Once Upon a Friendship
Receiving the loud and clear message that the subject was off-limits from the other man’s tone, Liam asked, “You don’t like me much, do you?”
The silence in the jail cell left too much room for thoughts that needed action. Like getting together with June Fryburg while his article was hot and finding out if she’d give him a chance to write about the Connelly case from his own perspective, even if his father wouldn’t cooperate.
In the meantime, talking would pass the time.
“I like you fine, Connelly,” Tanner said. “Now would you shut the hell up so I can listen to what’s going on down the hall?”
Neither of them was going to be there long, Liam was certain of that. As soon as Gabrielle got free and listened to her messages, she’d be there to bail them out.
His old man would drop the trespassing charges...this time.
But Liam had gotten his message, loud and clear.
He wasn’t going anywhere near Walter Connelly again. Ever.
But he would be going through Connelly’s files again, paying close attention to a timeline of everything George had done.
He had to know if George was in on the fraudulent investments with his father. If Buckus was. Or if the old man had acted alone.
He had to figure out a way to secure Greta’s future in the likely event she found herself out of work.
He had money in his trust. Nothing by his father’s standards. But if he invested well and started to earn substantially, he could possibly afford to take on a housekeeper. As long as she’d work for less than his father was paying her.
One thing was for certain. When it came to making money, to finances and investing, Liam knew a lot.
Because he’d learned from the best.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
AS SOON AS she heard Liam’s first voice mail, asking her to meet him at a particular city jail on a particular street, Gabrielle packed up for the day and ran for her car. In pencil-thin two-inch heels. She dialed his number on the way and hung up when it went straight to voice mail.
Luckily she didn’t trip and kill herself.
By the time she was buckled in, she had Marie up on the Bluetooth in her car—an inexpensive after-factory model that her brother had installed for her when she and Marie had driven to New Mexico to see her family two years before. “Are you with Liam?” Marie asked as soon as she picked up. “Oh, my gosh, Gabi, I just saw the news and...”
“It’s all over the news now?”
“Of course it is! Based on the footage I’m looking at there were at least thirty members of the press there when they took him away.”
Wait. What? Maybe she should have listened to Liam’s next two messages. She’d been too impatient with her voice mail system, needing her to choose whether to save or delete. His first message had said to meet him at the jail. She’d thought Walter had been arrested again.
“Who took who away?”
“Liam! He was arrested! Right outside of Connelly Investments! Elliott was, too! The news says that Walter Connelly had them arrested for trespassing!”
“You’ve got to be kidding...” Gabrielle wanted to cry. To scream. To rant at a mean and vindictive sixty-year-old man.
She wanted to be surprised.
But she wasn’t.
More than anything she wanted the man she loved out of jail. Immediately.
Loved. She hadn’t just thought that. Or rather, she had, but loved like... Marie loved him.
“I can’t believe he went down there,” she said now, pushing aside her personal feelings as she focused on the case. That was all that mattered at the moment.
The case. Who was guilty and who might be being framed.