Page 57 of Shadowed Agenda
“That’s my cell phone,” he told Regan and Finlay as he left the room. “It’s either Javier or Drake. I have to take it.”
It was Javier.
“I’ve seen the news,” Pavlo said, not even bothering with a hello. “Finlay filled us in. I’m going to give her your direct line. She has information to share. Did anything register with our monitoring center?”
“He turned off the video surveillance an hour before his estimated time of death,” Javier said. “We can assume he also turned off the security alarm. I asked the monitoring center to review the video footage for the last thirty days to see if he had turned off the cameras. We should know shortly.”
“According to Regan, he turned off the cameras during his monthly meeting with his business associates,” Pavlo said.
“His business associates wouldn’t want to have a record of their visits. I’d assume they’d insist. He may have turned off the security whenever he wanted privacy. We should know shortly.”
“Did the bug you placed in the room last night record anything useful?” Pavlo asked. Maybe they’d caught a break, and there was something that could reveal who’d murdered him.
“Only Wyndham’s exclamation of surprise as whoever followed him into his study pulled out the gun, followed by the gunshot,” Javier replied. Pavlo could hear his friend’s frustration.
“Wyndham’s murder doesn’t fit in with our scenarios.” Pavlo couldn’t believe it was just a coincidence. The man had ties to all the other players.
“Hard to believe it’s a coincidence, but it happens,” Javier said. “Hector caught the call. I’ll need to tell him about my meeting with Wyndham last night and the listening device. I’d like to hear what Finlay has. Tell her I’ll be waiting to hear from her.”
“Will do,” Pavlo said and hung up.
Pavlo threw on his shirt and tucked it into his pants. He quickly strapped on his ankle holster and holstered the Glock. Wyndham’s death had been unexpected. He wanted to be prepared if more unexpected occurrences cropped up.
Pavlo strode to the living room as Finlay was unlocking the deadbolt. She opened the door, and Drake walked in, a tray of coffee in one hand and a takeout bag in the other. It was from the coffeehouse on the next block.
“And here I was, worried you were just another dumb blonde,” Finlay said, plucking the bag out of his hand as he walked to the coffee table. She peeked inside before she handed it to Regan. “Dibs on the chocolate danish.”
Drake glared at her as he set the tray on the coffee table and opened the small bag wedged between the cups. He spilled its contents onto the table—a mountain of coffee condiments.
“I didn’t know if you needed four or eight packets of sugar to sweeten you up in the morning.” Drake looked at Finlay so she was clear about who he was referring to. Regan snickered.
Verbal sparring matches seemed to be the way Drake and Finlay interacted. If Drake had thought his insults would have rid them of the reporter, he’d been wrong.
“Double double,” Finlay said, passing napkins to Regan before picking through the pile for two creams and two sugars. “I picked up that expression and a taste for the sweet coffee when I spent time in Canada. You should try it.”
Pavlo grabbed a cup of black coffee and passed it to Drake. He took one for himself, glad that Finlay was passing a double double to Regan before preparing her own. She was pale and in shock over Wyndham’s death.
“Does this change any of our plans?” Drake asked as he sat on the chair beside Finlay.
“We go forward as if nothing has happened,” Pavlo replied, taking a bite of muffin. Drake had used the same strategy in selecting the bag of pastries as he did with the coffee condiments. Pavlo couldn’t complain.
Drake nodded as he swallowed the last bite of his donut. “Wyndham’s death can’t be related to the book signing. It would attract the wrong attention.”
His friend was right. Another vote for coincidence.
“I’ll stay with Regan while she calls Mackenzie and explains why Drake and I are picking up Emmeline,” Finlay said, licking chocolate off her fingers.
“That didn’t take long,” Regan exclaimed and lunged for the TV remote, turning it up so everyone could hear. A picture of Nicholas and Regan was on the TV monitor that covered the wall behind the two anchors sitting on a black leather couch.
The reporter who had supplied the photograph had provided the TV station with the details of the marriage. He’d also found old newspaper clippings and online photos of Regan and Wyndham at social events. Pavlo wondered when someone would do the math and figure out Regan had ended the marriage before Emmeline was born. Regan would be in the media spotlight for several days.
Regan ran through the TV news channels. Photographs of her with Wyndham were on each one.
“They’ll repeat the same thing on every new broadcast. We won’t learn anything new.” Pavlo took the remote from Regan’s hand and turned off the TV. The past three days had been hard enough. She didn’t need to see a barrage of photographs reminding her of her marriage to Wyndham.
“Drake and I are going to my suite. We need to have a conference call with Javier and work through a few things. It’ll take about an hour.” Pavlo looked at his watch. It was six-thirty. He didn’t know when toddlers got up but hoped it wasn’t before seven. Regan needed to talk to Mackenzie without interruptions or excuses.
Pavlo stood and Drake walked to the door. Pavlo turned to her. “Let Mackenzie know Drake and Finlay will leave at seven-thirty to pick up Emmeline.”