The Pregnancy Plot (Brothers In Arms: Retribution Book 2) by Carol Ericson

Author:Carol Ericson [Ericson, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781460388129
Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue
Published: 2015-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The room spun. He gripped the pizza box, crushing the cardboard. “What did you say?”

Holding up the napkin, she waved it in the air. “Tempest. You know, like the Shakespeare play, or I guess that was The Tempest. Or maybe it means tempest in a teapot or she’s referring to the oncoming storm.”

“Is it Lou’s handwriting?”

“As far as I can tell.” She crumpled the napkin in her fist and chucked it at the pizza box, still clutched in his hand.

He dipped to catch the balled-up napkin on top of the box, amazed at the steadiness of his hands when his mind was racing in a million different directions. “I’ll take this out. Anything else need to go in the Dumpster container?”

“Was there anything in the bathroom?”

“Just used toiletries. I put them in the trash can. Housekeeping can get rid of it when they clean the room.”

“Nothing else in here. I’ll locate Lou’s mother, Inez, and see if she wants Lou’s clothes and the contents of her purse. I’m guessing Inez will come out and handle Lou’s apartment in Portland.”

“I’ll take this stuff out while you give the room a once-over.”

As Nina pulled out the drawer of the nightstand, Jase headed for the door, holding the pizza box as if it were a silver platter and the crumpled napkin a bottle of nitroglycerine.

The napkin with Simon’s agency printed on it in Lou’s pocket certainly did have an explosive quality about it. Why the hell had Lou written Tempest on that napkin? What did she know about Tempest? She hadn’t even known Simon.

Had Chris Kitchens mentioned Tempest to Lou? His step faltered on the way to the Dumpster container. Was Chris Kitchens really Simon’s brother? They’d had only his word for it.

That, and a striking resemblance.

This afternoon, he’d request a background on Kitchens that he should’ve requested before allowing him anywhere near Nina. He’d done that for Kip Chandler already and he’d checked out as a small-time thief and junkie from Seattle whose brother the attorney had gotten out of a few scrapes.

When he reached the Dumpster container, he smoothed out the napkin on top of the cardboard, folded it and slipped it into his pocket. Lou had heard that name from someone—and he planned to find out from whom.

By the time he returned to the motel room, Nina had zipped up Lou’s bag and parked it next to the door.

“I think that’s everything. The police have her purse at the station, and...and I guess I can pick up her clothes from the hospital, where they took her for the autopsy.”

He wedged a finger beneath the chin she’d dropped to her chest. “Are you okay? I know you and Lou had a difficult relationship, but she was your stepsister, your father’s daughter.”

Her chin quivered and one tear rolled down her smooth skin. “Maybe she’s at peace now. It’s all I can hope for.”

He caught the tear on the edge of his thumb. “I’m sorry it was so hard, but it doesn’t sound as if Lou could’ve had a normal relationship with anyone.

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