Page 49 of For Better or for Ransom

His lips quivered—he was unsure of what to tell Sol. She looked at him with expectant eyes. He swallowed, cleared his throat, and was about to say something silly and not well thought out like, “What do I have to do so that you decide you need to ask me to marry you?” when Sol’s phone started ringing.

He sighed, relieved.

Sol

Never a dull moment. They had now reached the halfway point in the solving of a case in which everything took a second-row seat—relationship conversations included. Sol breathed deeply. Luke had been about to tell her something that he’d been keeping inside for a few days now. But of course, right when they were about to have a moment alone, her telephone went off.

She’d have ignored it and returned to Luke. But it was freaking Isabel Teixidor calling.

Sol picked up, putting the stage director on speakerphone, even if Luke would only be able to follow the conversation loosely.

“Isabel, hola,” Sol answered in Catalan.

“Have you seen the article your husband wrote?” Isabel also said in Catalan, not bothering with greetings.

“Ex-husband,” Sol was gritting her teeth. She could have sworn Luke had flinched when Isabel used the term marit to refer to Miquel. Then again, the word for husband in Italian was very similar to Catalan. “But yes, I read it. Why do you ask?”

“Well, don’t you find it genius?”

“Genius?” Sol wasn’t following.

“I told Miquel I’m the detectives’ main suspect.” Isabel was gloating.

Sol’s brows drew together. She looked at Luke standing in front of her, confused. She picked up his notebook from the counter and made a note with what Isabel had just said. He read and nodded. “And why would you do such a thing?” she asked the director.

“Publicity of course! Miquel wrote an article, El baño de Edipo gets mentioned plenty of times. This is such great publicity for the play.”

Sol blinked while processing what Isabel had told her. “I mean…it’s not such great publicity for you. Don’t you think?”

Sol added the word publicity on her translation notes for Luke. Highlighted it a few times for effect. He sighed.

“Nonsense,” Isabel dismissed Sol. “You know how it goes. No publicity is bad publicity. At the end of the day, I had nothing to do with Leonardo’s disappearance. But everyone will want to go see the play of the director whose name was accused of doing it.”

“I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say to that.” Sol was truly dumbfounded.

“Well, don’t say anything and just write an article about me as well,” Isabel continued. “Look, I know Miquel’s piece will only get so far. But if you were to also write about it for Red Carpet, in English, that would get picked up by many other English-language media outlets.”

Sol had promised her editor at Red Carpet she’d do at least another piece on Leonardo Pascual. The actor’s disappearance hadn’t yet caused a total media frenzy because of the lid his team—led by Penny Carr—had put on it. But the right kind of titillating headline and narrative could change things. Sol wasn’t going to be the one to enable someone like Isabel Teixidor though. It wasn’t only that Sol didn’t like the stage director’s methods. She didn’t like the woman.

“I’m afraid that’s out of the question,” Sol said.

“I was afraid you were going to say that.” Isabel huffed. “You know I could call your detective boy toy, tell him you’re having an affair with the ex.”

Luke’s gaze narrowed, his jaw clenched. He’d understood that.

“No need to call me.” Luke told Isabel in English. “And please stop threatening people if you don’t get them to do what you want. Was I clear or should I also tell you that in Italian?”

Sol was melting. Warmth spread through her, heady and slow. Luke’s reaction not only to the intimidation attempt on herself—but also on Sandro—was almost dizzying. She was getting to know Luke in a new, different facet. And she loved it.

There was silence at the other end of the line.

“I thought so,” Luke added. “Bye now.” He ended the call, turned his eyes to Sol.

“As obnoxious and many other objectionable things as Isabel is, I don’t think she’s behind Leonardo’s disappearance,” Sol said.

“I was afraid you were going to say that.” Luke stared at her with the same extreme intensity he’d used over the past few days. His lips curled up. “I agree.”

28