“I don’t mind. I don’t have anything to hide,” said Sparks, but he sounded worried and Claire reached over to squeeze his rough hand.
“I’ll call Luke,” she said, and the older man swallowed and nodded.
“I don’t understand how this happened,” he said.
She wished there was a way to reassure him, but she imagined they’d all be answering more than a few questions before the ATF was finished.
“I’d like to get a statement from you as well, Ms. English.”
“Of course,” she said, not seeing any reason to say no. And if it got them any closer to finding out what happened to Pete, she’d do anything she could to cooperate. “Let me call Mr. Masters, and I will meet you at the station.”
Not waiting to see if it was okay with the detective, she turned and went outside, taking a deep breath of the cooler outside air and blinking against the sunlight. She walked to stand in the shadow of the building before taking out her phone to dial Luke’s number. His PA answered on the first ring.
“Hi Colin, it’s Claire. Is he available?”
“For you? Always. Hold on and I’ll connect you.”
“Sweetheart,” Luke answered a moment later.
Even hearing his deep commanding voice on the phone was enough to make Claire’s body respond, and she unconsciously held the phone tighter to her ear.
“Hey, we’ve got a problem on the jobsite. No one’s hurt,” she hurried to add thinking of the last time he’d gotten a call about trouble on the site.
“What is it?”
“The police were here. The found ammunition in some of the boxes of nails.” She heard him suck in his breath but kept going. “They’re taking Sparks in for questioning and they want me to come down to the station later.”
“No,” said Luke, his full focus behind the single word. “You do not go to the police station without me. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” She heard rustling that might have been him shrugging on his coat.
“I didn’t do anything. They aren’t accusing me of anything. It won’t hurt to talk to them.”
“I mean it, Claire. Not without me. Are you still at the site?”
“Yes,” she said, wondering why he was overreacting but at the same time secretly glad she didn’t have to deal with it alone.
“Wait there. I’ll pick you up.”
He disconnected the phone and Claire went inside to tell her crew where she was going and to see if she could snag a tamale for the road.
LUKE GUNNED THE Veyron, weaving through the city streets between his office and the jobsite. He gave a command and in a moment one of the many attorneys he had on retainer started talking through his Bluetooth wireless.
“Luke, what can I do to help?” asked Mason. He was a damned fine attorney and over the years he and Luke had developed something close to friendship.
“I’ve got trouble on the Ashton Court site and Claire is in the middle of it. The police were at the site, and they found some ammunition tucked away in boxes.”
“Fuck,” said Mason.
“Not what you want to hear from someone you pay as much money as I pay you,” said Luke.
“Sorry,” said the attorney. “But ammo means the ATF. They don’t play. Who’s Claire and how involved is she?”
“She’s the woman I’m seeing. She’s also the electrical contractor on the job.”
“Wait. Is this connected to the death of Mr. Lester?”
“Maybe. I don’t know yet.”
“You know my job would be easier if you were more risk averse. Where are you now?”
