Chapter 43
When Addie and Cash stepped out of the bedroom, everyone turned to stare at them.
Addie knew she had to be bright red.
Dotty and Monroe were already sitting at the table with Brody. Ink was standing behind Brody, talking to Butch, while Ralen was making coffee.
Ink smiled at her, though, not looking surprised that she’d come out of the same room as Cash. “Hey, Addie. How are you doing? How’s the throat? I hear Hack came and had a look at it this morning.”
“He did?” Dotty asked, startled. “Wait, who’s Hack again?”
“My sister’s fiance,” Cash said. “He’s also a doctor. Or so he says.”
Ralen carried cups of coffee over to the table, and Addie sat down in the chair that Cash drew out for her. Ink picked up a cup of coffee and gave it a curious look. She wasn’t sure why.
But then he took a sip and she let it go.
Brody also seemed a bit startled when he glanced down at his laptop. Then he grinned, clearing his throat. That was an odd reaction. What was he looking at?
“Right. We have some updates,” Ink said.
“Please tell me it’s something that means we can get out of here,” Dotty urged.
Dottie sister looked stressed. Addie was worried about her and Monroe, who seemed so quiet, as though she’d withdrawn into herself.
They really needed to get home. Addie, too. As much as she liked to dream about staying, about belonging to Cash, she knew that wasn’t possible.
That had been made very clear to her.
“We have now confirmed that it was Vextar who broke into your hotel room,” Ink told them.
“The police were able to get security footage from the hotel. Vextar was seen entering the lobby with another man, and then they both exited the elevator on the same floor as your room. The cameras also managed to capture them standing outside your room.”
Brody turned his laptop around to show them the screen. “We got a copy of the footage.”
“Detective Jackson might have some more questions, but I explained you’d only be answering them via video given what happened at the airport.”
Hmm. Addie wondered how happy the detective had been about that.
“Do you know who the other person with Vextar is?” Dotty asked, as they all studied the two men walking across the foyer of the hotel.
Vextar was a good-looking guy. She could see that even through the grainy image. The guy with him seemed smaller, and walked with a bit of a limp.
“Actually, we did run facial recognition, and so did the police, and we have figured out that he goes by the nickname, Limpy,” Ink said. “Not a terribly original nickname.”
“Or kind,” Addie said.
Cash placed his hand on her thigh and gave her a warning look.
“No, or kind. Mind you, Limpy isn’t known for his kindness. He’s abusive when it comes to women. His last three girlfriends filed complaints about him hitting them. But then they strangely retracted those statements.”
“So someone warned them off,” Dotty said. “This guy must have a real name.”
“Cliff Cummings,” Brody said. “Got a long rap sheet. Grew up in Billings. Not a member of any gang that we can figure out, but we think he might work for a few of them, or he’s associated with them anyway.”
“If anyone knows where he is, so far they’re not talking, but we’ve got some people out looking.
He’s likely gone to ground,” Ink said. “But we probably have a better chance of finding him than we do of finding Vextar at the moment, since he’s still a ghost. We haven’t had any luck with facial recognition.
Hopefully, we find someone who’s willing to sell out Limpy. And then he can lead us to Vextar.”
“So what does all of this mean for us getting home?” Dotty said. “If Vextar has gone to ground or is in hiding, is he even concerned with Monroe? She took down the photos. Why is he sending anyone after us? We were clearly leaving.”
“Actually, I think I might have solved that mystery,” Brody said as he brought up the photos on his laptop screen. “And this is the interesting part of all of this. I haven’t told anyone else other than Ink about this yet. Oh, and my, uh, boyfriend.”
The mysterious Dr. Claw.
“So I started looking into the photos, trying to figure out what the issue with them might be. Anyway, there were a few cars in the background of this photo here, so I just ran their plates on the off chance that one of them might have been a rental car.”
“He didn’t have a car,” Monroe said.
“Well, see this car here.” He pointed to a black car. “About ten hours after this photo was taken, this car was driven in front of a car carrying Zinnia Danes to the hospital.”
“Wait, what?” Dotty asked. “Zinnia Danes? The country and western singer?”
“Yeah. She was in Las Vegas at the time, and she was about to play at a venue the next day. While she was there, she suddenly became ill, and her manager and brother were driving her to the hospital when this car sped out in front of them. Luckily, her brother has reflexes like you wouldn’t believe.
” Brody put on some other footage to show them.
“This is fairly grainy, but it was what was taken by traffic cams and ended up on the news.”
The car seemed to come out of nowhere and slammed on its brakes right in front of the vehicle carrying Zinnia Danes. Addie watched in amazement as the driver of the other car managed to drive around the parked car.
“I don’t get it,” Monroe said. “So what if that car was sitting there? It has nothing to do with Vextar, right?”
“Maybe not,” Ink said. “Or maybe it does. At the time, they thought that it was an accident. Although the driver took off and disappeared. The theory was that he might have been wanted by the cops, or perhaps he just thought he was going to get into trouble for nearly causing an accident. But it was curious that he could disappear so easily.”
“What do you mean?” Dotty asked.
“Do you think someone was waiting for him?” Cash asked. “That he had an accomplice?”
Ink nodded. “I think it’s possible. Unfortunately, the camera angle didn’t capture the driver’s face. Detective Jackson is making a request for some more information. But because of who Zinnia is, the Las Vegas PD is being tight-lipped.”
“I always thought it was a strange coincidence that she grew ill in the middle of a concert, and then as they were driving her to the hospital, somebody nearly plowed into her,” Dotty said.
“A very strange coincidence,” Ralen agreed. “So you think that Vextar was in Las Vegas because of Zinnia Danes?”
“It’s all guesswork at the moment,” Ink said.
“Who was the owner of the car?” Cash asked.
“It was stolen,” Brody said. “But it was never reported because the owner was an elderly man who barely drove it. It was only when the police turned up on his doorstep that he realized it was even gone.”
“So someone stole the car,” Cash said. “And then they used that car in a near accident with a car containing Zinnia Danes. If it was on purpose, what were they trying to do? Kidnap her?”
Everyone fell silent at that moment as the thought of that sunk in.
“And you think that Vextar might have had something to do with that? Because of this photo?” Monroe asked.
“It does seem quite coincidental,” Dotty added. “There’s no real evidence linking him, the car, and Zinnia.”
“The car might not have anything to do with him,” Ink said. “But there has to be a reason those men chased the three of you after those photos went up on social media.”
“So he might have been willing to let us leave before Monroe put those photos up, because there was no evidence linking him to Zinnia. But once the photos went up, that changed?” Dotty asked.
“That’s very circumstantial evidence. No way would any of that hold up in a court of law without a lot of other evidence to back it up. ”
“Well, luckily we’re not cops,” Ink said. “And we don’t have to take this to court. All we’re trying to do is get you guys home safely and eliminate any threat.”
Dotty ran her hand over her face. “I don’t know that this gets us any further ahead, even if it is interesting. Monroe’s taken the photos down, will he come after her for the originals?”
“It’s a possibility. Which means I can’t really tell you when you can go home,” Ink told her.
“We really can’t stay much longer. Monroe, does he know where we live?” Dotty asked.
“I didn’t tell him,” Monroe said. “But he does have my handbag. It might have had something in there with my address on it, or more information.”
“He could probably easily find it, to be fair,” Brody said. “Especially as he seems to have some resources at his back. What I don’t understand about all of this is why he married you.”
They all gaped at Brody, and he suddenly went red. The poor guy looked like a tomato.
“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” Brody said. “Not that anyone wouldn’t want to marry you. You’re beautiful, and I’m sure you’re lovely. I don’t really know you, but I’m sure lots of people would want to marry you—”
“Brody, stop,” Cash said. “Stop talking.”
Brody let out a relieved sigh. “Oh, thank you. I thought I was going to keep going and really put my foot in it.”
“Pretty sure you’re already up to your ankle,” Ralen told him with a grin. “The next part to go in would be your leg.”
Brody groaned. “I really didn’t mean it like that, Monroe. I was talking about why he would marry you and risk exposing himself if he was there to commit a crime and wanted to keep it secret.”
Monroe nodded. “Don’t worry, Brody. I’ve also questioned why he would want to marry me. I think I know the answer to that. He was drunk, I was drunk. We were just caught up in a stupid moment. Why marry someone you only knew for a few hours? It was ridiculous.”
“Where exactly was that photo taken with the image of the car?” Ink asked.
Brody brought the image back up, and Monroe stared at it for a long moment. “That’s outside the casino where I work. And he said he was staying there. He never walked up to that car, though. We walked straight past and got into an Uber.”
“None of it makes sense,” Cash said.
“I don’t think you understand how drunk he was. I don’t think either of us really had any clue what we were doing.”
“Did you go to his room?” Addie asked, using her phone to speak.
“What?” Monroe asked.
“In the hotel, did you use his room? You said he was staying there?” Addie asked.
“Oh, you know, I don’t think we did, because I’m pretty sure there was a charge on my credit card. Yeah, I remember it now, because I couldn’t pay for an Uber the next day. I was maxed out after paying for the wedding chapel and the room.”
“‘He made you pay for it all?” Ralen asked. “What a gentleman.”
Monroe shot him a slightly hurt look. What was going on with her sister? Was she all right?
“Yeah, I had to take a bus home.”
“Drat,” Addie said. “I was thinking that if it was his room, it might have been under his name.”
“That was good thinking,” Brody told her with a smile. “Mind you, he probably would have used a stolen credit card if he was using a stolen car.”
Right.
“So while this is all very interesting,” Dotty said. “What steps do I need to take to get us home? Do I need to move us out of our house? Does Monroe need to change names? Does she need a bodyguard? What do we need to do?”
“Do I need to move away?” Monroe asked. “Take on a different identity?”
“I don’t think you need to do anything that extreme,” Ink told her. “It would be better if we could find Vextar, of course. Give us some time to track down Limpy, see what he knows.”
“Are you sure I shouldn’t just go away?” Monroe asked.
“We could arrange somewhere safe for you to go,” Ink told her. “But how about you just stay here for now and give us a chance?”
Monroe nodded sadly.
“Now, does anyone want to tell me why there is a glittery dick on my coffee mug?” Ink turned it around, and Addie couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
Everyone turned to look at her in surprise, except for Cash, who sighed.
“Hack,” he said.
Ink nodded. “Enough said.”