Who Glares Wins (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (41 page)

"Are you sure it wasn't fun?" I asked
, my face impassive
.

Louisa blinked.
"Pardon?"

"Well, it sounds to me like you've been having a lot of fun."

"I don't know what you mean."

I stepped closer. "You know exactly what I mean. The t
hefts, the sabotage, the cancel
l
ations. It wasn't Marissa, or
Sylvia,
it was you."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Cut the crap, Louisa. Marissa told me everything. What I can't figure out is
,
why? Why sabotage the hotel? Why
risk
your own job?"

Louisa smiled. "You think you have it all worked out, don't you? Well, you're wrong. Marissa did all this and I'll testify to it." She stood, matching my pose. Strange thing was, she didn't even look remotely rattled. She was deadly calm.
Deadly.

"I'll go one further. I'll test
ify," I said. "You murdered Greg Conlan
and you hit me
on the head when I tripped over him
. You could have killed me."

"You didn't see a thing.
It was too dark," Louisa spat
,
then stiffened.

I hoped Maddox got that on tape
; and
I hoped
,
in a room not far away
,
someone high-fived.

"Not dark enough,” I bluffed. “
Why did you kill him?"

"
Greg
saw me," said Louisa. "He saw me in a guest room and
when I
cut the power at the conference.
He took a video on his cell phone.
When he called you, I knew I had to get to him first. I knew he had money problems. I offered him enough that he could have moved on."

"You shot him!"

"I took the gun to wave around, scare him, but when he saw it, he went for me. We struggled and it went off. It was
completely
an accident!"

"What kind of accident involves waiting in the dark to hit someone over the head
?
You locked me in and set the alarm?"
I
accused her, although I was
guessing.

Louisa nodded
,
then shrugged, a smile spreading across her face
. "I figured they'd find you there. Later
,
the police would get a tip about the gun and find your prints. You were
simply
expendable."

Thanks a bunch.
I knew I hated temping.

"Were you going to try and pin the sabotage on me too? You know that wouldn't stick."

"Marissa c
an
still take the fall for that. You'd spend so long
in court,
fighting the murder charge that everyone would forget all about you.
Plus,
I could get rid of Edward. He should never have got
ten
the job. My husband should have gotten
it
!"

"That's what this was about? Getting your husband a job?"

"Richard slaved for years
,
but did the board take that into consideration when they bought The Montgomery
?
No, they gave the job to Edward!"

"Because Edward worked for it," I said. "He was the right man for the job."

"And by the end of today
,
he'll be out and Richard will be in." Louisa stepped towards me. "And
instead of taking the fall
,
like you should have,
you'll be
eulogized as
a very sad case of suicide,
a person
full of remorse for what you've done."

Huh?

Louisa whipped out a gun
, aiming
it straight at me.
I squeaked and stuck my hands up.
"We're going up to the eighth floor," she said. "It's quite a long drop, especially when you take a dive
,
head first."

"Or what? You'
ll
shoot me?" I
emphasized
the word shoot, looking around me
, as surreptitiously as I could at the moment.
Where was Maddox? Where was Solomon? Where was the MPD
now? W
hen I needed them?
Did
they all tak
e
a donut break
after their high-fives
?

"Let's go," said Louisa, waving the gun towards the door. "And put your hands down. We're going towards the service elevator
;
then we're going up."

I lowered my hands. "You're making a mistake," I
warned
her.

"I don't think so. It's very sad. I'm going to cry at your funeral and
try to
say really nice things to your mom."

Oh God, my mom. She would be distraught. She'd never get over the loss of her last baby. I wished I'd taken her up on the Krav Maga. If I'd taken a few classes
,
I could have twisted Louisa into a pretzel by now and
rolled
her out to the cops. As it was, I now had a gun stuck into my ribs. We edged out
of
the office, and I stiffened
,
waiting for the MPD to play pile on. But there was no one. The corridor was
disappointingly
empty.

"Get moving," said Louisa. Nudge, nudge in the ribs. "I have to
get home and make dinner.
"

"
A
nything
special
?" I squeaked,
my
nerves getting the better of me.

"Lasagna. Richard's favorite."

How nice for Richard. Where was everybody? Hadn't they gotten enough to make an arrest? I scrambled to think of what else they could possibly need? A thought made me pale. What if the wire stopped working? What if they thought I never went to Louisa's office? Oh God. I was on my own and about to be
come
parking lot pasta.

"Did you have anything to do with the stabbing?" I asked
, stalling for time, hoping someone would come looking for me
. "At the convention?"

Louisa was quiet
for
a long moment, then she said, "The pony weirdos? No. Like I said, I just cut the power. The stabbing was all
their doing
. Quite the coincidence though, don't you think? The board lov
ed the newspaper clipping I
e
mailed
them."

"How thoughtful of you." We neared the swing
ing
doors, the other side of which stood the service elevators.

"How do you plan on
rationalizing
my suicide?" I asked.

"Does it matter? You'll be dead."

"Just curious."

"Well, I guess I'll say you were
extremely
depressed. Sad, alone, in your thirties, no kids."

"That's not depressing
!”

"It
is
a bit."

"No, it's great
!
I go out a lot and I spend my money on heels
,
not diapers. And I'm not
in my thirties. I’m twenty-nine! Twenty-nine
is young!"

"If you say so."

"I do. And I have a boyfriend. See
?
I'm very happy. Depressed won't stick."

"I'll think of something.
The temping is enough to make
anyone
depressed.
"

“You’re not wrong there,” I agreed, against my better judgment.

I pushed through the doors
at Louisa’s direction
, my heart pounding as we stepped towards the elevators. I pressed the call button
when she nudged me in the back with the hard barrel of the gun
. "Going up," I chirped, looking around for a weapon
. I
wish
ed
, for the first time ever, that
today
was
“B
ring your gun to work
”
day.

"What if I
just
don't get in?" I said, turning around,
trying to look
braver than I felt. "What then?"

Louisa took two quick steps backwards. "Then I'll shoot you here." She raised, the gun,
and
aimed.
“And say you shot yourself
as
I tried to stop you. Hey, I’ll be a hero!”

"Help," I said softly.

What happened next was a blur.
I heard
a faint whistling noise
,
then Louisa dropped to
her knees as a pane in the door we just
walked through
shattered. Every door exploded open, bouncing off the walls.
Kevlar-vested police officers stream
ed
through, shouting for
Louisa
to "Drop the weapon!" and "Get on the floor
now, now, now
!"

I stepped back
,
pressing against the elevator doors, waiting as Louisa's hand
s were cuffed behind her back. A police officer pressed
a wad of gauze to the wound in her arm. Another officer scooped
up
the gun and nodded at me. I tried a smile
,
but I think I actually pulled
something of
a
demented
face.

Maddox
extricated
himself from the crowd and made his way towards me. He grasped both my arms, looked at me long and hard
,
then pulled me into him, crushing me against his chest. "You did
really
good," he said. "
Really
good. This evidence will put Louisa away.
We have the whole thing on tape.
"

I held onto him until it seemed indecent, especially as Louisa was
being
pulled to her feet. Maddox stood back and Louisa looked straight into my eyes. She breathed in sharp breaths, her eyes
burning with
venom.

Behind me
,
the elevator doors slid open.

"Going down," I said.
This time I smiled.

We waited while Louisa was escorted out. Maddox kept his arm around me the whole time.

"Sorry, had to wait for backup," he said.

"You had to wait for backup? Did you hear what she was going to do to me?" Maddox nodded. My voice rose to a pitch only dogs could
hear
. "And you left me with her?"

"You weren't alone. We were here the whole time."

"Where?"

Maddox
fiddled with the wire, removed it, and
steered me towards the doors. "You did great," he repeated. "Very smooth. I'm impressed. Slightly scared to death
that you took her on, obviously, when she produced the gun.
"

"You said it was okay!"

He grimaced.
"I didn't know she had a gun."

"You didn't... Oh what the hell, I'm alive and I need
a drink and I am not old. Twenty-nine
is not old."

"Is that all that bothers you? That she called you old?"

"And sad! I am not sad. I have a great life. I have lots of friends. I love kids," I said grumpily. "And I like my job, except for
all
the death threats. I can live without th
em
."

“She would never have gotten away with it. No one would
have
believe
d
suicide.”

“I know. I would never do that.”

“I meant no girl who goes with a good
-
looking guy like me would off herself.” Maddox grinned
, squeezing
my shoulders. I gave him a little eye roll.

Solomon was waiting in the l
obby for us and walked over
as we came through. Maddox
nodded to him, excusing himself to debrief his team.

"Take a few days off," Solomon said, his eyes assessing me for damage and finding none.

"Is the case closed?"

"Yes." Solomon inclined his head towards the suits st
anding
with Edward. He still had his hand wrapped around Marissa's
,
and she looked a little uncomfortable in the middle of
all of
them.
She held my purse.
"That's the board. They're very pleased this has all been resolved."