Hot Stuff (Hot Zone 1)

She shot him a grateful glance. "See you later." Ignoring the detective, she swung her purse over her shoulder and strode out of the room.

Once they were alone, Vaughn turned to the officer. He stood scanning the pictures on the wall, which included some old newspaper clippings of Vaughn's playing days and photographs of him receiving various trophies.

"So what did you find out?" Vaughn asked, not in the mood for idle chitchat.

"We discovered that your parents don't approve of your successful career," Ross said, scratching his head.

Vaughn swallowed hard. "Tell me something I don't know."

"They're not too thrilled with this place, either." He gestured around the lodge office.

"And?" Vaughn asked, annoyance percolating in his veins. Was this cop going to spend all day listing his family problems?

"And we've ruled them out as suspects anyway because there's no motive. They want respectability and clean hands too badly to do anything stupid around here."

Vaughn inclined his head. "Again, tell me something I don't know."

"Your old restaurants are in the red," Ross said. "Did you know about that?"

Vaughn jerked his head up at the suggestion. "You're kidding. Laura would have had to bend over backward to screw those up."

"Well, she managed. Your ex owes most of her landlords, all of her vendors and then some."

Vaughn was amazed.

"Are you in contact with her?" the detective asked.

"I haven't been. But she called me recently out of the blue." Coincidence? he wondered.

"What'd she want?"

"Money. She said she had some huge credit card bills."

Ross pulled out his pad and jotted down notes. "And you believed her?"

"I had no reason not to. I asked about the restaurants and she never mentioned business trouble." Vaughn looked out the window and tried to think, but when it came to Laura he was blank.

"Well, we're looking for motive and I can't imagine her wanting your star to rise again while hers is falling," the detective said.

"Laura's vain but she isn't destructive. Besides if she's behind the vandalism then why would she call me now and put herself back on my radar to begin with?" Vaughn asked.

"Do you play chess?"

Vaughn shook his head.

"It's called a Forked Attack. She calls you saying I want money but behind your back she's sabotaging you so the lodge won't have any success." Ross met his gaze. "In a sense she'd be coming at you from two fronts."

Vaughn shoved his hands into his back pockets and paced the floor. "I won't deny anything's possible but this doesn't feel right in here." He jammed his fist over his chest. "Do you know what I mean?"

The other man took a few steps toward the door. "We'll take those feelings under advisement but we have to follow up on all possibilities, no matter how remote. And this doesn't feel all that remote to me."

"Well, I appreciate you keeping me updated," Vaughn said, walking the detective to the exit.

With Ross gone, Vaughn thought back on their conversation. Laura behind the problems here? He snorted. Not likely. Which brought him back to square one. He headed home, hoping Annabelle would have greater insight than the detective in charge of the case.

UPON RETURNING to Vaughn's, Annabelle walked in on a loud discussion and realized immediately she'd intruded on a private talk between Lola and Uncle Yank. Her uncle sat in the large living room area on the couch while Lola, dressed in her new high heels, flowing skirt and low-cut, sleeveless peasant blouse, paced across the hardwood floor and back again.

Though Annabelle gave a wave to them both and went toward her room, she paused in the hallway now and couldn't help but overhear their conversation. In all honesty she was too riveted to step inside, close the door and shut their voices out.