It took me a second to realize that he didn’t want to hear about
“I really don’t know him very well,” I said.
“But you came to see him. He was in your shop.” His green eyes were mesmerizing, teasing me a little, like he knew I was a fraud but didn’t care.
He couldn’t be gay. He couldn’t.
“I wanted to see how he was, and I wanted to ask him about something.” Right. Charlotte said Trevor was the one who could explain everything. Now Charlotte was going to have to come out of hiding. I pulled out my cell phone. “A friend of mine knew him better. She can tell you what you need to know.”
Colin Bixby put his hand over mine, the one that was holding the phone, and I felt it again. The spark, the warmth-and the firm way he closed my phone.
“You can’t use that in here,” he said softly, leaning toward me.
I usually don’t like to share my personal space, but I didn’t have a problem with that right now. He smelled nice, like fresh Ivory soap with a splash of Purell thrown in for good luck.
“You can use this one.” He lifted his hand off mine and waved it over a landline on the desk.
“Thanks.” I picked up the phone and dialed Charlotte’s cell.
The voice mail kicked in, and I said she needed to call me right away. I hung up and dialed Ace’s number. It rang a few times before I got his voice mail. I left the same message. I turned to Colin Bixby and shrugged. “I can have her call you.”
He was looking at me sideways in a way that made me sure he’d aced chemistry class. “How many tattoos do you have?”
I couldn’t help myself. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.” I sounded like I was in sixth grade. Yikes.
But it didn’t seem to turn him off.
“That sounds like a challenge.”
Okay, so he knew MissTique, but the way he was looking at me now definitely clinched it: He was so not gay.
He slipped a card out of his breast pocket and pressed it into my hand. “Call me.”
Just try and stop me.
I stuck the card in my bag and stood up. He shook my hand, holding it a second longer than he should have. But I wasn’t complaining.
All right, so I knew nothing about Colin Bixby except he was a doctor and he worked in the emergency room at UMC. But to a single woman of thirty-two who hadn’t had a date in a while, it was nice to know the man at least had a job. I just hoped he didn’t live with his mother.
I took one of my own cards out and handed it to him. “In case you don’t want to wait,” I flirted shamelessly.
He gave me a sort of half smile and blushed again, and I had to leave before I said something even more stupid. I almost sprinted out the door but stopped when I heard him calling me back.
“Miss Kavanaugh, you might want to know that Mr. McKay was delirious when he arrived here because of his dehydration. We did not find any ID on him. All we found was this.”
Colin Bixby held out a stone-studded pin with the queen of hearts on it.
Chapter 17
He didn’t let me take it. Instead, he just asked me if I could identify the pin as belonging to Trevor. I felt like I was living an episode of
I told him yes, the brooch was Trevor’s.
“Since Mr. McKay became ill in your shop, did you notice whether he had a wallet or any other identification on him there?” Bixby asked.
I thought about how quickly Trevor had gotten sick and shook my head. “No. We told the paramedics his name, but they moved really fast to get him out of there.”
“So you don’t know where he lives?”
I felt like an idiot. But then I had a thought: “MissTique probably has his address, because he works for her.”
“Thank you, Miss Kavanaugh. I’ll give Kyle a call.”
So he knew MissTique’s name was really Kyle. Uh-oh. Those doubts again started to bubble up.
But then he winked at me. “And I’ll call you, too, if you don’t mind.”
I was bouncing back and forth like a pinball.
“You can call me Brett,” I said, giving him a short wave as I turned and practically skipped away.
I picked up takeout from Noodles in the Palazzo shops. When I first came to Vegas, I could never figure out whether I was in the Venetian or the Palazzo, since they’re connected and there isn’t a real definitive line on the border between them. I count the waterfall that spills down to the first floor as the start of the Palazzo shops, but I think they start before that, possibly at the end of the canal.
It’s easy to get lost, with all the walkways between the fancy, expensive shops. Sometimes I end up at Double Helix, an open-air bar that sits in the middle of a star-shaped area with paths going in all different directions. I found the box office for Blue Man Group downstairs one day when I was looking for a ladies’ room. I’ve never seen the Blue Man Group, but it’s nice to know it’s there if I ever want to.
Noodles is a large, bright restaurant with massive tables so you can meet your neighbor. I’m not one to embrace eating with strangers, so I always get takeout. The food is fabulous, and today I picked up a variety of duck, shrimp, and chicken entrees. It was the least I could do for my staff-well, Bitsy and Joel-who’d held down the fort all day while Charlotte and Ace were in hiding and I was out playing Nancy Drew.
Joel met me at the front desk when I came in.
“You went to Noodles,” he said, unable to keep the glee out of his voice as he took the bag from me. “Bitsy, look, Brett went to Noodles.”
He didn’t wait for her to answer, just went immediately into the staff room.
Bitsy, who was sitting at the front desk doing paperwork, didn’t look as happy.
“Thanks for letting me play hooky a little,” I said, uncertain how to approach this. Bitsy liked being in charge whenever she could be, which is why I sometimes made her think she was in charge. But when she really was, like today, she could get a chip on her shoulder about it.
And since her shoulders were little, like her, those chips could be a bit large.
But she didn’t look mad. Her eyes, which were a bright, clear blue and offset by her blond hair, which she recently cut short in a really attractive bob, were clouded by worry.
“I haven’t heard from Ace or Charlotte,” she started.
I put up a hand. “I have. I also have bad news. Let’s go in the staff room.”
Bitsy followed me as we joined Joel, who was already dishing noodles into his mouth. He stopped when he saw my expression.
“What, do you want to say grace or something?”
I sighed and sat down.
Joel finished chewing and followed suit. Bitsy kept standing. We were all at the same eye level that way.
“Trevor died this afternoon.” I told them about going to the emergency room after Charlotte said I should find Trevor, and how I met Colin Bixby and he told me the news.
