Chapter 41
Sloane looked a little lost standing in his kitchen, but Hector liked her being there. And then he shoved that thought down deep and locked it up, because she was there for one reason.
She’d been shot at the day of her sister’s funeral, kidnapped, and now attacked. He wanted to keep her safe at least for another couple hours. That was the time frame he figured he could get her to stay.
Only because the bags under her eyes looked like they were about to go on vacation. Not that it took away from her attractiveness. Nope, not going there.
“I’ll show you to the guest room,” he murmured, picking up her duffel bag.
“Thank you…for letting me crash here.”
He didn’t respond, just turned on lights as they headed to the second bedroom in his one-story home. He lived at the end of a cul-de-sac that backed up to a nature preserve and loved how quiet it was.
“Bed.” She stretched out the word before she basically fell back on said bed.
He couldn’t fight the smile tugging at his mouth.
It was six in the morning now and he was already up so he’d make some coffee and head out soon.
At least no one would know she was here, and hopefully people would stop trying to kill her.
“Stay as long as you want. I’m going to leave soon but the place is yours. ”
“You’re being very accommodating.” It almost sounded like an accusation as she sat up.
Hector shrugged.
“I have a list of everyone Kade Godoy and Hannah Brown were blackmailing in Emerald Queen Gardens,” she blurted.
He stopped at her words. “What?”
“Yeah.” She yawned and started crawling under the covers with her clothes still on. “I’ve been debating telling you and it seems like a good idea. So I am.” She sounded almost high, but he knew it was pure exhaustion.
He rubbed a hand over his face. He should not like this woman as much as he did. “How did you gain this information?”
“Not telling you that.” She shut her eyes. “I’m not that tired. But if you hand me my phone, I’ll make sure you get an anonymous tip.”
“It’s not anonymous if I know it’s from you.” But he still plucked up her phone from her duffel and handed it to her.
He shouldn’t be so okay with whatever she was doing, but a woman was dead. Her sister.
And this might give him a much needed lead faster than he could get it himself. He had a team working with him, but there was only so much they could do with the information they had. He’d take whatever she sent him if it brought down a killer.
She cracked one eye at him and shooed him out of the room. And sure enough, five minutes later, he received an anonymous email with a list of people who’d been blackmailed, why they’d been blackmailed, how much they’d paid, and oh—there were pictures in some cases.
Pictures that most definitely didn’t need to become public, or even be registered as evidence.
He decided to sit on the pictures for now, and called his boss as he started a pot of coffee. He knew that Chief Cherry Garret ran most mornings before work or just jogged straight to work, so she’d be awake.
“Hey,” she said on the first ring.
“Morning.” He jumped right into it. “I received an anonymous email with delicate information involving blackmail of residents of Emerald Queen Gardens.”
“How delicate?”
“There are pictures and details of payoffs. The pictures are not safe for work,” he added.
She was silent for a long moment. “Keep the pictures to yourself—for now. We don’t know if they’re related to the murder. No need to stir up a hornet’s nest without cause.”
Yeah, he understood that, which was why he’d called.
They worked in a very wealthy area, and weird politics came into play whether they liked it or not.
If they didn’t have to introduce these pictures into official records, they wouldn’t.
(And chances were, the people involved wouldn’t be interested in filing charges against anyone.
They would just want everything to go away.)
“I’m going to need to question people.” No way around that, and if she told him not to, they’d have issues.
“You’ll have all our resources. I’ll pull some people in today to help you with interviews. What time can you be in?”
“Less than an hour.”
“Good. I’ll see you then.”
Satisfied, he poured a cup of coffee and started getting ready. Questioning a bunch of rich people about embarrassing moments was not his idea of a good time, but it had to be done. And there was a decent chance that one of these blackmail incidents was somehow linked to Cara Alexander’s murder.