Chapter 30
Marty waited until he was within Palm Springs’s city limits before pulling to the side of the road and accessing the web browser on his phone. His hope was to find something that explained the police’s interest in Emma.
It didn’t take long before he hit pay dirt in the form of an internet news service video that showed the police escorting Emma out of RRE.
“Police sources say a person of interest in the death of the woman found last night at the home of superstar Damian Leon has been taken to the station for questioning,” a male reporter said over the footage.
“No name has been released, but it is believed that she works at Richards Renewable Energy, a prominent energy company located in Palm Springs.”
This was the first Marty had heard about the incident. Since his late-night meeting with Popov, he’d been too worried about his own precarious position to pay attention to the news.
He hunted around for more information and on a gossip site found an article that alleged the dead woman was an actress named Katy Lane.
The name meant nothing to him, but the same could not be said about the picture of her that accompanied the post.
Katy Lane was a dead ringer for the unconscious woman Marty had seen carried into Victor Popov’s suite the other night.
As much as Marty disliked Emma, he had a hard time believing she would kill someone.
Popov, on the other hand, was another matter entirely.
“Oh, shit,” he muttered.
He could not let Popov or his people know that he’d made the connection. If they found out, someone might be fishing his body out of a pool next.
His phone rang with a call from the office.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Mr. Lundstrom? It’s Lily from the front desk. Mrs. Poole would like to see you and asked me to find out when you’ll be back.”
Susan Poole was the company’s executive vice president and not someone he could put off.
“I should be there in ten minutes.”
“I’ll let her know,” Lily said and hung up.
Marty finished the drive to the office and pulled into the RRE parking lot with three minutes to spare.
As he climbed out, a motorcycle pulled into the next spot, missing him by only a few inches.
“Hey!” he snapped at the driver. “Watch where you’re going!”
The motorcyclist removed his helmet, and Marty’s blood went cold.
“If I wanted to hit you, I would have,” Vladimir said.
“S-s-sorry. Not having a great day.”
“Did I ask you about your day?”
Marty laughed uncomfortably. “Good one. Well, I gotta get to work, so—”
“Hop on.”
“What?”
“I said hop on.”
“I’d love to, really, I would, but my boss is waiting to meet with me.”
“I thought Emma Perez was in jail.”
“Her boss.”
“He can wait.”
“She.”
“Huh?” Vladimir asked.
“Emma’s boss is a she.”
“So many women in power positions above you. That cannot feel good.”
Marty shrugged half-heartedly. “Yeah, well, what are you going to do?”
“Get on, Marty.”
“I just told you I have a meeting.”
“You do. With Mr. Popov. Your boss’s boss can wait.”
“I really can’t—”
Vladimir unzipped his leather jacket just enough so that Marty could see the holstered gun underneath, then growled, “Now.”
“On second thought, she can wait.” He swung a leg over the seat and Vladimir turned on the ignition. “Hold on! I don’t have a helmet.”
“No, you don’t,” Vladimir said, then adjusted his own helmet and took off.
—
“Turn in here and go straight,” Emma said, indicating the entrance to the RRE parking lot.
Herb did as directed.
“Where the hell is he going?” Emma muttered.
“Who?” Herb asked.
“The motorcycle.”
He followed her gaze to the bike, where one man had just climbed on behind another. The guy in front glanced over his shoulder and said something to his passenger, then adjusted his helmet.
Herb’s brow creased as the bike sped away. “You mean the driver?”
“No, the guy on the back. He’s one of my engineers. Why? Do you know the driver?”
“Not personally, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him around my hotel.”
Herb pulled up to the curb, next to the building’s entrance.
“If the police contact you again, let me know right away,” Herb instructed.
“I will. Thank you, Mr. Fisher.”
“Think nothing of it. And it’s Herb.”
“Thank you, Herb.” She climbed out of the car, gave him a wave, then headed inside.
Lily’s eyes went wide when Emma entered RRE’s lobby. “Dr. Perez! You’re back.”
“Obviously,” Emma said, heading for the door to the offices.
“Is everything okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I just thought, you know, with the police taking you away…”
Emma paused. “They didn’t take me away. I went willingly, to assist with a case.”
This was the answer Herb had told her to give anyone who asked about why Wilson had come for her.
“Oh,” Lily said, looking relieved. “I apologize. I was just worried they were arresting you for something.”
“They weren’t,” Emma said, then reached for the door.
“Dr. Perez, you didn’t happen to see Mr. Lundstrom outside, did you?”
“I did. He was leaving with someone when I arrived.”
“Leaving? That’s odd. Mrs. Poole wanted to meet with him, so I called him, and he said he’d be right here.”
“Why did she want to see him?”
Lily shrugged. “No one ever tells me anything.”
“All right. I’ll see what she needs. In the meantime, call him again and find out when he’s coming back.”
“Will do.”
Since Emma’s office was on the way to her boss’s, she went there first to grab her phone. When she did, she was surprised to find a notification informing her that her home alarm had been deactivated.
She accessed her security cameras and saw Ronan and the man Ronan had called Billy, who had helped her out of the pool at the party, talking in her kitchen.
Confused, she called Ronan.
“Emma, thank God,” he answered. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said.
“Are you still at the police station?”
“No, I’m back in my office. What are you doing at my place?”
“Taking care of Ari,” he said, as if she should have known that.
“I thought you would have kept him with you until I could come get him.”
“Marty said you wanted him brought home.”
“That’s not what I told him. I’m sorry you had to drive Ari all the way there.”
“I didn’t. Marty did.”
“Marty? Why would he do that?”
“He said he had a meeting out this way, so offered to meet me here.”
“Hold on.”
She pulled up the engineering department schedule on her computer. The only outside meeting that day was one Marty had nothing to do with.
“He lied to you,” she said. “There was no meeting.”
“Then why would he offer to bring Ari out here?”
Before she could answer, Billy said something to him.
“I’m putting you on speaker,” Ronan said and did so. “Emma, you remember Billy Barnett? He’s the one who helped us Saturday night.”
“I remember.”
“Hi, Emma,” Billy said. “Did you tell Marty you’d left something here that you needed at the office?”
“What? No. I would never say something like that to him.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Why do you ask?”
“He requested to use your bathroom, and when he didn’t come back in a timely manner, I went looking for him and found him in the big room at the back, going through some papers.”
Emma flushed with anger. “I’m heading there now. Can you wait?”
“Billy?” Ronan asked.
“I have nothing planned,” Billy replied.
“We’ll be here,” Ronan said.
Emma hung up, then stormed out of her office and nearly ran right into her boss.
“Emma,” Susan Poole said, surprised. “I didn’t realize you were back.”
“I’m leaving again.”
“Is there something you want to tell me? You know, about the police?”
“There’s nothing to tell,” Emma said. “I’m sorry, but I have an emergency I need to deal with.”
“What about Marty? Why isn’t he around?”
“You’ll have to ask him.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“On my shit list,” Emma said before rushing down the hall.