Page 51 of Out of Control

He answered, “We’re friends. We want to talk with you about Fayez Khoury. Or rather, his death.”

Lena’s eyes went wide with fright, and she shook her head, indicating she didn’t want to talk.

Spencer sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed beside her, subtly waving Drago back. What was he up to? Frowning, Drago nonetheless played along and faded back into the shadows.

“Do you speak English, Lena?” Spencer asked gently.

“Yes.”

“Thank goodness. My German isn’t that great.” Spencer smiled winningly. “You remind me of my little sister. She’s about your age.”

Spencer talked to her for several minutes, telling innocuous and silly stories about his little sister and all the crazy things she liked to do. How she liked to take risks and got herself into trouble that he had to bail her out of. Gradually, Lena relaxed and began to smile tentatively at him.

Eventually he said, “I want to help you, Lena. We just gave your friend Talia enough cash to leave Berlin and fly to anywhere in the world she’d like to go. Would you be interested in the same deal? You could go home, or you and Talia could go somewhere together.”

Doubt flashed immediately in the girl’s eyes, and Spencer held out his hand. Drago laid two thousand dollars’ worth of euros in his palm. Spencer showed Lena the money. “All I want is for you to tell me what happened the night Khoury died.”

“Are you his friends?” she asked warily.

Spencer snorted. “Hardly. My companion might have killed him that night if someone else hadn’t.”

“Good. He was a pig.”

Drago blinked at the venom in her voice.

Spencer smiled encouragingly at the girl, and she looked up at him trustingly. “Fayez came here every time he was in Berlin. He smelled and had bad teeth.”

“He’ll never bother you again,” Spencer said soothingly. “Just tell us about his murder.”

She continued, “A man came in while he was, umm, on top of me, and put a gun against the back of his head. He got out of the bed and they talked a little. And then the man shot him. Right there where the rug is now. It covers the bloodstain. The killer left through the door and ran down the hall. I crawled out from under the bed to see if Fayez was alive.” She shuddered. “He was not. After a minute or two, I heard someone coming and I rolled under the bed. Another man came into the room, stopped for a few seconds by Fayez, and then climbed out the window. I never got a good look at him from under the bed.”

“You’re sure it was two different men?” Spencer asked quickly.

“Yes. The man who shot Fayez looked like him. He had a black beard. The man who ran through had no beard.”

Jackpot.This was proof that he wasn’t the killer. Relief surged through him so hard it nearly knocked his knees out from under him. He actually grabbed the dresser beside him for support. When the worst of that first wave of holy-shit-I’m-gonna-faint had passed, he looked over at Spencer triumphantly… and fearfully.

Please, God. Believe her, Spence.

For his part, Spencer merely nodded briefly at him and turned his attention back to the girl.

What was that? A nod ofGot it. You didn’t kill Khoury? Or a nod ofOkay, I’m listening but not convinced yet?

Agony tore through him. Everything rode on this. His life. His career. His freedom. His future.Theirfuture—

Whoa. Full stop. Their future?

“What did Fayez and the shooter talk about?” Spencer was asking.

Drago yanked his attention back to the conversation at hand.

“I don’t know,” Lena answered. “I couldn’t understand.”

“Did they seem to know each other?”

“Yes. Fayez seemed very surprised to see the man. And he….”

“He what?” Spencer prompted.