Who Glares Wins (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (20 page)

“Don’t do stuff like that, they might shoot us.”

“People who drive Camrys do not
carry
guns.”

“Do too.”

Lily snuck a glance at the Camry again and snorted as she turned back to me. Okay, I had to agree that
particular
driver probably didn’t
,
but who knew? “Do not. Hey, look, you went from badass to scaredy
-
cat in
zero
to sixty. So, anyway, Solomon, tongue… You’re just going to have to take one for the team.”

"I'm with Maddox," I reminded Lily. "And I'm not slipping Solomon anything."

"Shame. Bet he's got some smooth moves."

Solomon did indeed have some smooth moves, but I didn't know if they extended to the bedroom
,
seeing as I hadn't gotten that far. I hadn't tried either. Solomon kissed like he was on a mission to redefine the word
“
passion
,”
but Maddox was enough man for me
, even if he did play dirty during pillow fight
s
. To keep Solomon's moves out of my head, I concentrated on Maddox's gym-hard body and the way his hands always knew exactly where I wanted to be touched.

"You've gone red."

"I haven't."

"You have.
This is how you look after Anton’s spin class
,
but without
all
the sweat.
"

"It must be the heat
er
in this car." I made a show of turning the dial down a notch and Lily snickered.

"Who
m
are we investigating?"
she asked, mercifully changing the subject.

"First
,
I want to pay a visit to Marissa's apartment block and
ask
her neighbors
if they
saw anything around the time of her disappearance
;
then I've got a couple
of
friends of hers to visit." Primarily, I wanted to know two things:
one,
if Marissa
ever
mentioned Edward Killjoy to anyone, and if they had anything more than a professional relationship
;
and two, if they noticed anything unusual in her behavior, anything that might have indicated she
could be
in trouble.
Someone who might’ve been a
witness
to
a kidnapping.

"Okay. S
ounds easy."

"Hope so."

Traffic took longer than I estimated
,
due to the rush hour
slow
ing to
a mournful
ten miles an hour
,
but
we
soon pulled onto Marissa's stree
t with hardly any
uncited
traffic violations to our names.
The street parking was chock full, so I pulled into Marissa's lot and picked a parking space. I figured Marissa didn't need it right now
,
and seeing as I was looking for her, she wouldn't mind sharing.

There weren't any lights on in the apartment block
,
but it was still
day
light out, so people
might still be
home. Lily and I got out and walked over to the buzzers at the front doors and I hit the first one.

"Hello?" A
disembodied female
voice
answered
.

I leaned into the sound piece.
"Hi. I'm a friend of Marissa's.
Is that Mrs. Malon
e
y?
I wonder if you'
ve
seen her?"

"Who?
Mrs. Maloney? That’s me!
"

"
No.
Marissa. 2A."

"Oh, her. No, haven't seen her today."

"I'm worried about her.
May
I come in and talk to you for a minute?"

“Are you selling anything?”

“No.”

"I guess so." The door clicked open and we stepped through, just as the door to 1A opened and an elderly woman
emerged, looking
us over. Her hand
lingered inside her door and I was
fairly certain she
was holding
a baseball bat out of
our
sight. I hoped she wouldn't get antsy.
Given her age,
I couldn’t in all good conscience retaliate
,
al
though if she
happened
to trip over my foot…

"Hi
,
Mr
s
.
Maloney, I'm Lexi. This is my friend, Lily. We haven't seen Marissa in a while and she's not answering her phone. I wondered if you'
ve
seen her?"

"
You were here before," said the old woman, narrowing her eyes at me. "With that Chinese woman."

I was fairly certain Elisabeth had never been to China, and was probably second generation
,
if not more
, but I didn't like to argue and put the elderly woman on the defensive. Not with the
potential
baseball bat
situation
. "That's right. Elisabeth. We checked Marissa's apartment and she hadn't been there in a couple
of
weeks."

"Huh. Well, let's see. She's pretty quiet so I don't notice her much. I saw her a couple weeks ago. A Sunday. I remember because that's when my daughter comes over and takes me to lunch at her place
;
and she was late
."

"Was Marissa with anyone? Did she seem okay?"

"Now you mention it, she seemed upset."

"Did she say what about?"

The elderly lady shook her head. "No. We only say hello. We're not chatty. You could try the man on the third f
loor. I think they were friends
,
though I hope they weren’t having extra-marital sex because I don’t
approve of
that. Get married before you suck the boiled sweets, that’s what I say.
"

Lily and I exchanged bemused glances.
"Okay. Thanks for your time. If she comes back, could you give me a call?" I passed the woman my card and she studied it.

"A private investigator? She in some kind of trouble?" she asked
, then hopefully, “
Is Marissa
a criminal?”

"No, we're just worried about her." I learned already that it was no good telling people someone was in trouble.
Either t
heir minds made stuff up, or they put more weight on inconsequential things. It was better to just keep things as
benign
as possible.

"Alrighty then."
Mr
s
.
Maloney shuffled back into her apartment and closed the door
while
we went to knock on 1
B opposite. There was no answer
,
so we left,
taking
the stairs to 2B
,
where Elisabeth told me a couple lived. I got the woman. She was around my age and wore trendy
,
skinny jeans and a billowing
,
cotton shirt that looked like it might have been her husband's
, around which
was
wrapped a tan leather belt
.
Her fingertips were splotched with paint.

I introduced us,
repeating
my spiel about being Marissa's friends and
worrying
about her.

"I'm Meg. She's really sweet," said the woman. "We hung out
a few times,
but not enough to be really good friends. She wouldn't confide in m
e
, ya know? Anyway, let's see, I guess the last time I saw her was a Saturday. Some guy dropped her off outside
,
just as Marcus
, that’s my husband,
and I were heading out."

"You sure this was a Saturday?"

"Yeah. We have date night
every
Saturday. We went to Alessandro's. Have you been?"

"The
lasagna’s
to die for," I told her.

"I know, right? We don't go often.
It was our anniversary.
"

"It's definitely special for a date night," said Lily. "Kinda pricey. You should try Francisco's, great Italian, half the price."

"Really? I'll mention that to my husband. Thanks."

"No problem."

"Hey, I know you." Meg peered at Lily. "You work at Paradise?"

Lily smiled, pleased as punch at being recognized.
"Yeah, I work the door there sometimes. Say hi next time you come by."

Meg nodded and grinned
as she tossed her shiny
,
bobbed hair
. "I will. I didn't know Marissa had such cool friends."

"You said Marissa was getting dropped off. Do you remember what the car looked like?" I asked, steering the conversation back to its purpose.

She thought about it for a moment
,
then shook her head. "It was black and really nice." She leaned in and
lowered her
voice. "Not really Frederickstown, ya know
?
It might have been a Lexus."

"And what about the driver? Did you see who it was?"

"A man
,
I think.
White.
I wasn't really looking, sorry."

"No problem. You've been a big help." I gave the woman my card and asked her to call us if she saw Marissa, or if her husband remembered anything about the car
,
and she said she would.

"So, this Marissa ha
d
a mystery man?" asked Lily. "Maybe he did something nasty and that's why she left?"

"I think our mystery man might be my boss at the hotel. It fits with what the sous chef told me. I can find out what car he drives tomorrow."

"Was she having an affair with him?"

"I don't know yet. It's possible. Or maybe he liked her more than she liked him. Or maybe she just wanted
the
job really bad." I thought about Edward. He didn't seem like a sleaze to me, though there was a sizeable age gap between Marissa
and him,
but not one large enough to make me cringe inside and wonder how the will was written.

We tried 3A next and the man who answered the door was a H U N K. He wore baggy
,
workout shorts, cut off at the knee, and a sleeveless top that showed off bulging biceps
an
d
impressive pecs
.
For a moment
,
we just stood still and
beheld
him.

"Hello," said Lily, her eyelashes fluttering.

"Hi." He grinned back down at her, oblivious to me.

I rolled my eyes, coughed politely, and repeated my patter. He introduced himself as Nick
,
and said he'd lived in the building for a year.

"Yeah, we're friends. She's cool. We dated a couple of times
,
but there wasn't that kind of chemistry."
He stared down at Lily and she sighed audibly.

"There's gotta be chemistry." Lily leaned against the doorjamb and wound a lock of hair around her fingers.

"And passion," added Nick, flicking his eyebrows at
her
.

"We're worried about her," I chipped in before Lily ended up inside with the hunk and the door was shut in my face. "She hasn't been seen in a while."

Nick wrenched his eyes away from Lily to me
,
with visible effort. "We had coffee about
a month ago, no, five weeks
,
I think. She'd
just got
ten
a new job and she was really pleased. Said she was back on track."

"Do you know what she meant by that?"

"I think she'd been struggling with money
,
but she didn't say that in so many words. She was real private like that."

"Did she mention if she had any problems at her new job?"

"No, not that I recall. She seemed really happy about it."

"Okay. Can you give me a call if you hear from her?" I gave
the
Hunk my card.