Page 97 of The Lie Maker

“Good evening, Mr.Gartner. By any chance are you, or someone you’ve hired, hunting for Michael Donohue and planning to kill him?”

Clearly, not a productive approach.

She concluded she had to go at this not as Jack’s girlfriend, but as the reporter she was, looking to write a story. A follow-up to his father’s murder. The man who’d ordered it had recently died from the coronavirus. Did Galen Frohm’s death have any emotional impact? Had justice finally arrived, but in the most unexpected way?

That could work. She’d start that way and see where things went. Lana didn’t expect the man to confess to anything, but she might be able to discern something from his tone, from how he reacted to her questions. She picked up the cell, entered the number. One ring, then two, then three, and then—

“Hello?”

A woman’s voice. A young woman’s voice.

“Hello,” Lana said. “Could I speak to Kyle Gartner, please?”

“He’s not here. Can I take a message?”

“Who am I speaking to?”

“This is his daughter, Cherie.”

“Hi, Cherie. My name is Lana Wilshire. I’m with the Boston Star, working on a story, and I was looking for a comment from your father.”

“What kind of story?” she asked.

“That’s something I would want to discuss with him.”

“Well, like I said, he’s not here.”

“When are you expecting him to return?”

Cherie was slow to reply. “I’m not really sure.”

“What if I called back in an hour?”

“He won’t be here then, either.”

From a distance, Lana heard someone ask, “Who is it?”

“Someone for Dad,” Cherie said, her voice fading as she turned away from the phone.

“Take a message,” instructed the other person, who Lana was guessing was the girl’s mother.

“Can I take a message?” she asked Lana.

“Do you have a number where I can reach him?”

“Uh, well... I don’t know the number of the hotel.”

“So he’s out of town?”

“Yeah.”

“I feel it would be a disservice to your father to not include a comment from him in this story.”

That did the trick. Cherie provided a cell phone number. Lana typed it with one finger onto her computer screen, thanked Kyle Gartner’s daughter, and ended the call.

She entered the new number within seconds. She wanted to catch him before the daughter phoned or texted to warn him some reporter was looking for him.

The phone rang four times before someone picked up.