Chapter 22
Serenity
I managed to get some sleep last night, but it wasn’t much. I took a quick shower and started to get to work to find the connections to Theo. I also decided to call his brother to see if he had anything else on Claire. Deep down, I knew she had something to do with those marks on him last night. She was probably the one who texted me from his phone too, but I couldn’t make that known to him last night. He was still too unstable.
I grabbed my phone and looked for Simon. I felt weird calling him about his brother. Wonder if it had anything to do with my recollection that I loved Theo last night? How was that even possible? I had no fucking idea, but I did know I couldn’t give up on him. Couldn’t lie that the sex wasn’t fantastic, too.
“Hello? Anyone there?” Shit. Lost in daydreaming again.
“Oh Hi. Simon?” I heard a long pause.
“Yes?” Fuck. Where did I start?
“It’s Serenity, your brother”s uh friend.” I guessed we didn’t have time to talk about titles last night.
“Hey! Everything okay? Is Theo okay?” He sounded panicked, so I had to think quickly about what I would start with.
“He’s fine, I think. I have some questions about the accident.” I heard a heavy sigh.
“What do you want to know?” He seemed hesitant about talking about it, but I couldn”t care less.
“I read the article saying they hit black ice and his fiancé was dead when they arrived, but Theo was rushed to the hospital. There was no mention of him in her service and he wasn’t in the pictures at all? Also, there is this lady in some of the pictures named Claire Morono. Do you know anything about her? Her husband was a big shot lawyer and died of natural causes. Or so they say. I saw her with Theo the first night I met him, so I thought it was kind of odd.”
He chuckled slightly. What the fuck is he laughing about?
“Is something funny? I don’t think any of this is funny. If you would have seen your brother last night, you would not be laughing.” His chuckling stopped.
“What happened to him last night? Is he okay, Serenity?” He sounded pissed now. I tried to think about what information I should or shouldn’t give him.
“He came to my hotel last night and had these cuts all over his back.” Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have gone all in for that one.
“What?! Like someone attacked him?” Fuck. Here it comes.
“I don’t think someone tried to hurt him. I think he let someone hurt him. He did not admit that to me, well he didn’t really talk much at all. But I think if someone attacked him, he would have said it but he didn’t say anything so I cleaned him up, we fucked and he left. Then I started to look things up.” He was silent on the other end of the phone for a little longer than I was comfortable with.
“You there?” I heard him sigh.
“Yes, I’m here. I will look up that Claire lady and see what I can get on her. You stay put and don’t do anything that you shouldn’t do. Do you understand?” Like hell, buddy.
“Yeah, sure. Whatever you say.” I looked down at my computer to see the time and thought about what I was going to do next. I needed to find out where Claire lived and go there. Maybe I’d find Theo or better yet, something on her that said she knocked off her husband.
“I will call you later. I mean it Serenity, don’t do anything to get yourself in trouble.” I laughed a little because this guy didn’t know who he’s talking to.
“I’m a lawyer. I won’t do anything that would get me in trouble.” We said our goodbyes and hung up. I headed over to grab my running shoes and found some black leggings with a dark sweater. It was time to get down and dirty. So much for a relaxing vacation, but what’s funny was this was what I would prefer doing.
I shook my head and heard my phone go off. I walked over and grabbed it and saw a text from Simon. When I opened it, I saw a link. When I clicked it, it took me to a site. When I started reading, I realized that this is Claire Morono’s background. Apparently, she was married before, but that husband died too when she was in her forties. Interesting.
As I read more, I realized that she was in her fifties and her last husband died just shy of her fiftieth birthday. Both husbands died of natural causes, but I thought there had to be more to that story. How often did you lose two husbands within a ten-year span? I clicked on the link that took me to the death certificate of her first husband. I noticed that there were notes about scarring throughout his body, but nothing that would be alarming. Said he had a heart attack. There was nothing in his history to believe that he had a family history of heart attacks at a young age. Why wouldn’t someone question that?
I moved back to the first page and clicked on Mr. Morono’s death certificate. I started to read down the page and realized some similarities. Scars on his body and heart attack. Since he was already in his fifties, they didn’t even research family history. They just wrote it off. I didn’t understand why, because he was a very good lawyer and put away a lot of bad people. I kept taking notes of all the findings that I was coming across and saw the medical examiner’s name and decided to look him up.
Samuel Smith.
Maybe he could give me some answers. I sent a message back to Simon and said thanks. I wasn’t going to tell him about going to talk to the medical examiner until I got some information that would be useful. I hoped this guy was ready for what was coming to him because I was not leaving without answers.