Page 24 of Hell Hath No Fury

“What kind of places?”

“Huh?”

“You said he planned to take the company places. What kind of places?”

“You know. Bigger developments. Fancier houses. More money flowing in.”

Matthias noted the foreman kept his tone even. No enthusiasm. No disapproval.

“And you got along well with him?” Fergusson asked.

“Yeah. We got along great.”

Matthias cleared his throat, drawing Fergusson’s attention and a raised eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Excuse me for interrupting,” Matthias said and turned to Winslow, “but I witnessed you having an argument with Jones yesterday morning.”

Fergusson raised a second eyebrow.

Winslow glared at Matthias. “All right, yes. We had a disagreement. Abusinessdisagreement. People who work closely together have them all the time. It doesn’t mean we didn’t work well together, because we did.” Winslow’s gaze skated from Matthias to Emma, who still stood on the road where Fran had been parked. “Now, you want to talk about a disagreement,” Winslow said to Fergusson, “you should ask that woman. This guy’s girlfriend. The two of them were here yesterday, and she was ready to choke Sonny. He was seriously pissed at her, too.”

“Oh?” Fergusson shot a glance at Matthias before coming back to Winslow. “Why was that?”

“She was reneging on a land deal to sell her property to North Star. Sonny had the sales agreement all ready for her to sign, and she backed out at the last minute.”

Fergusson faced Matthias, his arms crossed.

Matthias swore to himself. He’d told Emma to keep quiet, and here he was, giving the cops all the ammunition they needed to consider her a suspect. “She wasn’t reneging. She never said she’d sell. Jones was strong-arming her.”

“Really?” Fergusson had a light in his eyes—one that Matthias recognized and didn’t like. Not when it was aimed at Emma.

“That’s not the impression I had,” Winslow said.

Matthias glared at the foreman, who met his gaze with a smirk.

Fergusson raised a hand, silencing the foreman. To Matthias, he said, “You need to step back and let me finish questioning the victim’s employee alone, but don’t go anywhere. You and your girlfriend are next.”

* * *

Emma’s Nikon’s strap weighed heavy around her neck. She was giving serious thought to hiking down the hill to wait in Matthias’s Jeep when she saw him coming toward her. She didn’t like the anger brewing in his eyes. “What’s wrong?” she whispered once he was close.

“The foreman threw you under the bus.” Matthias winced. “And I may have helped.”

“What? How?”

She listened in stunned silence as he confessed to opening a proverbial can of worms by telling the trooper about the argument between Sonny Jones and Patrick Winslow… who then turned the tables by pointing the finger at Emma’s own heated disagreement with the developer.

“Now what?” she asked.

Matthias exhaled. “We wait here to be questioned.”

“We? Both of us?”

“Trooper Fergusson feels I withheld information.”

“You kinda did.”

“Yeah. I did.”