or will have, any bearing on anything for you, once you’re gone.”

She scoffed, shook her head, and stood up.

“This day,” she huffed. “It’s certainly been one for the books. I’d say it’s been both confusing and…ironic. Yup. That’s the correct term to describe it. So now, I think I need to leave.”

If Statler wasn’t mistaken, there were tears forming in Eliza’s beautiful eyes as she turned to go.

He wasn’t good with that kind of shit, but he certainly didn’t want Eliza to take off.

Slightly panicked, he looked to Blue for help.

She stepped up.

“Don’t go. Please,” Blue intoned sincerely, walking over to place a hand on Eliza’s arm. “Stay and eat with us. We’re not mad at you. Not at all,” Blue told her. “We were just blindsided for a moment with everything you threw at us, but we seriously don’t hold it against you that your father owns the factory.”

“Yeah,” Hazard gruffed. “And if Stat seemed overly nosy with his questions, it’s probably because he took exception to you saying that you’re a minion and a punching bag for your father, just like I did,” he growled. “Anybody else feel that way?”

Hands went up, all around.

Statler felt like he’d been let off the hook by the skin of his teeth as the anger lines on Eliza’s face smoothed out.

He went with Haze’s impromptu explanation.

“That’s right. I just wanted to know if the business is really so lucrative that he thinks he can act like a frigging king all over town, even with his own daughter.”

Eliza eased back down in her chair, assuaged for now.

“I guess I can see that,” she allowed. “And there’s no need to apologize. You’re all…good people. I already had every one of you pegged as the kind of folks who would rescue a stray cat, or help out at a homeless shelter, so being pissed off on my behalf, follows.”

She wasn’t wrong.

The crew did spend a lot of their down-time, volunteering for various causes, but Statler wasn’t about to be led down that distraction of a path.

He was happy when Diz picked up where Eliza had left off.