Page 12 of Fatal Betrayal

"This is Dr. Bradford," Flynn said to the group. "He's consulting on the case at the request of the Benedict family."

She could see by the reactions in the room that most of them knew exactly who Cooper was and were not excited about working with him. But none of them had that choice.

"Tell us more," she said.

"Jillian Markham worked for Neil's production company but quit three months ago after complaining that she was being sexually harassed by his partner, Larry Friedman," Cooper said. "She told me that Neil refused to do anything about her issues with Larry."

"So, she doesn't like Neil, either," Andi said.

"She probably hates his partner even more," he countered.

"Does she like you?" she asked.

He shrugged. "We're friendly. We had several long lunches when we were working on my project before she quit. She might be more amenable to talking to you if I'm there."

"Then let's go." She looked to Flynn to see if he agreed, and he gave her a nod.

"We'll keep working on other leads," Flynn said. "Take one of our cars." He took some keys out of his pocket and tossed them to her. "Slot 26."

"Got it," she said, heading out of the conference room.

"I can drive," Cooper told her, as they got on the elevator.

"You're a consultant. I'm driving." She needed to get her power back, and getting behind the wheel was the first step.

CHAPTERTHREE

Cooper didn't carethat Andi was driving. It gave him a chance to catch his breath, something he'd been trying to do since he'd walked into Neil's house and had seen her coming down the stairs. He had known she was an FBI agent but thought she was on the other side of the country. And that's where he wished she'd stayed. As far away from his life as she could be.

But she was closer to him than ever. Barely a foot separated them. He could smell the lavender of her perfume or her soap. It had been her favorite scent when she was thirteen, and, apparently, it still was. The ponytail was also familiar. She'd always worn her dark-brown hair pulled back off her face. Her brown eyes were as intense and determined as ever.

Other things, however, had changed about her. She wasn't a skinny, young teenager anymore, with braces on her teeth. She was a strikingly pretty woman, with curves in all the right places.

But he wasn't going to think about her body.

That reminder had a familiar ring to it. It was only in the last few months of their friendship that he'd become aware of her body. And it had put an awkwardness between them even before everything else had fallen apart. He'd gone from seeing her as his buddy, his friend, to a girl he wanted to kiss and that had shocked the hell out of him. He didn't think she'd realized the direction his mind was going. She'd been too focused on everything else in her life, too determined to find mysteries to solve, to even see that there was a mystery unfolding between the two of them.

In retrospect, that was probably a good thing. He'd never had to tell her how he felt, never had to ask her if she ever thought about him in the same way, because all conversations between them had ended a few days after Hannah Montgomery disappeared.

He wished they'd never gone out that summer night, never heard the sirens or seen the police cars racing to Hannah Montgomery's house, because that case had given Andi, who loved a mystery more than anything else in the world, the perfect puzzle to unravel. Unfortunately, she'd unraveled it in such a terrible way that she'd destroyed his family. He could never forgive her for that.

"You're staring," Andi said abruptly, giving him an irritated look.

"You did the same when I was driving," he countered.

"Well, it's weird to be sitting next to you."

"I couldn't agree more."

"Then let's talk about Jillian Markham," she said, clearly eager to change the subject.

That was fine with him. He needed to do everything he could to get Elisa back home and get Andi out of his life again. He didn't want to work with her any more than she wanted to work with him. But Neil was his friend, and he was in trouble, shattered, devastated. If Neil wanted him to help, then that's what he would do.

Clearing his throat, he said. "Jillian graduated from USC and used family connections to get into the production business. She told me she was hoping to become a producer at some point, that being an assistant wasn't much better than being an intern, which she had apparently done more than once in the past."

"What about the sexual harassment? Did she mention that to you?"

"Jillian told me about it the last time we spoke, which was probably a week before she quit. That was a couple of months ago. She said Larry was an asshole who'd been hitting on her for weeks, and that he wouldn't stop. Neil didn't believe her or was choosing to ignore her problem, because he needed Larry's connections for his business."

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