CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Edward
“You want us to believe that the entire Hart family is behind kidnapping your girlfriend?”
I ran my hands through my hair over and over.
It had to be standing on end by now. I had no idea what time it was, but I knew I’d been here for hours.
I was exhausted. It could be the next day by now for all I knew.
And Cara was somewhere, injured and needing help.
“Not the entire family. As I’ve already said, I know for sure that Monty, Nora, and Nora’s boyfriend, Eric Hightower are all involved.
I mean, I think he’s her boyfriend. Their relationship is… weird.”
“And you believe that Garrison Hart, richest man in South Carolina, is also involved, correct?” Hobbs asked.
“Yes,” I sighed out wearily, already having been through this with him before. Many times.
Hobbs chuckled, and I wanted to punch him in his stupid, doughy face. His partner, Maynard, was a huge Black man who seemed more interested in what I had to say. I worried they were just playing good cop, bad cop like you see on TV. But he was my one hope.
“Please,” I begged, looking at him, “you have to believe me. I need to get out of here and find her. Y’all need to focus on who really did this. Have you found Sara MacAllister yet?”
“No,” Hobbs said, a judgmental look on his face.
“What? What does that mean? I told you I made reservations for her at Urban Holiday, sent her money, and watched her drive away in the Uber. Did you call her?”
Maynard gave Hobbs a look. “With all due respect, Mr. Ashton, do you think her family would’ve filed a missing person’s report if they could contact her by phone?”
I felt deflated. “I… just don’t understand where she went. Or what it means that she’s not answering her phone.”
“It means,” Maynard said, “that when we tried to contact her, her phone went straight to voicemail. Officers located her phone in a trash can.”
I frowned. “A trash can?” A sense of fear came over me. This didn’t sound good at all.
“Do you want to ask which trash can it was?” Maynard asked, his kind brown eyes almost apologetic as he took in my frustration.
A bad feeling washed over me. “Which trash can…?”
“It was the trash can right outside the corner store where several witnesses saw you.”
Oh, shit. That didn’t sound good at all. I needed at least one of these guys on my side. I ran a hand over my face. “You’ve got to be kidding me. How could I have made both of them disappear and still be sitting right here? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Not even a little bit.” Hobbs agreed, grim-faced. “When’s the last time you saw her?”
God, I wanted to kick the table leg. They kept asking me the same questions over and over again. “I already told you I put her in an Uber to the hotel…”
“That would be after the shouting match with your girlfriend?” Hobbs questioned.
“Yes,” I said, trying not to let him bother me. “I sent Sara enough cash to stay in a hotel for a couple of nights and get a plane ticket home. I… I thought she’d be enjoying herself downtown somewhere.”
“So, you don’t know even know if she ever went to that hotel?”
“No.” My shoulders dropped. Then I thought of something.
“Wait, just ask the Uber driver.” I reached for my phone.
“I’ve got his information right here…” I touched every pocket before I remembered they had my phone.
I hadn’t handed it over willingly, but I’d dropped it along with everything else when I’d realized something had happened to Cara. The police had picked it up.
And they weren’t eager to give it back.
“What was the Uber driver’s name?” Maynard asked.
“I… I have no idea,” I admitted.
“Right,” Hobbs sneered at me.
“Just check my phone,” I almost shouted, causing both of them to raise their eyebrows. “Please,” I forced myself to lower my voice and tried to make my tone respectful.
But the damage had been done.
“That’s quite a temper you have, Mr. Ashton,” Maynard said. He no longer looked like he might believe me. I closed my eyes and dropped my head in my hands.
This was a nightmare. I didn’t even know how long I’d been here. Had it been days?
How long had it been since someone took Cara?
And they were wasting all of their time and resources on me. I was their only suspect.
I felt like crying, I was so beside myself.
And that’s when an angel appeared.
There was a knock on the door and a woman stuck her head in. “His lawyer’s here,” she said, a look on her face that seemed almost like fear. “I tried to, um, delay but…”
“But that would be illegal,” Olivia Hargrave swept in shooting the woman a poisonous look. She was with a man I’d never seen before, “considering Edward requested an attorney.”
The two detectives interviewing me looked at each other and started whispering.
“Did he tell you he wanted a lawyer?” Maynard asked Hobbs, who shook his head.
They both turned to Olivia, frowning.
“Did he not? Oops. My bad,” she said, not sounding sorry at all. “Edward, do you want a lawyer?” she asked me before the detectives could get another word out.
I’d always thought it made you look guilty if you requested a lawyer, but I sensed Olivia might literally kill me if I said no. “Yes,” I said. She gave me a look and rolled her hand in the air, urging me on. “Uh… I want a lawyer,” I said, turning to Hobbs and Maynard again.
“Great. That’s settled.” Olivia said, looking much older in a skirt suit, hair pulled into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, and wearing thick-framed, tortoiseshell glasses.
She swooped in and took the seat next to me.
The man with her, in a suit and carrying a briefcase, looked mildly uncomfortable.
He pulled up the chair that Hobbs pushed in his direction and sat on the other side of me.
He was a handsome guy, tall and lean with bright blue eyes and reddish-brown hair.
“Who are you?” Hobbs asked Olivia.
She turned on him, green eyes full of fire. “I’m Olivia Hargrave,” she bit out. “My sister is missing, and you are wasting time on Edward Ashton when you could be going after the actual criminals. I want my sister home safe, and I want it to happen as soon as possible.”
Maynard and Hobbs both looked a little cowed.
Maynard was the first to speak. “You believe this man didn’t hurt your sister?” he gestured to me.
“I know he didn’t.” She turned her eyes on Hobbs. “I believe it was you I spoke with day before yesterday?”
I bit back a gasp. I’d been in here for almost two days?
He nodded.
“I told you then that I was on the phone with my sister when someone hurt her. I also told you I immediately called Edward to see what was happening. I was on the phone with him when he realized Cara was taken. There’s no way both things could have happened if he took my sister.”
“We have witnesses who saw the two of them fighting in the morning before your sister went missing in the evening,” Maynard said.
“Right.” Olivia pulled out her phone. “Take a look at this, please.” She set the phone up where we could all see it, then pressed play on a video she’d taken. “This is Cara’s neighbor from a few doors down,” she said. “This woman says she called the police to report that she saw who took Cara.”
Hobbs’ mouth dropped open a little as we watched the video.
Hope started to form somewhere deep inside me as I listened to the woman describe a medium-sized man wearing all black attack Cara and carry her away.
I got almost physically ill when she said the man appeared to hit Cara’s leg with a baseball bat.
Olivia and I exchanged worried glances at that information.
Then the neighbor described the car the guy took off in and said he had a driver. And finally, she said she’d seen me walking up to the townhouse a few minutes later. She also said I looked devastated.
Hobbs scoffed and nodded his head in my direction. “Car will probably match his,” he said.
I stared at the man. Had he not listened to me at all? “I don’t have a car here. I took an Uber from the airport this morning.”
Hobbs shrugged like that somehow didn’t matter.
Cara clicked the video off. “She said no one interviewed her.” She crossed her arms and looked at the detectives angrily.
“They were supposed to, ma’am,” Maynard said.
“That doesn’t help in this situation.” She opened her large leather purse, pulled out a fancy-looking notebook, and flipped it open in front of her.
Then she started asking questions. “Did Edward tell you about the night at the Hart estate where he felt as if they were trying to keep my sister from leaving? Or the ridiculously over the top flowers Monty Hart sent to a hotel room by tracking my sister’s phone?
What about the note Edward found on his car, the tracker in Cara’s tote, the incident with the stage lights, or the fact that Cara’s director was afraid for her safety?
Did he mention the missing electrician or the peephole drilled into my sister’s dressing room wall? ”
The detectives just stared at her. I’d told them all of this, but they’d acted like they didn’t believe a word I said.
“Did Edward tell you about a man associated with Nora Hart named Eric Hightower? He paid Sara MacAllister to get damning pictures with Edward. She was even told if she had sex with Edward she’d receive more money. Edward sent me this video.”
She turned her phone towards the officers again, and they watched as Sara’s familiar voice detailed what had happened.
Hobbs grinned without mirth. “Ah, but you see she doesn’t say the Hart family specifically. She just says a rich family from South Carolina, that she thinks might be the Harts.”
Olivia flipped her hand in the air like that didn’t matter. “Details. Did you know that Monty Hart was seen throwing food at my sister’s door this morning after admitting to Cara that his family hired a private investigator to investigate Edward?”
“Uh…” Hobbs appeared at a loss for words.
“Yes,” Maynard finally answered for the both of them.
“They said Sara’s missing…” I tried to tell her.