Chapter 14
Fourteen
Luca stared at her, watching Kira sashay into the room in a dress that wasn’t quite flattering—but maybe that was the point, considering this was a memorial service. At least, that’s what was happening downstairs. Up here, they were doing something different.
Or he’d been trying to, anyway.
She glanced at him. “Close the door.”
Luca’s brows rose.
As he had with Detective Martinelli and Deputy Marshal Butler in that interview room, he wondered if she had quickly read the situation she’d wandered into and, between opening the door and entering, decided to change things up. Use the time-honored good-cop–bad-cop tactic.
Did that mean she was on board here to help him?
Luca didn’t know, but it might prove more effective than the questions he’d been asking since he got here.
“What is going on here?” She put one hand on the curve of her hip, her elbow bent out. “And somebody talk fast, because Destiny wants to know where Roger is. We can’t send him downstairs looking like that now, can we.”
Did she think he was the one who had punched Roger in the face?
“Roger and I are getting to know each other.” Luca folded his arms, because she either trusted him or believed he had come in here and punched the guy on the day of his father’s memorial.
He’d snuck in for the memorial, hence the fact he was wearing his best jeans and a black button-down shirt, and seen Roger up here in the second-floor hallway for a second. No point in wasting the opportunity of talking to Roger just to make small talk with people he didn’t need to speak to.
Turned out, Roger had been in a fight, and Luca thought he might need someone to unload on. He could play the part of friend. It didn’t seem like this guy had many of those.
This was supposedly his room, but the place was decorated like a model-home showroom and made Luca wonder if the guy crashed elsewhere most of the time. He was nearly forty. Luca hoped he didn’t still live with his parents.
Roger wore a suit today, but likely only in deference to his mother’s wishes. The material hung on him in a way that suggested it had fit better before ten pounds of weight gain. Something he didn’t wear often but pulled out for special occasions like this.
Between the buttons of his shirt, Luca could see the white T-shirt underneath. Roger had removed his suit jacket, and if there had been a tie, it was nowhere to be seen now. A drop of blood on the collar of his shirt was the only indication that he had been in the altercation since getting dressed.
Someone had punched this man in the cheek. Maybe not here in this house, but certainly sometime today.
“I believe he was about to tell me who hit him.” What Luca actually needed to know was whether there was a connection between the Shadow Syndicate and the cartel.
He wasn’t sure there were many other viable explanations for what had been happening.
Kira turned to Roger, still sitting in that chair Luca had pulled over for him when he’d seen how much Roger was weaving and about to fall over. Given the smell on the man’s breath, it was clear he’d drunk too much alcohol today.
“Well?” Kira turned the full force of her attention on the younger man. “Who hit you?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Roger shook his head.
“It might matter. So why don’t you try us?”
But the expression on Roger’s face didn’t change. Luca hadn’t been getting anywhere in the few minutes before Kira showed up. He doubted they would actually gain answers before someone else came looking for them.
The fact no one connected to this case wanted to tell Luca anything was becoming irritating. Hopefully Jamie could come up with answers now that she’d told him the money was moving through foundation accounts.
“We are not talking about that.” Roger looked at Luca. “You said this was about my dad.”
Kira glanced at him, but Luca didn’t know why.
He said, “I’m investigating your father’s connection to the shadow syndicate operating in town.
” Luca shrugged. “That’s the bottom line here.
I’m sorry, but if you didn’t know, someone pointed their finger at your dad as the head of the syndicate.
” He watched Roger’s face for any indication as to how he felt about that or the fact Luca knew. “That doesn’t surprise you?”
Roger shrugged. Maybe he just didn’t care. A guy staring down the barrel of turning forty, adopted into money so that he didn’t have to work. Luca wondered what drove him to do anything when whatever he wanted was handed over on a silver tray.
“Was your father the head of the Shadow Syndicate?”
“Can’t say I know what you’re talking about,” Roger said.
Kira shifted her stance, dropping her hands from her hips. “What is it that you do for living, Roger?”
“I am an ambassador for the foundation my mother runs. I enjoy helping other people the way I was helped.” That sounded a little too rehearsed.
“And your father?” Luca watched the other man’s reactions. “You never visited him in the hospital. Is that right?”
Roger sniffed. “We didn’t get along that well. He said I was a mama’s boy.”
“There’s nothing wrong with having a close relationship with one of your parents,” Kira said. “It’s a natural part of life that we get along with some people more than others.”
From where Luca stood, it seemed more like the beginning of a theory that had Roger and Ralph at odds. Even to the point where Roger might have believed he had a reason to kill the older man.
But was that what had happened? It was possible Roger had contracted the cartel to take out his father. Was this man colder and more calculating than he came across? Luca wasn’t willing to let the other man pull the wool over his eyes—not in the biggest investigation he’d ever undertaken.
Luca shifted and leaned against the wall beside the dresser. If he opened the drawer, would it be empty or full of Roger’s clothes?
Luca said, “Did your father ever hurt you?”
“He’s dead,” Roger said. “It doesn’t matter now.”
Kira’s body language softened. “Does your mother know?”
Roger started to chuckle. “Are you going to save me? I think she picked the right person for the vacant position on the board. Seems like you’re a real bleeding-heart type, which means you’ll fit right in, because she can have you all twisted around trying to help people. Doing all the work for her.”
“Your mother has built an incredible organization that helps a lot of people.” Kira sounded like she believed that, whether the statement was made to get Roger to argue with her or not.
“That’s the point.”
Luca frowned, unsure if the point was that Destiny worked to help people, or that everyone believed it was true. “Is there something going on with the foundation that we need to know?”
When Roger didn’t say anything for a few seconds, Kira chimed in. “I need to know what you know about the foundation. You’re one of their success stories, right? If you don’t think it’s a good nonprofit, then I’m not going to choose to be part of it.”
“I would never do anything to jeopardize the foundation.” Roger glanced between them. “Is that what you’re here to do? Undermine my mother’s life’s work?”
“No, we’re here to honor the memory of your father.” Kira didn’t let his words bother her.
Luca said, “If you’re in some kind of trouble, we can help you.”
Someone had punched this young man in the face. That and the fact he’d been talking to the cartel guy, the one who’d mentioned the hit they now knew was on Roger’s father, all added up to a whole lot of suspicion.
Roger didn’t look at him.
Luca tried again. “I saw you in the hallway outside the gala. You were talking to a man I know was involved with the death of your father. I should call the police and tell them my suspicion that you’re involved in your dad’s death.
After all, you probably have reason to hate him enough to order someone to kill him. ”
The young man glanced at him, those dark eyes staring at Luca. “I’m not the one who ordered him killed.”
“But you’re going to benefit from his death, aren’t you? Surely he left something to his son.”
It was a bold accusation, but only by guessing wildly did he have a shot at getting Roger to argue with him and explain the truth, just for the sake of correcting what Luca “thought.” Kira moved in a way that suggested she didn’t like what he’d just said, but she didn’t argue aloud.
“None of that is any of your business.” Roger lifted his chin. “I don’t even know you.”
“You aren’t worried about me going to the police about you?”
Roger shrugged. “Do whatever you want.”
Either he wasn’t worried about guilt, or he had protected himself enough that he believed he was insulated. Or him being hit had nothing to do with crime.
Maybe Destiny had hit him.
Luca said, “Is there anyone in your father’s life who might’ve wanted him dead?”
“Obviously, otherwise he’d be alive.”
Luca wasn’t sure that was a helpful answer to his question. “Are you aware that Alden Jenkins recently pointed your father out as the head of the Shadow Syndicate? Then soon after that, Alden was nearly killed in prison and your father was targeted.”
Kira looked at Luca. “The medical files don’t support murder.”
“There are plenty of ways to kill someone that don’t look like a crime.
It took someone more than one attempt to end Ralph’s life.
” Whatever had happened in the hospital that led to his death needed to be investigated.
Someone might have snuck into his room and done something to him.
Only, what evidence would there be when Destiny had already had her husband cremated?
The whole thing was more than suspicious.
Roger said, “How would I know anything about some shadow syndicate in town? I don’t have anything to do with my father’s business.”