Skye's Trail (10 page)

His heart did a triple beat in his chest. Fuck. What had he done? What had she done? The sex last night couldn’t have been real. Had she hypnotized him? Let him play out the erotic fantasy of being locked deep in a woman’s body? What was he supposed to do now?

There’d be hell to pay if Rivera and the rest of the department found out about this. But his cock was already telling him to forget about calling this a one-time event.

Rico went over to the bed and sat down on the edge, careful to avoid the trap of her eyes. She sat up and pressed her lips to his. “This is between us,” she surprised him by saying.

He couldn’t stop himself from meeting her gaze, from studying her expression. There was no hint of the amusement he usually found there. If anything, her face looked almost…gentle. “I’ll call you later,” he heard himself say, wishing he could say the compulsion was hers, but honest enough with himself to admit it was his.

The familiar half-smile appeared and with it the urge to wipe it off her face. He couldn’t stop himself from pushing her down to the mattress and kissing her. But as soon as his body was on top of hers, it demanded something else.

His thighs spread hers. Then with one hand holding hers to the mattress, he used his other hand to unzip his pants and guide his cock into the wet heat of her. She whimpered into his mouth as he took her hard and fast.

* * * * *

Skye lay in bed until the blinking light of the answering machine caught her attention. There were two messages. She deleted the first one as soon as Detective Caldwell’s voice began speaking. The second message was from Senator Skip Weldon. It was unexpected, simple and to the point.

He had caught a red-eye to Las Vegas and was staying at the Tropicana. Would she please contact him as soon as possible. It was extremely urgent. He’d like to discuss his sister, Amy Weldon. Three weeks ago they had buried her. But now there were reports that she was alive. Skye returned the call and thirty minutes later she walked into the hotel restaurant and was led to a table where two men waited.

Skip Weldon rose from his chair and shook her hand. The senator was handsome. Skye would give him that. But he had the easy polished charm of a politician. And underneath the expensive cologne, he smelled of cocaine and paid-for sex.

The second man was the senator’s aide, Martin. He was shorter than his boss, whipcord-thin with wire-rimmed glasses. But like Senator Weldon, the odor of cocaine permeated Martin’s skin.

“Thank you for meeting me on such short notice,” Senator Weldon said as the three of them sat down.

Skye offered a charming smile of her own. “I’ve got to thank you, Senator. I’m just getting started on a case and you’re my best hope for a lead.”

“Please, call me Skip.” The senator gave her an assessing look, as though he was wondering whether or not he could mix business with pleasure. Skye decided to turn down the charm.

“Why don’t you start first, Skip, and tell me about your sister, Amy.”

The waitress returned to take their orders. The men knew what they wanted. Without looking at a menu, Skye ordered a hamburger and French fries with a side order of salad.

When the waitress left, Martin spoke, “I’ve been in touch with the local police department. You have quite a reputation.”

She didn’t respond to the comment, choosing instead to let silence settle around the table. Skip and his aide exchanged glances, the senator asked, “Do you follow politics?”

“No. It’s never been an interest of mine.”

“Then you’re probably not aware that the other Senator Weldon is my father. I contacted him after I got your message. He told me that you’d also tried to reach him.”

“Yes. I did. Which Senator are you? Florida or New York?”

“Florida.” The arrogance of power rang through the single word.

Skye nodded, encouraging him to go on.

“My father has been approached by a large number of influential party members. They’re convinced that he’d have a good shot at the presidency should he run. Of course, it’s too early now for serious public discussion, but I believe he could take the party’s nomination and win in a national election.”

“He’s what the country needs,” Martin interjected. “Exactly what the country needs.”

Skye could sense where this was heading. She supplied the, “But…”

Skip offered the charming smile again, pausing long enough for the waitress to set their food on the table and leave. “But if my sister is alive then we need to find her and get her into rehab before some liberal newspaper latches onto her and totally destroys my father’s hope for a nomination.”

“It’s absolutely essential.” Martin’s eyes burned with the conviction of a zealot.

“What kind of rehab does Amy need?” Skye asked.

“Rehab probably isn’t the correct word for it.” Skip exchanged another glance with his aide and nodded.

Martin opened the folder sitting on the table next to him and handed Skye an envelope. “There’s two thousand dollars in the envelope. The information Senator Weldon is about to disclose is extremely sensitive. By accepting the money, you would be expected to keep this information confidential. Initially the Senator wants a low-profile search done in order to determine if there is any reason to believe that Amy is alive. We’ll negotiate additional fees if your preliminary search suggests she’s not dead.”

Skye studied the senator and his aide, but even as she did so, she knew she’d agree. The search for Amy was the search for Jen. And there was little doubt in her mind after seeing Haley and Kyle together last night that the next time she saw Haley, Jen’s sister would have changed her mind about asking Skye to help.

“Do you have a photo of Amy?” Skye asked as she folded the envelope and slipped it into her pocket.

Skip smiled. Confident, almost pompous. “Welcome to the team.”

Martin pulled a picture out of his folder and handed it to Skye. The photograph was professionally done. The girl in it was posed and made up to look all-American. She had short black hair and was slightly overweight. Pretty in a normal way. She wouldn’t stand out in a crowd. Skye doubted that Amy looked like this at Fangs. “Is this a current picture?”

“It was taken a year ago,” Skip answered. He grimaced in distaste. “The last time I encountered my sister she was dressed in black and looked like a corpse.”

Martin said, “Skye, what the senator is having a hard time telling you is that before his sister’s supposed death, she became very interested in the occult. Through private investigators we were able to determine that she’d attended several black magic ceremonies and over the last couple of years has become obsessed with the notion of becoming a vampire. Obviously the family’s first concern is to get their daughter into a facility where she can be treated and hopefully cured—again, if she is in fact alive. In addition, getting help for Amy needs to be done with haste and complete secrecy. And I can’t stress this need for secrecy strongly enough. The senator’s father is a devout man and his followers are very conservative values-oriented people.”

“Why do you think Amy might be alive?”

The senator answered, “Several friends of mine have contacted me in the last month swearing that they saw a girl resembling Amy in Las Vegas. One of them said Amy responded when he called her name, but he couldn’t find her when he followed her into a club.”

“What club was it?”

“A place called Bangers.”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“It’s a strip club.”

Skye had been in her share of them. In one form or another, runaway kids usually ended up in the sex trade.

“Where else was she seen?”

“The other times were both here on the main drag. Nowhere in particular.”

“Now tell me why you think she’s dead.”

Martin answered, “Six weeks ago Amy flew to Las Vegas. She arrived on a Thursday night. The following Sunday she supposedly died in a car fire. There was one eyewitness, the driver of the truck she ran into. His description of the person driving her car matched Amy, but the fire burned so intensely that police weren’t able to retrieve any identifiable body parts. Everyone assumed she had died in the fire.”

“What happened to her money?”

Both the senator and his aide stiffened. Martin opened his mouth to say something, a slight movement of Skip’s hand halted him.

“I assume you mean Amy’s inheritance.”

Skye was watching them as closely as they were watching her. She weighed her options, decided to give them something. “I contacted you because a friend of Amy’s has been missing for about two months. While they were together in Vegas, Amy was paying for everything and making it known that she didn’t care if she wiped out her checking account. If she’s alive then she’s probably going to need money soon.”

The senator’s jaw twitched. “A good point. Unfortunately, Amy turned nineteen the Wednesday before she came to Vegas. She appeared at the bank near closing time on Thursday and had them wire the funds to a casino here. The casino has cashed out the account.”

“How much money?”

“Five hundred thousand dollars.”

“And there’s no trace of it.”

“None.”

“How often did Amy come to Vegas?”

Skip shook his head. “I don’t have any idea. Her mother maintains a separate house in Los Angeles and only travels to Washington or New York when politics make it necessary. My stepmother and I aren’t close. In my opinion, she has always been overprotective of Amy and bears some responsibility for Amy’s interest in the occult.

“My father hired a private investigator to try and reconstruct Amy’s movements from the time she took the money until the time of her death. Unfortunately the detective came up with absolutely nothing and did not get any cooperation from Amy’s mother.”

“Were Amy and her mother close?”

“I assume so, but I can’t answer that question definitively. I was sixteen when Amy was born and already away at school most of the time.”

“I’ll probably need to talk to her mother.”

Skip nodded to Martin. The ever-efficient aide pulled a piece of paper bearing a name, address and phone number out of the folder and handed it to Skye. “Please remember that what’s been said here is in confidence. The senator’s stepmother is not entitled to know anything about the investigation, including the proposed step of placing Amy in a rehab should she be located.”

Both men were watching her closely again. Without inflection, Skye said, “I’ll remember that.”

Martin pulled one final item out of the folder before closing it, signaling that Skye was now in possession of all the information they were prepared to give her. “Here’s the senator’s card. His private number is on the back. My private number is also listed there. Contact us immediately if you find her alive. Again, we can’t stress how sensitive this matter is.”

Skye accepted the card without comment.

* * * * *

The police station was swarming with cops and criminals. Skye’s talk with Detective Caldwell was brief and to the point, done at her cubicle with chilly efficiency.

“Wait here while your statement’s printing,” Caldwell said as she rose from her chair and left. Rico wandered around the corner while she was gone.

He’d showered since he left Skye’s apartment, just as she’d showered, but she could still smell herself on him, could smell him on her. It filled her with primitive satisfaction.