Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
"What the fuck happened?" Damien's voice filled the open plan living space of the rented house.
"As far as we can tell," a guy with a gravelly voice replied, "he left to get lunch and didn't come back."
"I thought you said he got suspicious about the Lee woman and her friend?" Damien said, making Violet and Katrina share a worried look. "Did they do this?" He didn't sound like he thought it was possible.
"Nah, boss," gravel voice replied. "This was after he checked up on them. That turned out to be nothing, just one of the resort guards being overly cautious because the chick with Lee was hanging around the delivery for the house."
"You scanned the delivery to make sure it wasn't tampered with?" Damien said.
"Yeah, it's all clear."
Violet felt a little smug when she heard that.
"Then what the hell happened when Merz went for lunch?" Damien snapped. "And where are his phone and radio?"
The entire Benson Security team looked at Evan. "They're on my list," he told them. "I'll hack them next."
Gravel was talking again. "We don't know, boss. We looked but we couldn't find them. We think the guy who did this took them."
"You think so?" There was the sound of something smashing. "Max Durant," Damien bellowed. "Where was he while this was happening?"
Violet glanced at Max, who was sitting on the edge of his seat, tense and alert. Staring into space as he concentrated on the audio.
"On the golf course," Gravel hurried to say. "With his friend, and Lee's father and brother-in-law. They were there for hours. Never went anywhere near the warehouse. They went straight from playing golf to having lunch poolside. We had eyes on them the whole time."
Violet suspected they were being closely watched. Now she knew for sure.
"Where are they now?" Damien said, his voice dark with fury.
"St. Patrice. We lost them when they entered the old quarter. You know what it's like in there. It's a maze of narrow streets, packed with market stalls and hole-in-the-wall restaurants. We figure they ducked into one of the cafés to get out of the heat."
"But you don't know." Damien sounded threatening.
As Gravel made excuses, Abasi spoke up from the kitchen where he was fixing himself a snack.
"If I were you, I'd make an appearance on the streets soon.
Otherwise, he's gonna start checking on rental houses to see if anything suspicious comes up.
That's what I would do. I'd be thinking you maybe had a team here, backing you up while you were out in the open in the resort. "
"Which is exactly what we're doing," Max said, running a hand through his hair. It looked wild when he finished, and Violet made a note to tell him it didn't need cutting. It looked fine the way it was.
"All of this is making me think Damien has a whole lot of incriminating evidence hanging around on Wedding Island," Abasi said. "Otherwise, why get so wound up about one journalist."
Violet watched Max as he practically salivated at the thought of hitting the mother lode.
"Who's on the warehouse?" Damien demanded, pulling their attention back to their target.
"Got two on the dock and we doubled the guard inside," Gravel said.
"Lock it down. No more fucking tours for the guests, is that clear?"
"Yeah, boss."
"And get rid of the florist. She knows better. I won't have some stupid bitch screwing things up for me because she can't follow orders. She knew the warehouse was off limits."
Katrina sucked in a breath.
Max paled and turned to Violet. "We don't have anyone left on the island who can help her. He's going to get to her before we return."
Violet didn't have the heart to tell him that even if they had been on the island, there wasn't a whole helluva lot they could have done to save the florist. Not without blowing the op wide open.
Abasi had his phone out. "Tina," he said, shocking everyone as they realized he'd called the florist. "You don't know me, but Damien's put a hit on you for the screw up at the warehouse.
Get the hell off the island." He paused.
"Believe me or not, I don't give a shit.
But if you have any sense, you'll run." He hung up.
When he realized everyone was staring at him, he shrugged. "I downloaded the staff phone list. Thought calling her was worth a shot."
"You realize," Rochelle said tersely. "If they get her, she can tell them she's been warned, and they'll know we have ears in the estate."
"She won't get a chance to tell them anything if they get their hands on her," Abasi said. "They aren't interested in what she knows, they just want her gone."
Violet had to agree.
"Wouldn't mind a look in that warehouse," Rodrigo said absently. "Damien's reaction makes you wonder what they've got locked up in there."
Violet had been thinking the exact same thing. There might be a whole lot more evidence on the island than even Max had anticipated.
"There's got to be another player," Damien was saying.
"Somebody we haven't noticed. Get Arlo to go through the guest list for the resort.
Check on everybody." He paused. "While you're at it, get somebody to check the staff out too.
Whoever took out Merz has to be a big guy.
You don't give a beating like that unless you have some power behind it, and some training. "
"That's gonna take a while," Gravel said, sounding unconvinced. "There're a lot of guys here who look like they work out, and that's just the guests."
"What do you suggest we do instead?" Damien's voice was ice. "We've got an unknown threat on the island and the meeting's set for tonight."
Max sat up, his eyes going straight to Violet as they burned with vindication. The sight made her want to pat his head.
"We won't get through the list before tonight," Gravel said. "Maybe I can free up another couple guys to work it, but it'll still take hours to check out the backgrounds of everybody here."
There was another crash. It appeared Damien liked to throw things when he was pissed. And people said Violet had anger management issues.
"Fuck!" he roared. "I don't have a choice. I need to postpone tonight's meeting."
Max shot to his feet as though he was about to argue with someone who couldn't hear him. The tension in the room became thick and dark.
"He ain't gonna be pleased, boss," Gravel said hesitantly. "We could double up on security."
"And where will we get this extra manpower?
" Damien mocked. "We've already called in everybody we trust. Go," he ordered.
"Deal with the florist and check out everybody who's on the island.
I'm calling the resort manager. We're cancelling bookings for the rest of the weekend.
I'm not letting any new guests arrive until my business is done. "
"That's gonna make people suspicious, boss," Gravel warned.
"There's a storm coming anyway. It's supposed to hit tomorrow night.
I'll get management to tell people it's expected to be worse than it is.
It won't be the first time we've hunkered down because of the weather.
If we're lucky, some of the guests we have already will chicken out and leave too.
" He sounded disgusted with the plan. "Get out of here. I'm done with you."
There was the sound of a door shutting.
"He can't postpone the meeting," Max said into the silence, sounding panicked. "There must be something we can do to make it happen as planned."
"Like what?" Violet said. "Call Damien up and tell him we had nothing to do with the murder, and we're pretty sure my stalker isn't after his partner either?"
Max cursed and strode to the window, where he stood, hands on hips, staring out into the sun. Frustration emanated from him. Violet wanted to do something to ease what he felt, but she wasn't sure what.
"Hey," Damien said. "Yeah, we've got a problem."
From the pauses it was clear he was on the phone with someone. Evan looked heartbroken because they didn't have a tap on the call. Violet knew how he felt.
"One of my guards was taken out today," Damien said then paused to listen.
"If I knew who did it, I'd have already handled it.
My guys are running it down right now, but it's going to take some time.
" Another pause. "I realize your schedule is tight but I'm thinking it would be best to postpone for a couple of nights.
" He sighed. "That reporter I told you about?
Yeah, we looked into him and his fiancée and they check out. "
Evan punched the air and grinned at the team. The toddler would need a treat for a job well done.
"Her family are here now too. Don't think they'd arrive if he was here on a story, but I've got my people watching them anyway. He gets married tomorrow. After that he'll be out of here in a couple of days. Monday morning he's off the island. I say we meet Tuesday, just to be safe.”
Max let out an agony-filled groan and Violet couldn't stop herself from going to him. She placed a hand on his back, offering comfort and solidarity. She could only imagine how it must feel to hear years of planning go down the drain with one call.
"No," Damien said. "I didn't realize you had to be in New York on Sunday."
Max tensed under her touch.
"Yeah, yeah, absolutely," Damien said, sounding afraid for the first time since Katrina had shared the audio from the listening device. "I understand. I'm sure we can have the place secured by tomorrow night. No, I realize what will happen if we don't meet. I'm not trying to get out of it—"
There was a longer silence during which it felt like the whole team held their breaths.
"It's under control," Damien said at last, sounding tight and anxious. Violet could imagine him sweating. Good. "Don't worry, there won't be any more problems. I don't need you to send people to help. I've got this." He sounded a little desperate. "Yeah, okay. I'll let you know."
There was silence for a long moment, during which it was clear the call had ended. Then there was a loud roar of, "Fuck!", followed by a smash. The audio turned to static.
"I think he threw the plant with the bug," Rodrigo said, looking disgusted. "We were lucky to get one near him. Who knows where the other plants are located and what they're picking up."
"Uh," Evan said. "I think one is in a bathroom. We're hearing stuff nobody should listen to."
"Great," Rodrigo said. "You called it though, Max, there's definitely a meeting this weekend. You might actually get to take the bastard down after all."
Max flashed an apologetic smile at Violet. "There's only one problem though," he said. "If the meeting is tomorrow night…"
"Then we have to get married," Violet finished flatly.
Her only consolation was that it wasn’t legally binding, even if her family believed otherwise. Oh, what a mess this was going to be to sort out later.