“Don’t go telling anyone.” Nikki felt those annoying tears again.
“I’m a detective, but more than that, I am your friend. I’m not going to air dirty laundry. I do think you need to sleep off your wine and go home and talk to Derek though. The man loves you. And you love him.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t ‘yeah’ me. Listen to me for once. Do that. I’m going to go and talk to Derek’s friends again. I’d also like to have some more words with Patrice and Adonis.”
“Definitely. Those two are bad news. Scary bad news.” She nodded. “That Greek guy is all muscle. Now Patrice could have done this, but only with Bruto’s help. Think about that one. She gets trash-talked in Kenny’s magazine. And she hates my guts. One, two points there, and then we’re both in the same place at the same time.” Nikki’s eyes widened. “Oh, hold on, just wait a minute Colombo . . .”
“Colombo? You’re not making sense, my friend.”
Nikki waved a hand at him. “What if that Adonis dude is really a hired killer? He’s not ugly and he’s supposedly so in love with a woman old enough to be his mother.”
“And loaded.”
“No. I’m not loaded. I’m not. Three glasses does not make me loaded.”
“No, Nik. Patrice. Money. She’s loaded.”
“Oh, totally. Totally loaded. Right. So maybe Patrice is paying off the brute to knock the people off who’ve wronged her.”
“Where do you get this shit from?”
“I don’t know. I’m brilliant.” She laughed. “Right up there with Angela Lansbury, my friend.”
“I’d say you watch too much TV,” Jonah replied. “And sounds like old reruns. There are some decent new shows out in the world.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t watch TV. I don’t have time for television. I read.”
“Sure. I’ll check all of this out. Right now I have to go and pick up Petie from daycare and drop him with Alyssa, and then I have some questions to go ask.”
“I’m gonna be real happy when you marry that girl.”
“So will I, but we need to get you married first.”
“We’ll see.”
“Sober up my friend, and go home.” Jonah left and a waitress brought over a bottle of water and a basket of bread.
“Your friend said you wanted this.”
“Thanks.” Nikki ate a piece of the bread, downed the water, and then paid the bill and headed back to her room. She took a long bath and curled up in the hotel room’s robe and, despite what she’d told Jonah, turned on the TV.
Why did it seem that every channel had a romance on it? She flipped the channels and still it seemed like love was in the air everywhere. She settled on the travel channel which, wouldn’t you know, was running a segment on none other than destination weddings. She watched anyway. Number two was on the Greek isle of Mykonos, and Nikki had to admit that it did look beautiful. Maybe if she and Derek did go forward with their wedding plans that was where they should go. She chuckled to herself. Maybe it was fate? The gods of fate were directing the two of them to go to Greece and get married. Maybe, maybe, maybe . . . There were way too many maybes at the moment, and Nikki liked concrete. She didn’t like that her brain was filled with wishy-washy theories and now her future was on that same wave length.
An ad came on the TV about weddings in Greece and the travel company to book it through. For the hell of it, Nikki took her laptop from her briefcase and then got online and looked up the travel company. The Web site’s homepage showed Venus and Zeus in a wedding celebration. The images were beautiful. Each page had different gods on them and Nikki found herself amused at the synchronicity of it all. She shut off her laptop and decided to do as Jonah suggested and get some rest. She was getting a hammering headache.
A few hours later she woke up and felt quite a bit better. It was already dark out, so she turned on the light and let her eyes adjust. She got up and headed to the bathroom. As she walked past the door she noticed a piece of paper on the floor. She picked it up and before she even unfolded it, she knew what it read: Do you believe in fate? Moros Apate Thanatos.
Thirty-nine
NO one likes being messed with, and Nikki was being messed with hard. Instead of being scared by the note, she found herself growing more and more pissed off. She got her stuff, checked out, and headed back home. Home. Even though she knew Derek had never really slept with Lily, the fact that he thought he had and he’d kept it from Nikki was still weighing on her.
Secrets. Yes, they’d both kept them, hadn’t they? Sure, visiting Andrés was harmless because she’d done so in order to try to find out who was behind the shooting and Kenny’s murder. But was it truly harmless? Was Andrés right when he’d said to her that she couldn’t admit that she still had feelings for him?
She slammed her hands against the steering wheel. Damn it! If he hadn’t come back home! She’d had plans. She and Derek wanted a family, and now all of this had snowballed and grown so huge and really bad. Being with Andrés had been simpler. Derek was far more complicated. Obviously. But she loved him. She adored him, so why was she still thinking about Andrés at all? Was it simply a question of what if . . . ? She let her mind take her there for a minute. What if she’d wound up with Andrés? Did she still love him? Honestly she didn’t know if she’d ever loved him, not in the way she loved Derek. Andrés was easy and fun and passionate. The point being he was easy. He was one of those men that Nikki knew would always put her first, always be there for her, and would always be honest with her. That sounded good to her. The problem was that with Andrés she never felt challenged, and Derek put her to the test. The chemistry between Derek and her had always been potent. But would that chemistry eventually die and would she discover that love could be complicated by the fact that life took over, and would the lust that kept the chemistry going begin to dull? Time did that. It was well-known that keeping love alive was something that had to be worked at. Long-term marriages didn’t get to those golden years without a little work. With Andrés, she didn’t think that there would be a great deal of work, but would there ever be that combination of chemistry and love? It was there with Derek, but had their relationship taken such a sharp turn in the last week that they’d lost it?
She didn’t know, but she had to find out. But before she addressed those deep questions inside her, she had to put this mystery together.
Someone knew she was at the Calistoga Ranch. Okay, take the easy ones first—Lily and Jonah. No way Jonah was the shooter. Lily was a definite possibility, but if she was behind this, she’d gotten sloppy by leaving that note. She could have easily told Jackson or anyone else back at Malveaux where she was. Simon didn’t know where she was. He’d frantically texted her all day, and she’d replied telling him she needed some space and would be home later. So, he couldn’t have known to let it slip in front of Patrice. There was also the possibility that someone had followed her from the ranch. It did look like Renee had to be taken off the list of suspects. She was in Hawaii, the self-serving, half-baked . . . Oh boy, did Nikki need to get over it.
She had to admit that although she was definitively that angry that someone had placed that note under the door in her hotel room, she was also extremely shaken. She would have liked to have had some time to figure this all out while enjoying the peace and quiet. She needed to put some things down in her notebook and work through some of these angles. She wondered if Jonah had gone by the winery and spoken to Derek’s friends, and if so, what kind of stir it had caused. And she also couldn’t help wondering if Lily had told Derek the truth yet.
Lots of questions.
Her phone rang and she recognized the number. One more question. Even though the timing wasn’t convenient, it was definitely one she needed to answer.
Forty
“YOU said you needed to see me, so here I am.” Nikki stood in Andrés’ doorway, Isabel’s puppy Camilla next to him.
“Come in, please. I’m still babysitting. Isabel decid
ed to stay in the city with friends for a few days.”
She followed him into the house. “So I see. She’s so cute.” He looked tired and worn. “Are you okay?” she asked.
He sat down on the couch in his family room, the light from his lamp casting shadows across his face. “No.” He shook his head. The dog wiggled around Nikki.
“What is it?” she asked, worry straining her voice. She patted the puppy, who finally lay down next to her.
He looked at her. “It’s you.”
“We’ve been over this,” she said.
“I know, and I can’t shake it, and it’s why I have to do what I have to do.”
“I don’t understand.”
He sighed. “I don’t know what I was thinking coming back here in the first place. I did have these ideas that you would see me and realize how good it had been between us. When I heard you were getting married, I thought I had to have one last try. One last chance. Like in the movies.” He laughed, but his laughter was edged with sadness. “Stupid, isn’t it? I thought I would be like the man in the fairy tale who comes and takes his true love from a man she doesn’t really love. But I know now that you do really love Derek. I know my attempts were foolish, and I know now that I can never have you.”
Nikki’s stomach tightened.
“I’m going home tomorrow. For good. I cannot be near you or even in the same city. I need to go home and try to forget you. I have to. I’ve told the winery owners here that I won’t be back. This is for good.”
Nikki put her face in her hands. She wanted to tell him not to go. She really did. “I do love you, Andrés. I do. But I don’t think it’s in the way you want me to, and I wish it could be different because I know how much easier it would be with you.”
He nodded and took her hands in his. “If, if things change . . . If your heart changes and you find in it that you are wrong, that there is the love for me, then you know where I will be. Because I know there is love between us, and I know that you may not feel it or see it, but if you ever do, I will be there for you. I will.”
She kissed his cheek as a tear slid down his face. She walked out of his house for the last time, knowing she might have just passed up something she could never have again.
Forty-one
IT was after ten o’clock when Nikki unlocked the front door to Derek’s place—their place. She didn’t hear him or even see him at first as Ollie bounded toward her, tail wagging. She bent down and he gave her a sloppy kiss. “I missed you, too.”
That’s when she heard a deep sob from the other room.
“Derek?”
He didn’t answer. She walked into the living room where she found Derek in his leather chair, his face in his hands, a brandy snifter on the table next to him.
“Derek?”
He looked up, his eyes bloodshot, swollen. “We have to fix this,” he said.
She came to him. “What is it? What’s going on?”
He just shook his head. “So much. We have to fix this, Nik.”
“I know. We will, but you have to tell me why you are so upset. You knew I’d come home, right?”
“No. I didn’t know and now everything is worse.”
“What is worse? What are you talking about?”
“Tristan. He tried to kill Savannah tonight. He’s the one. He’s the one who did all of this. He tried to kill you. He killed Kenny. And now his own wife. She’s in surgery right now. I found her, Nik. I found her behind the wine bar in a pool of blood, and when I looked up, there was Tristan all bloodied. He had a knife in his hand. He dropped it. He says he didn’t do it. He says he found her and then tried to use the bar phone to call 911, and then he saw the knife by her and picked it up. But come on,” he sobbed, “that’s crazy. He did this, and he’s caused all of this between you and me, and I am so sorry, baby. I am so, so sorry. Please tell me that we can fix this, because I can’t, I don’t want to live without you. I’ve seen way too much in the last few days, learned way too much about people I thought I knew, and you know what I realize?”
She shook her head.
“I realized you’re the only one I really know. You’re the only who knows me. Through all of this insanity, I knew you would keep me grounded and I prayed I would keep you grounded. But I let you down. And I am so sorry.”
She wrapped her arms around him and held tight. “We can and we will fix this.”
Forty-two
TRISTAN was in jail and his wife was fighting for her life. Nikki and Derek woke up the next morning in each other’s arms, both committed to trying to make things right between them.
Lily had told Derek everything the day before, and he couldn’t believe it. Jonah had let everyone else at the hotel know that they could go home. Nikki wanted to go and see Savannah in the hospital.
Savannah was in the ICU and Nikki had to do some fast talking to get past the gestapo of nurses, but she was able to make it happen. When she saw Savannah she couldn’t believe it was the same woman she’d come to know over the last few days. Savannah looked even tinier under the bed sheets than she normally did. Her face was drawn and pale. Her lips tight, eyes closed. She hadn’t woken from her surgery. She was full of tubes and IVs. It frightened Nikki to think that Tristan had done this to her. It frightened her to think anyone was capable of this.
Nikki came to her side. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. I’m sorry that I wasn’t a better hostess and that I was rude to you. No one deserves this. Tristan will go away for a long time. He’ll never be able to hurt you again.”
Savannah opened her eyes slowly and she focused on Nikki.
“Hang on, hang on I’ll get a nurse.”
“No,” Savannah whispered. “Tristan . . .”
“He’s in jail. You’re safe.”
Savannah shook her head. “No. Please. Nancy. Find out . . .” One of the monitors rang out and the next thing Nikki knew she was being pushed aside as the room filled with personnel.
“She’s crashing!” a nurse yelled. “Get me a crash cart!”
“Code blue, room two eleven,” rang out over the hospital intercom system.
Nikki stood back and felt like she was in a dream. Was Savannah going to die? She said a silent prayer that the poor woman would live. She thought about Tristan and Savannah’s children. Here their mother might die and their father was a killer. Or was he? Why was Savannah saying “no” when Nikki mentioned Tristan’s name? Was it just that she was in shock? And Nancy? Why was she talking about Nancy? Zach’s ex-wife? Or was she just confusing Nikki with Nancy? People said strange things under duress.
As Nikki watched the doctors and nurses work on Savannah, she kept praying that Savannah would survive this ordeal.
Nikki heard the sound of Savannah’s heart monitor begin beeping again. She looked up.
“She’s back,” one of the doctors said and continued on with more orders.
A nurse breezed by as Nikki remained in the doorway. Nikki grabbed her arm. “Is she going to be okay?”
“Who are you?” the nurse asked.
“A friend.”
“She’s alive still. That’s pretty much all I can say.”
“Thank you.” Nikki left the hospital, head down, hands shoved into her jean pockets. She sat in her car for several minutes, stunned.
Nancy? Nancy? What had Nikki learned about Zach’s absent wife? Simon said she was crazy—or at least obsessive. Savannah claimed the divorce was ugly. She was an artist. No children because she couldn’t conceive. Obsessive people went right along with controlling. What about the identity theory that Alyssa had helped Nikki with? And supposedly Nancy was in Puerto Vallarta. But what if she wasn’t in Mexico? What if she murdered Kenny, shot at Nikki, and tried to kill Savannah? But why?
Nikki didn’t know why. Savannah was a friend of Nancy’s—or supposedly was. What was the common thread in all of this? Derek.
Moros Apate Thanatos. The killer’s signature. Moros meant impending doom. Apate was the god
dess of deceit. Thanatos was death. Doom, deceit, death. Someone in this clan was warning Nikki of impending doom, letting her know they were not who they said they were, and ultimately causing death.
Nikki had an idea. It was a long shot and out there, but she didn’t have much to go on. There was an angle here. This whole Greek god thing meant something to this killer. Her gut told her that the killer wasn’t smart in the way she thought maybe Jackson or Lily had been—and she hadn’t discounted them yet. But this person was psychotic or had lost the marbles rattling around in the brain.
Nikki headed back to the winery to check her theory, because she didn’t want Savannah to possibly die thinking her husband was behind bars for something he didn’t do. Nikki was convinced that Jonah had the wrong man in jail.
Forty-three
NIKKI pulled up in front of the Malveaux Hotel and Spa and spotted Jackson and Lily putting their bags in their rental car. Zach was rolling his luggage out the front archway as well.
Nikki got out of her Camry and walked over. “You’re all leaving?” she asked.
“Yeah. Sorry, Nikki, the police told us we were free to go home, and we have to get back to our kids and our lives. I’m so sorry this has happened.” Jackson gave her a hug.
Lily took her hands. “And I’m sorry for any grief that I caused you and Derek. I know this is all going to work out for you.”
“We’re just all a little shell-shocked,” Zach said. “I’m actually picking Nancy up at the airport and she’s going to drive home to L.A. with me. We’ve been talking and with all of this that’s happened, I think we’re going to try to work this out.”
“Nancy?” Nikki asked.
“Yes,” Zach replied. “She is my wife.”
A Toast to Murder Page 18
