Page 62 of Reckless Chance

“Is there any evidence it was intentional?”

“The main evidence is that it’s the same person. It’s hard to believe one person would repeatedly be that careless or that there would be so many coincidences. It’s suspicious.”

“Was this same person near the tree that killed Mr. Brentwood?”

“We don’t know. The tree was stored backstage. The videos I’ve seen don’t show it before the crew rolled it onto the stage. Can you find out if there are cameras backstage that cover that area?”

“I’ll check with IT. We’ll also track Ron down tomorrow to see if he can identify the crew member in the baseball cap.”

“Great.”

“Excellent work. Hopefully, we’ll soon know who caused the accidents and who’s to blame for the untimely death of our guest.”

“There’s one more thing. I don’t think Mr. Galanis’s attorney is who he says he is.”

“What?”

“The only Taylor Williams who’s an attorney in Las Vegas is a woman.”

“He must be from somewhere else then.”

“That’s unlikely. I didn’t find any attorney in the U.S. with that name who looks like him. There’s a chance he’s not an attorney at all.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. Why would someone impersonate a lawyer?”

“The simplest answer is that Mr. Galanis couldn’t afford a lawyer and talked a friend into helping him approach you. The other explanations are more sinister.”

“How’s that?”

“Mr. Galanis may not be the heir. I found photos on social media of him with Amelia. She’s one of your performers. I didn’t find any photos of him with Mr. Brentwood though. At a minimum, that’s curious.”

“He gave us a copy of the will. Do you think it’s fake?”

“I’m not sure but plan to find out. Were you able to arrange the call with Detective Fielder? We need a copy of Mr. Brentwood’s driver’s license to compare with the signature on the will.”

“I spoke with him briefly. He didn’t have time for a meeting, so I gave him a summary of what we’ve learned so far. He agreed to email me a copy of Brentwood’s license by tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ll have security use their high-tech facial recognition software to see if they can find a match for Mr. Williams. Let’s hope they can shed light on who the attorney really is.”

“How? We don’t have a photo of him.”

“We have video from the conference room this morning. They can extract a single frame that shows his face. While you shut down your computer, I’ll give them a call. I can ask about the backstage videos we want to see too.”

“Sounds good. I’ll sit down while you call. My feet are aching,” she says, starting to pick up her laptop to move away.

I wrap my arm around her waist, pulling her down onto my lap. “That was rude of me not to offer you my lap sooner. We were so engrossed in the videos that I didn’t realize how long you’ve been standing,” I say, reaching down to pull off her sky-high heels and massage the arches of her feet.

“Oh. That feels good.” She moans.

“Hold that thought while I call security.”

“Sure.”

I leave a lengthy voicemail for Daniel, which gives me a minute to talk myself out of what I’m about to do.

It doesn’t work. I want this, so I return to rubbing Lowri’s sore feet and say, “I have an idea.”

“Whatever do you have in mind?” She gives a little wiggle of her hips against my legs.

“I’d originally planned to bend you over this desk and show you who’s boss. Now, a slower, more drawn-out approach is in order.”