When the Storm Breaks (17 page)

“I didn’t feel any kind of reaction to him but terminal boredom. I managed to get a smile out of him. It wasn’t like the one I remember from the night of the murder.” She sighed and adjusted her purse. Just because the two detectives had witnessed the whole miserable farce of a date was no reason to be mad at them. “Sorry the evening was a bust.”

“Part of the investigative process is to eliminate suspects,” Sean said cheerfully. “Taylor is off our list. No point in even sharing a cab ride with him to talk about how awful women are in an effort to get him riled.”

The smile red lined her temper. “I’m glad it was good for someone.” She turned and stalked toward an unmarked police car. “Ready when you are, Aidan.”

“Whew,” Sean said when Claire couldn’t hear. “Somebody’s pissed.”

“Yeah. I think I’ll kiss her good night. Someone should do it right.”

“Fuck me.” Sean’s head whipped around.

Aidan grinned. “That wiped the smug look off your face.”

Sean wasn’t laughing. “I’m following you back to Afton’s house.”

“No need.”

“Like hell.”

Aidan was still laughing when he caught up with Claire.

Washington, D.C.

Saturday

L
ess than twenty-four hours after her last date, Claire found herself once again seated at a table for two in Très Chic, suffering the tortures of the damned. Luis Cardinale, technical support supervisor for a major local software firm, had spent the entire evening so far—from introductions at Camelot to appetizers at the restaurant—talking about his ex-girlfriend.

Claire took a healthy swallow of her vodka on the rocks and decided that she would rather hear about Roth IRAs and municipal bonds as tax shelters than listen to one more word about how Lydia Cockburn had screwed over poor, innocent Luis. If she hadn’t known that Sean and Aidan would roll off their chairs laughing, she would go to the rest room, climb out the window, and run for it.

“That’s how I knew you and I were going to hit it off right away,” Luis told her.

“Huh?” Claire blinked at her date.

“Because you weren’t wearing provocative clothing. Lydia always wore strapless tops and tight pants, or
teensy little dresses whenever we went out. She wanted other men to look at her, be aroused by her body. She loved how upset that made me.”

“I believe I’ll have another drink.”

“But you still have half of yours left,” Luis said.

“Not for long.” Claire picked up her drink and chugged the remainder. She set the glass down and flagged someone over to their table. “Vodka rocks,” she said to him.

“You know, Lydia used to drink too much when we went out,” Luis began.

Gee, I wonder why
. “Make it a double.” She smiled brilliantly at the waiter.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Claire bit her tongue and wondered when she’d become
ma’am
instead of
miss.
Maybe it was the vodka. It wasn’t her normal drink, but this wasn’t her normal evening. She’d first ordered an icy margarita, only to have Luis point out sadly that it was Lydia’s favorite drink. Claire had told the waiter to bring something with vodka instead.

“The last time Lydia drank too much in a club, she hit on one of the bouncers like I wasn’t even there.”

Smart lady
. “What a shame. Do you suppose she just forgot?”

Luis blinked. “I didn’t like it when she drank.”

“Really? Why?” Claire looked at the butter knife. No help there. It was as dull as it had been last night.

As the waiter set Claire’s new drink down in front of her, she caught Sean’s warning look from a nearby table. She’d forgotten he and Aidan were listening to everything she said, because for this date the police technician had found smaller, lighter equipment. She hardly realized she was wearing anything extra under her little black dress.

Meeting Sean’s gaze directly, she lifted her glass in a
subtle mock toast, took a delicate sip, and set the drink back down. She hadn’t forgotten why she was on a date with the lousy Luis. Unfortunately she was almost certain he was not the man they were looking for. He’d smiled several times—usually on relating some memory of Lydia—and it looked nothing like the cruel smile Claire remembered from the night of the murder.

Even so, she was beginning to think her date needed psychological help getting over his ex-girlfriend. His obsessive, possessive personality would probably be of interest to the police.

With a mental sigh, Claire decided to keep the date going on the slim possibility that Luis might fit at least some aspects of the killer’s profile.

“So, how long have you been working in tech support?” Claire asked.

At that same moment, the song playing over the speakers changed to a slow, quiet number. Couples gradually moved from tables to the tiny dance floor set to one side of the restaurant, and began swaying gently to the soft music.

“Me and Lydia used to love this song. It was, like, our song,” he said, staring forlornly at the dance floor. His eyes shimmered suspiciously.

Claire briefly pinched the bridge of her nose before looking over to Aidan and Sean for assistance. She simply couldn’t go through a whole evening of the ex-girlfriend blues, especially if Luis started sniveling.

Aidan studiously avoided her gaze and stayed in his position at the bar. She turned to Sean, who seemed to be staring intently at her. After several moments she realized he was looking behind her. She turned her head discreetly but didn’t see anything worth his attention.

She did, however, catch sight of a table with three women ogling Sean. If he noticed their attention, it didn’t show. He just gave the room a casual scan and went back to his mineral water. From the whispers, giggles, and rib pokes, Claire could tell the women were well into their drinks and working up the courage for a more direct approach to the lone man.

She didn’t blame them. Sean was a handsome male seated alone in a known “meet market.” He was just the type of prize some women would love to take home for the night. Pushing aside the disturbing thought, Claire looked back at her date.

“We went on a cruise and this song was always playing on the ship, so it kind of became our song, you know?” Luis said. “Those were the good times, before I found out she wanted to see other guys. That’s why I now insist on exclusivity when I go out with a woman.”

“Ummm,” Claire said.

“So you’re not, like, seeing anybody else, right?”

She couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. “Excuse me?”

“I told you, I have to have an exclusive relationship when I go out with a woman now. Because of what happened with Lydia. I just want to make sure we’re both very clear on that,” he said, studying her reaction carefully.

“Luis, we are exactly”—Claire checked her watch—“sixty-six minutes into our first date. I hardly think this is the time to bring up exclusivity.”

“So there is someone else!” Luis jabbed at her with his fork to punctuate his statement.

“I paid to join a
dating service
. The whole point is to get out and date people. If you can’t handle that, let’s call it a night.”

“No! I’m sorry, I guess I go a little crazy sometimes. Lydia left me with lots of emotional baggage, you know?”

Personally, Claire was starting to sympathize with Lydia. “Maybe it would be best if we didn’t talk about her anymore, hmm?”

“Sure,” he said, watching as the waiter set their dinners down. “So, have you ever been married?”

“No.”

“Engaged, living together, anything?”

“No.”

“I can’t believe that. Someone like you must have gone out with lots of guys. How come you never married any of them?”

Excellent question.
Claire finished chewing before answering, choosing her words carefully. “I came close to being engaged once, but things just didn’t work out.”

“Yeah? Did he cheat on you, too?”

“No, he just had different expectations. We worked together and initially kept quiet about our relationship because he wanted to. I guess that should have been a clue right away,” she said, swirling more pasta around on her fork.

“What happened?”

“When things got more serious, he started pressuring me to get a job with another company. He wanted to be more open about us, even assumed we would get married someday—but because he was a manager at our firm he thought it would look bad for him to be involved with a coworker. He said it might affect his climb up the corporate ladder, and he expected me to make the big change in careers to avoid that. I disagreed. Things started to fall apart after that.”

“I hear you. It’s sort of strange when it all unravels,
isn’t it? I couldn’t believe things were over with Lydia for months.”

“It wasn’t that way for me. Now that I think about it, I really didn’t have that much invested in the relationship except time.” She’d been more embarrassed than anything else, because her private life had become fodder for office gossip.

Glancing over toward Sean’s table, she caught him looking intently at her. Flustered, she glanced away and again saw the table of women giggling over Sean. One of the women beckoned the waiter over, whispered in his ear, and sent him off to the bar. Within a few moments, he appeared at Sean’s table with a draft beer on his tray.

When the waiter was sent away with the beer untouched, Claire breathed a small sigh of relief.

“What’s going on?” Luis asked her, looking around to see what she had been watching.

“Oh, nothing much. The table of women over there sent a drink to some guy, but he sent it back.”

“That’s how I met Lydia.” He stared into the bottom of his glass as he swirled the ice around. “She sent me a Kamikaze at a club. We got drunk and danced all night, and then I went home with her and…well.”

And you were surprised that things didn’t work out when your relationship was based on Kamikazes and sex with a stranger?
Claire resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I hate Kamikazes,” she said flatly. “They lead straight to bad choices.”

At the bar, Aidan snickered over his soft drink. He felt sorry for Claire, but he’d just about sprained a rib trying not to laugh out loud. As a date, the evening was a disaster, personally and professionally. Luis Cardinale seemed to be a mild-mannered guy hung up on his apparently hot
ex-girlfriend, but Aidan didn’t think he was a serial killer. Still, they’d keep an eye on him to make sure he didn’t have any more dangerous personality quirks.

Confident that Claire would be safe for the evening, Aidan turned his attention to a table in the corner behind her. About an hour ago, it had been empty, with a little Reserved card sitting on its surface. Now Afton and Olivia sat consuming an enormous tray of appetizers and a large bottle of mineral water. They had come through the kitchen to be seated without drawing attention, but he’d picked up on their presence right away, as had Sean. Both women had carefully avoided making eye contact with the detectives.

It was time to let them both know they’d been busted. Aidan lifted a hand to signal a waiter. Several minutes later, the waiter brought a nice bottle of cabernet over to the women, followed by a busboy bearing two enormous chocolate mousse cheesecake desserts. When Olivia looked inquiringly at the waiter, he turned and pointed out Aidan at the bar, glass raised in their direction.

Olivia made a face, gestured to the waiter that it was okay, and watched warily as Aidan approached.

“I’ll take care of pouring the wine,” Aidan said to the waiter, giving him a tip.

“How’s it going?” Aidan asked, pulling up a chair and popping a spring roll into his mouth. Grabbing the two glasses, he poured wine to the rim in both of them.

“I can’t drink that much,” Olivia protested. “We’re kind of working, you know?”

“No, you’re not. It’s a good thing I like you two, or I’d haul you in for interfering with a police investigation.” Aidan set the wine down in front of them and smiled.

“We were just worried about Claire,” Afton said.

“She’s being watched at all times. She’s in a crowded public place,” Aidan pointed out.

“You don’t know her like I do,” Olivia said. “I can read what she’s thinking, or tell when she’s feeling uncomfortable or threatened.”

“So can I,” he replied, tapping his earpiece.

“We just wanted to help.” Afton looked uncomfortable for a moment, then took a sip of the wine. She eyed the luscious chocolate dessert that had been placed in front of her and reached for a fork.

“We, my ass.
You
,” Aidan said, pointing at Olivia. “You’re the instigator here. Don’t try to argue, just drink your wine and eat your dessert.”

“What’s up with all this stuff anyway?” Olivia asked, irritated at being ordered around, but not terribly surprised.

“The wine says you don’t need to worry about keeping a clear head. The dessert says your evening is over and it’s time to go home. Soon.” Aidan stood up and headed back to the bar.

“Cocky bastard,” Olivia muttered as she sipped from the brimming wineglass.

“Yes, but he’s got excellent taste. Try the chocolate.” Afton took another bite and all but purred.

Across the room, Sean watched the exchange and realized Aidan had gotten rid of their amateur sleuths for the evening. Warily eyeing the table of increasingly rowdy women who had sent several drinks over to him, Sean wondered if they would be so easily dismissed. Luckily, he could tell by the stiff way Claire smiled and the subtle shifting of her body that she was no more than two minutes away from flushing this date.

He could also tell when she was uncomfortable, like when she caught him looking at her. If someone were
watching her closely, the whole dating sting would be over. Claire just wasn’t used to hiding her feelings. She was too open and honest.

That was one of the reasons he was finding it so difficult to work with her. When she looked at him, he could see the conflicting emotions going through her. Above all, he could see the attraction she still felt. And since he was finding it damn near impossible to ignore his own feelings, he was always on edge, certain that they were constantly on the brink of another disastrous encounter.

Sean’s earpiece suddenly echoed with Claire’s gusty sigh. He heard Luis relating another Lydia story, this time about a trip to Hawaii he had paid for. Apparently his ex-girlfriend had spent half the nights in someone else’s hotel room, so now Luis only went Dutch on shared vacations and dates.

Claire reached into her purse, dropped three twenties on the table, and said, “Excuse me.”

As she headed for the rest room, she said quietly, “Fun’s over.”

Sean flagged down the waiter to settle his bill. This time he would be the one waiting at Camelot when Claire and loser Luis came back. Then Aidan would find a way to get in the cab and strike up a conversation with Luis about life in general and women in particular.

It wasn’t likely that the man was dangerous, but no one was betting Claire’s life on it.