Purple Knot by Raquel Byrnes

Author:Raquel Byrnes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: White Rose Publishing

Purple Knot

24

While Salem checked in I wandered around the lobby of the hotel and pretended to be intensely interested in the flower arrangements scattered around the room. Jimmy sat on the couch, put his elbows on his knees, and held his head in his hands. My stomach churned. I replayed his last answer. A shrug and a deer-in-the-headlights look weren’t exactly encouraging. What did he mean he was a little ‘lost’?

Salem was filling out paperwork up at the counter. I bit my lip and plucked a rose petal from the flower arrangement. I wanted to talk to Jimmy but then again, I didn’t. With Salem ever present it seemed like I wouldn’t get the chance.

My mind wouldn’t stop grinding away at what Jimmy said. Why did my life in California make him feel lost? Did it affect our relationship, somehow? “Of course it would, you dummy.” If we’re going to make this work how could we do it from two different states? Was it too much of an obstacle now that he thought about it? Was his comment about me having such a great life out in California a way to let me down gently? I wiped sweaty palms on my slacks. I had no idea what Jimmy and I were to each other right now. We weren’t engaged, but we were way past dating, right? I glanced at Jimmy on the couch. Was he having second thoughts? Is that why he was suddenly so distant? I went round and round in my head until Salem walked up to me.

“I’m all set.”

“OK.”

I forced myself to sound natural, but judging from Salem’s face I wasn’t doing a good job of it.

We went to Salem’s room and he hooked up the camera to the television. We all three sat on the bed and went over the video of Salem’s flirt-fest with Cary. He turned twelve shades of red and fast forwarded to when he was in the empty conference room.

“OK, so what I think I was looking at was an inventory of the labs in Parker’s department.”

I looked at the images of the papers and drummed my fingers on my knees, thinking.

“That’s not very helpful.”

Jimmy cleared his throat. “What were you looking for exactly?”

“Parker’s financials show him checking into Glen-Willow rehab center. I was hoping to catch him with his hand in the cookie jar.”

Salem and Jimmy looked at me with expectation.

“People who are addicted often run out of control with their spending. Jimmy, you told me that Parker was on an allowance. If he had an out of control gambling habit, he’d be spending way more than his allowance, no matter the amount.”

“What makes you think it’s not drugs?” Jimmy asked.

Salem answered him. “Because he’s too healthy looking.”

“If Parker was doing drugs with enough frequency to end up in rehab then he’d look way worse. With the amount of money available to him he definitely wouldn’t be able to hide his problem from his coworkers, and would certainly have had some hospital stays.

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