Chapter Five
Lexi sat in the booth across from Cooper at the Marmots Lounge on East McDowell Road, having followed him there in her car.
She was still processing the notion that he, too, had lost a spouse tragically.
What were the odds? She suspected that he hadn’t mentioned it when she brought up losing her husband during the interview of her yesterday because it may have seemed inappropriate when he was in his FBI special agent mode.
But now, Cooper had insisted she refer to him by his first name, having let down his guard as a widower—something Lexi suspected didn’t come easily for him.
As a result, she couldn’t help but feel a kinship with him, given their shared bond in being single again—and not by choice.
Beyond that, she felt drawn to Cooper for his sexy good looks and strong character that she was able to perceive in no time flat.
“It was nice of you to volunteer to take Eleanor’s place at the support group meeting,” Cooper broke into Lexi’s musings.
She met his gaze across the square table, where their Phoenix cocktails sat, and smiled.
“I was happy to since Eleanor wasn’t feeling well and asked me to sit in for her.
” Lexi tasted the drink. “Truthfully, I have a strong suspicion that my dear neighbor played on my heartstrings to get me to go to the support group for widows and widowers—which she had been trying to do for a while now—in believing it would be good for me.”
Cooper chuckled. “I suppose I could see Eleanor being clever like that, having gotten to know her a bit at the meetings.” He lifted his glass.
“In any event, I’m glad you came. It’s always good to see a new face there, though I completely understand how difficult it is to open oneself up when losing a partner to death can feel so personal. ”
He gets it, Lexi told herself, though not at all surprised, given their shared experience.
“Yes, it has definitely been challenging in coming to terms with a new reality through no fault of your own,” she said, pushing away the pain that came from an unexpected life-altering change in her marital status.
“But I’m getting there, just as I suspect you are. ”
“Yeah, I’m getting there.” Cooper gave a nod and sipped his cocktail.
“No one ever said this would be easy. It’s been anything but.
Still, time is doing its part to heal the wounds felt throughout your body when a spouse—her name’s Melanie—is snatched away in practically the blink of an eye.
Guess I’m taking it one day, one week, one month and one year at a time—”
“Same here,” Lexi admitted, while also agreeing with him that learning to cope was getting easier, the more distance that passed from the deadly moment where everything changed for her.
“It’s what Jonathan, my late husband, would have wanted—me not dwelling on the past and opening myself up to the future and whatever it may entail. ”
“Melanie would definitely have sung the same tune,” Cooper stated in earnest. He looked at his hand—or ring finger—and back at Lexi. “I stopped wearing my wedding band. Painful as it was, I knew it was time to open myself up again.”
“I felt like that, too,” Lexi confessed. She glanced self-consciously at the finger where her own wedding ring used to be—before her decision to remove it and put it away, knowing that clinging to the ring was like never letting go of something she no longer had in a husband and partner.
Cooper nodded as he met her eyes movingly. “Life is always for the living—no matter the circuitous path we have to take to get there…”
“Right?” Lexi sipped more of the Phoenix drink, while contented having this deep conversation where their late spouses had essentially given them permission to move on.
Still, with the heaviness of their tragedies, she thought it might be best to switch subjects, though unsettling as well on a different level.
“How’s the investigation going into Horace’s death? ”
Cooper sat back thoughtfully. “It’s coming along,” he said succinctly. “We’re working with the Phoenix PD trying to solve it—”
“So, no arrests…or soon-to-be arrests of anyone?” she questioned.
“Not yet.” He drew a breath. “But you can rest assured that it’s only a matter of time before the killers are brought to justice.”
Lexi took solace in that, even if her interest in the case was largely professional from working with Horace. “Are you still looking at this as a carjacking that resulted in a murder?” she wondered, wide-eyed. “Or was Horace’s death related to the alleged public corruption?”
“Maybe both.” Cooper rubbed his jawline. “His car was definitely stolen—likely under duress, as far as Eckhart was concerned. And there’s ample reason to believe that his death is related to money he was taking under the table in relation to his official duties.”
Lexi contemplated this and then asked curiously, “Who do you think he was taking bribes from?” She assumed it was from developers or other critical people in the building process—including architects, such as herself.
Cooper leaned forward and said, as if reading her thoughts, “I’m not after you, Lexi, I promise. That ship has sailed—if it ever left the harbor in the first place,” he quipped.
She colored, while sighing. “That’s good to know.”
“As for others within the sphere of architecture and real estate development, we’re looking at anyone whom Eckhart might have worked with that he may have reached out to, or been offered money, for a desirable means to an end with their projects.”
“I see.” Lexi sipped the cocktail. She considered people in the business that she knew and if any could have offered Horace a bribe. Though the competition was fierce, she hated to think that any of her own clients would commit crimes to keep a competitive edge.
Cooper jutted his chin. “Of course, the assumption is that most developers and such are on the up-and-up where it concerns building. But the Bureau is obligated to go after anyone who steps over the line. Especially if doing so results in taking a person’s life.”
Lexi nodded her head. “I understand.” He had every right to pursue the case—and was expected to do so—particularly if it meant unmasking whoever was responsible for Horace dying.
Cooper picked up his glass, took a sip, regarded her and asked with interest, “Where are you from, Lexi? I’m picking up a slight Midwestern accent there.”
“Good deduction.” She grinned, in spite of trying hard to keep her intonation region neutral. “I’m from Muskegon, Michigan.”
“Muskegon, huh? Long ways from home.”
“Just a phone call away,” she countered, while missing her relatives.
“True.” He smiled at her. “So, how did you end up in Phoenix?”
“I went to graduate school at the University of Arizona. So did my late husband—whom I met as an undergrad at the University of Michigan—for our master’s in architecture,” Lexi explained.
“Loved the desert landscape and overall qualities of Arizona—and Phoenix, in general—so we set up shop here with the architect studio.”
“Nice,” Cooper offered, tasting his drink. “Do you have family back in Michigan?”
“Yes, my parents live in Muskegon, and I have an older sister who teaches at Michigan State University in East Lansing and a younger brother who lives in Grand Rapids.”
Cooper seemed to let that settle in. “Okay.”
“Your turn,” Lexi put forth, putting the cocktail glass to her lips. “Are you local?” She couldn’t really pick up an accent of any kind.
“I grew up in the Portland, Oregon, area,” he told her matter-of-factly. “I was raised by my Aunt Katherine—or Aunt Kat as I call her—after losing my parents in a boating accident when I was just a little boy.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Lexi expressed sincerely.
Cooper acknowledged this. “It was a long time ago,” he said. “My memories of my parents have sort of faded—though kept alive mainly from stories about them told by my aunt, who was my father’s sister.”
“So, no siblings?”
“Just me.” Cooper’s tone dropped an octave and Lexi picked up the deep regret he had there. “My folks never got the chance to add to the family.” He paused. “Guess some things weren’t meant to be.”
Lexi felt the same way in being deprived of having a family during her marriage. She wondered if this weighed on Cooper as well with his late wife. Did they want children?
“How did you meet your wife?” Lexi thought to ask, wanting to know.
“We met at Portland State University,” Cooper answered. “We were both in grad school at the time. We clicked, fell for each other and went from there.” He took a breath. “We’d planned to have children, but…it didn’t happen soon enough—”
“Same with us.” Lexi sipped her drink in a moment of silence, reminiscing and mutual understanding.
Cooper’s forehead creased musingly. “Yeah, some things are out of our control.”
Don’t I know it, Lexi told herself, frustrating as that was. But she was hopeful that things they could control to some extent, were perhaps moving in the right direction.
She eyed Cooper across the table and asked out of curiosity, or maybe more to get a feel for how he got where he was today, “So, what made you want to join the FBI?”
He met her gaze for a beat, then responded, “My aunt, who was once chief counsel for the Oregon DOJ’s Criminal Justice Division, probably had something to do with it—even if she always encouraged me to chart my own path in life.
” He reached for his glass and took a sip.
“I suppose that path led me to the FBI. Melanie was also instrumental in pushing me toward something she felt I would be good at. I took the ball and ran with it from there—moving around to several different field offices around the country, till ending up here in Phoenix.”