Page 38 of Scripted for Love and Poison (Sol and Luke Mystery #2)

“ F or a woman who is supposed to not be involved in this case of yours,” Sol told Luke and Divya the following morning as they knocked on Travis Wise’s apartment door, “I sure am quite the hands-on collaborator.”

“And we both really appreciate it,” Divya said. “But we reckon Travis’d be more open if the ask came from you. As the whole thing could be?—”

“Potentially dangerous and triggering for him. Sure. I’m convinced coming from me, he’ll say yes, no questions asked.” Sol couldn’t avoid the sarcasm.

Travis opened the door a mere few seconds later wearing a two-piece pajama-like suit in dark-green silk.

“Oh my god, you look divine!” Sol told him the moment she saw him.

She kissed him on both cheeks in a friendly gesture Luke knew she reserved for people she genuinely liked.

And Luke couldn’t avoid smiling. The woman couldn’t resist a tasteful garment even if she had other, more pressing things on her mind. “You need to tell me where you got it.”

“This?” Travis said, absolutely pleased but with a tone that feigned he was just wearing an old rag. “One of the vintage stores on Melrose.”

“Argh!” Sol protested with passion.

“Don’t tell me you don’t like vintage stores?” Travis said, and Luke thought the outcome of what they’d come to do there, and their success, depended on Sol’s answer to that very random question.

“Of course I do! I love vintage stores! But I’m hopelessly lost in them. Can’t ever find anything,” Sol said.

“Let’s make a date, and we can go together.

I’ll help you sort through the mess,” Travis said, and Luke breathed out.

He saw Divya also relaxing by his side. They both suspected their chances with Travis were good.

“But let’s all get in. The kettle is already on.

” Luke perked up. If Travis was using an actual kettle instead of the microwave this time, perhaps there was hope of the tea being steeped at the right temperature.

“This place is wonderful,” Sol said as they walked inside the open-concept living-dining room featuring herringbone wood floors, treetop views from a wall lined with windows, and a low-profile tuft-cushioned modular sofa.

Perhaps it was because the first time Luke had been to Travis’s flat, Sol wasn’t there to notice its beauty, but he had missed many of its tasteful details then.

“I got it in the nineties, and it was a steal. Of course, back then it didn’t look like it. But now I would never be able to afford a two-bedroom in Westwood,” Travis explained, slightly frustrated. “But make yourselves comfortable. I’ll bring the tea.”

“Let me help you,” Luke managed to say.

But before he could follow Travis to the adjacent kitchen, Divya glared at him.

Don’t you dare go telling him his brew is not right.

Luke got the message and simply helped Travis, bringing cups to the tea table in the living room.

Sadly the whole “kettle on” comment had been a figure of speech, as the water had been once again warmed in the microwave.

He sat by Sol’s side on the sofa, dunked his tea bag in his lukewarm water resignedly, and was only happy because this time the tea was also being served with biscuits.

He took one of the Oreo-like ones from a packet with Paul Newman’s face on it and once again had to marvel at the ability that place had to make everything Hollywood related.

“I’m afraid this isn’t exactly a social visit,” Sol started, sipping her own tea and seemingly unaware of the many sins Travis had committed in its making.

Luke had long suspected that Sol wasn’t as discerning in her tea consumption as he was.

Not that he had any desire to ever tell her.

But he’d witnessed her drink the blandest of things since they’d left London.

Or perhaps that was what seasoned travelers were resigned to do: they just ate and drank anything.

“I imagined as much when you told me you weren’t coming alone but bringing the detectives in tow,” Travis said, his tone friendly, as usual.

“Well, the detectives have asked me to help them and ask you something. I didn’t want to say no to them because I really like them. But please feel free to tell me no,” Sol said.

“Why would I want to say no?” Travis said, his interest seemingly piqued.

“Because you’d be potentially dealing with a killer—and the person who poisoned you.”

···

“Luke, mate, we should take this,” Divya said as they exited Travis’s apartment building half an hour later.

Divya’s cell phone had started ringing. “It’s Moon,” she added, referring to the person she’d been dating for a few months and an employee at a streaming service that had brought them lucrative work in the past. “I think Meshflixx may have more work for us.”

“Can you take it?” Luke said, holding Sol’s gaze. He wasn’t pleased.

“He wants to tell me how I let him down,” Sol explained to Divya.

“Alright, I’m going to be in the car taking care of this.” She pointed to her buzzing mobile phone and then their car parked right in front. “You two can do all the rowing you need on the street, I guess.”

“Fancy a walk?” Luke asked Sol, making an active effort not to show all the wrath he was feeling.

“I mean, this area isn’t necessarily the most charming for a stroll. If we were just North of Wilshire, it gets a bit more pedestrian friendly?—”

“I don’t care about pedestrian friendliness.” Luke fumed.

“Really? Since when?” Sol teased him.

“Just let’s please start walking so that Divya—and the prospective client—don’t hear us rowing.” Luke ran a hand through his hair, his voice edged with frustration.

“Are we going to argue?”

“Why did you tell Travis that you’d join him?” Luke finally blurted out.

“You couldn’t expect him to visit a potential killer by himself, no?” Sol asked Luke as they began walking along the tree-lined street filled with low-rise apartment buildings.

“Why not?” Luke said under his breath.

“Travis is obviously still processing what happened to him. He was poisoned. We believe he wasn’t the intended target, but the fact remains he’s only alive because of a very annoying nut allergy he’s had—and dreaded—his whole life.

And that conveniently saved him. We’re asking him to have a conversation with the person who could be responsible for his poisoning, and we’re arguing he has nothing to worry about.

If he has nothing to worry about, I have nothing to worry about,” Sol said.

“And I know Travis will feel better if I’m there. ”

“Your bloody reasoning is bang on,” Luke admitted. “But, and I know I am going to sound extremely selfish, could you perhaps have thought about me?”

“Who do you think I was thinking about?” Sol stopped in the middle of the street, moving her hands and arms exaggeratedly while talking, the way she did when she was being funny—or starting to get angry.

“You need this case solved. I did everything I could to guarantee Travis’s collaboration and, with it, hopefully we’ll get a resolution and a fast return date to London. ”

“I didn’t mean to think about me because I want to go back to London—which I want,” Luke said, but his tone was no longer angered.

“Or so that we could wrap up this case quickly. What I meant is that I’m going to be worried about Travis the whole time he’s with the suspected killer.

The last thing I want is to also be worrying about you.

I really don’t think straight when I’m worrying about you. ”

“But you and Divya told me there was nothing to fear when you persuaded me to come with you folks and talk Travis into helping you,” Sol argued.

“And I really think there’s nothing to fear, because I genuinely think our killer is someone who only had one intended victim in mind and won’t want to get rid of anyone else,” Luke said. “But if you’re mixed up in it, that’s when I start fretting, and my head’s all over the place.”

“Got it,” Sol said. “I promise next time I end up inexplicably entangled in one of your investigations, I’ll show less initiative, and I may even listen to you if you ask me not to get myself in the middle of all the action. But you have to ask nicely.”

“Thank you,” Luke said, and he felt a big relief.

“I think we’ve been extremely good these past couple of days when it came to shagging, but there was still some more talking we could have done,” Sol said.

“And just to be completely transparent, I worry about you too. I worry when you work until late at night or if, like in this case, you’re investigating a murder. ”

“This is an exception. The cases I normally work on involve cheating, labor disputes and very inoffensive stuff,” Luke almost dismissed her, but then he thought better. “But I understand. You worry too. I think it’s part of this loving business we’ve gotten ourselves mixed into.”

They locked eyes for a few seconds, as if grasping all the new implications of their commitment, what they’d admitted feeling for the other, and what that would entail going forward.

“I get why you’re anxious. But I’ve already promised Travis that I’d be joining him this afternoon, and I’m not one who stands up her friends,” Sol said then.

“Especially not when this friend in particular has promised to go shopping with me and show me all the secret spots from the Melrose Avenue vintage scene ...”

“Sol,” Luke pleaded.

“I promise I’ll be extremely careful, Luca,” she said in all seriousness. “And even if the most delicious things are offered to me, I won’t eat or drink anything. ”

“Don’t even sip anything. We can’t risk a repeat poisoning even if we think it’s highly improbable,” Luke said, and he realized he was repeating those words more for himself than for her.

He knew she was well aware of what she should and shouldn’t do.

“And Divya and I will be right outside, available if you need us.”

“We know what the safe word is,” Sol said.

“I really hope you don’t have to use it.

” Luke stared at her, his eyes searching for hers, and his hand went to her face, tracing it tenderly.

They stood in the middle of the street in silence for a few seconds.

He hoped his eyes were able to tell her everything he hadn’t been able to convey with words.

In the end, he decided there was still something he needed to say.

“I really love you. Please don’t get poisoned in bloody Los Angeles. ”