“Do you think someone will come after us?” Nikki said.
“I don’t know. We’ve got to keep moving. We can’t risk it.
It doesn’t look like anyone is after us. Our place is just up the road.”
Nikki nodded. “Let’s go.”
Ten minutes later, relieved and exhausted, they entered the rental villa and were immediately greeted by two Chihuahuas. One wore a miniature sombrero, the other a poncho. Nikki stared at the dogs and then spotted Simon and Marco on the couch in the huge living room. “What in the world?”
Simon and Marco looked as shocked as Derek and Nikki felt. “We could ask you the same thing, Sister…and um, Father,” Simon said.
Derek headed to the elevator. “I’m going to bed in hopes that I wake up tomorrow morning to discover that this has all been some bizarre bad dream.”
“Good luck with that, Father. Señor Juan Pablo Hidalgo and Señora Maria Consuela Hidalgo will be here in the a.m. bright and early.” He indicated the dogs.
“I’m not asking any more tonight.” Nikki sighed. “Going to bed with you.” She wanted nothing more than to be in the arms of her husband. She didn’t want to think about what could have just happened out there.
“Say good night to Señor Juan Pablo Hidalgo and Señora Maria Consuela Hidalgo,” Simon said.
Derek shook his head and stepped into the elevator. Nikki followed. As the doors closed they heard Simon say, “God, they’re such party poopers.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Even though they’d gone to bed after two a.m., Nikki found herself wide awake by seven. There were so many things bothering her, and she needed to see what she could figure out. She slid quietly out of bed, not wanting to disturb her husband, and she made her way to the office, where she took her notebook and jotted down more notes. Things that they had discovered and theorized.
Paul Carrigan was dead. His friend Tim had supposedly seen him last at El Corazon. The villa up the way was owned by a cartel member named Ricardo Rivera and his wife—both of whom had dinner with Carrigan, Dream, Tim, and his girlfriend Becky. Carrigan had enough cash to pay for all of them in a five-star resort and fly them down to Puerto Vallarta in a jet—Becky and Tim anyway. He’d met Dream here, a woman he had met on Eros, a website that catered to one’s sexual desires.
The bartender at the one bar who had seen Paul and Tim had suggested Carrigan and Tim go to El Corazon. He’d said that Carrigan could get into two kinds of trouble—the one he wanted to get into, or the kind where he could wind up dead. The bartender hadn’t used those exact words, but to Nikki it was implied. The latter had obviously happened, and Nikki could see in the cocktail waitress’s eyes that she recognized Carrigan from the night before.
How had Paul Carrigan wound up back at Juanita’s, shot by her gun, in the back of his rental car?
Then there was Dream. Her murder seemed more of a mystery to Nikki. She’d been all over Carrigan at the hotel and restaurant, yet they had just met. Then, she’d performed a lap dance on Rivera, whose wife got super pissed about it, or so it seemed. Nikki tried to help, but Dream rushed off in a car. It did not seem likely that Carrigan had killed Dream. He’d been with Tim.
There was also the mystery threesome, the one with Lady Intense—L.I. for short. She’d been having dinner with two men and witnessed the scene at Juanita’s. Then, she’d held a gun on Nikki and chased her. The real question was not only who the hell was L.I., but what the hell did she want with Nikki?
And, what about Hooker Villa up the way, owned by Rivera—according to cab driver Frederico? That really bugged Nikki because she knew the young cocktail waitress had gone into the house. She couldn’t have been over twenty. The one thing that Nikki kept thinking about was sexual slavery—human trafficking. It fit. The cartel probably ran many operations of the sort. This one looked to be at the high end of things. But how did it all connect to Carrigan and Dream?
Nikki wasn’t sure, but she knew it did, and she had a strong feeling that her gut was right on this one.
If she only knew Dream’s real name. Maybe she had a Facebook page or was on some other social media. She might be able to gather information that way. She figured Detective Martinez likely had a name, but she didn’t think it prudent for her to walk into the police station and ask.
She decided to go online and visit the Eros site again. Maybe she could find Dream on there, since that was obviously how she had found Carrigan, and if she hadn’t found him, the woman would probably still be alive. He was the connection.
Nikki started by going to Carrigan’s profile. Just like on Facebook she could see who his “friends” and interests were. It didn’t take long for her to find Dream. She was one of his last friends out of about 350 women. Who knew the guy could attract that many women? Nikki went to Dream’s profile. It didn’t say much, other than that she was an aspiring actress who loved to travel and have a good time. Her hometown was Las Vegas. She also had written that she especially loved Mexico. “Probably shouldn’t have put that there,” Nikki muttered.
There were a few pictures of her. Two of them included her with another woman—also blonde, also young, also pretty. They looked to be in a bar, but there was no other information. Nikki printed the photos.
“What’re you doing?” Derek placed his hands on her shoulders. She jumped. “Hey, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“No worries. This whole thing has me on edge. I didn’t hear you come in.”
Nikki showed him the notes she’d written down and then explained what she had found on the Eros site.
Derek pulled up another chair and sat down. He thought for a moment. “Try this. Go to Carrigan’s page again.”
Nikki did. “Okay.”
“Let’s look through all of his gal pals here and see if we find a woman who looks like Dream’s friend.” Nikki looked at him. “Hunch,” he said.
They started searching and sure enough, a minute later they found her. The girl’s name was Erin Faldo. But her profile had been suspended.
“I have an idea.” Nikki went to Facebook and typed in Erin Faldo’s name. Three possibilities came up. One was a toddler, another in her sixties, and the third was from Las Vegas. Nikki clicked on it.
Both she and Derek scanned the page and then looked at each other. “That’s why Dream came here. To find her friend.”
“Yeah.”
On Erin’s page there were comments from friends asking where she was. Was she still in Mexico? Had she found the man of her dreams? She only had a couple of dozen friends on the social media site and no family that they could tell, or at least none that Erin had claimed. The last time Erin had written anything herself on the site had been three months ago. All it said was, “Adios amigas. I’m headed to Mexico for a party.”
“Erin came here for a party and never went home. Dream came here to find her and is dead. They both were ‘friends’ of Carrigan on Eros,” Nikki said.
“This thing is getting real weird, honey.”
“I know, but we’re finding answers. We may not have them all yet, but we are finding them.”
While still lost in thought for a few minutes, they heard yapping from downstairs, and the smells of breakfast wafted up to them.
“Those things were for real?” Derek asked.
“The dogs, you mean?”
“Is that what they were?”
“I think so.”
“Señor Juan Pablo Hidalgo and Señora Maria Consuela Hidalgo, pipe down. That’s enough!” Simon shouted.
“Yeah. They’re real,” Derek muttered.
Nikki stood and took his hand. “Shall we? I have a feeling we have new family members among us.”
Derek rolled his eyes and followed his wife down the three flights of stairs, avoiding the elevator in order to prolong what was to come for as long as they could.
Chapter Twenty-four
“Okay, what are those?” Nikki asked as she made it to the bottom of the stairs and
was nearly attacked by two tiny rat-sized dogs. One Chihuahua still wore the bright pink poncho, the other a tiny blue sombrero.
Marco walked in from the kitchen with a platter of something that smelled heavenly in his hands and set it down on the lazy Susan. “Those are not thoses. They are Señor Juan Pablo Hidalgo and Señora Maria Consuela Hidalgo.”
“Excuse me?” Nikki looked down at the dogs.
“Those are really their names?” Derek asked.
Nikki really did live in some strange world.
“They are Chihuahuas.”
“I can see that. But why are they here?” Nikki asked.
“Can I ask again, are those really their names?” Derek said.
“They are,” Marco replied in his crisp Italian accent. “Because they belong to Violet, Simon and me.”
“Can you explain this to me?” Nikki looked down and pointed at the two dogs yipping away at her. “And I thought Simon was allergic to dogs.”
Marco sighed and crossed his arms. “We were out looking for anyone who knew the dead man. And yes, Simon is allergic but did you know that Chihuahuas ward off allergies and asthma?”
“Paul Carrigan is the name of the dead man,” Derek said. “And I don’t believe that about the allergies.”
“Villa Man,” Simon added, coming in from the pool with what appeared to be a tequila sunrise in his hand. “And it’s true. I read it on the Internet about Chihuahuas and allergies, and aren’t they adorbs?”
“Are you drinking? It’s kind of early, don’t you think?” Nikki said. “As if everything you read on the Internet is true!”
“I’m on vacation.” Simon took a sip. “It was a credible site.”
“No. We are trying to solve some murders,” Derek snapped. “I am going to ignore the Internet/dog allergy portion of this conversation, and suggest you take those two back where they came from.”
“Oh yeah, right. That’s not happening. The one good thing that came from trying to find out who may have known something about Villa Man is these two. They are the silver lining here.” Simon scooped them both up with one arm and took another sip of his drink.
“Let’s eat. Breakfast is served.” Marco headed back into the kitchen and brought out two more platters.
“I thought this place came with a cook,” Derek said.
Marco shrugged. “I need to do the cooking. Keeps me from getting mad at all of you.”
“Understood.” Derek pulled a chair out for Nikki.
“Smells delicious. What are we having, darling?” Simon asked.
“Can we get back to the dog conversation?” Nikki asked.
Simon frowned. “Show the chef some respect! We will talk about Señor Juan Pablo Hidalgo and Señora Maria Consuela Hidalgo in a moment. Hold your panties on!”
“What?”
“You heard me. Now what is on the menu, my love?” Simon looked up at Marco, who had brought out a platter of what appeared to be some type of smoothies.
Marco smiled. “We are having chorizo with papas. In English that is chorizo and potatoes, chilaquiles, fruit salad, and agua de piña, which is pineapple smoothie.”
“Sounds great. Ladies first,” Derek said.
Nikki filled her plate. She had to admit that it all looked delicious.
Once everyone was served they learned that the little dogs had been found by Simon and Marco after they left the last club where they had asked about Carrigan, who apparently no one had seen. The pups had been scavenging through some trash.
“We couldn’t leave them there like that,” Marco said. “Look how precious they are.”
Nikki glanced down at the dogs, now at her feet staring up at her with their big brown eyes. They were pretty cute. Ollie might not think so. In fact, Ollie might decide that they were toys, or tidbits. “Can I ask where the poncho and sombrero came from?”
Simon waved a hand at her. “Oh jeez, you wouldn’t believe what you can learn from YouTube videos!”
“You two didn’t really check things out at the bars last night, did you?” Derek asked. “There is no way you had time to do that and make Chiquita Banana outfits for your new dogs.”
Simon looked at Marco and bellowed, “Of course we did! That’s why we were up so late when you and Julie Andrews came walking in.”
“Simon…” Nikki began. “Julie Andrews?”
“In The Sound of Music. She played a nun—at least until she fell in love. I adore that movie.”
“Simon, did you guys really go to the bars and pass around Carrigan’s photo?”
“Okay, fine. We started to. We went to one club but we got bored and felt stupid asking people if they’d seen Vil…I mean Carrigan, so we went to see how poor Susannah was doing over at Juanita’s place and we had dinner. Then, we felt bad after we left there and went back to try another club, but we saw these two in the trash, and we just, we just…well…”
“We take stray dogs and you solve murders. We are the same kind of people—very good people,” Marco interjected.
Nikki took a bite of the chilaquiles. They were delicious for sure. “You guys make it really difficult to be angry with you. So you went to Juanita’s? How was Susannah?”
“She seemed okay,” Simon said. “She was getting quite a bit of comfort from that handsome guitar player who was there the other night. They looked very friendly, if you know what I mean.”
“Guillermo?” Nikki asked.
Marco nodded. “And there was another man who came there last night. He really seemed to upset her. He was speaking to her and then she started to cry. He gave her a hug and patted Guillermo on the shoulder.”
“Huh. Did you by chance ask her about it?”
“No. She was over by the bar when Simon saw them. We tried not to be obvious about it. That we were watching. There weren’t many other patrons in there. We didn’t know what to do.”
“We need to go talk to her today,” Nikki said. “In fact, there are a number of things we need to get done today.”
“There are?” Simon asked. “Because we thought we would take the day off from solving crime and be new pet owners and take Señor Juan Pablo Hidalgo and Señora Maria Consuela Hidalgo down to the beach for some sun.”
“No. And why can’t we shorten their names?”
“Kidding, right?” Simon asked.
Derek shook his head. “Nikki, don’t even go there.”
“Fine. I will call them Juan Pablo and Maria Consuela.” Simon started to protest but she held up a hand. “Don’t ask me for more than that.”
“Okay, but now that we’ve told you about our night, you need to tell us about yours, and why our day has been filled to the brim schedule wise. What is on the agenda, Snow White?”
Chilaquiles
New dogs, more intrigue, and a big day ahead of them. Lucky for the Malveaux family that Marco has whipped them up another magnificent meal. Chilaquiles is a traditional Mexican breakfast recipe. Serve with mimosas or Mexican hot chocolate!
Ingredients:
One 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained and 1/2 cup liquid reserved
2 chipotles in adobo
1½ tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large white onion, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
1½ cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth
Salt
8 ounces tortilla chips
1½ cups shredded chicken
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese or queso añejo
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves
Directions:
In a blender, combine the tomatoes with their reserved 1/2 cup of liquid and the chipotles; blend until almost smooth.
In a very large, deep skillet, heat the oil. Add two-thirds of the onion and cook over moderately high heat until browned around the edges, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the tomato puree and simmer, stirring, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. St
ir in the stock and boil the sauce over moderately high heat until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and remove from the heat.
Gently stir the tortilla chips into the sauce, making sure they are well coated. Top with the remaining onion, the shredded chicken and the Parmesan cheese. Dollop the sour cream over the chilaquiles, sprinkle with the cilantro and serve immediately.
Make Ahead. The recipe can be prepared through Step 2 and refrigerated overnight. Reheat the chipotle-tomato sauce before proceeding. Note: Queso añejo is an aged Spanish white cheese that's slightly salty.
Chapter Twenty-five
An hour later, they all had their assignments. Simon would go with Nikki to see Susannah. Derek was to see if he could track down Tim again and jog his memory a bit more about that night, while Marco stayed home with Juan Pablo and Maria Consuela and tried to find anything more he could on the Internet about any and all of the players involved, from Dream to Paul to Erin Faldo, and possibly Ricardo Rivera and his wife. Nikki didn’t think cartel members kept up with social media, but one never knew.
“Now why are you and I on this little expedition together and not you and the Mister?” Simon asked.
“Because I’ve missed you,” Nikki replied after Derek dropped them at the beach close to Juanita’s.
Derek planned to see if he could locate the hostel where Tim might be staying. Nikki knew that Derek was the better one for that job as he’d already established some kind of friendship with Tim. Also, Simon needed to be watched. She could trust Marco to do his part, but she knew that if Simon had any more tequila sunrises, he’d go back to Plan A and have himself a date with the Pacific, some SPF, and the two Chihuahuas. So, she’d decided he was best off with her for the day.
“That’s so sweet.”
It was close to lunchtime when they approached the restaurant, but there were no other patrons around. Inside, Nikki called out to Susannah, who appeared a few seconds later. Her eyes were red, as if she’d been crying. “Hello,” she said.
A Killer Margarita (Nikki Sands'/Wine Lover's Mystery Series) Page 11
