Page 18 of Six
A soft smile touched her lips at his question, and she glanced away. It was dark out, but the lights from the patio and the street gave them a view of the world that carried on.
“We were in law school together,” Violetta said. “We met the first day in Civil Procedure. It was a god-awful class, and we commiserated together. From there we started studying together, and we’ve been friends ever since. He is—was—one of the good ones, you know?” she said, looking up. He hadn’t met Jeremy, but he knew the kind of person Violetta was referring to. The kind of person who is justgood.
He nodded. “What kind of work did he do?”
Violetta paused while their waiter brought their drinks. When the young man was gone, she picked up the small tumbler filled with two fingers of the rich honey-colored liquor and rolled it between her palms.
“Mostly civil litigation,” she answered. “He liked to take on corporations who were taking advantage of the little guys.”
Another little tidbit Gavin filed away. It wasn’t unheard of for a corporation to go after someone who was causing them trouble. Granted, killing a man was extreme, but that would depend on the type of threat Jeremy might have posed.
“But he did a ton of pro bono and volunteer work, too. Mostly to support women coming out of unhealthy relationships, but immigrants as well. He also served as a child advocate.” She paused, took a sip of her amaro, and tipped her head back. Her eyes closed for a moment, but Gavin didn’t know if it was in memory of her friend or in enjoyment of the liquid traveling down her throat. Or, he supposed, it could be both.
“Like I said,” she said when she again met his gaze. “He was one of the good ones.”
“You told me he was murdered. Is there proof or is that conjecture?” He was pressing a bit, but she’d been the one to mention murder, so she shouldn’t be surprised that he’d ask about it.
Her eyes studied him as she took another sip. After a beat, she answered. “Nothing concrete. I saw the video of the car that hit Jeremy. It was the same make and model as the one from last night. I also have video from my car’s rear camera that shows damage to that car that could be in line with a hit-and-run.”
“And there’s the fact that they followed you from his apartment,” Gavin added before sipping his own drink. She was right—it was all conjecture at this point, but pretty damn good conjecture.
She inclined her head. “I have someone in the police keeping an eye on things. But even if they can tie the car from last night to Jeremy’s death, they still don’t have evidence proving it was murder versus an accident.”
“Which is where you come in, isn’t it?”
“I’m worried about Heather, Jeremy’s sister,” she replied, ignoring his probing question. She’d more or less admitted to looking into Jeremy’s life and death, but clearly wasn’t yet decided on how much to share with him.
“In what way?” he asked, going with the flow.
“I was only at his apartment for thirty minutes before they decided to follow me home. Heather’s been in and out of the place since they first notified her of her brother’s death. Why did they follow me? Or more to the point, why did they try to runmeoff the road?”
Gavin didn’t have an answer for that, although it was a damn good question. Presumably, if Heather gave Violetta access to any files, it would make Heather, who would also have access, a target as well. But that wasn’t what had happened.
“It might be worth having someone watch over her,” Gavin suggested. “But as for whyyou, maybe it has to do with the fact that you’re a federal prosecutor? Maybe they don’t know you’re a friend of Jeremy’s and saw you as a threat because of your job?”
Violetta seemed to mull this suggestion over. It wasn’t a great one, but unless there was a reason that shewasspecificallytargeted, it wasn’t illogical to treat the incident as just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was possible that her friendship with Jeremy and her life with AISE might unnecessarily be muddying the waters.
If he hadn’t been watching her so closely, he would have missed how Violetta drew back, almost infinitesimally. As if she’d discovered something.
“Violetta?”
Her eyes jumped up to meet his.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
She held his gaze and for a moment, he thought she might take him into her confidence. But then she shook her head. “Just something I need to look into.”
“I can help,” he said, throwing in a cheeky smile that was more a flash of his teeth than anything else.
She had the grace to give him a rueful laugh. “I’m sure you can, but I’m also sure you’ll understand if I don’t take you up on that offer. I have three best friends that I’ve known since I was twelve. They are all exceptionally bright, exceptionally wily, and exceptionally loyal. And then we also have Joe, Cyn’s partner. I think I have all the backup I need, thank you very much.”
He smiled in response. Violetta’s words might have been intended to put him off, but what she’d done was throw the gauntlet down. He had every intention of being included on the tiny list of people she trusted—those she considered the most loyal. And he was going to have a hell of good time proving it to her.
Chapter Nine
Six stretched in bed,wiggling her toes against the cool cotton of her sheets even as she burrowed under her fluffy duvet. Once again, she’d been up late. First filling her friends in on her dinner, then doing some research into an idea she’d had about what Jeremy might have been investigating before he died. After she’d wrapped that up for the night, she again hit the gym. Technically, she was supposed to be in the office today. But given that she’d been in on Monday and Tuesday, she’d emailed Rosey and Mitch to let them know she’d be working from home.
She was staring at her ceiling, contemplating how unfortunate it was that her coffee machine wasn’t right beside her bed—something she might have to rectify—when her phone dinged letting her know someone was on her property.
