Indecent Danger (Danger Incorporated #3)(54)

It appeared Travis didn’t enjoy admitting that either.

“Certainly a wife might want her husband and his girlfriend dead but what does she gain?” Aubrey queried. “In Caroline’s case she wouldn’t have gained anything except her freedom and she could have gotten that with a divorce.”

Shane snapped his fingers. “Money? Did she have a prenup with Bruce? If not, she might have been on the hook for a big chunk of change.”

Travis sighed and shook his head. “They had one. Martin made sure of it. Ironclad too from what he said. If Bruce and Caroline divorced he came out with a small settlement of two hundred and fifty thousand. Hardly the millions he’d grown accustomed to.”


“Then Caroline wouldn’t have much to gain by killing Bruce and Iris,” Aubrey pointed out. “Except for revenge. Honestly she didn’t look like the vengeful type. She seems really sweet.”

“She is,” Travis agreed with a small smile. “But she’s also been the type to not stand up for herself, which is exactly how she ended up in a rotten marriage with Bruce. Any other woman would have kicked him to the curb a long time ago.”

Shane drained his coffee cup and signaled to the waitress for the check. “Then I think we know what we need to do.”

Aubrey’s brows shot up. “We do?”

“We do,” Travis confirmed. “We need to talk to Caroline and Alana. They had access to the cufflinks.”

Shane signed for the bill and the three of them stood, exiting the restaurant.

“So how do we do this? Good cop, bad cop?” Aubrey asked. How did one ask if their friend had a motive for murder? She wasn’t that good at all this cloak and dagger business.

Travis rubbed the back of his neck. “We’re their friends and we’re trying to help.”

Aubrey rolled her eyes and followed Travis and Shane into the elevator. “If they’re innocent and our friends this should go great. If one of them is the killer this could get kind of ugly.”

The kind of ugly that could get dangerous.





Chapter Twenty-Eight




?


It was decided that Shane and Aubrey would go back to the suite and that Travis would talk to Caroline and Alana since he knew them the best. Travis knocked on Martin’s hotel room door and was surprised when Tom Lovell was the one who opened it.

“Tom,” Travis greeted the younger man. “I’m here to see Caroline and Alana.”

He waited for Tom to step aside but instead he stood in the doorway. “Alana’s not here. She’s down in the spa trying to relax. She was very upset when the judge wouldn’t give Martin bail.”

Interesting way to deal with it. A mani-pedi or maybe a facial.

“Then I’d like to see Caroline, please.”

Travis kept his voice level, showing no aggression but also no surrender. The two men stared each other down for a few moments but then a voice from inside the suite shattered the tension.

“Tom? Who’s at the door?”

Caroline.

“It’s Travis. I told him this isn’t a good time.”

“No, I want to see him.” Caroline squeezed next to Tom, frowning at his recalcitrant attitude. “Let him in for Pete’s sake. He’s a friend.”

Travis heartily hoped she believed that thirty minutes from now.

“Would you like some coffee, Travis? Or maybe a soft drink?”

“No, thank you.” Travis sat on the couch and Caroline settled in a chair next to it. Tom didn’t sit, choosing instead to hover in the background as if ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.

“I want to thank you so much for finding that photograph of Granddad wearing the other set of cufflinks.” Caroline sighed and curled into the cushions, a mug held in her hands. “The attorney is having another go at the judge that denied bail. He seems optimistic that it might help if it raises doubts as to his guilt.”

“It was actually Aubrey who found it but I’m glad that we could help in some small way. How are you holding up with all this?”

Caroline’s teeth sunk into her lower lip before answering. “I’m just trying to take everything moment to moment and day by day. I’m not thinking about the future right now. I hate the fact that Granddad is in jail. I know he didn’t do this. He hated Bruce but he wouldn’t kill anyone.”

Travis didn’t beat around the bush. “If Martin was wearing different cufflinks than what they found underneath the body that means they were planted by the killer. Do you know who might have had access to the suite and to Martin’s belongings?”

Caroline’s nail tapped the ceramic mug. “Me. Alana. Bruce. Housekeeping, of course. I think that’s it.”

“So you and Bruce were staying in the suite with Martin and Alana?”

“Yes, not that Bruce was here all that often.” Tears shimmered in the young woman’s eyes but her chin was bravely lifted. “He spent a great deal of time…out.”

“Out?” Travis echoed, not wanting to push but needing to know if there was someone else that they didn’t know about. “Was he conducting business over the weekend?”

Tom stopped pacing and stared down at Travis with disgust. “Christ, we all know what Bruce was doing. He was with his slut Iris Perry.”