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"Did you see anyone acting suspicious in the area?" Gilbert asked.
I thought for a moment. "No, not that I can think of. I mean, no more shady than usual. This is Sydney, after all."
Gilbert chuckled. "Yeah, it is."
Singh gave him a dark look. She gave me the impression she didn't like him very much. Tough shit, that was her problem.
She looked back at me. "Why did you not stay in the area until the police arrived? Or render assistance to those who were injured?"
"Honestly?" I sighed. "I panicked. The newspaper stand exploded and I was knocked off my feet. People were crying. Other people looked dead. It was scary. I didn't think I was badly hurt enough to need an ambulance, so I thought I should get out of the way." I turned my best puppy dog eyes on Gilbert. "You just said it wasn’t an accident. What if it happened again? The safest place to be was away from there."
Gilbert nodded his understanding.
I should get an acting award for this shit.
Singh was not so easy to convince. "So you ran?"
"Staggered," I replied. "My ears were ringing and my balance wasn't quite right."
I sat back in my chair and decided to level with her. "The fact you're here would suggest that people were able to identify me on sight. That would be because I am what the media would refer to as a rich nightclub owner. Whenever anything goes down, we're the first to have fingers pointed at us."
I sat forward and propped my elbows on the desk. "Everything we do here at Crimson is legal and transparent. We pay taxes, we pay our staff above minimum wage. Our hygiene standards are above minimum requirements. If there is even a sniff of drugs, the customer is not allowed in, or is kicked out. You will have records of the police being contacted on those occasions." Only because it helped us to look like we were above board. And because I hated drugs. Keep that shit out of my properties if you like being alive and with functioning knees.
Singh nodded that that was indeed true. Obviously she looked into my background before she came.
I went on. "The very fact that Crimson is all about sex means people are happy to assume the worst about me and those who work with me. That doesn't mean I went around blowing up any newspaper stands. In fact, I only went there to buy a bag of jelly beans." I spread my hands.
"Some would suggest that fleeing the scene of the crime would imply guilt," Singh said. She really wasn't letting up, was she? What a pain in the ass.
"Others would suggest that somebody who is as easily identifiable as I am would be pretty fucking stupid to blow up a newspaper stand with myself standing really close to it," I said. "I don't have a death wish."
"Do you have any enemies?" Singh asked.
I held back a snort. Did I ever?
"There's a long list," I said. "It starts with any number of conservative politicians and ends with people whose partners prefer to be here than at home." I frowned. "You think this was aimed at me?"
"Do you?" Singh asked.
"I think I ducked down the street to get a bag of jelly beans and got caught up in some shit that happened to go down when I was there," I said. "Why blow that up if they were after me? It's not like I go down there every day. They might have been after someone else in the area. Or whoever owned the place." I shrugged. "Not to tell you how to do your job or anything." I smiled sweetly and not at all sincerely.
Gilbert smiled back, but Singh grunted.
"If anything else like this happens, contact us," she said. "Having to track you down took time and resources we can't afford to waste."
Yeah, she probably asked someone on the street.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean to cause any inconvenience. I really didn't hear anything or see anything out of place." That was sincere, I really hadn't. The most suspicious things I saw were Jake, Cooper, Ben and me. Luckily for us, being ridiculously attractive wasn't a crime.
Gilbert nodded and stood. "If you think of anything, please contact me. Us." He cleared his throat.
Singh rolled her eyes and then tried to look like she hadn't. She had a lot of work to do if she ever wanted to become an actor.
Just for shits and giggles, I rose and leaned forward to shake Gilbert's hand again, giving him a nice eyeful of cleavage.
He stared and gulped, then managed to shake my hand. "Thank you for your time." His voice was an octave or two higher than before.
"You're welcome," I said smoothly. I took back my hand and offered it to Singh.
