No Other Lover Will Do (13 page)

“No. Why would Carmen kill Danny? Besides, he had a thing for her. They may have gone out on a date.”

“Do you think something happened between the two of them?”

“I wasn't here, so I wouldn't know. But I doubt it,” Solomon said as his phone rang again.

“Your phone is pretty busy,” Myer said.

You're a regular Dick Tracy,
he thought bitterly as he pressed the
IGNORE
button again. “I am the CEO of a multimillion dollar company.”

“But you were on vacation until today. Why did you leave town?”

“Do I need a lawyer? I mean, you're asking me questions as if I'm a suspect.”

Myer threw up his hands. “I'm not saying that, sir. But you hired Danny and your brother said you didn't tell him.”

“Does the police chief tell you about every new cop on the street? I run Crawford Hotels and I don't have to tell Richmond why I hire anyone.”

“Okay. Now, Jones ran his own private investigation company before you hired him. Do you think anyone he previously investigated could've murdered him?”

“If we knew the answer to that, then I wouldn't be here,” Solomon said. “Why don't you get a hold of Danny's files and talk to the people he'd been investigating?”

“All right, Mr. Crawford. I guess that's all we need.”

Solomon rose to his feet and walked out of the interview room filled with disgust at the poor job he felt the NYPD was doing. Before he reached the elevator, his phone vibrated in his pocket again.

“What?” he snapped.

“Mr.—Mr. Crawford, it's Frances from Carolina Serenity.”

“What's wrong, Frances?” he asked with a sigh.

“There is a problem. Anita Hopkins, our housekeeping supervisor, was found dead on the property.”

“What?” Solomon asked. “How did it happen?”

“We don't know yet. This morning one of the housekeepers came in and found her body in the locker room's bathroom,” she said in a shaky voice. “The police are still investigating.”

“Shit,” he swore. “This is the last thing we need right now.”

“The press has been sniffing around too. There are news trucks in the parking lot and police have shut down all of our outdoor activities until they clear the scene. We have no idea how much longer they're going to be here.”

“Refer all press inquiries to the New York office. Call our press office and tell them everything you know.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are the guests all right?” he asked, though the only guest he was worried about was Kandace.

“Yes, they're fine, just full of questions. What should I tell them?”

“Let me get back to you. I'll have the press office fax you two statements, one to give to our guests and one for the media.”

“All right,” Frances said.

Solomon ended the call and stepped on the elevator. Now, he was wondering if someone was targeting his employees in an attempt to get to him.

Kandace sat in her suite watching her telephone and willing it to ring.
Come on, Solomon. Call me back.

She was sure that he knew what was going on by now, but she wanted to hear his voice and know that he was all right. Kandace threw another log on the fire and jostled it with the poker until the flames began to roar again.

Why do I care so much?
Kandace thought as she took a seat near the fireplace.
Solomon is a big boy and he can take care of himself. Still, this has to be a lot for him to handle.

She was about to pick up her book when the phone rang. “Hello?” she said.

“Kandace,” Jade said. “I just had the strangest thing happen.”

“Jade, can we talk about it later? I'm expecting a phone call. I'll call you as soon as I'm done,” she said without giving her friend a chance to explain.

“All right, but make sure you call me back,” Jade said. Kandace hung up the phone and chewed her bottom lip as she waited for Solomon's call. The longer she waited, the more doubt crept in about him. What if he wasn't going to call her? What if this whole thing made him focus more on his business and he forgot about her?

Kandace threw herself across the bed and pounded her pillow. “This is crazy,” she muttered as the phone began to ring. She grabbed the receiver. “Hello?”

“Kandace, I got your message. Are you all right?” Solomon asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “I'm fine, and I'm sure you know what's going on by now.”

Solomon breathed heavily into the phone. “Yeah. I'm going to do a press conference and then I'm coming back down there,” he said. “The cops up here are doing what they can to find Danny's killer and if I stay here, I might hinder the investigation because I'm sure they can do more. Besides, I've got to figure out what's going on. The last thing I need is a scandal at my new resort,” he said.

“I was really worried about you,” she said.

“Well, I spent most of the day at the police department giving a statement and trying to find out what information they had.”

“Did you get anywhere?”

“No,” he said. “It's times like this when I would turn to Danny to find whatever I felt the police couldn't. But he's not here now.”

Kandace heard a catch in his voice and her heart skipped a beat. “Solomon, are you sure you want to come back down here?”

“I have to because if I stay in New York, there may be another murder and I'm going to be responsible for it. I'll call you after the press conference, all right?”

“Bye, Solomon,” she said. When Kandace hung up the phone, she was worried about how he was doing and how he was going to deal with all the death going on around him. She wondered if he had been fighting with his brother. Maybe that's why he wanted to return to North Carolina, but he was walking from one crisis into another.

 

Solomon wanted to fly back to North Carolina as soon as he heard Kandace's voice on the phone. Maybe she was afraid in the resort now that someone had been found dead. He wanted to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be all right, but that was something he couldn't tell her because he thought there was something happening that was bigger than the police or anyone recognized. Was it possible that someone was after him because of all the hearts that he'd broken?

“It's about time you got here,” Richmond said as he burst into Solomon's office.

“What time is the press conference?” Solomon asked as he turned around and faced his brother. “And what have I told you about coming in here without knocking?”

“Sorry, King Solomon,” Richmond sniped. “Is it true that there was a body found at the resort in North Carolina?”

“Yes, it is true, unfortunately. And I've called the press office to write a statement and send it to the Sugar Mountain resort and the guests. I don't think we should talk about it in today's press conference. The two cases aren't connected and—”

“What are you trying to hide? It's not going to take long for the press to connect the dots, and if we're dodging questions at the press conference we're going to look bad,” Richmond said.

“Look, I am in charge and I know what I'm doing here. North Carolina is a long way from New York and we don't know if this woman died of a heart attack or what. There is no point in making this a bigger deal than it needs to be,” Solomon said.

“Fine. This is your mess to take care of. Are you going to North Carolina to deal with this situation, or do you want me to go?” Richmond asked.

Solomon furrowed his eyebrows. “What? You're offering to help me? What's going on?”

“I know you and Danny were close and I feel like I should give you a chance to grieve for your friend.”

Solomon folded his arms across his chest. “That's bullshit and you know it,” he snapped. “You don't give a damn about Danny or the maid who died at Sugar Mountain. You're doing what you can to make yourself look like a leader. It's not going to work, brother.”

“You're a stupid, egotistical asshole,” Richmond spat.

“And you're the one who said you wanted me to fail. So, why would I trust you to do anything?” Solomon snapped. “I wonder if you killed Danny.”

Richmond slammed his fists into Solomon's desk, seemingly making the room vibrate. “Have you lost the little bit of mind you had left? Why would I kill Danny? Why would I put our company through all of this?”

“Because you want me to fail. Your words. And it makes sense that you could get in here without raising any questions. You would've been able to get close to Danny without him being suspicious about you or your motives.”

“Idiot. Since you're playing Sherlock Home Boy now, why don't you ask yourself if I was seen in this area or on the video on that night? The answer is no because I was with my wife at a Broadway show. And if I was in here, why would I have turned those videos over to the police?”

“Get out of my office,” Solomon snapped.

“I didn't kill your friend, but I'm sure whoever killed him was aiming for you. It's a damned shame that they missed,” Richmond said before slamming out of his brother's office.

Solomon couldn't stop thinking about what Richmond said. How many times had he been threatened by women after he'd tossed them aside like yesterday's garbage? Maybe Kinsley Monroe did this. Or could it have been Heather Williams? Allegedly, Heather had family that had ties to the Mafia. She could've arranged a hit on him and it might have gone wrong. Danny could've been killed because they thought he was Solomon.

Now you are being ridiculous,
he thought as he pushed away from his desk.
Kinsley and Heather wouldn't do anything like that. Women say stuff all the time, but I doubt any of them have the guts to try and come in here to kill me.
Solomon looked at his watch. It was fifteen minutes until the press conference was to begin. He needed to talk to his public relations staff and make sure they were on the same page. Once this thing was over, he was going to take the company jet to North Carolina and find out what was going on down there.

 

Carmen drove slowly into the parking lot of Carolina Serenity. The news truck and police cars reminded her of what she'd done the night before. The body had been found and now she was going to have to make sure she wasn't linked to the death. Carmen had been careful to clean the blood tracks she'd made when she dragged Anita's body into the bathroom. With all of the cleaning chemicals that had been at her fingertips, she would've been a fool to leave evidence. She'd washed everything that she touched and took the uniform that she'd worn that night and stuffed it in the bottom of her suitcase. She just hoped that the other women who saw her last night wouldn't recognized her if they saw her again.

She parked the car and headed inside. Carmen's heart beat faster as she walked past a group of officers.

“Excuse me, ma'am,” one of the officers asked. “Are you a guest?”

“I am,” Carmen said, then fished the key card Solomon had given her out of her purse. She flashed it to the officers and they allowed her to pass without asking any more questions.

She nearly ran to the elevator, hoping to avoid seeing anyone who might recognize her.

“Miss De La Croix,” Frances called out. “Miss De La Croix.”

Carmen turned around and faced the front desk manager. “Yes?”

“Did Mr. Crawford send you? He said they were going to fax statements to give to the guests and the media, but I haven't gotten anything and the phone will not stop ringing.”

“Well, I'm going up to Mr. Crawford's suite and I will get back to you about the statements,” Carmen said.

“Thank you. Can you believe this happened?”

Carmen folded her arms and asked Frances what the police had told her about the investigation into the death of Anita.

“Why don't we step in my office and look at the report they gave me?” Frances asked, not wanting to discuss the details of the death in the lobby where the guests could hear them.

“Sure,” Carmen said as she followed her into the office. She took a seat across from Frances's desk. “So, what did the police tell you about the woman's death?” Carmen's heart thudded with fear. Did anyone suspect her?

“They think it may have been a domestic situation. One of the officers told me that Anita and her estranged husband have been going at it for a while. They've put out an all-points bulletin for Donald Brown. None of the housekeepers have seen him on the property. But he's under suspicion.”

Carmen released a sigh of relief and quickly covered it up by shaking her head. “That's terrible,” Carmen said.

“It is. We really need to boost our security around here,” Frances said.

“I will bring that to Solomon's attention. Did the police say how she died?”

“Blunt force trauma to the head is the primary injury, but we won't know what caused her death until the autopsy,” Frances said.

Carmen rose to her feet and headed for the door. “I'll call Solomon and make sure he faxes the statements to you.”

“All right,” Frances said.

Carmen got on the elevator and rode up to Solomon's suite feeling relieved that the police had a suspect and it wasn't her. Now, she could figure out how to get rid of Kandace without worrying about getting a murder charge added to her record and her secret identity revealed.

When she arrived in his room, she lay across the bed and fantasized about Solomon returning to join her and making love to him for the first time. Carmen slipped her hand between her thighs and rubbed herself as she imagined Solomon in bed with her. She couldn't wait until her dream became a reality. All she had to do to make that happen was get Kandace Davis out of the picture. She dropped her hand and rolled off the bed. Carmen grabbed her travel case and pulled out the nine-millimeter handgun with a silencer. She pointed the gun at the mirror. Part of her hoped that she could get rid of Kandace without using it, but she had no qualms about shooting the bitch if she continued to get in the way of her destiny.

 

The flashbulbs were nearly blinding to Solomon as he stood behind a podium with the Crawford Hotels logo on the front of it. He'd been used to the glare of the spotlight and at times he welcomed it, but today, it was too much.

“Mr. Crawford,” a reporter called out, “what was your relationship with Danny Jones?”

“Danny and I were friends and Danny was one of the best private investigators in the city. As you know, hotels have a reputation for hiring undocumented workers. I wanted to make sure that was not going on at any Crawford hotel, so I brought Danny in to run background checks on our employees.”

“Is it true that Danny Jones was involved in a Mafia investigation?” another reporter asked.

“No.”

“Have police released any suspect descriptions?”

“You will have to ask the NYPD that question. I'm here to extend my heartfelt condolences to Danny's family and to offer a one-million dollar reward for the arrest and conviction of the coward who killed my friend,” Solomon said. This caused a rush of questions from the reporters, which he ignored. “That's it,” he said as he stepped off the stage. Richmond watched him from the corner and shook his head.

“A million dollars? Have you lost your mind?”

“Richmond, get out of my face. I have to go back to North Carolina.”

“Is it the maid's death that's sending you back or the bitch whose bed you've been in?” Richmond asked with a smirk on his face.

Unable to control himself, Solomon hauled off and punched his brother. He didn't wait to watch him fall.

He darted up to his office and called the hangar where the Crawford jet was stored and arranged his trip to Charlotte Douglas International Airport. After he hung up, he picked up the phone again and started dialing Danny's number. When he realized what he was doing, Solomon dropped the phone into the cradle and shook his head. Normally he would've called Danny and put him on the case to find out who was targeting his employees, but that was a call he could no longer make. Solomon pounded his fist against the desk and dropped his head. Seconds later, his office door swung open and Richmond burst in holding an ice pack to his eye.

“I'm sick of your bar room shit,” Richmond yelled as he approached his desk. “And this is the last time that you will put your hands on me.”

Solomon rose to his feet. “What are you going to do, Richmond?”

“Bring you down to the gutter where you belong,” Richmond spat, then threw his ice pack at Solomon, hitting him in the chest. “You'd better clean up this mess and I'm not going to help you.”

Solomon glared at his brother. “I've never asked you for your damned help and if I had, you wouldn't have given it to me. I wouldn't be surprised if you're behind this.”