“Yes. Thanks. Welcome to my home.”
The handshake was flimsy and over rather quickly; it certainly didn’t make her feel welcome. “Thank you,” Jules said politely.
“The reason I’m here, Mom, is to ask you some questions. And the reason I brought Jules with me is because she has a few questions to ask you, too.”
Confusion lit Sandra Timmons’s eyes. “Questions? I don’t understand.”
“Jules is a private investigator, who has reopened Sylvia Granger’s murder case.”
Jules watched the flash of shock that appeared in Mrs. Timmons’s eyes. It appeared so quickly that anyone not watching her closely would have missed it.
“Reopen the case? B–but why?”
Jules thought she would be the best person to answer that. “Because I don’t believe Sheppard Granger killed his wife, and I intend to prove it.”
The woman was speechless, that was pretty obvious. And it took her a few seconds to recover. With a stiffened spine, she said, “Evidently, you also believe in fairy tales, Ms. Bradford, because everyone knows the truth. Sheppard killed Sylvia.”
“Really? And you know this how? Were you there, Ms. Timmons?” Jules asked curtly.
The ice that suddenly formed in Sandra Timmons’s eyes was like a glacier. “No, I was not there, Ms. Bradford, but Sylvia was one of my closest friends, and she confided in me about some...personal things. I knew just how mean Shep had been to her, accusing her of god-awful things and believing everything that their housekeeper was telling him.”
Jules opened her mouth to speak, but Shiloh beat her to the punch. “If you and Sylvia Granger were such close friends, Mom, how is it that the two of you were having an affair with the same man?”
*
Dalton walked into the conference room to find his brothers, Shana and Bruce already seated around the conference table. “What’s this meeting about?” he asked, sliding into the first available seat.
Jace rubbed the back of his neck. “Not sure. Shana got a call from Marcel, and he asked that we meet him here.”
“I thought we decided not to discuss any business here at Granger since it seems that even the paper clips have ears,” Dalton said, picking up a paper clip that lay on the table and analyzing it.
“Marcel asked Bruce to use his magic scanner to double-check and make sure this room is bug-free,” Shana said, grinning.
Dalton glanced over at Bruce. “Hey, man, the Feds need to put you on their payroll.”
Bruce chuckled. “I’m on Shana’s and Jules’s payrolls, and that’s good enough for me. Besides, you know how the government is these days. Like everyone else, they are trying to do more with less. I don’t mind helping out my country.”
“And speaking of Jules...” Caden said.
Dalton was expecting questions, but wasn’t about to give any answers. “Mind your own business, Caden,” he said in a firm voice.
“Why? You never do,” was Caden’s quick comeback.
Jace thought he would have to intervene when there was a knock on the door. “Come in.”
Marcel entered. “Glad all of you were able to make it at such short notice. Thank you,” he said, sitting down. “For the past week or so, my team and I have been doing extensive background checks on everyone in the accounting and computer technology departments. This morning, I got around to interviewing Ramona Oakley, the young woman whose computer was infected with that spyware.”
“How did that go?” Shana asked, taking a sip of water.
“It was pretty interesting. I think we might be on to something.”
“What?” Jace asked, the intensity of his gaze showing he was on full alert.
“This,” Marcel said, placing the headphones he’d confiscated earlier from Ramona Oakley in the middle of the table.
Caden lifted a brow. “Headphones?”