Hot Button (10 page)

“Y
OU REALLY DIDN’T HAVE TO
—”

“I know.” At the door of my hotel suite, Nev shifted from foot to foot, looking even more rumpled than he had when he first arrived at the crime scene down in the basement hours earlier. He rubbed a hand across eyes the color of a spring sky. Right about then, it was a sky streaked with every shade of sunset red. I imagined my eyes must have looked just as weary. They felt like they were filled with sand. “I know you could have gotten back to your room by yourself. But I didn’t like the thought of you walking around on your own this late. There’s already been one murder in this hotel tonight.”

“There isn’t going to be another.”

He gave me a lopsided grin. “I know that and you know that. Let’s hope the killer knows it, too.”

It was an uncomfortable reminder of all we’d seen in the linen room, and I shivered.

“You’re tired.” Nev stepped back. “And I need to go. I’ve got to wrap up downstairs and make sure the scene is secured, then get back to the station. There will be a mountain of extra paperwork to take care of, thanks to Thad Wyant. You are…” The elevator dinged to announce its presence on the floor, and he back-stepped toward it with more energy than he should have had considering how hard he’d already worked that night. “You’re going to help me, right?”

“Investigate?” It was late, and my voice was loud. I repeated the question in a stage whisper but that did nothing to alter the uncertainty of it. Sure, I’d investigated before, and successfully, too, but I am a button dealer, not a detective. “I can introduce you around,” I said, my voice just loud enough so Nev could hear it. “I can point you in the direction of the people we talked about earlier. But other than that—”

“You did a great job last time.” The elevator doors slid open, and with one arm, Nev made sure they stayed that way.

“Last time, I helped because of a button.”

“And this time, it’s because of a button expert.”

“But I can’t—”

“Sure you can.”

The elevator buzzed its displeasure at being held up, and I pictured people in the nearby rooms being awakened from a sound sleep and people on the floors below waiting impatiently for the elevator to arrive. Yeah, I know it was silly to be worried about things like that, but as I’d found out on that earlier investigation, when I’m faced with the overwhelming horror of murder, focusing on the little things helps keep me sane.

“I’ll try,” I said, mostly because I couldn’t stand to hear that buzzing any longer. “See you tomorrow.”

Nev checked his watch. “It’s already tomorrow, so I’ll
see you later. And Josie…” He’d already stepped into the elevator and he poked his head out. This time, his smile was wide. “Looks like we’ve got something else to talk about, huh?”

We did, and though I couldn’t say I was exactly happy about the circumstances, I realized I was glad I’d be seeing Nev again, and soon. Smiling, I slid my key card into the slot on the door, pushed it open, and stepped inside my room. But when I went to close the door again, a man stuck his foot in the way,

Startled, my adrenaline shot to the moon, and I gasped and pushed on the door harder.

“Ouch!”

I recognized the voice, and that adrenaline rush dissolved in a moment of pure annoyance. I wasn’t the least bit surprised when I opened the door and saw Kaz jumping around the hallway on one foot. Yeah, like a little bump with the door hurt that much.

I crossed my arms over my chest. If it wasn’t for that, I was sure he’d see my heart trying to batter its way out of my black-lace dress. I didn’t need surprises. Not on a night I’d already been way too close to a murder. I looked down the hallway and realized there was a potted palm there. No wonder I hadn’t seen Kaz when I walked up to the door. “So you were watching me from behind a potted palm? What are you doing here? And why are you dressed like that?”

He looked down at the blue top and drawstring-waist cotton pants, which reminded me of a doctor’s scrubs. “They took my clothes. The cops,” he said, answering my second question before he answered my first. “And you heard what your friend told me downstairs.” He stopped hopping so he could tip his head toward the elevator. “He told me I had to stay close.”

“He didn’t mean this close.”

Kaz reserved the really devastating smile for occasions just like this. His sparked and lit up the hallway. “I can’t stay down in the linen room again tonight. And the thing about me staying close… It is a police order.”

“Why not just steal my room key again and make yourself right at home?”

Kaz doesn’t recognize sarcasm when it hits him right over the head. That smile got even bigger. “I would if I had the chance. With the cops around and all…” His shrug was as casual as can be. “Hey, you don’t want me to get in trouble with the cops, do you, Jo?”

My sigh was as much of an answer as he needed. I stepped aside, and he stepped inside.

“Suite, huh?” Kaz looked around at the living-room area and leaned forward for a peek into the bedroom and bathroom. “Pretty snazzy.”

“It’s not exactly the height of luxury, but we had to choose a reasonably priced hotel for the conference.” I set my evening bag and room key on the coffee table in front of a chintz sofa in shades of blue and yellow and kicked off my shoes. “I needed the extra room.” I waved toward the dining table, which was piled with extra conference booklets and the leftovers we had of the bags we handed out to each attendee, along with the giveaways we’d been sent by button manufacturers and vintage dealers. “But then, you’ve already been here. I’m sure you took a good look around then.”

Kaz was immune to the steel in my voice. Always had been, and if I was smart, I would remember that he always would be. He strolled over to the minibar and had just put his hand on the door to open it when his cell rang.

“Hey, I’ve been meaning to call you!”

It wasn’t like I had any intention of eavesdropping, but
heck, it was my room, and I wasn’t going to run and hide so he could talk in private. Instead, I listened to the hum of his conversation while I went into the bedroom and changed into my cotton pajamas and the terry bathrobe I’d brought from home. I washed up and brushed my teeth, and I’d just stepped out of the bathroom when Kaz said, “I’d better go. It’s really late here.”

He paused for a second, listening to the caller, then blurted out, “Early. Sure, that’s what I meant. It’s really early here in London. It’s late in Chicago where you are, and I really should let you get to bed. I’ll bet you’re exhausted. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye!”

“Paris,” I said, as soon as he put down the phone. In answer to his
Huh?
look, I explained. “When you talked to Amber earlier, you told her you were in Paris. This time, you said London. Unless, of course, that wasn’t Amber.”

“It was.” Kaz flopped down on the couch. “She’s really terrific,” he said.

“But…”

His sigh was monumental. The cops had taken his tuxedo jacket, pants, shirt, and bow tie so they could search for traces of blood on them (standard procedure, Nev had assured me) and had allowed Kaz to change into the one of the outfits the hotel staff members wore when they were at work in the basement laundry. He looked relaxed, at ease, and a little too comfortable on my couch. Well, except for the little shade of green that tinged his expression when he talked about Amber. “But… well… you know I’m not looking for anything permanent. I mean, not anymore.”

I could have pointed out that I had come to the painful but inevitable conclusion that he never had been, but it was late, and I was tired, and rehashing our relationship wasn’t
going to get us anywhere. When it came to me and Kaz, there wasn’t any place left to go.

Maybe Kaz realized it, too. He leaned back. “I met Amber down in Florida a month or so ago.”

I cinched the tie belt on my robe and sank into the chair opposite the couch. “And let me guess, you’re so darned charming, she just can’t forget you. That’s why she keeps calling.”

“Worse than that. She’s here. In Chicago.”

The light dawned. “Which explains why you need a place to hide out.”

“I’m not exactly hiding.” He was, of course, and because he refused to face the truth, Kaz got up and did a turn around the room, moving aside the drapes so he could take a gander at the skyscrapers that surrounded us. “It’s just that when we met… Well, Amber’s pretty and blonde.” He dropped the curtains back into place and turned to face me. “She’s a school psychologist in Sarasota, and heck, I just work down at the Port of Chicago. I wanted to impress her, you know?”

“So you didn’t tell her you were my assistant here at the button conference?”

“It’s not funny, Jo.”

“Neither is you pretending to be my assistant.”

“Yeah, I know. But you’ve got to understand.” He hurried back to the couch and sat down. Like looking me in the eye was somehow going to convince me of the righteousness of all he was saying. “I didn’t know what else to do, and I had to help you out so you’d do me this favor in return and let me stay with you. See, when I met Amber, I told her some stuff that wasn’t exactly… Well, I embellished a little bit, you know?”

I did. Whatever he’d told Amber, I was sure I’d heard some version of it somewhere along the line.

Too antsy to keep still, Kaz got to his feet again. This
time, he went over to the minibar, took out a beer the hotel would charge me a bundle for, and offered it to me. When I declined with a tip of my head, he popped it open. “I guess you could say I made up a story. You know, about being a big-time developer and living on the Gold Coast. Stuff like that. I didn’t think it would ever matter. I just thought Amber was… Well, you know. I just thought she was someone it was fun to be with for the weekend. I never thought she’d actually ever show up to visit. I figured once I left Florida, she’d forget all about me.”

“Just like you forgot all about her.”

At least he had the sense to look embarrassed.

I didn’t feel the least bit sorry for him. That’s why I didn’t offer any advice. He wouldn’t listen, anyway. “Trying to get by on your charm and your bullshit… It was bound to blow up in your face eventually.”

“It sort of already has, because like I said, she’s here. And she apparently went to my apartment to surprise me, and it’s a lucky thing that I was at work. But now, of course, she’s asking how can I possibly live in a walk-up apartment over in Bucktown when I said I had a killer view of the lake from my thirty-fourth-floor condo.”

“So let me guess: you made up a second lie to explain the first.”

He made a face. “Not a big lie. Just a little one about doing some renovations and helping out a friend and… You understand, don’t you, Jo? You see why I needed your help for a couple days. After this week… Well, she’s going to have to get back to Florida sooner or later, and if I can just keep out of sight and pretend I’m in Europe, then there’s no way she’ll ever find out I lied to her, because I mean, really, what cool woman would ever even think about a button convention or looking for me at one?”

“Not this cool woman, that’s for sure.” Another zinger that hit the wall of Kaz’s incredible ego and dropped like a stone in water. I got up and headed for the bedroom.

“Why not just tell the woman the truth? If she likes you—and she must or she wouldn’t have come all the way to Chicago to see you—she won’t care that you work at the Port. I never did.”

“Yeah, but you…” I felt Kaz step up behind me. But then, it was impossible not to notice that the temperature shot up. I told myself to just keep walking, but some old habits die hard. I turned in time to see that his eyes were twinkling. “You’re different.”

“Dumber, you mean.”

“Never!” He set down the beer and stepped even closer. “No way, Jo. You’re the smartest woman I know. You run your own business, and you’re doing a bang-up job with this conference, and I heard what that cop told you. He wants you to help him solve this murder. You know, like you solved the last one. You’re plenty smart. After all, you—”

“Got talked into letting you stay with me?”

He rolled back on his heels. “Well, there’s that.”

“Your charm isn’t always going to get you by, Kaz.”

He turned up the wattage on that smile of his and looked beyond me and into the bedroom. “It got me where I am right now. You know, the two of us back together again.”

“‘Back together’ meaning together in the same building. Not together. Not like in a relationship way.”

“No. Sure. Of course not. Only…” Another flick of those espresso-colored eyes toward the king-size bed in the room beyond. “Only it’s kind of the perfect opportunity. You know…” He shuffled closer and put his hands on my arms. “To catch up on old times.”

Yeah. Old times.

Like it or not, my brain played back over them at the same time my blood heated and my knees turned to mush. One place Kaz and I had never had any problems was the bedroom, and one thing he’d never been was unfaithful. In fact, Kaz knew more about the right way to romance a woman than any other guy I’d ever met.

He also knew more about offtrack betting, online poker, and lying to poor fools like Amber.

I thanked the gods of sensibility for reminding me at the same time I stepped back and pointed. “The couch pulls out.”

“Yeah, I’m sure, but—”

He’d already made another move toward me, which completely justified me stepping into the bedroom, grabbing hold of the doorknob, and swinging the door almost shut. “I’ve got to be downstairs tomorrow by seven. So you’ll need to be in and out of the bathroom either earlier or later,” I said.

The fire in his eyes was tamped back. “Got it,” Kaz said.

And I chalked up one point for common sense and gave him a quick once-over. “The cops confiscated that blazer and the other clothes you left in the linen room. If you’re helping me out at the conference tomorrow—and you are, by the way, as a way of paying me back for giving you a place to sleep—you may want to head home and pick up some other clothes.”

“I can’t go home. Amber might be lurking. But not to worry.” His smile came and went. “I stopped at the gift shop and put a couple things on your conference account. I figured you wouldn’t mind.”