Current Affairs (Tiara Investigations Mysteries) (19 page)

Victoria noticed this, too. “Then there’s the fact that if he killed one of us, he’d have to kill all three of us. Maybe he doesn’t want to go that far.”

“Okay, the solidarity, while really sweet, does not make me feel any better. We’re still talking about getting ourselves killed!”

 
Victoria’s last tactic was a mistake, and I took over.
 
“It’s amazing how much the Atlanta skyline has changed.” As we drove south on I-85 we saw Atlanta’s tallest buildings.

Tara looked out the window. “Remember when none of the buildings had tops?”

 
I nodded. “They were post-modern.”

“I think it’s because of John Portman.” Tara was referring to the architect of several of Atlanta’s tallest buildings.

“You’re probably right.” Then I thought about it. “The Sun Trust building has a top on it, and it was built in 1992.”

“An aberration.
Am I the only one that cares how Atlanta buildings look? I hate John Portman for doing this to us. Atlanta is an international city, and what our skyline looks like is important.” She took a breath. Only slightly calmer, she said, “Did you know the Westin Peachtree Plaza is the tallest hotel in the world?”

“Tara? What’s the matter?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t believe you hate John Portman. Have you ever met the man?”

“Is he even still alive?” I felt something touch my right leg. It was Victoria slowly taking my CD case from the floor to the passenger seat. She slowly unzipped it and flipped through the titles.

“You’re nervous, aren’t you?”

“Hell, yeah, I’m nervous. My motto has always been, ‘If there’s a coward’s way out, take it.’ The man we’re going to meet might be a murderer. Have either of you stopped to think about that?”

“We’ll be in a public place.” Victoria inserted a CD, and the car was filled with the music of
Yanni
.

“Tara,
it’s
okay, sweetie. I mean, it’s not like
it’s
John Portman we’re meeting.” I couldn’t help myself, and that got us all laughing. Oh, no, what had I done? I had started the laughter, and it was up to me to stop it. “Victoria, would you hand me the CD case?”

I found exactly what I was looking for, and a second later Bobby Goldsboro was crooning “Honey.”
 
We enjoyed a real good buzz kill.

 
Even Tara had to laugh. “When you said we would work on my nervousness, I never thought you intended this. Where does this gallows humor we have come from? Is it because we are in the pain business?”

“Actually, I was going for flip. Maybe it’s a defense mechanism.”

 
“Considering what Leigh’s husband does for a living and that my husband has patients die on the operating table, we need it. We don’t want death to be too real.”

“But those are anonymous people. We saw a real person die.”

“I think it’s like whistling when you walk by a graveyard. Would it make you feel better if we kept our sick jokes to ourselves?” I asked.

“No. We shouldn’t censor ourselves, and I don’t want anyone walking on eggshells around me. I’ll just be glad when we know who killed David Taylor, and he or she is behind bars.”

“I thought you wanted to work on a case more challenging than what we’ve had. You said it was hot.”

“Finding a murderer will make the saints pray and the sinners repent. It’s harder than I thought it would be.”

“Amen.”

“Amen.”

Half an hour later I was in line for valet parking. We wanted to get there well before him so he would not see all of us getting out of the car and so we could pick out the best table for our purposes.

A teenager wearing a uniform of white shirt and white shorts opened the back door, and Tara pivoted and swung her legs out. “How are you ladies?”

“Why, what have you heard?” Yup, Tara was a little on edge. Her response had a paralyzing effect on the young man.

Victoria opened her own door. “We’re fine.”

A co-worker opened my door, and I joined my partners at the entrance. “Why do you think he is in such a hurry to meet with us?”

“If you recall, he’s in a hurry to meet with
you
. He does seem anxious, doesn’t he?” Victoria said.

“Hmm, like he wants to find out how much we know?”

Tara nodded.
“Yeah.
That’s probably it.”

Victoria and I nodded in agreement.

“Oh, come on, I was being sarcastic. Men like that keep us in business. He likes you.”

“
Ooooh
,” Victoria and I said together.

Our first stop was the ladies room, because we three have to go every five minutes and because we wanted to check out the cell phone reception. It was okay.

“I’ll go get a table facing the door.”

The lounge was dimly lit and elegantly furnished, and we were too late. Randall Valentine was already there. I wanted to accuse him of murder in the worst way. And he was facing the door. There’s evil and then there’s evil.

I stretched out my hand and smiled. “Hello, Mr. Valentine.”

He stood and took my hand and squeezed it, when a handshake would have sufficed. “Please call me Randall.”

“Randall.”

“So glad you could make it on such short notice.”

We ordered wine from the wine list. I asked for a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, and he said he would have the same.

“How many employees do you have?” His head jerked a little with how quickly I got down to business.

“Around a hundred, I guess. I don’t really keep up with that kind of thing. My man, Kerry Lee, handles all that.”

“About how many engineers are there?”
 

“Now that I know.
There are six on staff and a handful of consultants.”

“Like David Taylor?”

“Exactly,” his mouth said, but his brain was watching two pairs of legs in miniskirts walk by.

Funny
, I thought,
except for the skirt length those are the outfits Tara and Victoria are wearing. And those women have long, thick hair flowing down both of their backs … oh, shit.
All of a sudden I knew what was in the bag Victoria put in my car: wigs. One was red and the other blonde. They sat down at the table behind ours. Tara gave me a little wave, and Victoria started tugging at her skirt.

A waiter was at their table in about two seconds flat
. If there’s a God in heaven, they won’t order margaritas.

“Two margaritas, on the rocks, no salt.”
I wondered if I had just become a Buddhist.

I turned my attention back to Randall Valentine. “Is there anyone else that can complete David’s project?”

“He had completed it.”

Well,
I thought,
my work is done here.
The Peachtree Group no longer needed David Taylor, and someone or ones from there went to the top of the suspect list.
 
Just then he received a call on his cell phone. It was set on vibrate, but I saw the light in his suit jacket pocket.

“I had better take this.” He stood up and took a couple of steps toward the door.

“Hello. Hello?” Then he hung up and returned to the table. I had been trying to make eye contact with Victoria, but she was busy with her portable computer in her lap. Tara couldn’t take a chance turning around.

 
“Randall, I couldn’t help but notice your building’s security system. Quite elaborate.”

“Yeah, Kerry Lee is into all that. Leigh, since we know each other better now, I’m Randy.”
  

Tara snorted her drink out her nose and started coughing. It would take Victoria a sec to get the appropriateness of the nickname.

“Randy, what does Mr. Lee use all that high-tech gadgetry for?”

“He wants to track how often the contractors are in the office.”

“To see how much work they’re doing?”

“That’s what he said when he had it installed, but I think the real reason is he suspected them of coming in after hours. That system was expensive, and now it’s on the blink. He said you and your friends disappeared when you left after the presentation this morning. Ha!” For a split second I thought he was checking for my reaction. Was that why he suggested the meeting?

The waiter placed our wine glasses in front of us. Valentine picked his up and reached over for a toast.
“Leigh, a beautiful name for a beautiful woman.
Do you think we could …” and his cell phone rang again. “I had better get this.” Once again he rose and walked toward the door.

“Hello. Hello? Are you there, Margaret?” Again, he hung up and returned to the table, but this time I was ready. I had stood up.

I reached out to shake his hand. “I really appreciate this. I feel like I understand your company better now. I won’t take up any more of your time. Really, thanks again.” I was walking, and unfortunately, he was following.

“I was just about to ask if we could have …” and his cell phone rang. We had reached the hallway, and I ducked into the ladies room but not before I heard him yell into the phone, “What
is
it, Margaret?”

I stayed put, because I knew as soon as the coast was clear Victoria and Tara would join me.

“Did you see that? I was literally saved by the bell. Get it?”

“Actually, you were saved by the brain.” Tara pointed her thumb back at Victoria as they came in.

“What did you do?”

“I got his home number and routed a couple of calls through there to his cell. He thought his wife was calling both times.”

“You mean all three times.”

“I only did it twice.”

We put our arms around each other and laughed until their wigs fell off their heads. Finally, we composed ourselves enough to get to the car and head back to my house.

Victoria unrolled her skirt to a more modest length. “I feel more comfortable like this.”

“That’s just fine. Remember, it’s not what you wear, it’s how you take it off.”

“Thank you, Goethe,” I said, and with that we climbed into the car. “Victoria, what are you smiling about?”

“That was fun. It really was.”

“We didn’t get caught.” Tara laughed in relief, no longer nervous. “And what if we had? What could he do to us?”

Victoria was fluffing her hair back into shape. “I usually exaggerate in my mind what the punishment will be if I break a rule. That’s made me afraid to take chances all my life.”

“What rules do you ever break?” I was just about rubbing the skin off my hands with hand sanitizer.

“You know how the gelatin box says you shouldn’t add pineapple or kiwi? I thought something bad would happen if you did, like poisoning.”

“Like you would drop dead?” Tara was carefully folding the wig. “Why, oh why couldn’t she have used strawberries or bananas? She was so young and beautiful.”

I carried this on, “What a shame her brilliant career was cut short. It didn’t have to happen. She had a perfectly good can of mandarin oranges in the cupboard.”

“Excuse me, but I like to follow rules.”

“Honey, I don’t think there are any rules where we are now,” I said.

“Well, I’m more comfortable when there are rules.”

“Then you make them up so you can follow them. How does that sound?” Tara suggested.

“I like it.”

“I like productive afternoons. We learned what we needed to know. The Peachtree Group no longer needs David Taylor. His project was finished, and he was just a guy with inconvenient information. I think someone there has a motive.”

“We don’t know the whole story. We don’t know what he was doing for the Chinese,” Victoria reasoned.

“It was Kerry Lee’s call that brought him out of the house the night he was murdered.” Tara was reapplying lipstick. “So if it was anyone at The Peachtree Group, wouldn’t it be him?”

“I suppose someone else could have used his phone, but for the purposes of discussion let’s assume Lee made the call.” I did some calculation. “There was time enough between the call and the shooting for him to drive from the office to the Taylor house.”