“Hal Greenwood.”
“Yeah, him. I saw him threatening Danika. He had her cornered near her trailer, and he was practically on top of her, and she looked so scared as he was yelling at her.”
“What was he yelling at her about?”
“I couldn’t hear everything, but I did pick up a few things. Like how her career would be over if she claimed he had been inappropriate with her, stuff like that.”
That seemed to line up with everything Poppy knew about Greenwood at this point so she tended to believe Byron’s story.
“It made me so mad hearing him talk to Danika that way, I was ready to explode. I was just about to storm over there and rescue her, thinking maybe she would see me as some kind of hero, when a couple of crew members walked by and Hal backed off immediately so they wouldn’t see him intimidating her. Danika took that opportunity to slip away from him and run off. That’s when I decided to follow her to the gym, to make sure she was safe.”
That was a crock. It was obvious Byron was far more interested in getting Danika alone to profess his undying love than to check and make sure she was safe from Hal Greenwood. But that didn’t take away from what he saw.
The problem was Greenwood had an alibi on the day she was murdered.
However, she was not about to share this key piece of information with Byron. She was not going to risk setting him off.
“I know you are investigating Danika’s murder so I thought you’d want to know.”
“You should go now.”
“Please, just give me a ten-minute head start before you call the police. . . .”
“Get out of here, Byron.”
Byron nodded, then dashed away, across the street and into the darkness. Only then did Poppy breathe again. She had never been so scared in her life.
She contemplated calling the police, or waking Sam, but ultimately decided to do neither. She was reasonably certain Byron had not been the one to suffocate Danika, he seemed sincere. Hal, on the other hand, continued to haunt her. She knew intellectually that he could not have been Danika’s killer, but instinctively she suspected he was a lot more involved than he was letting on. He could have easily hired someone to do his dirty work for him.
No, Poppy was hardly done with Hal Greenwood.
Chapter 43
“You have some nerve showing up here!” Iris spit out, enraged.
“Iris, please, let the man speak,” Poppy implored.
Violet just sat on the couch, mouth agape, staring at Phil McKellan, who stood near the door to the garage office, eyes full of shame. Matt was on the couch beside Violet, his arm slung protectively around her. Wyatt sat at his desk, his head toggling back and forth between Phil and Iris, who appeared as if she was about to lunge at him like a cougar defending her cubs against a marauding grizzly bear.
“I have absolutely no interest in hearing what this man has to say,” Iris snorted, pointing an accusing finger at Phil. “Not after the disgraceful way he treated poor Violet!”
“You’re right,” Phil muttered. “I acted terribly.”
“Violet is a remarkable, beautiful woman who deserves better than to have some lying, unscrupulous, two-faced scoundrel stomping all over her emotions,” Iris bellowed.
Phil nodded his head sorrowfully. “I know, I know. . . .”
Everyone in the room, especially Violet, was surprised at the voraciousness of Iris’s defense of her friend, but they should not have been. Although Iris had a tendency to be outspoken and blunt, sometimes to the point of hurting someone’s feelings, she was a fiercely loyal friend and would never tolerate anyone else mistreating one of her own, especially someone she considered vulnerable and too trusting such as Violet.
“So turn around and walk out that door, and do not ever come back here again!” Iris insisted.
Phil held a brown string-tied folder in one hand as he nervously tapped it with his index finger. “I just need for you to see this.” He tossed the folder down on the coffee table in front of Violet and Matt.
“What is that?” Violet asked quietly.
“A dossier.”
“On what?” Matt asked.
“Hal Greenwood.”
“I don’t understand,” Poppy said.
Phil addressed Poppy but kept his eyes laser-focused on Violet. “First of all, I feel terrible about what went down with Violet. I admit, I went to that square dance at the senior center for the express purpose of meeting her and getting close to her so we could keep tabs on your agency and what you were up to. I saw it as just part of the job, my latest assignment . . .” His voice trailed off.
Violet stared down at the floor, unwilling to make eye contact with him. Matt slid in closer to her while still glaring at Phil, silently warning him to keep his distance.
“Mission accomplished,” Iris sneered. “Do you expect us to applaud you for a job well done?”
“What I didn’t expect was how much I would like her and enjoy spending time with her. I was conflicted. I couldn’t tell her who I was, and what I was doing, or I would have been fired, but I also didn’t want to mislead her so when the truth finally did come out she would think my feelings for her were not genuine.”
“Well, it is a little too late for that. The damage has been done,” Iris said, folding her arms. “Right, Violet?”
Violet ignored her. “What are you trying to say, Phil?”
“I was besotted from the moment I met you, and I am so deeply sorry for the pain I caused. In my own inept thinking, I believed that once my job was done, I could continue seeing you, and you would never have to know the truth about why we met.”
“If that’s true, why did you ghost her?” Matt asked.
“I had to, at least for a little while, I was being watched at the company, I couldn’t afford
