putting up with Cary Duncan? One of the main questions about him was if he were capable of an affair with her, and I’d have to say no at the moment.”
“He could have been acting,” I said.
“Not the way he was looking at you. I’ve got a feeling Lassiter likes women who don’t talk back. That doesn’t mean he’s off the hook, though. If he lost the kind of money we’ve heard he did, that was reason enough to kill Duncan.”
“So why didn’t you ask him about that?”
“There wasn’t time,” Zach said. “I thought it would take longer for us to make him mad than it did.”
“Then at least I’m sorry about that,” I said.
“Don’t sweat it, Savannah. There are other ways of finding that out. At least we accomplished something.”
“What’s next, then?”
He glanced at his watch, and then said, “I think it’s time we sat down and had a chat with Mindi Mills. She seems to be at the edge of all of this, don’t you think?”
“Why would she kill him? She doesn’t stand to gain by Derrick’s death.”
“Maybe she killed him for another reason,” Zach said.
“True. If he were dumping her, it might give her motive. How do we find that out, though? I shouldn’t have let her go when I had the chance.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. We’ll track her down and talk to her, then see how she reacts to our questions. How does that sound?”
“It depends.”
“On what?”
“Do I get to participate this time, or am I just going to be a puppet for you again?”
Zach hugged me before we got into the car. “Savannah, my dear sweet wife, you are a great many things, some of them so frustrating I want to howl at the moon, but anyone’s puppet, you are not.”
“Good, at least you admit that. We’re a team, you know.”
“Trust me, I’m well aware of it.”
As I drove back to the Crest Hotel, I kept wondering about all of the people in Duncan’s life who had a reason to want him dead. It made me wonder how a man could alienate himself so thoroughly from the people around him. Had he known how little he’d been loved? Had he even cared? It was hard to believe that he did, knowing the man as I had. He’d aggravated me a thousand times since we began working together, but I’d never disliked him enough to kill him.
It was clear that I was in the minority there, though.
Chapter 12
THE FRONT DESK HAD NO PROBLEM TELLING US THAT Mindi Mills was in room 1918. I would have suspected that Benjamin had something to do with it if they’d known I was the one asking.
“I’m beginning to wonder about the security here,” I said as we rode the elevator upstairs.
“What, with Derrick’s murder and all?”
“Sure, there’s that, too, but they just gave me the room number without a fight.”
“Just count your blessings she’s not staying at the Brunswick.”
“If she was, I’d just find a way to get Benjamin to tell me.”
Zach laughed. “So, apparently the security level is about the same, if you know how to work the system.”
“You’ve got a point.”
As the elevator doors opened, we could hear yelling the second we got off on the nineteenth floor.
“What do you suppose that’s all about?” Zach asked.
“Hang on a second.” We paused in the hallway, and I could make out Cary’s voice, though it was quite a bit louder than it had been the last time we’d spoken.
“That’s Cary Duncan,” I told Zach.
“How’d she get over here that fast?”
I looked at my watch. “We were at the park for nearly an hour. She had plenty of time to ditch Brady and come over here.”
Zach started creeping closer to the bend in the corridor, and I followed. We could start to make out words now, and they were rough ones at that.
“You shrew. How dare you?” That was clearly Cary.
Another woman’s voice, this one nearly an octave higher, replied, “I wouldn’t have been with him if you’d taken care of him better yourself.”
“A harem of women wouldn’t have satisfied that old goat. If you think you’re getting away with this, you are sorely mistaken.”
There was a real sense of outrage in the other woman’s voice as she said, “You’ve got some nerve. You’re the one who killed him. Everyone knows it.”
“Maybe in your feeble little world,” Cary shouted.
The elevator door opened back down the hallway, and two members of Hotel Security got out.
Zach made a decision quickly, and moved toward the battling women before he consulted me. That was fine. If he had a plan to make this work in our favor, I was all for it.
“Cary, Mindi, Hotel Security is on its way,” he said as he reached them. “Unless you both want to go to jail for disturbing the peace, follow my lead.”
Was he kidding? This was his plan?
To my amazement, both women nodded.
As the security pair rounded the corner, Zach said in a loud voice, “I told you that television was too loud before. Thanks for turning it down.”
“No problem,” Mindi said with a rise in inflection.
“We’ll see you later, then,” Zach said as he ushered Mindi into her room and quickly returned to the hallway.
Cary looked dumbfounded as Zach took her arm. “We need to go. We’re late for our meeting.”
“Of course we are,” Cary replied.
“Is there a problem here?” the lead security man asked.
“Just a television turned up a little too loud. Sorry about the commotion.”
One man looked at the other, and it was clear that neither was fooled by Zach’s story, but some kind of silent conversation went on between them, and the older man finally shrugged. “Just tell her to keep it down from now on.”
“It’s taken care of,” Zach said.
After the men left, Cary said, “Not that I’m ungrateful, but how did you happen to be here?”
“We were looking for a friend staying at the hotel,” I lied. “When we heard the commotion, we decided to see what was going on. Zach stepped in so there wouldn’t be any more trouble.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“I figured you’d been through enough already,” my husband replied. “I’d hate to give the police another reason to question you.”
Cary shuddered noticeably at that comment. “How right you are. If I can ever repay you, all you need do is ask.”
“I might just take you up on that,” Zach said.
Cary barely looked in my direction as she headed for the elevator herself.
Once she was gone, I asked Zach, “Are you serious? That story honestly worked on everyone?”
He shrugged. “Savannah, Hotel Security just wanted the problem to go away. I found a way to let them ignore it in good conscience, and that was enough for the moment. If Cary and Mindi go at it again, it’s going to be on their heads, not mine.”
