Page 36 of Long Gone

“Do you know where he planned to meet this person?”

He shook his head. “Nope. He was pissed at me, and he left the restaurant before we’d even finished the meal.”

“Do you remember where you ate?”

“His office was in Jackson Creek, so I went to him to soften the blow. We ate at Roots.”

I nodded, my mind racing. Deputy Jones hadn’t told me about Hugo’s lunch meeting with Brett Colter. Had he intentionally kept it from me, or did he not know about it? I decided to bluff again. “Why didn’t you tell the sheriff’s investigators that you were dumping him from the group?”

His face paled. “Who says I didn’t?”

“I had a meeting with Detective Jones yesterday afternoon. He never mentioned it, and as important as that is, I believe he would have.”

Colter swallowed hard and shifted his gaze to the side. “It didn’t seem important. The man ran off. No need to make him look any worse.”

Or maybe Colter didn’t want to give the detective anything to make himself a suspect. What if Hugo threatened to make waves, and Colter decided to shut him up permanently?

Or what if Hugo had damaging information against Colter and threatened to release it if Colter dropped him from the Colter Group? It was a stretch, but not impossible.

I changed topics. “When did you hear that Hugo was missing?”

“The day after our lunch meeting. Clarice called me that morning and asked if I knew where he was. I told her the truth—I had no idea.”

“And when you heard, what did you think had happened to him?”

“Honestly? That he ran off. I still think that, although I hope for Clarice’s sake she can claim the policy.” He glanced at his phone on the desk. “I’m sorry, but I have another meeting that I need to get to. I wish I’d been more helpful.”

“You were very helpful, Mr. Colter,” I said, getting to my feet. “Thank you for your time.”

I headed out the door, my mind spinning. Colter had information he was holding back. I just needed to find out what.

Chapter 9

I got in my car and headed to the Wolford County courthouse. I needed to find out more about Hugo’s properties, but I also wanted to talk to his kids. If he was really as close to them as everyone was leading me to believe, I wondered if they’d noticed anything before he left.

I pulled into the parking lot of the courthouse and called Clarice.

“Do you have something already?” she asked, hopeful.

“No, sorry. I know you don’t feel comfortable with me talking to your kids, but I would like to get their perspective on this.”

She hesitated. “I really don’t want you to do that.”

My suspicions were immediately on alert. “Why? They’re both adults now.”

“Mary Ann’s in college,” she said in a snippy tone. “I wouldn’t call that an adult.”

“Your son is a nurse in Wolford. I think he would qualify.”

“Anton and Mary Ann have been through so much. I don’t want them to relive this any more than they already have.”

“I understand,” I assured her, “but I really think their perspective could be helpful. Especially Anton’s.”

She paused for several seconds.

“Tell you what,” I said. “Why don’t you tell Anton I’d like to talk to him, give him my name and number, and we’ll leave it up to him whether he wants to contact me. If I don’t hear from him, I'll let it go.” It went against every instinct not to talk to him, but I couldn’t force her to put us in touch, and considering she was the client, it wouldn’t be right to circumvent her and contact her son on my own.

“Okay,” she said, but she definitely didn’t sound happy about it.

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