Hudson: SEALs of Honor Book 27 Page 7

  “Well, considering that everybody’s been looking for you all afternoon,” he said, “I think I do.”

  She stopped and stared at him in surprise. “Why would they be looking for me?”

  “Because you were seen at the hotel after the explosion, and this man helped you out of it.”

  “He doesn’t know anything,” she said.

  “Are you saying you weren’t in the hotel?” Dennis looked at her with interest.

  She sniffed. “Well, yes, I was. I was going to see somebody, and then I changed my mind. And, when I was standing there, all hell broke loose,” she said, “and I quickly made my way back down again.”

  “And who was it you went to see?”

  “Somebody I met casually,” she said, with a flick of her wrist.

  “Ah,” he said. “Was it Franco Marshawn, by any chance?”

  Just the barest sign of a wince crossed her face. “Whatever,” she said.

  “Well, I think we need to take you downtown, so I can have a little talk with you,” Dennis said quietly.

  “I’m certainly not going anywhere with you,” she said.

  “Well, Mr. Marshawn was found dead,” he murmured, “and you were likely the last person to see him alive, so you certainly do have some questions to answer.”

  She snorted. “That old blowhard? Of course he’d die on me,” she said. “He was probably dead before I ever got up to his floor.”

  “Maybe. Did you actually see him?”

  “Nope, I didn’t. I told you. I changed my mind. I never did see him.”

  “Interesting,” he said. “So what was your reason for seeing him again?”

  “I already told you,” she said. “I went to visit him, but then I thought better of it and changed my mind.” Exasperated, she said, “Young man, you really need to increase your vitamins because your short-term memory is terrible.”

  “My short-term memory is fine,” Dennis said, crossing his arms. “I’d like to confirm your ID, please.”

  “That’s nice,” she said, with a tilt of her head. “But I don’t have to show you anything.”

  “Well, you certainly have to identify yourself,” he said.

  She glared stiffly and hung on to her purse.

  At that point in time, Avery stepped forward. “It would be so much easier,” she said to the woman, “if you would just show them a piece of ID.”

  The woman looked at her and glared. “What are you doing with these two men?” she snapped. “Unless you’re a cop too.”

  “No,” she said. “Hudson, the man who saved your life, is a friend of mine.”

  “I was fine,” she said, with a wave of her hand. “I shouldn’t have to be responsible for his interference.”

  “Well, you were happy enough to see me when we were going down the stairs, leaving the hotel on fire,” he said.

  “Not really,” she said. “But the circumstances weren’t giving me much choice. In truth, I was running away.”

  “That’s nice,” Dennis said. “You still have to show your ID.”

  She shifted her position, as if to tighten her hold on her purse.

  Hudson made a move so fast, he suddenly had her purse, then handed it off to Dennis. With her screeching the whole way, Dennis opened it up, pulled out her wallet, and flipped it open, looking for a driver’s license. “Willoughby. Martha Willoughby,” he said. “Why was that so hard?”

  She stood there, glaring at him. “My lawyer will have a heyday with you, young man.”

  He flipped through several of the credit cards, and then he whistled. “Or maybe you’re Susan Grantham,” he said, “or here we have an Elizabeth Phillips.” He looked up at her. “Now you are definitely coming down to the station with me.”

  She glared at Hudson. “This is all your fault,” she snapped. “How dare you interfere in my life like this.”

  “How dare I save you from an explosion and fire?” he asked, with a nod. “Yeah, that makes total sense.”

  “Well, I didn’t have anything to do with that,” she snapped. “It was those other two men.”

  “Exactly.” Hudson looked at Dennis and said, “She saw them too.”

  “Well, of course I saw them. They were hard to miss.”

  “Where did you see them?”

  At that, she buttoned up her lip.

  “What did you see them do?” Dennis asked.

  “I didn’t see them do anything,” she said. “They were just walking down the hallway.”

  “Did you see what room they went into?”

  “The two of them seemed odd,” she said, “and I figured they were up to something. I just didn’t know what.”

  “How about a little more information?” Dennis said. “It’s like pulling teeth to get anything out of you.”

  “That’s not my problem,” she said and snatched her purse back. “Let me go, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

  “I think you’ve already told us what you know about them,” Hudson said. “You have a lot more to explain now anyway.”

  “I don’t have to explain anything to you,” she snapped. “You just need to go away and leave me alone.”

  “Not happening,” Hudson said cheerfully. “But nice try. Still, that one guy who’s still alive might have seen you, since you saw them together. Which means that you’re in danger.”

  Her eyes widened. “What do you mean, the one guy who’s still alive? When I saw them, they were both alive.”

  “Well, guess what? One’s dead. Murdered. And you were the last person to see him alive too.”

  She fell silent at that point in time and wouldn’t answer any more questions.

  With a glance at Dennis, Hudson said, “You’d better take her down and lock her up. Maybe she’ll be a little more cooperative in the morning.”

  “I’ll have made bail by then,” she snapped.

  Dennis just shook his head and called for a cruiser to come pick her up. He turned to Hudson. “Obviously more’s going on here than we suspected. While she’s definitely involved somehow with the older man,” he said, “I don’t know what her involvement may be with the two military men.”

  “There is no involvement,” she said, resentment thick in her voice. “And I didn’t have anything to do with the old guy’s death either.”

  “Oh! So at least you’re admitting he’s dead,” Dennis said with glee.

  “You’re the one who said so,” she said. “That’s entrapment.”

  “It is what it is,” he said, with a cheeky smile. “Keep talking. We might get some answers out of you yet.”

  “I have nothing to say,” she said. But then she ruined it again by opening her mouth. “I didn’t see those men, other than they walked down the hallway.”

  “But you did see them go into two rooms?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “What floor were you on at the time?”

  “Second. After leaving the two rooms, they walked out toward the stairway.”

  “In which case they were likely coming upstairs where they saw me again,” Hudson said, with a frown, “because they were going up in an elevator, and I saw them get off upstairs.”

  “Sure, they probably went to the stairwell and came down here to get to their rooms.” She shrugged. “Everybody would know to do that. You don’t want anybody to know that you got off on the floor you got off on.”

  Hudson studied her. “Unless you don’t care. Unless you’re not trying to do anything devious or criminal.”

  “Who gives a crap what I do?” she said. “I’m old.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Avery said in a thoughtful voice. She stepped closer and said, “An awful lot of makeup is on your face.”

  The woman glared at her.

  Hudson looked from Avery to the older woman and then grabbed a tissue from his pocket and swiped it across her cheek. And, sure enough, half the wrinkles slipped away too.

  She screeched, shrieking about how he had hurt her.


  “Oh, give it a rest already, will you?” Hudson looked at Dennis and said, “We need to—”

  Dennis stared in amazement. “Wow,” he said, “this just keeps getting better.”

  At that, Avery laughed. “She’s stressed out and started to sweat. That’s why I saw it.”

  The woman glared at her too, but now she was more solemn than angry, as if she had finally realized that her gig was up.

  “Do we know for sure she’s not in with the two military men on this?” Avery asked suddenly.

  “Will you three stop talking as if I’m not even here?” the unidentified woman shrieked.

  Ignoring the woman further, Hudson looked at Avery with respect. “Now that we know she is quite younger than she’s trying to appear, that is not out of the question.”

  The woman looked at him and shook her head. “I don’t know them.”

  “Says you,” he said, “but everything out of your mouth so far has been a lie.”

  She snapped her mouth shut again.

  He looked over at Dennis and said, “Let me know if you get anything from her.”

  “I doubt that she’ll talk,” Dennis said, “but maybe.”

  “She might,” Hudson said, smiling. “It depends on how much danger she’s in.”

  “I’m not in danger,” she said in an exhausted voice.

  “Of course you are. You were seen not just once, but twice, same as I was.”

  Her eyes widened. “They saw you?”

  “Yep,” he said, “and, for all I know, we’re both marked.”

  “They don’t care about us,” she said. “They were there at that hotel for a purpose. They finished their purpose and are long gone.”

  “Sure, but do you really think they want to be identified? And remember. One is dead now.”

  “They won’t be ID’d,” she said. “Just like I use makeup, they did too.”

  He stopped and stared. “They did?”

  She snorted. “You’re not very good at your job, are you?” she snapped. “You didn’t even see that?”

  “Maybe not,” he said. “But I didn’t see them for very long either.”

  “I did. Their skin tones were too perfectly matched to each other.”

  He thought about it and nodded. “I wondered if they were brothers.”

  “That’s just the impression they gave you,” she said. “The hair added to that.”

  “With brush cuts and similar builds.”

  “One had a limp,” she said.

  “Yes, the one on the right. I saw that when he went down the hallway.”

  “Well, he was on the left when I saw him,” she snapped. “I wouldn’t put them any older than late thirties.”

  Hudson frowned, as he thought about it, and said, “Still a lot of life in those shoulders and a lot of energy in their steps. So I’d have to agree.”

  Dennis nodded. “Any other details that would help us identify them?”

  “Something on the back of the one guy’s hand,” Hudson said, “but I didn’t see what it was.”

  “It was a tattoo,” she said. “I saw a bit of an anchor.”

  “Very observant, aren’t you?” Dennis asked.

  “In my line of work, you have to be,” she snapped.

  “And your line of business is?” Avery asked, not quite so delicately.

  And again the woman tried for silence, but she was struggling. “I want a deal,” she said suddenly.

  “A deal for what? What you did?” Dennis asked in a crafty voice.

  She glared at him. “You can’t prove I did anything,” she said.

  “No, but having IDs in three different names will get your ass in one hell of a fine mess.”

  She nodded. “I realize that,” she said, “but I did recognize something else about those guys.”

  “And what was that?”

  “Oh no, it was my eyes, my craftiness, that saw something of value,” she said, “and you’ll have to pay for it.”

  Dennis snorted. “I don’t have to pay for anything,” he said. “You’ll be in jail. It can be one of the crappiest cells or a nicer one. That’s up to you.”

  “I’m not going to jail,” she said. “I can’t.”

  “Not really your choice,” he said. “And, if I find out you’ve had anything to do with the old man’s death, then you’ll be staying for one hell of a long time.”

  She shook her head. “He was dead when I got there.” At that, they all fell silent and stared at her. She shrugged. “I was planning on fleecing him, but, when I got there, he was already dead. I’m not a pro but it looked like a heart attack.”

  “Really? And what position was he in?” Hudson asked.

  “He was crumpled on the floor, facing away from the bed,” she said, “on his side.”

  Dennis looked over at Hudson, who gave a tiny nod. “And what killed him?”

  “I have no idea,” she said. “I didn’t want to hang around and find out.”

  “So you just left him like that, without calling 9-1-1?” Avery asked, aghast.

  “What else should I have done?” the woman asked in exasperation. “He was dead, and the building was coming down around us.”

  Good point. He didn’t want to say it out loud, but it was obvious to everyone. Hudson looked over at the con woman. “Do you think those military-looking guys had anything to do with it?”

  *

  The woman studied Hudson for a long moment and said, “I don’t know. It’s only now that you’re questioning me that I’m wondering just what their role was in all of this.”

  “Well, we already know that they’re involved,” he said, “but one of the two men is dead, and the only other deaths in the entire building are a staff member and the old man.”

  She snorted. “And of course I’m stuck with the old man dying on me.”

  “Well, if you were there to fleece him, you can hardly get mad at him for turning the tables and leaving you holding the bag,” Avery said.

  The woman glared at her. “You know how hard it is to make a living anymore?”

  Avery nodded. “I do. You could try getting a job, like I did,” Avery said.

  “Had a job, lost my job. Now life just sucks.”

  “Well, you’re really good with makeup—and apparently excel at fleecing old men into thinking that you’re an old woman and that you’ll spend the night with them.”

  She shrugged. “It’s easy enough to do, and most of the time they can’t get it up anyway,” she said, “so it’s hardly any work. They’re just happy to have companionship.”

  “Well, you could try somebody your own age.”

  “They aren’t paying me though, are they? And you can bet they’ll want a hell of a lot more than to sit with them and a glass of wine, while they toddle off to sleep.”

  “Yes, I guess that makes sense,” Avery murmured, “but you could also save your money and get out of that life.”

  “Trouble is, everything else doesn’t appeal anymore,” she said. “There’s a certain amount of joy in the game.”

  “What do these old guys do for you though?” Avery asked.

  “Nothing,” she said in surprise. “I do give them a nice evening, and that’s really what they’re looking for,” she said. “The heirs are usually waiting in the wings for them to die off, just to get whatever money they’ve got. So I don’t feel bad getting money from them. I don’t take it from anybody who actually needs it.”

  At that, Hudson snorted. “So how do you know what they need?” he asked.

  “It’s part of my process in picking out my clients,” she said.

  “How long have you been in Vail?” Dennis asked.

  “Not long enough,” she said. “I quite like it here.”

  “Too long,” Dennis said. “You’re hardly the type of upstanding citizen we want in Vail.”

  She snorted. “You and your upstanding citizens have no clue what’s going on in this town,” she said, with a shake of her head. “Drug run
ning is everywhere, and more people, like me, are out there than you could even imagine.”

  “Doing what you’re doing?” Avery asked. “It seems like a fairly select group of people who are your targets. And I wouldn’t have thought that age group was that prevalent here, as compared to a retirement-based city.”

  “They are not common here,” she said, “but that’s why I do well in this city. Everybody else is targeting the rich resort people, coming in for a week or two.”

  “And you’re what, just after the old regulars?” Avery asked.

  “I don’t care where they come from,” she said candidly, “as long as they’ve got enough money to pay for dinner and an evening out and possibly have a little bit on them that I can help myself to afterward.”

  “After what? Like after they fall asleep?” Avery asked, aghast.

  “Usually,” she said in that same bright tone. “It’s easy for you to judge because you’ve got money and a roof over your head,” she said, “but everybody doesn’t have that.”

  “But those of us who do,” Avery said, “most of us got it the good old-fashioned way, … called working.”

  “Boring,” she said, with a wave of her hand.

  “So which one of these names is actually yours?” Dennis asked, holding out three different ID cards. She glared at him. “Well, we’ll run your fingerprints,” he said. “That should tell us.”

  “No, it won’t.”

  “So either you don’t have a record yet,” Dennis said for emphasis, “or it’s been since you were a child.”

  She just shrugged and didn’t say anything.

  “Her real name isn’t one of those.” Hudson looked over at Avery. “We won’t get anything else out of her. Are you ready to go home?”

  “Sure,” she said, “it was definitely an exciting end to the evening.” He laughed, held out his arm, and said, “Not your usual date, I’m sure.”

  The woman looked at her and said, “See? You even have a good boyfriend.”

  “Well, a minute ago you were ranting and raving about him being no good,” Avery said, “so I’m not sure your opinion on it matters. Besides, I’m not the one trying to fleece old men.”

  “It depends on if they’re good people too and how much money they have on them,” she said. “They pay a pretty penny to spend the evening with me as it is.”