Page 20 of Greed
A small, polite smile flattened Lilo’s mouth. “Okay, what can you tell us about the robbery this morning?”
Nathanial’s eyebrow rose. “You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“About your father.”
Lilo blanched. That warm feeling in Griffin’s chest turned to ice.
“In case you’ve been living under a rock, Nathanial, he hasn’t been my father in years. I’ve cut all ties with him.”
“He’s missing,” Nathanial said. “Your father is missing. Don’t you care?”
Lilo’s grip tightened. “With his line of work, I’m not surprised. Now, back to the reason you’re in this cell?”
“We were in the store this morning to gather a ransom.”
Griffin’s ears perked up.
“If we don’t come up with the goods by noon Wednesday, your father is as good as dead. Doesn’t that dig at you?” Nathanial added, sniffing.
Lilo took a deep breath and let it go slowly. “Even if it did concern me, I don’t have anything to give.”
“If you opened his safe, you’d have something.”
“My mother can do that.”
“She’s not the one coded to the lock.”
“What do you mean?”
He wiped his nose with his sleeve. “Your father made it so only he and you can open the lock. He didn’t trust anyone else. Our plan to raise the ransom hasn’t worked. You need to go and get the backup money from his safe and then take it to the rendezvous point to collect your father.”
“Why didn’t my mother call me?”
“Lilo. You’re not actually considering this, are you?” Griffin asked.
“You stay out of this, man. This is a family matter.”
After a deep breath, Griffin forced his anger down and raised a questioning eyebrow at Lilo.
“I’m not getting involved,” she confirmed. “My father made his bed, he’ll have to lie in it.”
“Nah, you don’t mean that, cuz. I know you, Lilo. We played Murder in the Dark together as kids. You’re not as righteous as you think you are.” His humor fled, and he frowned. “If we can’t get your father back, then you know what’s going to happen to the South-Side without a leader. What will happen to your mother?”
“My mother lives in a gated community far from the South-Side. She’ll be fine.”
“What about the South-Side kids?”
Griffin snorted. “Don’t pretend this is about children.”
Nathanial clenched his fists. “Last warning, man. Stay out of it.”
“Let’s just keep to the reason I’m here.” Lilo blinked rapidly and then held out her recorder to her chin to activate the record button because the other hand was locked tight around his. After the device began recording, she held it toward her cousin. “I need to remind you that we’re on the record. Anything you say can be published in the paper and incriminate you. What can you tell us about the two deaths at the robbery?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Nathanial began to pace the floor.
“Try me,” Lilo said.
