“I have no reason not to,” she replied, wondering if he was lying to her. But say he was. Say he was behind all of this. How on earth had he been thinking he’d get away with it? He wasn’t dumb, and sure didn’t seem crazy.
“Do you have any idea who did it?” he asked her.
“It could have been anyone. Anyone who knew about those trapdoors. I assume Aaron does. Hannah I’m not so sure about. What would you say?”
“About Hannah? I wouldn’t know. You’d have to ask her.”
“Then again, it could have been you.”
“Well, it wasn’t,” he assured her wholeheartedly. “I have nothing to do with any of this. I’m as shocked and horrified as can be. Plus I’ve just watched a solid month of hard work go right down the drain. I can’t begin to tell you how many man-hours I’ve spent putting this damned weekend together. The movie-going public thinks these gala events just happen. That the stars rush in to attend every tribute or benefit that comes along. Trust me, they don’t. They have to be begged, every last one of them.”
“There’s something personal I need to ask you about, Spence.”
“Absolutely. Fire away.”
“Carly told me she heard you entertaining someone in here last night.”
Spence reddened, but said nothing.
“The strange part is that she swears she didn’t hear anyone come in or out of this room all night long.”
“What was she doing, spying on me?” Irritation had crept into his voice.
“No, on her beloved Acky. You just got caught in the crossfire.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Carly also mentioned hearing footsteps up on the third floor. I didn’t know about the trapdoors at the time. But now that I do I’m sitting here thinking this must be how your late-night visitor got in and out of here, am I right?”
Spence thumbed the light brown stubble on his square jaw for a long moment before he said, “Look, this is extremely personal…”
“I’m well aware of that. I’m also somewhat surprised by your behavior, Spence. What with you telling Mitch how deeply involved you’ve gotten with a certain unnamed East Coast lady.”
“I am involved.” He glanced at the love letter he’d been writing. “Very involved. It’s complicated.”
“I’m cool with complicated,” she said. “Complicated is fine by me. Just as long as it’s the complicated truth. Give it up, Spence. Is she anyone I know?”
Spence got up and held his hands out to the fire for warmth. Then he turned to face her, sighing. “Look, she’s Natalie Ochoa, okay?”
Des stared at him blankly. “Okay…”
Spence seemed stunned by her response. “You don’t live in the New York media market. Her name doesn’t actually mean anything to you, does it?”
“I’m afraid not,” Des said. Outside, she could hear the harsh scraping of Jase’s plow as it cleared the parking lot, his truck’s engine roaring. “Give me a boost, will you?”
“Natalie anchors the five-o’clock news on Channel Four. She’s rated number one in her time slot. She’s so popular that the network is grooming her to take over their morning show. Natalie’s the complete package, Des,” he exclaimed, a warm glow coming over his face, “she’s beautiful, smart, classy. Not to mention Latina, which hooks her up with the fastest-growing demographic base in the nation. She’s very, very hot in network news circles right now. She’s also very, very married.”
“Hence your reticence regarding her name?”
Spence nodded. “We’ve been seeing each other for six months or so. We have to be real careful or it’ll end up in the gossip columns, which could really hurt her image. She and her husband are definitely planning to separate. It’s over between them. But for now, it’s just a real mess. And it’s weighing heavily on my mind, what with my own career thing getting thrown into the mix. That’s what I was just writing her about. I’m supposed to relocate to the West Coast next month. Natalie’s future is here in New York. She has zero interest in moving back to L. A, where she started out. I don’t know what we’ll do. I just know… it can be a real mess sometimes. This whole love thing.”
“I’m with you there. Although I’d drop the word sometimes.”
Spence sat back down in the armchair, studying Des in guarded silence. “You don’t actually think I have anything to do with these deaths, do you?”
Des tried a new approach on for size. “Are you kidding me, man? You’re my prime suspect.”
Spence’s eyes widened in dismay. “I’m what?”
“Real deal, Spence,” she assured him, nodding her head slowly up and down. “I’ve been waiting and waiting for you to come clean with me about who was in here with you last night, and you’re not. Hell, man, Stevie Wonder could see that you’re not being straight with me about it. And if you’re not being straight about that, then I have to assume you’re not being straight about anything else. I’ve got three people dead, Spence, and you’re withholding valuable information. That means you win the grand prize. When the Major Crime Squad folks arrive you get to take the all-expenses-paid trip to Central District Headquarters in Meriden. Congratulations.”
Right away, Spence’s smooth composure gave way to panic. “You mean I’ll be arrested?”
“Brought in for formal questioning.”
“My God, will I need a lawyer?”
“That’s entirely your decision.”
“Does the… will the news media find out about this?”
“I imagine they’ll be all over it, what with Ada being so famous and Astrid’s such a landmark. It makes for quite a story.”
“Do you have any idea what this could do to my career?”
“That’s not my concern. The ball’s in your court, Spence. If you don’t want to talk, I can’t force you to. I have to respect your rights.” She got to her feet, not particularly fast, and said, “Come on, we may as well join the others until the chopper gets here.”
Spence stayed put, his hands clutching the arms of the chair. “Wait, there’s more I can tell you. I want to help, okay? I didn’t kill anyone, I swear. Why would I? I came up here to help Ada, not strangle her with a phone chord. And I hardly knew Norma and Les. I hardly know any of these people.”
“You’ve known Hannah for years,” Des said to him sternly.
“Yeah, okay, that’s true,” he admitted. “We did go through Panorama’s internship program together. But Hannah’s strictly a friend. Someone who I have no romantic feelings for whatsoever. Besides, she’s with Aaron, as you know perfectly well.”
“I do know that. Hannah’s gotten herself caught in a messy love triangle. It occurs to me that maybe she was trying to send Aaron a message last night by having herself a visit with some other man. Is that possible?”
“No, it’s not possible,” Spence insisted. “That didn’t happen.”
“Well, someone dropped in on you last night. Am I at least right about that much?”
Reluctantly, he nodded his head. “She has to be real careful because of Norma’s zero-tolerance rule. Any staff member caught fooling around with a guest is automatically gone. Norma was really obsessed about it, I guess because this place used to be known as a cathouse.”
Des sat back down, narrowing her eyes at him. “Just for the record, are we talking about Jory?”
“We are. And, believe me, I didn’t initiate it. It was all her.”
“Spence, I’m not doubting on your animal magnetism, but are you telling me that Jory jumped your bones right out of the blue?”
“Last night she did.” Spence shifted uneasily in his chair. “But we’re not exactly total strangers. Jory and I go back a few years. Twelve, actually. The summer when I turned sixteen I stayed here with my parents for a couple of weeks. Jory was working as a chambermaid in those days, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was an older woman, all of eighteen, and extra-spicy. The girl was hot. Major boobage, if you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I’m catching what you’re pitching.”
“Anyway, to my great surprise and delight, she was interested in me, too. We ended up having sex together on a blanket in the woods. She was my first, as a matter of fact.”