“It’s not a guess. I remember the story now. A city politician is in jail. Others were implicated. A lot of powerful people started scrambling and pointing fingers.” Connor let out a long exhale. “And Ned died in prison while waiting for trial.”

“Not before he paid for someone to kill me so I couldn’t testify about what happened in the office that night.”

Ben put his pen down. “And that explains your time in WITSEC.”

“He hired a guy he knew who had worked on his car. Some people say the guy wanted more money and turned on Ned when he wouldn’t agree. Others say the guy was decent and only agreed so that he could go to the police and turn Ned in. The why didn’t matter to me. I was just grateful he talked.” The one piece of luck she was ever thankful for. “But Ned was desperate and a lying narcissist, and everyone believed he would try again.”

“But when he died in prison, the threat against you, conceivably, ended.”

Maddie understood Connor’s careful wording. The notes suggested someone out there still viewed her as a threat.

“Being in WITSEC is voluntary.” And suffocating. It filled her with fear and paranoia and she couldn’t live that way one more day. So when she got the out, she took it. “I left over the objections of Evan, the marshal assigned to my case.”

“Are you still in legal trouble?” Ben asked.

“No. When I answered the questions, that helped put the politician and another businessman in prison. Unlike Ned, they took a plea and my charges went away.”

Connor’s mouth dropped open. “Why in the world do you think it’s safe for you to go around without protection?”

“Most trial witnesses don’t get WITSEC protection. It was the breadth of the case that opened that option. Like you said, a lot of powerful people paid a price.”

“And some of them have the money to hire people to kill you.” Sylvia shook her head. “It’s called revenge.”

“They want revenge on the old me, Ellen Samuels, not Maddie Rhine. Ellen is gone.” That was the price she paid for not calling out the problems she saw sooner.

“You can’t believe that.” The edge to Connor’s tone mirrored the disbelief on his face. “Someone is sending you threatening notes and a PI was here looking for you or following you.”

She couldn’t do this.

“Okay, enough.” She stood up so quickly that she knocked her chair over. It crashed against the hard floor. “I just laid it all out there. You all wanted to know, and now you do.”

The look of concern on Sylvia’s face spoke for the room. “Maddie . . .”

“I’m done with show-and-tell.”