Indecent Danger (Danger Incorporated #3)(53)
Instead of being happy or relieved he was actually scowling at her words. “I wouldn’t mind it if you needed me just a little bit. I like taking care of you.”
“I do need you.” Aubrey tried to put as much feeling into her words as possible, wanting Travis to understand. “I need you to love me. I need you in my life because I love having you there. But I don’t need you to pay my bills or make everything in my life perfect. That’s not your job. I wouldn’t be much of a partner if I didn’t row the boat with you.”
“What if you get tired of rowing?”
“What if you do?” she shot back. “Your needs are just as important as mine.”
She stopped there, letting her words sink into the hard head of the stubborn as hell man she loved more than anything in the world. His sense of honor was one of the reasons she admired him so much but it was going to be the death of her. She wanted a man by her side, not a father looking over her shoulder.
Their conversation wouldn’t be finished however as Shane joined them again, slapping his phone down on the table. “That was an interesting conversation.”
“Are you going to share with the class?” Travis asked, sitting back in his chair. He looked relaxed but Aubrey could see the tension that had crept into his frame. He was taking this entire murder case onto his own shoulders, wanting to clear Martin’s name.
“As a matter of fact, I am.” Shane leaned forward, his gaze circling the dining room and then coming back to rest on Aubrey and Travis. “That was the reporter contact I made at the local newspaper. He told me a few fascinating things, first and foremost that although it’s only a preliminary report, the coroner is leaning toward ruling Iris’s death an accident.”
Aubrey’s jaw fell open. “An accident? How can that be?”
“According to the reporter, her blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit which means she was probably feeling no pain when she went into the water. In her room was an almost empty champagne bottle so it looks like she drank the whole thing. Their theory is she got drunk because she was upset about Bruce’s death, took a walk outside maybe to get some air, then fell in the pool and was so incapacitated she couldn’t get out.”
Travis rubbed his chin, obviously not convinced. “This looks fishy to me. First, we’re to believe that she was depressed, which when you and Aubrey talked to her she clearly was not. Then I have to buy into the fact that she drank an entire bottle of champagne. By herself. Don’t people drink champagne to celebrate things? And then she wandered outside to the pool, fell in, and drowned. I’m not feeling this.”
Iris hadn’t seemed like a depressed drinker but then Aubrey had only spoken to her that one time.
“Maybe she finally accepted that Bruce was gone,” she suggested. “And when it hit her she just couldn’t take the pain.”
“Both explanations are plausible,” Shane shrugged. “They’re also running a tox screen on Iris’s blood but they won’t get that back for days. What’s important here is that the reporter talked to Detective Prather this morning after he saw the preliminary report and the detective believes there is no connection between the two deaths.”
“In other words, Martin is still on the hook,” Travis finished for him. “I was hoping that there would be some evidence linking Bruce and Iris together that would exonerate Martin. I sent the photo Aubrey found to his attorney this morning but I’m not sure if that’s going to help him get bail. The judge has been quite uncooperative.”
“This is a murder case,” Aubrey reminded him gently. “Plus Martin has vast resources. They consider him a flight risk.”
Shane tapped the table with his phone. “There’s more.”
“Of course there is,” Travis sighed. “More good news I assume?”
“The final autopsy report for Bruce was filed. It appears that he had sleeping pills in his system. A lot of them. That would have made him sleepy and possibly easy to handle when he was lured out to the beach.”
“So a woman could have done it,” Aubrey murmured, thinking about Iris’s untimely demise. “Do you think Iris did it and then out of guilt offed herself?”
Travis scraped a hand down his face, his expression a mask of tension. “That is entirely possible. From what we know she and Bruce were seeing each other but perhaps she was pushing him for more. Maybe she wanted him to leave Caroline and he refused.”
Shane leveled a gaze at Travis. “But you still don’t believe it was an accident, do you?”
“No,” Travis finally replied, clearly not happy about admitting it. “No, I don’t. I’m sorry but it’s too much of a coincidence. I think Iris’s death was probably not accidental and I think it has something to do with Bruce’s. But I can’t prove any of it.”
Pursing his lips, Shane drummed his fingers against his coffee cup. “We’ve gone over the suspects but what about the evidence? How about the cufflink? If Martin didn’t accidentally drop it stabbing Bruce in the heart then it was planted there. Who might have access to those cufflinks?”
Travis tapped his chin in thought. “Alana. Caroline. The housekeeping staff, but we have to assume they have no motive to frame Martin. Caroline has the most motive of course.”