Eeny Meany Miny Die (Cat Sinclair Mysteries) Page 14

  "I wasn't near a phone. Besides, I said I'd call in later. It's later now and here I am in person." I would have given him a kiss to diffuse the tension, but I didn't think he was ready for Faith to find out about us.

  I looked at her. She openly watched us, her chin resting on her linked hands. Guess we were more interesting than her work. I totally got that. I shot her a smile and she shot one back. It was the friendliest signal she'd ever given me.

  "I'm getting you a new phone." Will lowered his arms and opened my office door.

  I went in first and he followed and shut the door. "I can get my own phone."

  He winced then put up his hands. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get all paternal on you. You buy it and put it through as a business expense."

  "Really? Awesome."

  He grasped me by the waist and pulled me close. Damn, he smelled good. His lips nipped mine, but he pulled back as soon as I went to kiss him properly.

  "But there's one rule," he said. "You have to answer it when I call you."

  Rules again. Will had a long list of them. "You're getting paternal again."

  He rested his forehead against mine and looped his arms around me. I snuggled in. "Sorry. Just take the damn phone and do what you always do."

  I didn't tell him that I'd been planning to do that all along. "I'll keep you informed when I'm working a case," I told him to ease his mind. "Especially if it's a dangerous one."

  He pulled back and narrowed his eyes. "Is this one getting dangerous?"

  "No. Nothing bad has happened to me."

  His eyes narrowed further. "You don't count getting your phone stolen as bad?"

  That had been scary, but nothing compared to having Mad Max pull a gun on me. My stomach still lurched at the memory. I kissed him tenderly and felt his body relax. "Thank you for worrying about me," I said. "But I'll be fine."

  He sighed. "You sure? I wish I could help you out more, but there's a load of work to do at the moment."

  "How's Slim's case? Has Bankler slipped up yet?"

  "No, and I've listened into hours of phone conversations. You know, that's something a rookie P.I. should be doing. Someone with more experience should be on the murder case."

  "The murder is mine. Besides, Jen trusts me. Why not get Faith to listen into some of Bankler's audio."

  "She's a secretary who's been here all of five minutes. I'm not getting her to do that."

  "Fine," I muttered. "I've got the afternoon free. I'll listen to him."

  He pressed his palm to my forehead. "You okay? You just offered to work."

  "Ha ha, funny guy. Anyway, I know a way you can repay me."

  "I don't need to repay you when I'm paying you."

  "It's also a way you can get more involved in my case. There's a party tonight at the Carleton to celebrate—I mean mourn—Frank's death. I'm going to go and study how everyone behaves. If you came along, you could help."

  "A Hollywood party?" He pulled a face. "Not sure it's my thing."

  "They're suspects and you need to study them. Besides, it's not a Hollywood party if it's in Renford."

  "Semantics. Okay, I'll go. For you."

  I kissed him again and it got kind of steamy in my office until his cell phone rang.

  ***

  The afternoon dragged until I returned home to dress for the party. Will picked me up at eight.

  "Wow, you look hot," he said, admiring my legs as I settled in the passenger seat. I'd worn a short black dress with capped sleeves, blinging it up with some silver jewelry and high heels. "Is this how you always dress when you go out?"

  "If you came out with me more often, you'd know."

  "I prefer to stay in. That way I get to keep you all to myself."

  He looked pretty fine himself, dressed in black pants and a dark green shirt. He hadn't done much to his hair, just combed it back a little so it didn't hang over his face. A few defiant strands refused to sit with the others, which made him look rugged, untamed. Sexy.

  The party was held in the hotel's ballroom. A room that size needed a lot of people to fill it, and somehow they'd managed to do that. Guests milled about, sipping champagne and helping themselves to the canapés. All were dressed in black. I spotted the members of Play Group standing together amid a large bunch of people, champagne flutes in hand. Cindy was speaking to three men in suits, Linc by her side. Neither spotted me, thank goodness. I wasn't looking forward to them discovering that I knew Jen.

  Will picked a glass of beer and another of champagne off a passing waiter's tray and handed me the bubbly. "Tell me who's who," he said.

  I pointed out the people I knew. By the time I'd finished, I spotted Jen making her way toward us through the crowd. We air kissed and I introduced her to Will. Her gaze raked down the length of him then swept up again to his face. He smiled at her. She smiled back, blushing. She bit her lip and clinked her glass against his.

  "Nice to meet you," she purred.

  "Nice to meet you too."

  She looped her arm through his and felt his bicep. "Ooh, you work out?"

  "A little."

  "He doesn't," I said.

  "I box occasionally," he told me. "And jog some mornings when you're not staying over."

  "I didn't know that." How could I not know that?

  "There are still a few things you don't know about me, Cat."

  Clearly. I was about to ask him when he had the time to box, but Jenny was talking to him again. She had her shoulder turned to me, giving all her attention to Will. She was an accomplished flirt. I thought I was pretty good, but she made me look like an amateur.

  "Tell me what case you're working on now," she cooed. "Besides Frank's murder."

  "Cat's working the murder. I've got a big corporate fraud case. I can't say too much about it. Confidentiality and all that."

  "How exciting."

  I rolled my eyes and caught Will looking at me with a curious expression. I mouthed What? but he just shook his head and gave his full attention to Jen again. She was asking him if she could read his palm. Without waiting for his answer, she took his hand and traced the line on his palm with her fingernail. What followed next was a pile of nonsense about his future with the perfect little housewife and two children. Only an idiot would have believed it. No way Will would think she was a real palm reader.

  So why was he listening to her so intently?

  Jen finished her reading by tucking her hand inside his. "You have wonderful hands. Very strong and capable with long fingers. Long fingers are very sexy."

  I almost spat out my mouthful of champagne. She'd gone beyond flirting and was hitting on him! So much for our friendship.

  Will pulled his hand away and gave her a smile. "Tell me, what was Cat like in her Hollywood days?"

  Jen pouted, but only for a moment. Then a different gleam glinted in her eyes. "She was pretty wild."

  "I was not!"

  "Remember Adam's party? You got with both twins—"

  "Okay! Will doesn't need to hear all the boring details."

  Will cocked his head to the side. "How about I get to decide that for myself."

  "Hey look," I said, spotting a reporter from the Renford Times approaching. "Go and talk to him and find out what angle the press are pursuing." I shoved Will's shoulder. He chuckled and walked off.

  I turned to Jen. "What's with the flirting?"

  She shrugged. "He's hawt."

  "I thought you were my friend."

  "And friends don't flirt with each other's boyfriends? Oh please. Have you forgotten about Evan?"

  "You never dated Evan."

  "No, you dated him. I just fucked him."

  I blinked at her. "When he and I were still together?"

  "I can't remember. It was so long ago. I'm not sure what you saw in him really. This guy's sooo much hotter. Check out his ass." She looked. I tried not to show my shock. Had our friendship meant so little to her? It made me appreciate Gina so much more.

  "This party fina
lly got interesting," she went on. "It was boring until you two turned up. I'm so glad you could come, Cat." She suddenly hugged me and I realized she was already drunk. I almost forgave her for hitting on Will. Almost.

  "Tell me about these guests," I said. "Who are they all?"

  "Just some people Cindy rustled up at late notice. Some flew in from L.A." She nodded at the suits talking to Cindy. "I think they're lawyers. Some others are the crew who tour with us. The rest?" She shrugged. "Rent-a-crowd maybe?"

  Taylor came toward us and held up his champagne glass in salute. "So glad you could make it, Cat," he said, kissing my cheek. "You're a breath of fresh air. You and your boyfriend." His gaze wandered to Will, whose back was to us as he talked to the reporter. "Introduce me later?"

  Jeez, did I have to fend Taylor off too? "Sure. He wants to meet all the members of Play Group. And Cindy too."

  "Bitch," Jen muttered into her flute.

  Corey signaled to us to join them. Jen did, but I held Taylor back. I needed to talk to him alone and there might never be a better time.

  "Mind if I ask you something personal?" I asked him. "It's about your, um, sexual preference."

  His gaze shifted away from my eyes to my ear. "Who told you?"

  "No one. I saw some photos in Frank's possession." And it was pretty obvious from the way he'd checked out Will.

  His gaze snapped back to mine. "What photos?"

  "Of you and another man…being intimate." I hadn't thought it would be so hard to talk to him about it, but I felt like a bottom-feeding worm, dredging up slime. "Sorry," I muttered. "But I have to ask, if only to eliminate you from suspicion."

  He swallowed. "Oh. Right. Okay, who was the other guy in the photos? Did you recognize him?"

  I shook my head. "He was blond, but I couldn't see his face."

  "I've only ever been with one blond guy, and that was over two years ago."

  "Maybe it took Frank this long to get his hands on them. Did he blackmail you?"

  He took a long time to answer. I guess it was difficult to come up with a lie on the spot. "No." All that wait for that? Man, he lacked imagination.

  "Come on, Taylor. He did, didn't he?"

  He sighed and studied his glass. "Look, I'll be honest. It wasn't really blackmail. He didn't ask me for money, but he did put a clause into my contract about protecting the group's reputation. Basically, any whiff of scandal could see me dismissed without giving me a right to claim damages."

  "Is that legally binding?"

  "I signed it. Maybe it's not, but I wasn't going to test it to find out. I wanted to keep that side of my life private just as much as he did. I'm not an idiot, Cat. I know how parents would have reacted if they found out. My career in Play Group would be over. Those photos could ruin me. Ruin the group too. Most people are okay with gay men, as long as they're nowhere near their kids. They definitely wouldn't be okay with someone from their favorite kids' group being homosexual. That's what Frank told me when he showed those photos to me." He glanced at the other members of the group, chatting together with some of the guests. "I didn't want to risk it. I told Frank that, and he believed me. He said he would destroy the photos."

  "So why did he have them in his room here in Renford two years later?"

  The color drained from his face and his fingers toyed with the flute stem. "I don't know, but I feel sick just knowing they're still out there. Do you think the cops have them?"

  "I'm sure they do."

  He grasped my arm. "Can you ask your cop friend to destroy them for me?"

  "Uh, no."

  "I don't mean now, I mean after the case is over."

  "I don't think that's how it works."

  "Cat, please!" He shook me, sending my champagne sloshing over the sides of my glass. "I can't risk them being out there!"

  "Take your hands off her." Will's steel-edged voice sent a shiver down my spine.

  Taylor gulped and his fingers sprang open. He let me go and stared wide-eyed at Will. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't hurt her."

  Will put his arm around my waist. His hand clamped on my hip. I could feel him vibrating with anger through his shirt. Taylor dipped his head and hurried off.

  "You all right?" Will asked me.

  "Of course. Taylor is harmless."

  "So why was he shaking you?"

  "I told him about the photos. I wonder why Frank didn't destroy them two years ago," I said.

  "I think the bigger question is why did he bother to bring them with him on tour? What's going on now that he needed to use them to keep Taylor behaving?"

  It was a damned good question. I looked at Will in profile and suddenly saw him the way strangers would. He was definitely sexy, but there was something more. He had intelligent eyes that could strip away lies with a scalding glance. Coupled with the determined set of his granite jaw and broad shoulders, he was definitely an impressive specimen. Compared to the guys in Hollywood, he was a manly man.

  I put my hand to the side of his face and gently pulled him down for a light kiss. When we drew apart, he gave me a lopsided smile.

  "Can we go yet?" he asked.

  I laughed. "We've just gotten started. What did your reporter friend say?"

  "Nothing interesting, just that they've all got their money on the ex-wife. She inherited the group, so it makes sense."

  "They don't think Angel did it?"

  He shook his head. "They love her. My friend couldn't stop talking about her. He said she was the nicest person in showbiz."

  "Does he cover entertainment?"

  "No, crime." He smiled at me and I laughed.

  We parted again to find out whatever we could about the group and Cindy. Will worked the room like a natural socialite. I had to hand it to him. He said he hated parties, but he could turn on the charm when necessary and fake it with the best of Hollywood.

  Me, I was intent on avoiding Cindy. Unfortunately, I forgot about Linc. He came up behind me, a champagne flute in each hand. "Well, well," he said. "It's Mad Max's friend. Are you spying on us?"

  "Actually, I'm Max's acquaintance," I told him. "I'm Jenny's friend." I nodded at Jen. She saw me and waved back.

  Linc frowned. "Then what were you doing at The Grotto this morning?"

  "I told you, I was just driving by and saw you needed help." I shrugged. "Pure coincidence."

  It was hard to tell if he believed me or not. He studied me for a minute, then glanced over my shoulder. "Shit."

  Stupid me, I looked back, straight into Cindy's overly made-up face. Her red lips parted like a bloody gash, and her eyes narrowed to slits. She muscled her way through the crowd to us.

  "Shit," Linc muttered again. "Pretend like we weren't flirting."

  "We weren't."

  He didn't seem to hear me. He held out a glass for Cindy. She ignored it. "What are you doing here?" she snapped at me.

  "I was invited by Jenny and the other Play Group members," I said. "I'm a friend."

  "Bullshit."

  "It's true. Ask her."

  The lines around her mouth stretched. She bared her teeth. They were blazingly white. "What were you doing at The Grotto?"

  I sighed. "As I just told Linc, I was passing by, saw he needed help with a couple of thugs, and stepped in. I know Max Warshenski, and I knew if I used his name, those guys would back off. Now, considering I helped Linc out, you can drop the third degree."

  Her nostrils flared. "Max didn't seem to like you very much."

  "He adores me. He's just got a funny way of showing it. Guys who've seen what he's seen aren't very good at expressing their emotions."

  "No shit," she said. Did she just shiver? Guess I wasn't the only one scared of Mad Max. And I guess she wasn't as hard assed as she made out. "So you and Max, you do business together?"

  "Sometimes," I lied.

  "Come with me and share some of the stock." She headed off, not waiting to see if I followed.

  I followed, despite the bad feeling congealing in the pi
t of my stomach. I had a good idea now what sort of business she conducted with Max. My suspicions were confirmed in the bathroom when she unwrapped a small package of white powder.

  "No thanks," I said when she offered it to me. "I had some before."

  "So why did you come in here with me?"

  "To talk to you about Frank."

  Her face paled. "You're a cop?"

  "No! No way." I indicated the powder. "Snort away, I don't care. I'm a P.I. Jenny hired me to look into Frank's death."

  "She's trying to get Angel off? Dumb bitch."

  "Who? Angel or Jenny?"

  She snorted up some of the powder through one nostril and flipped her head back. "Jenny." She rubbed her nose and sniffed. "Angel's not dumb. Not in the least."

  I leaned my butt against a sink and watched as Cindy snorted up another line of powder. "So you think Angel did it?"

  "Of course she did it."

  "Why? To inherit his fortune?"

  "Probably." She sniffed and tipped her head back. "Maybe she thought she was going to get Play Group too." She grinned. "God, I love beating that prissy little bitch. Did you know that I made her? I turned her into a star. It was me who hired her, not Frank. Once I'd finished styling her, she was blonder, thinner, cuter, and had more bubbles fizzing out of her than a champagne bottle. How did she repay me? She stole my fucking husband."

  "I heard your marriage was over by the time they got together."

  "Don't believe everything those four tell you. In fact, don't believe anything. Now, I've got a party to get to, but before I go." She jabbed her finger at my face, almost poking me in the eye. I leaned back until my head hit the mirror. "If I find out from Max that you've been lying to me, I'm going to make your life miserable. Understand?"

  As threats went, it wasn't a particularly good one. She was so doped up she couldn't even stand straight. I gasped in mock horror. "You mean, I'll never work in Hollywood again?"

  "No. I mean I'm going to break your pretty little neck." She strode out the door.

  I gripped the basin behind me. My heart skipped double time. After the day I'd had, coming only a few weeks after the ordeal with Carl Fortune, I was a bundle of nerves.