Marilyn Lennox.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
After my call with Andrew, Jay and I end up in a multi-level Taco Bell despite the fact that Taco Bell’s new menu sucks. But you must not protest the hand that feeds you the fastest of them all. At least not on the day they have the shortest line. So short that I barely have time to head upstairs and dial Tic Tac about the Marilyn money trail before Jay arrives with our food in hand and sits across from me.
“Gotta go, Tic Tac,” I say. “A burrito is calling. And when a burrito calls, you answer. Find the money trail, which won’t be easy. Marilyn is in accounting at one of the biggest firms in the country.”
I disconnect and set my phone down. “Tell me about the tea-drinking librarian,” I say opening my burrito.
“I met her in a coffee shop by my house.”
“Is she blonde and gorgeous?”
“She is, actually,” he says easily.
“And she thinks you do what for a living?”
“I told her I was a bodyguard for a bitch named Lilah Love.”
I laugh. “I like it. Honesty matters in a relationship.”
We chit-chat about “Sally” while we eat and until my cellphone rings yet again. I finish off my food and glance at the screen to find Murphy calling. I answer with, “Director.”
“Tic Tac got his raise. I just told him.”
“A good raise?” I ask.
“Yes, Special Agent Love. A more than good raise. And Tic Tac will take care of Lucas’s paperwork, since I understand you’ve named him his supervisor.”
“Oh yes. I did do that.”
“Good thing I’m fine with that, don’t you think?” He doesn’t wait for an answer. He moves on.
“I hear Pocher and his brother are on that list of fake investors.”
“Tell Tic Tac I didn’t get him a raise for him to yap to you.”
“Sadly, you are not yapping to me so he has to.”
I speak freely in front of Jay, as I always do. “They are on the list, as is Kane. I’m going to warn Pocher after my lunch, but I’m also taking his brother off the list, and yes, I know that’s evidence tampering, but—”
“Agreed. The last thing we need is Pocher digging around about what happened to his brother. He hired the man he thought was Umbrella Man to kill for him, when we know, it was only Umbrella Man’s accomplice. In turn, he rejected the idea that Umbrella Man would work for him and kill his brother, which was more foolish than a man of his intelligence normally plays anything.”
“Denial,” I say. “He didn’t want to be to blame for bringing that man into his life and therefore his brother’s life.”
“Exactly,” he says. “But in the end, he had to see that a serial killer is a serial killer. It took time, but now Pocher believes the Umbrella Man killed his brother, but he only came to that conclusion after extensive research to disprove that as a façade. That is not a can of worms we want opened again. It’s in all of our best interests.”
I’m shocked that he’s willing to do such a thing, but then, after some of the feelings Kane has expressed about Murphy, perhaps I shouldn’t be.
“On another note, I’m shocked you’ve transitioned from wanting to kill Pocher to warning him about a threat to his life. You obviously don’t think Pocher was responsible for Kane’s crash.”
“That’s correct, and credit where credit is due, Kane felt it was in all of our best interests to call a truce with Pocher.”
“Kane is a smart man.”
“Just one of the many reasons I’m marrying him on New Year’s Eve.”
“Do I get an invitation?”
My lips press together. “No one who has an agenda will be at my wedding.”
Jay’s brows lift and he silently laughs at my boldness.
“I see,” Murphy says. “You think I have an agenda?”
“We both know you have an agenda with me and Kane. We just don’t know what it is. Not yet.”
“You know my agenda.”
He means to shut down the Society and avenge my mother, which I believe to be true, but it’s not all there is with him. “There’s more,” I reply.
“Hmm,” he says, no denial to him. “Your mother would have loved to see you get married. She liked Kane.”
“Kane said they merely had a few brief encounters at random events.”
“That’s true. But he stood out to her. She told me one evening after an event he attended, a fundraiser, I believe, that she heard the whispers about him. But she praised how magnificently he deflected it all and claimed the room.”
My heart squeezes at the idea of my mother in the same room as Kane. “I never heard that story.”
“Consider it a wedding gift,” he says. “How much time off do you need?”
“A month that will probably turn into a week because someone goes and gets killed.”
“Done. Text me after the meeting with Pocher.” He disconnects.
And that’s when Kane sits down next to me in his six-thousand-dollar suit with a tray of Taco Bell now in front of him. I love it. He’s arrogant but not pretentious.
Kit appears at the end of the table with his own tray and motions to Jay, who grabs his food and follows Kit to another table. Once they’re gone, my attention is on Kane. “How are you here right now? Why are you here?”
“I was hungry, so I texted Jay to see what you were doing for lunch. I told him not to tell you.”
“Well, it’s good timing. I talked to Murphy. I asked for a month off for our wedding.”
“And I found us a hotel on one of the Cranberry Isles in Maine.” He takes a bite of his taco and then pulls out his phone to show me the images of islands surrounded by gorgeous ocean waters, as well as a few of a luxury hotel. “It looks more like Belize than Maine.”
“And yet it’s right here, close to us. You wanted private, you and me, and so do I. This gives us that. There’s a house for sale there too that I think we should look at.”
“A vacation house,” I supply.
“An escape. That idea is growing on me. A place we go where we are safe and alone, if we want to be alone.”
“I’m all in. I’m excited to see it.”
“Then I think we should fly up before the wedding and take a look at the house and the hotel.”
“When? I have this case I’m trying to break.”
“How about after the fundraiser? We can leave that night and come back Monday morning.”
“Yes. That works.” I glance over at him. “Remember you said you were at a few parties my mother attended?”
“How could I forget your mother?”
“Murphy said she was at a party with you and observed from a distance the way you stood tall in the midst of controversy over your father. She respected that in you. Probably because she so often had to do the same.”