My stomach gave a flutter at Sam’s dig. “Sam, I don’t have time to get into it with you today. How did you get my ID badge to get in the building?”
“Again, I don’t know what you’re talking about. The Everett guy gave me a badge to get in.”
A young couple jogged past me. I lowered my voice. “Jonathan gave you my security badge?”
“I don’t know. He gave me a badge with the name ‘Littlejohn’ on it.”
“How do you even know Jonathan?” I could feel my heart start to speed up.
“We have some mutual friends.”
“One of your gambling buddies?”
“I told you, Juice hooked me up, a friend of a friend. Hey, you’re the one who told me to get a real job,” Sam pointed out.
I wanted to reach through the phone and throttle him. “Who’s the guy you’re tailing? Was it the guy in the pictures on your cell phone? You know the man in that picture was working with my boss and now—”
“Wait a minute. So you were in my house? Going through my phone. I knew someone had been in there! What the hell, Ellie? You’re too damn tight to lend me a few bucks, but you feel entitled to go rifling through my house? By the way, you left my door unlocked. And where’s my cell phone?”
I took a deep breath and tried to speak slowly, trying to de-escalate things between us. “Sam, I didn’t take your phone. Someone else was in your house when I was there. Whoever it was took your phone. And before they left, they cracked me over the head, too.”
“What? Somebody hurt you?”
“I’m fine. Listen to me, the police are looking for you. We have to figure this thing out. We can go to the police together and clear this up. I can tell them—”
“Are you nuts?!” Sam hesitated for a beat. “I’m still on probation. I can’t just go waltzing into a police station to tell them I work for a guy who’s involved in a murder. Besides, I didn’t do anything. And I’m surprised at your sudden interest in helping the police.”
Crap! I’d forgotten about his probation. “Okay. Let me think. Maybe we—”
“Oh, wait a minute. I see. Did you have something to do with your boss getting killed? You want me to clear things up for you. Now I see what’s going on.”
“Sam, this is not a game.”
“Here we go again. Let’s figure out what’s best for Ellie first. Everybody else line up in the rear. It’s Chillicothe all over again, huh?”
I was floored. Here I was trying to protect him this entire time and now he was turning on me? “Sam, this has nothing to do with me and everything to do with you. I told you the police have you on security footage entering the building.”
“That doesn’t mean I killed anybody,” Sam stated calmly.
“That guy in the picture, on your phone, is a lawyer. His family has reported him missing.”
Sam was quiet for a moment. “Missing?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. You’ve been trailing him. Where is he?” I stopped pacing. “Sam, stop and think for a minute. One of your sketch friends introduces you to a corporate executive who hires you to trail someone. We have an entire security department who could do that. That guy he hired you to trail is a lawyer that my boss was working with. Now my boss is dead and the man you’ve been following is missing. Maybe Jonathan is trying to frame you. Have you thought about that?”
“The last time I saw that guy was yesterday and he was fine. I didn’t kill anybody, Ellie.” His voice was softer and, for a minute, I detected a bit of fear in it, too.
The phone went silent.
“I know you didn’t. Trust me. Let’s just figure this thing out. Maybe we can go to the police and explain everything. Okay? Sam . . . you there?”
“Yeah. Look I gotta go.”
“Wait.” I paused for a beat, remorseful that I’d started another argument with him. “I noticed you’re selling the house? And you changed the locks on your door.”
“Yeah, I’m trying to keep the bad element out. So much for that, huh?”
I ignored Sam’s second dig. “Your fridge looked pretty bare and the TV is gone . . . Did you pawn it?”
“Whatever.”
“I’m sorry. Let me help.” The hard sting of tears pricked at the corner of my eyes. “Let me give you the money. Come by my house. I’ll give you the money and we can go to the police station together.”