Secure Location (18 page)

“No. But something unusual did happen today, shortly after I called you. I don’t want to make too big a deal out of it but I want you to know about it.”

“What was that?”

“I had a visitor. Or so Tim Burtiss said. I had to run upstairs to Scott’s office and when I got back he told me that some old lady had come by. He said she seemed sort of nervous and that she asked to see Margaret Mae.”

“Margaret Mae?”

“That’s what everyone called me when I was a kid.”

Detective Myers nodded. “When you lived in Maiter?”

“Yes. And before that, when I lived in Houston. I didn’t go by Meg until college.”

“What did Tim tell her?”

“He told her the office was Meg Montoya’s and she said that’s who she wanted. Tim said that he asked the woman for her name, to check it against the list and that she got real pale. He thought she might fall over. She never did give him her name. Just walked away.”

“And you have no idea who she was?”

“No. I asked Tim what she looked like and he said that she wasn’t much over five feet. Kind of round. Pretty old, too. Maybe sixty.”

Detective Myers smiled. “Tim evidently hasn’t heard that sixty is the new forty.” He closed his notebook. “But you don’t know that this person had anything to do with what happened twenty years ago in Maiter. Maybe it was somebody who lived across the street from you when you were five and you lived in Houston?”

Maybe. But she had a horrible feeling that it had something to do with a secret that she’d managed to hide for half her lifetime.

She needed Cruz to go back to Chicago before all her lies started to unravel. Getting him to agree was going to be difficult, almost impossible.

There was probably only one way. It went against everything she believed in but she was desperate.

“You might be right,” she said. She stood up and he did the same. She walked around her desk, across her office, and opened the door. Charlotte was at her desk, her hands on her computer keyboard. The woman looked up but didn’t say anything.

Meg shook the detective’s hand. “Thank you for coming so quickly.”

Detective Myers nodded and left.

Charlotte was staring at her. Meg just shook her head. “No calls for a little while, please,” she said. She went into her office, shutting the door behind her. Then she picked up the telephone and put her plan in motion.

* * *

W
HEN
C
RUZ GOT BACK
to the hotel, he went to Meg’s hotel room and was disappointed when it was empty. She had always worked hard and it didn’t look as if she changed her pattern. He took the elevator down to the first floor.

There was no security guard outside her office. He started running. When he grabbed the door handle and realized the office was locked, he felt marginally better. Meg had probably ended her day and sent the security guard on his way.

But where the hell was she? She’d promised that she wouldn’t leave the hotel. He pulled out his cell phone and punched up her number. It rang three times before she answered it.

“Hello,” she said.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I...uh...yes, I’m fine,” she said. “Just a little busy.”

She sounded as if she was out of breath. Maybe she’d gone to the hotel gym. “Where are you?”

“With Scott,” she said.

Cruz’s chest got tight when his mind immediately conjured up the kind of exercise that the two of them could be getting.
Get a grip, Montoya.
“Working late?” he forced himself to ask.

“Not so much,” she said. “Look, Cruz. Scott and I have been talking.”

Okay. Talking wasn’t bad.

“And I...I am moving into his suite.”

Worse than bad. Going over a cliff bad. The first time she’d left, he’d been left to wonder. Now she was painting a real clear picture. He was speechless.

“Cruz?” she prompted.

“You couldn’t tell me this in person?” he asked.

“Uh...no. But Scott said he’d like to talk to you.”

He wanted to break the man’s neck, not talk to him. But before he could hang up, Slater was on the line.

“Cruz, it’s not that Meg and I aren’t grateful for your help. But we’ve got this covered. We really think it would better for all of us if you went back to Chicago tonight.”

Cruz’s legs felt weak. He leaned back against the wall and sank until he was sitting on the floor. He didn’t even care if he was on some security camera. What did it matter if he looked pathetic? He was.

He hung up. He had nothing to say to Slater. Damn them both. He sat on the cool tile floor, feeling nothing. He was numb. He had been so stupid, had actually believed that Meg coming to his bed meant something.

And now she was jumping into Slater’s bed.

It made getting shot seem like a walk in the park.

Better for all of us if you went back to Chicago tonight.
Well, he sure as hell wasn’t going to stick around and watch, or congratulate the happy couple when they finally made their way down to breakfast.

He got up and walked down the hallway. He opted for the stairs instead of the elevator, wanting to physically exert himself. Better that than stick a fist through a wall.

It took him less than five minutes to pack up. Like some sick fool, he checked her closet. She hadn’t moved her things yet. He ran his hand across the peach suit that she’d worn that first day. She’d looked so pretty, so professional.

He closed the door of her closet and left the suite. He didn’t bother to check out—Slater could handle that—he was handling everything else. He waited for the valet to get his rental car, sure that they were wondering why he’d had them park it less than fifteen minutes ago if he planned on leaving again so soon.

Nothing much was going how he’d planned.

Once the valet delivered his car, he got in, cranked up the air and turned toward the airport. His phone rang and he saw that it was Sam.

“Montoya,” he answered, hoping like hell that he didn’t start to wail in front of his friend.

“I got the scoop on Meg,” Sam said.

The only scoop that mattered was that Meg had chosen Slater. But Cruz kept his mouth shut. He wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. “Okay,” he said.

“Born in Houston. Parents were married. No other siblings. Lived there until she was fourteen. Then the family moved to Maiter, Texas, where they lived for a couple years. Family moved back to Houston. Parents got divorced about a year afterward. Meg lived with her mother until she went away to college in Chicago. Neither parent remarried, both are now deceased. Meg stayed in Chicago after college. You know the rest.”

Meg had told him that she’d grown up in Houston. She’d never mentioned Maiter. Had said that her parents were divorced and both deceased.

“I appreciate you getting back to me,” Cruz said. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m on my way back to Chicago.”

There was a long silence on the line. “Are you okay?” Sam asked finally.

“Dandy,” Cruz said. “Just dandy.” He hung up. Then he called Detective Myers.

The man answered on the second ring. “I was just about to call you,” he said. “We’ve made contact with all the major retail stores in town to ask them to review their transactions to see if anyone purchased shoes, a jogging suit and a backpack recently. I’ve already heard back from a couple but no luck. The rest said they could get back to me within forty-eight hours.”

“That’s good,” Cruz said. Myers was competent. Cruz wasn’t needed here. Did he need it written across the damn sky? “I...uh...wanted to touch base with you. I’m leaving today.”

“That surprises me.”

“Yeah, well, it’s time,” Cruz said. There was no need to go into the details. He’d been dumped. Again.

“Does Meg know?” Myers asked.

“She does. Look, I wanted you to know what I found today. There’s a waitress who worked at a restaurant that Troy Blakely frequented here in San Antonio. She knows him. Said that he mentioned that he was from Haileyville. Do you know where that is?”

“Yes.”

“I drove there today. His parents both died about a year ago, the woman from natural causes, the husband three days later from suicide. What’s odd is that Troy wasn’t mentioned in the obituary and the neighbors I spoke with weren’t familiar with a son.”

“Then how do you know you had the right family?”

“The details that he gave the waitress match the details of the deaths. There’s something here, I’m just not sure what it is.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. Finally, Myers spoke. “But you’re not going to keep looking?”

Now it was Cruz’s turn to weigh his words. “I can’t. Meg made it pretty clear that she doesn’t need my help.”

Chapter Sixteen

Meg had felt lousy for days. She was tired and she knew she wasn’t eating well—nothing sounded good, not even the pasta that she normally enjoyed. She attributed her general malaise to guilt over how she’d treated Cruz. She’d hurt him again.

He deserved so much better. She’d known that a year ago, when she’d left him the first time. Had remembered it six months ago when she’d stood over his bedside, watching him battle back from a bullet. That time she’d been able to walk away before she did any more damage.

But she hadn’t been nearly as strong this time. She’d made a colossal mistake in sleeping with him. She’d given him reason to think that there was a possibility of a reunion.

Now he must really hate her.

She hadn’t heard from him since he’d left three weeks ago. Had desperately wanted to talk to him to make sure he was okay. Had even reached for the phone a couple times but had stopped herself. What would she say?

I lied. Again. And this time it’s even worse. I asked Scott to lie, too.

She’d gone to Scott’s office that afternoon after Cruz had called her on his way back from Haileyville, knowing that she needed to do something very quickly to get Cruz to drop his investigation.

She’d told Scott half the truth. Had admitted that there were unresolved issues between her and Cruz and had asked for his help in convincing Cruz that the two of them were involved. Scott had had only one question.
Does this mean it’s over between the two of you? For good?

She’d said yes. And later, when she heard his side of the conversation with Cruz, was grateful that he played it just right. When he’d asked her to dinner the next night, she’d said yes again. And twice more since then. They’d been very discreet, of course, always leaving the River Walk area and Meg had taken a cab back to the hotel, not wanting the valets to see Scott dropping her off.

Still, she was acutely conscious that their relationship had changed. In meetings, she was hypersensitive to how she responded to his questions or comments. There’d been one really awkward moment in the elevator. They’d been alone and discussing evening plans and Charlotte had gotten in. Meg had gotten flustered and when she’d gotten back to her office, had realized that her neck had pink blotches on it.

She had hoped that Charlotte hadn’t seen it but the woman had been treating her coldly for days now so she thought that wasn’t likely.

Charlotte’s imagination was no doubt conjuring up images that were significantly more risqué than reality. Each of the dinners had ended with a brief kiss. Neither kiss had been as awkward as their first kiss three months earlier but neither had felt right, either.

Meg knew that Scott was deliberately taking things slow. She appreciated his consideration but thought that a hundred years might not be enough time for her to forget the shape of Cruz’s mouth, the taste of him, the heat.

It wasn’t fair to Scott. And she intended to tell him that tonight at dinner. But she hadn’t counted on a flu bug weighing her down.

She picked up her phone, dialed her doctor’s office, waited five minutes on hold and let out a sigh of relief when the receptionist told her that there was a cancellation and the doctor could see her if she could get there in thirty minutes.

Meg shut down her laptop, straightened the papers on her desk and walked out of her office. Charlotte was at her desk, labeling file folders.

“I have an appointment off-site. I should be back within an hour or so,” Meg said. “Do you want me to pick you up a sandwich on my way back?”

Charlotte shook her head. “Mother needs a bone density test. I was going to ask to take an early lunch.”

“That’s fine. Take whatever time you need. I’ll catch up with you later.”

Meg’s doctor’s office was ten blocks from the hotel. Normally, she walked it. But today, she had the valet hail her a cab. She didn’t feel up to the walk and she didn’t want to tempt fate.

For the past three weeks, since Cruz had left, nothing had happened. No more notes, calls or vandalism. It was the one good thing. It made her think that maybe Cruz’s questions had spooked somebody. Was it possible that the person responsible for all the havoc had decided that the police were getting too close?

Whatever the reason, Meg was grateful. Just yesterday, she’d gotten word that her apartment had been repainted and the carpet installed. They were replacing the bathroom mirror today and she could move back in anytime. She couldn’t wait. She loved the hotel but staying in the space that she’d shared with Cruz was painful.

After her appointment, she intended to contact Detective Myers and let him know her plans. She planned on sleeping in her own bed tonight. And she was going to tell Scott that it wasn’t necessary for Tim Burtiss to sit outside her office any longer.

When the cab parked in front of her doctor’s office, Meg handed the driver a ten-dollar bill and got out. The sun was hot and she immediately felt dizzy. She balanced herself with the tips of her fingers on the sun-warmed roof of the cab and took two deeps breaths of dry, hot air. When the cab pulled away, she forced herself to walk.

The inside of the building was blissfully cool and she started to feel better. She registered at the desk and had time to read most of the current
People
magazine before the nurse called her name. When the woman weighed her, Meg was startled to realize that she’d lost three pounds.

She definitely needed to start eating better.