Noah flashed Lexy a questioning look, which she promptly ignored. It was quite a leap from Lexy’s previous sense that she heard a “tone” in Marie’s comment about Henderson to envisioning them all over each other.
“I thought she was seeing the resort’s owner behind her husband’s back.”
Seemed Marie was not doing a good job of keeping her affairs quiet. Noah wondered if the woman even cared. “It’s only one small back, but there appear to be several men behind it.” Noah did not want to even think about Marie’s behind or any other part.
“I’m not sure where she had all this sex, but somewhere,” Lexy added.
“She has a small apartment on the grounds.” The detective dropped that interesting bit of information as if it was not a big deal.
“Why?” Lexy asked before Noah could get the question out.
“Tate said all the employees got them. Had something to do with changing and showering.” The detective turned to Lexy. “Did she admit this other affair to you?”
When biting her lips didn’t help, Lexy fudged. “Almost.”
“Oh, that’s convincing,” Noah said.
“I’ll take that as a ‘no.’” The detective wrote something down. Noah tried to catch it, but could not see it. “She has an alibi for Henderson’s murder.”
“What is it?” Noah asked.
“If I tell you, will you stop pretending to be a policeman?”
Noah shrugged. “Maybe.”
“At least you didn’t lie to me.”
“But I thought about it.” He considered a lot of things. Getting rid of the detective. Getting out of town. Finding a decent lunch.
All of those sounded good. Unfortunately, he knew the rest of the day would be spent doing something very specific. Figuring out Marie’s tie to Henderson. Now that Lexy had the connection in her head, that’s all she would talk about. If he ever wanted to have sex again, he had to resolve this first.
“She was at a party near the dining hall. Several people reported seeing her there.” The detective scanned her notes. “Before that, she taught a class and then had a meeting with Tate. I didn’t ask about the subject matter of that meeting, but I can guess.”
“That didn’t happen.” Lexy’s hands were moving almost as fast as her mouth.
Noah could see her mind turning. She mentally examined the pieces and saw that they did not fit together. And she was right.
“You think all of those people lied for Marie?” the detective asked.
“I don’t know any guest who would cover for her. Most of them can’t stand her.” From the distaste in her tone, it was clear Lexy was included in that group. “That’s not the issue.”
“What is?”
He knew this part. “We were in the dining room with Tate.”
“Noah’s right. We sat there talking, and Marie was nowhere around.” Lexy ended the comment with a smug smile.
The detective ignored the attitude. “Was she in the dining room?”
“No.”
“No or you don’t know?”
“I know,” Lexy insisted. “Marie isn’t exactly someone who enters a room quietly and blends into the wall. She comes in with a flourish and makes sure everyone sees her.”
Noah let Lexy take the lead with this one. She was doing too well to interfere.
“Marie came into the party and made sure everyone knew she was there. She waltzed around, saying hello to everyone and hanging on Tate.”
The detective nodded. “Those were the reports we got.”
“But before that she was nowhere around. She taught the class and then I didn’t see her until she walked into the party.”
“How long in between?”
“Over an hour.” Lexy looked to him for confirmation of her memory, then continued. “And when she did arrive, she was wearing a different leotard from the one she wore to class.”
Silence filled the room as the detective scribbled down a few notes. Noah used the lull to study Lexy. Excitement pulsed off her. She thrived on analyzing information and selling her story. Whether marketing a program or describing her theory of a murder, she did it with intelligence and flair.
“No one on the staff mentioned a relationship between Marie and Henderson. She makes her connection to Tate clear. Any theories on why she would hide the other?”
Noah and Lexy shared a smile over the detective’s change in attitude. Suddenly she wanted their help.
“To keep both men happy,” Lexy suggested.
“You came up with that excuse a little too fast for my liking,” he muttered because the idea called for muttering.
“My point is that Tate is the boss. He’s her ticket to more money, prestige, and possibly her way out of a bad marriage.”
“The marriage is bad?” the detective asked.
Noah thought the answer to that one was pretty obvious. “The serial adultery didn’t give that away?”
“Cheating does not always mean the end to a marriage.”
“It does for me.” That was a nonstarter for Noah. Marriage meant fidelity. Lexy cheating on him would result in bloodshed. He could handle a lot from her. Never that.
Not that he ever expected to worry about that issue. Lexy had faults. Infidelity was not one of them.
“I can see your point about her wanting to keep Tate happy. You have to wonder what that meant to the other men in her life,” the detective said, clearly warming to the topic and idea of Marie as something more than a cheating spouse.
“Sounds like motive to me.” Lexy’s interest in the topic mirrored the detective’s.
“Why, detective, did you just admit that we might not be the killers?” Noah joked.
“I’m sure I didn’t say that.” The detective pocketed her notebook and pen. “Now let me make something clear.”
“This sounds bad,” Lexy mumbled under her breath.
“This is a police matter. You are not to get involved or get in the way.”
“Meaning?” Noah asked.
“Stay away from Marie until we know the specifics of her relationship with Henderson and whether or not she’s dangerous.”
“She’s an aerobics instructor. What is she going to do, throw a weight at me?” Lexy did not try to hide her sarcasm.
“A man is dead.”
Noah had to give the detective credit for a strong comeback. “Good point.”
“Stay away from Marie.” The detective’s threat hung in the air.
“We heard you the first time.” He did not intend to comply, but he heard her.
“Are you going to obey?”
“I have trouble with the word ‘obey,’” Noah said.
Lexy delivered a half-choke, half-laugh. “He’s not kidding.”
“Do you have trouble with the word ‘jail,’ Mr. Paxton?”
Big trouble. “You made your point.”
“Good.”
Chapter Twenty-six
L exy exhaled in relief the minute after the detective left.
“That went better that I thought it would.”
“She’s listening. That’s something,” Noah said.
“Does this mean we’re letting the police handle the situation and we’re backing out?”
“Of course not.”
She knew he would say something like that. “Do we have a plan?”
“Yep.”
Uh-oh. “Is this going to tick me off?”
“Yep.”
A terrible thought popped into her mind. “Are you going to be the bait?”
“Sort of.”
“Come up with another plan.” One that did not put him near a potential murderess who also happened to be a woman on the prowl. She knew enough about Marie to know she was dangerous, whether or not she ever killed anyone. “Now.”
“Too late.”
“How can it be too late? The detective left a half hour ago.”
“I already developed the plan.” He tapped his finger against his temple. “In my he
ad.”
“It must be rather lonely up there.”
Noah’s sexy smile lost some of its wattage. “That’s not very charming.”
She knew she going to regret this as soon as she said it, but…“What’s this brilliant idea of yours? And lay the whole thing out. I don’t want half the plan.”
“I’ll give Marie a reason to believe we have some information directly from Henderson.”
Yeah, regret. “I don’t get it.”
“It’s a brilliant plan.”
“I still don’t know what it is.”
“Watch a master at work.” He cracked his knuckles.
She had never seen him do that before. She’d be happy never to see him do that again. “You?”
“Of course me.”
“Maybe I should just call the company lawyer now and arrange for bail money.”
“Not a bad idea.”
The man was completely infuriating. “So when do we launch this piece of brilliance?”
“Depends.”
“On anything in particular?”
“Does Marie teach a class today?”
Lexy hated this plan more every second.
“Well?” he asked.
She glanced around the room looking for her resort brochure. Noah had picked up the area. Folded this. Put that away. The place was a mess, but less cluttered now that everything had a place.
“Stop touching my stuff.”
“But I like touching your stuff.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I didn’t have a choice, since I couldn’t find the bed.”
“I don’t know where anything is,” she said, trying to hide the anger in her voice. “You messed up everything.”
He did not take the bait.
“Where did you put all the paperwork?”
“On the desk.”
Fighting held some appeal, but she abandoned the idea in favor of getting this follow-Marie-around plan done. The sooner Noah was away from that one, the better. Oh, she trusted him with Marie. He had a disclosure problem, but his zipper stayed up around other women. Still, Marie gave her the creeps.
Lexy pulled out the aerobics class schedule. “She teaches in two hours.”
“Perfect.”
“I still don’t know why.”
“I have plans.” His hands went to his belt buckle.
“And you have to be naked to do them.”
“Oh, yeah.” He lowered his zipper.
“What are you doing?”
“Burning through the next two hours. Want to help me?”
She did.
A little less than two hours later the memory of the mind-blowing sex with Lexy still lingered in Noah’s mind. Something about the idea of his going off to meet Marie made Lexy even more flexible than usual.
And since the sight of Marie turned him off to sex or anything related to sex, Noah was grateful he had just enjoyed a fix. Now it was showtime.
He walked into the aerobics studio. Finding Marie was not hard. She wore the brightest costume he had ever seen. The thing was tight and psychedelic pink and utterly annoying, but it served the purpose of getting her noticed. Noah figured that was her goal.
He did not have to go up to Marie. She came to him. “Mr. Paxton.”
“Call me Noah.”
Her smile turned feral. Not exactly a turn-on in Noah’s book. Kind of made him feel like prey.
“I still can’t let you sit in on a class.”
Time to lay on the charm. “I apologize for interrupting. I needed to find Lexy.”
At the mention of Lexy’s name, Marie’s smile took on a nasty edge. “She’s not here.”
“Damn. And I have good news for her.”
“Something personal, perhaps?”
Did Marie just throw her hair back over her shoulder? “About the resort, actually.”
“About what specifically, if I may ask.”
That’s exactly what he wanted her to do. The woman walked right into his trap, as he knew she would. “I just talked to the police about the murder…”
“And?”
“Well, I don’t want to bother you. I can wait to talk to Lexy. You have a class.”
Marie did not let him take a step away from her. She grabbed on to his forearm and started whispering. “I’d love to hear the news. After all, I worked with Charlie.”
“Of course.”
“What happened to him was horrible.”
She certainly did not sound broken up by the guy’s death. If the way she had her hand wrapped around Noah’s arm and her body stuck to his side was any indication, two more minutes and she’d be climbing all over him.
“The police finally have a break in the case.”
The color drained from her face. “What is it?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m very happy about your news.” She stumbled over the words.
She was thrilled. He could tell. Right.
“Apparently Henderson—or did you call him Charlie? You know I never used the man’s first name.”
She almost crawled out of her skin. Her cheeks looked ready to burst. “You mentioned something about the police?”
“Right.” He patted her fingers where they dug into his skin. “Seems Henderson kept a diary.”
“Charlie?”
“Yeah.”
“Do the police have it?”
“No. They found some crumpled pages in with his employee uniforms. They figure he hid the diary itself and it contains information that could lead them to his killer.”
“Do they know where this diary is?”
Since it didn’t exist, no. But he bet she would tear the resort apart looking for it.
“That’s the odd thing. His room was pretty empty when they went to check it out.”
“He did not own a lot of things.”
Interesting how she felt the need to mention that when she insisted to Lexy she barely knew the man. “They figure he stayed with someone else at the resort most of the time. The plan is to search his room, including ripping out the wall if they have to, and then start checking other employee rooms just in case some of Henderson’s stuff is in one of those. The diary is somewhere.”
“When?” Marie barked out the question.
The high-pitched sound grabbed the attention of most of the ladies in the room. All three of them. The stared at her, then scowled.
Lexy was right. Marie was not a woman other women liked.
“Later tonight sometime.”
He had decided to make the time line as tight as possible. Better to trap Marie fast. She would teach her class and then start looking. Noah bet that’s how this entire scene would unfold.
Dex was waiting near Henderson’s apartment just in case. Gray took Marie’s apartment as a lookout. Noah would follow her just in case she had another place to check that they did not know about. Between the three of them, they would see if Marie panicked and went searching for the nonexistent diary.
The goal was to make the woman crack. See if she did have a tie to Henderson and then poke at it. Once they had her on the run, they could work on that angle. Give Detective Sommerville whatever background she needed to finish the job.
“I would like to talk to the detectives. Maybe I have some information that could help.”
“Did you know Henderson well?”
“No.” She gave a quick glance around the room and saw her class lined up and ready to go. “Do you know exactly what time the police plan to come by?”
“Detective Sommerville was not that specific, but I got the impression that they’d be here around dinnertime. Something about getting search warrants and that sort of thing.” He reached into his pocket with his free hand. “I do have her number—”
“That’s not necessary.”
Of course not. “Well, I’ll let you go.”
Marie did not take the hint. She continued to hold on to his arm. Noah figured it was less about making a pass
and more about being lost in thought.
“Marie?”
She jerked back. “Sorry.”
“Enjoy the exercise.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
M arie ended the class forty-eight minutes later. She gave the women a quick apology for the short session and then ran out of the room. Noah knew because he watched the entire scene. Peeking in windows and hanging out in doorways were not his usual ways to spend a day, but he had to admit there was a certain energy that came from sneaking around like this.
Instead of sticking around to shower or chat with the ladies, Marie left. She grabbed her bag and headed across the parking lot to the back side of the resort’s campus. To exactly where the employee apartments were located.
She did not stop or linger. She did not hide her trail, either. Following was pretty easy, since she did not look around. Didn’t even stop to say hello to the two employees who tried to stop her to engage in conversation.
With so few people staying at the resort, nothing blocked her path. She could make her way around with little hardship. Hiding was not easy, either. He did a lot of ducking behind buildings and kept a decent distance between them just in case.
Less than fifteen minutes later, she stepped onto Henderson’s porch. Noah glanced around, checking the area for Dex. Wherever his friend hid, he did it well. Noah could not see him, anywhere. That meant Marie could not see him either.
But Noah had a clear view of Marie. He hovered at the far side of the dome-shaped building next to the one that housed Henderson’s apartment. The sun beat down on him. Even dressed in a light polo shirt, his skin melted from the heat. Damn, but dry heat was still heat.
She took one last quick look around. Unlike Dex and Gray, she did not have to resort to breaking in. That was a key she slid into the lock. For a woman with no interest in the crime, she sure did have access to the dead man’s property.
When she slipped inside, Noah came around the building, crossed in front of another one, and made his way to Henderson’s apartment. The sight that greeted him almost made him laugh. Sure made him smile.
She stood inside turning over drawers, throwing whatever wasn’t nailed down onto the floor, and generally doing nothing to hide her noisy search. Wood crashed. Something that sounded like breaking glass came next.
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