THE HEART TEACHES BEST (REAL ROMANCE COLLECTION Book 2)

by M. J. Schiller

  She opened the door a crack and saw him coming out of the gym and into the hall.

  Okay, time to act like an adult. She exhaled and stepped into the hall.

  Cooper had put on a t-shirt, but she still imagined his bare back as he walked in front of her. She was about to call out to him but his name died on her lips. Coming toward him, a pretty blonde launched herself into his arms. “Cooper!” she squealed.

  He laughed, picking her up off her feet. “Kenz!” he shouted happily.

  Whatever he said next was drowned out by the sound of the blood rushing through her head with a loud swish that turned into a hum. Of course. He had a girlfriend. Of course. She knew it all along. So, why did seeing him with her feel like a punch to the stomach? She spun on her heel and hurried blindly down the hall toward a stairwell. When she was safe behind the door to the stairs, she kept moving. She wanted to get away from the police station, and Cooper Sullivan, as soon as humanly possible.

  Chapter Nine

  “Kenz! What are you doing here?”

  “Came to see if my big brother might be available for lunch later.”

  “What time?”

  “Noon?”

  He thought about it. “Sure. I can rearrange a few things.” He placed his hand over her shoulder easily. “So, where do you want to go eat?”

  “You choose,” she said, skipping off. “I have a meeting next door. I’ll be back to pick you up.”

  “Okay,” he said, laughing at his exuberant sister. A lunch with MacKenzie was what he needed to get his mind off Laney Essex, he decided, opening the door to the locker room.

  * * *

  A half-hour later he was back at his desk making phone calls. Aidan glanced over at him when he jotted something down on a notepad. He hung up the phone.

  “What is it?”

  “Get this…Scott Essex is out of town on business.”

  “So?”

  “You wanna guess where his business took him?” Cooper leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head with a smug smile.

  “Los Angeles?”

  “You got it.”

  “And get this, Coop, Scott Essex inherited a bloody fortune from his father. Twice what Sydney and Laney did. Had Camille Essex discovered that, she may have tried to sue him to recover funds that she thought should go to her girls. I’d say 6.5 million is a good enough motive for murder.”

  “He’s staying at The Standard Hotel, downtown,” Cooper said decisively. “Wanna get out and take advantage of this gorgeous Southern California sunshine?”

  Aidan stood and pushed the chair into his desk. “Lead the way.”

  * * *

  “Mr. Essex.” The girl behind the counter waved at a tall, slender man who was walking by.

  Aidan flashed her a smile. “Thanks.”

  “Scott Essex?”

  “Yes. What can I do for you gentlemen?” the man said with a smile. He had the unmistakable mark of an Essex about him, blond hair and blue eyes the same rich color of Laney’s.

  Aidan and Cooper showed him their badges. “We had a few questions concerning the murder of Sydney Essex.”

  “Sydney Essex, the author? I’m afraid I can’t help you. That’s a different Essex family altogether. Sorry about that.” The businessman tried to get around them but Cooper laid a restraining hand on his shoulder.

  “Funny,” he said, pulling a picture of Sydney out of his pocket, “‘cause you two look an awful lot alike.” He smiled, but gave him a hard stare.

  Scott Essex turned to Aidan hopefully, but the detective nodded his head. “The spittin’ image,” he agreed.

  “Okay,” the man said with a sigh. “But can we talk somewhere private?”

  Cooper bowed and gestured for him to lead the way. Scott ducked into the breakfast nook where a large, African American lady was cleaning up after the morning crowd.

  “Do you mind leaving so we can have some privacy?” Scott snapped.

  The woman paused in mid-swipe as she brushed crumbs into her hand, giving him a bland look. “Um-hum, I’ll do that,” she said, in a tone that made it clear that she had no intention of leaving. She continued wiping the table without giving him a second look.

  Scott made a frustrated noise and crossed the hall, opening the door to the pool area. The place was deserted except for a pair of noisy kids doing cannonballs, and a mother who was absorbed by the latest tabloid, but they were at the other side of the big room, and for that matter, she could have been standing right next to them and not heard the conversation over the din the kids were making.

  “All right. What questions do you have for me, Officers?” Scott Essex looked nervous, the bead of sweat on his forehead coming from more than the heated pool area.

  Cooper went for the jugular. “For one, can you can tell us where you were Saturday night during the time of Sydney Essex’s murder?”

  Scott dropped his head with a sigh, then, seeming to make a decision, he raised it to look him straight in the eye. “I was at Phat Jack’s.”

  Cooper and Aidan exchanged surprised looks.

  “I know I probably should have come forward, but I didn’t see what the point was. I didn’t see who killed Sydney, and to tell you the truth, I didn’t want to deal with the hassle.”

  “You didn’t want to deal with the hassle? This was your sister lying strangled in the parking lot!”

  Scott Essex blanched. “My half-sister,” he corrected. “Listen, up until a week ago I didn’t even know I had a half-sister, and then she appears from out of nowhere, tells me about our connection, and goes and gets killed. Just when I was starting to really like her.”

  “Well, I’m pretty certain that’s not what Sydney had in mind either,” Cooper said wryly.

  “I know, I know. I’m coming off as a big jerk here, and maybe I deserve to be.” The businessman yanked on his tie, succumbing to the heat, and pulled out a chair at a nearby table, gesturing for them to take a seat. Cooper pulled out his notebook.

  “Sydney Essex showed up on my doorstep a week ago with a pile of letters written by my mom to…our…dad. I was flabbergasted. I had no idea Dad had any life other than the one he had with Mom and I. He was gone on business a lot but, another family? No way. Anyway, there was no denying the resemblance, like you suggested earlier, and the letters were pretty much stone cold proof.”

  “And how did you happen upon the scene of the murder?”

  “Sydney had asked me to meet her there. She seemed, well, fairly theatrical, and she wanted to sort of spring me on Laney, my other half-sister. I got there early and had a drink. And then I had another, Sydney was late. The longer I sat there, the more nervous I became.” He folded his hands on the table, leaning forward. “I started to think that maybe this wasn’t the best way to break the news to Laney, so I paid my tab and left. It wasn’t until I hit the parking lot that I knew something was wrong. A woman was screaming and a man yelled for someone to get the police. A man rushed past me, warning me to stay inside, someone had been murdered, but I didn’t listen. Something was drawing me outside, curiosity I guess, and maybe a little bit of a sixth sense or something. I started thinking, was Sydney late, or had she been waylaid in the parking lot? Still, nothing could have prepared me for seeing her there on the ground—” He broke off, staring into space and shaking his head.

  Cooper raised his eyes to Aidan’s to see if he thought the story was credible or not. Aidan gave him a shrug. Before Cooper could prompt him, Scott started talking again. “I guess I was in shock because people started gathering outside and I stood there, not moving, staring at Sydney’s body. I don’t know how long it was before the police arrived and started shoving people back and setting out that yellow tape, and then she came…Laney. I knew her right away. I saw her searching the crowd for Sydney. And then I saw her turn and see the body. She rushed forward but the cops scooped her up. I’ve never heard anyone cry like that. It was like an animal or an insane person. I had to get out. I saw the p
ain on that beautiful face, a face that looked so much like my daughter, Paige’s, and I had to get out of there. I’ve regretted it ever since. She had no one, and I left her. But, you see,” he said, looking up at them now with pleading eyes, “she didn’t know me. I couldn’t comfort her.”

  Aidan nodded to reassure him.

  “That was one of the worst nights of my life. My sister, who I had just met and started to like, was dead in front of me. And my other sister in anguish, who I hadn’t even been introduced to yet, but I still felt a sort of…bond with. It was bad,” he said lamely, wiping the sweat from his upper lip. “It was real bad.”

  Cooper looked at Aidan again. Someone was going to have to play the hard ass here. “Mr. Essex, you mean to tell me that you just happened to be in L.A. the night of the murder.”

  “I didn’t happen to be. I came because Sydney asked me to.”

  “And you weren’t a little bit afraid that your two new half-sisters might try to take back some of the six-point-five million dollars you inherited?”

  His face became red. “You’re not insinuating I had something to do with Sydney’s murder, because I most certainly did not. And as for the six-point-five million, well, I never wanted that money. As far as I was concerned, that money was blood money. Money I was given because my dad, the man that I looked up to the most in this cruddy world, had died. I didn’t want that money. So, I spent it. Not in the way you’re thinking,” he barked, seeing the two detectives exchange a glance. “I gave it away to special charities…Amnesty International, One, which is a group trying to annihilate extreme poverty in Africa…I gave to churches, community centers, hell, I even built an ice-skating rink for underprivileged children…that money never changed my lifestyle one iota. I got nothing from it other than the satisfaction of helping others.”

  He’s a lot more like Laney than he knows, Cooper thought.

  “And I could have never killed Sydney. I hadn’t known her for long, but I liked her. And what was done to her was horrible. Just horrible. And, she was my sister,” when Cooper looked ready to correct him Scott amended, “half-sister, but a sister all the same.”

  Aidan looked to Cooper. He had already closed his notebook. “So how long is your business going to keep you in town, Mr. Essex?”

  “Until the end of the week.”

  They all rose from their seats. “Make sure you don’t travel too far.”

  “Phoenix and here, that’s all,” he reassured them. “Umm, do you know…does Laney know about me yet?”

  “Yes. She and I discovered the letters you talked about. That brought us to you.”

  “If you could—” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card. “—please give her this and tell her she can call me—anytime of the day or night—if she wants to talk.”

  Cooper hesitated. “All right. But I don’t know if she’s ready for that yet.”

  “I understand. But maybe later.”

  “Yeah. Maybe.”

  Chapter Ten

  As the two detectives approached Cooper’s Corvette in the parking lot, Aidan asked, “Wanna grab some lunch?”

  “Actually I have a lunch date with—”

  “Laney Essex. I saw her at the precinct house.”

  “Huh? No.” Cooper shook his head. “I was going to say, with McKenzie. You saw Laney at the precinct house?”

  “Yeah.” Aidan had walked around to the other side of the car and they now stood talking to each other over the roof. “And I’ve got to say, you didn’t do justice to her hotness quotient. She’s smokin’! Definitely ‘special’ material.”

  He tried to ignore the irritation that sprang up when he heard Aidan talk about Laney that way. “What was she doing there?”

  “I don’t know,” he replied, shrugging. “She was looking for you, and I told her you were in the weight room. Didn’t you see her?”

  “No.” He frowned, opening his door to get into the vehicle.

  “Maybe she changed her mind.”

  “Yeah. Any way, you can join Kenz and me?”

  “No. No. I wouldn’t want to interfere with brother/sister bonding time. Besides, I’m gonna call Jenna and make some—” He cleared his throat suggestively. “—lunch plans for myself.”

  Cooper chuckled as he pulled out of the parking spot. “I just bet you will.”

  * * *

  “Cooper? Earth to Cooper,” McKenzie nagged. “You haven’t said two words. I should have just had lunch with the guy at the desk who spoke Japanese.”

  “I’m sorry, Kenzie. How’s work?”

  “Boring. We’d have to hit the snooze button for that conversation,” McKenzie said with a grin. She sold advertising airtime at one of the local radio stations. The only part of her job she liked was sometimes scoring concert tickets to sold-out events. “What’s been going on with you, bro? I heard you landed the big Sydney Essex case.”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “So, how’s it going? What sort of bad guy are we looking at here?” McKenzie whispered conspiratorially. “Was it a drug deal gone bad? A jealous lover? A family squabble of some sort? What?” She waited, breathless, her eyebrows arched for dramatic effect.

  He smiled, finishing his bite before answering. “You know I can’t tell you anything.”

  “Oh, you’re such a poop!” she said, miffed, punching him in the arm.

  “Ouch!”

  “Sorry about that,” she said mockingly.

  “Just like I’m sorry about…” He reached under the table to grip her kneecap in an old familiar torture move, one that would be sure to give her terrible Charlie horses.

  “No, Coop. Not that! Please!” She laughed with a hint of hysteria.

  “All right, all right.” He released her knee with a conciliatory pat.

  “Softee,” she commented, moving her chair away and kicking him in the shin.

  “Ouch!” He reached down to rub his leg. “Man, you don’t fight fair.”

  “Has it really been that long, Cooper?” She grinned as she ate her meal daintily, not looking the menace he knew she was. “How’s your love life?” she said, with more interest than the question usually got.

  “Nonexistent.”

  “That’s not what I heard,” she cooed, twirling her chopsticks at him.

  “What have you heard?”

  “Aidan said you’ve got the hots for the dead girl’s sister,” she responded with glee.

  “I’ve got the hots for…? ‘The dead girl’, as you so tactlessly put it, was named Sydney Essex. And as for her sister, whose name is Laney—” he emphasized, “—any guy with a pulse would have the hots for her, so it’s not a news flash.”

  “It is when it comes to you. You haven’t exactly been doing the horizontal bop with anyone in a long time.”

  Cooper laughed. “You kiss Mom with that mouth?”

  “Oh, come on, Coop. Give me the scoop. What’s she like?”

  “Is your love life really that boring that you have to delve into mine?”

  “Low blow. Okay, if you won’t dish, I’m going to tell Mom you said her gravy was lumpy.”

  “I like lumpy.”

  “But I might not mention that.”

  “Go ahead,” he challenged, trying to look nonchalant.

  “Okay.” She opened up her cell phone, hit speed dial and stared across the table at her brother, her eyes sparkling. “Hi, Mom…just a minute.” Cooper was waving his hands frantically. She covered the receiver with a triumphant grin.

  “I’ll tell you whatever you want,” he whispered in desperation, afraid of the wrath and/or hurt feelings of his mother.

  “Thanks, Bree.” McKenzie snapped the phone shut.

  “Why, you little dog!”

  “Uh-uh-uh.” She opened the phone again and paused with a finger poised over the buttons. “I’ll do it for real, and you know I will.”

  He studied her features. “You would, you brat. What do you want to know?” he sighed, resigned to his fate.


  “What’s she like? What do you like about her?”

  “Well…she’s funny, and sweet, and sexy all rolled into one.”

  “Sounds like a keeper.”

  “Yeah—” Cooper replied, taking the opportunity to signal for the check. “—only you’ve got to have something first, before you can keep it.”

  “What? Just work your old school charm on her.” She punched him lightly in the arm this time.

  “Nah. I don’t think that would work.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know. She’s from money.”

  “Oh, she’s highfaluting.” Her face displayed her disdain. “You’re right, you don’t need that.”

  “No. She’s not like that at all,” he blurted out. “She’s a teacher. At Walter Davis.”

  “A teacher—at Walter Davis, no less—but she comes from money? She must be crazy.” McKenzie rose.

  He laughed. “I think the word is dedicated, which you wouldn’t know anything about Miss I’ve-Had-Five-Jobs-in-Four-Years.”

  “I just haven’t found my calling yet,” she replied petulantly, grabbing the fortune cookies from the table.

  “Yeah, right.”

  “But, back to you.” Cooper smiled at his sister’s persistence. That was one thing about Kenzie, he thought, if she got something in her mind, it was impossible to shake her. “Have you let this girl know about your feelings for her?”

  “No. I’m not even sure what my feelings for her are. This is in the very early stages, Kenzie. And besides, I met her on the job and you know how Dad would feel about that.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake! When are you going to stop trying to live up to that man’s expectations?”

  “I hope never.” Thaddeus Sullivan was a tough man, especially with his boys, but he had a good heart and a lot of wisdom under his belt, and Cooper had looked up to him from the day he was born.

  “You know Daddy’s proud of you. So I say, screw it. If this girl’s what you want, then go for it.”