The Perfect Murder by Kat Martin
ELEVEN
After lunch, Kenzie and Reese set off for their next destination, an address on San Marino Drive that Tabby had sent him, the residence of Tex and Suzy Lovell. The sky was still dreary, just a few weak rays of sunlight filtering through the layers of overcast, the air still hot, thick, and damp.
Before they had left the café, Kenzie had phoned Supervisor Brandt’s assistant, who had helped her before. Ryan had told her Tex Lovell was working at the heliport today. There was no record of him doing maintenance on the chopper, but if he was serious about eliminating his wife’s paramour, he could have been the guy who broke in the night before the crash.
Next Kenzie phoned Suzy Lovell and asked if they could stop by. Suzy had agreed. Everyone who worked for Sea Titan on Pelican Island knew about the crash and sympathized with the victims. They wanted answers, wanted to help in any way they could.
As the miles passed, Kenzie’s mind went from the upcoming interview with Suzy to the night ahead. Reese had told her he had plans for the evening, so he needed to be back at the hotel no later than six o’clock. Plans, she knew, meant another evening with a woman, either Arial Kaplan or someone else.
Kenzie told herself it was none of her business. Reese was the boss. He could do whatever he pleased.
He pulled the Rover to a stop on Jackson Street in front of a narrow blue house with white trim. The cottage sat on tall stilts with a carport underneath. An upstairs deck accessed the front door.
They climbed the stairs to the deck and Reese knocked. Since infidelity was a tricky subject, Kenzie was taking the lead.
The door opened and a blonde with big hair and even bigger breasts stood in the opening. She was wearing pink flowered yoga pants with high-heeled sandals and a low-cut pink tank that showed everything but her nipples.
She had blue eyes as big as the rest of her assets and they ran over Reese as if she wanted to lick him like a lollipop. He took a step back as if he could feel the impact of that lusty stare.
Kenzie eased a little in front of him. “Hello, Suzy. I’m McKenzie Haines. We spoke earlier. This is Reese Garrett. He was aboard the Sea Titan chopper that went down.”
“Come on in.” Suzy stepped back, and they walked into a messy living room with bare wood laminated floors and an overstuffed blue velvet sofa and chairs. An open kitchen at the end of the room showed dirty pots and pans on the counter, but they were neatly stacked.
“You want something to drink?” Suzy asked. “Maybe a beer or a Coke or something?”
“I’m okay, thanks,” Kenzie said.
“What about you, handsome?”
Faint color rose beneath Reese’s tanned cheeks. It took a lot to unsettle him. Kenzie almost smiled.
“I’m fine,” Reese said. “We wanted to talk to you about the crash. We were hoping you might be able to help us.”
“Sure. Why don’t we all go into the living room? You don’t mind if I have that beer, do you?”
“No, not at all,” Kenzie said. “You know, now that I think about it, I’ll take you up on your offer and join you.”
Suzy grinned and seemed to relax, which was exactly Kenzie’s goal. She carried two beers into the living room and handed one to Kenzie, who sat on the sofa next to Reese.
“So what can I do for you?”
Kenzie smiled. “We’re trying to gather a little information. As I said, Reese was one of the passengers. We’re trying to figure out what went wrong. As a Sea Titan mechanic, your husband’s name came up.”
“Tex doesn’t work on the EC135. That was the model that went down. And he wasn’t even there the day it happened.”
“We just need something to go on,” Reese said. “We’re exploring different avenues.”
“What does the crash have to do with Tex, anyway? Like I said, he wasn’t at work. He was off fishing with one of his buddies.”
Kenzie took a sip of beer. It was cold and bubbly and tasted better than she expected. “His name surfaced because of Craig Bigelow, the copilot. When Craig’s name came up, so did yours.”
“Which indirectly connects Craig to Tex,” Reese added.
Suzy went silent.
“Craig’s a good-looking guy,” Kenzie continued, having seen his photo on Facebook. “We thought...kind of wondered if he had ever, you know...come on to you?”
Suzy glanced away. “Craig’s married.”
Kenzie had also seen Tex Lovell’s photo on the net, not big and burly, like the image his name conjured, but slightly built, shorter than average, and wearing thick, black-rimmed glasses.
“Sure, he’s got a wife,” Kenzie said, “but a lot of married guys have a bad situation at home, you know? They don’t get what they need. It’s not really their fault they stray. That is, if they meet an attractive woman and she isn’t getting what she needs, either.”
Suzy shrugged. “Craig might have come on to me a few times. A lot of guys do. I mean, you see what I look like. Guys love blondes with big boobs.” She looked at Reese as if she hoped he was one of them, but Reese was a master of self-control and his expression remained bland.
“So what did Tex think about that? I mean, if he knew Craig was hitting on you...?”
Suzy started nodding. “Okay, I see where this is going. You’re thinking Tex might have done something to the chopper because he was jealous of Craig.”
Suzy was smarter than she looked.
“Is that possible?” Reese asked.
Suzy’s gaze shifted back and forth between him and Kenzie. “I can tell you two have a thing, so I’ll be honest. My husband likes to watch. He doesn’t have a problem with me and another guy. He encourages it. Works for both of us.”
Kenzie felt as if her chair had just dropped through the floor. “I...umm...see.”
“That it?” Suzy asked.
Kenzie managed to nod. “Yes, I guess it is.”
Suzy flashed a smile and rose from her chair. “You two ever get bored with each other, give me a call. Maybe we can work something out.”
Kenzie set her beer bottle down on the coffee table and she and Reese both rose from the sofa. “Just so you don’t get the wrong idea, Reese is my boss, not my boyfriend.”
Suzy’s lips curved into a smirk. “Whatever.”
Anxious to leave before things got worse, Kenzie crossed the room to the door.
“Thanks for clearing things up,” Reese said as he stepped out onto the porch.
Suzy winked at him, flashed him a smile, and closed the door.
They got back in the car and Reese started the engine.
“I don’t think it was Tex Lovell,” Kenzie said as the Rover pulled into the street.
“Doesn’t look that way. Lovell’s motive has pretty much disappeared.” Clearly Tex wasn’t the jealous type, which meant he had no reason to want Craig Bigelow dead. Or at least none they knew about.
“I wonder why Suzy thought we were together,” Kenzie couldn’t resist asking.
Reese flashed her the same smoldering glance she had seen the night of the benefit, heat and need and something more, a combination that made her stomach lift alarmingly. Then it was gone, replaced by his usual distance and control.
He shrugged those wide shoulders. “Woman like Suzy, who knows.”
But Kenzie worried that Suzy Lovell had noticed her attraction to Reese that she worked so hard to hide.
She wondered how much longer she could hide it from Reese.
They were on the highway back to Houston when Kenzie phoned home. Reese listened as she spoke to her grandmother, asking about Griff and her grandmother’s day.
Florence replied, and Kenzie smiled. “We just finished. We’re on our way back to the apartment.”
Her grandmother said something. Reese caught the blush that rose in Kenzie’s cheeks and wondered what her grandmother had said.
“I’ll be home tomorrow for sure, Gran.” She waited a second for Griff to come on the line. “Hi, sweetheart. I’ve missed you.” Griff must have asked about the weekend. “Don’t worry,” Kenzie answered. “We’re all still going to the museum on Saturday, just like we planned.”
The love she had for her son was unmistakable, and Reese felt an unexpected longing. He had wanted children badly. After his bitter divorce, that had changed.
“Your dad called?” he heard Kenzie say. The color leached from her face. “It was nice of him to ask, but you have a playdate with Tommy, remember? His mom invited us over to use their pool.”
Griff must have agreed because she relaxed back in her seat. “I’ll call your dad, explain why you can’t make it. Maybe you can see him next weekend.” Griff said something. “All right, have fun. I love you, honey. See you soon.”
Kenzie hung up and tipped her head back against the seat.
“I take it your ex wanted to spend Sunday with your son.”
She sighed. “I’ll have to tell Griff about the custody suit—or Lee will.”
“How will Griff take it?”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t spent much time with his dad since the divorce. Not much before that, either, if you want the truth. I know he wouldn’t want to live with his father full-time.”
“He won’t have to.” Reese changed lanes, passing an SUV traveling slower than the rest of the traffic. “Wilcox will make sure it doesn’t happen.”
“I hope so.”
Drew Wilcox was the best family lawyer in Dallas. Reese was fairly certain he could win Kenzie’s case and she would be able to maintain custody, but nothing was ever certain.
His gaze slid toward her, settled on her mouth. He imagined the feel of those soft pink lips under his, and heat burned through him. He needed a drink, he thought, or a woman. Anything that would send his thoughts in a different direction.
If it weren’t for the stop he planned to make in the morning at the Harris County Jail, he’d have the jet fly down early, take them back to Dallas tonight. But he needed to follow this last lead to its conclusion.
He wearily rubbed the back of his neck as the apartment building appeared ahead. Pulling into the driveway, he parked and turned off the engine, breathed a sigh of relief that the long day had finally come to an end.
