Page 55 of A Hidden Past

He didn’t. His left eye twitched, and then he said in a soft and slightly hoarse voice. “Can we talk off the record?”

Lena smiled. “Sure.” That was another bluff, but what he didn’t know wouldn’t kill him.

Barry sighed and sat heavily in his chair. “Okay. There was no party. Julian called me and said there was an emergency and he needed help. He said that he and his wife needed to stay at my place for the day, and they needed to have proof that they were there. I told him to come over and bring swimsuits, and we’d figure something out.”

“And it never occurred to you to ask what this emergency was?” Harris asked.

“No.”

Lena didn’t believe that for a second. She was almost certain that Barry had helped with a similar emergency back in May when Derek Hill was found dead.

But she would save that for later. Right now, her focus was on Lila Kensington.

“Tell me everything you know,” she told Barry, “and maybe I won’t ask for an FTC inquest into every dollar that’s passed through Arcturus Investments in the past fifteen years.”

Barry paled and nodded. “All right. All right. I’ll tell you what I know.”

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Lena had Harris call the Kensingtons posing as campaign managers offering to help him with his upcoming run for city council. Julian enthusiastically agreed to meet them at his home as soon as he returned at three that afternoon.

That gave them about two hours. Lena spent fifty minutes of that driving back to the Flats precinct. As soon as she was there, she and Harris strategized.

“We still only have Barry’s word against his. Barry has a lot of dirt on him, but in terms of what’s provable, Julian has a lot more dirt on Barry. He can make this look like they had a falling out and Barry’s trying to throw dirt on him.”

“Will people believe that?”

“It doesn't matter. Against someone like Julian Kensington, we need to be airtight. That’s where this conversation comes in.”

“You’re trying to get him to confess?”

“Not him. Clara.”

“We think she’s involved?”

“I think she helped cover it up. If not, then he threatened her to keep it quiet. If we can scare her and convince her that the safest thing for her to do is be honest, she might go for it.”

“You think she’s that stupid?”

“I think she’s a drug addict. On her best days, she’s paranoid. On her worst days, she’s borderline delusional. If we push her the right way, she’ll crack.”

“And if we push both of them the wrong way, we lose the case and our jobs."

“No one said this came without risk.”

Harris sighed. “Sometimes I really wish I’d been Shawna’s partner instead of yours.”

“You only wish that because you think she’s hot.”

“I think you’re hot. I also think you’re crazy. I was taught from a very young age not to stick it in crazy.”

“Were you planning to stick it in me?”

“No, but I’m beginning to think that working with you is just as dangerous?”

She grinned at him. “Embrace the danger, Damien. That’s how you get Detective III.”

“You know, the pension for Detective II isn’t that bad.”

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