But for Payne and those women, I’ll do anything. It isn’t as hard since Max just tried asking me for one. Not that I was able to help him. That footage ‘disappeared’ permanently. No one except people I trust will ever know anyone attacked Dahlia.
She won’t have to have hard conversations.
That was all the comfort I could give her.
Max should be here in a few minutes, which in itself is shocking. I expected a phone call from somewhere in the world when I called his secretary, not for him to show up at my office.
Tac pokes his head into my office. “That Vincenti guy is back.”
“Showhim in.”
Tac nods, and just a few seconds later returns with Max.
I stand up and walk over. “Thank you for responding so quickly.” I hold out a hand to him.
Max shakes it. “Do you have that video for me?”
“No. I told you it doesn’t exist.”
“And I told you that you’re lying, and I want that tape.” Max’s smile is friendly with an edge of irritation. “But our little encounter yesterday makes me question why you’re lying.”
This isn’t going to be a simple request. “Have a seat. Can I get you a drink?”
He sits down on the leather couch that faces the window into the club. “No thanks. As I was saying, I think I know why you’re lying now, but I’m not sure why you didn’t want my help.”
Only a fool would admit something like that to Vincenti. “I’m not lying.” I sit down on the armchair next to him. “What happened yesterday is none of your business.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Prue is my business.”
What does he mean by that?
“So now I’m going to ask again, what happened to the video recording that day?”
He knows. “Dahlia told you?” She just doesn’t seem like the type to talk about something so private. Getting her to admit she had her period was like pulling teeth.
Pulling teeth is actually easier.
“We guessed, and she filled in the details reluctantly.”
Someone needs to fill in the details for me. “We?” What did they do? Sit her down for an interrogation. Why didn’t she tell me?
“My daughter, Hope, figured it out first. Prue was shaken when she got home after days missing.” Max raises an eyebrow at me.
“She was never lost.”
“I figured that. Prue was afraid that Hope hadn’t been prepared to protect herself from date rape drugs, so she gave Hope this big long lecture—likeHope will ever be alone—Prue’s hands shook the entire time and Hope figured it out. Who drugged Prue?”
A dead man. “It doesn’t matter. The problem was taken care of. She wasn’t alone for a single minute.”
“Taken care of…” Max raises an eyebrow at me.
“Like I said, there is no video from that day. There was a computer malfunction.”
“This malfunction caused a permanent loss.”
I nod.
Max’s shoulders relax a bit. “Excellent. So, I’m going to assume your last visit was simply to check on Prue.”