"There's a kit in the car," Solomon said, stepping behind me. "I'll get them."
"No, it's okay. I was stepping outside anyway. I'll get it and be right back," I told him, stepping around Amelia and heading for the elevator before Solomon could stop me. I needed the fresh air, but I needed the space more. It wasn't just Solomon's rudeness to Maddox that puzzled me; it was his recent behavior towards me. He'd been remarkably attentive and more than a little pissed when guys spoke to me. I understood that. Josh Alvarez objectified me, while Maddox was my ex. Although I thought Solomon's concern about me was sweet, some of his comments confused me. As I stepped out of the elevator, I figured Solomon must be on some weird kind of health kick that he wanted me to participate in. Perhaps it was affecting his mood.
I passed a couple of hotel employees on my way to the parking lot, smiling as one face looked familiar. The maid nodded and looked away quickly, rushing forwards as my step faltered.
"Hey!" I turned, calling. "I know you! You're not a maid!"
The fake maid broke into a faster walk and I doubled my speed until I could grab her by the arm.
"Excuse me!" she squawked, pulling her arm back. "Get off me! I have rooms to make up."
"You're Shayne Winter. The journalist."
"I'm not. I'm..." She peered down at the nametag sewn onto her uniform.
"You are not Juanita," I told her.
"Damn it," Shayne sighed. "It nearly worked. I know who you are too. You're Lexi Graves. Here's the deal. Tell me what you know and I'll print your comments as an anonymous source for my paper."
"I'm not telling you anything!"
"Why not? I put you on the front cover of the Montgomery Gazette. I made you famous."
"The Gazette does not make you famous."
"Semi famous. In Montgomery."
"I don't want to be famous anywhere. And I'm not letting you break into B4U's floor."
"You don't have to let me. Be my inside source instead." Shayne pulled a small recording device from a pocket and shoved it under my chin. "What are the band doing right now? Are they devastated? Are they planning Katya's funeral? What are they wearing? What was Katya wearing when she died?"
"I'm calling security."
"Just a few words. Who cried the most? Are they going to regroup as a trio? Have the police nailed a suspect yet?"
"Um, let me see..." I waited as Shayne's eyes widened in anticipation. "Oh yeah, not telling," I teased.
"How about I tell you something and you tell me something," Shayne said, playing her trump card.
"What do you know?" I asked.
"Something juicy. What's it worth?"
"Tell me first."
We played standoff for a few minutes, staring at each other, then blinking when it got too hard not to. Shayne gave up first. "Fine. Amelia got married last year and you'll never guess who her husband is. I'm breaking the story in tomorrow's edition."
My mouth dropped open. "Who?"
"Your turn."
"I can't tell you anything."
"Then I'm not telling you who her husband is."
"You've told me enough." I raised a hand to Delgado as he stepped through the glass doors, flanked by two security guards. "Security! Get this journalist out of the hotel and don't let her in again."
"Hey!" Shayne yelled, breaking into a run. The two security guards followed after her.
"How did she get in?" Delgado asked, joining me to watch as Shayne and the guards sprinted along the corridor before veering to the left and out of view.
I handed him the car keys. "No idea. Can you grab the fingerprint kit from the trunk of Solomon's car? Shayne Winter just gave me a huge tip."
"I don't think she gets how to be a maid at all. She's supposed to take the tips," said Delgado and laughed.
"Not one bit," I agreed, hitting speed dial on my cell phone. Lucas picked up on the last ring before it clicked through to voicemail.
"Got something for me?" he asked.
"I do. And it really is an ‘I do.’ I need you to find out who Amelia Toren married last year."
Chapter Ten
"They're really going to shoot the video?" I asked.
Solomon nodded. "Joe called and told me that the decision was already made. B4U are going ahead as a trio."
"Doesn't the four in their name make that odd?" B3U, I decided, made no sense whatsoever. B4U, however, was catchy, but a B4U with only three members also made no sense. I wondered what the rationale was behind the decision and how far up the list the factor of money was positioned.
He shrugged. "Guess it doesn't matter if they're doing that cute text-speak thing."
I thought back to all of Solomon's perfectly spelled and punctuated texts. "You think that's cute?"
"In an annoying sense."
We were sitting in Solomon's office, two cups of hot take-out coffee on the desk between us. My feet were resting on the desk, which wasn't especially ladylike, but it did enable me to admire my new sneakers. Paired with my ankle-skimming jeans, they looked particularly cute, in the best possible sense of the word. Solomon hadn't commented on them, but that didn't surprise me, although I knew he noticed everything. That he didn't tell me take my feet off his desk was another matter. He was distracted and it showed.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Blackmail. Murder. Security breaches. Secret tunnels. Media everywhere. This case is a nightmare." Solomon sighed as he reached for his coffee, taking a long swallow.
"I already told you they were pains in the butt."
"I've heard you mention it a few times."
"I am surprised they're continuing as a trio, especially after they got the latest blackmail letter."
"Yeah about that," Solomon started, then stopped.
"What?"
"I have security all over the building. Although we didn't know about the passage previously, I had a guy stationed outside the service elevator downstairs. No one could have gotten into the suite. It's just not possible."
"Maybe there was a breach. Maybe one of the hotel staff was bribed."
"I checked. Not even housekeeping was on the floor when that letter arrived."
"So… who was?"
"Just the band and Joe, and those two goofs that sit by the elevator. My guys were posted on each elevator downstairs and they confirmed no one went up or down."
"Someone could have come through the tunnel much earlier. We didn't know when the letter arrived," I pointed out, feeling smart. I would have felt a lot smarter if I hadn't just widened the suspect pool again. "Maybe Maddox will get something off the fingerprints. If the blackmailer entered the suite that way, he or she might not have thought to wear gloves."
Solomon reached for the phone, punching the buttons before putting the receiver to his ear. "It's Solomon," he said, "How's it going with the fingerprints from the secret passageway?"
"Maddox?" I mouthed and Solomon gave a brief nod. I sank back in my chair and waited, listening to one half of the conversation.
"You found something? Good. Any matches in the system? Huh. Can you tell me where the prints were found? Okay. The blackmail letter? Yeah, I've got my guys checking it. I'll send you copies. No problem." Solomon hung up.
"And?" I prompted.
"Yes, to the fingerprints. Several sets that matched were found by the elevator, the doorways and the control panels. Maddox says the hotel has fingerprints of the staff on file and he's identified more than a dozen prints as those of the housekeeping staff. When they went through the system, however, they came up clean. There're a couple sets that haven't been identified yet; and he found one unknown that matches the prints from the elevator and outside Katya's suite. Definitely not a hotel employee, so he's still digging."
"And you're sending him the blackmail letters?" I asked, wondering if Maddox hadn't yet received the copies I emailed as my share of our deal.
"Copies," corrected Solomon. "I've had them analyzed at the lab, but I doubt there will be anything to w
ork with in fingerprints or DNA once I compare the prints to samples from the band. The blackmailer was careful. Mass marketed paper, the printer is generic, the envelope wasn’t even licked, and there's no indication any of it was actually touched, so the perp thought ahead enough to wear a pair of gloves."
"Dead ends." I tried not to reveal my dejection with my voice as Solomon listed all the problems I'd already encountered.
"Dead ends," Solomon agreed.
"At least, you're playing nice with the FBI," I said as the image of the hotel reservations popped into my head again. I didn't ask Maddox and he didn't say, but I still wondered.
"It always pays to play nice with the FBI."
"We need Lucas to get us that bank account information." Just as I said it, the desk phone rang. Solomon grabbed it. I heard Lucas's muffled voice, then Solomon hit the speaker button.
"I got something," said Lucas, sounding excited. "And you're going to love me forever."
Solomon raised his eyebrows.
"Fine, you'll probably pay my salary a while longer," said Lucas as if he could see Solomon's facial movements.
"Get to it," said Solomon.
"First thing, I found out who owns the blackmailer's bank account."
Solomon and I both sat bolt upright.
"Who?" I asked.
"Just a sec," said Lucas. "There're two things. You wanted to know who Amelia Toren married?"
"Yes. Did you find out?"
"I'm emailing the certificate to your phones now."
Solomon and I both grabbed our phones. I gasped as the email attachment downloaded.
"Are you kidding me?" I asked.
"Am I a kidding man?" Lucas replied. "Now back to that bank account... I've got a name and photos of the account being opened in person. You won't believe who it's registered to."
~
Solomon and I were speeding towards the hotel. If I could have gotten us on a spaceship to get us there faster, I would have. With the two new pieces of information, that Lucas verified beyond any doubt, we needed to talk to the band.
"Why haven't transporters been invented yet?" I asked.
Solomon glanced towards me. "What?"
"You know. Like Star Trek."
"Star Trek?"
"If we could get a beam-me-up thingy, life would be so much easier."
"Life is about to get much easier."
"Does this mean I'm going to get my bonus?" I asked, thinking about the bonus Solomon mentioned when he handed me the case. I could do a lot with the bonus. I could get a patio built in my backyard. Or go on a girls' weekend trip with Lily. I could buy some gorgeous shoes. With what B4U were paying, I could do all three and still have some money left in the bank. Even better, it would be great compensation for dealing with a few of the most obnoxious women I ever encountered.
"Looks that way," said Solomon, which sounded a lot like a yes to me.
We left the car in the employee parking lot and moved seamlessly past the security guards posted at intervals all along the way. At the elevator, we rode the car to the top floor. Solomon called ahead to see if Joe were in the building so he could ask him for the band's schedule that day, but he didn't tell him why, or even that we were visiting. Luckily for us, the band weren't scheduled to start shooting the video until later, so they were currently in their suites, apparently, lying low. The paparazzi swarmed around them every time the hotel doors opened. That was good news for us, because we needed to confront Amelia about her secret wedding.
Even more pressing, we could tell all of them who the blackmailer was.
"I don't get how she thought it could be kept secret for so long," I mused as we ascended. "It didn't take us long to get a hold of that certificate. Journalists would have found it too. Actually, one did."
"What are you talking about?"
"Um, so, I got the tip off about Amelia's marriage from a journalist."
"You didn't think to mention that before?"
"It didn't occur to me, but I just remembered she's going to break the story in tomorrow's edition."
"Oh, jeez!" Solomon rested a palm against his forehead. "Tomorrow's edition of what?"
"I didn't find out."
"Why not?"
"Because she ran from security, and by the time I knew they caught her, they'd already ejected her from the building."
"Who is the journalist?"
"Shayne Winter."
"Why does that name sound familiar?"
I thought back, one more mortifying time, to the humiliating story Shayne once printed. It ran with a huge photo of Lily and me dressed as a plush pony while working a case. I decided to feign ignorance rather than relive it. "No idea!"
Solomon took his cell phone out of his pocket in a flash. "Delgado. Find a journalist named Shayne Winter and squash her story about B4U. Yes, now!" He hung up and turned back to me. "Anything else you've forgotten to tell me?"
I pursed my lips, thinking. There was that awful, horrific moment in the strip club with the band singing and gyrating half-naked around stripper poles, but I not only handled it, I even buried it. "Nope," I lied.
"Good. They're paying us to keep everything discreet. We can't afford any leaks."
"I thought no news was bad news, and everything else was good news?"
"Not to this band. Their image is everything right now."
The elevator doors slid back and Large and Larger nodded to us as we stepped out.
"Do you two ever sleep?" I asked.
"Hmmph," said Large. Larger shook his head.
"Okay, then," I mumbled, wondering why I ever bothered speaking to the two men. I presumed they were employed primarily for their bulk, and not for their scintillating conversation.
"Where's Joe?" asked Solomon.
Large inclined his head towards Amelia's suite.
"Good to talk," I said with a wave as we stepped past them. Larger waved back and smiled.
Joe was sitting in his suite with the band, and for once, not one of them was screaming. Amelia was playing with her phone. Shelley was flipping through a magazine, and Lauren was doodling on a notepad. It was such a serene scene that I couldn't help glancing at Solomon to see if he were as suspicious as I. By the look on his face, he was.
"Solomon, Lexi." Joe stood, reaching a hand out. "I didn't know you were coming by."
"Last minute decision," said Solomon. "Have we interrupted something?"
"Nothing. The band and I are just hanging out after our conference call with management back home. I told you we're continuing with the video shoot? The girls are psyched."
The "girls" did not seem psyched at all. Shelley gave a small snort at Joe's words, Lauren ignored us entirely, and Amelia's brief glance told me she was pissed.
"Is there something I can help you with?" continued Joe. "Do you have a lead on the blackmail letter? We haven't paid... yet."
"We do have some news," I said, taking the lead and trying not to enjoy the moment. "We'd advise you not to pay."
"But they'll reveal our secrets!" said Amelia. "We have no choice."
"Actually, you do have a choice. Amelia, your secret is going to break in a high circulation newspaper tomorrow. We expect it'll be picked up nationwide." I didn't know that for sure, but it was an educated guess. Any scandal pertaining to B4U would be big news.
"Oh my God," Amelia groaned. "How did they find out?"
"I have no idea, but it wasn't hard for us to verify."
"They found out my real age," Amelia moaned. "The whole country will know I'm nearly thirty, and not a teen sensation! I'll be fired for sure now!"
"I think your age will probably be mentioned, but that's not your secret, Amelia." I pulled out my phone, bringing up the photo of the marriage certificate Lucas emailed. I stepped across to her, holding the phone out. She took it, frowning, and gasped, her mouth falling open. "You bitch! How did you find out? And who did you tell?"
"It doesn't really matter," I told her, pulling back my phone b
efore she hurled it at me or the wall. "What matters is that everyone is going to know you and Joe got married last year."
"Joe who?" asked Shelley, jerking her head up and looking from me to Amelia, to Joe. "That Joe? Our Joe? You married Joe! Holy shizzle!"
"I'm screwed," said Joe, his head falling back.
"You're screwed? C'mon, Joe! I'm going to go from being the teen sensation everyone loves to an old married woman. My life is over!" Amelia wailed as she slapped the back of her hand against her forehead and sank against the pillows. "I'll be fired. We'll have to disband now for sure!"
"You married Joe?" Lauren gaped. "It was bad enough trying to airbrush your wrinkles from every magazine shoot, but now you've got a wedding ring too?"
"Shut up, you stupid cow. Your secret is way worse than mine!" screamed Amelia.
"Screw you!" Lauren yelled back.
"This is great!" Shelley clapped her hands. "I always thought Joe was gay!"
"He's not gay! He's my husband!" screamed Amelia.
Shelley sniffed, mumbling, "Doesn't prove anything. Might still be gay."
"Take. It. Back!"
"Without your wig, you kind of look like a boy," Shelley continued, apparently oblivious to Amelia's reddening face.
"Don't talk to my wife like that," said Joe, his loud voice cutting through the air.
"You didn't ask us to be bridesmaids?" said Lauren. "Amelia Toren, you're one mean bitch."
"It's Amelia Toren-Carter," replied Amelia.
"Where'd you get married? Vegas?" asked Shelley.
"Actually, yes," said Joe. He was rewarded with a screech of laughter from Shelley. She shut up when a candlestick hit her in the head. Leaping to her feet, she clenched her fists, her face filled with fury.
"Settle down," said Solomon, jumping between them. "The marriage thing isn't a big deal."
"Actually, it is," yelled Lauren. "We could lose our jobs! Katya's dead. This bitch married our manager. The band is done. Thanks, Amelia! Some of us needed the income, you know."
"I know why you need it," said Amelia. "I know all about your dirty, little secret!"
"You shut up!"
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