“Partially.”
Interesting. She could have lied and said that’s all it was. “Want to talk about the non-work stuff?”
“No.”
He chuckled. “Right. OK.”
She sighed, the sound loud in the quiet of the night. “I didn’t mean it as a slight. I barely know you, and I’ve only spoken to my best friend about it.”
He was doubly intrigued now, but all he said was, “Tell me about your best friend.”
A pause and when she spoke, her voice held warmth and affection. “Ceiveon has been my bestie since university. We had rooms opposite each other and connected immediately. She got me into jogging.”
“You must miss her.”
Penelope nodded. “We call each other regularly. She’s been pretty busy with a newborn. She was the one who encouraged me to take this job.”
“Does she live nearby?”
“Perth. She believed I’d like the work up here.”
They were close to the marina now and Sam let Penelope choose which roads to go down. She knew the town better than he did.
“What were your impressions of those guys today?” she asked.
Sam glanced at her. It wasn’t a question he’d been expecting. “In what way?”
“How would you categorise them? Why would they do what they did?”
Her tone was cautious, as if she was fishing for information. “Expensive boat suggests wealth,” he said. “Perhaps used to getting their own way and don’t think normal rules apply to them.”
“And the gun?”
He was impressed by her intuition. “Could be a show of power, a status symbol.” But the man on the boat had been comfortable with it, knew how to hide it away at a moment’s notice. He wanted to be honest with her about it. “But probably not.”
“Why not?”
“What did he do when you first approached?”
“He didn’t answer my radio call. He came out only when I came closer.”
Assuming Grant had the radio on, he knew who was approaching and he’d come out with a gun in his shorts. That was one hell of a red flag.
She glanced at him and in the glow of the overhead streetlight he saw her hesitation.
“What do you want to ask me?”
“Do you know what happened to Matt a couple of weeks ago?”
Georgie had mentioned Penelope had been there when she’d received the kidnapper’s call. “He was abducted.”
“Do you know why?”
He nodded. “Do you?”
“No. Georgie said they’d been having issues with someone, and Dot wouldn’t tell me a damn thing. It had something to do with animal smuggling.” She looked at him for confirmation.
It was a lot more, but it wasn’t his place to tell her. “Something like that.”
