by Lauren Berg
“So how do I meet Nathan? Lawrence saw through me pretty fast. He might be conceited, but he’s pretty sharp. Is his father anything like him?” Laura stretched her hands over her head.
“Like I said he’s kind of an enigma. Listen, we’ll figure something out.”
Laura looked out the window at the balcony, and was just about to sink back into her seat when something occurred to her. She sat up quickly. “Why haven’t the police been back to talk to us?”
“Maybe they’ve solved the case,” Amy said. She sounded bored, and Laura narrowed her eyes. She felt like she was being neurotic, and she hated feeling that way. Normally, she was completely on point with her investigations, but there was something missing with this one, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. She supposed it was because her phone had been stolen. When she’d told Jerry about that, he’d been predictably furious. Even though Amy had gotten her a new phone, she knew she needed to keep any information she got from now on closer to her chest, so to speak.
“Doubtful,” Laura grumbled. “I’m going down to the café, do you want me to bring anything up?”
Amy shook her head. “I’m ordering room service. When you get back, we’ll come up with a way to meet Nathan von Farron.”
Laura slid her feet into her flip flops, and ignored Amy’s look of disgust. “I like them,” she called over her shoulder. She liked the way they slapped against her feet. When she was alone the noise soothed her.
In the café, Laura ordered a plain coffee, and she sat down in front of the window. Across the parking lot she saw a limo turn up the long circular drive that led to the front of the hotel. Had she really just come here the same way days before? So much had happened that when she stopped to think about it, her head began to hurt. She was no closer to figuring out what had happened to Edith von Farron, and she knew there was something she was missing. Without her other notes on her phone she had to recreate everything from memory. That hurt her, and put her at a disadvantage.
It seemed that if she looked hard enough everyone who was associated with Edith von Farron had a motive of some sort, even she and Amy. Laura knew she could rule out some people based on logic. She didn’t think Cain, for instance, had anything to do with it.
The limo pulled up to the entryway, and a short, white haired, bespectacled man emerged, setting his cane firmly on the pavement. This had to be Nathan von Farron. He didn’t look like an enigma. In fact if she hadn’t seen him get out of the limo, she wouldn’t have thought anything about him at all. He was that bland and unassuming. She wondered what Amy had meant about him. Clearly the other woman knew something that she wasn’t sharing. That’s what they’d have to talk about when she got back up to the room. Maybe she could just go up to him and strike up a conversation.
She thought about leaving her coffee, and catching him in the lobby. Vincent Ferrimo would probably introduce them since he was the one who had alerted her to the man’s arrival. Unfortunately she thought about it so long that she missed her opportunity. By the time she left the café, Nathan von Farron was conspicuously absent from the lobby, as was Vincent. Resigned to having lost her opportunity to do it on her own, Laura trudged to the elevator, and rode up to her suite.
“I think I saw Nathan von Farron,” she announced as she entered the living room area.
Amy looked up with a familiar glimmer in her eye. “I have the perfect idea to get everyone together that you need to talk to either for the first time or again.”
“Am I going to like this?” Laura asked, biting her lip.
“Oh don’t be that way,” Amy said. “Of course you’ll like it. We’re going to have a party.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Amy never ceased to amaze her, Laura thought as she looked around the ballroom in disbelief. Somehow her best friend had managed to put together a soiree in less than seven hours. When she’d gone downstairs to talk to Vincent, Laura had doubted that there would be any chance that a party was going to take place, but standing there at that moment, her mind was blown away by how quickly her friend could work when she wanted to.
“Money can move mountains,” Amy often said.
Laura smoothed the simple black dress that she’d borrowed from Amy’s closet. Her long blond hair hung down her back in loose ringlets. She hoped Cain had accepted her invitation. They hadn’t seen one another all day, and Laura worried that she had been misreading his interest. It was certainly possible that he didn’t want to be involved with her for anything other than her knowledge of the case.
Shaking off her doubts, she stepped confidently into the midst of the party, scanning the room for her friend. Amy had promised to introduce her to Nathan as soon as he arrived at the party. The fact that the police hadn’t been back still tugged at the back of Laura’s mind, but she tried not to worry about it. She couldn’t worry about them coming back when she was so close to figuring it all out herself. If only she could snap the last piece into place.
She was still thinking about what she was missing when the guest of honor walked right past her. Without thinking she reached out and caught Nathan von Farron’s arm. He looked round at her in mild alarm, so Laura tried to channel Amy.
“Your cane is so sexy,” she said, and immediately regretted her words. “I mean, it’s very distinguished. You’re Nathan von Farron, right? Amy Madison is throwing the party for you, right?”
Nathan’s compact face with his small eyes hidden behind his wire-rimmed glasses lit up at the mention of the party being thrown in his honor. “That’s right,” he said. “It’s been just the thing to take my mind off my sister’s disappearance.”
“Her passing was so sudden,” Laura said, watching his face.
His smile fell, and he shook his head. “I don’t believe for a second that she’s dead. Someone has taken her for more nefarious purposes.”
Laura reached out and patted his arm again. “If there’s any way of bringing her home, I’m sure the police will do all they can.”
Nathan scowled. “Please, the police have talked to me twice, and both times have implied that I am a suspect. That’s the primary reason I’m here right now, so that I can deal with the lugheads in person.”
“What does everyone else know about the Bayview police that I don’t?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone I talk to seems to think that the police department here is worthless. That’s not normal,” she said. “Most places I’ve been, the police are highly motivated to solve the crimes that are committed in their jurisdiction.”
Nathan shrugged. “I suppose most people in these parts are skeptical because the cops around here are generally on my sister’s payroll.”
He walked away before she had a chance to ask him about anything else. As she stared after him, she wondered what he’d meant about all of the police being on Edith’s payroll. She scanned the room for someone to ask, and her gaze landed on Vincent Ferrimo. Despite his sketchy dealings with Benjamin, Laura knew he was a loyal employee who had a vast knowledge of the inner workings of the von Farron hotel chain.
“Vincent,” she called as she got close. The hotel manager looked up, and smoothed a hand over his hair. She thought that he looked a bit rat-like at that moment, with his dark eyes darting back and forth. Why he was nervous, she couldn’t say, but she decided it had to be the arrival of Nathan von Farron. In other circumstances, Vincent might have been the perfect choice to become the acting head of the von Farron Company. He knew all the ins and outs, and he’d been as loyal as any employer could ask. Lawrence had expressed dislike over the other man, and that made her wonder how his father felt about him as well.
“Ah, Ms. Seymour, what can I do for you? Are you enjoying your friend’s impromptu fete?”
She could hear the smoothness in his voice, and she frowned. That didn’t seem like the man who had bubbled over with information just two days ago. Then he had been almost simpering in his desire to help her, but this tone s
uggested that he knew she was digging for information. The change was so subtle that most people would ignore the implications, but given what she was trying to figure out she knew that she had to pay attention to each nuance.
“I was wondering if you could answer a quick question for me?”
“Anything I can do to help,” Vincent said. He took a step closer to her, and she wasn’t sure for a moment if it was meant to be threatening or encouraging. She took his involvement with Benjamin with a grain of salt. Vincent by himself certainly didn’t seem like a menacing kind of man. If anything, she would have characterized him as the quintessential wimp, but association had to account for something.
“Well, I was just speaking to Mr. von Farron, Nathan, and he made a very troubling comment. I’m afraid if I can’t confirm it and sort it out that it will besmirch Mrs. von Farron’s memory, and open her to a great deal of criticism.” Laura hoped that she was playing to his love for his boss. She felt off kilter, and yet at the same time she sensed that she was close to the end, to figuring out what was really going on.
“What? What did the little hobbit say?” Vincent sounded both irritated and fearful.
“He said that the Bayview police department is on the von Farron payroll. From the way he made it sound, Mrs. von Farron was paying off the police so she could do things her way. That’s not true, is it?” Laura asked.
Vincent exhaled and his face returned to its’ normal color. “Hopefully that’s not truly what he thinks. Bayview is run a bit differently than other municipalities of its size. Originally both the fire and police departments were volunteer in a sense. We utilized the sheriff’s department from the county, but when Edith’s family opened the Seaside Inn, they decided that a real police force was needed. So they funded it. Since then the von Farron family has contributed to the support of the agency through a non-profit that they created. The records are completely transparent, and anyone can access them at any time.”
Laura let out her own breath of air. She wasn’t sure why, but the news deflated her. So far she hadn’t found much in Edith von Farron’s background to suggest any wrongdoing of any kind. The older woman had been tough, business savvy, and philanthropic. There were a good many people who seemed to benefit from her death, but no one with a good motive besides Benjamin. At the thought of the cruel man, Laura shivered.
“Thank you,” she said with a forced smile. Vincent melted into the growing swirl of guests, and Laura looked around for Amy or Cain. She wanted to talk over what she already knew about the case, story be damned; she just wanted to solve the mystery. After talking to Nathan the knowledge that she wasn’t really a suspect had slowly filtered through her mind, calming her down. She found that’s usually how it happened for her. Initially the decision to solve a mystery, to take on a case, or to stick her nose in where it didn’t belong was spurred on by Jerry demanding a story or the police telling her to stay put.
She turned in a slow circle … and came face to face with Benjamin. Laura gasped, and tried to take a step back, but his hand shot out and he grabbed her wrist. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked. “I think we have some unfinished business.”
Twisting her arm backward in one swift motion, Laura got her wrist free from Benjamin’s grasp. “What do you want?” she snapped, rubbing the sensitive skin.
“You got away from me once, but that was one time too many.”
Panic rose in Laura’s throat as she stared at him. She fought to keep her façade of calm as she said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. You wouldn’t be admitting to trying to kill me, would you?”
“I—I, no, of course not,” Benjamin snapped.
“I’m sure most of this is just coming from a place of deep grief, right?” Laura said, feeling better already. There was a look on the man’s face that let her know that she had the upper hand. Surviving that fall into the ocean hadn’t been part of his plan because he’d never had a plan. She knew he was the most likely suspect in Edith’s disappearance, but she also knew that there was no way she was going to get him to admit it. Not now, anyway.
“Grief?” Benjamin repeated. “Right, because my wife is missing. Right. Grief. I feel grief. I am griefing.”
“Griefing?” Laura said, trying to smother a laugh. “Grieving. With a V.”
Benjamin’s face flushed with anger, and he muttered something directed at her as he turned away and hurried into the crowd. She watched his retreating form, and felt the flush of triumph. He had a dangerous streak, but he also acted like a troubled teenage boy. Without a plan, he made things up as he went along.
***
“There you are, beautiful,” Cain said as he approached. Laura stifled a smile. She still wasn’t one hundred percent sure she wanted to let her heart get too attached. After this whole mess was sorted out, she’d be heading back to her life of drudgery at the Chronicle. And Cain? Well, she knew he’d be heading back to his life of excitement at his magazine. “Was that Benjamin you were talking to? What’s he doing here?”
“Amy invited him,” Laura said with a sigh. “She thought it would be helpful to have everyone in one place that I’ve been trying to talk to. She thought it would save me time, but so far I’ve learned squat.”
“Don’t worry,” Cain said. “We’ll get it all figured out soon.”
Laura chewed her lower lip. “We better. I feel like we’re running out of time.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Do you want to get out of here?” Cain’s voice was low, and his breath hot on her ear. She felt like the party had been dragging on for hours, and his offer tempted her on the most basic level.
“I can’t go until the end of the party,” Laura said. “I promised Amy that I’d help her host.”
Cain raised an eyebrow at her. “And how’s that going for you?”
“I’m acting as your host,” she said with a laugh. Being this close to him with his scent filling her head with impure thoughts, she knew that her heart was betraying the rules that her head had set.
“And I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Cain replied, slipping an arm around her waist. She shivered as he pulled her closer. She pressed her hands against his chest, and tipped her head back so she could look up into his eyes. He dipped his head and captured her lips. She sighed as he deepened the kiss. He probed her mouth with his tongue, and she reveled in the moment, tasting him, drinking in the feeling of being close to someone.
Cain shifted her against a wall. His hands roamed over her back and torso, gently cupping her breasts for a moment. She was ready to say she’d leave with him when he broke the kiss. “We’ll have to continue this later,” he said, panting for breath.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Or else Amy’s party is going to get a whole lot wilder.”
Cain chuckled and pressed his forehead to hers. “At least I have something to look forward to.”
They let their breathing return to normal, and Laura straightened her dress while Cain smoothed his hair, and wiped traces of lipstick off his mouth. The two of them laughed together again as they turned back toward the party.
Laura gazed around the crowd. Amy had invited all the people Laura had already interviewed. At that moment Lawrence was following Amy around trying to get her attention. He seemed to be permanently stuck in the seventies, and that made Laura both grimace and giggle. She was just about to point that fact out to Cain when a ripple of excitement seemed to run through the crowd.
“Who is that?” Laura heard someone ask.
“She looks familiar,” someone else said.
The crowd moved toward the doorway of the small ballroom. Laura caught sight of Amy pushing her way through the crowd. Trying to remember the guest list, Laura wondered if her best friend had invited someone truly famous or fascinating who would elicit such a response.
She grabbed Cain’s hand and pulled him through the crowd. When they got to the front of the crowd, they could see that the person creating the buzz was a woman. L
aura guessed that she was in her late forties or early fifties. There was something understated and elegant about the simple way she stood. Upon closer inspection, though, Laura could see that the woman did indeed have an air of dignity and grace about her.
The woman was tall, taller in her heels, and she wore a simple red sheath dress that hung perfectly on her svelte frame. Her salt and pepper gray hair was pulled back in an effortless looking chignon. Laura had always seen that kind of hairstyle in magazines, and had equated them with elegance. She felt gauche as she looked at the other woman. Even Amy paled in comparison to the beauty this woman exuded.
“Who is she?” Cain murmured in her ear.
“I have no idea, but she looks like she belongs here, doesn’t she?” Laura glanced at the woman again who seemed vaguely amused by the attention she was getting. “I don’t think Amy invited her, though, because clearly Amy’s just as confused as the rest of us.”
Laura watched her best friend approach the woman. There was something amused in the woman’s expression as Amy spoke quietly to her. An arched brow rose higher, and her lips twitched as if she was trying to suppress a smile. Then, just briefly, Laura caught the expression on Amy’s face, and she felt a twinge of doubt.
“I see that you all are curious who I am. Your hostess has asked me to introduce myself.” The woman paused as she glanced around the crowd that had assembled around her.
“We don’t mean to be rude,” Amy said. “Most of us here know one another quite well, and we’ve come together to mourn the loss of Edith von Farron. She was a great woman, and sorely missed.”
The woman nodded. “I understand, but you see, that’s why I’m here, too. I received an invitation by messenger just an hour ago.”
Laura saw a look of forced confusion cross Amy’s face, and she frowned. If her best friend hadn’t invited this woman, who had? Quickly her gaze darted through the crowd until she found the faces of Lawrence and Nathan and Vincent and Benjamin. None of the men seemed to recognize the woman either, based on the way they all leaned forward curiously.
