“I’ll pass, thanks.” He placed a kiss on the inside of Libby’s wrist and backed up to his own chair. “What do you mean she was a user? Drugs or people?”
Luna shrugged as she sipped her tea. “A little of both. I think someone convinced her to carry for the cartels, or maybe she just went along with the other girl to give her some protection. That’s something she’d do.”
Libby inhaled the smell of her tea before taking a sip. “Were we in touch? Estranged? Did we live together?”
“Drink some more of your tea.” Luna poked a stick at the firepit. “Gets a little chillier out here at night than in the city. A fire’s nice. Rob, you wanna get one started? My man Zeke set it up before he left today.”
Luna tossed a box of matches at him, and Rob caught them with one hand. As he shoved the kindling beneath the logs, Luna’s low, soothing voice floated over him.
“Do you remember your mother, Libby? Pretty woman, like you, but she never had your strength. Always got by on her looks, Tandy did, and when those started to fade she panicked a little. Always enjoyed the company and flattery of men. Do you remember, Libby?”
Libby’s eyes had drifted closed, as she drank more tea from her cup. “She was small, petite like a fairy, and she had a laugh that bubbled like champagne. I adored her, but as I grew up, I knew she couldn’t protect me.”
Rob glanced up from his Boy Scout activity, jerking his head toward Luna, who put a gnarled finger to her lips.
Luna’s monotone voice continued. “She did secure the gallery for you, though, and a few wealthy investors. Do you remember?”
The smooth skin between Libby’s eyebrows puckered. “We argued about it. She got money from her boyfriend, her rich, married boyfriend, and I told her that’s the only way she ever got by in life—using men. I didn’t want to accept the gallery, but she cried and said it was the only thing she had ever given me. I felt sad. I accepted the gallery.”
“And made a success out of it.”
“I wanted Mom to stay with me, but I told her she had to get off the drugs and booze. She wouldn’t. We were estranged at the end. She wouldn’t change, couldn’t change.” Libby’s eyes flew open, and she pinned Rob with her gaze. “She knew that man in the palatial house. Somehow she knew him.”
Rob struck a match and lit the kindling in several places with a slightly trembling hand. As the smoke curled up, he looked at Libby through the haze. “Do you remember now? Everything?”
Waving her hand in front of her face to dissipate the smoke, she shook her head. “Not everything. Not clearly. I can picture my mother. I know she talked to me about the man on the cliff and his interest in art. After she was murdered and Troy approached me, I knew I could get into the compound because my mother knew someone there. He sent her to her death, didn’t he? El Gringo Viejo?”
“No, not directly, Libby. It was a small-time drug dealer working for the Las Moscas cartel who wanted to strike out on his own. He’s the one responsible for your mother’s death—and he paid with his own life.” Rob stepped back from the crackling fire. “I wonder if EGV knew what happened to your mother. I wonder if you were in danger from the moment you stepped through the gates of his home.”
“That’s still a blank, Rob. I don’t remember the man at the house. I don’t remember the man who died.”
“Someone else died?” Luna tossed the dregs of her tea into the fire, which snapped and danced. “You never told me any of this, Libby.”
Libby held up her cup. “What’s in this tea? I felt like I did when I was under hypnosis at the therapist’s office.”
“Hypnosis is just a state of deep relaxation. That’s all I did.” She pinged her fingernail against her cup. “I put you in a state of deep relaxation and gave you a few suggestions.”
“It worked.”
Luna asked, “Who’s El Gringo Viejo?”
“You don’t need to know.” Rob circled around the fire and squeezed Libby’s shoulders. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. I feel like the pieces are falling into place for me.”
“Your phone is probably sufficiently charged to go through it.” He held out his hand toward Luna. “Do you want me to take your cup? Is it okay if I go inside?”
“Take the cup, go inside, don’t disturb the cat.” She handed him her cup. “The phone’s by the sink, not that our place is all that big.”
As he turned toward the steps, Libby grabbed his hand and said, “One more thing, Luna. I’m pretty sure I know the answer, but I’m not married, am I? Have any boyfriends lurking around?”
Luna chuckled. “You’re one hundred percent single. Your mother was lamenting that fact the last time I saw her.”
Rob swooped down and planted a kiss on Libby’s mouth. “Thanks for asking.”
He tromped up the two steps and yanked open the door to the RV. His nostrils flared at the smell of that tea in here. Luna must burn the stuff, too.
Spotting the charging phone on the small counter next to the stainless-steel sink, Rob took one step and reached for it. He could probably stand in the center of the RV and reach practically everything.
The gray tabby glared at him from his one good eye, and Rob yanked the charger out of the socket along with the phone before the cat got any ideas.
The battery meter in the corner of the display read half-full, so he held his thumb down on the power button. He stepped out of the RV as the phone came to life and tripped on the bottom step when he
