Stilettos & Scoundrels (51 page)

“Anything to eat here besides ice cream? I’m starving.”

“There is some leftover lasagna. Help yourself. My dad has been taking salsa lessons to surprise my mom with. Isn’t that sweet?” I said to Katy.

“Your dad is such a good guy. Most men wouldn’t do that.”

“Then you gals are looking in the wrong places for men,” Cooper interjected.

“You mean to tell us you would take dance lessons to make your lady happy?” I asked.

“How do you know I don’t already know how to dance?”

“You? I’m sorry; you just don’t seem the salsa type.”

“You underestimate my talents, babe,” Cooper said, setting down the leftover lasagna and grabbing my hand to twirl me around, bringing me close to him.

“Maybe I have,” I said, looking into his eyes and feeling the warmth of his body.

“Um, excuse me. Should I be leaving you two alone?” Katy asked.

I pushed him away. “Go eat your leftovers.”

“Presley, Presley, Presley. You won’t be able to resist my charms forever.”

I
was meeting
Cooper
for lunch at Mama Risot
t
o’s, the town’s
improved
version of the Olive Garden. It was family owned and very authentic. Last night
,
we
decided to
agree to disagree. He wanted me
to stop investigating
,
and while
it was kind of cute and made me
feel good that he cared
,
there wasn’t a snowball’s cha
nce in hell of it happening. I
thought he fi
nally figured that out after I
screamed it in his ear loud enough. P
robably tired of listening to me
, he finally
just changed the subject and asked me
to lunch. Not one to pass up a free meal, especi
ally with a hottie like him, I
said yes.

I
thought he might regret asking me out because I
was going to grill him
over lunch.
He still hadn’t made any mention of knowing the Daniels prior to his security gig or
to the Vegas issue. I
had waited and waited for him to make even the slightest mention
of it last night
and he never once did.
I
n some respects
,
he didn’t really have any reason to
bring it up again, I
guessed. But in light of everything else going on
,
he shoul
d have. Maybe if he had told me, I
wou
ld have been more apt to stop my
search for the killer. Ok
ay, I
wouldn’t go that far,
but he still should have told me
.

Last night we
had talked about being a team
, but I
felt he was saying it just to pacify
me, which is why I
still hadn’t told him about seeing Helen
making out
with some guy or
that I
knew th
at guy was Chris. I knew h
e was holding out on
me too
.
The stuff he was holding out on
was a lot bigger deal
, and it really bothered me that the longer we
talked about Vegas and
the
potential
M
ob connection with the Senator
that
Cooper
still didn’t say anything
about it
. Helen kissing Chris was harmless
;
I
knew Helen didn’t kill her husband.
However, we had been having such a good time last night on a personal level that I hadn’t wanted to ruin the mood by asking him. Today was a different story. I wanted answers.

I
walked into the restaurant and saw
Cooper
already sitting down, talking on the phone. Torn between enjoying the view and wanting to knock him upside the head
,
I
had quit
e a dilemma. The server beat me
to the table and was
taking his drink order when I
got there, so
I
was saved from having to make a choice.

“I ordered you a glass of Chianti. Is that ok?”
Cooper
asked
me
. “I know it’s rather early, but I need a drink.”

Poor baby
.
H
e did look stressed out.
And I was always up for a drink in the middle of the day. It seemed so naughty.

“
That’s fine.”

“Well,”
Cooper
said patiently. “Are you going to tell me why you are so mad?
You were fine last night, so I can’t even begin to imagine what I did now.
What do you recommend here?”

“It’s all good,” I
replied snappishly
, kind of peeved he didn’t seem all that bothered by my annoyance
.

“What is wrong with you, Pres?”
h
e
asked,
putting his menu down
and looking at me
.

“I don’t know
,
Cooper
, maybe it was something you said.
Or didn’t say, rather.
”

“I said a lot of things, especially last night.
I said m
any
more
things that were far more interesting than thi
s case,” he said, looking at me
lasciviously for a second before turning concerned. “Was something out of line, did I say something to piss you off? I thought we were on the same page
?
”

He was referring to some of the talks, and more, of a personal nature. There had been a lot of playful teasing
and
strong attraction
between
the both of
us,
and talking wasn’t all
we had
done, none of which I
objected to in any way.
Of course, that
was
all
after Katy had left
.

We gave the server our
order
and as she walked away, I knew I
had to start talki
ng to him about some of what I
knew.

“Presley?”

“I talked to Di
rt.” As I
said this,
Cooper immediately tensed up. I
paused for a second. “He needs your help,
Cooper,” I
continued.

“Yeah, right,” he snorted.

“Seriously. The FBI has taken over his authority in this case. His hands are tied officially, but he feels it’s his duty to find the killer.”

“What does he need my help for?”

“He needs some background information on Simon. You know he’s connected to the Mob. And Dirt claims not to know that. Which doesn’t make sense to me because wouldn’t he have known him from the military?”
I hoped this would be an easy transition to finding out what had happened all those years ago.

“Why me?”

“
Cooper
, Simon works for you
,
and you were in the military together. It stands to reason
that
you know more about him.”

“I already told you earlier
that
he was Special Forces before he worked for me. He left the service about five years ago. He did some things here and there and then started working for me.”

“Do you do background checks or something? Are you sure he didn’t get into illegal things when he was out doing this and that?”

“Of course I do thorough background and security checks,” he replied sharply. “I run a reputable business, damn it,” he said, pounding his fist on the table. “But nothing out of the ordinary came up. He had references from another reputable security firm that I thoroughly checked out. The routine stuff.”

“So why do you think Dirt’s clai
ming not to know Simon?” I
asked again.

“I don’t know
.
”
H
e shrugged.

“Are you sure? I mean
,
don’t you find that odd?”

“Yes and yes. I don’t know why Dirt’s acting like that.”

I
didn’t real
ly want him to know how much I had snooped, but I
couldn’t continue to lie to him.

He just stared at me
.

“Is there more about this Dirt and Simon thing
that
you aren’t telling me? After all, isn’t the main goal here to catch a killer?
”

He seemed to think about this for a
minute, not saying anything. I kept quiet because I didn’t want to push him. I wanted him to tell me
the whole truth.

“I already told you that Simon Atkins is Simon Palazzo
,
s
on of Garrison Palazzo
.
”
Cooper
was getting exasperated with me
.

“Right, the guy who owns the Blue Royale Casino, among others
.
”

“The one and the same,”
Cooper
said slowly, looking surprised
that I
knew this information.

I
thought this might be the op
portune time to mention what I
found on the
I
nternet.

“I am assuming that is who the Senator must have owed money to. Simon must have taken this job to keep an eye on him,”
Cooper
continued.

For a second
, we
both sat there starin
g at each other. I
knew he was still trying to decide if it just happened to be
one of those random things, me
knowing who owned the Blue Royale Casino in Las Vegas
, or if there was something I knew that I wasn’t letting on. I wondered if I
shou
ld tell him I
G
oogled him, and more importantly,
I wondered if I should tell him what I found out with my
Google search.

A few more minutes went by with
the two of us
just sitting there,
staring at each other, when I
finally worked up the nerv
e to ask him about what I
found out.

“
Cooper
, will you promise not to get mad if I tell you something?”

“That’s a loaded question, Presley. I can’t promise to act a certain way if I don’t know what you are asking.”

“Then promise you will
try
not to get mad.”

“What is it, Pres?”

“Well, I
G
oogled you the other day and a lot of things came up.”

He just looked at me
expectantly, “And?”

“And, well, I saw an article from nine months ago with a picture
showing you sitting with the Senator and Helen
, but
you said you just started working for him six months ago.”

“Presley, I can…”

I held up my hand to stop him. I
wanted to get this all out.

“There’s more,
Cooper
. I went back even further and found something mentioning Dirt being accused of gambling in the military and about you being charged with murder along with some other guys. What the hell is
all that and why didn’t you say anything?
”
I was torn between wanting to cover my
eyes and pretend this conversation wasn’t happening
and
want
ing
the truth about what had happened and what
was
happening
now
.

“Presley, I really wish you wouldn’t have been so nosey. I know this looks bad
,
but there is good reason for all of it.”
Cooper
rubbed his temples and
sighed.

“Well, I wouldn’t have been nosey, if I didn’t feel you were hiding t
hings from me all the time,” I
shot back
defensively. While part of me
did feel a little guilty about looking into his past, he could have prevented it by being less secretive
, o
r
by
not hav
ing
anything to be secretive about
in the first place
. The notion tha
t maybe his past was none of my
b
usiness also briefly entered my mind, but I
just as quickly pushed it away.