Stilettos & Scoundrels (45 page)

“I wanted to fill you in
on
something that happened this morning. But don’t freak out about it, okay?”

“Okay,”
Cooper
said slowly. “You know asking someone to not freak out pretty much guarantees they will freak out
?
”

“It’s not that big of deal. Well, it was at the time
,
but it’s not now. Dirt’s taking care of it. Any
way, I’ll get to the point.” I
could see he was getting annoyed
with
me. I
didn't know how he would react, as prote
ctive as he had been lately. I
didn’t want it to get even worse
; it was driving me
crazy
, though it did make me
feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know he cared.

“I had a little run-in with Simon this morning,”
I
said and waited for his reaction.“
I know.”

“How do you know?”

“Just tell me what happened.”

“Nothing
really.
”
I
shrugged
,
trying to be nonchalant about the whole thing. “We had a few words, Katy burned him with her coffee, and
he left. End of story.” I
tried to make it sound as
matter-of-fact as I
could,
like it was no big deal, but I
didn’t think it was working.“Wait a minute,” he said, holding his hands up and looking puzzled. “Run that by me again. How did Katy happen to burn him with her coffee?
Guess I don’t know the whole story.
What have you two been doing?”

I sighed. I had hoped he would accept my simple explanation and we could move on. But I
didn’t see that happening and wasn’t in t
he mood for a lecture on how I
should quit trying to solve the Senator’s murder.

“Well, he sort of grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. Katy happened to be getting coffee on her way to work and saw him. She came over and dumped her fresh, hot coffee all over his arm so he would let go. He did and only ended up with slight burns. The big shame was wasting all that coffee. I had to go spend another four bucks to get another one for her.” Maybe a little humor would help lighten his mood.

“I told you that you should leave this alone.”

Guess not
.
“You should be feeling bad that Katy wasted her coffee on that jerk.”

“This isn’t funny, King,”
Cooper
said, his blue eyes looking tensely into
mine. If I didn’t know any better, I
would say there was a little fear mixed with the anger.

“
Cooper
, do you really think I have reason to be afraid of Simon? I asked him if he killed the Senator and he said no. I believe him.”

Cooper looked at me as if I
was crazy and ran his fingers through his hair
in frustration
.

“So, what do you think,
Cooper
? Do you think he’s telling the truth?”

Cooper
sighed. “Yes, I am sure he’s telling the truth. Pres, I would rest easier if you would back off and let me handle this.”

I
pretended not to hear that last comment and focused on the first thing he said. What made him so sure Simon wasn’t a killer? Her
e we
were again
—
he knew more than he was letting on. “Why are you so sure?”

Cooper
paused for a minute
.
“Would you just trust me? Please accept the fact that I know with great certainty that Simon is not a killer.”

“Hold on there, Jack! How do you know? W
hat are you not telling me?” I would bet my
favorite pair of Jimmy Choos
—
the real one
s (
not fake for a change, but definitely from the clearance rack
)—that Cooper
knew more than he was telling
, and I
was determined to get it out of him.
“And who already told you about this morning?”

“
He did. He is my employee, remember? He knew I would find out and correctly assumed it would be better coming from him.
I will talk to him
again.
He shouldn’t have been rough with you. I promise you he won’t bother you again.”

I stood up and followed Cooper to where he stood by the small light brown nightstand by his bed.
“If you think for a minute
that
you are leaving this room without telling me everyth
ing you know, you’re crazy!” I
watched him mull this over while I enjoyed the view of him. I
coul
d watch him think all day if I
had to. His forehead wrinkled in concentration, and even then
,
he had an easy way about him
;
he held up well under stress and concern. The slightly disheveled, kind of rough look was
becoming on him. It made me
want to rub his back and let him know everything was going to be ok
ay
.
After a long pause,
Cooper
said, “Let’s just say that I have known Simon for a
while
,
and I know he didn’t do this.”

“What do you mean you have known him for a
while? How long has he worked for you? And you originally thought he might be the killer, or at least that’s the impression you gave me. You better explain to me why you are now changing your s
tory. Were you lying to me?” I
was starting to get mad. A
ctually, I
was already there. Had
Cooper been lying to me
all along abou
t what he knew about Simon? I
didn’t care how goo
d looking he was or how much I
wanted him, for that matter
;
I
wo
uldn’t be lied to. God knows I
had enough of that with Rick, even if
this wasn’t personal. Plus, I
still needed
to ask about the information I
found on Google
and the discrepancies there. I
wanted to trust him
,
but he was making it hard.

“King...”

“Don’t ‘King’ me. I want to know what’s going on, now!”

“It’s a long story. One I don’t really have time for.”

“Well, too
bad because I do have time,” I
said, sitting d
own on the bed, hands across my chest. I
wasn’t giving in.

“Fine,”
Cooper
caved. “I met Simon when I was in the military. He enlisted to hide from his father.”

“Ok
ay
. Go on.”

“He’
s the
son of a
M
ob boss. Simon’s real last name is Palazzo.”
Cooper
paused, waiting for that bit of news to sink in.

“And y
ou’ve known this all along?” I
was b
eyond ticked off. He had led me
to believe up to this point
that
Simon could be involved in the Senator’s death and had said nothing about the fact
that
he knew Simon had Mob connections, until now. “Isn’t it a bit of a conflict of interest that someone with criminal ties works for your security firm?”
I
asked
sarcastically.

“Calm down. It’s not like that.”

“Then tell me what it’s like,
Cooper
.”

“Simon is a good guy. He didn’t want to go into the family business. That’s why he went into the military and that’s why he now works for me.”

“So do you think that his dad knew Simon was here when he came to meet with Bobby?”

“I’m sure he did. Garrison probably knows every move his son makes. He has just learned to keep his distance.”

“So being friends with Simon, does this have anything to do with you being in Las Vegas at some luncheon with the Senator and his wife, before the time you told me you started working for the Senator?” This seemed like a perfect opportunity to ask him this.

Cooper just looked at me
. “How did you find that out?”

“Does it matter? Why did you lie to me?”

“Presley, this is complicated.”

“Wait a minute.” I
paused
, shook my head,
and looked at
Cooper
. “If you know Simon from the military then why doesn’t Dirt know him? Or is he pretending not to know him too?”

He looked so worn out at the thought of trying to explain whatever it was he needed to explain
that I
almost felt sorry for him
, but not quite. I still felt he owed me
a
n explanation. He had misled me about many things and I
wanted a reason.

“Dirt knew
him.”

“Then why is he pretending he doesn’t? I don’t understand, if you were all at the same place...”

“It started back...”
Cooper
’s cell phone rang, interrupting him. He h
eld up his finger to silence me
while he answered the call. He walked away from
me
so
I
couldn’t hear what he wa
s saying, although I tried my
hardest to eavesdrop.

“Ok
ay
, I’ll be there in a minute,”
Cooper
said, snapp
ing
the phone shut and reach
ing
for his jacket. “Listen, Pres, I’ve got to go take care of something.”
Cooper felt somewhat relieved. He didn’t want to leave her, but didn’t really want to have this conversation either.

“
Cooper
! We’re not finished.”
I rose from the bed to follow him, but he stopped me.

“I know I owe you an explanation, but I have to ask you to just trust me.” As he said this, he pu
t his arm around me and it was all I
could do to keep from melting a
s he brushed his lips across my
forehead.
It was almost enough to make me forget how mad I
was at him and almost
enough
to beg him to stay. “I will call you later, Pres, I promise. Can you see yourself out?”

“
Cooper
!”
I
said again, but
he
had already walked out the door.
That went well
, I
thought. Flopping
back
onto the bed
, I
inhaled his cologne from the sheets and thought,
I could stay here all day
. Maybe I
would stay all day and be waiting for him when he returned.
Under the right circumstances, I was confident I could get him to tell me
anything.
Although I would have to run out and get better underwear to really do the trick.

I
laughed and pushed off the bed. It sounded grea
t in theory, but in reality, I had things to do. I
couldn’t wait for
Cooper
to decide when he could fill me
in
and stop keeping things from me
. Though, if he had his way t
hat would probably be never. I
didn’t even have the chance to tel
l him about Helen and Simon. I
walked to the door
to leave, but paused when my
hand touched the handle.
Maybe I should have a look around before I go
. There could be information lying around that could
be
useful. After
all, he was the one who left me
here all alone in
his hotel room. So anything I
saw
in plain view was fair game, I
rationalized.
My
definition of
plain view may have varied, I thought, as I
opened a drawer on the nightstand by the bed to look insid
e. Disappointed it was empty, I
tried the dresser. He was a bit of a neat freak
—something we
didn’t have in common
. There was nothing
on the top and
his
clothes
were
all neatly folded inside
the drawers
.
The normal stuff one would expect to be in a dresser.
I didn’t know what I
was expecting
—
ma
ybe something to jump out at me
and scream
“
Secret!
” Where would I put something I
wan
ted to keep somewhat hidden? I
already checked underneath the clothes in his drawer
s
, just as much to think about him in or out of said clothes as to find some revealing information, which may not
have
even exist
ed
.