What's in a Name? (20 page)

“
What did he mean?”
Kelli asked. “Why are we moving?” Blake heard the faint wobble in
her voice and wondered how much was put on.

“
Merely a precaution,
Mrs. Cranford.” The detective’s voice seemed to start at his toes
and resonate up to his mouth, where it exited a deep bass. “We
apprehended someone trying to break into this room.”

“
An employee? Is that
what Mr. Newberry meant when he said someone had been
reprimanded?”

“
Not exactly.”
Gunther’s eyes darted back and forth between Blake and Kelli. “The
suspect managed to bribe a clerk in reservations into revealing
your room number. I believe Mr. Newberry has taken care of
her.”

Gunther pulled out what looked like a
police booking photo of Scumbag. “Do you recognize this man?” he
asked.

Blake took the picture, held it so he
and Kelli could examine it. She took the photo from him, running a
fingertip over it and shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“
No. Should I?” He put
his arm around Kelli in a gesture of protection. She rested her
head on his shoulder. Okay, he knew this scenario. He’d used it
before, working with a partner to close a tough deal. The corporate
version of good cop, bad cop. Only now it was Emily playing the
innocent wife and he’d be playing the cooperative but indignant
husband.

“
Someone called in a
tip this afternoon,” Gunther said. “We apprehended the suspect
trying to break into your room.”

Kelli leaned forward. “So you caught
him, right?”

“
Yes, ma’am,” Gunther
replied. “We did.”

Blake let a little indignation through
when he spoke. He patted Kelli’s hand. “Detective, if you have your
man in custody and he was trying to break into our hotel room,
shouldn’t you be talking to him, not us?”

“
Oh, we are. But he
has a lawyer—a very expensive lawyer—and he’s not doing much
talking. I thought you might give us something to work
with.”

“
He’s going to be in
jail, though, isn’t he?” Kelli sounded frightened. Blake didn’t
think she was digging very deep to show the fear.

“
For now. We’re trying
to tie him to another crime—a murder that took place near an
EnviroCon property.”

Kelli gasped. “Murder?”

Blake let his voice rise. “Officer
Gunther, you’re frightening my wife. Is there any reason for us to
think we’re in danger here?”

“
No, not at all.” He
looked at Kelli. “I’m sorry ma’am. One of our officers was wounded
while we were arresting Mr. McGregor, so this is a
priority.”

“
Is he all right?”
Kelli asked. “The officer?”

“
Yes, ma’am, thank
you. McGregor had a knife. Our officer’s being stitched up. He’ll
be fine.”

“
Thank goodness,”
Kelli whispered. “Bill, I … I think I need to lie down.”

He started at the genuine shakiness in
her voice. She was chalk-white and looked imploringly at
Gunther.

“
Of course, ma’am. Do
you want me to call a doctor?”

“
No, I’ll be fine if I
lie down for a few minutes. Sorry, I get this way sometimes.” She
gave a weak laugh. “No stomach for blood—even thinking about
it.”

“
Will you excuse me,
Detective?” Blake said. “I need to see to my wife.” He didn’t wait
for an answer, but rose and started walking Kelli to the
bedroom.

Gunther half stood. “No problem. I have
a few more questions and I’ll be on my way.”

Blake helped Kelli to the bed.
“Sweetheart, you look like a ghost.” He kept his lips close to her
ear. “Don’t tell me you can pass out at will, too?”

“
No. I’m sorry. But
how many more people are going to get hurt because of
me?”

“
Quiet. It’s not
because of you. Now, you’ve got about thirty seconds to brief
me.”

She struggled to sit up. “I’ll be okay.
I can go back.”

“
No, you can’t. We’ve
got the upper hand here for a minute. He thinks he’s upset you—and
he has, but not for the reason he thinks. I can probably get him to
fill me in on what they know. But I need to know some more about my
job, and Bill.”

She closed her eyes, took a breath and
by the time she exhaled and opened her eyes, some color had
returned to her face.

“
You’re here to meet
with someone from EnviroCon—Yoshi Obayashi is the normal
coordinator. Three possible land donations—you don’t know the
particulars. And you’ve never worked with Kelli, but you probably
saw her at an EnviroCon fundraiser or some other function. You’ve
heard of her, though—she’s top-notch.”

“
She is.” He kissed
her flat on the lips and got an exaggerated Shake for his
trouble.

He composed himself, put a worried
expression on his face, and returned to Gunther. The detective was
taking notes, still sitting where Blake had left him, but Blake had
a feeling he’d looked around. Nothing to see, though. Kelli had it
all in her bag.

“
Sorry, sir.” Blake
walked over to the bar. “I could use a drink. Could I get you
something? There are soft drinks.”

“
I’m fine.”

Blake took a mini-bottle of Scotch from
the bar and unscrewed the top. He kept his back to Gunther while he
poured the drink into a glass, making sure his hands no longer
shook.

“
How’s Mrs. Cranford?”
Gunther asked.

“
She’ll be all right.
The talk of a murderer hit her hard—that it might have been us, if
we’d been here, and that this McGregor is responsible for the
murder at the other property.” He walked over to the couch and sat
down. “I’ve been out of touch for a while on my last project. Emily
wouldn’t normally have come along here, but I guess she missed me.”
He gave Gunther a knowing smile. “We came out a few days
early—tacking some vacation to this trip. Now, she’ll probably want
to go straight back to Florida.”

“
No call for that.
We’ve got this guy locked up. And he’ll be extradited once they
decide which crime takes priority.”

“
Who did he murder?
Not someone from EnviroCon or I’m sure I’d have heard.”

“
No, it was a park
ranger in Washington State. We’ll have to see if all the knife
wounds point to the same weapon.”

“
All?”

“
The ranger, Mr.
Stockbridge and our officer.”

“
Jack Stockbridge was
stabbed?” Blake didn’t have to feign shock. He caught himself
before his hand went to his own healing belly.

“
Not badly, but he
never saw who hit him.” He picked up the photo from the coffee
table where Blake had dropped it. “Are you sure you’ve never seen
this guy? Either in the hotel, or at one of your job
sites?”

Blake took the photo. “No. I think I’d
remember him.”

“
He’s cut his hair and
shaved the mustache. Does that help?”

Blake made the pretense of studying the
photo again. “No. Sorry.”

“
According to the
hotel staff, he was looking for you.”

“
Me?” Blake said. “I
do environmental surveys. What could he want with me?”

“
I don’t know, sir.
That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” He glanced toward the
bedroom door and lowered his voice. “Or maybe he wanted your
wife.”

“
Emily? But she’s not
connected to EnviroCon, except by being married to me. You said
there was an EnviroCon connection.”

“
That’s our best guess
now, sir. But if someone was looking for your wife, they might use
you to find her.”

Blake shook his head. “I can’t believe
someone is out to do me harm, although there are some land
developers who aren’t pleased with my survey results. But Emily? No
way.”

Gunther picked up his notebook and pen
again. “Land developers, you say. Can you give me any names?”

Of course not. He took a slow sip of
his Scotch, composing himself. Bill might be a field biologist, but
Blake was a crack negotiator, used to keeping his thoughts well
away from his face. Now, if he could only merge the two.

Okay, Gunther isn’t a cop, he’s some
CEO sitting across a boardroom table. You’re holding a pair of
deuces, but he doesn’t know that. You know the drill. Bluff.

He ran his fingers through his hair
while he dredged up the after-dinner conversation with Kelli from a
lifetime ago at Camp Getaway. “No, sorry. I don’t get involved with
that end of things—I don’t even know if EnviroCon does. We don’t
take land away from developers, we try to get it before they do. So
I’d have no way of knowing who might have wanted the properties I
survey. I set my traps, take my pictures and fill out my reports.
Lots of reports.” He tilted his head toward the desk.

“
I noticed.” Gunther
stood and Blake got up to walk him to the door. “Oh, one more
question. There was a Kelly Carpenter working at the project where
the Ranger was killed. Do you know him?”

Not going to get me with that one,
Blake thought. “Sure, mostly by reputation. But it’s her, not him.
Kelli’s a woman. Top-notch researcher, although we’ve never worked
together. I’ve seen her at an occasional meeting.” He counted to
three. “You don’t think she’s in danger, do you?”

“
Apparently she left
the site and we haven’t found another body. The Park Service and
Washington police are looking into it.”

“
Well, I’m certainly
glad you have your man in custody. And I hope your officer has a
speedy recovery.”

“
I’ll pass it on.” He
extended a hand.

“
Any time.” Blake
shook his hand and closed the door behind him. He waited several
long minutes to make sure the guy didn’t pull a Columbo and come
back with one more question.

Kelli waited on the bed until she heard
the door close. From what she’d been able to hear, Blake had done
well. She’d get to her laptop, make a few tweaks to EnviroCon’s
personnel files and they should be safe enough.

She looked up and saw Blake leaning
against the doorjamb, a smug look on his face.

“
He’s gone and I don’t
think he’ll be back. I was a perfect Bill Cranford.”

“
Jury’s still out on
that one. It would have been better if I could have seen Gunther’s
reactions.”

“
Sweetheart, I make my
living reading people. He was satisfied.”

“
For now.” She sat
cross-legged on the bed. “Fill me in on everything. Did he take
your fingerprints?”

“
No, why would he do
that? He said he matched the ones on the door to
Scumbag.”

“
If he thinks there’s
a connection to EnviroCon, he might dig. I don’t know how thorough
he is. What did you touch?”

He raised an eyebrow and his sobered
expression said he’d seen she was serious. “The picture of Scumbag.
I poured a drink, but he never picked up the glass.”

“
Okay, I think I
managed to smudge the prints on the photo.”

He grimaced.

“
What? Tell me,” she
demanded.

“
He gave it back.
Wanted me to take another look. I didn’t think about prints. I’m
sure I left lots of them.”

She should have warned him. Too late.
“Have you ever been arrested?”

“
What?”

“
Answer the question.
Picked up for questioning? Involved in a police
investigation?”

“
I thought you
searched my sordid past.”

“
I skimmed the
surface—enough to know you weren’t a handyman and a little bit
more. It’s much faster if you tell me.”

“
Hate to disappoint,
but no, I’ve never been arrested.” He sat down on the bed and
squinted at her. “I was fingerprinted when I went to work for
Hollingsworth. You think he’s going to find out I’m not
Bill?”

“
If that’s all, then
your prints shouldn’t be on file with AFIS.”

“
And that would
be?”

“
Automated Fingerprint
Identification System. Where the cops send prints to see if they
match up with anything picked up on a crime scene. Routine
employment prints aren’t part of the system.”

“
You think Gunther
would be checking my prints?”

“
I have no clue. But I
feel a lot better knowing if he does, he’s not going to get any
hits on Blake Windsor.” She stared over his head. “We’re going to
have to hope he’s not investigating you as Bill, and that Bill’s
prints aren’t on file. It’s one thing for him to check prints
against knowns, but if he digs out Bill’s prints and compares them
to yours, he’s not going to get a match.”

“
Are Bill’s prints at
EnviroCon?”

“
Shouldn’t be. They
didn’t print me. But if they are, the cops would need a warrant to
get them.”

“
Well, before you get
all engrossed in your laptop again, let’s get moved into the new
room. I’ll call for the bellman.”

“
In a minute. I need
to make sure he doesn’t get any conflicting information if he
checks with EnviroCon. With Stockbridge out of the office, I don’t
know if anyone will cover for us.”

“
No, Kelli. Now. We
both know once you start clicking that damn keyboard, you’re not
going to stop.”