Double Down (15 page)

“
No . . . I’m surprised you came back.”

“
Why?” He seemed genuinely puzzled.

I reached up to stroke his face. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping or working?”

He chuckled. “Probably, but I’d much rather be here with you. However, that
is
one of the reasons I left. I needed to check in, and I wanted to see if they had any new information.”

“
And did they?”

He patted my hand. “Nothing you need worry about.”

Anger flared. I jerked my hand away. “That’s really annoying.”

“
What . . .?

“
You might just as well have told me not to worry my pretty little head about it. I’m not some airhead you have to protect. This is my life. I’m not just going to sit back and hope you catch the guy.”

The smile was gone. He was glaring at me now. “What exactly are you planning to do?”

“
I intend to keep asking questions and investigating until I find out who did this . . . with or without your help.”

He stood, kicked the chair, and then paced up and down. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that would be? Why can’t you just let the police handle it?”

“
Because that bastard made me total my Saturn.” I realized that instead of being afraid, I was really, really angry.

All of a sudden, he started to laugh. “You’re not afraid of dying. You’re just mad because he made you wreck your car?”

“
I loved that car,” I insisted stubbornly.

He sat down again looking me in the eyes. “I’ll buy you a new car, a better one.”

“
No.”

“
Why not? I can afford it.”

I looked down. “Because when you get tired of me, I’ll feel obligated to give it back. I don’t want to have to cope with losing you and a car at the same time.”

H e looked surprised. “You’re anticipating that I’ll get tired of you?”

I nodded stiffly.

His brow furrowed when he said, “You don’t trust me to stick around, and you can’t trust the police to find this guy?”

I started to open my mouth to refute it, but I couldn’t. It was true. He was everything any woman would want. I was nothing special. I didn’t know why he was here now, but whatever the attraction; someday the novelty would wear off. Then if they hadn’t yet found the guy, it would be just one more cold case. I couldn’t live like that, looking over my shoulder, wondering who hated me that bad. So I said miserably, “I have trust issues. I can‘t just sit by and do nothing.”

He scowled. “Somebody hurt you really badly. If my primary concern wasn’t keeping you alive, I’d track down the bastard and beat him to a pulp.”

In spite of myself, I laughed at the picture that conjured up—Delgado beating up my ex-husband Neil. Something I’d wanted to do for years.

He took my hand again and said, “But for now we’ll just have to work through your ‘trust issues.’ You should know I couldn’t leave if I wanted to. I don’t seem to be able to stay away from you.” He paused for a moment, apparently coming to a decision. “I’ll tell you what the police know, if you promise not to take any action without telling me first.”

Nice try. I wasn’t giving in to that. “You’ll just refuse to let me do anything.”

He took his time and thought about it a minute. “No. I admit that would be my first impulse, but since I can’t stop you, I‘ll curb it. I just want to know what you’re up to, so I can have the opportunity to protect you if it goes badly.”

How could you not love someone who tried so hard to be honest? I leaned forward and kissed him, savoring the moment. “Thank you and I promise.”

He shook his head. “Don’t thank me. I’m already regretting it. What do you want to know?”

I opened the drawer on the tray table and got out the list Charlene and I worked on. “Did the police ever interview Danny?”

He raised one eyebrow when he saw the list. “No. We haven’t located him. No one admits to seeing him since the murder.”

I made a note. “Rose hasn’t talked to him lately either. She told me she heard he took a leave of absence from work and went to Mexico. Did the union rep, Jerry McCrae, have an alibi for the night Monica was murdered?”

“
He says he was at home. His wife confirms that he came home around eight o’clock and never left. We can confirm that he was at the union hall at a meeting until at least seven p.m. You left at six-thirty p.m. The cleaners came in at ten. If the wife is telling the truth, it may be just be possible he left the union hall, drove to the hotel, killed Monica, and arrived home at eight, but it’s an awfully tight schedule. There would have to be almost no traffic on the roads, and he had to be speeding. He is still a suspect, but not a strong one. He wasn’t at the Royal at all on Monday, so he wasn’t the one that slashed your brake line.”

“
What about Darryl?”

“
According to Mr. Collins, when he left the office, he went home to his wife, and then to a charity event at the MGM. According to your corporate security, he spent all afternoon with a cocktail waitress in a hotel room, and then went home to his wife and the charity event. His limo driver gave him a solid alibi for the time of Monica’s murder. He said he never left the MGM. On Monday, he left the Royal right after he spoke with you without going into the garage. He may be a jerk, but apparently not a murderer.”

“
When you interviewed Arnie, what did he have to say about why he met with Monica?”

I wondered for a second if he was going to answer. His eyes narrowed and the muscle in his jaw twitched.

“
After some persuasion, he admitted that Monica blackmailed him. She wouldn’t turn him in for sexual harassment if he paid her. He was thrilled when he heard she was dead, until he saw you talking to his boss. He thought if he threatened you, maybe you wouldn’t pick up where she left off. According to him, Monica told him you were in on the deal.”

“
You’re kidding. Well, that would explain why someone searched my house.” I would love to know what kind of persuasion Delgado had used, but I knew he wouldn’t tell me. I’d have to ask Brian. Better yet, I would get Mom to ask him. “Could Arnie have tampered with my car?”

“
It’s possible. He was working that day. But then so was Martin Sanders.”

“
Why did Martin meet with Monica?”

“
He swears he never met with her, that he didn’t know her, and this is all part of your plot to discredit him. Now you know everything we know. Can we talk about something else?”

“
Sure. What do you want to talk about?”

“
I talked to the nurses. They told me that the doctor is releasing you in the morning. I know I’m being slightly overprotective, but would you at least consider not going home? I’d rather you weren’t alone.”

Since he asked so nicely without even a hint of a command, I gave him my best come-hither look and said, “You could always come home with me.”

He reached up. His hand stroked my face. “As tempting as that sounds, I do have to go back to work.”

“
All right, just to prove to you that I can be reasonable, I’ll stay with my Mom for a couple of days, if you agree to meet certain conditions.”

His eyes narrowed. “What conditions?”

“
One that you agree to keep me informed on the investigation and two that you come over every day and hold me and kiss me for as long as I want.”

He put his hands together, steepled his fingers, and pretended to think about it. “We may have to compromise on that last part.”

I pouted. “You won’t agree to hold me and kiss me?”

“
Well . . . not for as long as you want. How do I know you won’t get greedy and try to seduce me?” He opened his eyes really wide, giving me an innocent look.

I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “I think you’ll be safe as long as we’re in my mother’s house.” I sat up swinging my legs out of bed. He stood. While still sitting on the side of the bed, I wrapped both legs around him so he couldn‘t get away. Not that he was doing any resisting. “But maybe we should practice so I can work on my self control.”

Chapter Ten

He reached down, took my face in his hands, and kissed me just long enough to crumble any self-control I thought I had. I could have practiced for hours, but when I opened my eyes and looked at him, I realized how very tired he was. It didn’t take much to convince him to go home and get some sleep.

The next morning I was up early. I managed to walk up and down the hallway several times before breakfast under the watchful eye of the policeman assigned to me. Charlene showed up with clothes. On her way to work, she’d stopped by my house and repacked my overnight case so I would have clothes to take with me to Mom‘s. Consequently, when Mom showed up I was showered and dressed.

Delgado called on his way to work, reminding me to take it easy, and renewing his promise to come by after work.

By the time I got to Mom’s house, all my morning exertions had caught up with me. I went right to bed. I got up in time for lunch, called the insurance company, watched TV, and read for a couple of hours, lounging on the couch dressed in sweats and a tank top, while Mom prepped and cooked for a dinner she was catering that evening.

Bored out of my skull, I was thrilled when Alan showed up. Unfortunately, Mom opened the door and showed him in before I had a chance to change into anything decent. He was still dressed in the suit he had worn to work and he looked sharp, ruggedly handsome, unlike Delgado’s classic good looks. I felt like a bag lady next to him.

He came and sat by me, reaching for my hand. “How are you feeling?”

“
Great, I’m ready to go back to work. What have I missed?”

“
Me I hope,” he said with a grin.

I laughed, side stepping the issue. “You know what I mean. Anything new going on that I should know. What did you find out about your officer who was taking a break in a guest room?”

“
Well, I found out he wasn’t watching TV. When I rewound the surveillance video, I realized that a maid slipped into the room a few minutes earlier. They spent about thirty minutes together. According to them, they were just talking. The best we could do was to give them both a warning for taking an unauthorized break. It always surprises me that someone who works in security, and knows that there are cameras in the hallways, thinks he won’t be seen going into a room.”

“
Obviously not a candidate for promotion.”

We were laughing when Delgado arrived. He knocked once and then let himself in. Dressed in a navy suit, he looked magnificent. It wasn‘t the Armani, just something off the rack, but he still made it look good.

He stopped when he saw Alan, acknowledging him with a curt, “Chief Harris.”

If Alan was surprised, he didn’t show it. He replied, “Detective Delgado.”

Delgado came around my other side. He perched on the arm of the sofa, put his arm around me, and gave me a kiss on the forehead. “How are you feeling, sweetheart?” he asked, glaring at Alan the whole time.

Alan looked at me, frowning slightly. Glaring back at Delgado, he squeezed my hand.

If I hadn’t looked so bad, it’s just remotely possible that at another time, this macho display of possession might have been flattering. Under the circumstances, I felt like a ragged chew toy between two snarling canines. As I started to pull away from both of them, Mom came in, preventing me from creating an ugly scene.

She asked, “Could I ask both of you to help me carry some stuff out to my car?”

The both stood.

Alan said, “I probably should be going anyway. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

I thanked him for coming. I owed him an explanation, but not in front of Delgado.

Once they'd packed everything up, Mom and Alan left. Delgado came back inside. While he was gone, I tried telling myself that if I walked in on him holding hands and laughing with some other female, I wouldn’t have been nearly as composed. I had managed to calm down to merely miffed.

Ignoring the already tense atmosphere, he growled, “What was he doing here?”

So much for miffed, now I was back to pissed. “He came to see how I was doing. We‘re friends,” I said, tightly controlling my urge to smack him.

Perhaps sensing that sitting next to me was not was not in his best interest, he plopped down in the chair opposite the couch. “Well I don’t trust him. I don’t think he should be here.”

Scowling, I snapped at him. “Fortunately for me, you don’t get to choose my friends, or dictate who I can and can’t see.”

The edge in my voice must have finally gotten through to him, because he softened his tone and looked a little sheepish. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Please understand. There’s something about that guy that bothers me. It’s not just jealousy, although I admit that’s part of it. I just don’t trust him.”

Somewhat mollified, I moderated my tone as well. “Why?”

He shrugged. “I don’t think he’s been completely honest. I can’t put my finger on it. And, of course, I don’t like the way he looks at you.” This time he said it with that crooked smile that I love.

“
I don’t like the way the entire female population looks at you, but there’s not much I can do about it.”