Chapter Twenty
Price was upset. He made that clear. Blake made it even clearer that she wasn’t going to lose her chance to get some answers.
“Listen, this isn’t my first rodeo,” she told him, swinging into the open car door. “I’m Sheriff Trouble remember? I should be able to handle talking to Mr. Grant senior.”
Price wasn’t so sure.
Just as he hadn’t been sure the first time she had told him she had received the call from Mr. Grant’s assistant that the meeting needed to be moved up or canceled until further notice.
“At least let me touch base with the sheriff first,” he said, not for the first time. “I gave him my word that I’d keep the house safe, and now part of that house is leaving by herself. Let me just call Darius and see if he can’t find him.”
Blake rolled her eyes.
“Listen, Price, I appreciate the concern. So much so that I’m going to skip over the fact that it feels like you need his permission to let me do what I want and instead ask you very sweetly to continue keeping my family safe.
” She motioned to the car. “This is the only thing I can do for my family right now—try to get some answers—so let me go before I’m late and the almighty Mr. Grant decides he doesn’t want to talk anymore. ”
Price looked like he wanted to keep arguing.
He also looked like he understood it was pointless.
Sheriff Trouble, who he had initially admired, had her mind made up.
And, what’s more, Lola had already backed her up once Blake had told her the entire truth about everything they had learned over the last week or so.
With two fierce women going against him, he had little room to do anything other than protest.
“Keep your phone on,” he finally said, relenting. “If anything feels off or weird, call immediately. And I’ll track the sheriff down while you do it. So don’t be surprised if he shows up grumpy that you left without him.”
“Understood.”
AND THAT WAS how Blake found herself alone at the steel mill.
Grayton Steel Mill was on the largest plot of commercial land that Seven Roads had to offer.
It was a collection of warehouses, offices, storage rooms and production lines that expanded such a distance that some workers used buggies to drive around from place to place.
The main office was the largest office buildings, mainly due to the cafeteria housed inside and the second floor corporate offices.
It was on that second floor that Mr. Grant was waiting for her.
Blake parked, made sure her phone’s ringer was on loud, and struck out across the parking lot.
As she walked, she hoped Liam was okay. She knew all too well how stressful the job could be, never mind when it came to a case that had personally touched you.
That was another reason Blake wanted to get this over with.
She wanted answers for herself, Beth and Missy.
She also wanted them for Liam.
He had been targeted, he had been hurt, and Blake didn’t want that to happen again.
Not to her man.
Her face heated a little at the last thought. It had sprung up so suddenly she didn’t know how to dissect it.
Thankfully, she was distracted away from it.
Someone was calling her name. Or, rather, an old name.
“Sheriff Bennet!”
Blake turned to see a surprising face running up to meet her.
“Theo?”
Theo was wearing coveralls and a name tag. He was smiling ear to ear.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. He made a show of looking behind her. “Is Liam with you? I heard about the shooting at the hospital, but he didn’t answer when I called.”
“He’s still there working, I think. I’m here to talk to Mr. Grant. We have an appointment. Why are you here?”
Theo tapped his name tag.
“I have a part-time job in the cafeteria. I usually work the weekend shifts. You caught me on my lunch break. I was just about to head out.” His smile brightened even more. “Here, I’ll take you up to his office. I’ve been there a few times before, delivering meals.”
Blake accepted the help simply because, of all of the places she had been in Seven Roads, Mr. Grant’s office had never been one of them.
“I didn’t even know Mr. Grant was in today,” he said as they walked. “He must have parked in the private lot behind the building. Him and his son are the only ones who really use that though. It floods something wicked when it rains.”
“So, his son, Elijah, does actually work a lot, huh?” she asked. “I heard he’s won over workers because he pulls his weight.”
They had entered the lobby, so Theo lowered his voice. Though his snort was easy to hear.
“He works, yeah, but Elijah Grant walks around this place like he’s some kind of god when his dad isn’t around. You should feel the vibe of the workers in the cafeteria when he’s nearby versus when he’s not. A total mood shift.”
He led them up some stairs to a second smaller lobby. There was no one behind the desk, but Theo went to check it anyway.
“Are you sure you’re supposed to meet Mr. Grant today?” he asked. “I know sometimes he’ll work during the weekend shifts, but it doesn’t look like Rhonda’s here. She’s his personal assistant. Do you have the time right?”
Blake was about to check her phone again when the door down the hall to their right opened.
The man was tall, wore a crisp business suit and didn’t skip a beat at the sight of them.
“Mr. Grant,” Theo said in greeting.
Mr. Grant?
He was all smiles as he walked over to them.
“Oh, sorry, I thought you had an appointment with Grant Senior,” Theo said. He didn’t bother to lower his voice. The man approaching laughed.
“I realized after the fact that my assistant might have confused you with that.” He looked to Blake and extended his hand. “You must be Blake Bennet. I’m Elijah Grant Junior. I’m the one who made the appointment with you since my father is out of town on business.”
Red flag.
It sprung up quickly.
Blake shook his hand with grace.
“Oh, that’s no problem. Maybe you can help me too. If you don’t mind, that is. I’m sure you’re a busy man.”
Elijah Grant.
Blake didn’t know much about him other than he was Mr. Grant’s only child.
Even though his father’s company employed half the town, he had never been one to fraternize in the social aspects of Seven Roads.
Elijah was a few years older than Blake, but she knew he hadn’t attended any of Seven Roads’s schools either.
She wasn’t even sure she had been in the same room with him in any of her thirty-five years of living.
Yet, she was good at reading people.
She had a strong feeling that Elijah wasn’t as nice as his smile.
But neither was Blake.
She turned to nod to Theo. The boy was looking between them with not-so-sure eyes. Blake tapped his hand in what she hoped was a casual way.
“Thanks for walking me here,” she said. “Make sure you give your dad a call and tell him you were kind enough to show me around. He’d be proud of your manners.”
Blake was, of course, talking about Liam.
While she was fine to go talk to Elijah in private, the change was enough to make her feel the need to update Liam.
She was still ready to handle herself, and even if she hadn’t been, leaving now might spook the man.
How and why, she wasn’t sure, but Blake did know that he had heard her request and accepted it instead of his father.
And that made her mighty curious.
Thankfully, Theo played his part cool.
“I’ll let him know,” he said. “I was just about to call him anyways since it’s my break. Y’all have a nice chat. I’ll be going now.”
She imagined if he had a hat, he would have tipped it to them.
He cast her a quick look, and she returned the gesture with her own little nod.
Elijah seemed wholly unaware of their secret exchange. He swept his hands in the direction of his office with a smile still hanging on his lips.
“This way.”
He wasn’t the CEO of the company and it showed.
Elijah’s office was only big enough to fit a desk, a love seat, and a coffee table.
His view wasn’t the greatest either. It faced the mill instead of the front view of trees and a nicer landscape of the town.
There was also the metal roof of the first floor that was right outside the window.
Storm debris and rust patches sat along its creases.
There was also a damp smell that met Blake’s nose as she was guided into the lone chair opposite his desk.
All in all, it didn’t seem to fit the man wearing a suit on a Sunday.
“Sorry again for the misunderstanding,” Elijah began.
“Rhonda, my father’s assistant, will contact me if there’s business after hours or on the weekends so as to give my dad some space.
When the request came in for you to talk to him, it came to me first. I felt like I was just as capable of answering, and, well, she said there sounded like there was some urgency there too. ”
Blake decided to play it sweet for a while. She upped her southern twang and made sure to smile nice.
“Well, I sure do appreciate you taking the time to see me, especially on the weekend and on such short notice. You must be plenty busy as it is.”
That seemed to stroke his ego just right.
His shoulders relaxed as he sat forward and domed his fingers together.
“I’m just happy to be of help. I heard you wanted to talk about your sister, Beth Bennet?”
Blake was curious as to how much Elijah actually knew of what happened. She watched his expression closely as she spoke.
“Yes. I recently heard that Beth had a fight with your father about the safety investigation she performed here on the Hector Martinez incident. I know it’s none of my business, especially if it was about work, but it happened to be the day she passed, and, well, I’ve been trying to get a better idea about my sister’s life leading up to her last days.
So I thought I’d ask your father what that fight might have been about, especially since it’s so unusual for Beth to get heated. ”
Elijah was as cool as a cucumber. No surprise.