“Could you please get out of my way?” Margot asked.
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“You haven’t asked one.”
“Given your involvement in the deaths of four people involved in the Baja cartel and your association with Malachi Flynn, are you working for the Baja Cartel or one of their rivals?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m asking if you’re a hitwoman for the Baja Cartel.”
“And I’m asking you to get out of my way.”
“Can you answer the question?”
“Can you get out of my way?”
“After I get an answer.”
“That question is too dumb to bother answering. Now please move. I’m not going to ask again.”
Cassandra moved aside. As Margot passed, she said, “You look like you want to hit me.”
“Luckily for you, looks can be deceiving because if I wanted to hit you, there wouldn’t be a damn thing you could do to stop me.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Nope, just a statement of fact.”
Margot got in the car and Radcliff drove them out of there.
“You shouldn’t let her get to you,” Radcliff said as he headed towards the office she shared with Shaw.
“Who? The YouTube star?”
“Yeah, though what does that even mean? Anybody can start their own YouTube channel; that doesn’t mean anybody’s watching it.”
Margot nodded but then added, “Ten viewers or ten thousand, I still don’t like being called a cartel hitwoman.”
“I get that, but I’m guessing this is the last we’ll see of Cassandra Cole.”
“Probably.”
“You say that, but you still look agitated.”
“Sorry, your old girlfriend didn’t seem to like me either, even while I’m trying to keep her out of prison for the rest of her life.”
“Yeah, I kind of picked that up.”
“She makes me question your judgment in women.”
“I picked you, didn’t I?”
“Exactly, that’s the part that has me agitated.”
“You’re not Phoebe. Trust me when I say Phoebe dumping me was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”
“Yet, when she’s in trouble, you still rushed over to help.”
“Yeah, I guess I did. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. That whole knight-in-shining-armor thing you have going is one of the things I like about you.”
“That’s good. I thought you might be mad at me after meeting Phoebe. Do you want to go to dinner with a knight in shining armor tonight?”
“Do I want to? Yeah, of course. I think I need to get to work though, and if I’m going to run into anyone who saw Phoebe at the Palms two nights ago, I’m going to have to show up at the same time she would have.”
“So, no dinner?”
“Sorry.”
“What about the part where you come over to my place after we eat?”
“That could probably be arranged.”
Chapter 3
As always when interviewing a potential witness, Margot turned on her digital recorder and dropped it in her purse. With the recording up and running, she headed into the Palms.
“Reservation, ma’am?” asked the man on the other side of the counter, a bald guy with a name tag reading ‘Theodore.’
Margot smiled at him before she said, “Were you working two nights ago?”
“That’s an odd question.”
“Not really, it’s more of a ‘yes or no’ one.”
“Are you the police?”
“Kind of weird thing to ask.”
“Seems a normal ‘yes or no’ type of question to me,” he quipped.
“No,” Margot conceded as she took out her license and showed it to him. “I’m private. I’ve answered your question, now how about you answer mine?”
“Perhaps you need to talk to management.”
“Perhaps, but right now I’m talking to you,” Margot said as she laid a twenty-dollar bill on the counter. It wasn’t much of a bribe, but she wasn’t asking for much either. Even though as far as bribes go it was light, she would still be writing it up in her expense report if he took it.
The clerk put his hand on the bill and said, “I was.”
Margot took out a trio of pictures of Phoebe and set them on the counter. “Did you see this woman? Coming in around seven and walking out around eleven?”
He looked them over. He seemed to be taking this seriously. After a solid minute, he answered, “I don’t think so.”
Margot took out another twenty, put it on the counter, and said, “Think?”
“Keep your money; I honestly don’t remember her.”
“You behind this desk that whole time?”
“Sure, did she get a room? Maybe you have the wrong night.”
“She didn’t get a room, but she should have been here.”
“If I had a customer when she walked through, I never would have seen her. It’s possible she didn’t leave through the lobby or—for that matter, come in this way at all if she was seeing a guest. He could have let her in through the side door.”
“He?”
“Or she, or whatever. I’m making an assumption based on your job that she wasn’t here for a business meeting. Am I wrong?”
“No. Is there anyone else I can talk to?”
“The bartender might have seen her, maybe the bellhop. Just be discreet. We like to pretend that kind of thing doesn’t happen here.”
“No problem.”
Margot made her way across the lobby. She noticed Theodore picking up the phone and turning his back to talk. She couldn’t tell if he was taking a call or making one but decided not to worry about it either way.
Margot didn’t see a bellhop around, so she took a seat at the bar. The bartender, a tall brunette around Margot’s age, was slow to get over even though Margot was the only customer, but she made it eventually.
“Maker’s on ice,” Margot told her. Normally she tried not to drink on the job, but bartenders tended to be more cooperative if
