Tall, Dark, and Deadly

  The question seemed charged, as if Phil were making an implication.

  “I don’t know what happened to her,” Teddy said.

  “But you’re a cop. You should know something by now,” Phil said.

  Teddy leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest in a macho gesture to match Phil’s. “All right, yeah, maybe I do know something. Haven’t had a chance to tell you two yet, but I might as well, since things are going to start heating up,” Teddy said to Rowan and Sam. He looked back at Phil. “Marnie was getting calls the night she disappeared. Calls on her house phone. Some of them came from Sam’s phone. And do you know where the others came from?”

  Sam shook her head. The men just stared at Teddy. “Marnie’s cellular phone. She was receiving calls on her house phone from her own cellular. And guess what? That phone has now disappeared, just as cleanly as Marnie.”

  Chapter 15

  The intercom buzzed. Loretta pressed the blinking button.

  “Loretta, it’s Kevin. Coffee, now.” A second later, as if annoyed with his own afterthought, he added, “Please.”

  “Coming right up, Kevin.”

  She poured coffee and walked into his office. It was big, beautifully furnished, with windows that looked out over the Miami skyline. The offices were located on Brickell Avenue and had some of the most beautiful views in the city. Kevin’s back windows faced the water.

  Marnie’s office was nicer. Her back and side windows faced the water. They’d had big fights over the offices. Kevin had wanted Marnie’s office. She hadn’t been about to give it up.

  Marnie had won.

  Remembering that made it easier to trot in here when he called, demanding coffee. Really, for God’s sake, she wasn’t his personal servant!

  “Here you are, nice and hot!” she said, setting it down.

  He could have gotten his own coffee. He wasn’t very busy. In fact, he was leaning back in his expensive leather swivel chair, hands laced behind his head, just looking out the window at the beautiful day.

  “Thanks, Loretta. You make great coffee, you know?”

  “Thanks. Anything else?” she asked somewhat sharply.

  He shrugged. “Yeah, actually. There will be a memo going around again, and I’m willing to bet the cops will be in for another round of questioning.”

  “About what?”

  He had looked relaxed. Suddenly he was watching her, with eyes as sharp as an owl’s. “Marnie’s cellular phone.”

  Loretta stared at him blankly. “What about her phone?”

  His eyes narrowed on her. “It’s missing.”

  “So what? Her purse is gone, too. I imagine it’s in her purse.”

  He shook his head slowly. “So what?” he repeated. He unlaced his lingers and stood up, coming around behind her. He still gazed out the window, but she had the uneasy feeling he could pounce at any minute. Strange. She’d never felt afraid of him before.

  “There were a number of calls made to Marnie on Friday night.”

  “Well, I know that her friend Sam tried to invite her over—”

  “Calls made to Marnie’s house, from Marnie’s cellular phone.”

  “What? That’s ridiculous—”

  “Yes, it would be. If the police even began to imagine that Marnie was calling herself!”

  Loretta’s mouth opened and formed into a large O. Kevin shook his head with disgust. “Come on, Loretta, that took you long enough!”

  “Well—well…” She was irritated to find herself stuttering. She longed to tell him exactly what to do with himself.

  She refrained. “I suppose I was hoping that nothing bad had happened to Marnie. And with this information you’ve made it obvious that someone was in the house with her, someone calling her—on her cellular phone to her house—before somehow abducting her! Excuse me for not wanting to think that she is in real trouble, or… or…”

  “Dead?” he asked softly.

  “You want her dead, don’t you? She gets what you think should be your office. She gets what you think should be your raises!”

  Loretta didn’t realize just how high her voice was going until he suddenly gripped her shoulders and shook her. “Shut up!” he hissed at her. He was strong, and insistent. His fingers bit into her flesh, and his handsome face was knotted with tension. “Damn it, shut up! No, I don’t want her dead! My God, yes, she’s a bitch, she’s the goddarn Wicked Witch of the West. But you’re her secretary—”

  “Assistant,” Loretta informed him coolly, though she was shaking. “And I assist you, too.”

  “Yeah, yeah, assistant,” he said.

  “And I’m good!”

  “Sure.”

  “Damn good.”

  He grinned suddenly, his hold on her easing. His eyes were different, a strange light was in them. “Oh, yeah. Come to think of it, I have heard that you’re good. Damn good.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

  He kept smiling. “Just that I’ve heard—you’re good. At everything you do.”

  She took a step back, looking at him warily. “Just what is it that you want from me, Kevin?”

  “I want to know if you know where Marnie’s cellular phone might be.”

  “I don’t have it. And if someone was playing games with her, calling her from her own phone, then he—”

  “Or she.”

  “Fine! He or she has Marnie’s phone.”

  “But that’s just the point, don’t you see? When did he or she get Marnie’s phone?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Because you haven’t thought about it. But think. Think back. Think about the whole day. If you do, maybe you’ll remember the last time you saw Marnie with her phone. Who was with her then, who was with her after? The police are going to want to know, too.”

  “Then I’ll tell the police.”

  “I want to know, Loretta, if you remember.”

  She was shaking inside, but she meant to do Marnie proud on this one. “Let me give it some thought…” She smiled and started out of the office.

  To her surprise, he opened his door after she had closed it and called after her softly. “Loretta, honey, I’ll bet that you are damn good at your second career. Damn good, honey. You just never know. Maybe one of these days I’ll just find out for myself.”

  Her skin was crawling. How could anybody so good-looking be such a nasty bastard? She couldn’t help but wonder, What did he know about her? And just what did he intend to do about it?

  He asked, “Do you enjoy your nights at the club, Loretta?”

  “I don’t know what—”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “No—”

  “Loretta, you idiot, I have a financial interest in the club.”

  She was so stunned that she gasped.

  He smiled. “Oh, we’re legal, honey. All legal. You’re the only one who… well, who might not look so good around here if all the truth were told. Well… go back to work. You do have a full day ahead of you, huh?” Chuckling, he went back into his office.

  She returned to her desk, shaking. How was she ever going to work? She should lay low. Yes, that’s exactly what she would do.

  But then she remembered the phone call she had just received. Had that been from Kevin, was Kevin the voice? She closed her eyes tightly, trying to think.

  She was afraid.

  “Teddy, if you know that someone was calling Marnie on Marnie’s own phone from inside Marnie’s house, and then we find a blood smear—”

  “Sam, don’t start telling me how to do police work!”

  They had stopped at Big Al’s Gatorland and Bait Shop, a place right of Tamiami Trail. After the discovery of the blood smear, Teddy had called in crime-scene specialists. Yet he couldn’t work the case himself; he’d known Marnie personally. So there was no point hanging around, as Sam insisted. Once the police lab came up with results on the smear, Teddy would be notified immediately.

  Still, Teddy was in a foul
mood now. All he’d wanted was to spend his day off fishing.

  Sam fell silent. She was in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, with the sleeves of a windbreaker tied around her waist. Her hair was tied up neatly in a knot at her nape, and she looked both petite and delicate and ready and able. In the store, she picked her own bait. She was as good a fisherman as any guy. When he and Laura had first been married, Sam had been with them often when they’d come out to the Glades.

  She had given Rowan some slimy stuff to keep the insects off. He couldn’t claim Teddy’s rough-and-ready familiarity with the swampland, but he had been out in the Everglades before. He’d come south and gone on Miccosukee airboat rides. He’ been north of here, too, up to the Big Cypress area, coordinating some play dates with a group of Seminole musicians that had been damn good.

  Sam got what she wanted and went out to the car. No sooner had the door closed behind her than Teddy turned to Rowan.

  “What is it with you and that weird kid?” Teddy demanded.

  “What?”

  “You know, that Gregory. He hardly ever talks, but then you show up and he’s always saying your name. Why is that?”

  “To start off with, I don’t think of him as a ‘weird’ kid!” Rowan snapped. Teddy was staring at him as if he’d like to cuff him—or shoot him—and be done with it. “All right, Henley,” he said, keeping his voice low. “You don’t like me, don’t trust me. Why the hell did you agree to let me come fishing?”

  Teddy looked away from him, smoothing back his brown hair. “I owe you.”

  “What?”

  “I owe you… for my boy.”

  “You don’t owe me a damn thing,” Rowan assured him. “Your son is good. I didn’t support him for you.”

  “All right, then, fine. I don’t trust you. You show up in town, Marnie disappears. And that simple boy—Gregory—every time you’re around, things get spookier with him. It looks like he saw something, so why is he saying ‘Ro-wan, Ro-wan’?”

  “You’re right. It is as if he saw something. But doesn’t it seem to you that he isn’t afraid of me, that I’m actually the one he trusts?”

  “Are you hypnotizing him, or something?”

  “Oh, Christ!”

  “But Marnie is gone. You moved next door—Marnie is gone. You had a wife disappear once, too, huh?”

  “She reappeared,” Rowan reminded him. Rowan felt his temper rising. His palms were getting slick, and a knot of tension was sliding up his neck.

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Teddy said, more subdued. “Dammit, it’s just that you were sleeping with Marnie, and she did disappear.”

  Rowan stared at him, surprised that he had backed down. He shook his head. They might as well have it out. “Yeah, but you were sleeping with her, too.”

  Teddy hefted a bag of the groceries in his hands. “Not really,” he said softly. “She only slept with me so she could flaunt it to Laura at some future date.” He let out a long, bitter sigh. “She laughed at me. No challenge. Sex was like breathing for Marnie, no big deal. And yet…”

  “Yeah? And yet?”

  “I still felt bad. She used me. She pissed me off big time. Can you understand?”

  “Yeah,” Rowan said.

  Teddy shrugged, looking beyond Rowan. “Maybe. Who knows, maybe you’re right.” He hesitated. “I think that both Sam and Laura suspected I was seeing someone when it broke up the second time. But they didn’t know who. As far as I know, Marnie never let on. I think she meant to at first; I mean, she thought it was funny. But then, she was smart enough to value Sam’s friendship. I don’t think she ever said anything.”

  “Is that what this is all about? I sure as hell never intended to say anything,” Rowan said, adding, “It isn’t my place, Ted. If you decide to talk it out at some time, it might be your best bet. But, hey, that’s your decision.”

  Teddy nodded thoughtfully. “Thanks. Let’s go. Sam must be thinking we’re talking about her. Hell, there she is, staring at us, thinking we’re arguing or something.”

  “Damn, why would she think that?” Rowan muttered. His sarcasm was lost on Teddy.

  By noon Loretta was frustrated. The police kept calling— and no one was in. She could only speak to the officers herself, going over and over the events of that Friday. When had she last seen Marnie with her cellular phone?

  Kevin Madigan had left early, and Mr. Daly didn’t come in. She decided to head on out herself for an extended lunch. Who would know?

  She started out driving toward one of her favorite restaurants, then decided maybe she should avoid the place. She’d been putting on a little too much in the middle lately. Instead of lunch—exercise!

  She’d joined the gym, and it seemed a good idea to use her time taking off rather than putting on. And besides, it would be great to see Samantha Miller again.

  But when she got there, she found that Sam wasn’t in. Though disappointed, she was still determined to work out. She started off on one of the walkers at a brisk pace.

  A few minutes later, she heard a soft, pleasant wolf whistle, followed by “Hi, there! Glad to see you using your membership.”

  She turned slightly to see Joe Taylor, Sam’s partner. She couldn’t help but smile. She was sure that he’d almost asked her out on a date that day she’d run into him at lunch with Samantha. What a hunk of a man. Tall and muscled. Wow, was he muscled! Bulging biceps, a six-pack stomach that belonged on a blow-up poster, legs of pure steel.

  She almost giggled. Marnie had told her once that he was big all over. Nothing was sacred to Marnie—she shared all. Too bad guys didn’t know that when they fell under her spell. Guilt for the disloyalty of her feeling plagued Loretta, and her smile faded.

  “Hi, Joe. Thanks. I was hoping to see Sam, but I guess I’ve missed her.”

  “She didn’t have any appointments today, so she went off fishing in the Everglades.”

  Loretta shivered at the idea. “Not a place for me, I assure you!”

  Joe smiled. “No, I guess not. Not my favorite hangout anymore, either.”

  She laughed, flushed and feeling a little deliciously fevered, enjoying the conversation. “You mean you used to love the swamps?”

  “Oh… before the laws changed, way back when we were kids, lots of guys used to hunt and fish and we’d build shacks and cabins. They’re all torn down now, though.” He made a face. “Progress, you know.”

  “Yeah, sure… well, progress is fine by me. I don’t like bugs and snakes and things that chew in the night.”

  He moved closer to her. “Not even a little nibble?” he asked softly. There was something very sexy in his voice.

  She laughed again. Was he going to ask her out? “It depends on who’s doing the nibbling,” she replied.

  Behind them, someone came into the room. She saw the body in the mirror in front of the walker, but whoever it was, his head was cut off from her vision.

  “Hey, Joe!”

  “Hey!” Joe called back, but he didn’t look pleased. “Talk to you again, Loretta. Maybe we can…”

  “Yes?”

  “Um, yeah. Sometime. Soon. Maybe we can get together.”

  “That would be great.”

  “Hey, Joe!”

  In the mirror, Loretta saw headless torsos and long masculine legs.

  Walking away.

  Strange, she realized, in afterthought. Just her luck. A client would come bug Joe right then…

  She’d recognized the voice. She couldn’t quite place it, but she recognized it.

  Then she knew. Another of Marnie’s lovers. Had her boss slept with the whole damn world?

  She felt suddenly chilled again, as she had outside Kevin’s office.

  She was in broad daylight; the gym was busy. She was being silly.

  And as to Kevin, well… He could be a jerk, but just a jerk. He liked to harass people, but he was all hot air.

  And still, Marnie had challenged them all, made them all look like jerks.

  A
nd had she paid for it… with the ultimate price?

  Loretta stopped walking. She was dripping with sweat. And she was very cold.

  She swore to herself that she’d be careful. So very careful.

  Chapter 16

  “I used to really love it out here!” Teddy said with conviction. “Years ago. When things were still all wild and free.”

  Rowan liked wilderness himself. Mountains, rugged shorelines, crags, cairns, crashing waves, a landscape where all that could be seen for miles was earth, sea, and sky.

  There were few major highways through the Everglades. Farther north, in Broward, was Alligator Alley, now part of I-75. Here there was the Tamiami Trail. Toward the city, houses now lined the road. But coming farther and farther west, civilization slowly faded away.

  The great rivers of grass began, sawgrass rising over water and muck, canals in between, and here and there, hammocks of high ground. It was a vast no-man’s-land. Some considered it a horrible place filled with vile creatures. To others, such as the Seminole and Miccosukee Indians who had fled here during the decimation campaigns of the military in the nineteenth century, it was a haven.

  To anyone, it was a place to be knowledgeable and wary.

  They had taken a small motorboat from Big Al’s, and were being careful to follow the canals. There were dangers in not knowing where you were going with such a boat—water lilies with thick, tangling vines, shallow water over knotted roots, sudden bars of land in what looked like a fairly deep waterway. But Teddy had assured them he knew what he was doing. And Sam was familiar with the area as well. “Through the years, we’ve gone out from Big Al’s a lot,” she’d told Rowan.

  “Ted, I’ve got to admit, I’m an outsider, but things around here are looking pretty wild to me,” Rowan said. Sam, sitting across from him, grinned.

  “We’re still not that far from Big Al’s,” Teddy assured him.

  “Oh, and you know where you are?” Rowan asked Sam, shouting above the motor.

  She nodded back. “See the hammock straight ahead?”

  He twisted around to see what straight ahead meant to her. Sure, he could see the hammock. Kind of. It looked like everything else around him.