To Have and to Heist(105)

“I see.” His face suggested he didn’t see at all, but I wasn’t going to do all the work for him.

“It would destroy my reputation,” I continued. “Event planning is a cutthroat business, Garcia. No pun intended. Reviews are everything.”

“Indeed.”

“And I believe in true love,” I said quickly. “She wanted to be with Ben. I wanted her to have love and life and all the happiness in the world.”

“Ben,” he said dryly. “The man she shot in the chest.”

“Gino shot him in the chest, but she approved the hit by nodding.” I wasn’t above breaching client confidentiality after what she’d done to Ben. If there had been a bus nearby, I would have thrown her under that, too. “Gino is a nasty piece of work. I hope you find him and lock him up for a long time.” Somehow Gino had managed to escape before the police rounded up Bella and her accomplices.

“How is Ben?” I asked while Garcia wrote in his notebook.

“In surgery,” he said. “I’ve been told he’ll make it.”

“It’s kind of symbolic if you think about it. Maybe true love doesn’t exist after all.”

Garcia didn’t seem to be interested in philosophizing about the meaning of love. Instead, he continued in the same monotone he’d been using since he’d joined us in the interrogation room. “Did you see the necklace that was allegedly stolen?”

“No.” I’d seen Anil’s replica but never the real thing.

Garcia stared at me. I stared at him. How had I forgotten how gorgeous he was? He had a dimple at the corner of his mouth that only appeared when he smiled. I was pretty sure he didn’t run away when bad guys showed up or disappear when you needed him most. I tried to imagine him without any clothes, but my mind kept going back to Jack, who was still MIA.

He picked up his black notebook and continued his recap of my story. “You tracked Bella to the warehouse alone in a vehicle that has since disappeared . . .”

“It’s not a safe neighborhood,” I said. “You might want to ask the uniforms to add a foot patrol. I was there only a few hours and now my van is gone. A serial killer probably has it. You might want to check your database for serial killers in the area.”

Garcia lifted an eyebrow. “Mmm-hmm.”

I shifted in my chair, trying to get comfortable. It was basic interrogation room issue—cold, hard metal with a slightly slanted seat. I wondered if he would oblige if I asked for a pillow.

Garcia poured himself a glass of water and took a long, slow sip. “You walked into the warehouse and warned Bella that her father had sent someone after her,” he continued. “You were surprised when that very person—Gino—suddenly showed up. There was an altercation. Gino shot her boyfriend. Her associates captured you and tied you up with five sets of duct tape and five sets of rope.”

“What can I say? They must have sensed I would be a formidable opponent. You learn a lot when you have three brothers. Menace must have oozed from my pores.”

He hesitated, frowning. “Not the kind of gratitude one would expect for the incredible service you’d done for her.”

“I witnessed an attempted murder,” I said. “I suspect she didn’t want to take the risk I might tell someone about her nod of approval.”

“Why not just ask Gino to shoot you, too?”

“Maybe she had friends who were getting married, and she wanted them to have the best damn wedding planner in Chicago. I got her an elephant, a family of ice swans, a last-minute dress alteration, an escape plan, and an expedited ordained minister after she poisoned her priest.”

“She poisoned a priest?”

I glanced over at Riswan to make sure it was okay to tell this part of the story. He gave me a brief nod to continue.

“Father McCormack. He’s at Mount Sinai Hospital. You can check it out. She poisoned him so he couldn’t perform the ceremony, but unlucky for her, I’m good at my job and I found a replacement.”

“I’ll add ‘priest poisoning’ to the report,” he said. “And I thought this was going to be a quiet night.”

I wasn’t getting a good vibe from Garcia. Usually, he shook his head in feigned exasperation, laughed at my jokes, and gave me warm, tender looks that made me feel melty inside.

“Two people arrived to buy the necklace,” he continued, reading from his book. “But before they could finish the transaction, a mysterious person in a ski mask arrived. He used a drone with Nerf darts to distract Bella and her associates and then cut you free.” Garcia paused. “Why was he wearing a ski mask?”

“Why does anyone wear a ski mask?” I retorted. “He didn’t want to be recognized.”

“I thought ski masks were for skiing in the cold.”

“That’s because you lack imagination, Garcia, but I won’t hold it against you.”

Riswan coughed a warning, and I gave myself a mental kick. Garcia wasn’t in a playful mood tonight.

“Instead of leaving the warehouse and running to safety, the masked man engaged Bella and her associates in a fight during which time Gino and the buyers disappeared. You stayed behind to try and save Ben. The masked man managed to single-handedly subdue your captors and disappeared before the paramedics arrived.” He put down his book. “Like Spider-Man.”