Page 26

These lawyers knew who the doctor was. He’d been there when that senator captured her a couple of months ago, before the wedding. What else did they know?
This was like fighting a battle blindfolded.
Jax shifted and looked up at the balcony. Something up there was drawing his attention. “Couple of cops are here.”
Kenna spun to see but didn’t recognize either of the uniformed detectives. They weren’t any of the cops she’d met so far in this town. “I should check on Terri.”
“Huh?”
“The woman from Friday night. They took her to the hospital, but under arrest.” She lowered her voice so the receptionist, Taylor Newport—if that was really her name—couldn’t hear what she said. “If these lawyers want anything, they can agree to represent her in exchange.”
Why were there cops here?
This wasn’t a good sign. Especially not when the cops looked over the railing from the floor above and spotted them, then immediately moved toward the stairs. As if they’d been waiting for her.
Kenna’s phone rang in her pocket. “Why does this smell like a trap?”
She pushed off the reception counter, and her phone rang again. When she pulled it out, she saw it was Maizie calling. Kenna swiped the screen. “Give me a reason to ditch this meeting, Maze.”
“The doctor you saw yesterday, the one who ran those blood tests? She’s missing. So is the woman you and Bruce tussled with. The doctor never got home last night, and the other woman, the kids’ mother, literally vanished out of the hospital. They’re both gone.”
Chapter Eight
The doctor and the mother.
Both of them missing.
Kenna pulled a chair out and sank into it across the table from the two detectives, both men. The older one, with dark hair and a little gray on the sides, was Detective Orlando. The other was Detective Pendleton, who had blond hair and light eyes.
Kenna’s self-proclaimed lawyer, who’d introduced herself as Heather Pickett, sat beside her. She had brown hair, pulled back and pinned up, and blue eyes. Apparently, it didn’t matter that they’d never met. This woman was here to represent her. Or to ensure she didn’t reveal too much about what might very well be a resistance operation?
The lawyer’s motives weren’t clear.
So long as Kenna didn’t end up in jail for something, she was willing to compromise. Maybe.
The blond officer, Detective Pendleton, opened a notepad on the table in this sparse conference room with zero personality. Probably by design. He cleared his throat and asked her a few basic questions. Her name and date of birth and whether she had a valid private investigator license in Arizona, which she did now. “What brings you to Phoenix, Ms. Banbury?”
“I live here now.”
That made the two of them perk up.
She glanced between them. “What’s this about?”
Pendleton said, “I have two different police reports from the last few days with your name on them. Are you…working a case in Phoenix? Maybe something that the police should be aware of?”
“Something that would get a doctor and a patient mysteriously kidnapped?” Kenna wasn’t going to mention her own mysterious kidnapping—assuming that’s what had happened to her yesterday—at least, not at first. She might need the information to corroborate something she said to them, but likely it would only invite more questions.
Both of their eyebrows rose.
“I’d love to act surprised to hear that Doctor Nicola Santorini and…the mother of those abused children—I don’t know what her name is—have both gone missing, but the fact is my office assistant called me just a moment ago while I was in the lobby and informed me.”
“Because it’s relevant to your case?” Pendleton asked.
So far, her lawyer hadn’t intervened in anything Kenna said. Heather sat beside her, making notes in shorthand on a legal pad. At some point, she might cut Kenna off or advise her not to answer a question. Hopefully, before she incriminated herself. It was all a guessing game, though.
“I don’t currently have a case I’m working involving the doctor or that woman.” Kenna explained about Friday night and how she’d been paid by Terri Fleming to investigate her business partner, then discovered that Fleming had also been embezzling money from the business. “I had an appointment at the doctor’s office yesterday.”
“Regarding what?”