“We’re waiting for a unit to come pick you up, so shut up and get comfortable.”
“I have a permit for the gun you took off me, and if you bothered to check, it hasn’t been fired recently.”
The guard closed his eyes and sat back in his chair, evidently sure Lou wasn’t going anywhere. “You can save your innocent routine for the guys who’ll arrest you. I’m not interested.”
Lou didn’t have a choice but to wait, so he closed his eyes as well and tried to remember anything about the guys he’d seen on the way in. He had a gut feeling they were responsible for what had happened to Rick, and he intended to find a way to ask the questions that would get Rick the payback he deserved.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Since telling Dallas good night the previous evening, Remi hadn’t thought about anything but her. At least she was still sleeping behind the closed door, or so Remi guessed, since she hadn’t heard a sound from the room all morning. She reread the first line of the lead story in the morning’s paper for the twentieth time and still didn’t have an inkling of what it said.
She put the paper aside and decided to concentrate on the view instead. Maybe she could do that while trying to organize her jumbled brain. When the elevator doors opened, Remi was so startled she almost went for a kitchen knife. Simon and Juno lived a floor below her, and they were the only ones who occasionally popped in unexpectedly. But Dallas stood in the foyer wearing a T-shirt and a pair of sweat pants, and judging from the perspiration running down her face, she’d been out exercising.
“I thought you were asleep,” Remi said as she tried not to put her hand to her chest and calm her heart to a steadier pace.
“Sorry, I checked with Simon and she let me down and came and got me so I could take my morning walk. I would’ve let you know but you were still in your room, and I didn’t want to bother you.”
“You shouldn’t go out this early alone,” Remi said, putting her finger up to keep Dallas from wandering off since the phone was ringing. She looked at Dallas after she picked up but didn’t say anything once she pressed it to her ear.
When Dallas pointed in the direction of her room Remi shook her head, not wanting her to leave. “Do you have any idea who?” Remi finally said, then fell silent again and listened. “You need me to send someone out there? Call me if you change your mind.”
“Something wrong?” Dallas asked when Remi hung up.
“Someone killed one of Cain’s men this morning at the airport.”
“God, that’s tragic. What happened?”
“Whoever it was made it look like Rick got rolled and shot, but people usually don’t get mugged in an airport.”
Dallas kept her distance and wiped her hands on her pants like she needed to dry them. “Do you need to go see Cain? I could sit with Emma if you want me to come along.”
“You might want to stay here,” Remi said, then cleared her throat as Dallas neared.
“I’d like to help.”
“I know,” Remi said, and exhaled deeply, “but you might not want to get too involved in this.”
“Why am I here, Remi? I mean really here?”
“We’ve been over this already. You staying home isn’t a good idea right now, if Bob has some problem with you.”
Dallas laid her hand flat on Remi’s chest and looked into her eyes as if trying to find something in them. “That doesn’t answer my question. If that’s the only reason, there are plenty of hotel rooms in this city where it would’ve taken Bob a year to find me. Why am I here?”
“I’m not sure what answer you want, because that’s the only one I’ve got,” Remi said, dropping her gaze to Dallas’s hand. It appeared delicate against the green, heavy silk of her robe.
“You have another one, but maybe you’re not ready to share it with me.” Dallas moved her hand up until she reached Remi’s shoulder. “But that’s okay.” She stood on tiptoe. “I’m willing to wait you out until you’re ready.” She put her hand behind Remi’s head, encouraging Remi to bend down so she could reach her lips.
They’d kissed before, but for Remi this one was like turning the page of a book and finding out something new about the character she thought she knew. Dallas might have been an enigma, but when Remi pressed her lips to hers, she got a dose of passion and compassion all in one act. For all her doubts, Remi relaxed somewhat, because in her experience, no one could fake something like this.
“You’re here because you need someone to stand up for you, since you can’t or won’t for whatever reason,” Remi said when they parted. Dallas opened her mouth in an almost perfect o and had taken the breath to push out whatever word she had in mind, but Remi kissed her again. “You’re here because I want to be that someone. Not because I owe it to you, or because you asked me, but because I want to.”
She pulled away and headed toward her bedroom to get dressed, but stopped as she reached the hall. When she turned around Dallas was standing there touching her lips and appearing dazed. “If you want to, I’m sure Emma would appreciate the company. If you want to stay, that’s okay too. But promise you won’t go out alone until I know what’s going on.”
*
Muriel quickly made it from the parking garage to the airport with only one thing in mind. As much as what had happened to Rick upset her, she was concerned with the living, and she hadn’t been able to reach Lou since he’d hung up with Cain. She’d spent the morning calling all of their police contacts and was still in the dark.
While she tried to find Lou, Cain had made a few calls of her own and had gotten their people back from Mississippi. Katlin was there in two hours and had volunteered to escort Muriel to the last place Lou had been, so Katlin, along with a few more men, walked with her, making almost a human cage of protection as they entered the chilly interior of the main corridor.
“Did he say where in the building he was?” Katlin asked.
“They were here to pick up a damn bag,” Muriel said, disgusted. “Nothing worth getting killed over.”
“Let’s start there.”
At the bank of escalators three police officers stood in front of a line of police crime-scene tape to keep anyone from going down. “Who’s in charge?” Muriel asked the first one who looked her way.
“Captain Hallman, but he’s too busy to come up right now.”
“I don’t want him to come up, I want to go down.” Muriel pointed at the escalator that someone had turned off, the steps frozen in position.
“They’re still working the scene, so that’s not going to happen.”
“Either you call him and get me cleared or I’ll call his boss and get the same thing, your choice.”
“Let her down,” a man screamed from the floor beneath them. “Alone.”
Muriel took the steps two at a time and stopped in front of Paul Hallman. He was two years from retirement, and to Muriel, he always appeared tired. “That your guy in there?” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
“Rick worked for my cousin, Cain Casey, and he was here picking up a bag for a family member. When you’re finished with your investigation, call my office so we can arrange to pick him up and take him to the funeral home.”
Hallman scratched his head, then tried to order his thinning hair with his fingers. “That’s mighty agreeable of you, Muriel. All the years I’ve known you, I pegged you for someone whose nails we need to shove bamboo under while we drip water on your forehead to get you to admit to your name. I do believe that’s the most I’ve ever heard you say at one time.”
“I’m feeling generous, considering the situation, but that’s not why I’m here. Our family will take care of Rick later. I’m here for Mr. Romano.”
“Who?”
She laughed at the way he crinkled his brow. “Don’t start playing dumb now, Paul. You’re too old for that. Lou Romano is in your custody, if I had to guess. Unless you have reason to hold him, I want him released to me.”