Chapter 26
Luke
It can’t be Isabel, right?” Divya asked them over tapas at Varmuteo. “I mean, it’s just too easy and evident.”
“One thing is clear, if it was her, Leonardo—” Luke stopped himself before formulating that sentence in the harsh way he was going to. Sol was also there. “Leonardo may not be okay.”
Sol dropped her fork, her eyes bulging. “You mean he’s dead?”
Both Luke and Divya shifted on their chairs. “It would appear so,” Luke said. “But, as Divya just said, the chances for Isabel to be the culprit are slim. It’s just too obvious. The woman is completely reckless.”
“Are you sure?” Sol asked, her eyes pleading reassurance, moving her gaze between the two detectives.
“Pretty much,” Divya said. Luke thanked her from across the table. His detective colleague was also being sensitive around Sol. She was a civilian helping them, after all.
Luke’s phone started ringing then and he took the phone out of his pocket. He was convinced that it would be some executive or other at Meshflixx threatening to fire them if they didn’t come up with the location of their missing actor already.
It was worse than that.
“Fucking Miquel is ringing me,” he muttered, running a hand over his face.
“I’ll say you said hi, but let me take this outside.
” He didn’t want Sol to witness his brand of hostility toward Ex Number One.
She may think it wasn’t granted even if Luke thought that it absolutely was—no matter the occasion.
Once on the street, Luke answered the phone with, he hoped, his most masculine growl. “Miquel.”
“Hey Luke, how’s it going, buddy?” Miquel’s cheeriness irritated him to no end. Also, buddy? Really?
“Working,” Luke muttered.
“Of course, have you found anything about Leonardo’s whereabouts yet?”
That had sounded extremely bright even for someone as perpetually sunny as Miquel was. Luke was reminded of Sol’s warning words about Miquel a couple of days before.
“Why do you ask?”
“Have you ever been told you’re super dry and imposing?”
There was that annoying cheerfulness again. Who was that peppy when the other person on the line was being the impossible grump Luke knew he was being?
“Repeatedly.” He had to admit, he was enjoying that phone non-conversation infinitely. “Why did you call?”
“I’m working on a story.” Miquel’s tone finally switched from saccharine to just eternally optimistic. “And I was wondering if I could get a comment from you…”
Nope.
“About?”
“Have you interviewed stage director Isabel Teixidor recently in relation to her involvement in Leonardo Pascual’s disappearance?”
How the bloody hell does Ex Number One know that?
“No comment.”
Divya and Luke couldn’t exactly afford a public relations specialist. Fortunately, Luke’s partner was a journalist and had given them the crash media-training course on how to deal with her peers in high-profile cases.
Did Luke want to say a few more things to Miquel than just No comment?
Absolutely. Something like: None of your bloody business, you fucking twat.
I never liked you or your attitude. But he was sticking to the script Sol had given him. Because he listened to her.
“Oh, come on, buddy!” Ex Number One complained. If he called Luke buddy one more time, he was going to flip. “We’re friends. Don’t give me the no-comment nonsense. I helped you the other day, now’s your turn to return the favor.”
“I’ll be glad to return the favor by getting you football tickets. Just tell me what game.” Miquel was a huge fan. Yet, somehow, Luke had the feeling some Barca tickets wouldn’t make a difference this time.
“Where’s Sol? You know my ex-wife would be telling you to help me if she was there, yeah?” Miquel said.
Heat flooded Luke’s veins. He didn’t like the words my or wife in that sentence.
“Sol’s the one who told me to be careful with you.” Luke was gritting his teeth.
Miquel laughed. Ex Number One couldn’t even do confrontation properly. “No, she didn’t. She adores me! And you know it!”
Luke was messing his hair nervously with one hand, clutching the mobile against his ear with the other.
He was pacing back and forth in front of the restaurant’s entrance on carrer de Vilamarí.
It was true that Sol had expressed still feeling respect and friendship toward Ex Number One.
She’d also clearly told Luke to be careful with him while talking about the case. Her alliances were clear.
“Yes, she did. She told me you were on a fishing expedition,” Luke muttered.
“Was there anything to fish, let’s say at Isabel Teixidor’s apartment not even half an hour ago?”
How the hell did he know?
“No bloody comment.”
“It looks like I’m getting under your skin, buddy.”
He would have probably lost it and said something he would have regretted if it wasn’t that right at that moment, Sol exited the restaurant. She was wearing a figure-hugging long dress and her most adoring smile, directed solely at him.
“Sorry to interrupt,” she told him. Her right hand went to his left biceps and he could feel the heat even through his bomber jacket. “We’re ordering dessert. Do you want something?”
He smiled at her. Said no with his head. He felt a sudden urge to stop gorging and hitting a yoga studio. “Need to go now,” he told Miquel on the phone. “Sol says hi.”
He hung up, not listening to whatever Miquel was still muttering, put the phone back in his pocket, and smiled even more at Sol.
She narrowed her eyes at him, confused. “You don’t want dessert? The flan here is to die for!”
“I need to start watching what I eat,” he said, making a circular move around his abdomen and fishing for some compliments.
“Oh, come on!” She patted his arm, playfully, as they went back inside the restaurant. His arm draped her waist and brought her closer to him. “You know you’re smoking hot!” she said, pressing against his body.
Perhaps he knew that. He still liked hearing her say it.
Sol
Sol still had the impression that there was something Luke wasn’t telling her. But she’d opted not to worry. He’d tell her eventually. Or they would find a way to work it out. She drew closer to Luke’s body as they went back to their table at the restaurant.
“Sandro called while you were outside,” Divya said, when they sat back at the square, light-wooden table. Luke’s hand on Sol’s waist had moved to her thigh. She liked it there. “He’s freaking out.”
“What happened?” Sol leaned over the table.
“Isabel called him—again. She’s left a voice message saying either he does the play, or she’s threatening to call the press and tell them about him and Leonardo hooking up.”
“I thought he said she didn’t know!” Sol couldn’t believe the director would go that far. Luke’s hand gave her a reassuring squeeze on the thigh. He wanted her not to worry.
“I’m sure the relationship was pretty apparent for everyone,” Luke said.
“They were wearing matching bloody bracelets! Isabel could have played the fool but saved the information in case she needed to use it. And it looks like she’s decided to use it now.
Unless…do we know if Sandro is telling us the truth? ”
“Oh, come on!” Sol protested. Sometimes the detective in Luke could go a bit overboard. She turned on her seat to look him straight in the eyes. “Why would he call Divya and tell her that if it wasn’t true?”
“He could have been trying to throw suspicion on Isabel if he had something to hide,” Divya told Sol. “So don’t go too hard on Detective Contadino there. He’s not being a twat again. He’s just being thorough.”
Sol nodded in understanding. Even if they were reaching the part of the case where things stopped being fun and sexy and started getting scary—and too heavy—she loved being there with Luke and Divya, talking about the case and learning about their profession.
Even when faced with a case as opaque as Leonardo’s disappearance was turning out to be, Sol still felt some almost unexplainable attraction to the magic of solving a mystery puzzle.
The only issue, of course, was that they needed to actually solve the mystery.
“Sandro forwarded Isabel’s voice message to me. I just listened to it. He didn’t make it up,” Divya said.
“Isabel is looking shadier by the minute,” Luke muttered.
“She is. Could it be that she was counting on us not suspecting her just because of how obviously suspicious she is?” Divya tried reasoning. “I mean that would be some genius mind game, eh?”
Luke narrowed his eyes, thinking. “It could be. I suppose…”
“Did Sandro tell you what he was going to do?” Sol asked Divya.
She was genuinely worried about the young actor whose boyfriend was missing and now had been threatened.
Sandro was an openly gay man but Leonardo’s sexual orientation had remained a mystery—and a perpetual source of speculation—since he’d been cast by Meshflixx in The Privateers and the queer show had been a smashing success.
Not only was Sandro's partner missing, Isabel was threatening to publicly out Leonardo as well. That was a heartless move.
“Sandro told me that he doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, literally.” Divya shrugged. “But he was worried. Said that Isabel had been very specific in her threats, even bringing up the name of a few journalists who were taking her calls.”
“I have a bad feeling.” Luke grunted.