others in the room, Marina noted that none of their faces reflected the same outrage. Most showed pity. Laura Dansinger’s chin dropped. She slowly brought it back up, meeting Marina’s gaze with pure strength of will.
“We were unofficially engaged,” Jade continued, showing them the four-carat diamond ring on her finger. “Daddy was going to announce it this week and Elliot was working on a surprise for me.”
“But you don’t really know who he met, do you?” Reed interjected calmly.
Jade’s voice cracked. “No.”
“Did he often spend the night at the Hartford Hotel?” Marina asked carefully.
Dabbing at her eyes, Jade took her time answering. “We…we went for lunch sometimes and after parties,” she admitted in a low voice.
Evening haven and afternoon delight? This more or less had been verified by some of the hotel staff’s statements to the police. Marina made a few notes in the little book she kept in her purse and kept her expression bland.
Reed looked up from his notes. “When he left the party, did you notice anyone else leaving?”
Jade shook her head negatively. “No.”
“Do you know if he’d received any threatening notes or letters?” Reed asked.
“No. Everyone liked him.” More tears fell from Jade’s eyes. She wiped at them with a tissue.
Marina chewed the top of her pen. “We need a list of all his friends and ex-girlfriends.”
Jade’s chin came up, her lips quivering again. She’d obviously been hiding something. She chose her words carefully. “His ex-girlfriend was Lissa Rawlins and he dropped her when he met me. She…she was angry at first, but I think she got over it.”
Nodding carefully, Marina noted it. Then she urged Jade to list the names of Elliot’s friends and note which friends had been at the party. As she and Reed finished the interview, she asked if Elliot had known Colton Edwards. Jade did not recognize the name, but added that Edwards could have worked at Quarter Financial with Elliot or attended MUC with him.
Respectfully reserving the right to return with more questions if necessary, Reed and Marina left the mayor’s mansion.
In the interest of getting as much done as possible, they stopped to pick up fast-food sandwiches on the way to their next interview. Eating as they traveled, they arrived at the apartment of Elliot’s best friend, Josh Jones, in Rogers Park.
Jones was obviously grief-stricken about the death of his friend. Through questioning, he basically confirmed the things Jade told them, except he thought they should check the alibi for Elliot’s ex-girlfriend, Lissa. When Elliot dropped her for Jade, Lissa’d had a hard time accepting it and had been angry enough to stalk him and cause a scene in several restaurants and clubs. When asked about Elliot’s late-night meeting, Jones told them that Elliot sometimes met and slept with other women on the side, and that everyone but Jade knew that was the reason he’d left the party early. Jones knew nothing about the woman he assumed Elliot went to meet.
Marina and Reed left Jones’ apartment and hurried to the last-known address for Lissa Rawlins. It was a condo near Grant Park. Flashing their badges, they got past the front desk guard. According to the guard and the sign on the mailbox in the lobby, it was still Lissa’s place, but no one answered the bell or the phone number Jones had given them. On the way over Reed had checked with Homicide, and they had not been able to talk to Lissa, either. Marina and Reed decided they would call back in the morning.
Heading for the office, Reed and Marina agreed to call it a day. Halfway there, Marina’s stomach growled so mournfully that she turned her head in embarrassment.
On the other side of the car Reed chuckled. “Want me to stop for some carry-out?”
“I would,” she replied regretfully, “but I promised to have dinner with Dad tonight.
“Father, daughter dinner, huh?” Reed grinned.
“Yeah. He insisted, and he’s been a little weird lately.”
Reed turned his head to make momentary eye contact. “You don’t think he’s sick?”
“I hope not.” Marina considered the thought and dismissed it. Her father was a big baby. If he were sick, she’d know it because for most of her twenty-eight years she’d been his number-one choice for unofficial nurse. “Nah, he seems to be having some sort of midlife crisis.”
“Again?”
Something in Reed’s tone made her want to defend her father. He could be very dramatic and quite emotional, but she never doubted his love or that he had her best interests at heart. “Okay, Reed. Cut him some slack. He hit his fiftieth birthday in January and has been trying to fight getting older every step of the way.”
Reed simply laughed, a warm, rumbling sound that made her smile in return.
“All right, now, you’ll get there someday yourself,” she warned.
“Lord, I hope so.” Reed maneuvered the car around a corner. “I plan to have it all by then.”
“And what does having it all mean for you these days?” she asked, venturing deeper into the personal without thinking.
“Smart, hot-looking, sex freak of a wife who’s crazy about me, a couple of kids, big house in the burbs, a job as captain, and a Jag.”
“You don’t ask for much, do you?” she quipped.
“Hey, I’m working on it. What about you?”
Marina clasped her hands behind her head. “Tall, good-looking hunk of a husband who treats me like a queen and knows how to admit when he’s wrong, a couple of kids, a house that we love, a challenging job, the latest Mustang…”
They were at the red light near the station. Reed turned to face her. She sensed seriousness beneath his light tone. “You’ve got the sports car and the job. How are you coming on the rest?”
Marina forced a smile. “Now I’ve got to find the man, then work on the house and kids.”
They flashed their badges as he drove through the gate into the station lot. He spoke in an even tone. “What happened to Emilio?”
She fought an unreasonable wave of guilt. She’d really made a mess of ending things with Reed by letting things simmer between them too long. Ending the romance between them had been difficult. All was fair in love and war, wasn’t it? She answered him in a casual tone. “Emilio was a nice guy, but it didn’t work out.”
Reed parked the car. He took the key out of the ignition and faced her. Most of the warmth had faded from his expression. “That’s too bad.”
“Yes, it is,” she replied, pushing back with her tone. The sudden distance between them made Marina feel as if she’d been slapped. There’d been an unsaid criticism in his expression and his voice. There’d been a hint of “you made your bed now lie in it” in his tone, too. That made her mad. Reed had no right to judge her or her actions. If his shorts were still twisted over what had happened in the past, it was too damned bad.
