Page 9 of Heartbreaker

“No, I’ve learned my lesson that the golden boy only cares about himself.” Well, if that isn’t just the perfect segue.

“Oh, that’s right: you knew him before, didn’t you? Were you guys friends?” I ask, trying not to be too obvious. Tyler looks out the door Rome stormed through.

“We were.”

“And then?”

“And then he got into IndyCar, and he got too cool for us plebeians down here,” Tyler says, venom in the words.

“Come on, that’s not fair, Ty,” Oliver says. From my research, the three men were good friends back when Roman was in Monster Smash from ages eighteen to twenty-two, until he joined his father’s Indy team. It seems one of them doesn’t have completely bad blood with him, at least. “We all got busy.”

“We had a pact to stay friends, and he is the one who didn’t hold up his end,” Tyler snaps at his friend; his eyes show anger, but beneath that is hurt he’s failing to hide. Oliver looks at him, telling me there’s more to the story. Before they can settle into a silent conversation, I poke at it.

“So he stopped talking to you guys when he joined IndyCar?”

“The only time he talks to us now is when he deigns to grace us with his presence for the occasional special event,” Tyler says. I nod, secretly wishing Demi were here to catch this, but we’ve been forced to maintain a practical distance so as not to raise an alarm. No one else has an assistant in the back rooms. “He’s just a spoiled brat who thinks he’s too good for this place. He’s only here to prove to the board that he can stay out of trouble so DeLuca Racing takes him back next season.” My mind reels at this news, and even though I remember seeing a few articles about scandals, I realize there’s much more we need to learn about Roman DeLuca’s life before Monster Smash.

“Anyway. I’m done talking about that asshole. You guys want to grab a drink? You can bring your friend if you want,” he says as he slings a bag over his shoulder. I agree quickly, texting Demi the name of the bar we’re meeting at, eager to tell her everything I just learned.

We’ll have to start keeping a closer eye on Tyler because there’s suddenly a crystal-clear motive in front of me.

SIX

Primary Suspect list for sabotage based on current intel:

Roman

Tyler

Oliver

Liam

Phil

Courtney

SEVEN

“So who exactly was in the room when the fight happened?” Demi asks, the end of a pen tapping against her full lower lip as she stares at me. I close my eyes, picturing the room before naming everyone who was there when Roman pushed Tyler against a wall. It’s two days after the clothing incident, and this morning, a blind item about a physical altercation between a former IndyCar driver and his ex-best friend hit the tabloids. Since there weren’t many people there, we’re prioritizing those in that room in our investigation.

“Okay, so what do we have?”

“Right now, Tyler is high up there for me. He looked annoyed, but not necessarily surprised when Rome showed up without his shirt on. Maybe he hoped he would just skip it altogether, so he was frustrated when he showed up?” Demi nods before countering my idea, the way we always do. The reason we work as partners is that we volley ideas back and forth, looking closely at loopholes and explanations the other might miss.

”Is there any chance Roman did it on purpose? Used it as part of his schtick as the bad boy trying to get attention?” Demi asks. I shake my head, knowing the answer in my gut.

“No. He was pissed. If he were putting on a show, he wouldn’t have had such a reaction once the cameras were off.”

“Okay, so, who actually took his things?” Demi accessed the camera pointed at the men’s locker room entrance and made a list of everyone who entered and exited while Roman was in there, but it was a long list, and no one appeared to leave with a stack of clothes that matched his.

“It could be a crime of convenience, or, like he joked about at the press event, completely unrelated. Someone just being an asshole. Where did they find his stuff, again?”

“In the laundry. It came out with everyone else’s things.”

“So they didn’t steal it with the intention of hiding or destroying his stuff, simply inconveniencing him.”

“I’ve been thinking,” Demi says, biting the top of her pen after a moment. “What if the sabotage isn’t the company, but a single driver? What if Roman specifically is the target, not Monster Smash as a whole?” I mull over the theory, turning it over in my mind and assessing its validity, testing whether it fits into the story I’ve already made.