Weapons of Mass Distraction (19 page)

“That was quick,” I said, as Solomon and I strolled to his car.

“But informative. What was your take?”

“I love this bit. I deduce everything right and you realize I am your smartest employee ever.”

Solomon laughed. “Prove it.”

I thought about O’Keefe’s demeanor and went with my gut reaction. “Joseph O’Keefe knew nothing about his former employees’ deaths and was saddened to hear about Jim Schwarz. He appeared genuine.”

“Agreed. And Carter Junior?”

“At first, I thought he didn’t know a thing, but he stiffened when you mentioned Karen and Lorena. He knew about them, but didn’t expect they would be brought up and it caught him by surprise.” I waited, but Solomon waved me on, so I continued, “I bet he makes a terrible poker player. Plus, he lied about why Jim Schwarz left the company. Jim didn’t want more money like Junior said. He’d already turned O’Keefe’s pay raise down. One other thing, he confirmed all our victims worked in the same division.”

“He lied about something else,” said Solomon. “He didn’t have a meeting. He wanted us out of the building the moment the women’s names were brought up.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I just saw him watching us leave from a window. Don’t look up,” Solomon added as he beeped the Lexus open.

“Oops,” I said because my head was already turned.

“He’s gone. I’m going to have Lucas look into his background. Junior knows something about the victims, and whatever it is, he doesn’t want us digging around.”

Chapter Twelve

“On a scale of one to ten, how embarrassed are you to be seen out in public with me?” I asked. I blurted out the burning question that had been bugging me on an epic scale. Lily would be so proud of my directness. Meanwhile, I would have liked for a gigantic hole to open up in the ground and swallow me up. How whiny did I sound? But since Solomon’s idea of dinner and movie seemed to have morphed into takeout pizza and a DVD at his house, I had to wonder again, didn’t he want to be seen in public with me?

Solomon looked around the small store front of Monty’s Pizza, which currently was only occupied by the two of us, and frowned. We were waiting for a large, stuffed crust, barbecue pizza and my stomach kept emitting embarrassing little growls. That my question covered up the noises was pure coincidence.

“Zero,” he said.

“Whoa, that’s off the charts!”

“You asked. What’s with the question anyway?”

I shrugged. “No reason.”

Monty, the man himself, slid the box over the counter and took Solomon’s money. We climbed into his car and headed for Chilton. I tried to not lick my way through the box to the delicious contents. Solomon placed a hand on top of it. “If you wait ten minutes,” he said, “you can have a plate and a glass of wine.”

“So formal? You spoil me.”

“Don’t forget, one comes with alcohol.”

“Sold. Drive faster!” Faster, I decided, before I started pressing the question of our relationship too. Oh, what the hell, while I was embarrassing myself, I might as well continue. “So… are you my boyfriend or what?”

“What?”

“Really!” I half yelled.

“No!” Solomon glanced towards me, looking utterly confused, before returning his eyes to the road. “I meant what kind of question is that?”

“We’ve never really discussed it. I know we’re dating, but… I don’t know if you think this is casual sex, or a relationship or…”

“A regular booty call?” Solomon smiled. “With dinner on top?”

“Well, I guess you could put it that way,” I replied sulkily, trying not to think about who or what went on top. Solomon had a great trick that involved a strawberry, which was enough to send me into a spin just thinking about it.

“I kind of assumed you were my girlfriend.”

“Oh.” We fell silent. After a moment, Solomon asked hesitantly. “You are my girlfriend, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” I said, mashing my lips together to compress the huge grin that tried to consume my face. “I think so. Yes. Fine, if you insist.”

“So… this is settled?”

“Um…”

“What now?” Solomon sighed.

“Can I tell anyone?”

“Like whom?”

“Lily, for starters, and my family, and… What about at work?”

“Maybe we should just keep it between us. The last thing either of us needs are people sticking their big noses into our business. Okay with you?” I gurgled a very non-committal noise, and Solomon glanced my way again. “But you can tell Lily.”

“Thanks,” I said, even though she already knew everything and Solomon probably knew that.

“My sister knows. And my brother,” added Solomon. “My whole family knows!”

“They are your whole family,” I pointed out, remembering Solomon lost his parents some years earlier and pretty much raised his younger siblings.

“And Anastasia is thrilled. She thinks you’re awesome.” Solomon pulled onto his street, searching for a parking space. “Have you been worrying about this? About whether I was taking advantage of you?”

“No,” I lied. “Never. Never even crossed my mind.”

Solomon parked and switched off the engine. He unbuckled his seatbelt, leaned over and kissed me firmly on the lips. “You’re a terrible liar sometimes.”

With Solomon busy in the kitchen of his large, welcoming brownstone, nestled in Chilton and only a few blocks from Melanie Doyle's apartment, I browsed his small DVD collection in the living room. Surprisingly, there were no romances, or musicals, but he did have a couple of comedies and action flicks. There was one DVD that made my eyebrows rise so I put it to one side to confront him when he brought our pizza in. Really, I never took him for that kind of man.

When my cell phone vibrated in my pocket, I thought about ignoring it, but after seeing it was Lily, I answered.

“Want to go on a stakeout?” she asked.

“Not really. I’m at Solomon’s, having pizza.”

“Takeout?”

“Yep.”

“Still doesn’t want to be seen anywhere with you, huh?” said Lily, breezily.

“Lily! That hurts.”

“What’s for dessert?”

“Me.”

“I don’t wanna… no, I am not saying that. I know what you’ll answer and that’s just rude. Do you want to stakeout after? Or will your legs be too wobbly?”

“Wobbly, I hope. How is the Perfect Brides stakeout working out?”

“Like watching paint dry. Nothing is happening at all.”

“I called you. Any luck with Sally-Anne’s surveillance tapes?”

“Nope. I watched the in-store tape first, and yeah, there was a woman in there around the time Sally-Anne said, but she never turned her face towards the cameras. And on the night of the burglary, there was nothing but white noise.”

“White noise?”

“Yep. I called Sally-Anne and told her and you’ll never guess. Go on, guess!”

“No, I don’t want to. Solomon will be back any minute so just tell me.”

“Spoilsport. Sally-Anne checked and the wire was cut on the outside camera. I think the thieves did it.”

I mused over that. It was disappointing that the tapes couldn’t give us anything, but it was a good lead to start. “I agree. Anything suspicious reported at Perfect Brides?”

“Sharon says no. I’ve been sitting outside for an hour tonight and I’ve seen zip.”

“Any reason why you’re staking them out tonight? Did something happen?”

“Jord got me the crime reports from the burglaries and I noticed all the stores were broken into during the evening hours. The ones with security recorded times that were all before midnight so I figured the store only needed watching for a few hours at night.”

“I'm sorry I can't help out more, but good work!”

“Thank you. And there’s more! Sharon said there was a woman acting funny in the store this afternoon. Ruby said she’d cover my shift at the bar and Jord is at work so I thought, why not? And here I am. I’m boooored.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Well, my butt’s numb and I didn’t bring any CDs, so I’m listening to the radio and… hey, Lexi, what do you do when you need to pee on a stakeout?”

“Scream usually.”

“Good call. If you get bored of your hot boss, come find me.”

“Not likely. We had the talk.”

“The Talk. The baby one? Lexi!”

“No, the boyfriend-girlfriend one. We’re so on!”

Lily squealed and I held the phone away from my ear. “Ohmigoooooosh,” she finally squeezed out. “I knew it! I knew he wasn’t embarrassed to be seen in public with you. After all, you’re very stylish and popular.”

“Aw, thanks.”

“Oh! I see someone entering the store! Gotta go.”

“Okay, and if you see anything suspicious, do nothing,” I instructed Lily. “Do not confront them. Don’t even let them know you’re there. Just take a photo, make some notes, but do not approach!”

“No problem. I’m very inconspicuous,” Lily said and hung up. Somehow, that didn’t comfort me, now that I’d already seen her wigs and sunglasses.

When Solomon entered, bearing a large tray loaded with pizza, napkins, wine glasses, and a large bowl of popcorn, I scooped the DVD from the coffee table and held it up. “What’s this?” I asked, raising my eyebrows in question. “Since when are you into this stuff?”

“I swear it’s not mine,” he said, setting down the tray on the coffee table.

“The entire series of
Glee
? C’mon on. Are you a closet Gleek? You can tell me. I promise I won’t break up with you.”

“It’s my sister’s, and no, I don’t watch it.” He grabbed the remote control and patted the couch cushion. “Come over here.”

I didn’t need asking twice. I dropped onto the couch and curled my feet under me as Solomon passed my plate. “So, eating take-out in. Yum!” I stuffed a slice into my mouth. Well, not the whole thing, but close to it, and my stomach gave a mewling grumble of delight.

“Did you want to go out?” Solomon asked, frowning, as he channel-surfed. “It’s been a long day.”

“No, like you said. Long day. Plus, Monty’s is the best.”

“I thought we could head over to Lake Pierce on the weekend. Get out of town. Make a day of it. Or we could rent a cabin for the night?” Solomon smiled, raised his eyebrows, and I thought how charming it would be to stroll around the pretty lakeside retreat… out of town… where no one could see us. “Okay, what gives, Lexi? Why the funny look?”

“What funny look?”

“That one. What’s wrong? I know you’re not happy about something. Is it us?”

“No, no. It’s not us. Okay, it’s a little bit us. I just wondered if we still needed to be careful about letting it get out that we’re in a relationship. I was wondering if the guys would care all that much.”

“I think Delgado knows,” said Solomon.

“I think Lucas knows,” I replied. We both chewed on the pizza. That was two, out of four colleagues, not counting the secret floor above.

“No one else knows though. Plus, I don’t want anyone thinking I’m giving you preferential treatment. And, I thought we wanted to keep things between us. This is nice…” He waved his slice around the room. “Cozy. Relaxed. No one bugging us. I’ll even let you pick what we watch if staying in is bugging you.”

“No, you’re right, this is fine,” I said cozying up to him, “and I’d like to go to Lake Pierce. Maybe we can do a team outing there one day? Like… team bonding?” The thought gave me the shivers, but it could be fun, and I looked great in hiking gear. Actually, that was a stretch, but I gave my best effort. What I did have was some hot lingerie, just perfect for rolling around in front of a log fire. All I had to do was remember to turn frequently so I didn’t burn on one side.

“We could, but I was planning on making love only to you in a remote cabin.”

“Uh…” Really, the things that got into my boyfriend’s head. “Maybe we could go with Serena, Delgado, and Victoria one day? After we’ve done the hot and heavy weekend?”

“Sweet. Heh, look, the food channel. Want to watch the stuff we’re not eating?” Solomon suggested as the latest
Man Versus Food
challenge filled the screen.

“Awesome.”

~

Solomon was gone by the time I got up, which would have been fine if I didn’t remember my car was nowhere near his house. So, I did the only sensible thing I could think of after rejecting the notion of calling a cab. I called my best friend and made her come over and pick me up.

“How’d the stakeout go?” I asked, when I climbed in.

Lily yawned, covering her mouth only when it threatened to eat the rest of her head. “I fell asleep in the car, got a stiff neck, and drove home at one a.m. I drove by the store on the way here and it was open as normal, so I guess it didn’t get robbed. My wedding dress is still safe.”

“That’s good news.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Lily beamed. “Speaking of good news, meaning my forthcoming wedding, you better not have forgotten the rehearsal dinner tonight. Is Solomon coming? I need to get the seating finalized with the wedding planner.”

Oh… organic crapola! The rehearsal dinner. Not only did I forget about the dinner, I still hadn’t asked Solomon if he would be my date.

“Lexi…”

“I’ll be there,” I said, “Didn’t forget. Absolutely didn’t.”

“I can’t believe you forgot!” Lily wailed. “I even added it to your phone calendar. Everyone is coming. You’ve known about this for weeks!”

“Uh… do I have to wear my bridesmaid dress?”

“No! Wear whatever you like. You do have something to wear, don’t you?” Lily screwed her eyes up as we hit a red light and fixed me with a scrutinizing stare that made me want to shrink in my seat and apologize incessantly.

“Yes!” I replied indignantly as the light turned green and Lily pulled a left. I only just finished organizing my closet after the big move, and had a dress I was dying to wear. It even had the tags still on it, but I didn’t remember buying it. I gave myself bonus points for shopping in my closet for free and snagging a find like that.

“That’s a shame. I thought you might want to go shopping later,” Lily replied as she pulled up outside the agency building. “Don’t be late,” she warned, and I hopped out. “And remember to think up an explanation for why you’re wearing yesterday’s clothes to work,” she added as she pulled the door shut and maneuvered into traffic.