The Pawn

“Ok then,” Ashley clicked her tongue, trying to figure what Heather was thinking and coming up short. “Who should we ask if we don’t ask your uncle?”

Heather chuckled, bemused that they could both miss, to her, the most obvious answer. “Hannah.”

“What?” Ashley and Chloe cried in unison, eyes bugging from their sockets.

“You can’t be serious,” Chloe continued, shaking her head. “You can’t seriously think that Hannah has anything to do with this?”

“You’re just pissed that your dad had a thing for Hannah, and that Hannah told us about business that was going on with the company,” Ashley accused the dark-haired girl, half frowning in annoyance. “I admit she shouldn’t have said anything but it’s a bit of a leap to go from that to someone who is part of a conspiracy to overthrow your father from his own company.”

“Yeah, for one, Hannah talks very highly of Robert,” Chloe added, brightening as she remembered her conversation with Hannah that morning. “When I thought Robert might be behind Carlos’ arrest, she was very quick to tell me that Robert would never have anything to do with something as unethical as that.”

“Right, and trust me, like I trusted you with your dad,” Ashley said, reminding Heather of their discussion from the night before. “I know Hannah as well as you know your father, and there’s no way she’d be involved in something criminal like this. I mean, I know she can be mischievous, it runs in the family, but really, helping to oust your dad from his position? I’m just not seeing a reason why.”

“I dunno. Money?” Heather countered, smirking to herself at how Ashley and Chloe had finally found some common ground in defending Ashley’s sister. “And remember, even though you trusted me about my father, I still had to go and ask him if he was involved.”

“Now that you mention it, Hannah did tell me that she took part in an amateur night at a Strip Club for money. She went to great lengths to win…so, maybe she did need the money…” Chloe admitted, intentionally leaving out the fact that Hannah had bared her pussy to a room full of people for $1000. “But still, Hannah’s opinion of Robert is near godhood. It’d take a hell of a lot of money to convince her to sell him down the river I think.”

“Maybe. Or maybe Daniel offered her a position in the company in return for her cooperation. She is studying in business. What better job straight out of college than in one of the biggest companies in America,” Heather suggested, confident in her idea that they should talk to Hannah and willing to challenge every argument they threw at her. “Or maybe she’s just deflecting attention. No one would suspect the loyal intern.”

“Oh, come on,” Ashley threw up her arms, bringing them down on to the table with a loud slap. “That’s even more convoluted than Victoria thinking your dad set up Carlos Rivera. Give me one good reason why we should ask Hannah about this at all.”

“Because someone had to plant the **** on Lisa.”

Ashley and Chloe were silent, both, in their eagerness to speak to Hannah’s good character, forgetting that there was the missing puzzle piece of how the **** got into Lisa’s bag in the first place. Robert’s Vicodin had been stolen, or misplaced, and the same **** had been found in Lisa’s bag the next morning by the police. Someone had put those **** in that suitcase and called the police to frame the young, dark-haired Latina, and it wouldn’t have been Robert, since the proposal proved he had no motive for doing so.

“Look, I’m not saying that Hannah is the mastermind behind all of this. It’s possible than my uncle is the one pulling the strings, or someone we haven’t even thought of,” Heather appealed to their sense of reason, seeing that both girls could see some truth in what she was saying. “But whoever is behind this, it all started with those ****. If we eliminate Robert and we eliminate everyone at the cabin, then that only leaves one suspect.”

“What about the police?” Chloe asked quickly, ****. “They could be dirty.”

“No,” Ashley answered slowly, in thought, surprising Heather and Chloe as she switched sides. “It’s too much of a coincidence that Robert’s prescription went missing just as **** showed up in Lisa’s bag. Even if we go the very complicated way of saying someone stole the **** and gave them to the police to plant, the only one who could have stolen the **** was Hannah.”

“Ashley, not you too,” Chloe groaned, feeling the singular burden of defending her new lover. “You really think your own sister did this?”

“Hey just because you spent one night with my sister, don’t presume to know her better than I do,” Ashley shot back, narrowing her eyes at the redhead. “I don’t like this any more than you do, but facts are facts. And Heather’s right, I did ask her to speak to her father despite her objections. At the very least, I should be willing to do the same.”

“Not to mention, Hannah might not lie to you,” Heather noted, chuckling again at how quickly Ashley and Chloe were back at each other’s throats. “My uncle might think he can fool me, but if you directly ask Hannah, I have a feeling she’d be honest with you.”

“To be truthful, she might be franker with Chloe than anyone at the minute,” Ashley admitted reluctantly with a pout. “I had to practically beg her to tell me what was going on at Ravers Enterprise, but she told Chloe about the Silver Lake project without any prompting.”

“Who? Me? No way,” Chloe balked at the blonde’s suggestion. “I just spent the night with her and we agreed to take things slow and figure out what each other wanted. I’m not going to turn around from that and accuse her of betraying her own boss.”

“That’s what I thought,” Ashley said with a weary shrug. “Guess it’s up to me then. But what exactly is the plan here? Let’s say she is part of this conspiracy and she admits to doing something for someone else, say Daniel.” She looked pointedly at Heather. “Are you just going to go to your dad with this information? Even though I know that if she was involved it was wrong, I’d like to avoid Hannah getting arrested or anything like that.”

“It would be best if we could convince Hannah to confess everything to my dad,” Heather replied after considering it for a moment. “My dad will take care of her if she sells out whoever the puppet master is.”

“I still can’t believe we’re doing this,” Chloe said, slumping over the table.

“I know how you feel, Chloe, I felt the same way having to ask my dad about his involvement. But it was necessary. There’s no other way forward for us,” Heather assured and reassured her, reaching out and resting a sympathetic hand on the other girl’s shoulder. “All you can do is hope they’re innocent and there’s something we’re just not seeing, like my dad and the proposal.”

“Alright, quiet,” Ashley said as she whipped out her phone and found her sister in her list of contacts. “I’m going to set up the meet.”