by Desiree Holt
“Then let’s go see what we can find out.”
He held her hand as they walked to his car. For the first time since she’d received that phone call in the middle of the night, Peyton began to think that they would find answers and someone would be made to pay for what happened. As they headed back into the city, she pulled out her cell and called the hospital.
She glanced at Blaze while she hit the speed dial for the number.
“I know it’s a waste of time, but I always call for reports when I’m away from Brianne for any length of time. If anything happened, they’d contact me right away.”
“Not a waste if it puts your mind at ease. Brianne’s situation is so unpredictable. She could wake up any time, right?”
She breathed a sigh of relief when the nurse she spoke with told her there had been no change in Brianne’s condition.
“At least she didn’t suddenly get worse,” she told Blaze when she disconnected the call. “It’s the only thing I have to hang on to right now.”
“It’s that old saying,” he told her. “No news is good news. Right?”
“Right. But now I’m ready for something. Anything.”
“Let’s see if the scene tells us anything new.”
They worked their way into South Tampa through the five-thirty traffic and over to Calypso. The parking lot across the street was full—probably, Peyton thought, with cocktail hour hangouts killing time until dinner. She’d been told Calypso’s dinner hour didn’t really start until seven. Before that it was cocktails in the bar or appetizers in the wine cellar. Probably, she thought, so they could handle the cost of the dinner. She’d looked up Calypso online and nearly passed out at the prices. Dane Hollister must have made a damn good living to be able to afford to take Brianne to places like this.
There was curbside parking across the street from the restaurant and luckily, as Blaze pointed out, this was not a street where one usually found people walking. She could see someone was leaving just as they pulled up. He parked and turned off the engine.
“Let’s head up the sidewalk a little way. We can’t drive slowly enough to see what I want.”
“We’ll be the only people walking,” she commented.
“I know, but we’ll pretend we’re looking for an address. Come on.”
He was good at this, she realized. He actually acted as if they were searching for a place.
“The car came from that direction.” Blaze indicated with his head. “If it was parked in this line, it would have been facing away from Calypso, so whoever was driving would have had to turn around. Let’s see where else it could have been.”
Peyton realized at once this was not a street that saw a lot of walkers. There was a boutique hotel, a couple of small office buildings and some small, eclectic businesses. Some of them had parking spaces at the side.
“Whoever it was could have been waiting here.” Blaze pointed at one of them. “Or here. Or the next one. You can see the entrance to Calypso from any of them, the way the street takes a little jog.”
“So it was just a matter of watching until they came out. But…”
They stopped, waiting for the car that wanted to pull out into the street.
“Let’s wait until we get back in the car,” he told her. “We’re the only ones walking. Here we are.”
Once they were in the car, he cranked the engine so the air conditioning would come on, but he didn’t pull away from the curb.
“How did whoever it was know…”
“They had to know…”
They both spoke at the same time, looked at each other and grinned.
“You first,” she said.
“This wasn’t a random thing. Calypso is not a place that you just drop into and hope they have a table free. You have to make reservations, so whoever did this had access to Dane’s calendar.”
“So…someone from his office?” Peyton frowned. “I didn’t get that vibe when I was there, but then I wasn’t looking for it. I focused only on Kendrick. I wasn’t thinking of anything else.”
“We need to make a list of possibles. People who would know their schedules. The places they liked to go. Who would be in a position to know about that reservation no matter how far in advance it was made?” He snapped his fingers. “What happened to your sister’s belongings after the accident? Her purse?”
Peyton frowned. “I think they’re in a drawer in her room. The nurse apologized that they’d had to cut off her clothes to treat her, but I didn’t care. The clothes were the least important things. I didn’t think about anything else. Why?”
“She has to have a cell phone. These days, everyone who breathes has one. And what does everyone have on that piece of equipment besides phone numbers?”
Peyton scrunched her forehead. “Many things. I’m not sure what you’re looking for.”
“A calendar, Peyton. Notes. Photos. Every time they even think of doing something they put it in their phones. They take pictures of the oddest things. People keep their entire lives on their cell phones.” He snapped his fingers. “And even if the phone is destroyed, everything gets stored in the cloud. The all-knowing cloud.”
“If you have sign-in information and passwords,” she reminded him.
“First, we have to find the phones, Dane’s as well as Brianne’s. Then we’ll worry about passwords. What happened to Dane’s stuff?”
“The clothes were destroyed. If he had anything else, your guess is as good as mine. I don’t know what happened to his car. Didn’t think to ask. I assumed it was leased by the firm and they took care of it. Sorry, it just wasn’t high on my list of priorities.”
“Understandable.”
“His parents might have taken anything salvageable, but they never said a word to me. The body was still at the medical examiner’s when I got into town. From there it went right down to the funeral home. I’m sorry, Blaze, I just wasn’t thinking straight at the time. And it never occurred to me that we might need whatever he might have had with him.”
“And why would you? There was no reason to think it was anything but what it looked like.”
He reached over and took her hand as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The contact soothed her jangled nerves and she wound her fingers through his.
“Where did your sister keep her camera equipment? Did she have a studio somewhere?”
“She had a place set up at the house. Since most of her work was for advertising and promotional pieces, she didn’t need a studio.”
“We need to find those pictures she took,” he pointed out, “and see if there’s a way to identify the people in them.”
“Of course,” she snapped. “We should check Brianne’s stuff at the hospital first. We’re going there right now anyway, right?”
“Yes. After that, I’ll hit their house and see what I can find.”
“I want to go with you,” she insisted.
“I thought you’d want to sit with Brianne.”
“I do, but this is just as important. Maybe more so. I want to get to the bottom of this, Blaze.”
“Okay, but first let’s stop at Calypso and see if we can pry any info out of their staff, like how far ahead their reservation was made and what time it was for. All we know is it was late in the evening. When we get Brianne’s phone, if we can open it, we might find any notations she made about it.”
They drove around the block, and when they were even with the restaurant, Blaze turned in to the parking lot across the street.
“How late are you open?” Blaze asked the attendant who came out of the little shack.
Peyton noticed it wasn’t the same man who had been here when Brianne and Dane were run down, the one she’d tried to question without success.
“Calypso closes at eleven during the week and twelve-thirty on the weekend. Someone is here usually until a half hour after that. The restaurant has a tiny parking lot so most of their customers park over here.” He handed the parking ticket to Blaze.
Peyton cleared her throat. “Are you here all the time?”
“Right now, I am. I usually only work Sunday through Wednesday, but the weekend guy got another job, so I’m stuck with all the nights until they hire someone else.”
It was obvious to Peyton he was anything but happy about the situation.
“That’s too bad,” Blaze sympathized. “You happen to know any reason he left?”
The attendant, who Peyton judged to be about twenty-five, shrugged. “Maybe he got tired of people pestering him with questions about that accident.”
“Oh?”
Peyton had to bite her tongue to keep from saying anything. Better to let Blaze keep it going.
“Yeah. I guess everyone was driving him nuts. He was just here one day and gone the next.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, thanks. Hope you get some help soon. Let’s go, honey. And let’s be very careful crossing the street.”
Peyton swallowed a grin at ‘honey’ but let him take her hand in his. She was stunned at the spike of electricity that raced up her arm, and the memory of their kiss flashed in her brain.
Get it together, girl.
“Be careful of the traffic,” Blaze reminded her.
As if it wasn’t engraved on her brain. As two cars zipped past them, she couldn’t help trying to imagine what had happened that night. Nausea bubbled up in her throat as she visualized the carnage of the scene. God! What if Brianne never came out of her coma?
Don’t think that way. Be positive.
Then they were inside Calypso’s. There were several people in front of them, so they had to wait to speak to the hostess.
“Can I help you?” She smiled at them when it was their turn, her professional personality in place, her dress slacks and ruffled shirt looking as if they’d just come from the store. “What name is the reservation under?”
“We actually don’t have one,” Blaze began, “but—”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. We don’t take walk-ins. We’re always booked away ahead, but if you’d like to pick a date now?”
“We’re actually looking for a piece of information.” Blaze looked at the reservation book in front of her. “Do you by any chance keep those books after the date has passed?”
Her perfect forehead wrinkled in a tiny frown. “Excuse me?”
“Well, for example, will you keep that reservation list after tonight or throw it away?”
She stared at him as if he had two heads. “Um, each book holds the reservations for a month. Once the book is full, the manager keeps it for thirty days in case we need information before throwing it away. Why are you asking?”
“Whew.” Blaze looked at Peyton. “Maybe we’ll win our bet.”
“Bet?” The hostess quirked a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “About Calypso?”
“Yeah. We have a bet with friends of ours that they didn’t celebrate their anniversary here. I told the husband I thought he was too cheap.” He winked at her. “They insist they had dinner at Calypso, but I think my pinchpenny friend took his wife someplace else.” He leaned in a little. “And I just love to get his goat.”
“I don’t know if I can give out that information.” She fiddled with the pages in front of her nervously. “And people are lining up behind you.”
“We’ll wait. In fact, how about if I buy my lovely wife a drink while you take care of customers? Then you can give me a look at the book for five minutes.” He rested one hand on the podium where the book was and only Peyton saw his fingers flex once.
The hostess covered whatever it was with her own hand and chewed her lip, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder.
“Oh, well. I guess I could do this. Just don’t tell my boss. What’s your friend’s name and what date were you looking at? I can check it for you as soon as I seat these people.”
Blaze gave her the information as soon as she returned to the podium and waited while she flipped through the pages of the book.
“It’s here,” she told him, studying a particular page and giving them the date. “They had a nine-thirty reservation. We were jammed that night, so it was the earliest we could fit them in, even though they called in three weeks in advance.” Her lips curved in a tiny smile. “People book for Friday and Saturday weeks in advance. Sometimes months.”
“I know it’s a popular place.” Blaze gave her his devastating grin. “Well, damn. Thanks a lot for your help, even though it’s going to cost me big bucks.” He took Peyton’s hand again and guided her toward the door.
“I’m glad she didn’t recognize the name,” Peyton told him as they crossed the street.
“I’d hate to say anything bad about her, after she did us a favor, but I’m not sure our hostess pays attention to things like that.”
“She did smile when you referred to me as your lovely wife,” she teased.
“You are lovely. Don’t forget it.”
She didn’t know quite what to say to that, so she just stood silently while Blaze handed the parking attendant their ticket and paid the tab.
“You guys didn’t stay for dinner?” the kid asked.
“No. Got a call and had to leave.” He took his keys from the kid and hustled Peyton to the car. “Let’s get out of here. We have stuff to do. Our next stop, however, is the hospital so you can lay eyes on your sister.”
“Thank you,” she breathed. She didn’t expect any change, but she could always hope.
Chapter Seven
Chuck Wagner looked up from his tablet as Peyton and Blaze came down the hallway from the elevator and stood to greet them.
“Quiet on all sides,” he told them in a low voice.
“No unusual traffic?” Blaze asked.
“None. Your brother must have put the word out, because before anyone went into the room, they stopped and showed me their ID badges.” He grinned and tapped his tablet until he brought up a program. Then he turned it so Blaze and Peyton could see it.
Peyton’s eyes widened as she stared at the screen.
“You tapped into the hospital’s employee database?”
Wagner shrugged. “Gotta make sure the pictures on the badges match the ones in the system. Right?”
She looked at Blaze. “Whatever you charge me, it’s worth every penny.”
“I’ll remember that,” he teased. The he sobered. “Let’s check on your sister and take a look at her things.”
Brianne looked to be in exactly the same position as when they’d left her.
What did I think, that she was going to get up and dance?
She took a moment to stand beside her sister’s bed, reached for a hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“We’re going to find out who did this,” she promised. “Then we’ll make them pay in spades.” She paused. “I found a really great guy who’s helping me. He and his partners will get answers. I know it.”
She moved over to a wall that had a built-in closet, drawers and a mirror, and pulled out one of the drawers. Brianne’s things were folded in neat piles, although there wasn’t much. A cardigan sweater that apparently she hadn’t been wearing that night, since it was still in one piece. Bloodstained shoes that she ought to throw away. A folded scarf. And yes! There! Beneath the sweater was her sister’s purse. She held it up for Blaze to see then opened it, and smiled when she pulled out a cell phone.
“I knew she’d have it with her.” She tapped it and the screen image popped up.
“Do you have any idea what her password might be?” Blaze asked.
Peyton shook her head. “I’m hoping it’s something as easy as her date of birth or the date of her wedding. She was big on numbers.”
“Wait until we get in the car to do it.”
“Okay.”
“I still want to go to their house. If Dane was suspicious of anyone, or had a confrontation or whatever, there might be something to give us a clue. Do you think he might have written it down and put it someplace in the house?”
“Anything is possible.
Researching my books, I learned never to say never and that anything can end up being a clue.”
“Then let’s get out of here. I’ll see about opening the phone in the car.”
After touching base with Chuck Wagner again, they took the elevator down to the lobby.
“Hold on a second,” Blaze told her as they headed into the parking garage.
“What for? I want to see if I can open this phone.”
“I agree. But first I think we should take your car to the hotel and have them valet park it. I don’t intend for you to go off by yourself for anything, so we’ll only need the one car.”
She stopped as they entered the first floor of the garage. “Just leave it with the valet?”
“Unless you don’t want to pay the extra expense. I just think it’s safer if we leave it where it’s not easily accessible.”
Her eyes widened. “You think they’d try to damage my car?”
“Maybe with you in it.” He held her back again. “You’ve been banging on enough doors and shaking enough trees to put a lot of people on notice,” he pointed out to her. “Anyone who would commit the kind of crime that nearly killed your sister will do anything to stop you from finding out who they are. So yes, I think they would sabotage your car in some way. Lie in wait until the next time you use it.”
“I’m used to writing about these things, not living them.” She blew out a breath. “Okay. Then let’s get my car and you can follow me to the hotel.”
His extreme caution actually made her nervous. He insisted she get into his car and let him drive her to hers. Then he checked hers all over before she climbed in.
“I’ll be right on your tail,” he reminded her.
And I have my gun, she reminded herself, hardly able to believe she was even thinking it. Before they’d left the range, between the hot kiss and true confessions, Blaze had made sure her gun was loaded and given her a box of bullets.
‘Let’s pray you don’t have to use this, but better to be prepared.’
Now she realized it gave her a feeling of security. Somewhere this had moved from checking out people who might want to cover up a scandal to realizing it was a lot more than that. They just had to find out what. She had to admit, she felt a lot better when her car was in the hands of valet parking and she was riding with Blaze.