Deceptive Truth: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 4) by Olivia Jaymes (reading women .txt) 📕

"I feel like an animal in the zoo," Jenna said as they walked through the busy office.

Knox had the same feeling. All the activity had come to a halt and the room was hushed, several sets of eyes watching them intently. He wondered if they had many visitors or if they knew exactly why he was here.

They settled around the oval table and Knox didn't waste any time. There were two males and two females, all them somewhere between twenty-five and forty. In fact, from what he'd seen in the office, the demographics definitely skewed young. Not a gray hair in sight.

"I have some questions about Lori Waters," he began, placing his phone on the table between them. "Are you okay with me recording this? I have a terrible memory."

He didn't but he wanted to be able to remember their conversations in detail. He'd neglected to do the same at the coffee shop as the place had been loud and they'd had more than a few disruptions. The conference room, on the other hand, was quiet.

"How about we start with the other co-workers here? I'm told that there was someone that had an interest in Lori, but maybe she didn't return their feelings. Does any of this sound familiar?"

A woman, possibly the youngest in the group, raised her hand shyly. "I think I know who you are referring to."

"Good. Go ahead."

She looked at her co-workers before continuing. "We've all been feeling guilty. We feel like we should have said something before now, but we didn't want to get anyone in trouble."

Jenna stiffened in the chair next to him. He could almost feel her holding her breath.

"You won't get anyone in trouble if they haven't done anything," he assured the young woman. "What's your name, by the way?"

Her cheeks turned pink and she giggled. "Oops, sorry. I'm Sherry. Sherry Lytell."

"Okay, Sherry. How long have you worked here? Did you work closely with Lori?"

"I've been here three years and Lori and I shared an office for over a year before she went to remote work."

Bingo. Sherry might have been privy to private conversation the Lori would have had on the phone. Knox's own co-workers knew a hell of a lot about his own personal life just because they sat a few feet away. It was inevitable.

"So go ahead and tell your story," he urged. "I'll try not to interrupt you but I may have a few questions as we go along, okay?"

She nodded and once again glanced at her teammates. "Okay, here goes. We all noticed it. We should have said something before now but we didn't want to get Brett in trouble or anything. He’s a nice person."

"Brett works here?" Knox asked.

"He used to," Sherry said. "He doesn't anymore."

"He works at a local law firm now. He's an accountant," one of the men said. "He's still friends with Sam, though."

"Sam works here?" Knox asked.

"Yes," Sherry said. "He still works in accounting."

They'd need to talk to Sam too. Knox quickly glanced over at Jenna to see her expression. Did the names ring any bells? Had Lori ever mentioned her former co-worker?

"So tell me about Brett and Lori."

Michelle had been correct. The co-worker's name did start with a B.

"It was clear that he had a crush on Lori," Sherry replied. "He'd sort of follow her around and he'd get this really weird look on his face whenever she was in the same room. Whenever he would grab a coffee in the break room, he'd make one for her too. But he didn't for any of the rest of us. When he'd get lunch, he'd always bring something back for her. Like a slice of cake or donut or something. He'd hang around her desk and there were a few times that she'd find little gifts there. We're sure they were from Brett because he'd ask her all sorts of questions about them, but mostly he wanted to be sure that she liked them."

One of the men who looked to be the oldest in the group leaned forward. "I actually pulled Brett aside once and told him that he should back off. Lori had a boyfriend. I told him that it was disrespectful, but he said I didn’t understand."

"Did Lori realize that it was Brett?" Knox asked. "Did she ever talk to him about it?"

Sherry nodded her head. "She knew, but she ignored it. She said it would all blow over and he'd find someone else."

"Did he?"

"We don't know," the other man said. "He quit a few weeks after Lori disappeared."

"That's not suspicious at all," Jenna muttered under her breath.

Knox was happy to see that she was open to other suspects than his brother Cal. Speaking of which...

"Did you ever meet her boyfriend Cal?"

They all nodded but Sherry appeared to be the spokesperson for the group.

"We did. He was...okay."

Normally, people adored Cal. At least until they really got to know him.

"You don't seem all that enthused by him. Care to elaborate?"

Sherry shrugged. "He was fine. Friendly. But we could hear her on the phone with him and they argued a lot. When we'd all go out for drinks after work, he'd find reasons to join us. He was sort of a know-it-all, and really possessive with Lori. It was kind of cringeworthy, to be honest."

Knox couldn't stop himself from asking, "Did you meet Cal before or after you heard Lori arguing with him on the phone?"

"After. I guess you could say we already had a bad impression of him before we met him. Maybe we weren't all that fair to him. To her credit, Lori never said anything bad