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“Pretty well.”
“Kendall was ready to deal?”
“Actually, not quite. He came in acting like his usual arrogant self. Monica looked downright smug, as a matter of fact.”
“Why?”
Luke cleared his throat, his eyes sliding away.
“What? Is it Jamie? Tell the truth.”
“No. Just before I stepped into the meeting, I got a call from Beth Cantrell. She wanted to correct what she’d said in her interview.”
“How so?”
“She said she hadn’t been telling the truth. That Monica hadn’t really said that. I tried to press her on it, but I had to get into the D.A.’s office.”
Eric shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense. I know she wasn’t lying, so why would she tell you that?”
Luke shrugged. “Kendall’s a powerful guy. And he looked pretty damn confident when he came in this morning, considering we were threatening to arrest his daughter.”
Eric’s mind spun. He couldn’t imagine Beth going back on her word like that. It made no sense. She’d come forward voluntarily in the first place. “So you couldn’t arrest Monica?”
“We didn’t arrest Monica, but not because of that. Kendall didn’t realize we already had a statement from the man at the catering company. When you put that with Jamie’s statement, and the owner of that construction place, we didn’t need Beth’s statement, anyway. Kendall was surprised, to say the least. And in the end, he agreed to cut off funding to his son. Not that he admitted sending it to him, anyway.”
“Really? It worked?”
“Well, we’ll see if we flush that little bastard out. But I don’t think he’s going to last long in Hong Kong with no money. He’s not exactly a scrapper.”
Eric nodded and tried to look pleased, but he couldn’t quite manage it. “She didn’t give you any reason?”
“No.”
“What the hell do you think he did to her? Did she sound scared?”
“No, she sounded determined.”
Determined? What did that mean? He tugged his phone from his pocket. “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll check with her and make sure she’s okay. I can’t believe she’d…”
Luke’s eyebrows rose, and Eric realized that it had just become obvious that he knew Beth pretty damn well. Luke spun on one foot and didn’t say another word before walking out.
Eric hit the call button, but the call went straight to voice mail. He was suddenly starkly afraid. Surely Kendall wouldn’t have hurt her in any way? He rushed for the door with a curse and headed straight for his car.
Her shop was closer than her apartment, so Eric headed there first. Risking a seriously hefty speeding ticket, he made it in two minutes flat, and breathed a huge sigh of relief when he saw her red car in the lot. He pulled in, wheels squealing against the blacktop, and jumped out as soon as he hit the brake.
When he burst into the store, everyone looked up, including Beth.
“Beth! Are you all right?”
“Of course,” she said, but her eyes slid away, and she looked nervously around.
“But I thought…”
She tipped her head toward the back, and Eric followed her to a small office that was lined with stocking shelves full of merchandise. Beth closed the door and paced away from him, her arms folded tight.
“What happened?” he demanded. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
