by Rayna Morgan
Lea found herself talking to Paul’s back as he walked over to retrieve the errant throw and dispose of it. “How about telling him it’s part of a job-training program?”
“How about telling him the truth!” Paul spat out.
Paul’s reaction was not unexpected, but Lea acted surprised. “I don’t understand the problem. It’s all part of bringing a guilty person to justice.”
“Then talk to Tom. He has the authority to convince Bill to take part.”
“That’s the problem. Tom doesn’t have any authority at the moment.”
Paul looked confused as he moved back to the bench. “What are you talking about?”
“He didn’t want you to know, but he’s off the case.”
“Don’t mince words, Lea.” Her husband’s tone was angry. “What does that mean exactly?”
“He’s on involuntary leave.”
Paul exploded. “You and your sister got Tom in trouble?”
Jon looked up, startled to hear the harsh exchange between his parents.
Lea glanced in her son’s direction. “Finish your burger. Your dad and I are just having a minor difference of opinion.”
She turned back to Paul with an even voice. “Calm down, Paul. Why are you blaming us?”
“I can only assume that it’s Tom’s relationship with Maddy that got him thrown off the case.”
“That and his code of conduct which raises questions about prejudicial treatment.”
Paul resumed his seat. He put his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. “I get it. My buddy found out about Eric’s father.”
“The Chief is convinced Tom can’t handle the case without bias. At least, that might be the public perception.”
“The Chief is right. Tom can’t help but wonder if Eric isn’t cut from the same cloth as his father.”
It was Lea’s turn to be upset. “The strong moral fiber of both you and Tom is commendable. It’s also unbearable, at times. You’ve always made your opinion of Eric inherently clear to Maddy and me. I can only hope your feelings were less obvious to him. Even now, you’re judging him, the same as Tom. You don’t believe in his innocence because you question his character.”
“The fact is that his father broke the law.”
“The fact is the Chief was right to take Tom off the case.” She reached for her purse and pulled out her keys.
“Hold on, babe.” Paul grabbed her arm and took a deep breath. “We promised we’d never let one of your cases create a wedge between us. I can’t speak for Tom, but there could be some truth to what you’re saying about my feelings toward Eric. Let me give the guy the benefit of the doubt and do my part to help you solve this case. I’ll call Bill.”
Lea sighed with relief. She put her arms around his neck. “Thank you.”
“I have an ulterior motive,” Paul admitted. “I want to get this case resolved as quickly as possible so that jerk will leave town.”
Lea tapped Paul’s shin with her shoe. “You and Tom are hopeless!”
“Did you see that, Jon? Your mother kicked me. I’m playing with a wounded ankle. You’ll have to spot me four points.”
Lea called over her shoulder as she walked away. “Tell Bill his new desk clerk will be at the hotel bright and early for the first shift tomorrow.”
“You don’t ask much, do you?” Paul hollered as he pulled out his cell phone.
Chapter Fifteen
The request irritated her, but she had no good reason to say no. There was time before meeting Lea. She was going to the hotel anyway. Picking Eric up wasn’t out of her way.
He was sitting on the steps when she pulled up in front of the police station.
“Anxious to get away, are we?” she hollered. She released the lock on the passenger side of the car.
He slid in beside her. “As far from their clutches as I can get.”
“Whoa!” Maddy pinched her nose and rolled down the windows. “Mind if I air it out a little?”
“That’s what thirty-six hours in closed quarters does to a man.”
Maddy hit the gas. Once the air was circulating, she stole a look at Eric.
The man sitting beside her wasn’t the man she saw at the bar just two days earlier. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him in a wrinkled, sweat-stained shirt. Gray hairs were more visible without access to the color touch-up he used, and his eyes were bloodshot creating an unfamiliar sense of weariness and vulnerability.
Eric pointed at the light. “It’s green.”
She turned back to the road, embarrassed to be caught staring.
“Thanks for picking me up. I could have called a taxi, but—”
“The police didn’t offer to return you to the hotel?”
“Hardly. The officer in charge was mad when the Chief told him to cut me loose. I heard the prosecutor told them the case wasn’t strong enough to press charges. Cranston would have been happy to close the case and throw away the key.”
“I’m glad for your sake Cranston didn’t get his way.”
During the drive, Maddy told Eric about the discovery of the victim’s background and their suspicion of who her murderer might be.
When they arrived at the hotel, Maddy surprised him by driving into the garage instead of letting him off in front. She pulled into a space and turned off the engine.
“I’m meeting Lea and Tom here,” she said without further explanation.
“Ah, the famous Lieutenant Elliot,” Eric said. He couldn’t hide the bitterness in his voice. “The Chief made a point of letting me know they took your boyfriend off the case.”
Maddy refused to comment on the reference to Tom as her boyfriend.
“As it turned out,” Eric continued as they walked toward the entrance, “I may have been treated better by him. I couldn’t help but pick up on how highly he’s regarded. At least, it sounds like he gives everyone a fair shake which is more than I’d say about Cranston.”
“He is fair,” Maddy said. “All he’s ever after is the truth. It doesn't make sense that he's been taken off the case.”
“From the scuttlebutt I heard, the department was more worried about the press being unfair in their reporting than Tom being unfair in his investigation.”
Maddy sneered. “As usual, it boils down to politics.”
Eric pushed the door open for Maddy. “Still, it was less stressful for me not to deal with him directly.” He put out his arm to stop her in the hallway. “I need to get cleaned up. I don’t want to make the situation more awkward than it is, but I want a chance to thank you.”
She looked away and mumbled. “No thanks necessary.”
He put his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet. “I’d like to talk.”
“I don’t—”
He pointed toward the restaurant. “Can I at least buy you a cup of coffee? If you have time, I mean.”
His awkwardness reminded Maddy of a shy boy asking a girl for a date. Nothing like the brash, cocky Eric who asked her out the first time. She glanced at her watch and steered him toward the reception desk. “The hotel will give you another room. Tell them to move your bags.”
He stepped up to the counter and looked back over his shoulder. “You’ll wait in the coffee shop?”
“I’m not intimidated, Eric. I’ll come up to your room. Thanking me for saving your hide from murder charges is not a conversation that should be overheard.”
Eric turned toward the receptionist. Amber looked over his shoulder to give Maddy a thumbs-up.
* * *
Maddy tapped her heel impatiently as she listened to the shower. She walked out onto the balcony. The room, including the patio, was smaller. The partners’ planning session was over. It could no longer be expensed.
Palm branches whipped from side to side. She looked down at a sole guest huddled beside the pool in a bikini covered by a sweatshirt.
“—but it means a lot.”
“Sorry, I couldn’t hear you.” She walked back ins
ide. “What did you say?”
He appeared at the bathroom door wearing a towel around his waist and turned off the electric razor he was running over his face. “I was telling you how much I appreciate your being in my corner the last couple of days.”
His voice sounded sincere, but she suspected he wanted her to notice his abs. She had no intention of feeding his ego by commenting on his physique.
“How’s the instant coffee?” he asked. “I’ll order room service, if you’d prefer.”
“I’m not here for the joe. I should get going.”
“Two minutes, Babykins. Let me throw on some clothes.” He hesitated. “Um, maybe you should go back out on the balcony.”
His newfound humility was like a suit the tailor had cut wrong. It didn’t fit.
She turned her back and stared out the glass door, listening to the sounds of clothes pulled from hangers and shoes dropped on the floor.
“Okay, I’m decent.”
She felt the jury was still out on that.
He emptied the contents of an instant coffee packet into a cup and filled it with boiling water. Sitting on the bed, he blew on the liquid. His face puckered at the first sip. “What a nightmare!”
“The coffee or your ordeal?”
“Both.” He smiled for the first time in days and propped the pillows against the headboard. “I don’t know how I would have made it without you.”
Maddy was uncomfortable with the role reversal. During their marriage, he decided on everything from their social life to the stainless steel appliances they bought. Having little interest in the material possessions which obsessed her husband made it easy to give in to his need to dominate.
The only area of her life where she kept control was her career. She knew his compensation package was more than enough, but spending her days shopping or in spas had no appeal.
He only relied on her opinion in the areas of art and interior design. He’d even convinced his partners to hire her to refurbish their offices to impress their moneyed clientele. But she couldn’t recall a single instance when he’d asked for help. From her or anyone else.
“I know it wasn’t easy for you to call on me,” she told him. “I was surprised you did.”
For several moments the only sound was the screen door rattled by the wind.
When he spoke, it was in a confessional tone Maddy had never heard from him. “I made a promise to myself in high school to get to a position where I’d never need to ask anyone for anything, especially money. I have my father to thank for giving me that resolve by leaving us and ruining my mother’s life.”
Maddy’s antenna went up. It was a topic they rarely discussed.
He sat on the bed and leaned back against the pillows. “I never told you my true feelings about my father. I was proud of him growing up. I bragged to the other kids that my dad was a cop.” He grew sullen. “When he was kicked off the force for taking bribes, I was bullied at school. I acted as though I didn’t care and laughed at my buddies’ jokes. At night before I fell asleep, the words kept running through my head…dirty cop, dirty cop.”
He stopped to sip the bitter coffee, thought better of it, and continued. “When he took off and left us on our own, my feelings changed from shame to anger. The more we struggled, the more determined I got to never lack financially or need anyone’s help.”
“You never told me how painful it was for you.”
“I shut the book on my dad the day he left. It was a closed chapter of my life I didn’t want to reopen.”
“I tried not to bug you about him, especially considering Dad’s reputation with the police.”
“I appreciated that you never talked about your dad. You have that quality, Maddy, a concern for people’s feelings. Empathy is something I lack.” He ran his fingers through his damp hair. “Needing help wasn’t the only revelation I’ve experienced in the last couple of days.”
Maddy reached for a strand of her own hair and twisted it around her finger. “I’m listening.”
“Being locked in a cell made me feel contemptible, unworthy. It made me realize I’ve always had feelings of not being good enough.”
“At your job?”
“At my job, at being the husband you deserved, at counting for something more than the number of zeroes on my bank statement.”
For one of the few times in her life, Maddy was at a loss for words. Eric, too, seemed flustered by his admission.
Laughter in the hallway cut through the embarrassing silence.
Maddy twisted the watch on her wrist. “I should go. Lea will be at the hotel in a few minutes.”
Eric got off the bed and hoisted his briefcase to the table. “And I’ve got work to catch up on. The police will call me when they’ve prepared a final statement for me to sign.”
“What kind of reception do you expect at your office?”
“I won’t know until Tuesday. I hope news about my release hits social media before I make an appearance.”
Maddy looked incredulous. “What makes you think your weekend experience showed up in the gossip columns?”
“The police giving a wealthy, successful businessman the third degree over the murder of a con artist, how could it miss?”
Eric’s new found humility was fading fast.
She grabbed her purse. “Okay, I’m out of here. I’m glad you’re through the worst of your ordeal.” She turned at the door. “Leave me a message when you leave so I know you’re safely out of Buena Viaje.”
He was already rifling through folders, unmindful of her presence.
“Did you hear what I said?” Maddy demanded. “Don’t you ever listen?”
“That’s odd.”
“Everything about this weekend has been odd,” Maddy assured him.
“A file is missing.” He flung the contents of his briefcase on the table, fanning the folders to read the labels.
“It’s not here,” he said, anxiety flooding his voice. “The person at the front desk said everything was placed in the storage room after the police finished searching the room. That file was with the others in my briefcase when I was arrested.”
“Is it something important?”
He spun toward her. “Vitally.”
She held up her hands. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t take it.”
He dumped papers from the folders onto the bed and pawed through everything.
“What’s the big deal about that file?” Maddy asked.
He stood erect and ran his fingers through his hair. “The information it contains represents a huge chunk of change.”
Maddy sucked in air and held her breath. “How much money are we talking about, Eric? Enough for someone to kill for?”
They both froze in place as they made eye contact.
“Omigawd” was his only response, but the sound of it filled the room.
Chapter Sixteen
The first person Lea saw when she entered the hotel was Amber, standing behind the reception counter outfitted in a cropped jacket with the name of the hotel in white stitching. Amber watched closely as the young man beside her checked in the couple in front of Lea. As soon as the bellhop led the couple to an elevator, Lea stepped to the counter.
“Welcome to the Surf and Sand Hotel,” the young man welcomed her. “May I help with your reservation?”
Lea noted that the stitching on his shirt included his name. “Thank you, Jeff. I’m here to get information for a possible future booking. Could you answer my questions about the hotel?”
Jeff looked at the growing line of people behind Lea. He smiled and put a hand on Amber’s shoulder. “If you will accompany my associate to the concierge desk, she’ll give you a brochure with the information you need. We appreciate your interest.”
He leaned toward Amber. “Give her the pitch I taught you about the amenities.”
“No problem.” She moved around the counter and pointed toward a desk in the corner of the reception area. “Right this way, ma’am. L
et me tell you what makes the Surf and Sand a perfect choice.”
“Bravo,” Lea whispered as Amber pulled open a desk drawer. “You’re playing the part beautifully.”
Amber handed Lea a colored brochure. “I’d strongly recommend room 618 for your visit. It’s ideally located with a view of the ocean and the pool. There’s even an adjoining suite if you need additional space.”
Lea felt a lump in the middle of the brochure in the shape of a keycard. “You got a key to Kim’s room already?”
Amber turned her back so she couldn’t be overheard. She spread her arms as though pointing out features of the hotel. “It was easy, and did you notice the location next to the crime scene? The room was rented for two nights which means it will be available later today.”
“Then I better get up there.”
“Be careful, Lea. The maid will go to clean sometime after twelve o’clock. If you get caught, we’ll both be in trouble.”
“I’ll put a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. You need to keep an eye out for Kim’s partner.”
Amber looked doubtful. “If I saw him like Cleo said, I don’t remember. I’m not sure I’ll recognize him.”
“Don’t worry. Just do your best.”
Lea put the brochure in her shoulder bag and heard the key drop to the bottom of the purse. “Wish me luck.”
"Keep your cell phone handy," Amber suggested. "I’ll call to warn you if you need to get out of the room."
“You’re really getting into this, aren’t you?” Lea asked. She switched her phone from her shoulder bag to her back pocket.
“Yeah, I dig this cloak and dagger stuff,” Amber admitted. She stole a peek at her co-worker. “Jeff’s not bad to spend time with either.”
“Let me remind you of what I tell my sister,” Lea tossed over her shoulder as she moved toward the elevator. “Don’t lose your focus, girl!”
* * *
After checking the hallway in both directions, Lea swiped the key in the lock and moved quickly into the room. The closet and drawers were empty except for hangers and the hotel’s directory. An open suitcase on a luggage stand suggested someone not planning to stay long enough to unpack.