Chapter Thirteen
San Diego PD, San Diego, California
Wednesday, January 11, 1:00 p.m.
“Estelle White said she’d had an affair with Munro,” Marshall said when Kit, Connor, and the other two detectives had gathered together to debrief their interviews.
She and Connor had shared what Trisha had disclosed, but neither of the other women who Munro had had affairs with had been as forthcoming. Juanita Young hadn’t even let Kit and Connor into her house. She’d closed the door in their faces.
Ashton pulled four sub sandwiches from a bag and passed them around. “Estelle was lying,” he said bluntly. “About the sex and the blackmail. She wouldn’t look at us through the entire interview.”
“She has three kids,” Marshall added. “Oldest is fifteen. He wouldn’t leave the room. I think whatever Munro had on her, she didn’t want her kids to know.”
“Thanks for lunch,” Connor said. “We’ll provide dinner if we’re still working.”
“We will be,” Kit said glumly. “And yes, thank you so much for lunch. I always forget to eat.”
“We know,” Marshall said.
“We all know,” Ashton added. “You work so many hours, you make the rest of us look bad.”
Kit rolled her eyes. “Anyway. If you’d been able to get Estelle alone, do you think she would have been more honest?”
Marshall shook his head. “She was afraid. Even though both Munro and Grossman are dead and Veronica’s in jail, she was terrified.”
“I thought the same,” Ashton said. “So we didn’t get anything from her. Nothing like you got from Trisha Finnegan.”
“Trisha had stopped paying Munro,” Kit said. “And the thing he’d held over her head no longer had any power over her. The other women may still be paying. Or at least they were up until last week. If we have to, we can subpoena their bank records. Trisha volunteered to show us hers. Maybe the others made monthly cash withdrawals, too.”
Marshall noted it on the whiteboard as a possible next step. “I’ve been thinking about the drop boxes that Trisha said she used. Lockers at the bus stop and the train make sense, but the gym? Why the gym? That meant whoever picked up the money that month had to have been a gym member to get access to the locker room, right?”
Kit nodded. “That would have been Veronica. Connor goes to the same gym and he confirmed her membership on our way back here after Juanita Young slammed her door in our faces.”
Connor crumpled the now-empty sandwich wrapper and lobbed it into the trash can. The man could inhale food so fast it made Kit’s head spin. She was still eating.
“So…what about Tamsin Kavanaugh?” Connor asked. “Did you talk to her?”
“Only briefly,” Marshall said, his expression darkening. “She said that she had indeed had an affair with Munro. She said that it was ‘perfectly consensual’ and that they’d both benefited. He gave her early access to any newsworthy items coming out of the council and he got a few complimentary articles in her paper. She said it lasted about three months. She admitted to making the donations. She said that’s how she got access to Munro to begin with. She also said that she didn’t know who’d killed him, that if she did, it would have been all over the internet by now. Then she asked us why we’d asked her about consent with Munro, and she got that gleam in her eye. We left soon after that. We didn’t want to inadvertently give her a story.”
“I get that,” Kit said. “I knew she’d do anything for a story, but Munro? Ick.”
“A lot of women liked his looks,” Ashton said. “My wife thought he looked like Rock Hudson.”
“Who?” Connor asked, and Kit elbowed him in the ribs.
“You know who that is. You’re just trying to make Ashton feel old.”
Connor grinned. “Did it work?”
Ashton laughed. “No, because I already felt old. You’re way too late for that, young pup.”
Kit’s mind was racing. “Veronica didn’t lie about the locations changing each month. What if she used the bus and train stations often? What if she used one of those locations in the last month? What if we get the surveillance footage from both places for the last month?”
“That is a lot of footage,” Ashton said. “We’ll need to ask for help.”
“But it’s doable,” Marshall said. “You ask Navarro for more assistance, McKittrick. He likes you best.”
“He really doesn’t,” Kit said. “But I’ll ask.” She called Navarro and he said he’d coordinate getting the footage and a team to review it. She turned back to the three men, who were stuffing themselves with potato chips. “Done. So we have one confirmed blackmail victim. I didn’t get killer vibes from Trisha Finnegan. Did you, Connor?”
Kit wished they’d taken Sam with them. He was good at reading people. But so are we. We survived before Sam was our psychologist.
“I didn’t. But she was also very cooperative.”
“Too cooperative?” Ashton asked.
Connor shrugged. “Enough that we can’t rule her out. Are you thinking about Alicia’s multiple-hands theory?”
“Yeah,” Kit grumbled. “Trisha suggested that if we identified more blackmail victims, they could have a support group. That made me wonder if a bunch of them did get together and plan their little Orient Express scheme.”
Marshall wiped dust from the potato chips off his hands. “They’d need to have identified each other. That’s kind of the beauty of Munro’s plan. If he had multiple people with secrets to hide, nobody is going to talk about their secrets. They’d have no way of knowing if other people were in the same boat.”
“And if there were more victims at the country club, they’d all have the funds to pay,” Ashton added.
“Not everyone there is super rich,” Connor said. “Trisha was paying five grand a month. That could break quite a few people in the club.”
“Anyone file for bankruptcy lately?” Kit asked. “How could we find out the state of the finances of each member? We’ll never get a warrant for their financials. Not with what little we know.”
“True.” Marshall looked at Connor. “Would your mom know?”
“Maybe, but my dad’s more likely to have heard something about specific finances. I’ll call him.” He dialed, then put his phone on speaker again.
“Connor? Is everything okay?”
“We’re fine, Dad. Everyone’s fine. I’ve got you on speaker. I’m with Kit and two other detectives, Kevin Marshall and Alf Ashton. We’re working the Munro case. This is my father, Andrew Robinson.”
“Nice to meet you, Detectives. Hi, Kit. What do you need?”
“We’re focusing on the country club,” Connor said. “Do you know of any members who’ve had recent financial issues?”
“Can’t get a warrant, huh?”
“Haven’t tried yet. Hoped to get some insider info.”
“It would mean a lot, sir,” Kit asked.
“Oh, I’ll help you. I’m thinking. Hush now. My brain doesn’t click into motion as fast as it used to.” They were quiet until Andrew finally cleared his throat. “Okay. There are a few things I’ve noticed. Simon Daly recently sold his Maserati and bought a Cadillac. He took some grief for that because that Maserati was a damn fine car. He said he was streamlining his finances so that he could retire. I personally thought he’d likely made some bad financial investments. Then there’s Hugh Smith. He recently sold his house in La Jolla for a place downtown. A lot less square footage and a lot less fancy. His wife was none too pleased and told everyone who’d listen. Your mother would probably have more details.” He was quiet for another moment, then he sighed. “Then there’s Earl O’Hanlon.”
“He died, didn’t he?” Connor asked.
“Killed himself.”
Kit sat up straighter. “When was this?”
“Two months ago. Let me check my calendar. I went to his funeral.” Twenty seconds passed with Andrew muttering to himself in the background. “Found it. His funeral was November eighth.”
“Why did he kill himself?” Kit asked.
“He was broke. His wife thought he had another woman on the side and she’d left him to go live with her sister. His housekeeper went in for her final paycheck—because he’d had to fire all the help—and found him hanging in the great room. He’d been dead at least a day, from what I heard. He left a letter saying that he’d made some bad business decisions and couldn’t see any way out.”
“That’s sad,” Kit murmured. “Do you think he made bad business decisions?”
“I always thought Earl was a savvy businessman. He’d turned one small corner store into a chain of high-end grocery stores. He was rolling in money at one point. But we never talked about his personal finances.”
“Was there anyone he would have shared his financial issues with?” Kit asked.
“Joe Rooney. The two were business partners for thirty years, up until Joe retired. If he told anyone, it would have been Joe. Earl’s widow might know. But she’s moved somewhere southeast. Mississippi or Alabama, maybe. Oh, your mother’s coming, Connor. If you don’t want her involved, we need to end this call now.”
“If you think of more club members with financial problems, can you let us know?” Connor said. “Thanks, Dad. See you Saturday.”
“You be careful, son.”
“I will.” Connor ended the call. “We have the names of three people who were hemorrhaging money. Earl O’Hanlon can’t answer any of our questions, but his widow might. We just need to track her down.”
“Or the friend,” Kit said. “Joe Rooney. Do you know him, Connor?”
“I’ve seen him at a few country club events, but we’ve never really spoken. He’s my dad’s age, so our paths didn’t cross. But we can talk to him.”
“What about the other two?” Marshall asked. “Mr.Maserati and Mr.Ex La Jolla?”
“I say we bring them here for questioning,” Kit said. “I doubt they’ll be receptive to answering our questions in their homes. And if we don’t get anywhere with them, we’ll bring in Juanita Young and Estelle White and question them again. Maybe they’ll be more forthcoming the second time around. For now, let’s focus on the men. Connor and I will take Mr.Maserati and you two bring in Mr.Ex La Jolla.”
“Otherwise known as Simon Daly and Hugh Smith,” Connor said dryly. “I doubt either of them will just come in because we ask.”
Kit shrugged. She didn’t understand rich people, but she knew how to embarrass them into doing what she wanted. “Then we threaten to go to their place of business with a warrant tomorrow and tell their coworkers in a very loud voice that we’re from Homicide and there to bring them downtown.”
Connor nodded once. “That will work.”
Ashton grinned. “This is going to be fun.”
Kit studied the whiteboard. “We still have so many interviews to do.”
Marshall was checking his notes. “We also still need to find the guard who was on gate duty the night Munro went missing. He was tagged in a social media post by one of his friends about six months ago. We’ve contacted the friend and are waiting for a call back. I’m not holding out a lot of hope on finding him alive. Let’s get these guys in for questioning, and then Alf and I will pay a visit to the friend who made the social media post.”
“Sounds good.” Kit brushed the crumbs from her lunch into the trash can. “We should ask Joe Rooney to come in too, to ask him about Earl O’Hanlon’s money troubles. We should talk to him before Simon Daly and Hugh Smith, in case he has information that might help crack the other two.”
Carmel Valley, San Diego, California
Wednesday, January 11, 3:00 p.m.
Kit rushed into her parents’ house, her heart pounding with fear. “What’s wrong?”
She’d been with Connor, about to load Mr.Maserati, a.k.a. Simon Daly, into the back of their car when her father had called her to come home, a tightness in his voice she’d only heard a few times.
None of those times had been good. So she’d left Connor to bring Simon Daly in for questioning while she took an Uber to her car, which she’d left in the SDPD parking lot.
She honestly couldn’t even remember the drive back. She’d been on autopilot.
Sam was waiting for her in her parents’ foyer. He reached out to grip her shoulders, keeping her from running any farther. “Kit, wait.”
Kit blinked up at him. “Why are you here? What’s wrong? Where’s Pop?”
“He’s upstairs with Rita. She’s physically okay.”
Sam’s calm voice allowed her to take a moment to breathe.
“Okay. What’s wrong with Rita?”
Sam grimaced. “She didn’t take the news of Christopher Drummond’s deal well.”
Kit closed her eyes, wondering how Sam had found out. “I meant to tell you, but we got busy and…”
Sam pulled her in for a hug. “It’s okay, Kit. Just take a second to calm down. You can’t help her if you run upstairs loaded for bear.”
She huffed a laugh against his solid chest, her arms wrapping around his waist. This man was a rock.
He could be your rock.
Someday. Maybe.
“Okay, I’m calm now. Tell me what happened.”
Sam let her go, tipping her chin up so that he could see her eyes. “Harlan picked up Rita from school, like he told you he would. He wanted to tell her about Drummond when they got home, but she was suspicious about being picked up early.”
“Of course she was. She’s smart.”
“She is that. She didn’t buy that your father was picking her up so that she could help him with the new dog.”
Kit looked around her parents’ living room. “Where is the behemoth?”
“Upstairs. He took to Rita right away. He and Snickerdoodle are on her bed with her.” He sighed. “Your dad told her about Drummond in the car and she kind of lost it.”
“I was afraid she would. I should have taken off work and told her myself.”
“You’re not her parent, Kit. You’re a great big sister, though, and you did the right thing. The news needed to come from your father. But Rita panicked. She got out of the car and ran, right there in front of her school.”
Kit closed her eyes again. “But she’s not hurt?”
“No. Close call, though. She ran across the road and a car nearly hit her. I think your father nearly had a heart attack.”
Kit’s eyes flew up to Sam’s, new fear icing over her heart. “For real?”
“He should see a doctor. I didn’t like how pale he was by the time I got here. But right now, he seems to be okay and focused on Rita. Blames himself for botching the delivery of the news.”
“He would. He always blames himself.”
“Like father, like daughter,” Sam said mildly. “Rita actually got him home. She saw him nearly pass out and that snapped her out of her flight mode. She called Akiko to come and get them. Akiko did so and signed out Tiffany and Emma, too. Brought them all back here. The way I heard it, Rita held it together until they were safely back home and then she lost it again. She started crying hysterically and packing her things to run.”
“Who called you?”
“Tiffany and Emma. They should have called Dr.Carlisle, but they didn’t think about it.”
“They trust you. Is Dr.Carlisle able to see Rita today?”
“She’ll be coming over as soon as she’s done with her final session, but I really think you can help more than anyone else. That’s why Harlan called you.”
Kit nodded, trying to find her composure. “So Rita heard the news and…what? She thinks Drummond’s going to get a deal from Joel?”
Sam grimaced again. “She thinks he’ll get a deal from you.”
“From me ?” Kit stared up at him. “Why would she think that?”
“Um…”
Kit and Sam turned to find Emma standing in the doorway leading to the kitchen. Kit went to her, giving her a hug that should have been warmer. It was tense and rigid, but Emma didn’t seem to notice.
The teenager sank into the embrace and Kit drew another breath, her heart hurting when Emma started to cry.
These girls had been through hell.
And if Rita thought I was going to make a deal with Drummond? She had to be feeling so betrayed. Kit stroked Emma’s hair and rubbed her back, all the things Harlan did when Kit was upset.
“Why are you crying, Emma?” Kit asked softly.
“I messed everything up. Pop McK is going to be so mad at me. Mom McK, too. They’re going to make me leave. Pop almost had a heart attack, and it’s my fault. Mom is going to hate me. And Rita…You have to help her, Kit.”
“I will,” Kit promised. “But let’s help you first, okay? First of all, Mom and Pop will never send you away. Not unless you use violence, and I don’t think you did that, did you?”
Sniffling, Emma shook her head. “No. I was just so stupid.” It came out as a wail, and Kit went back to stroking Emma’s hair.
“You are not stupid. Come, let’s sit at the kitchen table and you can tell me what’s going on, okay?” Kit put an arm around Emma’s shoulders and, throwing a helpless glance at Sam, led the teenager to the kitchen.
Sam was ready with a box of tissues, and the three of them sat down. Emma mopped her face and shuddered out a breath. “Last night,” she started.
Kit waited, but when Emma didn’t continue, she gave her a gentle nudge. “Last night?”
Emma bit her lip. “I heard you and Pop McK talking.”
Kit frowned. They’d been talking about Veronica Fitzgerald and how she and Connor needed the money drop locations. “What did you hear, Em?”
“That you would make a deal with someone named Veronica. I didn’t mean to listen. I just wanted some cookies because we were studying and—” She dropped her head into her hands and started to cry again.
“So I assume you told this to Rita?” Kit asked, trying to string the events together.
Emma nodded miserably. “We tell each other everything. And then today…when she heard about Drummond…” She looked up, her face blotchy from crying. “You won’t let him be free, will you? Please, Kit. Please. ”
“I will not make a deal with Drummond,” Kit said firmly. “But I can see how Rita might think we would.” She might have hoped that Rita would have trusted her more, but Rita was still a traumatized child. Kit remembered exactly how that felt. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Listening in wasn’t great, but you didn’t mean to. And as for Pop, we will make sure he sees the very best doctors.”
Her lungs wanted to freeze at the thought of losing Harlan, but she’d deal with that later. “They will not send you away, Emma. I know it’s hard, but have a little faith. You’ll see. I did so much worse and they never once even discussed sending me away.”
Emma’s nod was jerky. “Really?”
“Really.” She reached across the table and squeezed Emma’s hand. “Someday I’ll tell you all about it, but let’s get Rita back to okay first. Come on. Is everyone upstairs?”
“Yeah. Mom won’t leave Pop, and Akiko is guarding our bedroom door in case Rita tries to run again. She already had to grab her once and push her back into our room. That’s when Pop called you.”
“Well, someone should have called me right away.”
“We know you’re busy,” Emma said.
“Never too busy for you guys.” Kit tipped up Emma’s chin just as Sam had done hers minutes before. “Now dry your eyes and follow me.” She met Sam’s gaze. “Come with us?”
“Of course,” Sam said.
The three of them climbed the stairs to find Mom, Pop, and Akiko camped out in the hallway. Someone had brought out some folding chairs and her parents were seated in them.
Akiko stood at the bedroom door in a soldier’s stance, her grim expression softening when she saw Kit. “Hey, you.”
Kit smiled at her sister. “Hey, yourself. I hear you’re a bouncer today.”
Akiko shrugged. “Fisherwoman, chef extraordinaire, bouncer. I can do it all.” She glanced at their parents from the corner of her eye. “Add father wrangler to the list.”
Kit turned her focus to Harlan, who was rolling his eyes. “I’m fine.”
His color looked normal, Kit thought. She’d been standing next to her former partner Baz when he’d had a heart attack at a crime scene, and she didn’t think she’d ever forget what he’d looked like.
Harlan looked like himself. A tired version, but himself nonetheless. She bent to give him a hug. “Why didn’t you call me sooner, Pop?”
“Because I knew you’d be trying every trick in your book to keep Drummond from getting out of going to trial. I needed you to be working.” He looked over her shoulder to where Sam stood on the stairs. “Thank you for explaining everything to Kit.”
“I was happy to help,” Sam said.
Kit looked over her shoulder at him. He really was happy to help. She wondered if he knew exactly how extraordinary he was. “You always do,” she said, then kissed Harlan’s forehead. “You, Pop, are seeing a doctor as soon as I get Rita straightened out.”
He rolled his eyes again. “I know.”
“I already told him,” Betsy said. Her face was also pale, but Kit thought that might be from fright.
Kit gave her a hug as well. “I’ll do my best to fix this. I’m sorry that Rita jumped to the wrong conclusion, but I get it.”
“I knew you would,” Betsy said. “Go on. Tiffany is in there with her, along with the dogs. There might be room for you, but there might not. It’s pretty tight.”
Kit chuckled. “Sam? Join me?”
He came the rest of the way up the stairs. “You can handle this yourself. You don’t need me.”
“Rita trusts you. Please. You too, Emma.” She opened the door and found that, yes, the room was now a very tight fit. Two twin beds had been okay. Three twin beds, three teenage girls, two big dogs, plus herself and Sam made a crowd.
Kit left the door open, gesturing for Emma to go in first. The tension in the room was so thick that it was palpable.
Rita looked up, dread on her face. “Is Pop okay? I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“Oh, honey.” Kit shoved at the new dog until he got off Rita’s bed with a huge doggy sigh. He was going to be enormous. He was already huge. But, once he was trained, nobody would mess with Rita or the other girls. “Pop looks fine, but we’ll get him checked out. He’s always had a healthy heart up until now. Mom makes him go for checkups every year, even though he grumbles. Hopefully he just got scared seeing you nearly become roadkill.”
Rita winced. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have run across that busy road. That was dumb.”
“Don’t be sorry. I get it.” She scooted backward on the bed until she and Rita had the wall at their backs. “Let’s get the obvious issue out of the way first. I will move heaven and earth so as not to let that bastard Drummond get a deal. We’ve been working all day to figure out what he might know so that we can circumvent him completely. That means we’ll go around him.”
Rita scowled. “I know what ‘circumvent’ means, Kit.”
Kit chuckled, relieved to hear some of Rita’s natural snark return. “Good. It’ll make your college entry exams a breeze.”
“Did you?” Tiffany asked. She tried to look forceful, but Kit could see the scared kid she and Sam had met just months before. “Did you find a way?”
Healing happened slowly, Kit knew. Things might appear normal on the surface but she knew that each girl struggled with her fears every day. I still do.
“I think we may have. Once we’re done here, I need to get back for a few interviews, but…yeah. We have a good lead. One I’m not going to tell you about, so don’t even ask.”
Three teenage mouths snapped shut in unison.
She looked at each of the girls in turn. “I’m not mad that you listened, Emma, but that was a private conversation between me and Pop. What else did you hear?”
“Just that sometimes cutting a deal was the lesser of two evils.”
Kit suspected she’d heard more, but let it go for now. “Sometimes it is. With Christopher Fucking Drummond, it’s not. Nobody I talked to today—on our side, anyway—wants to give that bastard a single fraction of an inch.” She hesitated, then pulled Rita closer. Rita relaxed into Kit’s side. “We know what he did, Rita.” Kit wouldn’t say that Drummond had raped the teenager. Not in front of the other two girls. “We will fight tooth and nail to make sure he goes to prison forever.”
“They know. Tiff and Em. I told them what he did.” Rita’s swallow was audible. “What else he did.”
Kit studied Tiffany and Emma and saw nothing but loyalty. And anger, but Kit figured that was directed at Drummond.
“Okay,” Kit said. “Then I can be blunt. That he murdered a woman in cold blood is enough for a criminal trial. That he murdered the child she was carrying is also enough for a criminal trial. We don’t need to bring in the fact that he assaulted you, not right now. If it comes to it and you’re ready, we’ll tell Joel. But know that you have time to decide if you want to come forward and press charges. Lots of time. That you haven’t doesn’t mean Drummond can go free for the murder of your mother. They’d be separate trials.”
Rita looked to the door where Sam was standing. “Should I tell Joel?”
Kit couldn’t blame Rita for wanting a second opinion. She’d trust Sam for the truth in the same situation.
Sam shook his head. “Not until you’re ready. And if you’re never ready, that’s okay, too. Kit’s telling you the truth. And nobody in this house blames you for not pressing charges.”
“Even if Drummond gets off on a technicality?” Rita pressed, her voice cracking.
“Even then,” Sam said in his soothing voice. The tension in the room began to drop, and Kit felt like she could breathe again. “Joel knows that Drummond has threatened you. He might be able to use that against Drummond when he goes to trial, because trying to intimidate you is against the law, too. For the time being, don’t panic. Nothing is different now than it was yesterday except that Drummond is getting desperate.”
“What do you mean?” Rita asked warily.
Sam looked to Kit. “That explanation’s yours.”
“He means,” Kit said, “that if Drummond is offering to give us information on the case we’re working, then he knows about a crime he didn’t come forward about on his own. Depending on the crime, that could make things worse for him.”
“Oh,” Emma breathed. “It’s because Munro was blackmailing people. Maybe Drummond was getting blackmailed, too.”
“I thought you’d heard more than you let on,” Kit said dryly.
“Sorry,” Emma said with a wince. “But that’s right, isn’t it? If he knows about blackmail, maybe it’s because he was being blackmailed, too. And if he was being blackmailed, he’d have to tell you all about that, and since he kept it a secret, that would be another crime you could arrest him for.”
Kit’s lips twitched. “You wanna be a cop, kid?”
Emma sat up straighter, preening. “Maybe. But I’m right, right?”
“You could be,” Kit admitted. “But even if you’re wrong, Drummond is getting desperate. That means we’re doing all the right things. I would never take the easy way and let that asshole off for murdering your mother, even if he’d never laid a hand on you. But that he did that, too? I want him to rot in jail forever.”
Rita let out a quiet breath. “Thank you, Kit. I’m sorry I caused so much trouble.”
Harlan appeared in the doorway, looking like his normal self, much to Kit’s relief. “You are never trouble, honey. This one?” He pointed to Kit. “She was trouble.”
“Guilty,” Kit said, giving Rita a small, affectionate shake. “Let’s get a snack and then I have to head back. Connor’s holding our leads in interview rooms until I can help with the questioning.”
Rita exhaled. “I should have known you wouldn’t let him go free.”
“Have a little faith,” Emma said, giving Kit a smile.
“I will.” Rita slid off the bed and gave Sam a hard hug before hugging Harlan. “I’m sorry, Pop. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Harlan kissed Rita’s forehead. “Just don’t do it again. I think I’ll see that car narrowly missing you in my dreams for a long time. Your life is precious, Rita. Let’s take better care of it, okay?”
Rita put her hands on her hips. “Like you will by going to the doctor?”
In the hallway, Akiko laughed. “Busted, Pop. I’ll take you now.”
Kit watched her parents, Akiko, and the three teenagers head downstairs. “Thank you for reassuring Rita,” she said to Sam.
“It’s not that she doesn’t trust you,” Sam said. “She does.”
“I know. But she needed verification. She reminds me so much of myself. Pop never knew it, but I was ready to run after Wren died. I was going to investigate and find her killer. I’d even have killed him myself if I’d found him. Pop offering to help me find Wren’s killer kept me here.”
“I think he knew that when he offered. He’s pretty smart.”
“He probably did.” It made Kit love her father all the more. “I was actually about to call you before Pop called me. You wanna come watch some interviews and tell me what you think?”
He smiled at her. “Sure. Who’s in the hot seat today?”
“Mr.Maserati and Mr.Ex La Jolla.” She chuckled at his confusion. “I’ll explain when we get there. Suffice it to say that today I am grateful that Connor’s family is loaded.”
“I can’t wait to hear about it. Is Laura representing them? Please say she’s not.”
Kit laughed out loud. “I truly hope not.”