Assignment Vegas: The Case of the Athlete's Assassin: Jae Lovejoy Cozy Mystery Two (Jae Lovejoy Cozy Mysteries Book 2)

by Lucey Phillips

  “Not necessarily—but—I don’t know. These photos make me think it could be more sophisticated than a one-man operation,” he said.

  Then he turned toward McKenna. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you some difficult questions—and I need you to answer honestly. If we can get a solid list of suspects, we might be able to use these pictures to figure out what’s going on.”

  McKenna nodded.

  “Okay. First of all: Can you think of anyone who has a grudge against you and would want to hurt you?”

  McKenna looked down at her clasped hands. “Just Anne. She’s a makeup artist for the show. I’ve been seeing her ex-boyfriend—and child’s father—James. I know she always wanted to get back together with him.”

  I looked at Mariah for signs that she might be surprised over the revelation that McKenna and James weren’t really over. Mariah had a hand resting gently on McKenna shoulder. Of course she knew about James, I thought. If McKenna ever did try to keep a secret from her mom, it wouldn’t last.

  “Has Anne ever threatened you?” Jacob asked.

  McKenna shook her head. “She doesn’t speak to me at all.”

  Jacob nodded. “What about anyone from before you got clean? Any threats or enemies there?”

  I cringed inwardly. It took me days to work up the courage and find the tact to ask McKenna almost the same thing. And Jacob just stood there and blurted it out.

  “I don’t think so,” McKenna said, shaking her head. “I mean sure, I lost a bunch of friends when I got clean, but I wasn’t a narc or anything. Plus, all that stuff happened in California, where my dad’s family lives.”

  Jacob ran a hand through his hair. “Anyone else? Who would benefit from you leaving the show?”

  “McKenna is the star. Lots of people would love to have her part in the show. Especially that Poppy, Kinny’s understudy,” Mariah said.

  “Poppy?” Jacob repeated as he wrote in a note pad. “Has she ever threatened you?”

  “No,” McKenna said. “She’s really nice.”

  “I’ll check her alibis anyway. She definitely has a motive.”

  I couldn’t stop thinking about the picture I’d seen in McKenna’s apartment—the one where she and James were sitting at a table with Marcos Marilla and the other crew members from Vivant. What if someone was involved with drugs and—because of her social connection with them—McKenna knew something she wasn’t supposed to know? What if Marilla was the one trying to get rid of her?

  I decided not to mention that theory now, in front of McKenna and Mariah. Despite everything, I worried that McKenna’s trust in me was tenuous.

  “Can you get a room here tonight?” Jacob asked the women. “Both of you stay here together—until we make an arrest or at least zero in on a suspect?”

  “Why do you think we’ll be safer here than at home?” Mariah asked.

  “Well, for starters you won’t be out riding around in cars where you can get into questionable accidents,” Jacob said. “On top of that, almost every inch of this place is monitored by several layers of security.”

  “But this crazy person is here—in Currents. They found a way into this dressing room, which is supposed to be secure,” Mariah said, gesturing toward the photos.

  “But they were at her home, too,” Jacob said. “Look, I know it’s not a good situation. But this way, McKenna can keep working. I think it’s the best option we have. I can see if the casino will assign you a personal security guard, too.”

  Mariah nodded. McKenna turned toward her mother. “We can bring Cecile here with us.”

  “I’ll call a uniform to escort you home to get your things. Stay here tonight. I’ll be in touch.”

  Jacob said goodbye and left. I said goodbye, too, and followed Jacob out the door, urging McKenna to call me if she needed anything.

  As I walked beside Jacob, back to the casino, I checked my phone. There were two texts from Colin. The first one asked if I was okay. The second one asked if he should come find me.

  I replied, “I’m okay, coming back your way now.”

  It felt like I’d only left the reception a few minutes ago, but I’d actually been gone more than an hour.

  Jacob offered to walk with me back to where I came from. After that, he was going to talk to the security shift manager. He glanced down at my skirt and then back up to make eye contact with me.

  “You look nice,” he said. “What’s going on tonight that you’re all dressed up?”

  Only a cop could go from worrying about keeping one woman alive, to boldly flirting with another woman. Of course, only a journalist would be comfortable enough with those abrupt gear changes to actually respond to the flirting. Well, at least not be too offended by it.

  “Colin’s friend was in a wedding tonight. Up in the Eventide Garden.” I gazed at the carpeting in front of me while we walked, trying to keep my voice even.

  “Who’s Colin? Your boyfriend?”

  “No,” I said with a laugh that came out just a little too shrill. “He’s a work colleague—a photographer. We travel together, you know, working on stories for ANA.”

  “Wow, your very own photographer,” Jacob teased. “I didn’t realize you were such a big deal.”

  I knew I could either act defensive and shrill again, or I could play along.

  “Um, yeah. Everyone knows what a big deal I am.”

  Jacob nodded and chuckled softly.

  We turned onto a walkway that overlooked the lagoon. I peered over the railing for a moment to watch a snorkeler in the water. He was cleaning the glass surface from the inside.

  Jacob stopped a few steps ahead of me and waited for me to catch up.

  “I think you should let me take you out to dinner sometime,” he said. His tone was so casual and light, it took me a minute to realize what was happening, how unusual it was that this detective would just, out of the blue, invite me on a date.

  “Um. I’m leaving in a couple days.” I blurted the statement with zero grace. And my cheeks had begun to burn before I even finished my sentence.

  He smiled gently. “So that’s a no thanks?”

  “Yeah. Thanks though. I have all this work to do. Then we’re heading out to Texas at the end of the week,” I said, trying to hide the relief in my voice.

  My thoughts went directly to Colin. Why had I told Jacob “we” were leaving at the end of the week? I wished I’d just said “I” was leaving. That made it sound like we were, somehow, together.

  I knew we weren’t together. I knew we were work colleagues, and maybe friends. But nothing more.

  “I guess this is your stop,” Jacob said when we exited the elevator and walked toward Eventide Garden. “Thanks for calling me tonight.”

  “Yeah, of course,” I said. “Thanks for helping McKenna—for taking this seriously.”

  Jacob told me he would call me if he found anything new. Then we said goodbye.

  When I got back to the wedding reception, the lights were dimmer and the music was louder than when I left. I didn’t see Colin right away, so I got a Diet Coke and found my seat where I’d been earlier.

  As I expected, my mostly untouched dinner plate had been taken away. In its place was a big white lump. When I got closer, I could see it was a napkin—unfolded and arranged as a protective tent covering a piece of wedding cake. I smiled before I sat down and began eating.

  Nobody was sitting at our table. Most of the other tables were empty, too. The DJ was playing a slow song. It looked like nearly everyone was on the dance floor, with the newly-married couple dancing close in the middle of the floor.

  The white cake was the perfect, sugary pick-me-up. It seemed to melt in my mouth. Colin must have been the one who left it for me.

  I looked around for Colin while I ate. He wasn’t at the bar or sitting at another table. Finally, the slow song ended and the DJ started playing an up-tempo pop song. That caused most of the small dance floor to clear.

  That’s when I saw C
olin. And suddenly the perfectly delicious cake I was eating seemed overly saccharine. It started to turn in my stomach.

  Nichole was draped all over him, swaying slowly even though the music playing now was fast. For a moment, Colin seemed not to notice that their dancing was a mismatch with the music. And that they were nearly alone on the dance floor. He just continued to sway, his arms wrapped cozily around the slender, beautiful Nichole.

  Finally, he looked up—at nothing in particular—with a blank expression. He proceeded to untangle himself from his dance partner, who seemed to take an exorbitant amount of time figuring out that their dance was, indeed, over.

  Nichole stumbled her first step toward our table. Colin caught her, placing two hands on her upper arms. Her gait wove slightly. Colin stayed a half step behind her, ready to help if she stumbled again.

  I used my fork to poke at my cake, glancing between my plate and Colin and Nichole.

  Once, when I looked up, Colin and I made eye contact. He waved and gave me a big smile—the biggest smile I’ve ever seen from him, in fact.

  It was a drunk smile.

  “Hey! You made it back,” Colin said as he sunk his body into the chair beside me.

  Nichole sat to Colin’s other side. She had taken her phone out of her purse and was squinting at the screen.

  “How’s McKenna?”

  “She’s okay—just worried about some stuff.” I gave a dismissive wave of my hand. “I’ll explain later.”

  Colin nodded. He drummed his fingers on the table—something I’d never seen him do. Was he nervous?

  “Did you leave this cake for me? Thanks.” I smiled.

  “Yeah! It’s good, huh?”

  I nodded.

  Even though the room was noisy, the silence between Colin and I was noticeable and tense. He scooted his chair back from the table.

  “I think I’m going to grab some water. Do you need anything?”

  “No thanks, actually, I think I should get going. I’m kinda tired.”

  “Oh. Yeah, sure,” Colin said. “I’ll walk you back.”

  I told him no thanks and assured him I would be okay. I hated to put a damper on his fun—on his limited time with friends from home.

  “I’ll text you in the morning?” He asked. “We’ll get breakfast?”

  “Sounds good,” I said, hoping my smile didn’t look as forced as it felt.

  | Thirteen

  I was still lying in bed when Colin texted me the morning after his friend’s wedding.

  He wrote, “Are you up? I know it’s early. My brain still thinks we’re on East Coast time.”

  I replied immediately, “Me too… I’m up.”

  Colin wrote, “Crepes and coffee?”

  Twenty minutes later, he was knocking on my door. Walking to the elevator, I looked for signs of a hangover—red, sunken eyes, unusually quiet speaking voice to avoid provoking a headache, or otherwise sloppy appearance. But Colin looked fine. Maybe he was a little tired, but he certainly didn’t have bloodshot eyes or whiskey breath.

  I didn’t want to care—to have any opinion—about Colin’s choices around alcohol. But I did. And I was relieved that he seemed sober. Mornings with my mom, especially when she was hurting, but still drunk from the night before, were ugly.

  “Is everything okay with you? When you left early last night, I was worried you weren’t feeling well.” Colin asked.

  “Everything’s okay,” I said. “I’m fine. Maybe just a little stressed out about all the stuff with McKenna, that’s all.”

  “Okay, good,” Colin said. “I left pretty soon after you did. Nichole’s sister promised she’d get her back to their room okay. I think she had a little too much champagne.”

  “She did look a little unsteady on her feet,” I said, trying to make my voice sound light, cheerful, and most of all, nonjudgmental.

  But while I spoke, I wondered why Colin shared that little detail with me. It was probably just chitchat, but maybe he wanted me to know that he didn’t go home with that girl. Was he afraid I’d judge him, or have some other feelings, if I assumed he went home with her?

  I decided I had to get back to business. “So, yeah. Some weird stuff happened with McKenna last night…”

  While we were sitting down with our food, I told Colin about the photos McKenna found in her dressing room, how sure she was that Anne is responsible for these attacks, and how, on Jacob’s advice, McKenna, Mariah, and Cecile were going to live at Currents for a while.

  “And then, this other weird thing happened,” I said. My cheeks started to burn, but I just kept talking—gazing down at my plate, unable to make eye contact with Colin. “The detective, Jacob White, asked me out.”

  A nervous laugh escaped from me. I’d never intended to tell Colin about that. It seemed like a non-issue. Why had I just blurted that out?

  “You mean you are all standing around, trying to help McKenna, and he just said, ‘Let’s have dinner?’”

  “No,” I laughed. “He said it when he was walking with me back to the wedding reception. But still… Weird.”

  Colin shrugged. “I don’t think it’s that weird—you’re smart and pretty and single. Why not?”

  I could feel the heat that had gathered in my cheeks blossoming out to my neck and even my ears.

  “Because I’m leaving town in a couple days, for one. And he hardly knows me, and, I don’t know. It’s just weird.”

  “So I take it you declined his offer?” Colin was smirking now.

  “Yep. I don’t even live here. What’s the point?”

  “People can date without living in the same city. They Skype and get together on weekends,” Colin said. “I have a couple friends who are in relationships like that. They make it work.”

  I stirred my coffee absentmindedly, wishing I’d never brought up this topic.

  “Even if you think you’ll never see someone again, you can still let them take you out to dinner—might be fun.” Colin’s voice was gentle. “You don’t want to be alone all the time, do you?”

  “I just never have good luck with relationships.”

  “That’s how everyone feels—until they meet the right person,” he said.

  Part of me wanted to ask Colin if he’d ever been in a serious relationship. There was a rumor around work that he was involved with plenty of women—always on a short-term basis. But I’d never seen any behavior from Colin to support that speculation.

  Ultimately, I couldn’t force myself to ask him a personal question like that. Maybe it just wasn’t the right time. Or maybe I just needed our boundaries to stay exactly where they were.

  While we were finishing our second cups of coffee, I looked up some of the emails Quinn had sent me. They contained the background information she dug up on some of the more questionable crew and cast members.

  I looked up their addresses in my phone’s navigation system to see if any of them lived close to, or in, McKenna’s building.

  “I’m still worried about Marcos Marilla,” I told Colin while I worked. “But look—his house is way on the other side of town. And here: Poppy and Anne both live within a few blocks of McKenna’s apartment building.”

  “You’re getting too hung up on geography,” Colin said. “He could have taken a cab. Or maybe his significant other lives around there.”

  I sighed. “You’re right. Still, I need to check out some of these places before we meet with Poppy this afternoon. Maybe it’ll give us some ideas.”

  “Fine with me,” Colin said. “But why are you investigating if you’re not going to write about this? Why not let Jacob handle it?”

  “Because. It’s McKenna. She’s scared and she has this idea that I can help her. I don’t want to let her down, you know?”

  Colin nodded and simply said, “Okay.”

  “Plus, having the subject of my story get attacked, or worse, isn’t going to do any favors for my career, you know?”

  “Just admit it: She’s your friend. You hav
e a friend.”

  My cheeks started burning all over again. “What? I have friends. Quinn is my friend. We talk every day.” The pitch of my voice rose out of its usual range.

  Colin held his palms up. “Okay, sorry. You’re just a very, very independent person. You’ve been traveling the country by yourself for years. It’s good you’ve got a friend.”

  There was a truth in Colin’s statement that made me half offended, half embarrassed. I didn’t know what to say. So I said nothing. Instead, I wadded up my napkin and threw it at Colin’s chest. He swatted it out of the way at the last second.

  He smirked at me. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  We took a taxi to McKenna’s apartment building. When we were on our way, McKenna texted me the entrance code to get to the upper floors of her building. She said the photos looked like they were taken from the landing outside the workout room on the second floor.

  The building’s lobby was empty when we arrived. The second floor was deserted too.

  “Wow, nice gym,” Colin said when we arrived at the second floor hallway. “I’ve been in a lot of sports teams’ workout rooms and this is as nice as any of those.”

  I looked at the gym on the other side of the glass wall. It seemed nice, but I wasn’t really familiar with that kind of equipment.

  “Well, this is a nice building. I guess they’re going to have fancy amenities,” I said.

  Colin shook his head. “I don’t know—that’s professional grade stuff. Maybe there’s lots of athletes, or performers like McKenna, living in this building.”

  I went to the window overlooking the courtyard where McKenna and her mother had been photographed. I looked down at the lawn, wondering how much precious desert water was sprinkled out there, to keep that small square of grass looking so unusually green.

  I got a chill thinking about someone standing in this spot, watching McKenna, like a stalker.

  “You know, we haven’t really looked into ex-boyfriends. This kind of creepy behavior reminds me more of an abuser—someone who plays mind games and wants to terrorize the victim.”

  “Who’s her ex-boyfriend?” Colin asked.