Innocent in Las Vegas (14 page)

My heart almost stopped and I froze in place. Vanessa. I thought back to the slim, elegant woman and wondered why she’d be with Ethan.

“Are you sure?” I asked slowly, but I already knew the answer.

“Of course I’m sure. And I told Ethan I knew. That’s the only reason he didn't tell Thelma about my girlfriend.”

I sighed. “Why can’t you guys just stick to one woman?”

Neil shrugged, got into his car and drove away.

I woke up early the next morning feeling strangely exuberant and optimistic. Maybe Max’s cheerfulness had rubbed off on me, but I felt as though life were good.

I wasn’t brave enough to re-enter the Riverbelle, because I still didn’t know who had hired Mr. Beard and Beady Eyes. But I did want to have a conversation with Steven. If Max had managed to blackmail the man into giving him a job, maybe I could blackmail Steven into talking to me. Of course, Steven was manager now, and maybe he’d cleaned up his act and I’d have nothing on him. Still, it was worth a shot.

I called Vanessa. It was only eight, but she answered the phone with the annoying alertness that morning people have.

“Vanessa, it’s me, Tiffany,” I said, “Do you mind if I come over to talk to you? Something’s come up.”

“Can it wait?”

She sounded doubtful, so I decided to fib a little. Living at the Tremonte was nice, but I was eager to go back to my old, boring condo.

“It’s about Sophia,” I said, “And I thought you might be able to help.”

“Ok,” she said. I told her I’d swing by in an hour.

I rushed to get dressed and was just applying mascara when my phone buzzed. I paused mid-swipe, and checked the caller ID. Stone.

I finished applying my mascara and called him back. “Hey Stone, what’s up?”

“Checking in. Everything ok at the Tremonte?”

“It’s all good,” I said, “My room’s intruder-free and I’ve been sleeping well at night. I don’t think they’ve figured out I’m living here, whoever they are.”

“You driving?”

“Umm. I took a cab a few times. I drove yesterday and there didn’t seem to be anyone following me.”

There was a pause and then he asked, “How do you know?”

I shrugged. “Just that feeling.”

He took some time to think about it and then he said, “Take a cab. From now on. Until we find out who is following you.”

I felt a brief moment of panic. Why was Stone acting so worried? “Is anything wrong?”

“Your gun license should’ve been here already. They’re being slow. I want you to be extra-careful till I know you’re packing.”

“Fine.” I sighed. Who would’ve known I’d miss my beat-up Accord and tiny condo so much?

“Where’re you going today?”

I wondered if I should try to keep secrets from Stone. I hardly knew the guy and Sophia was the one who’d hired him. Perhaps this was all a grand scheme of hers – hire a detective to look good in court, then hire someone to kill said detective before she found out too much. And although I believed that Stone had once been in the CIA, I could sense that something was missing in the picture of his past – and that I didn’t really want to know what it was.

I mentally shook myself. No, I needed to trust Stone. I might not know everything about who he was, but I had to trust him.

So I said, “I’m talking to Vanessa Conigliani at her Summerlin house in a few minutes. I guess I’ll head back to the Strip after that and maybe try to talk to some other people.”

“Ok.” There was a pause. “Call me if you need me.”

He hung up abruptly. I wondered if he even knew how to make small talk.

The cab dropped me off in front of Vanessa’s house and as soon as I rang the bell she opened the door.

She was looking as beautiful as ever. She wore minimal makeup and another gorgeous silk print top with white capri pants. She wore no jewelry and there was something delicate and attractive about her.

“What happened to your car?” she asked and I made a face.

“Long story, don’t ask.” I headed into the living room and sat down.

Vanessa sat opposite me and asked, “What’s going on?”

I looked at her carefully. She seemed smooth and unruffled, like one of those people who always had their life under control.

“Ethan Becker,” I said. “Tell me about him.”

She shrugged. “I already told you. I fell for him when I was too young to know better, we got married and then we got divorced.”

“You wasted precious years of your life with him.”

“Yes.” She looked annoyed at having been reminded. “I already told you this. I regret having married him.”

“Then why did you take him back? I know you were having an affair with him.”

She looked at me in surprise and then she nodded. “So you found out.”

“Yes. What was that about?”

She sat silently. I decided to give it a shot, sound out my theory. “You hated that he left you,” I said. “You always thought things might’ve worked out, that you could’ve had a marriage that worked. But he refused to see it that way and he stiffed you in the divorce. You told yourself he wasn’t the marriage type, but two years ago he married some two-bit stripper and you wanted to die of jealousy. It must’ve been hard seeing him marry that floozy.”

Vanessa narrowed her eyes. “You know Sophia better than I do.”

I nodded. “She isn’t wife material.”

“Exactly. Anyway, why bring all this up now?”

“You decided to steal him away from her.”

She laughed shortly. “There were always women trying to ‘steal him away.’”

“But you didn’t even have to try. He fell for you. Who wouldn’t?”

She smiled a tiny, flattered smile and I could see her struggle with her emotions. She had kept the secret for so long; it was prudent not to tell anyone. And yet, at the same time, the weight of keeping the secret was bearing down on her. She needed to get it off her chest. She needed to tell someone, anyone. A nobody like me, someone who wasn’t a part of her social circle, would be perfect. And yet – secrets were always safer when they were kept.

In the end, the need to unburden herself won out. “He fell like a ton of bricks,” she said, smiling at the memory. “And for once, I played my cards well. He had to chase me. He had to buy me nice things - dinners and holidays and gifts. I didn’t care about those things, but it was nice to see him work for it. And he told me he loved me, that he wanted to be happy with me.”

“What went wrong?”

She frowned and shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Let me guess. He said he didn’t really love you. He wanted to make things work with Sophia and he was ready to get therapy.”

“He was supposed to try to make things work with me.”

“So you snapped. He’d rejected you once and he was rejecting you again, and you couldn’t handle it. What did you do, ask him to give you a lift and then make him pull over when you had a fight? You killed him, didn’t you?”

She stared into space blankly, her eyes not seeing me. She murmured, “It was all so sudden.”

And then she snapped back to reality and her eyes focused on me.

“You killed him,” I said. “And then you found out when Sophia wouldn’t be home and entered her house with the key Ethan had given you. You put the gun in her nightstand and gave the police an anonymous tip. The perfect revenge.”

I could see that Vanessa was determined not to say anything more, so I continued, “And then you tracked down Audrey and killed her.”

She snapped back to reality and frowned and shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know any Audrey.”

“It’s ok,” I said, “It doesn’t make a difference. How did you break into her place?”

Her frown grew deeper. “Who’s Audrey?”

“You know who she is. How did you break into her apartment?”

“I didn’t. I don’t know what you mean.”

“You hired someone to break into my place, too. And you hired someone to follow me around.”

She shook her head again. “I have no idea what you’re saying. And I wouldn’t bother to hire anyone to threaten you.”

“Oh, come on. There’s no point denying it now.”

It annoyed me a little that Vanessa confided in me and told me everything – but then refused to admit to killing Audrey. I thought about a masked man waiting for Audrey in her darkened apartment, and the image bothered me. How did Vanessa, the ultimate sophisticate, tie in with that image?

I looked at Vanessa expectantly, but she was frowning at me and didn’t say anything, so I stood up to leave. Just then, Vanessa stood up too, and said, “Wait. I need to show you something.”

I thought she would tell me something about Audrey, maybe show me pictures of her, so I waited expectantly as she walked over to a large, wide-mouthed ceramic vase. She reached in, and I wondered what she could possibly keep inside it. Something secret, obviously. Maybe something valuable. It seemed like a great hiding place for something nobody else should know about, something like –

Vanessa pulled out her hand. She was holding a gun and the barrel was pointed right at me. I took a step back.

“Don’t move,” Vanessa said.

How could I have been so stupid as to expect her to pull out photos of Audrey from a vase? I mentally slapped my forehead and wondered what to do. I could try to make a run for it, but she looked ready to pull the trigger at any moment. “You don’t mean this,” I said slowly. “You don’t want to shoot me. You got mad and shot Ethan, but it wasn’t intentional. The police will understand.”

Vanessa shook her head. “I can’t have you blabbing to Sophia about this. I didn’t mean to kill Ethan, but then the whole thing got tied up so nicely. I can’t let you untie it now.”

My heart was racing and everything around me seemed to fade away into insignificance. All I could see was that large barrel. Any moment a bullet could come whizzing out and shoot me. I couldn’t let that happen, not when my life was finally starting to pick up. I’d just met Glen and I was looking forward to having more of his cupcakes. Nanna was becoming a better poker player and someday she’d go on to win the World Series of Poker and then she’d thank me on live TV. And if I could just get out of this alive, I could prevent Sophia from being convicted of murder.

“I’ll do whatever you want,” I said, “Just don’t shoot me.”

“Good.” She seemed to relax a bit. “I’m glad you’re being logical.”

She walked towards the wall, moving sideways, keeping the gun trained on me. She opened a door I’d seen earlier, and moved away a bit.

“In there,” she said and I obliged, moving slowly toward the door, trying to figure out how I could escape.

The door opened into the garage and I could see her large silver SUV sitting there. I heard a clicking noise; she’d unlocked the car.

“Get in,” she said.

I glanced around, wondering if there was any way I could get out of here. But the garage was locked, its automatic roller door preventing any escape and, behind me, Vanessa was standing in the way with her gun.

I opened the door and climbed into the elevated passenger seat wordlessly. I wondered if I could try to call Stone. Maybe I could pretend to be looking for my sunglasses in my bag, and surreptitiously press a few buttons.

Vanessa walked around to the other side and got into the driver’s side, her gun still pointed at me. She was watching me carefully and said, “Put both hands behind your head. I don’t want you to try anything funny.”

I cursed silently and did as she said. The plan to call for help vaporized into thin air. I closed my eyes and breathed, trying to keep calm and hoping I’d think of something else. I heard Vanessa buckle her seatbelt and then I heard the garage door opening.

When I opened my eyes Vanessa had slid the car out of the garage and we were moving down the street. She had one hand on the steering wheel, the other hand held the gun, keeping it low and pointed at me. She drove rapidly through the suburban streets, weaving and picking up speed as we merged onto the Las Vegas Beltway.

I heard a strangled noise escape from my throat. She could get us both killed by driving like a madman with only one hand on the wheel. A car swerved and its driver honked at us angrily and I groaned.

“Can’t you drive more carefully?” I said.

“My driving’s fine.”

“That’s what they all say!”

She didn’t say anything in reply, so I tried to calm her down. “Killing me won’t solve anything,” I said. “I know you think you’ll get away with it, but there are people who know where I went.” She didn’t look impressed so I fibbed, “I’m meant to meet my boyfriend in a few hours’ time.”

“What’s your boyfriend’s name?”

She had me stumped. I paused for a moment and said the first name that came to my mind. “Stone.”

Vanessa laughed. “That’s not a real name.”

I kicked myself. For my next case, I’d have a slew of excuses and names and fake dates all lined up.

But for now, I needed to get out of here. Vanessa took the Durango Drive exit and a few minutes later we were driving down Pahrump Valley, the high desert mountains rising up on both sides of the road. The air inside the car was still and my blood was starting to run cold.