A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [119]
“Griffin Hayes? I’m Brian Lawson,” he said, extending his hand and getting what he expected. A firm handshake.
“Glad to meet you, Brian. I think we have a few things we need to discuss,” Griffin said as he preceded Brian into his office.
“Do we?”
“Yes. What I’m about to tell you will change your life, believe me.”
It didn’t take Griffin long to determine he liked Brian. Not only had he taken the news of Karen Sanders’s sabotage well, he was able to add some further details, thanks to his own investigation.
“So to answer your question, Griffin,” Brian was saying, “there is no doubt in my mind Karen Sanders is behind it and I think Matt figured out how it was done. She has someone working behind the scenes for her, a P.I. from New York by the name of Jaye Pittman.”
“Jaye?”
Brian raised a brow. “I take it you know him?”
“Yes. He was born and raised in Hattersville and in fact he’s related to Karen. He was an attorney at one time but after a few years decided to become a private investigator. I went to school with him and he always seemed rather strange then.”
“Well, it seems he’s the one behind the setup at my place and he used Donna Hardy to carry out his plan, which ultimately was orchestrated by Karen.”
Griffin nodded. “According to April, Karen led Erica to believe she was visiting a friend in Wyoming, and Erica told her mother she was going to visit with April in L.A. Karen was so sure that was a lie and Erica was coming to see you that she caught a plane to L.A. and then met with April and convinced her we were siblings.”
At that moment the buzzer on Brian’s desk sounded and he answered. It was security again. “Yes?”
“Mr. Matt Seacrest is here to see you, sir.”
“Send him on up.”
Brian then glanced over at Griffin. “Matt has been out of town checking up on some lead. I wasn’t expecting him back for a day or so.”
At the knock on the door, Brian called out, “Come on in, Matt.”
Moments later introductions had been made and Brian could tell from Matt’s expression that whatever he’d discovered wasn’t good. “What did you find out, Matt?”
Matt looked first at Brian, then at Griffin and again back at Brian. “I think this thing with Karen Sanders goes deeper than either of you can imagine.”
“In what way?” Griffin asked.
“I ran into Stacy Barnes while in Houston and she mentioned that someone contacted her trying to get some smut on you, Brian. She had the man’s number still in her phone, so I traced it back to Jaye Pittman. But that was back in June, a few weeks after her engagement party and before the shit hit the fan with your mother and Mr. Sanders.”
He paused a moment and drew in a deep breath. “This might seem crazy to you, but hear me out as to what I think, okay?”
Brian nodded. “Okay.”
Matt leaned forward in the chair. “I think that somehow this Jaye guy found out about your mother and Sanders’s affair and told Karen about it. I’m convinced she knew about it long before those pictures were sent through the phone.”
Brian stared at him for a moment and then said, “If what you’re saying is true, then all her so-called emotional trauma was nothing more than an act.”
Matt nodded. “I have every reason to believe that it was. And I even think she sent the pictures to herself and Erica, you and Wilson.”
At the shocked look on both Brian’s and Griffin’s faces he held up his hand. “Hear me out for a second and I’ll tell you why I think she did it. In fact I probably can prove it.
“Using the same procedures manufacturers use to recall a product, after I was able to determine the kind of phone those pictures were sent from, I did a search to find out what outlet stores were selling them. It’s one of those prepay models you can buy from just about anywhere, but most stores only sell particular brands.”
He paused to take something out of his jacket. “This is a list of all the ones purchased in Hattersville or surrounding areas thirty days before those pictures were sent. I was able to