Chapter Twenty-Four
Gabriel
My call with Mason had been interrupted when the guard shack called to warn me about Harbor. They’d let the kid in, and I assumed he’d go straight to his mother. I had no choice but to call Mason back and finish our business, but I’d been chomping at the bit to go find Luna and take a swim with her.
I’d seen the bikini in her suitcase back at the honeymoon suite. She’d left the thing open, its contents spilled in a heap, and the bright-blue and white had been obvious against all her other muted tones.
It was easy to let my mind wander as Mason rambled on, but when he mentioned the LA case and how the detective had gotten Tammy’s supervisor to admit why she was let go, it grabbed my attention. “What did she say?”
“She admitted that part of the problem they had with her was the fact that she was spreading lies about dating the owner, but that wasn’t the only issue. She’d also been coming in late and had even been caught going through another employee’s work locker.”
“Wow, why would she keep saying she dated me? Did she try to get special treatment? The supervisors would have all known better, and if they hadn’t, they would have asked, especially if they were going to fire her.” The girl sounded like a real piece of work, and I couldn’t imagine anyone thinking I’d date someone like that.
“They didn’t want to bother you with it because they knew it was a lie. But there was something else.
“She had been seen with another man who worked in a different department, so they are trying to locate him to see if he knows more. The dispatch manager didn’t know who he was, just that they both worked for the company. It’s been a while since she was let go, so it’s going to take some time to find him, if he even works there anymore.”
With the fact that I’d laid off several workers from a few different departments over the past year, that could make it even harder.
Suddenly, Luna rushed into my room with wet hair still dripping from the pool and slammed my door behind her. Horror filled her face.
“I’ve got to go, Mason. Call you later.” I ended the call and dropped my phone to my desk as I rose to my feet.
She met me halfway across the room and fell into my arms. My first thought was that she was hurt or that something had happened to her friend or father. “Tell me what’s wrong!”
Her hands shook as she took my hands, and by the chatter of her teeth, she had to be freezing. I led her to the loveseat across the room and grabbed the throw blanket off the back of it to wrap her in. “Luna, tell me!”
“Harbor. He...” I couldn’t tell if the fear was from something that happened or the idea of telling me about it. I nodded to urge her on. “He was in Vegas.” She kept her eyes hard on mine, and as the words sank in, I shook my head.
“Why would you think he was in Vegas? Did you overhear something?” She could have overheard Sandra talking to him, or perhaps he’d told Judy. He’d always liked the woman, and they chatted like she was his mother more than Sandra when he was around.
“I saw him. He came to the pool. He was acting strange and when I went to leave, he blocked me. I bumped into him, and that triggered a memory from the day I left your hotel suite to go down to my room. I bumped into a guy, and it was him. I’m sure of it.”
She was speaking so fast, I didn’t know what to say or where to start. “Slow down. Tell me what happened at the pool. What did he say to you?” The anger boiled inside of me, wondering if he’d gotten inappropriate. From the way she was shaking and hesitating to tell me, I already knew.
“No, you’re not getting it. He was in Vegas. He had to have known Cindy and Stacey.” The accusation brought my mind to a grinding halt.
“Wait, you don’t think… That’s insane, Luna.” I turned and walked away, unsure what to make of it. Harbor couldn’t have been in Vegas. Not in the same hotel, not knowing he could be seen there. He’d known where I was going.
“You don’t believe me? I’m telling you I’m certain. It was him.” She wanted me to believe her so badly, I could tell from the way the tears welled in her eyes. “I know it’s hard to take in, but he could be another suspect. You have to tell the police!”
“I’ll confront him myself. There has to be an explanation. He’s been gone for a while.”
She shook her head and leaned forward, burying her face in her hands. “He mentioned the murders. He mocked our marriage and compared me to your exes.”
“Harbor is a lot of things, Luna, but I can’t imagine him murdering anyone. It’s a mistake. He was only trying to get to you, and it worked. You need to calm down.” I walked to the bar and poured her a drink.
She glared up at me and took it, but she didn’t drink it. “I understand he’s family, Gabriel, but there was something off about him.”
I threw my arms up in the air. “You don’t even know him; how can you say that?” I realized I wanted her to convince me. I hoped she’d say something so I could stop defending him, but instead she downed the drink and slammed the glass down on the table beside her.
Then she got to her feet, and I realized that she was still cold and shaking and wet beneath the throw. “I’m sorry, Luna. Let’s get you upstairs. You need to change.”
She stormed out ahead of me, and I hurried behind her to stay close on her heels. I wasn’t sure what would happen if Harbor approached her again, but as it turned out, my nephew was nowhere in sight. I got her upstairs and to my master suite and locked the door behind us as she hurried into the bathroom and started the shower. By the time I joined her in the room, she was already stepping into the spray naked, her swimsuit in a pile on the floor with her robe.
I left her there to calm down and decided to turn the bed down for her. She needed to relax, and I needed her to tell me everything. The only way to sort this out would be to talk about it calmly, putting all the pieces together. If she was right and Harbor had been in Vegas, it could throw the spotlight off of me, but what would it do to him? Would it be worth it if she were wrong?
Minutes later, she walked from the bathroom and crawled into bed. Her hair was still wet, but bound up high on her head in a towel. She had my white robe on and the thing had never looked better. “He suggested I sleep with him.”
“Now that, I can believe.” She was gorgeous, piled up in my bed with the robe hanging loose over her breast, offering me a peek of her cleavage, and I wondered how much he’d seen of her in the bikini. “I’ll talk to him about that. He shouldn’t disrespect you that way.”
“You don’t believe me.” She shook her head. “And no, please don’t say anything to him. It will only make things worse. You need to trust me and look at the footage from the time I left the hotel. You’ll see he was there.”
“I believe you. As much as I don’t want to.” I sat beside her and stroked her hand.
“This is my nephew, Luna. My flesh and blood and the closest thing I’ve ever had to a son – and you’re telling me that he was in Vegas when all of this took place. I don’t want to believe you because it puts me in the horrible position of thinking he could be the killer, even though I know he couldn’t be.”
“How do you know that? I get that you know him, but as someone who doesn’t have the heart for being partial toward him, he was disgusting and perverse and the precise type who could do something like this.”
“I’m afraid to ask what he said to you.”
She pulled the covers up over her hips and after she got situated, took my hand. “I’m not comfortable explaining. I’m not comfortable with any of this, honestly.” I rubbed her shoulder and she scooted closer to lay her head in my lap as I repositioned.
“He knew them both. He’d also asked me if he could go along to Vegas, but I’d refused him. I wanted a minute away from him and his mother, and I knew he’d only get into trouble while I worked.” I stroked her back as she relaxed against me. “I didn’t expect the speech to go as well as it had and I never intended I’d have anything to celebrate.”
“Or that you’d get married. I guess if you’d let him come along, maybe he could have kept you out of trouble. Maybe he did it to get your attention. Maybe he did it to get back at you. It’s not like I know him, so you tell me, do any of those motives make sense? Would there be anything to gain?”
She spoke quietly, as if she were being lulled into a trance, all of the excitement from earlier slowly fading. Even her hands were limp, clutching the covers as she breathed steady and calm.
“If anything happened to me and I were put away for murder, those two wouldn’t make it. I’d have to make provisions for them, such as a trust, but it wouldn’t give them any greater access to my fortune. I’d still be in control of it.
“As for my position in the business, it is secure no matter where I reside, and there are far too many in line to keep it running. He wouldn’t be in control of anything. He’d be worse off, and his mother would probably end up dead or in the gutter somewhere.”
“But you will still check into it?” She rolled back and stared up at me. “Promise me.”
“The problem is, Luna, I have no choice.
“As much as I’d like to forget about all of this, I’m still a suspect, and I know what Mason would suggest. He’d want me to tell the police about Harbor to take the last bit of heat that’s on me down to a minimum. Besides, withholding could be even worse if they figure it out on their own.”
“Yes, and if he did do it, they might think you’re an accessory or that you had him do it.” She stared back across the room as I let that sink in.
I’d have to call Mason and let him know, but before I went to anyone with the information, I was going to make damned sure Luna wasn’t mistaken.