There were things Ben needed to know. Details she should have given him when she handed him the note. She’d opened the mental door to let him peek in but still kept him out. He hadn’t pushed because he was Ben, and because he likely thought he could either find what he needed or get it from Evan . . . or wait her out for a week or so. Either way, not talking might have led to this PI’s death and she couldn’t find a way to process that.

“Maddie, do you need a few minutes?” Sylvia asked.

No, because time wouldn’t make this easier to say. “Up until three years ago, I worked for the Edgmont Company in Winston-Salem. Commercial real estate development. Big projects, like shopping malls and university buildings.” She glanced at Connor. “It was one of those family businesses. Very insular. Handed down from their father to the two sons—Grant and Ned. I worked for Grant.”

Ben made notes but Connor just watched her. She looked for judgment but didn’t see any. Then again, he didn’t know what was coming. Or what pieces she’d held back.

“I started as an assistant and worked my way up really quickly during the five years I was there. Grant talked about me being like family. He and his wife—” She choked over the word and had to swallow a few times to start again. “Allison. That was his wife.”

Connor frowned. “Was?”

Maddie didn’t respond. Sticking to the timeline was the best way through, so she kept talking. Letting the rambling in her head flood out of her. “The company did well under their father but business exploded with Grant and Ned’s leadership. They kept the management team small. Made everyone feel special.”

“Including you,” Ben said.

Especially her. “They gave me more responsibility. Promoted me. I started doing some financial work for them. I didn’t have a background, but I took some classes on my own. It was all so new, and I had no idea if I would like accounting or be any good at it, so I didn’t tell them. It was a thing I did for me, but the more I learned, the more concerned I became about the company’s accounts.” She shook her head, lost in the memory of that moment when she put it all together. “Maybe I always knew because the accounts never added up right. There was money for jobs that didn’t exist. All this paperwork that didn’t match up with what I knew was really happening in terms of actual projects.”

“Were they laundering money?” Connor asked.