CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The next morning, as they sat on the sofa in the small living room, Edmund couldn’t stop staring at Maude.
He was leaned back, with his legs crossed, but Maude was on the edge of her seat, leaned over her phone, reviewing what she said were her notes concerning Ross Hampton’s corruption.
She was fired, thanks to him, and she seemed determined to bring him down.
Don had gotten a call that he had to take, and they were waiting for him to conclude his conversation. Once he did, he came back into Maude’s apartment, sat back down in the chair that flanked the sofa, and got down to business. “We found it,” he said, “but it was empty.”
Edmund shook his head. “The safe deposit box was empty. Why am I not surprised?”
“Why would she create that list and put it in code on top of that?” Maude asked. “Why would she do that? To what end?”
“Maybe it was just her own twisted satisfaction,” Don said. “Natasha could be odd like that.”
But Maude was shaking her head. “That’s too easy for the Natasha I knew.
A woman who would have me asking all those people to help her when she knew they all would turn me down flat, and she knew her brother wouldn’t bother to respond to my calls and text messages, forcing me to have to go to Baltimore, isn’t twisted. She knows what she’s doing.”
Edmund was nodding. “I agree with Maude,” he said.
“Okay, well, we got nothing on that front. We don’t even know who was in that SUV,” Don said, “because they were incinerated inside that vehicle. But we did trace that BMW that Natasha got away in.”
“You traced it to whom?” asked Edmund.
“Ross Hampton?” asked Maude.
Don pointed at Maude. “Bingo.”
Edmund exhaled. At least now they knew for certain. “So he is behind it after all?”
“Has to be,” Don said.
But Maude didn’t seem quite as certain. Edmund noticed it. “What is it?” he asked her.
“That’s not like him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why would he allow the getaway car to be registered in his name? That’s so sloppy.”
Edmund and Don looked at each other. Because it was sloppy. They couldn’t disagree.
Then Maude’s phone began ringing. She pulled it out and looked at the Caller ID. Her already large eyes stretched.
“Who is it?” Edmund asked.
“Ross Hampton,” Maude said and answered before he could say another word. “This is Maude.”
Don mouthed for her to put it on Speaker. She did.
“Hello Maude. That voice of yours still grate on my nerves.”
“What do you want, Hamp?”
“I didn’t do it.”
“Sure you didn’t.”
“Let’s me. I’ll give you the info you’re looking for.”
Maude sat upright. “When and where?”
“Now. At Bronson’s Place.”
“I thought it was closed down.”
“Since I own it, I’m opening it for a day.”
“I’m leaving now.”
“Come alone,” Hampton said and ended the call.
Maude jumped up. But Edmund and Don did too.
“Where’s this place?” Edmund asked.
Maude looked at him as she began gathering up her shoulder bag. “Why?”
“What do you mean why? You’re staying here and Don and I will go meet with him.”
Maude frowned. “Are you joking? He’s not going to meet with either one of you. I have to go. And he said I have to come alone. Hamp is not going to harm a reporter. He’s not that extreme.”
“He went to the extreme of accusing Natasha of killing his second wife just to lure Edmund to Dillon,” Don said, “if your theory holds water. And he was able to get Natasha to go along with it. If he’ll go that far, and be that extra, he’s willing to kill a reporter. Trust me on that.”
“He’ll have to be crazy to harm a reporter. Trust me on that! He’s not crazy.”
But Edmund was the one who thought she was crazy. “There is no way in hell I’m letting you meet with a man you yourself said is a double murderer.”
“Oh I’m going,” she said as she grabbed up her bag. “And I’m going alone.”
She actually turned to leave as if it was as simple as her just making that statement, but Edmund grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. It was such an aggressive move that she looked at him surprised.
But he was looking at Don. “Wait for us at the car,” he said.
Don nodded and left the apartment. Then Edmund turned Maude around to face him. “Now you listen to me and you listen good. When it comes to your safety, I’m in charge. And I’m telling you now that you are not going to meet Ross Hampton alone. That’s final!”
Maude could see the concern and determination in his eyes. But also the fear. He was scared for her. And it touched her. Nobody had ever cared like him before. She wasn’t jeopardizing that.
She nodded. “Okay, you and Don can go. But you’ve got to let me ask the questions. I know what I’m doing.”
Edmund didn’t want her to go at all. But he knew he had to compromise.
He agreed, and they left.