Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
“I wasn’t telling her to go anywhere,” Stephen said unconvincingly. “I was waving.”
“He’s lying. He’s got a tell beyond that flushed face of his.” Garrett had done well with jury selection before he’d dedicated himself to corporate work. “His left eye twitches.”
Keane nodded. “He was definitely in on it. Maybe he called Jessica when she came in.”
Ruby looked up from her system. “I find it interesting that your back cameras went offline around the same time Jessica entered. Is that what you’re doing with the computer?”
“I was checking on inventory,” Stephen said, his eye twitching again.
“Well, the good news is I have a car registered to a man named Martin Gladen seen at a stoplight roughly ten minutes after Jessica entered that store. We have pictures and everything,” Ruby said, changing the screen. “That’s your friend in the passenger seat. She’s coming from your general direction.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Stephen protested. “She could have come from anywhere.”
Ruby’s head tilted. There was something predatory about the woman. “Tell me something. How many doors do you have? Not back doors. I need to know how customers enter and leave your building.”
He seemed to sense this was a trap, but he couldn’t figure out why. At least that was the way Garrett saw it.
“Just one. We’re not some big-box store with a bunch of fancy sliding doors. We only have the one.”
“I think she has him,” Garrett said. He knew when someone was about to pull out a piece of evidence that would make a courtroom gasp.
“How?” Keane asked.
“He wasn’t smart enough to claim both cameras stopped functioning,” Garrett replied.
“But here’s the thing, Mr. Gunderson,” Ruby continued. “You did take out the camera on the store’s backroom. We have nothing there. But we do have the camera on the front of the store, and while we show Jessica Fellows walking in the store, she never walks out. Yet we’ve had a team there and she’s nowhere to be found. How do you explain that?”
“Gotcha,” Garrett said. “Now she needs to explain what’s going to happen.”
“I feel like we’re wasting time.” Keane’s voice was tight.
“He knows something,” Garrett promised. “We can’t run around the countryside looking for her.”
The store manager’s face went from florid to pale in a half second. “I…I don’t know where she went.”
“Did she simply disappear?” Morgan asked.
“Maybe she climbed out a bathroom window,” Ruby began, and then shook her head. “No, we checked. Those are nailed shut. By the way, that is a code violation. You should expect a ticket soon. Not that it will matter.”
“Why?” Stephen asked, looking like he was going to be sick any minute.
“Because you’ll be in jail by then,” Morgan said, standing up. “I’m going to have the DA pull your cell phone records, and I would bet I can find some kind of communication between you and Ms. Fellows.”
“I told you, we went to school together. We’re friends,” Stephen protested.
It was brutally obvious this guy was going to take forever. He looked to Keane. “Do you trust me?”
Keane’s jaw tightened. “With my life.”
“But do you trust me with hers?” Garrett asked. “I know when a witness is going to break, but they’re not pushing the right button. He hasn’t hit real fear yet.”
Keane nodded. “Do whatever it takes. If it gets you in trouble, I’ll find a way to get you out.”
“I don’t think a little lie is going to get me in real trouble, Master.”
“You could be seen as an accomplice,” Morgan was saying. “Do you understand? If you let her in knowing what she was going to do and gave her the way out, you’re part of a conspiracy to kidnap.”
“You can’t prove nothing,” Stephen said, obviously picking how he was going to move. “And you can’t hold me. I know my rights.”
“I can hold you for seventy-two hours,” she promised.
That wouldn’t work on him. Garrett pressed through the door. He ignored Morgan’s startled huff and stared at Stephen Gunderson. Though they were roughly the same age, Gunderson looked years older.
“Mr. Gunderson, I’m Garrett Pace and I’m Jack Barnes’s attorney. I’m going to make sure you stay out of jail.”
Gunderson’s eyes went wide, and Garrett heard Keane huff behind him.
“Why would you do that?” Stephen asked.
Morgan turned to him with a startled look on her face. “What are you doing?”
Ruby simply smiled and closed her laptop. “Are we going that way then? Well, I’ll let the boys back at the ranch know. Mr. Gunderson, good luck with your future endeavors.”
“Why would that man want to help me?” Stephen asked.
Garrett ignored him, looking to Morgan. “My employer wants to ensure that this man faces no charges. He’s certain no Gunderson would harm his daughter. They know what the price was when they embarrassed his wife. They wouldn’t be foolish enough to physically harm his daughter.”