Chapter 10
10
C amila and Alejandro met Miguel and the rest of the wedding guests for a goodbye lunch at twelve-thirty as planned, but she could barely concentrate on eating after what Alejandro had told her. She remembered the look Javier Reyes had sent in her direction the night before and the unease she’d felt. Had he really dispatched someone to her house to kill her, and if so—why?
She didn’t tell her brother about the break-in because she didn’t want him to worry. He should have an enjoyable visit to Mexico to see family first before he and his new wife took off for a worry-free honeymoon in Hawaii, and Alejandro agreed.
When lunch ended, they all said goodbye. She hugged her brother and her new sister-in-law and wished them a safe trip.
After she and Alejandro separated from the rest of the group, a wave of sadness overcame her. Miguel was moving on with his life, and she seemed to be at a standstill. Soon he would begin his career as a biotechnologist and then start a family. She would still be in Las Vegas, unsure if she wanted to stay there but unable to make a decision about where she wanted to go next.
As Alejandro drove toward her parents’ house, a local news update caught her attention, and she turned up the volume on the radio. The DJ had been giving the afternoon update on the weather and traffic, but a female reporter had broken in with a hot story.
“…the body was found behind the Abner’s Market building. The victim appears to be a local homeless man. We don’t know much at the moment, except he was shot, and police are on the scene now.”
The DJ returned, his upbeat voice in stark contrast to the solemnity of the reporter who had given the devastating news.
Camila turned off the radio and glanced at Alejandro. She couldn’t breathe. “I have to go down there. I have to know if it’s Doug.”
“Let’s go,” he said in a grim tone, as if he had been thinking the same thing and already knew what they’d find.
She didn’t want anyone to be dead, but she hoped the dead man wasn’t Doug. She would be devastated.
She gave Alejandro directions, but the drive to Abner’s Market seemed to take forever. When they arrived on the scene, police officers were everywhere, and the area behind the small grocery store was cordoned off with police tape. She saw Detective Slater right away. His rumpled suit suggested he had worked all night without going home.
Camila walked up to the police tape. “Hi, Detective Slater.”
He lifted an eyebrow when he saw them. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t our favorite Blaxican reporter again. This isn’t the type of story you usually report on in The Pulse .”
Camila refrained from rolling her eyes and played nice. “I know, but I’m curious about the victim.”
“Why? You think he might be one of yours?”
Her series of articles about the homeless had been popular. “Invisible Lives: Stories from the Streets” had resulted in her becoming a minor celebrity when local news channels invited her on their shows for interviews.
“Possibly,” Camila replied, a knot forming in her stomach. “Have you ID’d the victim?”
He sent a curious look in Alejandro’s direction. “I see you have your bodyguard with you.”
Alejandro stood a little ways back, feet braced apart and thumbs hooked in the belt loop of his jeans. His expression was emotionless as he looked right back at the detective with barely concealed contempt.
“He told you he’d be here for a while,” Camila reminded him.
Detective Slater muttered something under his breath and pulled out his notepad. “The body is of a male. Caucasian. About five-ten, looks like he’s in his fifties, but those guys usually look older than they really are. Nothing special about him, really.”
Camila stopped breathing. “Does he have a birthmark on the inside of his right arm—sort of resembles a boot?”
The detective flipped up a page on his little notebook. “Yeah.”
Camila’s heart tanked.
Seeing the look on her face, he asked, “That your guy?”
Camila nodded, unable to speak around the lump in her throat.
His forehead puckered. “You got a name for him?”
“Doug. Doug Duvall,” Camila answered in a soft voice.
He wrote down the name. He was unconcerned and clinical in his questioning while she was falling apart inside.
“How long has he been back there?” Camila asked.
“Best guess right now is a few days, but we should have a better idea once the ME gets him on the table for a thorough examination.”
“I heard on the radio that he was shot?”
“Yeah.” He pursed his lips and shook his head. “Looks like he gave up.”
His comment startled her. “Gave up? What do you mean?”
“No final word yet, but the ME said his death looks like suicide. Gun by his side, a bullet to the temple.” He positioned his hand to the right of his head and acted like he pulled the trigger.
The crude gesture shocked her, but his answer was even more shocking. “No way. Impossible.”
“Why is that impossible?”
“Doug couldn’t have killed himself, Detective. I found his sister for him.”
“Sweetheart, you know how these people are. You wrote a whole series about them. They’re hooked on drugs and alcohol because they’re running from their pasts or whatever demons are chasing them. Hell, they disappear all the time without a trace. Did he know you’d found his sister?”
“ Yes ! She’s coming to pick him up tomorrow. Their reunion has been planned for weeks.”
His left eyebrow arched in surprise. “All right, calm down. You have the sister’s information?”
Camila took a calming breath. She shouldn’t let him get her so riled up, but his indifference was typical and infuriating. “Her name is Melissa Duvall.” Camila pulled out her phone and gave him Melissa’s phone number.
“Got it.” He tapped his pen on the notepad. “Look, I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s clear the poor bastard gave up before she could arrive. Maybe he couldn’t handle seeing her or didn’t want her to see him in his current condition.”
“I don’t believe that,” Camila said in a firm voice.
“The facts speak for themselves.” He shrugged.
“Could you wait before you call his sister? I’d like to tell her myself what happened.”
“Sure. I’ve got plenty to do otherwise. I’ll give her a ring first thing in the morning.” He gave her shoulder an awkward pat in a condescending way. “Can’t save them all, sweetheart.”
He walked away, leaving her to stare after him.
Asshole .
She walked over to Alejandro. “Did you hear what he said?”
He nodded.
“I don’t understand why Doug would do that. It doesn’t make sense. Kill himself ?” She lifted her eyes, seeking the answers from him.
“It happens. There are lots of people who seem fine on the outside and are suffering on the inside. Friends and family only find out about their suffering when they take their own life.”
“That’s true, but…” Camila shook her head vehemently. “Not Doug. He had too much to live for.”
“You’re looking at the situation from your perspective. Like the detective said, he could have had his own demons that you don’t know about.”
“I’m not convinced, Alejandro,” she said.
His gaze traveled over the busy scene of police and crime scene techs. “You are confident he would not have killed himself?” he asked.
“He didn’t have a death wish. Not the Doug that I knew. Plus, like I said, I’d found his sister, and his dog Poodle is with Rhonda at the homeless encampment downtown. He wouldn’t have left Poodle alone without making some kind of arrangement. She was his baby.”
“How sure are you?” Alejandro asked.
She paused. He was right, lots of people held their hurt inside and believed the only way to have relief was to end their life. But not this time. Not Doug. “A thousand percent sure, and I plan to do something about it.”
A wary expression crossed his features. “Camila…”
She dropped her voice. “I’m going to do a little investigating myself. Couldn’t hurt.”
“Someone tried to kill you!” Alejandro reminded her in a fierce whisper. “We haven’t figured that out yet.”
“It could have been a simple burglary.”
“By one of Reyes’s men?” he reminded her.
Right. She had forgotten about that.
“I don’t know why Reyes sent men after me, but what I do know is the cops are not going to dig into Doug’s death, which was the message of the series I wrote. People like Doug are invisible to society at large, and Detective Slater said the ME already suspects it’s a suicide. They’re not going to launch a full investigation when they can simply call him a drunk homeless man and say he killed himself. I’m not going to let them sweep his death under the rug and close out the case because he doesn’t fit society’s idea of a person of value. Doug deserved better and his sister deserves better. Real answers. I don’t think it was suicide, and I intend to find out who killed him.”
Muttering a few choice curse words under his breath, Alejandro studied her for a moment as she anxiously waited for his reply.
“If you’re going to look into his death, you will need help. Since I’m staying anyway, I’ll help you.”
“You were serious about staying? Don’t you have to go back to work?”
“I have some flexibility in my schedule.”
“Are you sure it won’t be a problem?” Camila asked, though grateful.
“I am not leaving until I know you’re safe.” Alejandro started walking to the car.
Camila fell into step beside him. “You can’t put your life on hold for me.”
“I can do whatever the hell I want, and there’s no way I’m letting you look into Doug’s death by yourself. I don’t like any of this. There is a lot happening in a short period of time, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”
“You think the break-in at my house and Doug’s death are connected?” She couldn’t see how.
“Possibly. The only way to know for sure is to keep digging.”