It’s warm inside, so I take my suit jacket off and place it on the seat next to me. I should’ve gone to my apartment and changed, but that wasn’t an option because it was already late.
A call lights the screen.
“Hi,” I say in a clipped voice, putting him on speaker immediately.
“Can we talk?”
“Yes,” I say, setting my phone in the cradle and looking outside.
The street is draped in fog and flurries of snow swirl across the sidewalks.
“So… Our guy, Martin Jackson. He called Raven Wilson a while back.”
“A few weeks back.”
“Yes. In October. They didn’t talk.”
“He hung up on her.”
“Right. He probably snooped around. Followed a few leads. He has her phone number. Yes. And no, I don’t think he’s interested in her. He probably reported back to George Bach, who is not interested in Raven Wilson either, except for having his man break into her house when she’s not home. How is she, by the way?” he asks out of nowhere.
A shot of adrenaline spikes through my system.
“She’s, um… She’s well, I think.”
“You don’t sound too convinced.”
A smile lines his voice.
Grayson has never gotten into my personal business, so I don’t take his inquiry as an intrusion and feel compelled to answer.
“I think she’s home. And I hope she’s well.”
“Huh. Do you have something to do with how she is?”
I crack a smile.
“I might.”
“Does she know about this story?”
My smile dies out.
“No.”
I pause.
“I don’t think it would help her if she knew about it. Probably not,” I say.
“I see…”
He thinks about it for a moment.
“I gather you two are more than friends.”
I make no comment.
“Normally, you’d be right,” he continues. “It’s better if she doesn’t know. She might react strongly and jeopardize everything we’ve done to find the truth. If––and I say that knowing that it’s not my business––there’s more between the two of you… If you have feelings for this woman, there is nothing worse than breaking her trust by not telling her the truth. Most of the time, you can’t recover from something like that. No matter how she feels about you, there is something in a woman’s heart that once it’s broken can’t be mended.”