Now and Always (13 page)

She spared a glance out the windows in the living room and noticed the glare of lights from the cars cruising down Collins. The strip was fairly active, even for a Monday night. She walked into her bedroom and was changing for bed when her cell phone rang in the living room. She ran back and picked it up. “Hello.”

“Hi, Connie. How are you? I’m sorry I missed your call earlier.”

There was a great deal of noise in the background and Connie strained to hear him. “Victor? Where are you?”

A loud crash was followed by his curse. “Still at the hospital. Luckily we’re at the tail end of a little crisis.” Someone spoke in the background and the sound on the phone became muffled, as if he had his hand covering the mouthpiece, then he came back on the line. “I’m sorry. One of the nurses had a question for me.”

Connie sat down on the sofa. “No need to apologize. You sound tired.”

His long sigh was followed by another loud noise. “A little. I should be able to go home in another hour or so.” Again there was another voice interrupting in the background and Victor muffled the phone once more. She couldn’t make out what he was saying, but she could hear the exasperation in his voice.

“Victor?” she prompted when he had not come back on the line for a minute or two.

“I need to go, Connie. I’m sorry. I just wanted to call and let you know ….” He hesitated, then in a rush said, “I miss you already. I wish I had more time to talk.”

“I understand and I miss you, too.” More than she was willing to admit. “I won’t keep you any longer. It sounds like you’re still needed.”

He sighed again, cursed softly. “I wish … I’m so tired that once my head hits the pillow, I’ll be fast asleep. But I still would have liked you beside me to hold and to wake up to, Con,” he whispered, more intimately.

She took a deep breath, held it for a moment before she replied. “I would like that, too. Soon.” The stakeout couldn’t last forever.

“I can’t wait to see you on Thursday.”

Connie squirmed in her chair. After he removed the cast on Thursday, she had to go out. “Victor. I can’t stay long on Thursday. I need to go to one of the victim’s hangouts.”

“Come at five and I’ll have something sent up to the office for dinner. Will you have time for that?”

She had been hoping they could somehow find the time to be alone, if only for a little bit. “Yes. Thursday can’t come soon enough.”

“See you then, Con. Take care.”

He had called and her liberated self hated to admit it, but she was feeling a little like Cinderella must have when she found out the prince was looking for the girl with the glass slipper. But she also recognized that their relationship was as fragile as the fabled slipper. One false step and it might break. She would need to make him understand how important he was to her, even though she was unable to see him right now on a regular basis. That might mean doing the kinds of things she had been too busy to do before. Like wearing something special on Thursday. Something he might not expect from her. Unfortunately, something she knew little about.

Luckily, Connie knew just who to ask to help her out.

Chapter 15

She spent the morning reading the legal opinion prepared by the law firm. After she e-mailed it to those waiting for the memo, she left a voice mail for the product manager who had sent the request and asked him to come up to discuss it. Then she called Jeff.

“How’s it going, Connie?” he asked as soon as he heard her voice.

“Good. These corporate jobs are just amazing. My own assistant, a great office, and wonderful coffee. I may never come back.”

Jeff chuckled. “How are the serial killers, though?”

“I was hoping you’d tell me. How are the lists I sent? Any thoughts?” She reached into her briefcase and dug out her comparisons. Jeff thought she was right on the money with her recommendations and offered some additional comments on some of the other names.

“We’re going to do background checks on those four and I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks, Jeff. Listen, I have a favor, actually two favors to ask,” Connie said hesitantly before plowing on. “I’m getting my cast off tomorrow and I’m kind of seeing the doctor.” She shut her eyes and groaned at how lame it had sounded.

“I would think you’d have to see him to … oh, I get it. You’re
involved
with the doctor. The one your sister works for.” Jeff hesitated for a second. “Look, this is really not my business,” he finally replied and Connie was surprised by the embarrassment she heard in his voice.

“I just wanted a little personal time, an hour or two today at lunch to go shopping with my sister, and a few hours at the doctor’s office to have dinner.” She flushed as she asked, not knowing how the dinner date might turn out, but hopeful it would be something more than just dinner.

Jeff considered her request for a moment before answering. “The sister thing is okay. I’ll have Stone follow you. Give him a call when you’re on your way. The same goes for the doctor, except our guy can’t see you with another man, so you’ll have to be discreet.”

Connie understood that only too well. “We’ll stay in his office and I’ll leave alone. As far as anyone knows, I’m getting the cast off.”

“That’s acceptable. As for Stone, I’ll let him know you plan on going to the health club tonight. He’ll follow you home and then head over there.”

“Great. I’m going to try to meet some of these people on our list. In fact, I just sent one of them a memo and will report after I speak with him.” She said goodbye to Jeff and breathed a sigh of relief. She replaced the comparisons in her briefcase and locked it, dialed Victor’s office with her cell phone.

“Dr. Cienfuegos’s office,” the cheery voice answered.

“Hey, Carmen, it’s Connie,” she whispered, then chagrin set in as she realized Victor couldn’t overhear in any case.

“How are you, Con?” Carmen replied brightly.

Connie hushed her and said, “Is Victor around?”

“Yes, but he’s busy. Do you want to talk to him? I can get him from the examining room.”

Connie rushed in. “Actually, I need to talk to you. Can you get away for lunch?”

There was hesitation on the line. “Con, is something wrong?”

“Not really. Victor and I. You know we spent time together over the weekend, but we’d like to sneak in some personal time when I come to get the cast removed.”

“So the getting the cast off thing isn’t just about the cast? That explains why that’s all he’s talked about this morning,” Carmen admitted.

Connie groaned and drew some stray hair off her face. “That’s the problem. Carmen, you know this is getting a little serious and I’m not sure about to do.”

“I get it, Con. I don’t need you to draw me a picture about what two adults do in their free time. If you can call it free time.”

“Please, sis. What if someone overhears you.”

Carmen laughed huskily. “What kind of help do you need, big sis?”

“A dress that he’ll notice. Some other things, you know,” Connie replied as she covered a flaming cheek with one hand, trying to hide her embarrassment. Luckily, there was no one else in the office to notice.

Again there was silence on the line, then Carmen’s husky laugh. “I get it.” Carmen went to name one of the shops along Coral Gable’s Miracle Mile and a time to meet for lunch.

Connie was about to hang up when she heard Carmen ask, “Just how crazy do you want to make him?”

Connie couldn’t contain her laughter. She thought about it for a second, and replied, “Very, very crazy.”

#

By mid-afternoon, Connie was fairly pleased with what she had accomplished. She had met two of the men whose names had appeared on all of the lists. They had been contacts of Jessica Wheeler and of the ad agency executive who had been victim number two. In addition, both had attended a party hosted by the television station where they had possibly met victim number three.

The problem was that neither of the men got her warning bells ringing. Both men had been with the company for some time. If the pathology had existed in either of them, it had remained latent up until now, unless the murderer had been more successful at hiding it before.

Two other men remained on her list. The information from their background checks would be available shortly. Hopefully those details would give her greater insights into the men and help narrow the field of suspects.

She had just arranged a meeting for later that afternoon with one of them, suspect number three, a man in the in-house regulatory section, when Brenda buzzed her. “Trevor Gordon is here. He wants to know if you have a moment to discuss your memo.”

“Sure. Please send him in.”

Trevor Gordon was a name she recalled, not just from the memo, but also from the list of the law firm contacts. As the product manager for a brand new prostate drug, it was likely he had discussed a number of issues with Jessica Wheeler. It was unfortunate that he apparently hadn’t listened since the company had received a cease and desist letter about their brand new product’s trade dress.

Connie rose as the door opened, came around the desk, held out her hand, and introduced herself. “Connie Gonzalez.”

Trevor Gordon smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He shook her hand and his was smooth and slightly cold. “Nice to meet you,” he said, his voice as icy as his touch. He raised the memo he held in his left hand. “Mind if we discuss this?”

“Of course not. Please sit down.” Connie motioned to a chair before her desk, sat down, and withdrew a copy of her memorandum from a neatly organized pile of papers stacked on the edge of her desk. “Where would you like to begin?”

“Jessica and I had discussed my choices and possible problems. Her opinion was quite different than yours.” There was no hiding the hostility in his voice. He had rolled the memo into a tube and slapped it against his thigh angrily while he talked.

Connie met his irate gaze dead on to see how he would react to being challenged. “The file passed to me doesn’t indicate that any discussion occurred.”

He remained silent, glaring, and gripped the tube of paper more violently, almost crumbling it in his grip.

Connie continued. “I have no doubt about my opinion. The case law is clear and we have the other side’s warning letter to prove they are not going to let us continue to do this.”

Trevor leaned close and jabbed a finger at her copy of the memo. “Do you know how embarrassing and expensive it would be for us to switch now?”

So he thought he could physically intimidate her?
Interesting
, Connie thought. She leaned toward him, meeting his challenge, and confidently said, “My opinion stands, Mr. Gordon. You want to keep on using this color and shape for the drug, fine. My next memo will be on how to defend the lawsuit that’s sure to follow. We’ll judge then how truly embarrassing and expensive this could be.”

His face flushed a deep crimson color and he rose to his six foot plus height. “We’ll talk about this again.” He walked out, nearly bumping into Brenda in his anger-filled haste.

“Hi, Trevor,” the young woman said and beamed a smile at him.

Gordon merely grunted and tossed a last hostile glare at Connie before he stalked away.

“Whoa. You pissed him off royally,” Brenda said.

“Yes, I guess I did,” Connie acknowledged with a smile as she took a stack of papers and messages from her assistant. “Is he always like that?” she asked, rifling through the messages for one from Victor. There were none.

“Yes and no,” Brenda hemmed, obviously uneasy.

“Care to explain?” Connie pressed, wanting Brenda’s take on the situation.

Brenda shrugged. “Well, he is kinda cute.”

Connie had to admit that. Gordon was well-built with the kind of tanned, surfer-type looks popular among the beach crowd.

“Not my type.” Nope, her type was tall, dark, and dangerous in a different kind of way.

“Boy, is he my type, though. He’s generally nice to me and the rest of the girls, but we’re not ‘intelligent enough for him’ quote, unquote,” Brenda sighed. “You’re more his type. You, Jessica, and the other women with initials after their names. You’re smart enough for him, I guess.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. He rubs me the wrong way,” she said and filed away Brenda’s comments, mentally adding Trevor Gordon as a possible suspect, despite his absence on the other lists. Something wasn’t quite right about him. Her warning bells were ringing and she intended to find out why.

#

Brenda kindly offered up one of her guest passes and Connie was admitted to the health club which was conveniently located only two blocks away from her apartment, on the corner of 12th Street and Washington Avenue.

She learned from Brenda that she and Jessica Wheeler had occasionally run into each other at the weight center, but not in the aerobics classes. Jessica had apparently been of the same mind as Connie, preferring jogging to aerobics, and weight training to the yoga and Pilates classes.

In the weight room, Connie ran into Stone at the ab machine. As she looked around, she realized Trevor Gordon was at the other end of the room, working on his triceps. She waited for Stone to finish and he smiled at her as he completed his set.

“Can you show me how to use this?” Connie asked Stone, although she was well familiar with the equipment.

“Darlin’ it would be my pleasure,” he said loud enough for others to hear. As she stepped into the seat of the ab machine, Stone leaned close and whispered, “Take off the baggy t-shirt, Speedy.”

“What?” she hissed as they seemingly went through the motions of adjusting the seat for her height.

“I assume you have one of those work-out bras underneath, so take off all the extra cotton and show off your hot little body. How else do you plan on attracting attention in a place like this?” Stone whispered again and peered around the room.

Connie settled into the seat of the ab machine and glanced around. Every female midriff in the place was bare except for hers. She gritted her teeth, hating it when Stone was right, and stripped off her shirt, tossing it on the floor beside her towel and bottle of water.

“Very good. Next time, try red. It’ll go better with your coloring.” He leaned over her and checked the weight stack. “How much do you normally do?”

Connie looked at the weights. “This looks good,” she said as she slipped her arms beneath the bar, careful to keep any excess pressure from the cast.

“By the way, check out the guy who’s waiting by the bench press,” she said as she bent at the waist to lift the stack of weights and completed the rep by slowly lowering the stack back just partway, maintaining the resistance on her abdominal muscles.

“Well, that looks real good, darlin’,” Stone said loudly and looked over as she had asked. “Who is he?” he asked under his breath.

“Trevor Gordon. We need to do a background check on him as well.”

Stone nodded and took a sip from his water bottle. “Any reason?”

“Intuition.” Connie continued with her set of exercises and Stone nodded again, waved, and walked away. They both knew Gordon would not approach if another man was by her side.

She did two sets of repetitions on the ab machine, then moved to another station, avoiding any equipment that required pressure on her left wrist. She kept an eye on Gordon the entire time. Finally she reached the leg press machine, slipping into it just as Gordon approached to use the same station. She chose her weights, and began her set of repetitions, sparing him a quick glance.

“Hi, Trevor. Sorry we got off on the wrong foot today,” she said between measured breaths as she lifted the weights off the rack.

“I haven’t seen you here before. You must be new.” He wiped a towel over his perspiration damp face and sipped from his bottle of water.

“I just moved into the area and Brenda was nice enough to let me come along and check out the club.” She finished the first set of repetitions, eased her arms down, and took a deep breath while she waited to start her next set. “Do you come here often?”

“All the time. A bunch of us get together here a couple of nights a week.” His response was not hostile like the tone he had adopted in the office. Much to her chagrin, his gaze danced between her breasts and bare midriff, just as Stone had intimated would happen.

“Well, that’s great. At least I know there will be someone here who can show me the ropes,” she nearly gushed, wanting to seem eager for his assistance.

Trevor smiled and loosened up before her eyes. “Well, I’m your man. We go for coffee down at the
News Cafe
after our workouts. Want to join us?”

Connie finished her set, stood, and smiled, pleased things were going as she had hoped. “I’d like that, thanks.”