The Set Piece (14 page)

“How complicated?” Casey asked simply, but suddenly there was a hard edge to her tone. “I’m not going to do this if Diego gets hurt.”

What if it’s just me who gets hurt?
“Neither would I.” She reached out to pull Casey to her again.

“Exactly what is going on between you and Diego?” Casey resisted her tugging and shifted her weight uneasily from foot to foot.

Of course, Casey wasn’t going to let her get away with anything. Amy liked her way better for it, but it made getting out of this moment harder than ever. A dozen lies sprang up like bitter weeds on Amy’s tongue. Any one of them might put Casey at ease and get her back into Amy’s arms. A shiver, and not the good kind, ran over her body. She was getting too good at lying. She pursed her lips. Time to come clean. Time to really move forward—no matter what the price.

“Let’s go out and get a cup of coffee, and I’ll tell you the whole story,” she said.

“Okay.” Casey’s gaze dropped down to her body. “But you might want to change first.”

Amy looked down. Son of a gun. She was still in her pajamas.

CHAPTER 9

Amy zipped through the gates
of Hidden Hills down past Caffeine Cowabunga’s parking lot, and straight on into her old neighborhood. She pulled up before a coffee shop attached to a dilapidated bowling alley. She figured the truth would come easier if she were in surroundings that were more her own.

There was no one at all in the greasy spoon midmorning and in the middle of the week.

“I love places like this,” Casey said. It was the first time she’d spoken since they’d left the office. Her approval eased the tension closing in on them since their bathroom kiss.

“Anywhere you want.” The waitress waving her hand at the empty diner.

Amy chose a booth in the back, and they ordered two coffees.

“Okay, so spill. What’s going on?” Casey got right down to business

Amy sighed. “I know so little about you. Just three things maybe. One, you’re great at Footgolf; two, a super cool ten-year-old thinks you hang the moon; and three, you’re a really, really good kisser.”

Casey blushed. Their coffees arrived, and they waited until the waitress left before continuing.

“Well, you are,” Amy said. “And I would like to kiss you again—very much.” She tamped down the desire that quickly rose in her. “But there are so many reasons I shouldn’t tell you this story. Especially the parts that aren’t mine to tell. And only one good reason why I should.”

“What’s that?”

Amy glanced down at her bare left hand. She stretched the fingers. Her whole hand felt lighter without the big fake rock on her ring finger. It sat on her dresser at home. This conversation would be easier without it.

“You,” she said. “You’re the reason. I pray you’re worth it, and I’m not another idiot making big decisions using the wrong part of my body.”

“Okay.” Casey drew out the word, she looked a little offended.

“Shit. See, I haven’t even started and I’ve already screwed up. Just hear me out. Will you?”

“That’s why I’m here.”

Once she got started the story rolled out more easily than she thought it would. Casey settled in on her side of the booth. Amy stumbled over the part about Diego’s being gay. But Casey leaned forward and cupped Amy’s hand on the table to give her strength.

“I always thought he was,” she said softly. “I think anyone who looks carefully can see it. Except maybe Tammy.” She chuckled, and again the tension dissipated.

Amy finally finished. She waited for Casey’s response. “And how much does Knight pay you to do this?”

“A lot. Enough to make me feel a little bit dirty about it.”

Casey raised her eyebrow in a question.

“Fifteen hundred a week,” Amy said.

“Damn. I got the wrong job.” An amused smile played at Casey’s lips. “How would Knight feel about polygamy? That would send Diego’s machismo through the roof, don’t you think.”

Amy laughed.

“Does Knight know that you’re gay?”

“No. He doesn’t.” Amy paused rolling the next thought around in her head. “I’m going to be truthful with you. The way your kisses made me feel back there made me know for sure I one hundred percent like women. I like you, but I haven’t had a whole lot of experience. I had a sort of girlfriend in college. Her name was Darla; she was a law student. But that didn’t go as far as it could have.” She looked over at Casey. Did she really want to take all of this on?

“That we can remedy.”

Amy blushed.

“Well, we can. That’s the easiest and most fun part of this puzzle to solve.” Casey’s eyes flashed. “So what were you doing in the gym?”

Amy had left the Photoshop situation out of her confession. Why, she wasn’t sure. She thought, at least she hoped, that Casey had nothing to do with the envelopes that showed up at Horowitz’s office. “Why where you there?” she asked back.

“I asked you first,” Casey said, playfully.

“Yeah, but it’s your turn to answer the hard questions. Why were you spying on Rob?” Amy rubbed her hand across her forehead.

“Trust has to go both ways. Is that what you’re saying?”

Amy nodded.

“Okay. It’s going to sound weird, though.”

“Really?” Amy laughed. “Weirder than what I just told you?”

“You be the judge.” Casey spun her spoon on the table top while her eyes darted back and forth in thought. “Rob has always given me the heebie-jeebies. You know he’s not a real trainer. I mean, he’s not certified or anything. And I don’t like the fact that Diego lets him work out in the gym when he isn’t around. About a month ago I caught him in the house, and not the kitchen where he enters and exits. When I asked him about it, he said he was just taking a look around. I know that Diego would let him do that, but the vibe was weird. So I’ve kind of been keeping an eye on him.” She leaned forward and raised her eyebrows. “Today when I got to work, I saw him in the den, hovering around the mantel. He took, at least I think he did, a photo and put it under his shirt.”

“Really?” The pieces started to come together. “So you followed him?

“Of course. Wouldn’t you? I mean, he shouldn’t be roaming around the house in the first place, and certainly not taking things. I wanted to find out what he was doing with it.”

“Did you?”

“No, I got into the gym before he did and hid in the back to see what he was up to. But when he came in he just dumped his bag on a bench and worked out. I don’t even know if he actually took the picture or not. He could’ve been just scratching his chest or something. I was waiting for a clean exit when you came in and changed everything.”

“I’m glad I did.” Amy grinned at her.

“Me, too.” Casey smiled right back. “So basically I got nothing. Your turn.”

Casey’s eyes opened wider and wider with each new detail as Amy told her about the envelopes arriving at Horowitz’s office, the photoshopped pictures inside, and the fact that the originals all had come from Diego’s home.

“Wow, that’s better than the first story you told me.” Casey dug around in her messenger bag and pulled out her wallet.

“What’re you doing?”

“Paying. We gotta get back to the house to see if he took a picture and if he did, which one he took.”

Casey flipped open her wallet and dropped some bills on a table. Amy sat back, watching. Her movements were efficient and fluid and possessed a grace that made her a pleasure to watch, and probably deadly on the soccer field. Amy idly began to imagine that grace in other areas as well, like bed. Heat stole into her cheeks.

“Here, let me contribute.” Amy pulled her own wallet out of her back pocket.

“No.” Casey placed her hand on Amy’s arm which immediately started tingling under her touch. “You get the next one.”

The heat quickly spread across her whole face. There was going to be a next one.

Casey and Amy stood in front of the mantel in the den, their shoulders almost touching. The house was empty, and Amy noticed how their personal space had changed thanks to the morning activities. A very happy change, at that.

“You see anything different?” Casey asked, bringing her back to the matter at hand. At a first glance, the pictures on the mantel looked like they always did.

“Hey, wait a second. Where is the one of me and Diego? The one with the mountains?”

“That was here?”

Amy tapped a space right in the middle of the wood beam. “It was right here.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. I saw it yesterday. Look.” She took out her cell phone and showed Casey the picture as it sat on the mantel the day before. “Tammy put it back last night.”

“I knew it. Rob must have taken it this morning.”

“Why? Why would he do that? I mean don’t you think it’s odd that he’s going to all this trouble to doctor the photographs?”

“It wouldn’t be all that much trouble,” Casey said thoughtfully. “He freelances as a graphic artist. That’s his real job.”

“You’re just telling me this now?”

“I just thought of it.” Casey shrugged.

“Okay. So he has the opportunity to take the photos, the ability to change them into whatever he wants, but what’s the motive?” Amy bumped her shoulder into Casey’s to give the question emphasis, but mostly she just wanted to feel Casey’s warmth again.

“Clearly not money.” Casey bumped her back and left her shoulder resting against hers. “Which is kinda weird, because I don’t think he works full time.”

“Could it be an attention kind of thing?” Amy blew out a long breath. “We’re really no further along than when we were hiding out in the closet.”

“So let’s get some proof.”

“How? We can’t just go up to him and say, hey are you kind of, sort of blackmailing Diego?”

“No, but we can get him to talk in another way.”

“How?”

“We’re going to put some of that easy money you make to good use.”

“Believe me it hasn’t been that easy with you around to tempt me.”

Casey rewarded her with a smile that melted her heart. “It went both ways. You just didn’t know it.”

Twenty minutes later, they stood in an electronics aisle at Best Buy, looking at all sorts of surveillance cameras.

“Look. You can put this one in a teddy bear. Oh, cool, it actually comes with the teddy bear.” Amy tapped on one box near the end of the row.

Casey, who had already bypassed the nanny cam section, studied a bigger box a section down from Amy. “I think we need something more like this. It records as well as lets us see what’s going on.”

“That’s huge.” Amy joined her. “You don’t think Rob will see it.”

“Only this part,” Casey pointed to a small white camera with a black eye, “sits in the room somewhere. We could easily hide it by the TV. With all the devices Diego has there, Rob won’t notice at all. I mean it almost looks like the connect thingy from the Xbox.”

“I guess so.”

“This”—she pointed to something that looked like the bastard baby of a CPU and a DVR—“records everything. We could sit up in your apartment and watch. Or come in later and review the tape.”

“Wow. Okay let’s get it.”

“It’s a lot of money. And I’m not really in a position to help you.” Casey pursed her lips and glanced back down at the price tag. Amy followed her gaze and nearly choked at the total of the big black numbers. Good causes didn’t come cheap.

“Don’t worry. I’ll save the receipt and submit it to Knight as a work expense.”

Casey loosened up. “Okay. Serves him right. Let’s get it.”

When they pulled into the driveway, Tammy’s car was still absent.

“Where do you think she is?” Amy asked.

“I don’t know. She’s never around when Diego’s out of town. Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth.”

They carried the box between them into the house and straight up into Amy’s apartment. Casey did all the heavy lifting as Amy directed her to the coffee table.

“Whew.” Casey shook out her fingers and started to unpack all the components. Amy opened the fridge and said a little thank you that she had gone shopping the day before. The shelves were full of fresh vegetables and gourmet cheeses, all the treats that she neither had the time or money to try before Diego.

“You hungry?” she asked, breaking the silence in the room.

“I am, actually.”

“I can make sandwiches.”

“Sounds great.”

Amy grabbed a sharp cheddar cheese, tomatoes, bypassed the red onions, and held her hand over the two packets of meat.

“Ham or chicken?”

“Ham.”

Amy pursed her lips; she would have put money on the chicken.

“Cheese?” Now she was completely in the dark.

“Please.”

“Mayo, mustard, or butter.”

“Mustard. Who puts butter on a sandwich?”

“They do in England. Cheese, tomato, and butter. It’s actually good. I’ll give you a bite of mine.”

Amy let all the ingredients tumble onto the counter. Now she could watch Casey assemble the surveillance cameras as she put together the sandwiches. Amy marveled that they had so easily fallen into set roles.

Casey sat on the couch taking up the space around her like she owned it. She methodically unpacked the whole box and organized the components on the coffee table to mirror the picture in the instructions that were spread open on her lap. They worked in comfortable silence until Amy joined her, handing over the ham sandwich on a paper plate. The bread was lightly toasted, and Casey bit into it with a satisfying crunch.