Page 57 of The Girl and the Lies

“It’s Gloria and Vince Pryor,” she says. “I have Gloria’s phone number, but that’s it.”

“That will work,” I say. She picks up her phone and goes to the contacts, reading me the number so I can jot it down. “Did this happen recently?”

“About two months ago,” she says. “Neither of them works for the company anymore.”

“They were fired?” I ask.

“They quit,” she says.

“Do you know if they ever worked with Gideon?”

“He would have done security for events that they worked at,” she says. “But I don’t know for sure how well they knew each other.”

“Okay, thank you for that. Let’s get you packed for the night and somewhere safe. Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t want to disturb anybody at this hour, so I’m just going to go to a hotel,” she says.

“I’ll escort you there,” I tell her.

“Will… will you go upstairs with me while I pack?” she asks. “I don’t want to face that room alone.”

“Of course.”

We go upstairs, and Carla hesitates before stepping into the bedroom. Her eyes drop to the blood on the carpet, and I put a hand on her back to gently guide her past it. She gathers a few things and we leave, making sure all the doors are locked before we go.

I follow Carla to the hotel and wait until she texts me that she is safely in her room before going back to Bellamy and Eric’s house. A hot shower later, my head barely hits the pillow before I’m asleep.

I got back to the house so late last night that I’ve had very little sleep when my internal alarm jostles me awake. The sound of Bellamy and Eric downstairs getting ready for the day and the smell of cooking pancakes draw me to the kitchen, where I find Bebe happily playing with a doll and tiny play cookware. I kiss her on the top of the head and make a beeline for the coffeemaker.

“I woke up in the middle of the night and went to get a glass of water and noticed you weren’t in your room,” Bellamy says. “Where did you go?”

“Marshall Powell, another of Tracy Ellis’s employees who got the threats, was attacked,” I explain.

“Just attacked?” Eric asks. “He survived?”

“Yes. He’s in the hospital and apparently suffered some pretty extensive injuries, but he is alive. He’s under sedation, so I haven’t been able to talk to him, but I’m really hoping that he’ll be able to talk soon and can give me any information on who did this,” I say. “I’m going to check on him this morning.”

As soon as I’m done with breakfast, I get dressed and head for the hospital. I park at the general entrance and go inside to the information desk. Just as I’m asking about Marshall, the elevator opens, and I see Carla come out. She looks surprised to see me.

“Thank you,” I say to the man behind the desk and go toward her.

“Good morning,” I say. “How did you sleep?”

“I barely did,” she says. “I kept waking up at every little sound. It was terrible. Eventually, I just got up. I was the first person down in the lobby for breakfast. I wanted to get here as soon as I could.”

“How is Marshall doing? Are there any updates?” I ask.

“Things are looking better. The scans look good. The doctors are hoping to be able to bring him out of sedation later today or tomorrow depending on how everything goes, and they’ll see how he reacts,” she tells me.

I smile. “That’s great to hear. I know it seems like a lot considering everything he went through, but it’s really important that I’m able to talk to him as soon as he is possibly capable of it,” I say. “The sooner he gives his statement, the better chance there is that he will remember helpful details.”

“I understand,” she nods. “I just don’t know how much he’s going to be able to remember.”

“We’ll just have to see,” I say.

With Marshall still under sedation, there’s no point in me going upstairs. Instead, I go back out to my car and dial the number Carla gave me for Gloria Pryor.

“Hello?” she answers with the wary tone of someone who doesn’t recognize the number on their phone but isn’t the type to just let it go to voicemail.

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