Page 64 of The One for Forever

“How’s Foxy’s beach house? Beachy?”

I roll my eyes, though of course Sylvie can’t see me. “It is quite beachy, yes.”

“We’re having a great time,” Quinn adds. “Thanks to Rex, I’m feeling much better.”

That’s probably giving a lot away to a woman like Sylvie, who’s one of the shrewdest people I’ve ever met. Sylvie’s going to give me a hard time later. But I don’t mind. Not really. Not when Quinn looks so happy.

“I bet you are,” Sylvie says.

There will inevitably be questions and comments when word spreads that I’m dating a woman over twenty years younger. That’s an issue for another day, though.

“But I assume you called to find out what’s up with the search for your secret witness? Not just to share the good vibes?”

“You guessed it,” Quinn replies. “Please tell me you’ve got news.”

“As a matter of fact, I just met with my team. They’ve been trying to track down Pete Diamond.”

Quinn sits up excitedly. “Did they find him?”

Pete Diamond was the former chauffeur for Thompson and Amber Hayworth. Quinn thinks he could be the secret witness who contacted her and promised new evidence against Amber. The same witness who seemed to vanish into thin air.

“Yep. Christian Hayworth did send Pete to a set in Nevada a little over two weeks ago, but from there, Pete went AWOL. Apparently, nobody has seen him since. From what we’ve learned, he got a phone call and walked off the set without a word to anyone.”

Quinn taps her lip. “It’s been a little over two weeks since we texted with the secret witness at Bennett Security headquarters.”

“Exactly. I tried to track the burner phone the witness was using, and I was able to confirm he or she was in West Los Angeles during that initial conversation. But since then, that cell hasn’t pinged a single tower. The witness hasn’t turned it on.”

“Damn,” I say. “This would be easier if it had turned up in Nevada.”

Sylvie chuckles. “If only our targets would be more cooperative. But no, they rarely are. My team will keep trying to track Pete down. If we do, Quinn, what’s your preference? Do you want me to make contact, or would you rather I pass on his info to you?”

“Give it to me. If he’s the witness, then he spoke to me before. We have no idea why he decided not to follow through. Maybe it’s whatever danger he was talking about. The reasons he was staying anonymous in the first place. He might have gotten spooked. But if I could talk to him directly, I could convince him to turn over the evidence. In a way, this concussion bought us some more time before the trial. But it’s still coming up fast.”

“Got it,” Sylvie says. “Foxy, we’ll catch up later. See ya.” She ends the call.

Quinn turns in my lap to face me. “So it’s still possible Pete Diamond is my witness. And that Christian Hayworth knows Pete has something to hide. Maybe Christian sent him off to Nevada to keep him quiet. But I keep wonderingwhy?”

“Maybe this evidence doesn’t just incriminate Amber. It could be damaging or embarrassing to Christian. Or to the reputation of Thompson Hayworth or Hayworth Productions. His son would care about that.”

“Except Kendall Simms, Thompson’s assistant, told me that Christian doesn’t seem to care about his father’s legacy at all.”

“Give Sylvie a little more time. She’s just about as relentless as you are. She’ll use her hacker skills to sniff out Pete Diamond wherever he’s hiding. Then we can find out from him what’s going on.”

Quinn sighs.” I just hope we can make that happen before the trial. Lana’s counting on me. I’m getting more and more worried that our case won’t stand up in front of the jury without that missing piece. I just hope it really exists.”

And I hope that Quinn doesn’t put all the pressure to win this case on herself.

18

I’m disappointed by how little Sylvie’s team has found so far. I don’t blame her, of course. She’s working hard on this, and my problems aren’t the only ones Bennett Security has to deal with. I just feel like I’m not doing enough. I want to make some kind of progress toward finding the witness.

Maybe Angela De Luca has had more luck with ending the harassment campaign against me and the trial team.

Unfortunately, my call with her isn’t any more satisfying.

The suspect who attacked me at my office building continues to insist he was working alone. But he was able to make bail, and Angela is trying to find out who put up the money. The suspect earns minimum wage making pizza deliveries, so it’s doubtful he’s flush with extra cash. But that’s barely a lead. For all we know, the guy’s parents bailed him out, not some nefarious puppet master. Angela and West Oaks PD are no closer to finding out if Amber Printz or someone else is really behind these threats.

I’m left feeling tired out and frustrated. So much so that I don’t argue when Rex orders me to take a nap. For real this time.“Okay,” I say, “I’ll rest. But I don’t want to sleep through our day together. Wake me up after a few hours?”

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