Chapter 24
Luke
Why was Sol looking at him that way? She was seated across from Luke, on Sandro’s futon, while Luke was in one of the reading chairs. She was giving him an intense stare. Sol was into a lot of things. But Luke could say with certainty that fucking with an audience wasn’t one of them. Right?
Right. She was trying to tell him something about the bloody case, but of course his mind had gone to sex instead.
Luke, mate, bloody focus. We’ll never get out of this forsaken city and back to London if you don’t get your head straight.
Sol touched her wrist, the same way Sandro Palau was touching his. That’s when Luke noticed the gold bracelet the actor was wearing. He recalled having seen the piece of jewelry the previous time they’d interviewed the actor. He was wearing it and obsessively touching it that time too.
“Can I ask you about the bracelet you’re wearing?” Luke asked Sandro. Divya flinched next to Sol. Luke was sure his detective partner thought he was asking questions in his usual harsh manner, and that he should have let her continue taking care of the questioning.
“Uh. This?” Sandro’s voice tightened. He was still clutching the bracelet on his left wrist. “It was a gift.”
“Did Leo give it to you by any chance?” It was Sol talking now. She was using her journalist-asking-a-delicate-question-to-an-interviewee voice turned up to its maximum setting. “I saw him wearing one just like this when I interviewed him the other day.”
If Divya had been fuming a mere few seconds ago, she relaxed on the futon now. The show was all theirs, as she realized they’d uncovered something.
Sandro sighed. Stayed silent for what Luke thought was an uncomfortable amount of time. No one interrupted Sandro. The actor finally revealed: “Leo called them our secret-his-and-his bracelets.”
Luke was going to object that it was barely any secret when they were both wearing the same unique piece of jewelry, but he didn’t. In any case, both Divya and Sol were looking at him from the futon with the same smug look on their faces: “We told you Leonardo was shagging Sandro.”
He shrugged. They were right and he’d been blindsided by the fact that he didn’t like Leonardo much. He still didn’t understand what Sandro saw in him.
“Who else knew you were together?” Luke asked.
“No one,” Sandro was too quick to say. “Leo had told his parents he was seeing someone but wanted to tell them about me in person. I thought about doing the same with my family. If I tell my mom and sister that I’m shagging Leonardo Pascual, they probably either wouldn’t believe me or die with shock.
Not because they disapprove or anything,” the actor added.
Talking about Pascual and their relationship had brought a color and animation to his features that wasn’t there when they’d arrived. “But because they find him so hot!”
“I totally understand.” Sol laughed. Luke was aware that she was trying to make Sandro feel comfortable—or at least he hoped it was that. He still thought there was no need for her to express her admiration for bloody Pascual again.
“You’re telling me no one at the theater realized you two were wearing matching bracelets?” Luke pressed.
Or that you were sneaking around together all the time.
Sandro sighed. “Some people in the company knew. But not many. We were very discreet. Leo is zealous of protecting his private life and he’s tired of the press publishing stuff about him all the time. No offense,” the actor was looking at Sol now.
“None taken.” She gave him her most comforting smile.
“Who knew then?” Luke wasn’t going to let the subject drop.
“Is that important?” There was some hesitation in Sandro’s tone, as if he wasn’t used to being asked indiscreet questions. Getting to know the Spanish culture these past few months, Luke was sure the actor had been asked much worse. He still tried explaining why he wanted to know that.
“We have no bloody idea what’s important and isn’t.” Luke hoped he hadn’t sounded as puzzled as he was. The last thing he needed was for Sandro to be even more worried because the detectives in charge of bringing his boyfriend back couldn’t figure out the case.
“I’m not sure who knew. Actors are such gossips.
Probably most of the cast. Pili even told me I should be careful.
” Sandro rolled his eyes. “Getting involved with someone whose career was so much more paved than mine could mean that I’d always be in his shadow.
I think she was trying to be nice. I still didn’t appreciate it. ”
“So it was serious, between you and Leonardo?” The reason it was Luke, and not Divya, taking care of the questions was that they’d somehow reached the point in the interview in which someone had to ask uncomfortable things.
And, even if he didn’t particularly enjoy doing it, it was agreed he had more of a knack for it than Divya.
“Gee, I don’t know.” Sandro was flushing and nervously clutching at the bracelet again. “I think so.”
“I know it looks like I’m prying into your relationship. I’m not,” Luke felt compelled to tell the actor. “But we need to understand what happened here, and for that, we need to get the big picture.”
“Okay.” Sandro moved nervously on his chair. “What else do you need to know?”
“Do you know where Leonardo could be?” Sandro’s appalled face told Luke he’d have to be a bit more specific. “I’m assuming you know him better than most people. Where would Leonardo go if he wanted to disappear?”
“Oh,” Understanding flickered on Sandro’s face. “A beach probably…preferably on some island. But Leo would not have chosen to disappear.”
“It was just a hypothetical.” Luke took some notes. “But why do you say that?”
Sandro blushed. “He would not disappear without me!”
The chap was madly in love. Luke just hoped he wouldn’t end up heartbroken—for all they knew Leonardo was indeed on some island with an even younger, new lover. “Could he have been seeing someone else?”
Sol’s eyes flicked to Luke like darts.
Color drained from Sandro’s face. “You mean he was cheating on me?”
Luke remained stern. “Yes.”
“No!” The word snapped out of Sandro, high and outraged.
How are you so sure? But Divya and Sol’s bulging eyes on him told Luke not to go there.
The detective switched gears to the next thing he needed to know. “When did Leonardo ask Jasper Fairbanks to move the location of The Single Dad Situation?”
Sandro’s brow bunched with doubt, he cocked his head, narrowing his eyes. “I don’t think I understand…”
“The show Leonardo was doing next was supposed to be set in Atlanta. Leonardo demanded that the production be moved to London,” Luke explained.
“He did?” Sandro’s voice lifted, the surprise unmistakable. “Atlanta?”
Sol
“It’s a very common production destination because of Georgia’s tax breaks,” Sol took over from Luke. “Plus there’s a lot of production infrastructure. Big soundstages, lots of local crews.”
“Look. I knew Leo was doing a show after the play when we first met. I didn’t know what or where, at first.” Sandro shifted on his seat, avoiding everyone’s gaze.
“I really wish it wasn’t so freaking early in the morning because I feel I need something stronger than coffee right now.
” He laughed nervously. “When we started…”
“Seeing each other,” Sol supplied.
Sandro half smiled. “Seeing each other, we didn’t talk that much.
And then at one point I guess things started getting more serious.
We talked about the relationship. The future.
He told me he was working in London next.
It’s a short flight from Barcelona or Madrid, I work in both cities.
The idea was to see each other every weekend. He never said anything about Atlanta!”
Had Leonardo realized he had feelings for Sandro before things got serious in the relationship and made Jasper Fairbanks move locations to make sure he’d had a shot at a future with Sandro perhaps?
Or had it just been that Leonardo didn’t feel like moving to Atlanta even for a few months and he’d given Jasper the excuse of wanting to be close to someone?
It was too much of a coincidence though.
Sol stole a quick glance at her lover across from her.
By the looks of Luke’s face, he was having similar thoughts.
Sol guessed she and Luke had been looking at each other for way too long because Divya took over questioning. “So Leo didn’t mention threatening to leave The Single Dad Situation or having doubts about doing the show?”
“Threatening to leave the show? No, Leo loved the script. He gave it to me so that I’d read it too. We both agreed it was exactly what he needed to do next in his career. Even if his manager didn’t agree…”
Divya checked her notes. “That would be Robert Lancaster?”
“Yeah, Bobby! Leo told me some stuff about him. If you ask me, it’s a miracle he has the career he has with him as a manager. But I guess not even an incompetent manager can fuck up something when someone is as talented as Leo is.”
Aw. Sol was melting. She wasn’t normally the sentimental type but hearing Sandro speak so unabashedly about his lover’s talent was making her all gooey.
Even Luke seemed if not touched, at least distracted by it.
She wasn’t sure what it was about that particular case, but her detective lover didn’t seem to be exactly on his A game, as much as it pained her to admit that.
A phone started ringing somewhere in the apartment and that took Sol out of her reflections. Sandro jumped on his seat. He ran to his bedroom, following the sound of the phone.
“Argh!” he grumbled from the other room.
The phone stopped ringing and Sandro came back to the living room.
“Sorry about that. It’s freaking Isabel.
She’s relentless. She won’t give up.” He let himself fall on the chair again, nervously raking at his messy hair and slouching his shoulders.
This version of Sandro Palau had nothing to do with the very curated one on his social media presence.
“What won’t she give up?” Luke asked.
“She wants me to do El bano de Edipo. She found a theater, bigger than the Casanova. Says we could start next week. But I can’t…
” His voice broke. “It’s not that I don’t want to do it.
This would be huge for my career. But this is theater.
You have to give it your 120 percent every night.
Right now I can barely manage showering and getting dressed, in this…
” He made a dismissive pass down his clothes.
“I still don’t know how I did it the night Leo disappeared.
I think I was convinced he’d be back any minute and even catch the ending of the play. Now it’s different.”
If Luke had so much of an inclination to bring Sandro’s name back as a possible suspect for Leonardo’s disappearance, Sol was going to have a few words with him. The guy was crazy in love—and visibly suffering. And Luke had asked Sandro if he thought Leonardo was seeing someone else!
“Let me go back to something,” Luke said.
Both Divya and Sol grunted on their seats.
They could see Sandro’s pain and were sending Luke a warning: back the fuck up.
Luke’s face turned to his work partner and his love partner.
Sol glared at him. She knew Divya was doing the same.
Something changed in the male detective’s expression as he turned back to Sandro.
“Divya and Sol think I’m an arsehole because I’ve asked you a few hard questions. So sorry about that.” Luke threaded his fingers through his hair, the way he did when he was nervous—or trying to cover it.
“Anything if it helps you find Leo.”
Even if Luke wasn’t looking at her, Sol glared at him again. Come on! Sandro was so sweet.
“Just a couple of last questions and I promise to get out of your hair—for now.”
Sol rolled her eyes. She was going to have a few words with fucking Luke Contadino when the interview was over.
“I take it Isabel doesn’t know about you and Leonardo?”
Sandro chuckled. “The woman is so self-centered we could probably have made out right in front of her and she wouldn’t have realized. All she cares about is the show.”
“How often is she calling you?”
Sandro looked at the ceiling. “Twice a day? Sometimes maybe three times, I think.”
“So quite insisting…”
“She’s desperate to get me back in the play—no matter what. She’s offered me more money twice.” Sandro sighed. “I know I should take it and do it. It’s not like opportunities like this happen every day.”
Sol’s heart tightened. She was feeling for the young actor. On the one hand, he was faced with a possible career-changing job. On the other, he was aching for his lover.