Silas raises one eyebrow, while I just watch them in fascinated silence. “Want to know why Ben wanted you out?”
His question knocks Hank back in his seat as if Silas physically hit him.
Silas doesn’t wait for his answer. “Ben thought he could dirty you up. And he was hoping since you came from the DA’s office, you would know their weaknesses. Know which guys were on the take. The ones who could be swayed and used. He’d been relying on Foster for years but wantedsomeone who answered to him, not to Dad. So honestly, man, take it as a compliment he didn’t want you anymore. For me, it makes me feel better that you’re the one who has Camille’s back now instead of Ben.”
Speechless. Hank and I are both speechless.
“I’ll add one thing then we’ll get out of your hair,” Silas says as he stands up. “Ben didn’t get the amount of success he did, as fast as he did, without getting his hands very dirty and creating enemies along the way. You make sure Camille stays out of the detective’s crosshairs and I’ll make sure the promises Ben failed to keep don’t come looking for you.”
Hank is rigid next to me and I cover my hands with my face and groan.
Nightmare.
My absolute worst nightmare.
“Let’s go, Camille.”
Hank doesn’t say anything as we leave and I wait until I’m in the car with Silas before I lay into him.
“What in the hell was that? Why are you threatening Hank? He’s done nothing but try to help me!”
Silas is calm as he navigates through afternoon traffic. Too calm for what just happened in there. “He needs to know what he’s up against. There’s a mountain of shit he’s going to have to deal with if he takes over that firm. And he either needs to man up and handle it or get the hell out of there and let someone else take over.”
I sink back into the seat and close my eyes. “I can’t believe this is happening. That any of this is happening.”
“I should have told you the truth years ago. Maybe you wouldn’t have been stuck marrying that son of a bitch had you known. I may have owed Ben but you never did.”
“You pretty much got stuck with Margaret too, didn’t you?”
He leans his head back against the seat but doesn’t answer my question so I ask another one he probably doesn’t want to hear. “Will she be able to cover for you?”
He glances at me quickly then his eyes are back on the road. “I didn’t kill Ben.”
I don’t respond because I don’t know if I believe him.
“Camille, Foster didn’t just keep the video of what happened to Aubrey’s parents that night. He kept bits and pieces of every single thing Dad asked him to do starting before either of us was born. He’s been stockpiling evidence for years because he was afraid Dad was going to turn on him. And in his position, I would have done the same thing.”
“What? What are you saying?”
“When he got his diagnosis and knew he was going to die, Paul Granger wasn’t the only person he went to talk to. He basically went on tour, trying to make amends to people he felt he had wronged. He kept Dad’s name out of it for the most part, because while he was scared of dying, he was still scared of Dad too. But word got back to us anyway. And I went to see him.”
“What did he say?”
Silas rolls his eyes. “He pulled that bullshit you’d expect someone in his position to do. ‘The evidence is in a safe place and if anything happens to me, it will be released to the public. ’ ”
“Did you believe him?”
He shrugs. “Enough that I didn’t push too hard. We waited for months to see what he was going to do, but in the end, he never turned it over like he threatened, because he knew he’d lose his power the second he did. That’s why we’re all scrambling now that he’s dead, trying to figure out where he kept it.”
I bite my lip and decide to tell Silas the one part I left out from last Saturday. “Aubrey said there’s a video that shows the accident. That’s what Foster has. And Ben believed Foster kept everything in the gun safe at his house. Ben went as far as getting a replacement key made and he was planning to go to Foster’s house and get it the night he was killed.”
Silas pulls over to the side of the road and puts his truck in park. “There’s more you want to say. I can tell.”
“I saw where he put the key. If he died that early in the day, I don’t think he had a chance to go to Foster’s, so it may still be there.”
“Where is it?”
I describe what I saw through the camera I had set up. Finally, he asks, “Why didn’t you tell me this on Saturday when I saw you outside Chantilly’s?”
