Chapter 7
CHAPTER
SEVEN
“I wasn’t stalking her!” Colin gasped, his voice cracking with desperation. “I promise I wasn’t stalking her!”
Duke kept one knee pressed between Colin’s shoulder blades, steady but not crushing. Without missing a beat, he patted him down for weapons.
Nothing. Just a phone, a wallet, and a frantic heartbeat Duke could practically feel vibrating through Colin’s ribcage.
He loosened his hold just slightly. This man didn’t appear to be a threat, and Duke felt confident he could take him down again if necessary.
“Why were you watching us at the hotel?” Duke demanded.
“Pam hired you, didn’t she?” Colin’s breathing hitched. “She’s always hated me. She poisoned Gina against me!”
That tracked with Pam’s story.
“Answer the question,” Duke growled. “Why were you at our hotel?”
“Can I get up at least?”
Duke glanced around. A few people across the street paused, watching the scene with uncertain interest, but no one intervened. Typical for a downtown at night—curiosity but no commitment.
He released his hold on the man. Colin turned and sat up. He leaned against the fence and drew in a shaky breath.
“I—I got an anonymous text saying you guys were looking into Gina’s disappearance,” Colin stammered. “I wanted to see if it was true, see if you were looking into it. So I—”
“You what?” Duke narrowed his eyes as he glared at the man.
He swallowed hard. “I went to your show earlier and then followed your tour bus back to the hotel. I just wanted to observe. I promise that’s all it was!”
Duke studied him closely. The panic. The shaking. The shame.
If this guy was lying, he was good at it.
“Let me see this text,” Duke demanded.
“Of . . . of course.” He grabbed his phone with shaky hands and hit the screen. A moment later, he showed it to Duke.
Sure enough, there was a text there from an unknown number.
If Colin were smart enough, he could fake this text. The jury was still out on whether he could have sent this text to himself or not.
“When did you last see Gina?” Duke placed his hands on his hips as he stood over Colin, keeping him in place.
Colin’s face crumpled. “Tuesday night. Outside her office building. In the parking garage.”
Realization washed over Duke, and his muscles tightened. “You followed her.”
“No! I was supposed to walk her to her car. But I was late.” He choked on the words. “She got a phone call just as she reached her car. And her face—it went completely white. She just . . . froze.”
Duke leaned in. “Then what?”
“She jumped in her car. I thought she’d spotted me and was going to chew me out, so I didn’t stick around.” Colin scrubbed a trembling hand over his scraped palm, smearing blood. “I tried calling her after that. She didn’t answer.”
“What time was that?”
“Around nine.”
Duke logged each statement. “And the next day?”
“I still didn’t hear from her. I tried to call, but there was no answer. I even drove past her apartment, but her car wasn’t there.”
“Did you see anyone else on Tuesday?” Duke asked. “Maybe in the parking garage that night? Anyone who stood out?”
“Not really. Except . . . well, there was this van.”
Duke’s pulse spiked. “Describe it.”
He cringed as he shrugged, his gaze shifting. “It was white and old. Seemed out of place in the parking garage for some reason. There was someone sitting inside it.”
“Could you see this person?”
Colin shook his head. “No, it was too shadowed, and I wasn’t paying that much attention.”
“Even though you knew someone had broken into her home and threatened her?” Duke asked. “You didn’t stop to think that maybe the person inside was a threat?”
His face went white. “I . . . I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
Duke’s expression hardened. “What else?”
“I’d seen the van at Gina’s a day earlier. Outside her apartment building. I noticed because I thought maybe someone else was . . .”
“. . . stalking her,” Duke finished.
Colin flinched, shame flooding his face. “Watching her. Like I was.”
Duke wasn’t sure he bought this man’s story. In fact, right now, Colin might be his number one suspect.
Andi watched as Ranger eased the door open.
For a long moment, the hallway felt suspended, breathless, filled with nothing but the soft hum of the hotel’s air system.
Then Ranger disappeared inside.
The rest of them waited.
Rupert made small, distressed noises every few seconds, the kind someone might make when trying not to hyperventilate into a paper bag. Mariella crossed her arms. Simmy clutched her phone. Matthew looked like he was considering opening his laptop again to work.
Finally, Ranger reappeared. “It’s clear. It was your room, Andi.”
She crossed her arms. She’d thought it was, but without getting closer she hadn’t been certain. “I definitely closed the door.”
“Maybe housekeeping came in and forgot to latch it,” Simmy suggested.
Andi knew it was a possibility, but it felt unlikely. “The doors are heavy. They usually swing closed and latch on their own.”
Before they could talk more, the elevator dinged.
Duke strode down the hallway toward them. Sweat dampened his hair. His breathing was controlled, but his shoulders were coiled with tension.
Andi’s heart slammed into her chest. “Duke! Are you hurt?”
“No.” He brushed off her concern. “I caught Colin.”
“And?” Andi pushed.
Duke glanced around. “Maybe we should have this conversation in private.”
“After we change hotels,” Andi added. “This one is no longer safe. I’ll explain more later.”
“Change hotels?” Rupert’s voice cracked. “Do you have any idea what that will do to my logistics? The car service! The merchandise delivery! The gluten-free snack baskets—”
“Rupert . . .” Duke’s single word, calm but edged, silenced Rupert instantly.
“Fine. I’ll take care of it. You guys get your things.” Rupert swallowed loudly, then pulled out his phone and began stabbing at the screen while muttering about hotel contracts, blackout curtains, and hypoallergenic pillows.
When Rupert was gone, Duke turned to his team. “That guy had a lot of nerve showing up here.”
Mariella’s hands went to her hips. “Do you think Colin had something to do with this?”
“I’m not ruling him out,” Duke said. “He’s skittish. Admitted he’d been following Gina. I don’t trust the guy.”
“What did Colin tell you?” Ranger asked.
Duke’s jaw flexed. “He said he saw someone in a van in the parking garage the night Gina disappeared.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Mariella murmured.
“But he left before anything happened because he was afraid Gina was going to chew him out for being late. She was in her car, he said, so he thought she was safe.”
“But she wasn’t . . .” Matthew frowned.
“No, she wasn’t.” Duke’s gaze darkened.
“So what’s next?” Mariella asked.
Andi and Duke exchanged a look.
Then Andi turned toward the group. “First, we change hotels—just to be on the safe side. Then tomorrow, we see what kind of answers we can find.”