Chapter 4
Jack made a mental note to thank his favorite stunt coordinator for this extremely satisfying moment. The hot badass cop was flat on her back, in the exact same position he’d been in a few moments earlier. She looked just as furious about it as he’d been, but she wasn’t hiding it quite as well.
“Get the fuck off me or you’ll regret it,” she said in a deadly tone of voice.
He believed her, and obeyed. Hell, she was an actual officer and he just played one on TV. Besides, he didn’t mean her any harm. He just wanted to know what was going on. Why was a police officer poking around this suite? Why hadn’t she led with the fact that she was a cop?
So far, he’d gotten nowhere with the police. Maybe that was about to change.
Once Tina Chen had jumped to her feet and brushed herself off, he tried another approach. As she faced him with arms crossed, looking excessively intimidating for someone her size, he aimed his friendliest smile at her, the fake one he pulled out for network executives.
“How about we start over, now that we’re even?”
“We’re not even,” she snapped. “I could have flipped you off me in two seconds. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
Again, he believed her. As an actor, he understood body language.
Before he’d gotten the role of Denver Black, he’d worked in Army intelligence, so he recognized a leader when he saw one.
His quickie assessment was that Tina Chen was highly competent, skilled, capable, probably a workaholic, driven, most likely single because she hadn’t slowed down long enough to have a relationship, but also sexy as hell in all that black.
Her ink-black hair was in a ponytail because that was probably the easiest way to deal with it.
Her face—well, he could look at that face for a long time and not get tired of it.
It wasn’t that she was beautiful, exactly, although he found her so.
More than that, it was interesting. Sort of wise-cracky and smart-assy.
“That’s fair. Thank you for that.”
Did his de-escalation have any effect on her stiff posture? Not that he could see.
Maybe he should start by putting his cards on the table. One card, anyway. Not all of them.
“As you noticed, I’m not here with a bride. I’m not married. I booked this suite because I’m looking for someone.”
A spark of interest showed in her narrowed gaze. “Seth Baker?”
“Do you know him?” he asked hopefully.
“Nope. Never heard the name.”
Fuck. His distant hope that she would also be on the trail of that mother-effer faded away. Then again, Seth Baker was such a scammer, he could have used other names.
“Why are you looking for him, and why here?” she asked.
“Maybe you should share something with me first.”
“Sure. I like pina coladas and walks on the beach,” she snapped. “Now tell me about this Seth Baker.”
He laughed, appreciating her quick sense of humor even through his frustration.
“To start with, when did he stay here?”
“I’m not sure he did. I’m following up on a very sketchy lead.”
Tina reached into her pocket, and he took an involuntary step back.
“I’m not going to shoot you,” she said impatiently. “If I was, I would have done it already.”
Good point. He relaxed as she pulled out her phone. She stepped toward him to show him a selfie of a man cheek to cheek with a blond woman. “Is that Seth Baker?”
He studied the photo, then pulled out his own phone. He tapped on a photo to bring it full-screen, and compared the two. “I guess it could be,” he finally said.
Tina was doing the same side-by-side comparison. “No glasses, different hair styling, but they could definitely be the same person. What’s your connection with him? Why are you looking for him?”
She sounded more serious now, as if all the comedy had drained from the situation. Good. He could work with that.
“My sister was seeing him, and now she’s missing. I don’t know if he’s involved or not, but my gut tells me he is. Who’s that woman in the photo?”
“She’s my client, and I don’t feel comfortable sharing any details without her permission.”
His jaw tightened. Jessie had disappeared, and this officer was going to obstruct his search with technicalities?
“But I’ll ask her,” Chen added. “I can tell you, for now, that she thinks he’s shady and she’s concerned he might be victimizing other women. It’s possible your sister is one of them.”
His heart clenched. Jessie was such a romantic, always wanting to believe the best about any person she encountered.
He always hated to rain on her parade, so his warnings about Seth Baker had been muted.
Just because he sounded too good to be true didn’t mean he was, he’d reminded himself.
Just because you’re a cynical bastard doesn’t mean everyone’s an asshole.
He should have done more. He should have rushed to Sea Smoke Island the instant he got that text from Jessie asking to run something past him. Something had set off her alarm bells, but he didn’t know what. That was the last text he’d gotten from her.
Tina’s voice interrupted his guilty thoughts. She spoke more gently now; his fears must be showing on his face. “What brought you to this suite?”
Should he trust this random local police officer?
So far, the police hadn’t done anything.
He’d spoken to someone at the Harbortown PD, a young freckle-faced guy who’d suggested things like maybe she was just on a getaway with her lover.
Maybe she’d lost her phone. Maybe she was somewhere with no service. Didn’t she love camping?
Apparently a brother’s intuition was not enough to waste police hours on. He himself hadn’t worked an investigation since his Army days, and he was definitely rusty. He’d been considering hiring a private investigator. Why not join forces with this badass, badge-wielding babe instead?
He made a decision. His best bet to find Jessie was to get Tina Chen on the case.
“How about if I show you?” he said.
“Okay.”
He headed for the door, but she didn’t budge. “You’ll have to come with me,” he said patiently.
“Where?”
Apparently she wasn’t one to just follow any old actor wherever he said.
“To my house.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You live here? On Sea Smoke? I’ve never heard anyone here mention your name.”
“Dark of Night is a pretty niche show.” He shrugged.
“Our viewers are concentrated in the south, the midwest, and Indonesia, for some reason. We do pretty well in South America, too, but that’s thanks to Sofia.
” His co-star was from Colombia, a real sweetheart underneath her bombshell persona. “Our New England numbers suck.”
“Listen, Jack Finnegan. I’m not interested in your global demographics. I want to find this guy and get my client some answers.”
“I’m right there with you. I swear. It’ll be easier to show you what I’ve discovered than tell you. Believe me, there’s nothing to find here. I’ve been here two days and searched the entire suite.”
“Really? Then what’s that?” She looked up at the ceiling and pointed to a bit of paper fluttering on the edge of the slowly rotating ceiling fan. “I noticed it when I was stretched out on my back on the goddamn floor.”
“Always investigating, huh?” He reached up, stretching his arm as far as it would go, but couldn’t quite touch the paper. While he was doing that, Tina dragged over a chair and hopped onto it.
“Everything in this suite is an antique. This chair is probably worth a lifetime’s salary.” He steadied it for her by holding onto its gracefully carved back. “Yours, not mine.”
She ignored him as she plucked the bit of paper from the ceiling fan. Rightfully so, since it was a stupid jab, unworthy of him.
“Interesting,” she murmured.
“What is it?”
She climbed off the chair, the heels of her boots digging into the carpet as she landed. “It’s torn from a Post-It, that’s why it stuck to the fan. This looks like a woman’s handwriting. Did your sister write this?”
She showed it to him.
It was definitely Jessie’s handwriting. She’d studied calligraphy and even designed fonts for a graphics company, so she paid careful attention to anything she wrote by hand.
But this one looked like it had been written in a hurry.
Since they only had one part of the Post-It, it was impossible to tell what the entire message had been.
But he could make out a few key words, which he read out loud.
“Warn. Liar. Sally, or maybe Sandy, it’s smudged.
Cel, could be either ‘cell’ as in ‘phone,’ or ‘celery.’ Touch. Paper. Heart. Out.”
“What does all that mean?” Tina squinted at the Post-It, then took a photo of it.
“No idea. Maybe she was breaking up with him, calling him a liar. A lying stalk of celery.”
Tina let out an oddly endearing giggle.
“But that’s probably wishful thinking. I always thought Seth was bad news. He always seemed to be right there, shadowing her. I never could talk to her alone.”
“Some men go over the edge when a woman ends the relationship.”
His gut twisted. Jesus. She was right. What if Jessie had been trying to walk away, but Seth didn’t want to let her go? Wasn’t that the plot line of at least six Dark of Night episodes?
He stared at the scrap of yellow paper, trying to put all the words together into a coherent message.
“Who is this Sally?” he asked. “Or Sandy. Any chance that’s your client?”
“No.” Chen shook her head. “I assume she doesn’t mean ‘sally forth’ or something like that.”
“Doubt it. Too bad she wrote in all caps. Can’t even tell if it’s a name or not.”
“It certainly could be. How’s this?” Tina raised her voice and narrated, “‘Warning, you liar about Sally. Lose my cell number. Don’t touch my paper because you broke my heart. Get out.’” She smiled, rolling her eyes at her goofy interpretation as she looked up from the note.
Was that the first time she’d offered him a whole-hearted smile? He liked it.
But she was assuming a lot about that note.
“Or try this one. ‘I’m warning you, liar, about the sandy celery. If you touch it, my paper heart will give out.’”
Tina burst out laughing, and if he’d found her smile attractive, her belly laugh was even more so. “Your guess is as good as mine, I suppose. Come on, then. Sally forth and show me what you’ve got so far.”