Who Glares Wins (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (17 page)

“Um, it’s the one that looks like the spaceship from Flight of the Navigator at the front and a hearse from the back.”

“Got it.”

As it was, I almost missed
the Cruiser
when
it
turned off
,
but just caught sight of
the
tailgate as it descended a ramp to an underground parking lot.

"Did you see which building that was?" I asked as we sailed by.

"Yep." Lily
craned her head to check. "It’
s
Becker, Hughes and Whitman
.
Isn’t that…?
"

I grimaced. "That's Ted's office."

"He's boffing a colleague? That's so
cliché
."

I ignored the sudden flash of Solomon in my head and concentrated on the actual news.
Discovering
they probably worked together—unless she was his “breakfast meeting”—
made the woman easier to find. I checked the clock on the dash and winced. I had twenty
-
five minutes to turn around, hightail it back to our apartment
and
drop Lily off
,
and then make it to the hotel. Even at three a
.
m
.
with no traffic
,
it couldn't be done.

"What's up?" asked Lily. "We did great, right
?
We totally aced that tail.
"

I nodded. "We did great, but now I'm going to be late for my real work."

Lily screwed up her face in thought. "If you drive to work, you can make it
,
but I'll need to borrow your car to get back. I can bring it back to you for lunch
?
O
r I could get a cab home."

"Would you mind? I'm really sorry. I don't want to be late on my third day."

"You're taking the hotel thing seriously?"

"It's part of my cover. I'm supposed to be an ace assistant. Ace assistants don't turn up late on their third day."

"True. They never turn up late." Lily huffed. "Bet you can't keep it up more than a week.
”

I
s
tuck my tongue out
,
which was childish, but what the heck. "Okay.
We’ll go to the hotel
,
then you can t
ake my car home. If you can't get it back for lunch, don't worry about it. Just pick me up at six."

"I can do that. I will trade you for convention tickets."

"Done."

I pulled in around the front parking entrance and Lily unbuckled
,
ready to slide across to take the driver's seat. I had a moment to switch my shoes,
and
throw my sneakers on the rear seat before
waving
her off
. I
went into the hotel with a whole minute to spare before I was
officially
late.

Edward's office door was shut when I passed by on the way to my own small office. I hurried in
to sit
behind my desk, eyeing the pile of folders while my shoulders slumped.

First things first, I
pulled
up the photo Lily
took
of the mystery woman's
Cruiser
and used my phone to email it to
Lucas
back at the office. I called him and left a message on his answering service
,
asking him to run the plates and let me know
to
who
m
the car belonged. I knew I shouldn't ask
Lucas
to run it
,
because it wasn't an agency case, but he didn't know that and besides, I had to ask someone
just to
get a lead on this woman.
I was pretty sure Serena would not want me involving our brothers
;
and if I asked Maddox, he would want to know why too. Lucas was the safe
st
option.
Once I had a name, address
,
and birth
date
,
I could start digging through
the woman’s
virtual paper trail. Then Serena could annihilate her.

I made tracks
on the few files I
had
left to read from the day before
. The sooner I got through them, the sooner I could start talking to the employees again. Like yesterday, nothing stood out as interesting. The employees were all, on paper
at least
,
decent people. They worked hard
,
had good references
,
and no criminal records. Edward was truthful when he said he hired people who would benefit from his nurturing, even if he hadn't said
i
t in so many words.

I sorted all the employee files and put them to one side, with the theft reports I'd already
reviewed
. Soon
,
I would have to copy all the material and add them to the agency file
.
I didn't much relish the idea of spending quality time with the photocopier
,
even if it was a
fancy
-
pants
one.

Next, I skimmed the leaver's files. The hotel's policy was to hold an exit interview for anyone who left,
which
included those fired,
as well as t
hose who resigned. Eight of
the
ten
most
recent leavers already had new jobs
,
according to their files and they
weren’t
fired,
but
resigned. I discounted them. Happy ex-employees with new jobs didn't have the time to sabotage their previous place of work. Two had been fired. One for theft,
the other
for gross misconduct. I flipped the pages a couple of times before I found the paragraph
stating
why. The first fired employee didn't know how to keep his hands to himself when it came to waitresses. The second employee was fired for smoking weed and failing a drug test. I couldn't imagine the dopey guy in the photo working up a sweat over getting fired. Even so, I put those two files to one side to investigate later.

My last file was the assistant who walked out and
never
returned. When I opened it, I got a shock.

Staring back at me was the smiling face of Marissa Widmore.

Closing
it in
disbelief
, I reopened it,
double
-
check
ing
. Yes, definitely Marissa. Her hair was a little shorter in this
portrait
, and she was wearing a nice blouse with a cute
,
little collar, but she was definitely the same woman I saw in the photo at her apartment and the same woman in the photo Elisabeth gave me.

I took a moment to collect myself
as I considered the likelihood of the two cases
being
connect
ed
. Like Elisabeth told me last night, Marissa was employed through a recruitment agency, Berwick's, and she hadn't been
working
at The Mont
gomery Hotel for long. It was definitely
a step up from her usual kind of work, which, when I looked through her
file
résumé
, was varied
.
The one here had been
rewritten slightly
,
with office work in mind, leaving off some of her waitressing
jobs
, and making her appear more office
-
friendly. Clearly
,
she was
adaptable. Learning the layout of the hotel would pose more trouble than learning how to be a good assistant.
Maybe she suddenly started getting some ambition, something that was
completely
at odds with her sudden disappearance.

Rocking back in my chair, my mind whirred.

Elisabeth
was
sure her friend was missing. The hotel was having severe problems.

I had the horrible feeling Marissa might be missing because of what was going on at the hotel.

When my cell phone rang
a moment later
, I jumped, my heart racing.
Lucas
’
name flashed
on the screen
.
I hit
“
answer,
”
pressing it to my ear.

"Morning," he said
in greeting
. "I got your messages."

"Great. Any news?"

"First off, the plate you sent me this morning is registered to Donna Keegan."
Lucas
gave me the address too, which matched the apartment building I'd staked out. "I got some extra info on her
,
which I'll email to you. Birth certificate and driver's license."

"You're a genius."

"It has been said. Secondly, I'm still working on the hotel's intranet. It was no problem to get into, there's just a lot of information to sift."

"Any signs of hacking from the outside yet?"

"Not yet, but it's too soon to give a definitive answer. I'm not seeing any red flags."

"Keep me updated."

"Will do. One other thing, Solomon mentioned stolen property. I've asked around
,
but no leads. Delgado is checking his contacts too."

"Thanks. Can I ask you another question?"

"Shoot."

"Say I wanted to look at a shop's surveillance cameras, how would I do that?"

"If the cameras
feed to a server
,
I can hack it
;
b
ut a lot of them still use tapes
, especially small
,
independent stores
. You can't get to see those without a warrant
,
or at least a contact in the office or the security firm
,
if they use one
.
"

I didn't know where
in
Fenway Plaza
Marissa’s car had been found
, because Scotty Sibowitz at the impound lot
didn't
sa
y
, and there were several blocks where she could have feasibly parked. I knew for certain that I didn't have any contacts with any security firms
,
and besides, it
was
two weeks ago now that she disappeared. There was a strong possibility any tapes would have been erased. A dead end.

"Okay, thanks
,
Lucas
."

"Later, Lexi."

I grabbed the three files I'd set aside along with Marissa's
,
and walked over to the
c
opy room, stopping in the doorway when I saw Louisa.

"Good morning!" Louisa turned
her
megawatt smile on me
as she looked up from the copier
. She wore a
simple
shift dress in black with a beige cardigan over the top and a neat string of pearls. Her heels were low and functional, made for walking, not posing. "How are you getting on today?"

"Great! Thank you for asking!
"
I chirped, holding the files to my chest.

Louisa whipped her last page from the tray and opened the lid of the machine. "All done," she trilled as she gathered her papers. "Let's do lunch today," she said. "It would be good to get to know you."

"Thanks. I'd like that." I stepped back to let Louisa out of the room and she flashed me another brilliant smile as she walked the short distance to her office. I wondered if they had a great dental plan here; the concierge's smile was blinding too. I set up the machine, input my personal email address
,
and stepped back to let the machine take care of organizing the paper
while
simultaneously email
ing
virtual copies to me.

Next up: shaking down the witnesses. Except my shaking up abilities were non-existent
,
so I
practiced
my best
nice
,
but
dim smile
at the wall
. Then I
returned my files to the desk and went in search of my first suspect.