The Liberation of Alice Love (21 page)

“The woman at the hotel in Rome—the snooty one—”

“Carina,” Alice finished, still staring, rapt, at the contrast of white walls against the blue, blue ocean beyond.

“Right. She said she gave Ella a list of five hotels here, so it shouldn’t be too hard to work our way through them, see what they know.” Nathan glanced over. “If you’re tired, you could just nap here. It’ll probably be faster if I’m on my—”

“No. Thanks.” Alice tried to rouse herself. Never mind sleep—she had work to do. “I’m coming with you.”

“OK, but don’t get your hopes up,” Nathan warned, slowing the car as they approached what Alice assumed was the first hotel: an elegant building set back from a small square. “This town is a tourist hive in summer. It’s doubtful anyone will remember her at all.”

“They will,” Alice vowed. “We’ll find
something
.”

***

But Ella had clearly made an art of being forgettable, because nobody could recall even laying eyes on the woman. Desk clerks consulted with managers, who consulted with security guards, but each demurred, regretfully informing them that CCTV footage and client records were strictly confidential. Unless they had a police warrant or proof that this woman had, in fact, been a guest, well—they were sadly unable to help.

“That’s it, then.” Nathan returned from the last reception desk with a sigh. “Five strikes, and we’re out.”

Alice refused to be defeated. Casting her eye around the lobby, she thought hard. It was the most stylish of all the hotels, set on a cliff top, with sprawling white terraces and uninterrupted views of the ocean, but aside from the luxury of the airy white rooms, it had the most Ella-esque feel. It wasn’t something she could explain to Nathan, but after the weeks she’d spent picking through Ella’s every movement and purchase, Alice had developed an instinct for the other woman’s taste. With lemon trees dotted around the slim pool outside, hot-pink flowers spilling over the long balcony, and even vines twisting up the inside walls in an unexpected garden, of all the hotels they’d seen, this was the one she’d pick for Ella—and herself.

“So, what’s our next step?” Alice asked. “Hacking into the security system? Slipping the cleaning staff a few euros to jog their memories?”

Nathan coughed. “Didn’t you learn anything from your night behind bars? Nothing illegal, Alice. That’s the number one rule of the job.”

“Oh.” She was disappointed. “Really? I thought—”

“You thought wrong.” Nathan fixed her with a stern look. “Sure, there are some guys who run around, breaking the rules, but they give the rest of us a bad name. I get what I’m after the legal way.”

Alice frowned. “Then what do we do now?”

“Go back to England.” Nathan softened. “I know you wanted to find her, but you’re chasing shadows here—it’s time to give it up.”

But Alice wasn’t ready to do that. “We should have some lunch first,” she suggested.

“We can eat in the car.”

“Yes, but look at the restaurant here.” Alice pointed invitingly at the sunlit terrace and sweeping ocean views. “We could sit outside, have some drinks…Although, you might want to—” Alice reached over and straightened Nathan’s shirt, smoothing down his hair.

“Thanks,” he replied, a touch sarcastic. “Personal grooming has been kind of far down my priority list. After, you know, flying in and rescuing you from the squalor of a foreign jail cell.”

Alice wasn’t so easily managed. “Is this where you try and guilt-trip me into obedience?” she grinned, her hand still resting on his chest. She felt a flicker of excitement from the bold touch.

“Maybe.” His eyes were glinting as he looked down at her. “Is it working?”

Alice smiled, flirtatious. “Not yet. You’ll have to try a little harder.”

“Damn,” Nathan adopted another hang-dog expression. “What if I tell you about getting woken at five a.m.? Or spending hours manfully wrestling with the Roman police force for your freedom? I didn’t even have time for breakfast,” he added darkly. “I’ve had so much coffee and sugar, I feel like I’ve got the shakes.”

“Poor baby.” Alice took his hand and led him toward the terrace. “All the more reason to get you fed.”

***

Nathan didn’t even pretend to protest about flights and timing once he was seated, with a cool beer in his hand. Considering that he’d refused to even leave Rome only a few hours before, Alice thought her newfound powers of persuasion were doing rather well. Ella was right, she decided, gazing happily at the vivid ocean views; men did enjoy the femme fatale routine. Her red dress had played a part last night, true, but so did the lure of foreign travel and mysterious investigations.

The temptations of adventure were not to be overlooked.

“It’s not the Fifth Arrondissement, but it’ll do…” Alice leaned back and gave Nathan a deliberate smile.

He looked up, surprised, but quickly rearranged his features into their usual friendly expression. “And there I was, thinking we weren’t going to talk about that.”

“Sorry,” Alice laughed. “Unspoken agreements aren’t worth the words they’re not spoken with.”

Nathan grinned. “Is that your official legal advice?”

“Mmm-hmm,” she murmured, taking another sip of wine. “I won’t even bill you for it.”

“No, it’s OK. I’ll just take it off my expense claim for this search and rescue.” He winked and went back to his steak.

Alice wasn’t so easily dismissed. Nonchalance had been Nathan’s default setting since the day they met, but she wanted to know who he really was, beneath that casual smile. If she couldn’t be direct now, with this restless impulse still fluttering in her veins, then when would she ever be?

“Do you do it often?” Alice took off her sunglasses off to watch him. “Invite strangers to run away on an illicit weekend?”

“You make it sound so dramatic.” Nathan chuckled, still utterly at ease. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up, pale against his tanned skin, and he looked as if he belonged there, lounging in the sun.

“A little hotel, blazing rows over pastries?” Alice fixed him with a skeptical look. “No, you were the one promising the drama. I’m just curious.” She shrugged. “It isn’t often a girl gets propositioned like that.”

Nathan gulped his beer, looking less comfortable now. “I guess that’s the point. All that small talk, dancing around anything that really matters…Isn’t it better just to cut through all the bullshit?”

“But you’re so good at it,” Alice teased. “Charm is what you do best.”

He met her eyes, frowning slightly. “Is that really what you think?”

“Come on,” she scolded, even bolder now. Consequences be damned, she’d spent too much of her life holding back out of caution and careful politeness. “You say you want to get to what matters, but with you, it’s been nothing but jokes and meaningless banter about Flora’s ceramics. I haven’t seen you break a sweat over anything.”

“You should have seen me when Stefan called,” Nathan said, looking away. “I broke a sweat then—and the speed limit, getting to that police station.”

Alice laughed again. “With a client list like yours? I’m sure you’ve had plenty of rescue calls.”

“Not like this.”

There was silence for a moment, just the light chatter of guests around them and the steady crash of waves below. There was something sincere in his eyes, Alice realized; a directness she hadn’t seen before, except at the party. His proposition. She hadn’t dreamed of actually accepting him then, but things were different now.

She was different.

“It’s nice here, don’t you think?” Alice remembered Ella’s urging to cut loose. She felt a thrill, anticipating the risk of her next words.

Nathan seemed thrown by the sudden change of subject. “Sure. Gorgeous weather, amazing views. What’s not to like?”

Alice swallowed, her heart already racing. “So why don’t we stay a night or two?” she said, her voice even despite the weight of what she was suggesting. “Think of it as collecting on that Paris rain check.”

Chapter Twenty-one

Nathan’s mouth dropped open, but Alice held his gaze.

He shook his head. “You’ve, uh, had a crazy few days. You’re not yourself.” Nathan took a swift gulp of beer, as if that were the end of the conversation. But he didn’t seem quite so cavalier.

“You know me better than I know myself?” Alice challenged, still smiling.

“No, but—”

“I’m a grown woman, Nathan. I can do whatever I want.” Alice watched him, full of power. It was time to find out if there was anything solid behind the flirtation. “So is that a yes or a no?”

He was silent for a long moment, but just before Alice could wonder if she’d made a mistake, the edge of his lips curled upward in an unmistakable smile.

Relief surged through her. “I’ll check about their vacancies.”

Alice walked away from the table with a swing in her hips, almost drunk with exhilaration. Rafael had been her practice run—an experiment in sheer, reckless pleasure—but this was different. She wanted Nathan for more than a foreign fling, but even she knew that this new bravery might not last back in England. No, it had to be now, before her calm logic returned.

Nathan caught up with her in the lobby.

“You’ll miss work,” he warned, placing a hand low on her back.

Alice slowed, relishing his touch. “So will you.” She grinned. “Whatever will we do?”

He moved even closer. “I’m sure we’ll think of something.”

Alice felt his phone vibrate before she heard it, pressed against his side. They paused, momentum suddenly interrupted. Nathan looked at her, questioning; it was her choice.

“Take it,” she decided. “We’re not in any hurry. This is a holiday, after all.”

He checked the screen. “I won’t be a second,” he promised, backing toward a quiet anteroom.

Alice forced herself to breathe. She wandered to a quiet corner of the lobby, trying to calm the tremble of anticipation that seemed to have gripped her body, but too soon, doubts began to filter through her thrilling haze. Was she going too far? She could still remember the feel of Rafael’s body against hers; Nathan wasn’t a random man in an unknown bar—he was real, and decent, and what if this wrecked any chance that they could have something proper between them? Alice gulped.

“Anything good?”

Nathan’s voice was sudden in her ear, and Alice startled. She’d been idly staring at the foyer exhibition of photographs, black-and-white prints in ornate frames. “Lifestyles of the rich and famous,” she replied. There were the Clintons, splashing by the pool, and a candid snap of a Kennedy or two, back in the day. Even Hollywood’s latest superstar Chris Carmel was lounging on the terrace, a martini glass in hand and—

“Wait.” Alice peered closer at the last photo. There was a woman sitting at the table behind him, her back to the camera and no more than a sliver of her body in the far right of the frame, but Alice could have sworn… “Does she look familiar to you?”

“Nope.” Nathan gave a cursory glance before turning back to her, his smile full of suggestion. “So, about that room…”

Alice ignored him, fixated on the flash of pale skin, and the wisp of a dress in the picture behind the heartthrob. The woman’s hair was gathered up in a messy kind of knot; leaning back with wine glass tilting from one outstretched wrist.

“Alice?” Nathan slipped his hand into hers and tugged lightly.

She stood firm. “Give me a second.”

“There are postcards of the photos, if you want. See?”

Alice tried to decipher what it was that had caught her eye. It may only have been a fragment at the edge of the photo, but there was something about the pose that was oddly familiar: the nonchalant, almost-carefree posture. She’d seen it before, Alice realized, as the memory finally surfaced—that glass tilted out just so as they relaxed in a bar after work or met for drinks at the weekend.

Alice gasped.

“It’s her!” All thoughts of seduction were suddenly forgotten as Alice stared at the photo in amazement. “It’s Ella!”

“What?” Nathan jerked his head around to the lobby, as if he expected to see their quarry strolling through to the pool for an afternoon dip.

“There, in the photograph, behind Chris Carmel.” Alice jabbed her fingertip toward it. “Do you see?” She beamed at Nathan triumphantly.

“Alice”—his voice softened—“it’s OK. It’s been a crazy few days. Let’s keep the rain check for another time and get you home.” He took her arm and tried to guide her away. “You’ll feel more like yourself after a good night’s sleep.”

“I don’t need sleep,” Alice protested, shaking off his hand.

He thought she was backing out, Alice realized: that she was looking for an excuse not to follow through with her proposition, but none of that mattered now, not when she was so close to a breakthrough. “Look!” she pushed him closer to the display. “That woman with her back to the shot: I’m telling you—it’s Ella.”

Nathan glanced back at the photo. “Alice, she’s barely in the frame at all—I can’t make out a thing.” He gave her a pat on the shoulder. “I know you want to find her, but this is going too far. That could be anyone.”

Alice refused to yield so easily. She snatched a leaflet of the exhibition details from the side table and eagerly scanned through the small print until she found the titles. “It’s from May,” she announced. “The dates match. It’s her!”

Nathan blinked. “Let me see that.” He reached for the program, as if her word wasn’t enough. Looking from the photograph to the details and back again, he shook his head in surprise as the possibility finally dawned. “You know, you could be right…”

“Of course I am,” Alice replied. “The manager said we needed proof she was here, and now we have it.” She felt a thrill rush through her, better than any seductive urge. It had been the smallest clue, perhaps the only one Ella had overlooked, but she had found it. Nobody could erase themselves completely; you just had to look hard enough. “Ask for access to the security footage,” she told Nathan, beginning to push him toward the gleaming marble front desk. “And the guest logs for that week, and—”

“Hey, I’ve got it,” Nathan cut her off, amused. “I have done this before, you know.”

“Right.” Alice nodded, practically vibrating with impatience. A bored, wealthy-looking family was trailing through the front entrance; if they reached the desk before them, she would have to wait hours for assistance, she was sure. “So, can you? Now?”

He paused, no doubt to tease her.

“Nathan!”

“OK, OK. I’m going,” Nathan agreed. “Now, come watch the master at work.”

Alice rolled her eyes at his arrogance, but after watching him talk his way through the desk clerk, charm the manager in low, courteous tones, and secure them access to the security suite and those all-important date-stamped video files, she had to concede, he was very, very good at what he did. And after twenty minutes spent squinting at CCTV footage from the terrace on the day of the photograph, they found exactly what she was looking for.

“Which room is she going to?” Alice leaned forward on the edge of her seat with anticipation as Nathan deftly switched between camera views, tracking Ella’s familiar figure as she finished her drink and strolled back inside. She seemed carefree and relaxed, Alice decided, as if she didn’t have a care at all or any notion that someone might one day be watching.

“Hang on.” Nathan looked equally as transfixed as they watched her browse newspapers in the lobby, pause to chat with a passing guest, and finally—finally!—skip up the elegant staircase toward her room. “Second floor, number…” He paused as Ella swiped her card key, expanding the image on the screen until the discreet gold number on the door was visible. “Two one three.” Nathan announced. He turned quickly to the guest manifest printout, but Alice was already scanning the page.

“Two one three…” Her heart sped up as she looked for the name, the one piece of truth Ella might have inadvertently left behind. It might just be another alias, but that at least would give her something more to follow, something more to know.

And there it was. Ella had checked in on the twenty-fifth for four luxurious days of relaxation—registered with a passport in the name of Kate Jackson.

Alice looked back at the grainy black-and-white image, frozen on screen. Kate Jackson. She had her now.

***

Hugging the printouts to her chest, Alice was perfectly content to depart for the airport, and as they set about the airport checks and long security lines, she marveled at the chance discovery.

She’d done it.

Her sense of triumph was giddy and fierce, enough to make memories of that gray police cell melt away. All her intuition, all her quick thinking, every instinct she’d had about Ella, built from weeks of tracking and poring over those statements—they’d all paid off. Alice had been right about her. What had stung most about Ella’s early, shocking deceit was that Alice hadn’t known her at all. But now…

Well, Alice thought gleefully, settling into the scratchy airplane seat, now she knew Ella better than she would ever have imagined. She had found her, when police and professionals couldn’t. She knew how Ella thought now.

“I still reckon you’re taking this all too well.” They had been in the air a while when Nathan’s voice broke through her thoughts. “You didn’t even pause for breath after getting locked up by foreign police.”

Alice looked over, amused. “So, you’d have preferred to find me weeping and traumatized in that cell then?”

“Well, no,” Nathan corrected himself with a grin. “But maybe pale and repentant, with a single tiny tear.”

She laughed. Somehow, they’d slipped back into their easy banter, but this time at least, Alice knew there was truth lurking beneath the charm. Some substance. “Didn’t Stefan tell you?” she replied. “Crisis management is what I do best. I’m made of stronger stuff than that.”

“I’m beginning to see,” Nathan agreed. “Man, the first night I spent in jail, I was a mess.”

“You got arrested?” Alice perked up.

“Sure. Three times, so far, but that first one was the worst. I was a wreck,” he added. “I mean, up until then, most of my work had been staring at the computer screen, or interviewing bankers in their nice, air-conditioned offices. And suddenly, I’m sitting in the corner of a stinking jail cell in the far corner of the world with a bunch of drug dealers, wondering if anyone even knows I’m there.”

“But let me guess, by the end of it, you were playing cards with them and doing their secret handshakes like a pro.” Alice imagined the scene.

“Uh, nope.” Nathan grinned cheerfully. “By the end of it, I was still huddled in the corner, too scared to look anyone in the eye.”

“What about the other times?” Alice asked, digging a pastry from their bag of airport provisions. She passed it to him, the thick glaze dribbling between her fingers. “You said it happened more than once.”

“Yeah, but those stories aren’t as impressive.” He grinned, biting into the snack.

“Huddling is impressive?” Alice teased.

Nathan laughed. “You were supposed to be awed by my strength and resilience.”

“Oh, my mistake.”

“I suppose it’s a hazard of the trade, when you’re poking around in people’s bank accounts.” Nathan went on: “See, some investigators, well, let’s just say they operate in a legal gray area, but like I said before, your reputation is everything in this game, so I make sure to play by the rules. Or only bend them a little.”

Alice glanced out of the window. She doubted Nathan would approve of her more reckless approach to tracking Ella, but it had worked, hadn’t it? He would have told her that coming to Italy was a waste of time and that using her name to prompt investigations when it was still tainted by Ella’s crime was irresponsible, even dangerous. But without that dangerous impulse, she never would have discovered Ella’s next alias. Sometimes, Alice was coming to realize, recklessness was entirely necessary. Quiet questions and careful planning would only take you so far. Sometimes, you had to leap.

“Do you think it’s her real name?” That one, all-important question had been distracting Alice ever since confirming the check-in log.

“Could be.” Nathan looked up. “If she thought she put enough distance between herself and the Ella Nicholls identity, or even using your name…She might have risked it.”

“But you’re not convinced.” Alice read his expression.

He sighed, his shoulders seeming to lift and settle with the breath. “I really don’t know with this one. She’s not like the other cases I’ve worked.” He gave Alice a rueful smile. “It’s not just about the money here. To be honest, I’m not sure how much more help I can be. I’ll keep looking for your savings,” he added quickly, as if to reassure her. “And I’ll run that name through whatever checks I can, but if she’s gone, there’s not much good it’ll do.”

Alice nodded slowly. She didn’t like to think of Nathan hunting down that Safe Haven money, but after his talk about rules and regulations, now probably wasn’t the time to ask him to leave it be.

“And you shouldn’t be chasing after her either,” Nathan added, a warning note to his voice. “You’ve seen what can happen when you get tangled up in someone else’s fraud, and that’s only the start of it.”

“I know,” Alice answered, trying to sound agreeable. Yes, she did know what could happen: she could discover the information she craved. “Still, you got to polish up that rusty armor of yours.”