Page 49 of Nowhere to Hide
It took a few seconds of holding strong eye contact before the clerk ended up hitting a button on her headset.
“Sabrina, I have a police officer at the front desk asking for you… She won’t tell me what she wants… Okay.” The clerk hit a button again and spoke to Cindy. “You can go on up to the fifth floor. You can’t miss her desk. It’s right across from the elevator.”
“Thank you.”
“Uh-huh.” The phone rang on her desk. “Good afternoon, Hanson Property Development…”
Cindy found it amusing how the clerk transitioned from treating her with cool indifference to a lighter, chipper tone on the phone. She took the elevator and got off on the fifth level and came face to face with a woman in her early thirties sitting behind a desk.
She stood to greet Cindy. “I’m Sabrina Brown.”
“Officer Moore. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”
“Yes. My boss gave me permission to transfer the incoming calls to an automated system for now, but I need to stay at the desk in case someone comes up the elevator,” she added.
“I understand.”
“Has something happened to my husband?”
“No, it’s nothing like that, and I’m sorry if I worried you.” This was the second time in one day she’d let someone go there. She should have learned from before and got in front of it. “I am here about an urgent matter though.” Telling her lives were on the line might apply too much pressure. “You were Timothy Hanson’s personal secretary up to the time of his death, right?”
Sabrina dropped back into her chair. “I was.” It was as if both her body and voice had been zapped of all energy.
“What kind of a man was he?”
“I don’t think we should be talking about this.”
“And why is that?”
“What does any of it matter? He’s dead.”
“An investigation is underway in which his name came up.”
“I still don’t understand. It’s not like you can charge him and send him to prison. And how does a conversation about Timothy Hanson score as urgent?”
Cindy stiffened at Sabrina’s reaction.It’s not like you can charge him.There was only one reason Sabrina would go there. “You think he did something that was criminal?”
“Well, you must. I’m thinking that’s why you’re here. But I am somewhat lost in all this. He’s out of reach from the hands of justice.”
“The situation is complicated, but we need to piece his character together, what he was like, and then how it might relate to an open investigation.”
“Investigation,” Sabrina repeated slowly as if she were chewing on mud.
“I’ll put it more bluntly. There have been insinuations that Timothy was a womanizer, that he didn’t treat his female staff with proper respect. That he sometimes crossed the line…” Putting it mildly given what Lieutenant Coleman told her about Hilda Beal’s near rape.
Sabrina glanced away.
“Did he ever do that with you?”
Sabrina squared her shoulders. “Why does any of this matter? Do you think someone murdered him?”
The woman’s deflection made Cindy think Timothy had assaulted her while her question implied Timothy had people who would like to see him dead. “No, but if you know of anyone that had reason to…?” Talking to one of Timothy’s enemies could reveal something useful.
“Forget I said anything. It’s just whatever this is about, I want nothing to do with it. Besides, I can’t talk about Timothy Hanson, so if that’s all…”
Not exactly…Sabrina knew something damning, and Cindy was determined to get out of her what that was even if it took using her earlier words against her. “You’re right. He’s out of reach for the justice system, but it also means he can’t hurt you.”
Sabrina shook her head, and tears beaded in her eyes. “Oh, no, that’s still possible.”
