“Your meeting with Tory didn’t last very long,” Tressa said as soon as Derek and I walked into the hotel room. She sat at the table, laptop in front of her and a couple monitors spread across each side. “Glad you’re here. There’s something I think you should see. I hacked into a couple monitors in the restaurant.”
Jenna stood next to Tressa before Derek strode over. I removed the five-inch killer shoes and then followed. A number of things on the table surrounded her, like a stack of cell phones, ear coms, cameras, notebooks, other techy things I didn’t understand.
“What’s he doing here?” Tressa asked, pointing at one of the monitors.
“Yes, exactly my question.” Jenna shook her head. “Sparky, there’s no good reason for him to be here the same night Gimbel and Tory are here. Something stinks. Luke or Ray should be back down there.”
Vinny sat in a low-lighted area at a small round table enjoying a drink with a gorgeous brunette in the hotel restaurant. They leaned into each other and conversed like a couple in love.
“Gimbel left about half an hour ago and then Vinny shows up. The woman comes to the table minutes after him, like she arrived separately.” Tressa clicked a few keys. “I’ve got facial recognition software working on her.”
Jenna stared at the screen. “She’s dressed to the nine’s and she’s also wearing a diamond encased wedding ring with monster-sized rocks. Look at her.”
“That doesn’t make me feel very secure about Tory being here, or the fact that Gimbel was here earlier,” Derek said. “Seems like too much of a coincidence to be discredited as anything other than intentional.” Derek sighed, pinching his lips together. He looked at me, and then said to Tressa, “Get Ray and Luke back in the restaurant with activated eyes and ears. They may be in their room. I’m going to let Tory know that Vince is here.”
“That woman he’s with is wearing a substantial diamond-studded wedding band on her left finger. Whoever she is, she’s married and has money,” I relayed Jenna’s observation.
“I can text Gimbel,” Tressa volunteered.
The monitor displayed Vinny lifting the woman’s chin as he laid a showy kiss on her lips.
“No, a message might take too long getting to Tory. She didn’t bring her phone and I don’t think they’d call her room phone. I’ll be right back.” Derek hurried out the door.
Jenna morphed through the ceiling as Tory’s room was directly above ours. An uncomfortable feeling of danger slid down my spine and produced goose bumps skidding over my arms.
Tressa studied me, making me feel even more uncomfortable. “Is everything okay between you and Derek?”
“What do you mean?” I wasn’t sure why she’d ask.
“I didn’t say anything earlier, but I questioned his inappropriateness…having a meeting with you in the bedroom and all.” Her cheeks flushed as she turned her attention back to the monitor. “I just wanted to make sure you are okay with his behavior.”
Jenna plopped to the floor from the ceiling between Tressa and I. “Tory is gone and the inside of her room looks like a bomb went off.”
Fear shot through me like a steady stream of broken glass. Derek.
“Tressa, text Derek and let him know that Tory is no longer in the room and he needs to get back here right away.” I did my best to keep my voice even.
She looked at me like I’d lost my mind. And I was very much in the process of doing just that.
“Tressa, trust me. Call or text Derek to get back here. Tory won’t be in that room.”
She picked up one of the phones on the table. “This is Derek’s cell. He doesn’t have a phone with him. He gave it to Ray earlier.”
* * *
My gut told me that Tory was in imminent danger. I took the stairway rather than be held up by the elevator. Only a couple minutes getting to the room, I listened through her door. No sound. I knocked. Nothing. The elevator doors dinged and opened. Kendra? She ran barefoot down the hallway, waving her arms for me to stop.
“She’s not there.” Her words came out on pants of breath, either from running or anxiety, or maybe both.
I recalled the fit of hysterical laughter she fell into a couple of times during some pretty edgy moments during our last case. Her way of dealing with highly intense emotional events. The last thing we needed right now.
After a short pause that seemed to steady her breathing, she said, “Jenna has already morphed through the ceiling and looked around. Tory’s room is turned upside down and she’s gone. Jenna says it’s hard to tell if there was a struggle. Tory could have left before the room got totaled.” Kendra looked to my left.
“Is Jenna here now?” What I would give to see and hear her. What was she telling Kendra?
“Yes. Jenna’s been with me all night. She actually can’t leave. I’ll explain later.” Kendra grabbed my hand and led me to the elevator. “Tressa is texting Gimbel right now.”
“How could her room get totaled so fast? We were just there.” I calculated how much time had passed since we walked out her door. Our trip back to the room, studying Tressa’s monitors…maybe fifteen minutes, twenty tops. “These rooms must be well insulated for us not to hear anything. Tressa’s room is right below Tory’s.”
I thought about the couple that had boarded the elevator as we left to meet Tory. My spidey-senses had taken a nose dive at the time. A flash-back of the passionate moment with Kendra flooded my mind. I glanced her way. Her gaze coated me in heat.
“What is it?” she asked.
The elevator doors dinged open, we entered, and before the doors completely closed, that same couple that had boarded the elevator earlier walked out of the room opposite 318.
I slipped my hand between the doors.
“What are you doing?” Kendra surprised me by pressing the button to open the doors. “Jenna’s rushing down the hall, apparently her tether to me is growing in length.”
I had no idea what Kendra was talking about with Jenna and a tether, but I did know those two people walking down the hall in the opposite direction of the elevator needed to answer a few questions. Maybe they saw or heard something. Or, they were involved in what happened with Tory. Apparently, Jenna must have the same thought about them.
Kendra followed me out of the elevator and walked fast to keep up with my stride.
“Stop,” I yelled before they rounded a corner. Both of them hesitated and turned toward me.
“Are you talking to us?” the guy asked, his forefinger waving between him and his girlfriend.
I nodded and kept walking. Kendra grabbed my hand. I wasn’t sure why, but it felt natural to me. They walked toward us, which gave me an immediate impression they weren’t involved with what happened in Tory’s room.
“Hey, you’re the couple we saw in the elevator earlier,” the woman said, her eyes grew wide.
“Yes, we are.” I stopped in front of them and Kendra let go of my hand. I glanced her way, and she reassured me with a smile. “Would you mind answering a few questions?”
The guy frowned, his girlfriend snuggled closer to him. “Why?”
“There’s a friend staying in the room across from yours. We believe someone might have broken into it a little while ago. We’re hoping you might have heard something or saw someone in the hallway?” I studied both of them, and neither gave an expression they’d seen or heard anything worthy of mentioning. “Were you here at all within the last half hour?”
The young woman’s face blushed a bright red and she giggled.
The guy said, “Well, yeah, we came back to the room for a quickie. We never got off the elevator, just rode it back up to our floor.”
The girl slapped his shoulder. “Harry, no one wants to hear those kinds of details.”
“We had the music amped. So, even though we were in the room, we heard nothing,” the young man responded, and then grabbed his girl’s hand. He turned to her. “Charlene, shall we go back to the room?”
She giggled and off they went, back to their room.
“Do you think they were telling the truth?” Kendra stared at the couple as they rushed through the door of their room. “Jenna believes they were doing exactly what they told you. Would you like her to morph through the wall and take a peek?”
“Hell, no. I agree with Jenna. I didn’t notice any facial tics or markers in their expressions to indicate a lie.” Frustration hit mid-chest, nearly cutting off my breath. What happened to Tory? “I’m pretty sure Tory’s cover got blown, but how? We need to contact Gimbel. Let’s go back and see if Tressa’s had any luck with that.”
* * *
Jenna matched Derek’s stride back to the elevator, even though she appeared to be floating a foot off the ground beside him. I followed close behind. “Shouldn’t we check the room in case there’s been something left behind?”
“At this point, Gimbel should take over the room part of the investigation. He’ll inform us of anything gone awry. He’s on friendly terms with Jackson. I know they’ve met a couple times in the past regarding the Merretti family,” Derek said, speaking low-toned and leaning toward me, his breath soft against my ear. “We can’t be too careful here right now.” He straightened his posture.
I’d lost my extra stiletto height, so I lifted my chin to see him look down and smile. A heated surge zipped through my veins and my breath caught…out loud, on a gasp.
“Wow, Sparky, pull yourself together or let yourself go.” Jenna chuckled. “You need some good lovin’, woman, as much as Derek needs it. I mean, honestly, he’s practically drooling. Look at him.”
I was looking at him, openly, and with too much passion flowing into my system. For whatever reason, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his smile and that dimple, so close to the corner of his mouth, and those lips. Maybe the wine I’d drank earlier affected my inhibitions, maybe Derek’s was affected also.
Ding. The elevator doors swooshed open. Derek grunted, loud enough to shake me back to reality and Tory. What happened to her?
“Let’s get back to the room. I have some questions for Tressa.” Derek grabbed my hand and pulled me along. When we reached room 218, he asked, “You got a key card?”
I shook my head and knocked on the door. Jenna disappeared through the barrier.
“It’s Derek. Open the door.”
Tressa swung it wide. “There you are. I was ready to call Luke and Ray back to find you.” She waved us in. “Go look at the monitors.”
Jenna stood in front of them already. “Oh. My. Gods. I just realized who that woman is.”
The monitor zoomed in on the woman’s face. I wasn’t sure how the camera set-up could be so clear, but I recognized her also.
Tressa pointed to the woman, and said, “She was the number one top model a couple years ago, all over the television, in magazines, and then the news covered her marriage to Robert Lyndowl, a major defense lawyer for the top dogs of organized crime.”
“That’s what I remember,” Jenna added. “Misty Landis-Lyndowl.” She shook her head. “There was a lot of seedy smut written about Misty…how she made it to the top in the modeling empire. She sued one of the magazines that posted some of her sordid behavior, and guess who the lawyer was that came to her defense?”
“Robert Lyndowl,” I said without thought of it being out loud.
“You know of him?” Derek asked.
“No, but I’ve heard of him from someone close.” I nodded my head and arched a brow, hoping he would get who I meant.
“Oh.” His right brow rose. “She was in the news a lot a couple years ago. Did your ‘someone close’ know her personally?”
So, he did get who I was talking about.
Jenna said, “I wanted to get to know her better. We met at a bar, before Lisa and I got serious. Misty swung toward either gender and let me tell you, she held nothing back in the bedroom. Too scary, the kinky stuff that woman was into. One night with her was enough for a lifetime.”
“Yes, intimately, for one night,” I responded to Derek, and then I added the other details.
Derek’s brows drew together. “Either one of those things, her lawyer husband or her kinky sexual prowess would be a calling card for Vinny. That explains their relationship.”
Jenna moved to another monitor. “I’m sure Lyndowl pimps his wife around for a nice deep connection…although, with her taste, she most likely loves the role she plays. They probably have all kinds of leverage on men and women alike. She wanted to record what we did that night.”
Derek glanced at Tressa, and said, “I bet Mr. Lyndowl has some major connections with the Wilmington Police Department, along with other police departments. Tressa, do some research on Lyndowl and his wife. Let’s see who the skeletons are in their closet.”
“My friend also mentioned Misty wanted to record the kinky intimacy the night they spent together.” I thought it important that Derek and Tressa knew this part before the research. That might change some research sources. “Imagine if that’s something she did or still does on a regular basis. That would make some pretty damning leverage. Bet she has a number of skeletons in her closet.”
Jenna added, “I could actually see Lyndowl using that sort of thing for his benefit with his down and dirty clientele. Think of the possibilities with a down and dirty wife on top of that.”
I repeated Jenna’s comment.
A set-up like the Lyndowl’s had could make anyone’s life pure hell.