Page 46 of The Husband's Secret
“He said he had a bad feeling about the meeting—the one at his office the day of the explosion, I mean. His handler from the FBI, Chris or Clint, I can’t remember his name, had called an emergency meeting.”
“You knew he was working with the FBI?” Brenda was fairly sure that her blood pressure was going to make her brain explode.
“I did not,” Ginger insisted. “I’m just telling you what he told me. That surprised me too. Anyway, there was this guy with him that day. Some guy from the cartel—can you believe that? Poor Scott was involved with a freaking drug cartel. He said it was Jenner’s idea.”
Of course he did, Brenda mused. Poor Scott was never the cause of problems.
“Anyway,” she went on, “he didn’t want to go to the office because he knew his handler would be there and this cartel guy wouldn’t go away. But then the cartel guy demanded to see Tate, and Tate was at the office with the handler guy, who was pretending to be a new big-deal client.”
“Did he mention the name of the man from the cartel?” Ben asked.
Ginger shook her head. “I don’t think so, but honestly the story was so out there, and I was so shocked, I may not be remembering everything.”
“How did he get out before the explosion?” Brenda was ready for her to speed up the storytelling and get to the important parts.
“He said when they arrived at the office, the cartel guy saw the FBI guy and everything went crazy. Scott saw an opportunity in the middle of the fray to slip out.” Her eyes got bigger with every word. “So he rushed out the back door. He said he barely got out of the building before it exploded.”
“What about his partner?” Brenda demanded, appalled. “Did he not try to save him?” Given this new twist about the attorney, Brenda wasn’t sure she should have any sympathy for Tate Jenner. His wife was using the same attorney as the cartel. Since Carlisle had this impressive reputation, she supposed it could be coincidence. But no way was she automatically giving the woman that kind of grace.
“He didn’t because he was already dead,” Ginger told her. “The cartel guy shot Tate. Then he was grilling the FBI guy, which is the only reason Scott had a chance to run. The cartel guy shot at him when he ran, but Scott figured he wasn’t trying for a lethal shot since he was the only one left who knew all the accounts and passwords.”
Brenda shared a look with Ben. So maybe those numbers on the paper they had found were account numbers. But what about the passwords?
“You’re sure Scott said his partner was shot?” Ben pressed.
“Oh yeah. Scared the heck out of Scott. He knew he had to get out of there and that he couldn’t let them catch him under any circumstances.”
Even if it meant throwing his wife and child under the bus, Brenda mused. Another wave of fury washed over her—at the police as well as at Scott. She wanted to call Shelton and demand to know why he hadn’t mentioned the shooting to her. Because he had lied to her. Shelton had kept that from her, and God only knew what else.
“Do you know where Scott is now?” Brenda wanted to find him and punch him for leaving them in this horrific mess.
“No. That’s the weird part. I’ve called him over and over, and I’ve gone by all the places I could think of that he might go and he’s nowhere.”
And just like that they still had nothing. Nothing!
“About these recordings,” Ben said. “Did Scott record all his meetings?”
“Most, I think, but I can’t be sure of course.”
“Do you have access to the sessions you transcribed for him?”
“No. Once I dropped the documents into the hosting site, I deleted them. And my only access to the site is to drop off. I can’t retrieve anything.”
“Do you recall the name of the host site?”
“Sure. It’s YourBox.”
“Thank you. Any particular reason you were following us today?” Ben asked.
Brenda leaned a hip against the front fender. She would like to know the answer to that one as well. This whole thing was like a bad movie. Why hadn’t Scott come forward? If he really wanted to protect her and Janey, why not work with the police to stop this whole thing?
Because, she understood, he was only really concerned about protecting himself. She and Janey were afterthoughts. She glanced at Ben. Not that the Colby Agency could ever be considered anything but an amazing option. Still, it was the idea that Scott had waited until he was eyeball deep in trouble to consider his child and her mother.
“He gave me a message for you.” She turned to Brenda as she said this. “I came to your house Tuesday night to bring it to you, but someone was watching the house and I freaked. Then I came by Wednesday morning and there were cops everywhere. So I just went home and hid. But then I got to thinking about how Scott made me promise that I would see that you got the message, so I came to your house again today, but you were driving away. This time I followed you. When I saw you turn into the police department, I just waited. I knew you’d come out eventually.”
“What’s the message?” Brenda was ready to get this over with. Clearly this woman knew no more than they did about the cartel.
“Oh yeah.” Ginger poked her head back into the car and drew back with an envelope. She handed it to Brenda. “Scott sort of freaked out when he saw you at the airport. He was worried he was being watched, and, if he was, he thought they might think you were meeting him there. That’s why we gave you the slip. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to see you.”
