Page 37 of Innocent Intent

A man who lied to me and betrayed my trust.

“Hey, you okay over there?”

Cassidy snapped out of her thoughts as Davis stared her way with both arms resting on the table beside his plate. He appeared concerned.

“Just thinking; sorry.”

“Yeah, this is a little weird.”

“Weird?”

“The whole me being here and you offering me dinner. You have to admit it’s a bit . . .”

“We’re not friends, Nate, so, no, this isn’t a typical occurrence, but that doesn’t mean we have to be weird or consider this more than it is. You were hungry; I had food.” She shrugged, knowing it was more than either of them would admit, but that more couldn’t happen. What would people think of her? Of him? She would be willing to bet he wouldn’t compromise his case like Lance had by sleeping with someone so intimately involved in such an important case. Only now, she wasn’t exactly involved. She was the case—the suspect.

“Good way to look at it.” She watched as Davis lifted the first forkful of pasta to his mouth. Cassidy waited with bated breath for his thoughts.

“Damn, this is good.” He flashed her a satisfied smile moments before enjoying a second forkful. “Or maybe I’m just famished.”

She laughed, shaking her head, enjoying the moment shared between them too much and needing to get things back on track. “You said you had questions.”

“Right.” He lifted the napkin next to his plate and brushed it over his mouth in such a manly way that had Cassidy smiling again. “I found several considerably sized money transfers from your account to one that belonged to Jerrod.”

“That’s impossible. I didn’t know about his account, nor would I have transferred money to him. Had he done it, I would have noticed. How large are we talking?”

“There were six. Each for twenty grand.”

Cassidy’s eyes went wide as she began shaking her head. “There’s no way I would have given him that kind of money, and before you go there, no, he wasn’t blackmailing me.”

“I no longer believe that was the case. You answered honestly when I asked earlier during your session with Grant. I do believe he intended to at some point, though.”

“I can’t say I disagree knowing what I do now,” she stated firmly. Davis only nodded.

“The transfers were all within six months. One a month. I’m surprised the bank didn’t contact you.”

Cassidy appeared perplexed. “So am I. Doesn’t make sense. And with that amount of money being moved, I would have noticed it missing.”

“Do you have an account that you don’t use as often? Maybe for business or something?”

Cassidy’s mind began to wander . . . and then it hit her. “I do, but not one he should have known about, and definitely not one he would have access to. Excuse me for a moment, Detective.”

She realized she’d slipped back into formalities by not referring to him as Nate. Maybe it was the situation, but she couldn’t get sidetracked by irrelevant things. She left Davis in the kitchen and traveled to her office, where she located a stack of mail. She shifted through the unopened envelopes collecting three bank statements and returned to the kitchen with them gripped in her hand. Her heart raced as she stood above the table, ripping them open one by one. Each time, her anger heightened.

Sure enough, each of the three had one transaction, a wire transfer she wasn’t familiar with for $20,000.

“How . . .” she whispered.

“I take it you found proof.”

Cassidy stared at the statements in her hands, nodding mindlessly before walking over to Davis and dropping them on the table beside his plate. He lifted the stack and scanned them while she sank into the seat beside him.

“And you didn’t know about this?”

She shook her head. When her eyes found his with questions lingering, she added, “I don’t know how he did this. He didn’t know about this account. It’s one I don’t touch. I haven’t in years.”

“But you have over half a million dollars in here, Cassidy. Even after the money that was transferred.” Her eyes landed hard on Davis.

“I would have never given him this much money without good reasoning and not from this account—ever.”

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