“Richard, maybe you should tell me what’s going on here.”
“Nothing’s going on. I told you, I just needed to get away.”
“Right. And this is really Club Med. Time to quit shoveling the bullshit, Richard.”
He crossed the room and sat down on the bed. He still looked jumpy, his body humming with nervous energy. “All right, look, Maddie. I’ll tell you. But I don’t want you to get mad at me.”
Fat chance of that. But I nodded anyway.
Richard sighed. “I didn’t mean for things to get this out of hand. And I’m sorry I just left like that, but I couldn’t take the chance of anyone following me. I had to get out of there.”
“Because of Greenway?”
“Yeah.”
I sat down beside him. He looked so pathetic I almost felt sorry for him. “Maybe you’d better start at the beginning.”
Richard sighed again. Then he proceeded to tell much the same story Ramirez had. Richard had been in debt. So, when his client, Devon Greenway, wanted to shuffle some money around, Richard had agreed to help set up the dummy corporations in Mrs. Greenway’s name in exchange for a small cut of the profits. Two million dollars small. (He so owed me a pair of really expensive Blahniks when this was all over.) The plan had been to funnel everything into Swiss bank accounts and no one would be the wiser. Only an over zealous accounting clerk at Securities and Exchange had found a minor accounting error. That’s when everything started to go wrong.
To make matters worse, somewhere in all the paper shuffling, the twenty mil had disappeared. Greenway had suspected Richard of taking it, and Richard had suspected Greenway was holding out on him. Neither was willing to leave town without it, but with NewTone suddenly under investigation, they’d both gone into hiding.
“How do you just lose twenty million dollars?” I asked when he finished the narrative.
“I don’t know. We had the money travel through a series of different accounts to lose the paper trail. And it’s not in any of them.”
“Well, who had access to those accounts?”
“Just Greenway, his wife, and I.” Richard paused. He must have read the facts settling on my face because he quickly protested, his voice going high and whiney. “Look, I know this looks bad, but you’ve got to believe me. I had nothing to do with killing anyone. I’ve been here the whole time. Pumpkin, I swear I wouldn’t do that.”
As much as this new whiney side of Richard was starting to annoy me, I was inclined to believe him. I didn’t think Richard had the stomach to shoot a man. Never mind drive into the Valley.
An alternative brewed in the back of my mind as Richard got up and checked the windows again. Bunny had admitted that she’d been present at one of Greenway and Richard’s meetings. What if Greenway had been as careless with his other lady friends? What if one of the Bimbo Parade was smarter than she appeared? Unfortunately the list of Greenway’s bedtime playmates was about as long as my mother’s vintage wedding train.
I was about to ask Richard what he knew about Greenway’s extra curricular activities when a knock sounded at the door. My stomach jumped into my throat.
Ramirez.
Richard leapt away from the window, his gaze whipping wildly from me to the door.
“Who is that?”
I bit my lip. “Well, I, uh, kind of got a replacement date to the wedding.”
“Replacement date?”
“More like a ride, really.” With the added perks of knee grabbing and French kissing.
Richard waved his hands in the air. “Look, just get rid of him.”
“Open up, police,” I heard Ramirez yell from the other side of the door.
“Police?!” Richard’s voice rose two octaves and he looked like he had ants in his pants, jumping from one foot to the other. “You’re dating the police?”
Okay, I wasn’t sure how suddenly Mr. Did-I-forget-to-mention-I’m-Married was making me feel guilty, but I kind of did. “Sort of. It’s that detective that came to see you. Ramirez.”
“Detective Ramirez!? You brought him here?”
“I didn’t bring him. He kind of brought himself.” Which was the truth.
“Well, make him go away.”
Ramirez banged on the door again.
“Richard, you can’t run forever,” I reasoned. “You have to turn yourself in.”
I moved toward the door.
But Richard stopped me, laying a hand on my arm. “Don’t do this to me. Please, pumpkin.”
Ugh. I was beginning to hate this pumpkin thing.
As it turned out I didn’t have a choice. Before I could even jerk free of Richard’s grip, Ramirez burst through the door, gun drawn. I was pretty impressed. It was very Bruce Willis.
“Shit,” Richard retreated to the far side of the room, hands up in a surrender motion. “Don’t shoot, I’m unarmed. I know the law. You can’t shoot an unarmed man.”
Ramirez looked from me to Richard. He raised his eyebrows, silently asking if I was really serious about this clown. At the moment, I was having my doubts.
“Are you okay?” Ramirez asked me.
“I’m fine.” I paused. “He didn’t do it.” I know, it was a feeble attempt, but I had to make it. And, I realized, I honestly believed it. It was painfully obvious now that Richard didn’t have the guts to shoot anyone.
But it made any trace of Ramirez’s concern for my safety disappear. His face settled into those hard Schick commercial lines and just like that he was the unreadable Bad Cop again. He crossed the room in one quick stride and before I could say Miranda Rights, Richard’s hands were cuffed behind his back and Ramirez was doing the right to remain silent speech.
A lump knotted in my throat and I balled my fists at my sides. Only right at the moment I wasn’t sure who to be more angry at. Richard for getting involved in such a stupid scheme to begin with, or Ramirez for arresting the father of my possible child. Or, to be honest, myself, for leading Ramirez right to him. I suddenly wondered if this had been Ramirez’s plan all along. Why he’d sat through my mother’s kitschy wedding and made nice with Grandmother.
“You can’t do this,” I protested. “He’s innocent. He didn’t kill anyone.”
Ramirez wasn’t moved. He didn’t even look at me, dialing a number into his cell phone instead and requesting backup.
“He was here the whole time. Please, don’t do this.” God, I was pleading as pathetically as Richard had been just a minute ago.
Only Ramirez wasn’t half as receptive as I’d been.
“I have a warrant,” he responded in a flat monotone. “He’s wanted for murder. I have to take him in.”
“But, but… you kissed me!”
Both Ramirez and Richard turned to look at me. Then at each other. Uh oh. I could feel the testosterone level rising in the air.
“It was just a little kiss,” I squeaked out.
Had Richard not been in handcuffs, I’d like to think he would have decked Ramirez. In reality, Ramirez would have had him flat on the floor before he even threw a punch. Either way, they let the animosity lie between them untouched as there was little Richard could do besides glare.
Ramirez held Richard by the shoulder and escorted him to the door. He paused as their little parade passed me. “I assume you can find another ride home.”
And then he left.
Shit. I picked up the lamp on the writing desk and threw it on the floor with all my might. Just my luck it was plastic and kind of bounced on the shag carpet instead of making a satisfying crash. Tears welled behind my eyes, but I was damned if I was going to cry again. I’d done enough of that in the last few days to last me a lifetime. And especially not over two idiots like Richard and Ramirez.
I hated them both. Richard could rot in jail for all I cared and Ramirez… Well Ramirez could kiss my granny panties. He’d had his tongue down my throat not fifteen minutes ago and now wouldn’t even listen to me. Just like a man. That was it. I was through with all of them. The whole male species. Maybe I’d make my grandmother proud and go join a convent after all.