“Any guess as to why mine was ten million and the others were only one?” asked Reed.
Selina gave a wry twist of her lips. “Neither of the others paid up. Maybe expenses were mounting.”
“You bet your ass we didn’t pay up,” muttered Trent.
“You should be flattered,” Gage directed his comment to Reed. “The guy obviously thinks you’re solvent.”
“Flattered isn’t exactly how I’m feeling.” He didn’t need this crap in his life. His life was plenty complicated enough.
“What about Marie Endicott’s murder?” Collin brought up the topic they’d avoided so far.
“I don’t like speculating about that,” said Trent.
Neither did Reed. But ignoring the possibility that the murder was tied up in the blackmail scheme wouldn’t change the facts, and it wouldn’t reduce the danger.
“The police aren’t ready to call it a murder,” said Selina. “But that missing security tape makes my hair stand on end. And I think we have to operate on the assumption that they’re connected.”
“That’s a pretty big assumption,” said Collin.
“Yeah? Well, I’m preparing for the worst-case scenario.” Then she turned to Trent. “I wonder. Did the blackmailer commit murder to set you up? Or did he target you after learning of the murder?”
“My guess would be that he’s opportunistic,” said Trent. “After the murder, he set me up.”
“Generally,” said Selina, “there are two reasons for a murder. Passion or greed.”
“The blackmailer is definitely greedy,” said Reed. “And if he operated on passion, we’d probably have another dead body, not more blackmail letters. He’s got to be ticked off at us.”
“Fair point,” Collin put in.
“But we don’t know anything for sure,” said Trent.
Trent was right. And Reed wasn’t in a position to take any chances. Three people in his building had been blackmailed and one was dead.
He slid the list back to Selina. “Hire as many people as you need. And put somebody on Elizabeth.” Then he paused and drew a breath. “But tell him to keep his distance. Nobody talks to my wife about the blackmail.” He glanced around the room to drive home his point.