Page 16 of Fatal Betrayal

"Does Ms. Markham have something to do with your daughter's disappearance?" she asked.

"I just asked her that. She said no."

"And I'm not lying," Jillian put in. "I asked Neil to meet me early this morning, long before Elisa was taken and before you two showed up at my office." Her gaze moved to Neil. "Why didn't you text me and tell me you couldn't meet?"

"Because I wondered if you were involved," Neil returned.

Jillian appeared devastated by his words. "Neil. Come on. It's me. I would never do something like that."

"I don’t know you anymore, Jillian. You're trying to destroy my company."

"I'm trying to make sure Larry can't hurt anyone else. You have been unwilling to act, so I wanted to tell you I'm tracking down former employees who had problems with Larry. This will go bad for him, Neil, and if you don't put some distance between yourself and Larry, you'll get caught up in it, too. There's still time for you to make it right, to confront him, to denounce his actions, to end your partnership with him."

Neil ran a hand through his hair. "I can't do this right now. All I can think about is Elisa." He looked back at Andi. "Why are you here again?"

"We followed Ms. Markham from her office."

"Why? Because of her accusations against Larry?"

She preferred not to give the family too much information, especially info that hadn't been vetted and put into context. But she also wanted to see how he would react, because there was a part of her that wasn't buying his story.

Why wouldn't he have texted Jillian and told her he couldn't meet because his daughter had been kidnapped?Dealing with his office problems should have been the last thing on his mind.

"Ms. Markham's car was spotted on your block this morning during the time in which Elisa disappeared," she said.

Surprise ran through his gaze, dropping his jaw. He looked at Jillian again. "Why were you at my house?"

"I wasn't at your house. I went to see Michelle."

"Why the hell would you do that?" He shook his head. "Never mind, I don't want to know. I don’t care about any of that right now. I have to get back to Claire." His gaze returned to Andi. "I haven't heard anything from the kidnappers. It's been a couple of hours. What's taking so long?"

"I don't know. But you should go home and wait there."

"I'm doing that now." He gave Jillian a quick look and then headed out of the café.

"Are you following me?" Jillian asked. "Am I under surveillance or something?" She got to her feet. "I have to go back to work. Unless you're going to arrest me?"

"Not yet," she said.

Jillian shivered at her words and then walked away.

"You can still scare people," Cooper commented.

"Still? I don't think I was a scary kid."

"You definitely had some scary ideas. What do you think about Neil and Jillian meeting up?"

"I'm confused."

"Me, too," he muttered, a frown on his face.

Cooper had the puzzled look he'd always had when things didn't add up. Like her, once he started a puzzle, he didn't want to quit.

She pressed one hand to her head as a headache pressed at her temple. Things were moving fast, but she wasn't operating on a lot of sleep. "I need coffee."

"You look like you do," he commented, his sharp gaze sweeping her face.

She wondered what he saw when he looked at her, because every time she looked at him, she noticed something different, some detail that hadn't been there before, like the white scar that ran across the bridge of his nose.