by Laina Turner
“I still can’t rule him out, and I agree with you he seems likely to have some involvement in this. Nothing really points to him except a feeling and him bothering you in the parking lot. And yes, I normally have access to that information. But with the FBI involved, it’s different. They have been completely clear they want us locals to stay out of it. The less they know about what I’m doing, the better. They will just take over any information I give them and not share what they know with us.”
“Shouldn’t you go to Cooper yourself? If you want something from him, maybe you should talk and work things out.” This seemed like the perfect way to get them talking again.
“Presley, I can’t do that,” Dirt said. He looked at me for a moment before looking away. I had no idea what happened. Cooper certainly wasn’t going to tell me.
“Why not? If you want to use him for information, it seems like you could talk to him about the other issues. That only seems fair.”
“Presley, I need to solve this case, preferably before the FBI does, and I don’t have time to worry about anything else. And truthfully, I don’t know whether or not we can ever be friends again. Some things are just best left alone.”
“That’s just stupid, Dirt, but I’ll ask him. He just wants to solve this, so I’m sure he can put your differences aside and tell you what he knows. Just promise me you’ll talk to Chris about what Simon said. That’s a fair trade-off.” I was hoping to make Dirt feel a little guilty. It was probably not the nicest thing to do when he was already under so much stress, but I just wanted them to quit being so stupid about this, and to forgive and forget for God’s sakes.
“I will and I’ll also make a run by the hotel where Simon is staying and make sure he understands it’s in his best interests to stay away from you.”
“Thanks, Dirt. I’ll call you later,” I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “You’ll solve this. I know you will.”
“Thanks, Pres. And, hey, you can’t leave until you go talk to the FBI. You promised me you would do this two days ago and they keeping bugging me. They’re going to start getting pissed.”
I groaned. I didn’t want to talk to them. Not that I had anything to hide but it was intimidating. “Fine. I will do it right now. But I look like crap.”
“I don’t think the FBI cares what you look like.”
“ What if there’s a cute one?” I teased.
Dirt just shook his head. “I’ll talk to you later. Please, Pres, try to stay out of trouble.”
My conversation with the FBI was painless. They asked the same questions Dirt and Cooper had already asked and I gave them the same answers. There weren’t even any cute agents, so the entire thing was a waste of my time.
Next on my list was a visit to Cooper’s. I wasn’t looking forward to it after last night’s dead cell phone battery game. I assumed he wouldn’t be too happy with me, but I was going to have to face him eventually and I would just have to get over it. He was still staying at the hotel where I had my interview, so I headed over there. Gosh, that seemed like so long ago since he had surprised me at the interview. I tried calling him while waiting for Dirt but got his voicemail. I guessed he was either still pissed from last night or busy, and I didn’t think much about it. I didn’t leave him a message about what happened with Simon because I didn’t want to freak him out. I thought it would be better to tell him in person. However, as I got closer to the hotel, I wondered about the merit of coming here since this was where Simon was staying too. I hoped he wasn’t here. Maybe Simon was still at the ER getting his arm looked at, I laughed to myself. Not very nice, but hell, he deserved it. And it was kind of funny, since there was no permanent harm done.
I asked at the front desk what room Cooper was in, which, of course, they wouldn’t give out. After a call to his room, though, the front desk clerk was granted permission to send me up and she gave me the oh-so-secret room number. At least Cooper wasn’t telling them to get rid of me. He must not be too mad. I smiled at the thought of being able to see him again. I couldn’t wait until this whole mess was over with so I could explore my feelings for him.
Stepping off on the fifteenth floor, my mind wandered off the topic of the case at hand. Visiting Cooper in a hotel brought a whole slew of non-business-related thoughts to mind. In those daydreams, he wasn’t mad at all. I was sure it wouldn’t be too hard to get him to forget about that.
I turned the corner in the hallway and saw Cooper standing outside his door, leaning against the door jamb, talking to a beautiful brunette. She was tall, about five foot nine, slender, well dressed and well put together. I watched as she put a hand on Cooper’s arm, and it looked from my angle that she was thanking him for something. At least that is what her body language suggested. She started walking towards me to the elevator, and as she passed, she nodded hi. I nodded back and turned slightly to watch her continue to the elevator. I turned back to Cooper and saw that he was smiling, so I guessed he wasn’t mad, or maybe whatever he’d been doing with that girl put the smile on his face. I blushed with envy at the thought. He looked so good. He probably started the day out with a crisp-looking suit and tie but by now, even though it wasn’t even lunchtime, he had ditched the jacket and loosened his tie, as if he meant to take it off and then forgot. He had on charcoal grey dress pants, which fit in all the right places, and a blue and grey pinstripe dress shirt. He should have taken his socks off too, since they were burgundy. He must have been in a hurry this morning when getting ready. I could overlook mismatched socks because he was also sporting a five o’clock shadow, even though it was barely 10 a.m. He looked good enough to eat, making me wish I had gone home to change before coming here. I was still wearing the ratty jeans I threw on this morning to go get coffee. At least the t-shirt and hoodie were reasonably clean, but again I regretted not having at least some better shoes on. Not that he would notice the shoes I wore, no guys ever did, but it would have made me feel better.
“I’m glad you stopped by, King,” Cooper said warmly, leaning in to give me a hug.
Me too, I thought, drinking in his scent and loving the way his warm body felt on mine.
“Who was that?”
“That,” he said exaggeratedly, “was Tori DeMarco. Beautiful, isn’t she?”
“I guess if you like that type.”
“Oh, and what type is that?”
“Beautiful to look at, but not much for conversation.”
“I would love to disagree with you, but you have her pegged.”
“And she would be…?”
“She would be the Senator’s something extra on the side. Or rather she was until just recently.”
“They broke up?”
“Not by their choice, but Helen put her foot down with Tom. She said the affairs had to stop. However I wasn’t ever convinced it had stopped completely and her showing up here kind of confirms that.”
“Did you know about her?”
“Yes.” He shrugged. “But after Helen gave the ultimatum, he didn’t ask for my assistance for anything about her.”
“What did you used to do exactly? Do you also run an escort service?” I was joking of course, but on a certain level, I hoped he hadn’t been a contributing helper to the Senator’s extramarital affairs.
“Ha! You’re funny. No, it wasn’t like that. He just needed me to do a background check for security reasons, and I was responsible for getting her safely home a few times.”
“Why would you help him cheat on his wife?”
“It’s not my place to judge, Presley. Anyways I’m sure that’s not why you stopped by. So, come sit down and tell me what’s happened since you hung up on me last.”
“Yeah. Sorry about that. My battery went dead.”
“Right,” he said dryly.
I walked in and took a seat on the loveseat. It was your pretty typical hard, lumpy hotel sofa. The furnishings were nice, same rich hues as in the lobby, but not as opulent as the lobby.
“I wanted to fill yo
u in on something that happened this morning. But don’t freak out about it, okay?”
“Okay,” Cooper said slowly. “You know asking someone to not freak out pretty much guarantees they will freak out?”
“It’s not that big of a deal. Well, it was at the time, but it’s not now. Dirt’s taking care of it. Anyway, I’ll get to the point.” I could see he was getting annoyed with me. I didn’t know how he would react, as protective as he had been lately. I didn’t want it to get even worse; it was driving me crazy, though it did make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know he cared.
“I had a little run-in with Simon this morning,” I said and waited for his reaction.
“I know.”
“How do you know?”
“Just tell me what happened.”
“Nothing really.” I shrugged, trying to be nonchalant about the whole thing. “We had a few words, Katy burned him with her coffee, and he left. End of story.” I tried to make it sound as matter-of-fact as I could, like it was no big deal, but I didn’t think it was working.
“Wait a minute,” he said, holding his hands up and looking puzzled. “Run that by me again. How did Katy happen to burn him with her coffee? Guess I don’t know the whole story. What have you two been doing?”
I sighed. I had hoped he would accept my simple explanation and we could move on. But I didn’t see that happening and wasn’t in the mood for a lecture on how I should quit trying to solve the Senator’s murder.
“Well, he sort of grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. Katy happened to be getting coffee on her way to work and saw him. She came over and dumped her fresh, hot coffee all over his arm so he would let go. He did and only ended up with slight burns. The big shame was wasting all that coffee. I had to go spend another four bucks to get another one for her.” Maybe a little humor would help lighten his mood.
“I told you that you should leave this alone.”
Guess not. “You should be feeling bad that Katy wasted her coffee on that jerk.”
“This isn’t funny, King,” Cooper said, his blue eyes looking tensely into mine. If I didn’t know any better, I would say there was a little fear mixed with the anger.
“Cooper, do you really think I have reason to be afraid of Simon? I asked him if he killed the Senator and he said no. I believe him.”
Cooper looked at me as if I was crazy and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.
“So, what do you think, Cooper? Do you think he’s telling the truth?”
Cooper sighed. “Yes, I am sure he’s telling the truth. Pres, I would rest easier if you would back off and let me handle this.”
I pretended not to hear that last comment and focused on the first thing he said. What made him so sure Simon wasn’t a killer? Here we were again—he knew more than he was letting on. “Why are you so sure?”
Cooper paused for a minute. “Would you just trust me? Please accept the fact that I know with great certainty that Simon is not a killer.”
“Hold on there, Jack! How do you know? What are you not telling me?” I would bet my favorite pair of Jimmy Choos—the real ones (not fake for a change, but definitely from the clearance rack)—that Cooper knew more than he was telling, and I was determined to get it out of him. “And who already told you about this morning?”
“He did. He is my employee, remember? He knew I would find out and correctly assumed it would be better coming from him. I will talk to him again. He shouldn’t have been rough with you. I promise you he won’t bother you again.”
I stood up and followed Cooper to where he stood by the small light brown nightstand by his bed. “If you think for a minute that you are leaving this room without telling me everything you know, you’re crazy!” I watched him mull this over while I enjoyed the view of him. I could watch him think all day if I had to. His forehead wrinkled in concentration, and even then, he had an easy way about him; he held up well under stress and concern. The slightly disheveled, kind of rough look was becoming on him. It made me want to rub his back and let him know everything was going to be okay. After a long pause, Cooper said, “Let’s just say that I have known Simon for a while, and I know he didn’t do this.”
“What do you mean you have known him for a while? How long has he worked for you? And you originally thought he might be the killer, or at least that’s the impression you gave me. You better explain to me why you are now changing your story. Were you lying to me?” I was starting to get mad. Actually, I was already there. Had Cooper been lying to me all along about what he knew about Simon? I didn’t care how good looking he was or how much I wanted him, for that matter; I wouldn’t be lied to. God knows I had enough of that with Rick, even if this wasn’t personal. Plus, I still needed to ask about the information I found on Google and the discrepancies there. I wanted to trust him, but he was making it hard.
“King…”
“Don’t ‘King’ me. I want to know what’s going on, now!”
“It’s a long story. One I don’t really have time for.”
“Well, too bad because I do have time,” I said, sitting down on the bed, hands across my chest. I wasn’t giving in.
“Fine,” Cooper caved. “I met Simon when I was in the military. He enlisted to hide from his father.”
“Okay. Go on.”
“He’s the son of a Mob boss. Simon’s real last name is Palazzo.” Cooper paused, waiting for that bit of news to sink in.
“And you’ve known this all along?” I was beyond ticked off. He had led me to believe up to this point that Simon could be involved in the Senator’s death and had said nothing about the fact that he knew Simon had Mob connections, until now. “Isn’t it a bit of a conflict of interest that someone with criminal ties works for your security firm?” I asked sarcastically.
“Calm down. It’s not like that.”
“Then tell me what it’s like, Cooper.”
“Simon is a good guy. He didn’t want to go into the family business. That’s why he went into the military and that’s why he now works for me.”
“So do you think that his dad knew Simon was here when he came to meet with Bobby?”
“I’m sure he did. Garrison probably knows every move his son makes. He has just learned to keep his distance.”
“So being friends with Simon, does this have anything to do with you being in Las Vegas at some luncheon with the Senator and his wife, before the time you told me you started working for the Senator?” This seemed like a perfect opportunity to ask him this.
Cooper just looked at me. “How did you find that out?”
“Does it matter? Why did you lie to me?”
“Presley, this is complicated.”
“Wait a minute.” I paused, shook my head, and looked at Cooper. “If you know Simon from the military then why doesn’t Dirt know him? Or is he pretending not to know him too?”
He looked so worn out at the thought of trying to explain whatever it was he needed to explain that I almost felt sorry for him, but not quite. I still felt he owed me an explanation. He had misled me about many things and I wanted a reason.
“Dirt knew him.”
“Then why is he pretending he doesn’t? I don’t understand, if you were all at the same place…”
“It started back…” Cooper’s cell phone rang, interrupting him. He held up his finger to silence me while he answered the call. He walked away from me so I couldn’t hear what he was saying, although I tried my hardest to eavesdrop.
“Okay, I’ll be there in a minute,” Cooper said, snapping the phone shut and reaching for his jacket. “Listen, Pres, I’ve got to go take care of something.” Cooper felt somewhat relieved. He didn’t want to leave her, but didn’t really want to have this conversation either.
“Cooper! We’re not finished.” I rose from the bed to follow him, but he stopped me.
“I know I owe you an explanation, but I have to ask you to just trust me.” As he said this, he put his arm around me and it was all I coul
d do to keep from melting as he brushed his lips across my forehead. It was almost enough to make me forget how mad I was at him and almost enough to beg him to stay. “I will call you later, Pres, I promise. Can you see yourself out?”
“Cooper!” I said again, but he had already walked out the door. That went well, I thought. Flopping back onto the bed, I inhaled his cologne from the sheets and thought, I could stay here all day. Maybe I would stay all day and be waiting for him when he returned. Under the right circumstances, I was confident I could get him to tell me anything. Although I would have to run out and get better underwear to really do the trick.
I laughed and pushed off the bed. It sounded great in theory, but in reality, I had things to do. I couldn’t wait for Cooper to decide when he could fill me in and stop keeping things from me. Though, if he had his way that would probably be never. I didn’t even have the chance to tell him about Helen and Simon. I walked to the door to leave, but paused when my hand touched the handle. Maybe I should have a look around before I go. There could be information lying around that could be useful. After all, he was the one who left me here all alone in his hotel room. So anything I saw in plain view was fair game, I rationalized. My definition of plain view may have varied, I thought, as I opened a drawer on the nightstand by the bed to look inside. Disappointed it was empty, I tried the dresser. He was a bit of a neat freak—something we didn’t have in common. There was nothing on the top and his clothes were all neatly folded inside the drawers. The normal stuff one would expect to be in a dresser. I didn’t know what I was expecting—maybe something to jump out at me and scream “Secret!” Where would I put something I wanted to keep somewhat hidden? I already checked underneath the clothes in his drawers, just as much to think about him in or out of said clothes as to find some revealing information, which may not have even existed.
Standing in the middle of the hotel room, I looked around, trying to see if anything looked out of place. Everything looked normal. As I was about to give up and leave, a thought popped in my head. I watched a Law & Order episode a while back where they found evidence between the mattress and box springs. Maybe that’s the preferred hiding place for criminal types and people in security. It was worth a shot I thought as I got down on my knees to lift up the mattress and have a look. Nothing on this side. Dropping the mattress back into place, I walked around to the other side. Out of luck again. Guess it was a little farfetched.